Married to Krampus - Marina Simcoe Page 0,24

himself, “I see no reason to act as someone different than who I am. With anyone, not just with my wife.”

“So, you’re saying that’s who you are? You’re always the miserable fuck you’ve been for the past four days?”

He made a face.

“For a woman, you sure swear a lot.”

“And as a typical man, you bring that out in me,” I retorted.

He lifted one thick eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

I was really impressed by his self-control this morning. So, he could hold his anger back when he really wanted to, even though he looked rather stiff and uncomfortable. It must’ve cost him a huge effort to control that explosive temper of his.

I did my best to remain relatively calm, too. A little too late maybe, but we finally were having a real conversation here.

“I need to warn you,” I said. “I’m not particularly good at socializing with governors. I’ve never met one before. I’d have no idea what to say or what to do.”

“You won’t have to do anything, just be yourself.” He shrugged.

“Be myself?” I snorted a laugh. “Be careful what you ask for, Colonel.”

His expression had smoothed out somewhat.

“Even if you end up doing something out of the norm, no one would hold it against you. You’ve come from another planet. Some oddity in your behavior would be understandable and even expected.”

Thinking of myself as an “oddity” made me smile.

“And you think you’ll be okay showing up in public with the ‘odd’ alien woman? People will be staring at us, I’m sure.”

“Oh, they will.” His beard suddenly parted with a smile, too. It was small, barely there, but it broke through nevertheless. “Let them stare. If anyone dares to do more than that, they’d have to deal with me. You’ll have nothing to worry about.”

The easy confidence with which he’d taken on the task of protecting me from the crowd was appealing.

I drew in some air. The morning seemed brighter now as if a storm had dissipated. I decided to use the moment before it was gone.

“If I do what you’re asking from me, would you let me go?” I wasn’t fooling myself. The Colonel had decided to be reasonable this one morning just because he needed something from me. I had to use this opportunity to clarify a few things.

Just like that, the smile disappeared off his face, his expression shut down.

“You can’t leave.”

I dug in my heels. “But I can’t stay. If you keep insisting, you’d be holding me here against my will. The Committee—”

He groaned, raking his fingers through the fur on his head.

“Leave the Committee out of it.” Leaping off the bed, he paced in front of me. “Do you really hate it here so much?” He stopped abruptly, facing me.

I crumpled the sheet in my hands, clutching it to my chest. It wasn’t the place I hated. My decision to leave had everything to do with him, not his house or this planet.

“I can’t see myself spending the rest of my life here, with you,” I said, being brutally honest. “We are too...”

Similar, it dawned on me.

I’d wanted to say that we were too different, but I suddenly realized that the opposite might be true. We were too similar to get along. We both had a temper. Except that I’d never even realized I had one until now. The Colonel had brought it out in me. He proved to be capable of getting my blood to boil with a word or even a glare. In addition, both of us had the tendency to act or say things first and think later.

“If you leave within days after your arrival,” the Colonel explained. “I would become the subject of public resentment and most likely a government investigation. Despite being a public figure, I am a private person, Daisy. I’d like to avoid the scrutiny and intrusion into my home and my personal life.”

“You understand that is not enough for me to stay married to you?”

“Possibly,” he tipped his horns in a nod. “But would you reconsider leaving immediately?”

I mulled over his request for a moment. When asked nicely, I’d always had a hard time saying no.

“Is it that important to you?”

“Yes,” he replied, his expression open and sincere.

I heaved a sigh.

“Why wouldn’t you talk to me like this before? Why yell and toss things?”

He slid his gaze aside, looking if not exactly ashamed then at least somewhat remorseful.

“Hard day at work and inherently bad temper,” he confessed then admitted, “the lack of full understanding of the