“Oh good. For a second there, I thought it was going to be all about you.”
He turned and slid his arm around my shoulders. “We will have the grandest wedding. A plate of meat for everyone. You wouldn’t want to deny the village of a celebration, do you?”
Those within earshot, which was a number growing by the minute, perked up.
Fantastic, he was playing the guilt angle. How low was that? If I said no, I’d be the bad guy. That would make for a very pleasant rest of my life…
“I’ll have to think on it,” I said, wriggling away.
He grabbed my arm and whipped me around. I sucked in a startled breath as he leaned in closer, his eyes blazing. “You will marry me, Finley. I’ve made it clear in the village that you are my intended. No one else will touch you. I will have you.”
His double meaning flashed in his eyes, his lust plain.
I kept the disgust from my face. He’d drawn an audience. I’d give them a show.
I increased the wattage of my voice.
“Who has two fingers, a thumb, and nightly orgasms? This girl. I wouldn’t want to give that up for a boring ride on your tiny dick. Go peddle your shit somewhere else. This pail is full to the brim.”
Gasps sounded around me. More than a couple of people chuckled.
I ripped my arm out of his grasp and continued on through the market. I didn’t for a second think it was over.
3
The cool of the library washed over me as I pushed through the door. Once inside and thankfully out of the public eye, I stood still for a moment and let the tension in my body unwind. Jedrek had really thrown me for a loop. He’d shoved me completely out of my game…in as much as I had one.
Books lined the shelf in the tiny room, not much more than a glorified closet. I didn’t care. This was a place of refuge for me. A place of information. After a tough day, or a boring day, or really any day, I could come here and escape into another world and live a different life.
I swept my gaze across the rows, allowing the smell of well-loved books to permeate my senses.
I’d read every single one of the books in here, some multiple times over. We couldn’t get new ones, so I had to relive adventures. Sometimes, though, that was just the ticket. Like today.
“Finley!” Kessa, the librarian, walked in from a side door. The next room over was nicely furnished, used as a sort of ladies’ social club. It was a place of manners and tradition, with murmured conversations, tea, and little sandwiches. I’d never once been invited to attend.
It was for the best. I liked this side of the wall better, anyway.
“Hey, Kessa.” I set my bag by the door and walked down the shelves on my right. I knew exactly what I was looking for, but I didn’t want to advertise my quest for dirty, hardcore hate-sex right now. There was a time and place, and this was not it.
“Got any new books in?” I asked as a joke, running my finger across the spines of all these glorious books.
“As a matter of fact, I do.” She stopped by a little desk in the corner and picked up a small stack of decently made paper. There were another three lying beside it. “Our favorite author wants to know what I think. Why he wastes his time and resources on this is anyone’s guess. He needs a different hobby.”
I laughed. At the next shelf I ran my finger down the spine of a history of our people. On impulse, I pulled it from the shelf and set it aside. I might delve into that one this week. I hadn’t read it for a while. “Think it’s any better than the last one?”
“No. Nor the one before it. I give the notes, he takes the notes, and he doesn’t incorporate the notes. It’s basically the same story, over and over, with the same issues.” She dropped the paper back onto the table. “It’s unreadable. I’m not kidding. Why bother asking for my opinion if you aren’t going to listen to it?”
“I think he’d rather you just compliment him and help him bind it.”
“Bah.” She swatted the air. “That’s what happens when you mate a woman who is too supportive. You make a fool of yourself.”
“At least he has a hobby.” I looked upward to the top of the stacks to see if anything there caught my eye.
“I meant to tell you. Thanks for your help last month. Ernie is making a full recovery!”
I froze for a moment. I’d helped her make the nulling elixir for her mate, who was ten years her senior and had started the slide into sickness. He had some time, and with my help, he’d have more of it, but the elixir wasn’t a cure.