Chapter 28
“Everything!” He pushed her back, and she fell to the floor on her bottom. Which aggravated him even more. He exhaled in frustration. “It has everything to do with it.”
He pulled himself up the bed. Slowly grabbing bits of material with his fists, he hauled himself halfway up the side of the bed before Bea got her feet underneath her, and she was helping him lift himself.
He was sweating and cursing, but he made it back onto the mattress and lay back, breathing hard and gulping in
as much air as he could.
“I didn’t know you’d made it…” He paused and looked up at her. His sides were hurting, and the pressure in his head was making him dizzy. “The blanket.”
“Oh.” Was all she said.
The silence stretched as she moved to the other side of the bed and grabbed the blanket that he’d tossed aside.
“Had I known, I wouldn’t have jested about them being frilly.” He watched as she grabbed the old comforter and tried to lay it back over him, but he wouldn’t let her. “No. I want yours.”
He thought he saw her flinch right before her face turned to confusion. “But you were right. It’s-” He didn’t let her finish. He grabbed the offensive material and balled it up as tightly as possible before throwing it as hard as he
could across the room.
“I KNOW what I said.” He was looking down at his hands. Unable to look her in the eye. “I want your blanket.” Was that HIS heart hammering in his chest? Had butterflies entered his stomach in his sleep? How could she make me feel like this?
He watched as she sucked in her bottom lip and her eyes grew big. It looked like she meant to cry, but no tears formed. She simply walked over and grabbed her blanket, slowly laying it over him. And then she sat on the chair, staring at it as if she were only waiting for him to toss it across the room like the other one.
Did she truly not understand? “Bea. You’re my wife. I never mean to be hurtful. It may have been arranged, and you may have been a slave, but that’s not the case anymore. Now? Now you’re my wife, and I will take that very seriously.” 2
She still didn’t speak. Just nibbled and sucked on her bottom lip in that same way that drove him crazy. The thought of drawing that same lip into his own mouth had him pausing again.
It was Bea to break the silence first. “So then… You like it?”
“Yes.” His response was immediate. “I like it very much, Bea.”
The smile that grew across her face was truly the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and he had to follow suit. He allowed himself to smile up at her as she admired her work lying over him.
When her eyes came back to his, they dropped to his smile. “You… I like your smile. And then her eyes dropped to the side, and then she was up and running towards the door. ‘Oh no! Look what you did Beastly! Always breaking
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Chapter 28
things and in the way.”
Almost instantly, his smile fell. Her words had originally brought on more butterflies, and his thoughts became muffled and focused all at the same time.
Now, they were hyper–focused and angry. “Bea.” At her name, her gaze swung to him but then back down to the shattered glass and food. Louder this time, “BEA.”
“What?!” The word was sharp as it left her lips, and once again, he couldn’t help but smile briefly at her fire.
“Come here. Leave that for the servants and come here.”
“But it will stain and-”
“Bea.”
In a huff, she stood and walked back over to the chair, falling into it with defiance.
“What does your name mean? Beastly? Is there a different meaning in the human world?” He would end this here and now if she said what he expected.
And she did.
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