Page 18 of Married to the Beast

He frowned.

“Are you sleepy?”

“Oh, no! I just thought…” Aleena trailed off, feeling her face get hot with a blush.

A look of comprehension came over his face.

“Look, Aleena…” he murmured. Turning her to face him, he lifted her chin with one finger until their eyes met. “I can see you’re very nervous about the idea of me, er, ‘changing the color of your eyes.’ Is that right?”

“Well…yes,” Aleena admitted. “It’s just that you…you’re sobig, my Lord Husband. I’m not sure how…how we could, er, fit together.”

“We’re notgoingto fit together,” he said firmly. “I want you to stop worrying about that.”

“I…I’ll try,” Aleena whispered. This close to him, she could smell a dark, spicy fragrance that seemed to tug at her somehow. Was that some kind of cologne he was wearing? If so, it was the best she’d ever smelled.

“Look, I know I’m a lot bigger than you, sweetheart,” he murmured, stroking her cheek lightly. “But I promise you right now, Aleena—I’mnotgoing to hurt you. All right?”

Aleena nodded.

“All right,” she whispered. She knew what he meant—he thought he had some technique that would enable him to fit himself inside her without pain. But that seemed impossible, given their extreme size difference. Still, she couldn’t say outright she didn’t believe him, so she simply nodded again, agreeing with him.

“Do we understand each other?” Bear asked her.

“Yes, my Lord—I mean, Bear.”

She understood him completely—he wouldn’t hurt her right this minute but later he would expect to change the color of her eyes and she would have to let him—it was her wifely duty.

“Good.” He nodded in satisfaction and left her bag on the bed where the shabby leather looked completely incongruous against the rich embroidery of the bedspread. “Now let’s go see the rest of the upstairs,” he told Aleena. “I think you’ll like it.”

9

BEAR

“Well, this is probably the room I’ll spend the most time in,” Bear said, as they surveyed the massive study located next to the master suite. “To be honest, this was the only room in the house I really looked at before I decided to rent it,” he added, speaking to Aleena, who was looking with awe at the rows and rows of leather-bound books that filled the many shelves.

They were mostly Karpsian law practices and treaty agreements—which Bear thought would be extremely useful in his negotiations—but there were also some cookbooks and some popular novels as well. These had been sequestered in a single bookcase, as though they might infect the more important books with their frivolity.

“Oh—there’s a woman’s shelf!” Aleena exclaimed, going to the case full of novels and cookbooks. “And look—there’s a whole collection of Salana novels!”

“Salana? Is that an author you like?” Bear asked, going to look over her shoulder.

“Oh no—it’s the main character of the books. Salana has wild adventures—she goes places on her own and travels all over the place—without a man!” Aleena’s eyes were shining with excitement. “In one of them, she even goes to a foreign landand gets mistaken for a visiting ruler and has a man act as her servant and wait on her!”

“That sounds exciting,” Bear remarked, smiling. Salana’s adventures sounded extremely tame to him, but he supposed in such a repressive society the idea of a male waiting on a female would be a novel concept.

“Some people say the adventures of Salana aretooexciting.” She gave him an anxious look. “Many of the books have been banned from the booksellers’ stalls and libraries. But thereseemsto be a complete collection here.” She ran one finger lovingly over the spines of the books.

“Well then, you can catch up on the series—maybe there are some you haven’t read,” he remarked.

“Really?” Her eyes widened. “I mean…you don’t mind me reading them?”

“Why should I?” Bear shrugged. “To be honest, I’ll be spending a lot of my time studying and working on the trade agreement I came here to make with the Karpsian Sigma government for wormhole rights. So why would I mind if you read to pass the time?”

“You’re not afraid the Salana books will give me…wrong ideas?” she asked, still looking at him wide-eyed.

“What? The idea that a female can live her own life and travel without a male companion?” Bear frowned. “I don’t think those are wrong or bad ideas at all. In my culture, females are given as much independence as males.”

Aleena shook her head in wonderment.

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