“I can also make tea, but I take your point.Are you challenging me to learn how to make another dish for you?”
Theo was smiling as he dug around his bag for his pencil case.“Not really.The chocolate is enough.”
“If you say so.Have you any plans for this evening?Would you like to go anywhere, do anything?”
Maybe he went out with them because I’m not taking him out?But I got him the chef.Maybe he didn’t like the chef.No matter, I can always hire another.
“I’ll just do some more reading.We can watch a movie after.”Theodore bent over his fantasy romance, an aggressively pink marker in hand.“We could cuddle on the couch downstairs if you want.”
“I think that sounds like a perfect plan.”
Peter managed to say that calmly, but even the thought of having Theodore close after the day Peter had had was…arousing.
Peter had the contract amendment done and printed in less than fifteen minutes.It took him another fifteen minutes of staring at the paper and wondering whether adding a reciprocal clause was wise.
It would be symbolic only, of course.Like a handfasting.But I cannot have the handfasting.He’s not ready for it.Yet.Peter’s frown deepened.He tapped his fingers on the fancy first-floor desk that he didn’t like anywhere near as much as his downstairs setup.The contract says he shall take care of his health already, and if I add anything to keep him from exhausting himself at the Boudoir, he’ll think I want to tie him to me like Thor’s goats are tied to his chariot, only to be eaten when the god is hungry.That wouldn’t be too bad if it got him furious enough to ask for compensation from me, but he has failed to ask me to add his name to the door and the deed, so that might not do much good.
To distract himself, Peter checked the weather forecast on his laptop.It’s getting colder.Well.At least he’ll be expected to wash his hands frequently when he works for Celeste.That should stave off some of the germs other people might throw at him.
In the end, Peter decided to leave the amendment as it was and went back to the kitchen where he’d left Theodore.
With one hand buried in his hair and his dark purple nail polish shimmering amid the black strands, Theodore looked, as always when he was lost to his studies, irresistible.Peter knew he shouldn’t, but whenever Theodore was this deep in thought, he wanted nothing more than to interrupt him and get all that wonderful attention focused on himself.
Peter retreated a few steps into the hallway so he could rustle the papers there and make sure Theodore wouldn’t jump with surprise at his vampirically silent approach.
As desired, Theodore looked up when Peter, still rustling the papers, came back into the kitchen.Peter held them up.“Ready to look these over?”
“Oh.Right.”
Peter sat down next to Theodore and glanced at the open page of the fantasy novel with the annotations his beloved had left there.Theodore had chosen to crack the spine, marking it permanently.It wasn’t something he normally did, but he enjoyed it when he didn’t particularly like a book or strongly disagreed with the author.
“Is it very bad?”
Theodore looked up from the amendment.“This?Worse.This chick, first of all, is a Mary Sue if ever I’ve seen one.The dragon dude is rude, abducts her, behaves like a creep, and insults her, but he’s kind of hot, which makes her realize he’s just what she needs between the sheets.Honestly, this scene?She’s in bed in his dragon castle in the mountains, and she’s cold and thinking how nice it would be to have that creep warm her up.But he’s not there, and she only has her thoughts and her hand to make herself feel warmer.”
Peter nodded.“It’s probably for the best.To my understanding, most men don’t have the skills required to do right by a woman these days.It used to be that if a woman didn’t get what she wanted from her man—and he could be a perfect sailor, as skilled as the strongest with sword and shield—but if he did not please her well, she would break their bond.”Peter tsked.“Only a fool would mistreat their lover so.”
“Huh?Wait.Did you just tell me something about Vikings?Was Viking marriage like that?”
“Theodore, dearest, I am not now, nor was I ever a Viking.”
Theodore waved the amended contract at him.“You’re so full of it.Who else had divorce and sailors and shields?”
“Many peoples did, and that is exactly my point.”
Theodore blushed.“I looked it up, okay?I know Vikings could get divorced.They were mercenaries and farmers and could be cunning warlords.And women could own property and rule.Then shit happened, everyone forgot about the concept of divorce, and it took a bunch of lawyers to revive it so they could make bank on prenups.”
“Theodore, you sound like a conspiracy theorist.”
He grinned at Peter.“Yeah?And you sound like a Viking.”
Theodore reached for a pen and signed on the dotted line, accepting the amendment without giving it so much as a cursory glance.
Peter’s heart fluttered at that, but he forced his voice to stay calm.“It’s bad with you when you have set your mind to being in the right.Especially when you are in the wrong.”
“I know I can’t win this.But you can sail a boat, right?”
“I can, just like many others.”
