He let out a bitter laugh. “How can I marry and have children when every woman, save you, cringes at my approach?”
“Not true. I’ve seen the ones what vie for a place in your bed.”
“And flee the moment we’re done as if terrified I’ll strangle them come morning.”
“Then let them see the side of you that you show to me.”
He glowered at her. “What side is this?”
“Well, not that expression. Dagda’s toes, Duey, you’d scare grown warriors to their graves.” She used both hands to smooth out the furrows on his brow until she had him smiling. Something that betrayed a set of deep dimples in his cheeks. “There now! That’s what would melt the coldest heart. No woman could ever resist a smile so sweet.”
“Sweet? You’ve gone completely daft.” Standing, he tugged playfully at her braids. It was an action so out of character for Du and yet so completely normal for an older brother that it warmed her heart.
“In spite of what you think, Duey, you are a kind man. A good man. And a fair one, to boot. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.”
He didn’t speak, but the expression on his face was unlike anything Mara had ever seen. It was one of pure affection. “So what do you want?” There was a teasing note beneath those gruff words.
“Pardon?”
“I know you, Elf. You never compliment me unless there’s something you’ve got your heart set upon.”
A blush stained her cheeks. “Who says I want anything?”
He gestured toward her face. “That does. So tell me already.”
Clearing her throat, she reached for more thread and refused to meet his gaze. “I want to marry.”
His eyes flared red.
As if sensing it, she glanced up and tsked at him. “Nay, you cannot disembowel him, brother. He has not laid a finger to me for fear of what you’ll do to him. He’s barely spoken to me.”
“Then how do you know he wishes to marry you?”
She arched a brow. “Am I that intolerable?”
“You know what I mean.”
Smiling, she wrinkled her nose at him. “I do, and we have spoken. He’s merely a quiet man. Like you. He wishes to ask you himself, but is terrified of how you’ll react. So I told him I’d approach you first to keep you from lashing out and gutting him before you’ve had a chance to acclimate to the idea of it.”
His nose twitched as if he were holding back a deluge of curses or an outburst. But after a few heartbeats, it settled down to a fierce tic in his jaw. “It’s what you want?”
“It is.”
“I suppose if you change your mind later, I can always kill him then.”
“Du!”
“What?” he asked innocently. “I’m king here. Can do as I please.”
Shaking her head, she laughed. “You’re incorrigible.” Then she sobered and met his gaze. “Have we your permission?”
“Only if he asks me himself. Then I shall give it.”
“Without a gutting?”
“Aye.”
She arched one brow.
