Sparrow

by L.J. Shen

Now tell me, Father, how many Hail Marys for a murder?”

My social life was as active as a dead turtle.

glitzy cars equaled small dicks,

happiness was Irish stew and Kitchen Cutthroat reruns under the covers.

“It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding,” I gritted out, clenching my fists together and allowing the monstrous ring to dig into my flesh. The pain was a welcome distraction. “Trust me, it’s even worse luck to piss off your future husband.”

“You look nice, too.” “How can you tell? You haven’t looked at me once since I stepped into the room.”

“Familiarity is overrated. The less I know someone, the better I usually like them.”

I realized that I had no cards to play. And even if I had cards, he owned the freaking table.

“If you think you’re going to give me trouble, think again. I invented trouble. I stir it, I mix it, I fucking fix it. Don’t try my patience, because you’ll discover I have absolutely none.”

“Pretend to be happy, or I will provide you with a real reason to be sad.”

“Am I clear?” He dipped his chin, lips thinning into a hard line. I swallowed. “Crystal clear.” “Good girl. Now let’s shake some hands, kiss some babies and get back to the limo. I have a surprise for you.”

“Well, that’s a peculiar name.” She pouted, narrowing her eyes. “Well, that’s a predictable comment,” I retorted. She dropped my hand like it was made of shards of glass.

So he liked my bitchy comebacks. Good, because he’d need to get used to ’em.

Troy nonchalantly used his pointer finger to press on my chin and close my lips with a snap. “Careful,” he mocked, taking a step closer and whispering into the crook of my neck, “don’t want a fly to wander into that pretty mouth of yours.”

“I’ll live,” he said tonelessly. Yup, unfortunately.

His smile almost passed for human.

“What can I say, Mother Nature can be a bitch.” “And she’s not the only one.”

“Something tells me that if Mother Nature was in charge right now, you’d be riding me like a jockey.” He sat up and hauled me back toward his body, his breath caressing my

But we both know you’re already mine. Mind…” He reached up and stroked my temple softly. A shiver ran down my spine. “Body…” His hand traveled down to my chest, groping my right breast suddenly and circling my erect nipple with his thumb. I dropped my head back, letting him touch me. “Soul…” He continued down to my stomach, underneath my shirt, his fingers brushing every inch of my flesh. Oh, hell. “Heart…” His hand glided back up to my left breast where he paused for a second, snorting a sarcastic laugh. “Well, the heart you can keep yourself.”

Maria didn’t speak good English, so we communicated in the most universal way humanly possible—with food.

Can’t say no to caffeine. It’s like middle-class crack.

“Am I usually the jolly kind?” he mocked. “You’re usually not miserable. Just scary as hell,”

“I’m not the one who insisted we get married. So save the attitude, Mr. I-Deserve-Anything-I-Want.” “It’s not what you did, it’s what they did to us, Miss Annoying-As-Fuck.”

“You’re so good, too fucking good. And whenever I looked at you—from afar, of course, because my family didn’t mix with your nobody father—I thought to myself one day, my children will have a mother this noble. A mother whose goodness would rub off on them, because their dad is bad. Really. Fucking. Bad.”

This wasn’t Pretty Woman, and Red sure as hell wasn’t Julia Roberts.

She's also not? a prostitute? Jackass

Sparrow Raynes had a little fight in her, and I was intrigued. So much so, that I tried to test her boundaries, scare her. Play with her a little.

Her dress sense made me want to lock her in a designer store with a herd of stylists and come back for her next year.

Anyway, if Red learned the truth—why my father made me marry her in the first place and how I kept her virginal and untouched just for me all those years, scared all those potential suitors away—not only would she try and kill me, she could also go to the police, and have me locked up. For life. So I was trying to be civil with my new wife.

The last thing I’d do was follow his instructions and become a sweet, pretty wife in a dress. And every time he pushed—I’d pulled harder.

Maria stormed into the kitchen with a face like thundercloud, informing me that it was time to clean up all the mess I’d made and that I had to evacuate her kitchen before she grabbed me by the hair and did it herself (not in so many words, but her shouting in Spanish and hand waving certainly implied it).

“Let me clean, silly girl.”

This man was so disgusting sometimes the need to hurt him overwhelmed me.

I fed my personal little Red Riding Hood more sweet memories to keep her happy, my words like music to her unsuspecting ears.

She wasn’t particularly interested or impressed by my money, even though she had none. That showed character. Or endless stupidity.

She glowed. Corny as it sounds, she fucking glowed.

“God, I missed eating pussy,” he sighed into me.

Troy ate me alive, making happy noises throughout. Little grunts and moans that told me he was enjoying this no less than I was.

I let out a grunt, meaning to rise and stand up from this delicious torture, but he jerked me back into his face, laughing into my core. His laugh vibrated inside my body. He was getting off on my frustration.

“Say the magic word,” he answered, amused. “Asshole.”

“Your spine…” He ran his index finger along my back. “Is beautiful. And here, I thought I could snap you like a twig.”

Having her out of the apartment occasionally might be nice. Her wicked smart mouth and endless questions grated on my nerves. Plus, putting a smile on her face wasn’t the worst idea I’d ever had.

Sweet, fucking Sparrow. Tight, lean, intelligent, annoying Red…

I burned the rest of the weekend doing fun stuff, like drinking in my study, plotting to destroy Rowan and thinking about eating my wife.

arranged marriage, or marriage of inconvenience, or whatever the fuck Sparrow and I were.

Maria walked back into the living room just then, looking all kinds of interested in the new drama. I think she got off on knowing that I had bullshit to deal with in my personal life.

Throwing her out was tempting, but Sparrow seemed ridiculously attached to the help, and she was already too pissed off for me to deal with, so I let Maria stay, doing my best to ignore her.

She didn’t look up when I came in, just continued studying whatever it is she was fixated on outside. The sky? The tall buildings? A bird? Who the hell knew?

Eat her, fuck her, lick her, toes to skull, and ride her in every fucking position until every bone in her body hurt.

She was so sweet. So fucking weird, too.

“Calling you so you’ll have my number. Happy?” “Never with you.”