Page 37 of Rock Giant

“Not completely exact,” Spook said.

Having evidently decided his duty was done, Graham about turned and left the bus.The guys all watched his descent down the stairs.The moment the door closed behind him they all started yelling at once.

Jodi jammed her hands over her ears, but it didn’t block anything out.

“Are you fucking kidding me?We have to go on the road with those bastards…”

“We’ve barely exchanged hellos, and you’ve already fucked it up…”

“His fiancée.His fucking fiancée…”

“We can get a different support act.”

“No, wefuckingcan’t, Paul.”Xane got right up in his face.“Leastways, not without a heap of aggro and a massive financial hit, and let’s not talk about what it’ll look like from a PR perspective.”

“I’m not sure anyone is going to lose sleep over the visuals, Xane.”Mrs Ash dropped to her feet and got in between the two guys.“Rockstars swapping women… That’s routine any day of the week.”

Jodi felt their eyes again.Rock Giant tucked her neatly behind his body.

Mrs Ash patted him on the chest.“You’ve really stolen their frontman’s fiancée?”

“Married their frontman’s fiancée,” her husband corrected her.

“Couldn’t you have made do with a fucking shag?”Xane asked.

“Handfasted,” Spook amended.

The sheer number of voices and opinions here was going to make her head explode.Allowing him to bring her here had been a mistake.She’d known it would be a mistake, but she’d gone along with it because it meant she didn’t have to face Nash quite so soon.

“It’s not legally binding,” she said again, but as before no one was listening.Or maybe they were; Mrs Ash stepped around Paul to look at her, her friendly smile scrunched into a moue.She reached out and clasped Jodi’s hand that wasn’t being squeezed by Paul’s increasingly sweaty palm.

“Oh, sweetheart.I’m sorry.If we were talking about any other fool, then that might wash, but you’ve tied yourself to Rock Giant here, who I guarantee doesn’t give a shit whether your vows come with legal documentation.You’re his, and he’s yours.He swore it in the middle of some standing stones, right?In a ceremony that dates back to the dark ages.”

“Damn right,” Paul confirmed.

“No,” Jodi whined.“Paul, I’m engaged to be married.”

“And I told you, that’s okay.”

Evidently, what he’d meant by that okay was not what she’d taken it to mean.What she now suspected it meant was he was okay with being part of a polycule.She, on the other hand, was not, and nor would Nash be.How had she fucked up this badly?This was way worse than when she’d accidentally managed to kidnap him, and he’d refused to let her escape.

Paul Reed seemed to delight in holding her to account for her actions.Although, in this case, she barely remembered what she’d done, let alone what vows she’d sworn to him.Evidently not fidelity, or to be his obedient housemaid.She guessed that was something.Indeed, what the hell had he sworn?A lot more than she had, she suspected.From the conversation still raging around her, it was becoming increasingly apparent that in his eyes, a handfasting was a very serious matter.The very fact that it was steeped in tradition that spanned centuries made it more binding than any legitimate marriage.He was still proudly wearing two of the trinity ribbons around his wrist.The third, still around her own, was creased and frayed and dotted with tooth marks.She irritably shook off his hold on her hand, determined, now more than ever, to take it off.

Of course, doing so wouldn’t mean anything, but…

“Here, let me help.I’m Ginny, by the way.”Mrs Ash offered her some scissors from the kitchen drawer.She slapped her hand against Paul’s chest and bared her teeth when Rock Giant made protesting noises.“You need to give her some breathing space, Paul.”

“She’s right,” the red-haired woman agreed.“It’s just a ribbon.It’s symbolic, not the be all and end all.Neither of you are going to be wearing them forever.It’s like you’ve been saying: it’s what you put out into the universe that matters.”

The mention of forever was apparently the tipping point because Jodi burst into tears.

“What do you say us girls go somewhere quiet and give the guys some space to finish yelling at one another?”

Jodi allowed herself to be led.She wasn’t as nimble or thin as the woman leading her and hence couldn’t glide between various bodies with quite the same degree of grace, but the guys were incredibly obliging about making space, all except llama pyjama boy who stumbled over his own feet and then into her, before Luthor physically picked him up and moved him out of the way.

Beyond the kitchen sat a bunk room, and beyond that a bedroom with a double bed.Ginny pulled her down onto its end.

“It’s freshly made.I just made it.”Indeed, the laundry sat bundled up in the corner.“Want to tell me what happened?”