Deliciously Deadly: a Red Riding Hood retelling

Chapter 15

Never in a million years could Lottie have imagined Cain's lips would be so soft against her own. So sweet that a thousand sugar cubes would pale in comparison. So hot that her insides melted and her brain fried.

And how empty she would feel when he broke off their kiss after a few short seconds. Too short. Far too short for years of pining like an idiot.

"What... What was that for?" Lottie asked dumbly as she blinked up at Cain, her eyes drawn to his lips.

See? Brain fried.

Cain pressed his forehead against hers. "To prove that I do like women."

"You... you do?"

"One particular woman."

Her heart pounded, so violently she could feel it rattling and beating against her rib cage. "Who?" she whispered, her brittle voice a mirror of her vulnerable soul.

"Lottie..." Cupping her scarred cheek, he ran his thumb tenderly—almost reverently—over the ugly lines. The shock of his touch caused her to flinch, which in turn froze him on the spot.

It was almost a replay of their wedding day. Was their interaction that day what had cemented their distance in the past three years of their marriage? If so, she refused to let that happen again.

Just as Cain pulled his hand back, Lottie clasped her hand over his and held it to her face. "I know it's ugly. I don't like to draw attention to it, especially not yours." She swallowed down her fear of rejection. "But you may touch it... if you like."

He cocked his head to one side. "You think it's ugly?"

It was her turn to cock her head in confusion. "Everyone knows it's ugly. Have you not heard all the villagers call me Ugly Lottie?"

"But you are the most beautiful person I have ever met." He shook his head slowly with a frown, as if he was trying and struggling to understand how anyone could possibly oppose his views. "This scar... it tells me of your bravery, of the pain that you must have endured. It tells me... that you are a far better person than everyone else in this world. Far better than me."

With each gentle stroke of his finger over the lines that have haunted her for most of her life, he soothed away the hurt accumulated over years of mockery and scorn, and stirred the waters of her heart until it churned up waves so tumultuous she doubted they could ever calm around him from this day forth.

She couldn't believe that anyone would ever use the words 'beautiful' and 'brave' to describe her, and it rendered her utterly speechless with her mouth agape. If her brain wasn't fried earlier, it was certainly, thoroughly fried now.

While she remained stupefied, Cain's initial confusion gave way to anger, and he pulled her into an embrace, almost rough in the way he grabbed her waist and held her so tight she could hardly breathe against his chest. "I did not care for any of the rubbish that those idiots said," his voice rumbled against her scalp. "If I had known that they called you names and that it hurt you so, I would've burned the whole village down."

"But Grandma—"

"Except for Grandma," he said with a chuckle that sent tingling vibrations all the way down her spine. "One day, we will find Grandma again."

For long moments, they held each other in the quiet privacy of their small bedchamber, savouring the way their hearts beat side by side.

All those wasted years, without knowing, their hearts had sung the same tune. Such was the cost of being afraid to speak, to ask for answers. No more. Not on her watch. Even if Cain preferred to remain a man of little words, she would say her piece and ask her fill.