InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Short Straw ❯ chapter 13 ( Chapter 13 )

Heh…figured getting this chapter out quick would be best for my well-being….

The Short Straw

By Flamingwillows

Chapter Thirteen

"You low-down, stinking polecat!" Another book sailed across the room to land with a thud against the wall.

There wasn't a tear in sight, Koga noticed as he dodged the missile. But if looks could kill, he'd have died right where he stood. Since looks alone wouldn't accomplish the task, Kagome was apparently more than willing to try direct methods.

A silver-backed hairbrush and matching comb were fired in his direction with the speed and accuracy of a gunfighter throwing lead. Koga winced as the brush bounced off his shoulder.

"You are the most disgusting, filthy excuse for a human-being I've ever had the misfortune to meet in my entire life," She told him as her fingers closed around the handle of the wash pitcher.

"Kagome--"

The pitcher sailed past his head, smashing against the wall and splattering him with water and shards of china.

"Stop this right now," he said. But his stern tone was made less effective by the fact that he was forced to hop to one side to avoid the bowl the pitcher had been sitting in. The sound of shattering china seemed only to fuel her rage.

"I'd have been better off marrying a one-armed leper," she snarled as she groped for the mirror that matched the brush and comb.

"Don't you throw that," he ordered. The mirror just missed his head. "Dammit, woman, stop throwing things and let me explain!"

"There's nothing to explain." She'd found another book and sent it hurtling across the room.

"You don't know what you heard," Koga protested, dodging the book and starting toward her.

"I may have been dumb enough to marry you, but that doesn't mean I'm deaf, too." She snarled. Out of ammunition, he jerked off one of her slippers and threw it at him as she backed away from his advance. "I heard exactly what Miroku said. You married me because you drew a short straw and had to find yourself a wife. You married me because you lost!" Her normally soft voice rose to something close to a shriek.

"It wasn't like that," Koga said, knowing it had been exactly like that.

"You stay away from me," she demanded, taking another step back. She brandished her remaining shoe, her dark eyes snapping with rage.

Koga kept an eye on the shoe. She'd proven to have uncomfortably accurate aim. "You calm down and stop acting like a . . . a . . .woman," Koga told her, unable to think of a more suitable comparison.

"Acting like a woman is better than acting like a jackass."

"Put that shoe down right now."

Koga edged a little closer. The shoe stayed where it was, poised to throw.

"Stay away from me."

"If you don't put that shoe down this minute, I'm going to put you over my knee, I swear I will!" He'd never laid a violent hand on a woman in his life, but he was starting to think he might make an exception for his wife.

"You wouldn't dare," She looked more infuriated than intimidated, and the shoe didn't move.

"If you're going to act like a child, I'll treat you the same way."

"Better a child than a skunk." She snapped.

"I've had just about enough of this," he warned, and took an authoritative step toward her.

The shoe clipped the side of his forehead, the shock of it more staggering than the blow itself. The little witch had actually thrown it, despite his warnings. Koga lifted his hand to touch the injured area, drawing away fingers streaked with blood from where the hard heel had cut the skin.

Anger grabbed him by the throat. He lifted his eyes to his wife. Her face was white, as if she were as shocked by her action as he was. Her eyes met his, reading the steely intent in his look. With a squeak of dismay she turned to flee the beast she'd roused.

Koga caught her before she'd gone two steps, tumbling her back onto the bed in a tangle of muslin skirts. She fought like a wildcat, her legs churning as she tried to kick him. She managed to land a few blows but accomplished little more than bruising her bare toes on his boot-protected shins. She tried to bring her hands up to strike him but she was no match for Koga's superior strength. It wasn't long before she found herself pinned facedown across her husband's lap, her legs caught between his and the solid weight of his forearm across her shoulders.

"Don't you-" Kagome's muffled warning ended on a shriek as the flat of Koga's hand came down across her derriere. The muslin of her nightdress provided little cushioning, either for that blow or the two that followed in quick succession.

Koga's hand came up, ready to deliver another swat, but with a pitiful little cry Kagome went limp, her face buried in the covers, her shoulders shaking in an apparent paroxysm of tears. Guilt slammed into him. Good God, what was he doing? He hadn't lost his temper like that in more years than he could remember. And here he was, losing it with his wife, beating her, for God's sake! He'd reduced her to tears, probably scared the life out of her. Staring down at her trembling back, Koga felt lower than a snake's belly.

"Kagome." He eased his hold, reaching out to draw her up, intending to apologize, to offer comfort.

The moment his grip loosened, Kagome twisted with the speed of a sidewinder and fastened her teeth into the first portion of his anatomy that presented itself, which happened to be his thigh.

If it hadn't been for the protective denim of his jeans, Koga thought she might have drawn blood, which was what she seemed to be after. Denied that, she still managed to inflict considerable discomfort.

With a howl of mingled outrage and pain, Koga shot to his feet. Since Kagome was still sprawled across his lap, his sudden move dumped her onto the floor, breaking her grip on his leg at the same time.

For the space of several heartbeats they stared at each other, Koga's eyes almost black, Kagome's brown eyes snapping a mixture of anger and a touch of fear. Koga was savagely pleased to see the latter. The guilt he'd felt a moment before at striking her had shifted to regret that he hadn't continued the spanking. The little witch had bitten him!

He bent reaching for her. Kagome scrambled backward and stumbled to her feet, hampered by the enveloping layers of muslin. She darted toward the door but his hand closed around her upper arm, spinning her around and tumbling her back onto the bed.

This time Koga felt less hesitant about using his strength against her. The struggle was brief, the outcome clear from the start. In a matter of seconds he'd pinned her to the bed, holding her there with the hard length of his body.

Panting and breathless, she lay beneath him, taut as a wire fence and nearly as full of barbs, Koga thought, feeling the bruises she'd managed to inflict. Her hair had come loose during the struggle and now it covered her face, blinding her. She huffed, trying to blow it out of the way.

Seeing her dilemma, Koga caught her wrists in one hand and pinned them against the tangled covers over her head. He used his free hand to brush the hair from her face. She gave him a glare by way of a thank-you.

"Now you're going to listen to me," he said sternly.

"You hit me!"

"You deserved it," he retorted, ignoring the niggling twinge of guilt. "You damn near took my leg off with your teeth."

"Too bad it wasn't your head," she snapped, showing no repentance.

"You're acting like a child. I don't know what you're so fired up about in the first place."

"Did you draw straws to see which of you had to get married?" She demanded.

"Yes." There was no sense in denying that much.

"And did you draw the short straw and have to marry me because of it?"

"I didn't have to marry you. I just had to marry someone." If he'd thought that bit of information would cool her ire, he was mistaken.

"You married me because you lost." She all but spit the last word at him.

"It wasn't like that. It didn't have anything to do with you personally. We just figured out which one of us ought to get married and-"

"Why?" she interrupted without apology.

"Why what?" With her stretched out beneath him, it wasn't easy to keep his mind on the conversation. His body, tuned to fever pitch by the fight, was starting to occupy itself in other directions.

"Why did one of you have to get married?" Obviously, Kagome was not having the same problem with her concentration.

"Well, there was the house. It needed a woman's touch."

"It needed blasting powder. It looked like a bunch of hogs had been living here."

Koga didn't think that was quite fair, but she was angry and he'd allow her that exaggeration. With her eyes shooting sparks at him the way they were and the length of her body pressed to his, he was willing to give her just about anything she wanted.

"We knew the place needed a woman." He said, bringing his mind back to the conversation at hand.

"Why not hire a housekeeper?"

"We thought of that. But we'd had trouble with the last couple of women we hired. A wife seemed a better idea." He admitted- a mistake, apparently.

"Ooooo!" The sound was somewhere between a wildcat's scream and a steam whistle, and it was the only warning she gave. She arched abruptly, trying to dislodge his weight. The movement was sudden enough and he was distracted enough that she almost succeeded.

There was a frantic scramble for control with Koga hampered by the need to avoid hurting her. Kagome felt no such need. A pained grunt escaped him as her knee caught him on the thigh. Considering where she'd been aiming, Koga considered himself fortunate to escape with a bruise. By the time he managed to regain control, they were both breathless.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He demanded furiously.

"Get off me!"

"Are you going to stop trying to kill me?" Her eyes gave him the answer and he judiciously tightened his hold on her wrists.

How could he have thought she didn't have a temper? Koga stared down at her flushed face. He'd seen rabid coyotes look friendlier- and less dangerous, he thought, feeling the assorted bruises she'd managed to deliver. He'd been in barroom brawls and come out with fewer injuries.

"I don't know what you're so riled about," he said, his exasperation plain. "It isn't as if we married for love."

Kagome had been straining her arms against his hold but, at his words, she stilled. She stared up at him for a moment, her eyes unreadable. And then her lashes lowered, shielding her expression from him. "No, we didn't marry for love," she murmured, the first sign of reasonableness that Koga had seen since he entered the room.

"Then why are you so angry?"

Instead of answering the question, she asked, "Why didn't you hire a housekeeper?"

Koga considered the question, wondering if the truth was going to set her off again. But since he didn't have a plausible lie, the truth was going to have to do. Besides, it wasn't as if there was anything wrong with the truth, dammit!

"A housekeeper couldn't give me a son," he said. "I told you I wanted children, and that takes a wife."

He waited, wishing he could read something in her expression. But she kept her eyes lowered and her face utterly still, leaving him to guess at what might be going on inside that female head of hers.

Angry or not, she felt remarkably good beneath him. His body, oblivious to the taut atmosphere, was reacting to the feel of her stretched out against him. Hardly conscious of moving, He shifted, his hips nudging more firmly between her thighs so that she cradled his growing arousal.

All Koga could think of now was how much he wanted her. Dammit all, he didn't even know what they were fighting about! What difference did it make how she'd come to be his wife? She was, and that was what mattered.

Feeling his hardness and sensing the change in his mood, Kagome went utterly still. Her eyes met his and she saw the hunger in the tightness of the skin over his cheekbones, in the way his azure eyes had darkened noticeably.

"No." She gasped the word out, turning her head to the side as he bent to kiss her. Deprived of her mouth, Koga settled for nuzzling the taut line of her neck instead.

"You're my wife." His breath whispered over her skin. The light touch sent a shiver of awareness through her. He'd taught her too well these past two weeks, she thought bitterly. Her body responded to his touch like a fine-tuned instrument to the hands of a master. But she'd rather die than give in to him now.

"You'll have to force me." Her voice was hard as tempered steel, with not an inch of give in it.

Koga lifted his head to stare down at her, reading the determination in her face. He could make her give into him, even wring a response from her, whether she was willing to admit it or not. Hell, she was his wife; there'd be no one to blame him if he took what he wanted, willing or not.

But he'd never forced a woman in his life and had nothing but contempt for a man who would do so, whether they were married or not. With a curse he released his hold on her, rolling off the bed and out of reach as he did so. If she took another swing at him, he couldn't vouch for his temper. The next time she hit him he'd either turn her over his knee again or flip her skirts over her head.

But Kagome didn't try to renew her attack. She was more concerned with pulling her nightdress down over her bare legs as she scrambled off the bed on the side opposite him. She watched him without speaking, her eyes wary. With her hair lying in tangled curls on her shoulders and her breasts still heaving with exertion, she might have been a painting labeled `Temptation'. The thought put an extra edge to his voice.

"Let me know when you're through with your temper tantrum," he said coldly. Without another word he stalked from the room, his boot heels ringing on the wooden floor.

He snatched his hat up on his way out the front door, slapping it on his head as he strode across the yard to the barn. There were lights on in the bunkhouse and he briefly considered Miroku's suggestion that there was room for him to sleep there. But he discarded the thought as soon as it came. He'd be damned before he'd have every cowboy on the place knowing that his wife had thrown him out of their bed.

The barn was warm and smelled of fresh hay and animals. The gray gelding recognized the sound of Koga's footsteps and put his head over the stall door to snort a greeting. `At least my horse is happy to see me,' Koga thought bitterly. He stopped to rub the gelding's forehead.

He thought about Kagome's display of temper-a temper he'd have just about bet the ranch she didn't possess. It seemed Miroku was right-there wasn't a woman born who didn't throw fits.

He wasn't an unreasonable man, Koga thought,. Feeling somewhat aggrieved. He could understand how a woman might not much like to hear that she'd been married because her husband had drawn a short straw. Not that it seemed to him that it should matter all that much. They were married, and that was all there was to it. But a woman might not see it that way and he could understand Kagome being upset. If she'd cried, he would have been more than willing to dry her tears.

But instead of tears, she'd tried to kill him. Might have succeeded, too, if he'd been a little slower. Koga fingered the shallow cut on his forehead. It was little more than a scrape but the severity of the injury was not the point. The point was Kagome had inflicted it, along with more bruises than he could count. Kagome-his quiet, biddable bride.

He still couldn't believe the display of temper he'd witnessed. Damned if she hadn't looked as if she'd have been happy to see him dead.

"She could have killed me," he said aloud. The gelding nodded his head in sympathy. Or maybe he was just trying to make sure Koga's scratching fingers reached a particular itch.

"How was I supposed to know she had a temper like a cat with its tail caught in a trap?"

The gelding snorted.

"Females." Koga muttered in a tone laced with disgust. "I should have stayed single."

~ ~ ~*~ ~ ~

She should never have married Koga Sukanami. That was the one thing that penetrated Kagome's storm of weeping. She'd have been better off staying with her aunt and uncle. At least they hadn't drawn straws for her as if she was a . . .an unwanted package that someone had to take.

She caught her breath on a sob. No, that wasn't true. They'd never made much secret of not wanting her. If they could have drawn straws to get rid of her, they might have done so, despite Uncle Naraku's aversion to gambling. So she'd gone from a home where she wasn't wanted to a husband gained because he's lost a silly, childish gamble.

Gulping to stem the flow of tears, Kagome rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Her chest ached with a mixture of hurt and anger. Was there something wrong with her? Had she committed some sin, that she should be punished by being forced to live where she wasn't wanted?

But Koga hadn't said he didn't want her. He hadn't said that at all. She sat up, her breath hitching in her chest with residual sobs. What was it he'd said? `I didn't have to marry you. I just had to marry someone.'

So once he'd drawn the short straw, he'd still had to choose a bride. And he'd chosen her.

Kagome slid off the bed and padded across the room to get a clean handkerchief. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Her breath still catching a little, she sat down on the wooden rocking chair in the corner next to the window and drew her bare feet up under the edge of her nightgown.

Koga had married her by choice.

She rolled that thought around and felt some of the tightness in her chest ease. However he'd gone about deciding to get married, he hadn't married her as a result of drawing a short straw. And as he'd pointed out, it wasn't as if they'd married for love.

The reminder had been painful, but she couldn't deny the truth of it. Koga had never said he loved her. And if she had been foolish enough to fall in love with him-and she wasn't entirely ready to admit that she had-then she couldn't blame him for her change of heart.

The problem was, she'd gone into this marriage with too many stars in her eyes. She'd told herself that she was being practical but she'd really been a romantic child, dreaming about happily ever after. The past two weeks should have beaten that out of her. Hadn't Koga made it abundantly clear that he'd wanted a wife for cooking and cleaning and not much else?

Well, for a few other things, she admitted as her glance fell on the bed. Now the covers were rumpled from their struggle, but most mornings their tousled condition was caused by something else entirely. Certainly, she has no complaints about that part of her marriage. And she didn't think Koga did, either.

A short straw! Kagome winced at the thought. It was a far cry from her romantic fantasies, but it was done and they were married. She was simply going to have to make the best of it. Now that her temper had cooled a bit and she was able to think a little more clearly, she had to admit that things could have been worse.

Whatever his reason for marrying her, Koga had proved to be a kind husband so far. He'd treated her gently. Most of the time, she amended, aware of a tenderness in her posterior. She shifted uncomfortably on the hard rocker, her eyes darkening with renewed anger.

Of course, he had been provoked, she admitted, thinking of the bloody scrape on his forehead. Perhaps she shouldn't have thrown that shoe. Kagome considered the possibility for a moment and then shook her head. He'd deserved that-and worse. Her only real regret was that she hadn't managed to inflict more damage. Koga should never have drawn straws over something as important as marriage.

No doubt he'd been congratulating himself on having gotten a docile bride, one who'd cause him little trouble while providing the sons he wanted. She'd given him little enough reason to think she was anything other than that these past two weeks.

"I you act like a doormat, you've no cause to complain if people treat you as such. She stood, putting one hand to her bruised derriere, her small chin firming in a way that might have made Koga nervous if he'd been witness to it.

She couldn't change the past. She was married and that was all there was to it. And marriage to Koga Sukanami, no matter how it had come about, was certainly better than being an unpaid and unwanted drudge in her aunt's home. It was even, though she'd admit it only to herself, better than finding herself married to Hojo and his four children.

No, she couldn't say, even with anger still churning inside her, that she was sorry she'd married Koga. But it was past time that she made a few changes around here. More than simply dusting and cleaning could ever do. Koga might have gotten himself a bride and, god-willing, the sons he wanted too, she thought, setting a hand against her stomach. But he was going to find out that she wasn't quite the biddable girl he might have thought her to be.

Of course, considering the encounter just passed, he might already have a hint of that. Kagome smiled and crawled into bed, feeling better than she'd have thought possible an hour ago.

~ ~ ~*~ ~ ~