Hyacinthe was a mess of nerves.
Left behind in the room while Gardenia was ushered off to be tended to behind closed doors, he paced the room, and paced some more. The wedding had, indeed, been lovely, and Gardenia had looked like something out of a fairytale--and he'd hated every miserable second of it. Still he'd smiled like he was supposed to, baring his teeth and hoping it didn't look like a snarl. He'd endured the well-wishes, and replied with "thank you" and not "screw you" like he'd wanted to!
And now he was...here.
He wished he could be back down with the festivities getting gloriously drunk. But instead, he and his happy bride had a duty to perform.
And it did, indeed, feel like a performance.
When the pacing didn't help calm and distract him, he started to snoop around the room, looking for a better distraction. And it wasn't really snooping, anyway! She was his wife now, and he was her husband, so what was hers was his and vice versa.
Besides, it wasn't like he had to dig to find the book. It was atop her nightstand, and the picture depicting a muscle-bound man and a willowy woman caught his curiosity. Picking it up, he sat down on the bed, flipped it open--
And blushed.
Oh.
Ohhhhhh wow.
Page 54 and the first line his eyes were drawn to was something about throbbing, velvet-sheathed steel thrusting into wet depths, and something about flowers...deflowering? W-what? His eyes widened, yet he couldn't look away--in fact, he had to flip back a page and start reading from there to get more context! And oh gods. Wow. This was totally a book about sex.
...This was very relevant to his situation. Face still hot, Hyacinthe flipped another page back to read from the beginning of the scene, and felt his eyes widen. Oh wow. This guy had crazy abs. Bulging, glistening muscles. And...a really big penis. Like really big. Ten bloody inches! Did penises that big even exist?! And he just went for it with the woman. Just ripped open her bodice, tore her skirts, threw her on the bed, and took her from behind while she screamed his name. Wow. That...this...
This was what Gardenia was into?
Was this what she expected?! It...it seemed so...
Violent!
He stared at the pages, his heart beating faster and palms growing sweaty. Oh gods. Oh Kia. This was what he had to do? Okay. He could do this. He could...be all...assertive. He could do this. He could totally--
The door opened and he jumped--and blushed harder when he saw Gardenia there, dressed in barely a thing while he was still dressed in his wedding clothes. Of course, he didn't have much time for surprise, because that was when she yanked the book from his hands and tossed it away. And called him rude?! What?!
"How is that rude?" he snapped, jolted out of his mortification. "We're married now! Our stuff belongs to each other now. And it was just laying out there for anyone to see! If you didn't want me looking, you should have put it away."