Chapter 162: Crazy Insecurities

"Jenny, talk to me. What’s going on?" Fredrinn asked softly, searching her glistening eyes. "Did I do something wrong? Whatever it is, just tell me."

Jenny forced a small, breezy smile and shook her head, trying to swat away the heavy atmosphere with a casual flick of her hand.

"No, no, it’s nothing like that. I just remembered something unpleasant, Freddy," she said with a bright, performative chuckle.

She nudged his shoulder lightly, angling for a playful escape. "Don’t worry so much about me. Your other girls might complain if you stay glued to my side like this."

She sounded utterly chill. Her lips were curled upward, and her laughter rang through the quiet suite with practiced ease.

Fredrinn didn’t buy a single second of it.

He squinted, his expression flattening into an unimpressed deadpan.

The smile on her face was hollow, painted on like cheap glaze, and every syllable that tumbled from her mouth carried an undercurrent of suppressed hurt and bitter irritation.

He had never claimed to be some grand master of empathy, but he certainly wasn’t an oblivious blockhead either.

He wasn’t some dense, brick-brained xianxia protagonist who couldn’t tell when a woman was practically screaming her distress through locked teeth.

Without another word, Fredrinn stepped forward, invading her personal space entirely.

He crowded her back until her spine met the wooden frame of the kitchenette cupboard, effectively boxing her into the corner with the breadth of his broad shoulders.

Leaning down, he locked his gaze onto her mesmerizing, tear-rimmed hazel eyes.

"Nobody’s complaining about anything, Jenny. Just tell me what the actual problem is," Fredrinn said. His earlier gentleness hardened with firm authority, leaving no doubt that he wouldn’t accept an easy brush-off this time.

Jenny’s breath hitched in her throat. Flustered by the overwhelming proximity of his naked body and the sheer intensity in his face, she tried to look away.

Fredrinn was having none of it. His fingers gently cupped her jaw, tilting her face back up and guiding her sightlines directly back to his own.

"It’s nothing, I swear! Stop cornering me like this!" Jenny whined, panic and embarrassment bleeding into her tone.

She placed both palms against his bare chest, trying with all her strength to shove him away.

Her hands pressed flush against thick, chiseled muscle, but Fredrinn’s frame was like an immovable stone pillar.

He didn’t budge a single millimeter. He simply held her captive, keeping her trapped against the counter while staring down at her in absolute, unwavering silence.

He didn’t even dignify her obvious lie with a verbal rebuttal.

Over by the table, Rose watched the little standoff unfold with an exasperated roll of her eyes.

She crossed her arms beneath her perky chest, thoroughly bored by the human theatrics dragging out their afternoon.

"I think she’s upset about your size, hubby," Rose piped up casually.

Jenny flinched violently, her entire body going rigid. Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. How on earth had the demon seen through her so effortlessly, hitting the nail on the head with terrifying precision?!

Catching Jenny’s sudden, guilty stiffening, Fredrinn blinked in sheer disbelief. Rose had actually called it!

Still, the revelation left him utterly baffled. Why in the world would a woman feel sad about something like that?

If anything, shouldn’t she feel excited? Or nervous? Or maybe slightly intimidated? Why the hell was tears the go-to emotional response?

"Why would that make you sad...?" Fredrinn asked, his voice dripping with genuine bewilderment.

Rose gave a carefree shrug.

"Because it changed, hubby. Isn’t that completely obvious?" She clicked her tongue, "It used to be average and quite good the first time we were together, and the second time as well. But today, it’s visibly much... larger."

Fredrinn stared blankly between them. "...And? So what?"

He couldn’t just say it was due to his Greater Incubus Body now, could he?

"So what?!" Jenny gasped, her face flushing crimson as all her bottled-up frustration burst through her careful facade.

The cat was out of the bag anyway, so she threw caution to the wind, glaring at him with pure indignation.

"What do you mean ’so what,’ you absolute bastard?! Are you saying you weren’t fully hard when you were with me back then?! That I didn’t turn you on enough, huh?! Was I just not enough for you?!"

Her voice trembled slightly at the end, the raw, vulnerable insecurity pouring out into the open air.

To Fredrinn’s utter surprise, Rose nodded along solemnly, actually taking Jenny’s side in the argument.

"To be fair, Rose was starting to feel a little offended by the sudden difference as well," the demon chimed in, tossing a dismissive glance toward the bed where Andrea was still passed out like a corpse. "Except Rose knows there’s no possible way that little human could ever be ’better’ than me."

She turned her gaze back to Fredrinn, crossing her arms smugly. "Then Rose tried using her charm skills on hubby earlier and noticed it slid right off without working. That’s when Rose realized the change in size was some kind of passive skill or power, not a measure of how horny he was for a specific woman."

As Rose’s crisp, matter-of-fact explanation settled over the room, an overwhelming wave of realization crashed through both Fredrinn and Jenny.

Fredrinn let out a low, breathless whistle, his mind working in overdrive.

’Women really are terrifying creatures,’ he realized with a shiver. If he wasn’t careful with his words, navigating three voluntary thralls was going to become a psychological minefield.

Jenny, on the other hand, felt the crushing knot in her chest instantly unravel.

The horrible, suffocating self-doubt that had seized her heart vanished into thin air.

Her fears had been completely unfounded from the start; it wasn’t that she lacked allure, but that the man himself had literally mutated his anatomy through supernatural means!

Still, a faint prick of irritation remained, specifically directed at Rose’s smug claim that Andrea couldn’t hold a candle to her.

Jenny found herself secretly envious of that bottomless, unshakeable demon confidence.

For a normal human woman, insecurities and doubts were part of daily life.

"You girls really lose your minds over the most random things imaginable..." Fredrinn sighed deeply, shaking his head.

Noticing that Jenny’s eyes were dry and her features had smoothed back into their usual vibrant glow, the tension evaporated from his shoulders. A slow, mischievous grin returned to his lips.

"Well... what now?" Fredrinn leaned in closer, his voice dropping into a playful rumble as his gaze locked onto her parted lips. "Are you still refusing to taste the coffee?"