“No.”
Okay, this is easy. I can do this all night. But talking about Karro is always easy. It’s talking aboutusthat has me feeling like I want to take a running leap through the glass wall. I keep shuffling the papers, separating the clean coloring sheets from the scribbled-on ones. Penguin in a scarf. Owl reading a book. Kitten on a rainbow.
Maybe Henrik doesn’t want to talk about us. Maybe the kiss was barely tolerable, and if it’s all the same to me, he’d like to forget it ever happened. Maybe he’s thought about it, and practicing wanting me just doesn’t fit in his busy schedule right now.
Sensing my mood, he sighs. “Teddy …”
I stare down at a photo of a smiling chicken holding a balloon. Its stupid, beady eyes look up at me as it waves with one wing. Oh my god, I feel so called out. Clutching the papers to my chest, I look up at him. “What does ‘Door minman’ mean?”
“What?” He steps around the end of the couch, shrugging out of his suit jacket and tossing it on the chair.
I’m instantly distracted, trying to ignore how cut his shoulders look in that fitted shirt. “The thing you said in Swedish before you—I mean, before we …” I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Just what did you say?”
“Ah.” His mouth quirks with a smile as he sinks down onto the end of the couch. “Is that what has you acting so strange? I assumed you were dissecting every aspect of my kissing technique, not my Swedish mumblings.”
Oh god, he said it first. I mean, yeah, I threw the door wide open. But he said the word “kiss.” Which means we aresodoing this now. “What does it mean?”
Leaning back against the cushions, he holds out his hand. “Come here, and I’ll tell you.”
Did Henrik Karlsson just spread his knees and say, “Come here”? There are a lot of ways I can play this. I could rise to my feet and saunter over like Billy the Kid. Or I could pounce like the needy puppy I am, curl up in his lap, and beg him to hold me.
My body chooses secret option three. Setting the stack of clean coloring papers aside, including the judgy chicken, I crawl around the end of the coffee table and settle myself between his spread legs. Hands on his thighs, I push up, bringing my face almost even with his.
He reaches out, his fingertips ghosting over my lips. I can’t breathe, can’t break this moment. He sits forward, his warm gaze locked on me, both hands cupping my face. Desperate for more touch, I lift my hands from his thighs, wrapping them around his wrists.
The corner of his mouth lifts with a tired smile. “Du är min man. That’s what I said.”
I nod, lost in the blue of his eyes. I can see just how tired he is. Like Karro, he’s past the point of endurance. He always leaveseverything on the ice. Night after night, he gives it his all. He doesn’t know any other way. He’s always giving everyone his all. I won’t push him for more tonight, but he has to give me this. “What does it mean?”
“You tell me.”
I lean away, brows furrowed. “How am I supposed to—”
“Listen.” He presses his fingers to my lips. “Hear the words, mitt hjärta. Are you listening?”
“Okay,” I say against his fingertips.
He lowers his hand. “Du är,” he says, rolling therever so slightly.
“You are,” I translate.
He nods. “Du ärmin.” Like in the locker room, he puts the emphasis on this word. As he says it, he brushes his fingertips down the column of my neck.
I close my eyes, leaning against his leg. “Mine,” I whisper. Opening my eyes, I look up at him. “‘Du är min’ means ‘You are mine.’”
“Almost. I said, ‘Du är min man,’ so the meaning changes a little.”
Heart in my throat, I drop my hands back to his thighs. “I’m your man?”
“Not quite.”
“Then what does ‘man’ mean?”
He cups my cheek again, his thumb brushing over my freckles. “To say it is to break a rule. Saying it in Swedish is already a cheat.” He drops his hand away from me, leaning back. “And I vowed I’d not break your rules.”
I follow him, pressing myself between his legs. “We’re already breaking all the rules. You sleep in my bed. Tonight, you kissed me. Now, look me in the eyes, and tell me who I am.”
He holds my gaze. “If you want the rule broken,youbreak it.”