Page 59 of The Warrior
“Bullshit!” Magni boomed. “You love it when I’m in charge. It turns you on.”
“In bed, yes, but not outside the bedroom.”
Magni snorted again. “I’m a domineering person, Laura, deal with it. Besides, Christina wouldn’t have known possessive from protective when she made that comment. Why don’t you ask her now? I guarantee you that with her being pregnant, Boulder is more protective than ever. Ask her if she still sees it as possessiveness.”
“Boulder loves Christina. He eventellsher so.”
“Ah, I see. That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You want me to shower you with flowery love poems and shit. I’m not that guy, Laura.”
Standing opposite my husband, I asked the question that I was most afraid of hearing the answer to. “Are you saying you don’t love me?”
“I’m saying I don’t like this conversation. I’m not good at talking about my emotions.” He turned his back on me, pacing the small cabin.
“Then practice until you get it right – isn’t that what you just told me?”
“This isn’t fight training. It’s different.”
“If a ten-year-old can master talking about emotions, then we can learn it too.”
“I don’twantto learn,” Magni objected.
I narrowed my eyes and slammed him with his own words again. “Learn or lose!”
Magni paled and he spoke slowly in a low voice. “Is that a threat? You’re going to leave me, aren’t you?”
My heart was hammering in my chest from the tension between us. “I don’t want to leave you, but I’ve told you that things need to change between us.”
“For fuck’s sake, Laura, don’t you see that it already has? I just spent two hours teaching you how to fight. When have I ever done that?”
“I appreciate that, but I wantmore. I want the closeness that Khan and Pearl have. The mutual respect. It’s clear to see how much they love and admire each other.”
Magni raked his hands through his hair in frustration. “We are notthem! You keep talking about whatyouwant, but what about whatIwant? I don’t recall ever hearing you say that you lovemeeither.”
I opened my mouth to say something in my defense, but he was right.
Holding up a hand, Magni spoke before I had a chance to respond. “It’s okay, Laura. I never expected you to love me, and I respect you for not lying to my face.”
“Magni, I…” Words failed me. How could he not know how I felt about him?
Magni’s eyes were fixed on my hair when he spoke the next words. “It’s a shame that our marriage was such a disappointment to you that you’d choose to leave. For what it’s worth, I was always proud to be your husband.”
“Until I ran away,” I whispered as my head fell.
He didn’t confirm it, but with a finger under my chin, he lifted my head.
If I were a Momsie, I would’ve told him that I loved him a long time ago, but those words weren’t spoken often among us Northlanders, and he already held too much power over me.
What I couldn’t say in words, I told him in my own way. Placing one hand on his strong chest, and sliding the other around his nape, I lifted up on my tiptoes and kissed him.
Magni closed his eyes, and my hand on his chest lifted when he drew in a deep intake of air.
I kissed him again, and this time he spread his lips, inviting me to deepen our kiss. Warmth spread in my body when his arms snaked around my waist, pulling me close against him. He followed up with that sexy sound deep in his throat that only Magni could make. It ignited an electric current that ran from the top of my spine all the way down to set off a fire between my thighs.
For two people who couldn’t communicate well outside of the bedroom, at least we were compatible in this part of our relationship. There was an equal amount of desire and frustration.
“I should punish you for leaving me again,” Magni mumbled against my neck.
A slow smile spread on my lips, “Are you going to?”
