Page 46 of Orc the Halls

“No? You don’t think it’s the male-role thing? Being the provider?”

“Oh,” she said, understanding. “No, that’s good. Youshouldprovide. But we’ll both do that, just like we’ll both cook and do laundry. I think it’s fine, as long as you’re not threatened by me.”

“No, no, not even… no. Just gives me a boner.”

She snorted.

He kissed her again.

She dragged him over to sit at the table with her.

He put all the eggs on her plate. “Look, I want this to work. I really want it to work, and I’m the kind of person who goes after what I want. So, I guess I don’t spend a lot of time entertaining the possibility that things could go wrong. But, uh, maybe… maybe you’re more realistic than me?”

She thought about this, as she chewed a mouthful of eggs. “That’s why you said having me pregnant was like a Christmas present. You want it. You want a wife and family, and here I am, baby on board.”

“Yeah, it’s exactly what I wanted, all gift-wrapped and left on my doorstep, and I just feel giddy about it. But maybe it’s not going to be easy. Maybe we have issues to work through. But I’m not taking back what I said last night, not at all. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I know what you’re saying.” She nodded, lifting another forkful of eggs towards her mouth.

“I can be realistic,” he said. “Some people you don’t mesh with, and you never will.”

She chewed on her eggs and swallowed. “Sometimes you mesh at the beginning and then you stop meshing.”

“Sometimes you really think you’re going to mesh, and then you realize, as you get to know them better… you just don’t.”

She nodded. “So, any of those things could happen to us. I mean, we barely know each other.”

“You’re not wrong,” he said. “But I just want to go for it.”

“Me too,” she said. “Only, be patient with me. Assume we’re on track for turning that farmhouse into the nesting explosion of my dreams. And unless we run into something that is a big stop sign, we try to work through anything that gets in our way. I want to trust you.”

“You can.”

“And, okay, maybe we have some disagreements about all kinds of things—”

“I don’t think we do, though. I think, about the really important things, we agree.”

“We share values, I think,” she said. “We value independence and hard work and sacrifice. The difference is you want to just foist your values on everyone else and I’m willing to let other people have different values if they want to have them.”

“Oh, that’s the difference?” He leaned back in his chair.

She shrugged. “First, I tie you up and make you beg to let me decorate your house—ourhouse. Then you can punish me for saying that you’re an insensitive male chauvinist pig.”

His mouth curved into a smile. “Punish you, hmm? How would I do that?”

She tapped her chin. “I mean, spanking is probably standard.”

His cock jerked. “Yeah, you could stand a good spanking.”

“Oh, definitely.” She ate more eggs, smiling beatifically at him. She swallowed. “I’ve been a bad, bad girl, haven’t I, Gunnar?”

“I have a strong feeling this is going to work out fine,” he said.

“Me too,” she said.

ix.

THEY SPENT THEmorning in bed and most of the afternoon, too.

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