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Realizing he’d gone
    about this al wrong, Menace quickly reassured her.
    “Naya, I told you earlier today that I wil never hurt you.
    I meant that. Never wil my hand or any of those things,”
    he pointed to the wal, “touch you without your consent.”
    “Wel, don’t hold your breath! My consent to be
    battered and abused wil never come.”
    “Battered? Abused?” He reeled in shock at her strong
    language. “Naya, domestic discipline and a little rough
    love between a husband and his wife is not abuse. So
    long as there is consent,” he added. “It’s sexy. It’s
    exciting. It’s intimate and loving.”
    “Sexy?
    Intimate? Loving? ” Eyes wide, she
    vehemently shook her head. “I’m sorry but this torture
    chamber isn’t inspiring any feelings of sexiness or
    intimacy.”
    “That’s because I’ve screwed this up,” Menace
    admitted. He took a cautious step forward. “I should
    never have folowed the usual protocol for claiming a
    wife. I should have done this differently.” He exhaled
    roughly and ran his fingers through his hair. “Can we just
    roughly and ran his fingers through his hair. “Can we just
    —can we cal a time-out here?”
    Her expression softened. The fists that had been
    raised and ready to pummel him slowly dropped. “Al
    right.”
    “Thank you.”
    She gestured to his hand. “Why the hel are you
    carrying around a sock?”
    He glanced at the white sock and sheepishly smiled. “I
    came in here hoping to offer you a truce. I didn’t have
    anything else white in my quarters.”
    Surprise filtered across her beautiful face. “A truce?
    Why?”
    “Because this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, Naya.
    I don’t want a war with you. That’s the very last thing I
    want from you.”
    She swalowed hard. “What do you want from me,
    Menace?”
    “I want…” He faltered and search for the right words.
    “I want a wife and a family. I want you to be here when I
    come home in the evenings, Naya. I’ve spent the last
    twenty-four years of my life training, fighting, training
    some more and trying not to get kiled. I’ve earned the
    right to some comfort, to some happiness. I want—I
    right to some comfort, to some happiness. I want—I
    want that with you. Let me make you happy.”
    She moved closer, the caginess gone from her once-
    mistrusting gaze. Now she looked at him with sadness in
    her dark eyes. “That’s not the way happiness works,
    Menace. The people in a relationship have to be happy
    by themselves before they can be happy together.” She
    hesitated. “Are you happy, Menace?”
    “I am,” he replied honestly.
    “But?”
    “But I’m lonely,” he admitted, baring his secret to her.
    “Were you happy in Connor’s Run?”
    “Most of the time,” she confirmed.
    “But?”
    “But it’s a hard life down there on Calyx,” she said.
    Menace seized his opening. “I can give you a better,
    easier life here, Naya. You’l never be hungry. You’l
    never be cold. You’l have access to medicine and
    technology. You’l never be alone again. I wil take care
    of you.”
    “Why?”
    “Because owning a wife, mastering a woman, it’s a
    precious thing. It’s the one thing I’ve strived for al these
    precious thing. It’s the one thing I’ve strived for al these
    years. Owning you is my reward.”
    Her voice grew tight and annoyed. “I don’t want to be
    owned.”
    He understood her frustration with her new
    classification. “The laws are the laws, Naya. I own you
    now, but that doesn’t mean you’re property. It simply
    means that I’m responsible for you. I wil never treat you
    any differently.”
    “Yeah, sure you won’t.”
    “I won’t,” he insisted.
    “You own me, Menace. We’re different.”
    “On paper,” he said. “In real life, it’s nothing like that.
    Don’t think of yourself as being owned. Think of yourself
    as my partner.”
    “Your partner?” she repeated in disbelief. “You just
    said that mastering me is something