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