“Yeah. Shaving for her, forcing me to go there after I said no.”
He blows out a breath. “It wasn’t a betrayal. I’m trying to figure you out. Sometimes that means scaling walls when you won’t open the gate.”
“Look, it took years for me to set boundaries to protect myself. It was really fucking hard. Anyone who helps her get me back under her thumb is not on my side.”
His scowl is dark and brooding. “No one is ever going to get you under their thumb on my watch, Arya.No one.But getting belligerent and making threats won’t go down well. When you’re upset, confide in me.”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to know.” My tone has an edge to it.
“And how did that work out?”
I stare at the ceiling, feeling at a loss.
“Listen,” he says, tugging on a strand of my hair. “It was clever of her to try to get my uncle and me to do her dirty work, but she’s played that card now. It will never work again. And you saw how that went. Once I understood the lay of the land, did I leave you there?”
“No. You saw through her faster than anyone, but I couldn’t have known you would.” I exhale, pausing. “Maybe I overreacted to your shaving, but I liked when you let me cut it the way I wanted. Felt like something special… just between us.” Licking my lips, I shrug quickly. “You have to understand, usually when I go there, my mom makes it hard to leave without a lot of drama. She drags my friends into it, manipulating them into trying to ‘fix things’ between me and her. When you shaved, I thought ‘here we go again.’” Pressing my lips between my teeth, I shake my head bitterly. “Her other go-to move is to escalate until there’s a big fight, with my friends stuck witnessing it. So fucking embarrassing. It kills me. Which she knows. That’s why she does it.”
His thumb rubs my temple in a slow circle. “Most families have a narcissist in the mix. Now that she and I have met, you can relax. If she tries to hurt you when I’m around,Iwill handle her.”
The thought that I might be able to rely on someone else when things get hard with my mom is another shock. But I guess that’s the upside to Erik’s alpha male personality. No one gets to behave badly without him shutting them down. Whichisreassuring.
“That might help. I don’t know,” I say. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Yeah. Does your body feel all right?”
I nod. “Sore. In some interesting places.”
He moves his arm to encircle me, and I notice bloody scratches I left with my nails.
“Jesus.” I grimace. “You need to wash those.”
“In a minute.”
“Look at those marks,” I tease, trying to lighten the mood. “God, Viking, what kind of hellcat are you sleeping with these days? You must be crazy.”
“No regrets on my end.”
My fingers stroke the angle of his jaw. “Can’t believe I had that kind of sex with you of all people. And that it was good.” My nail scratches his lower lip gently. “Do you do that a lot?”
“No. Once. Which was fine, but it didn’t compare to this. Tonight is the first time I’ve done it with someone who matters to me.”
Warmth courses through me. “Kind of a first for both of us, then,” I whisper. “Which is pretty cool.”
He nods.
“I’ll try to figure out a safe place for me to go. Maybe I can convince Eden to hold off on her wild parties for a while. Until then, can we pretend this afternoon never happened?”
“Why?”
“I don’t want us to waste time being mad at each other.”
“Are you still angry?” he asks in surprise.
“No, but aren’t you? Or maybe holding a grudge because I was so rude in the truck?”
“No grudges. We settled it physically.”
Now it’s my turn to be surprised. And confused, until what he’s implying dawns on me. “Erik, was that… like hitting a reset button? Spankings and punishment sex to settle things?”
