The corner of his mouth lifted. “I don’t think a woman has yelled at me like that since I broke up with my first girlfriend in high school.”
I smiled in spite of myself. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. My mother yelled a lot when I was growing up and I try not to do it because I always hated the way it made me feel when she did.”
“You were right,” he stated. “Sometimes I forget that not everyone thinks like I do. I know I’m intense, that I make decisions that seem lightning fast, and that I get…surly when I don’t get my way immediately.”
I suppressed the urge to snort at his final words because they were definitely true.
“And if you need more time to decide that moving in with me is the right decision, I will give it to you.”
I couldn’t stop the smile that tugged at my mouth when he intimated that moving in with him was the only right decision.
“And I’m going to say it one more time then let it go. I’m sorry. I don’t like fighting with you.”
I stepped into him and wrapped my arms around his waist. It wasn’t until he hugged me into his bare chest and relaxed that I realized how tense his body had been. The last dregs of my anger vanished completely and I tightened my grip on him.
“I don’t like fighting with you either,” I admitted. “Arguing, yes. Debating, yes. But that wasn’t fun.”
He chuckled and I liked the vibration against my ear. As the sound faded, I could hear the steady thump of his heart and I sank deeper into him. This was a side of Landen that surprised me. He was affectionate. He liked contact. If we were walking together, he held my hand or rested his hand on my lower back. When we sat on the couch or were lying in bed, he pulled me close.
And after I yelled at him earlier, his first instinct had been to touch me in order to calm me. He clearly needed a physical connection, even when we were fighting.
“No, it wasn’t fun,” he agreed. “Though I’m glad you’re not the type to hold a grudge.”
I laughed softly. “I wouldn’t say that. My first instinct is to hold a grudge, even after you apologize. It’s ridiculous, I know, but once my blood gets up, it takes me a bit to calm down. I have to battle that urge every time I fight with someone, but I’m aware of it and I work at it.”
Landen sighed, his chest expanding beneath my cheek. “Good to know.”
I lifted my head and looked up at him. “How about we revisit this topic in a couple of months?”
“The fighting or you moving in?” he asked, arching a brow at me.
I narrowed my eyes as I met his gaze. “The moving in stuff.”
Landen dropped a kiss on my forehead. “How about a month?”
“Three,” I shot back.
“Two and that’s my final offer.”
I had to laugh. Only with Landen would I negotiate something as personal and important as this like a business deal. I wondered if this would become a habit with us since we’d also done it when discussing the timing of our first sexual encounter.
“If you think about it, I saida couplewhich usually indicates two.”
He nodded. “I can wait two months. Though I can’t promise I won’t bring up how much you love my kitchen. And my backyard. And the sauna. Or the fact that we could have sex whenever we felt like it.”
“You have excellent points, but you forgot to mention that you snore.”
“I do not!” he argued.
I shrugged. “How would you know? You’re asleep.”
He growled beneath his breath and squeezed me tighter but he didn’t say anything else.
He was right though, he didn’t snore. I only wanted to tease him a little.
“And your library is a mess,” I stated. While I hated fighting with Landen, this was fun.
“Not anymore,” he murmured, his eyes moving over my smiling face. “All the equipment is set up and the floor is now clean.”
“Hmmm, that’s good.” Due to the heated look he was giving me, my mind was no longer on getting a rise out of Landen. Well, considering the hard ridge against my stomach, I was getting a rise out of him, just not an emotional one.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Yes, but not for food.”
I watched him grin before his head descended and his mouth met mine.
