Without taking her stare off the drawing tablet I’d bought her while she was still in the hospital, she shot back, “Depends on how long you plan on going through with this.”
I curled my hand around the top of the tablet but gave her a few seconds to realize my intention before pulling it away from her drawn up legs.
I only glanced at the art for a couple seconds before putting the tablet to sleep and placing it on the nightstand beside me, but a couple seconds was more than enough to take in what she was creating—to understand the meaning behind it. A princess trying to escape the darkened tower she was trapped in, desperate stare looking at the land far below, where a cluster of knights sat. Resting and unaware of the danger coming up behind them.
“Peach—”
“You promised,” she said over me as she started pushing herself up higher, her sharp intake of breath stealing the rest of her words and the only tell that she was hurting.
I swallowed back every instinct to rush to help her and ask where she was hurting, because I knew she’d resent me for it, and instead held out my hands for her to use to position herself.
As soon as she was settled and those eyes of ice and fire were locked on me, I asked, “You okay?”
“No, because you’re doing exactly what you said you wouldn’t,” Mallory claimed, ignoring what I’d truly been asking. “I heard you earlier. I know what you said about me being careful, and I understand it. But you’re trying to stop me fromworking—you’re trying toprotect me—when you just promised you wouldn’t.”
“I said I would keep you from certain parts of it,” I countered gently. “You can’t work for another couple weeks, at least. And even then, it’s desk and easy details only—not Donuts and conflicts with mafia families.”
“So, then, better to keep me at home with aSEAL shadow?”
“Never said that.”
A disbelieving huff left her. “That’s exactly what you said. That’s the entire plan, Gray.”
One side of my face scrunched up. “Was it?”
“I was there,” she seethed.
My lips parted only to press firmly together as I tried and failed to fight a smile that was a mixture of amusement and frustration. A combination I often wore when talking to her.
Leaning closer, I lowered my voice to a rumble. “My beautiful, stubborn wife, whose hormones might be clouding her?—”
“Choose your next words carefully,” Mallory threatened, prompting the corner of my mouth to tick up even higher.
“If it means fighting with you? Never.” I stole a swift kiss, then straightened before she could do something, like shove me away and hurt herself.
“You cut in and wouldn’t let Briggs or me explain the entire plan,” I continued. “Neither of us ever planned on getting a shadow for you because we know you better than that. However,” I added when her full lips parted to argue, “like I’ve said, Iwillkeep you from certain parts of things.”
“Keep me at home,” she assumed. “Again, when you said it was easier to let me be in the thick of it from the beginning.”
My head bobbed a few times as I tried figuring out how to explain this next part without making her feel weak, when she was the furthest thing from that.
She just needed to let herself heal.
But there was no way other than to just lay it out there, because saying the wordsyou need to healwould only prompt a stubbornI’m fineresponse from her.
“You hurt yourself when you swung at me earlier.” I clenched my jaw and felt everything in me reach out to her when Mallory’s entire demeanor shuttered, but forced myself to continue. “You hurt yourself just trying to sit up straighter. If something happens, I can’t have you near the fight this early in the healing process, because I know you’ll still go running into it.”
“And then I’ll be a liability,” she assumed with a stiff nod.
I didn’t respond to that in any way, even though Briggs had said those exact words. He’d also pointed out that I’d run to save her, risking both of us.
“On top of that,” I finally began, only to clear my throat, “something you need to consider isyou. Right now, you’re so mad at being asked to sit something out that you aren’t thinking about how you’d actually respond if you found yourself in a fight.”
At that, her brow furrowed as anger and challenge flared in her eyes. “One failed mission isn’t going to make me freeze up the next time,” she ground out.
“Never said that, and I wasn’t implying that,” I assured her, then slowly reached for her stomach. “I’m talking about this. I’m talking about the way you panic every few minutes, even thoughnothingis going on around you.”
All emotion drained from Mallory’s face as her hand twitched toward her stomach before she went still. “You think I’ll be too worried about something happening to the baby to actually fight.”
