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“There’s a lot wrong with what you just said.” Karson’s expression turned from a stormy smile into a full-on frown. “We’re starting with the ‘woman I’m sleeping with’ part. Because although I plan on sleeping next to you for the rest of my fucking life, that’s not the only thing you are to me. I think I’ve made it very clear you’re everything to me. I’ve lived a tough life, Wren. One full of violence, blood, death. With that comes a stark understanding of the truth. Being able to wade through the bullshit. Second, you spoke to me, I knew you were mine. Knew you were it. Time doesn’t mean shit when it comes to you. In addition to that, any kind of insinuation that our fucking child would ruin my life in any way is a bunch of bullshit.”
“Okay, okay,” I murmured, smiling as my body filled with warmth. “You’re happy I’m carrying your spawn, I get it. You don’t need the whole intense, alpha male speech.”
Karson kissed the side of my head. “With you, I need the speech.”
“Let’s get one thing straight, though.” I pointed at him. “I do not need you going into insane alpha male protection mode now I’m pregnant. Women have given birth for thousands of years. Viking women went into battle, fought and won with children inside them. They gave birth on the battlefield.”
The last part was fudged a little. No historical evidence actually proved that Viking women gave birth on battlefields, but Karson didn’t need to know that.
I was ready with more examples, more hysterics if need be, knowing Karson wasn’t about to back down on this one.
But he tilted his head and regarded me with amusement and adoration. My heart swelled.
“Okay, my Viking warrior,” he murmured, kissing me on the head. Then he pointed to the cozy armchair pointed toward the ocean. “Sit,” he ordered.
I scowled. “Didn’t we just decide that I was a Viking warrior? Viking women do not sit when ordered by a man.”
“Yes, but my woman just fainted because she hasn’t eaten all day,” he countered. “So she is going to sit her ass in the chair while I make her some food.” His tone brokered no argument.
I really ached to argue. But he was right. My stomach was growling, and I was still slightly unsteady on my feet.
I pointed at him. “Just so you know, this is me deciding to go sit of my own accord because it’s been a long day, and I’m hungry,” I clarified.
He smirked. “Okay, darlin’.”
So I curled up in the chair and watched my man cook for me.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Next to You – New West
“You’re havin’ a man on you,” he said in the darkness.
It was the middle of the night, or the early morning, and we were in bed, naked and curled up with each other.
We had spent the entire night celebrating his happiness over the news and my surprising joy over it. I had been feeling like I was floating on a cloud.
All those nice, floaty feelings I was having toward this man, the father of my child, dissipated in an instant.
I shifted in bed, to face him, even though the room was bathed in only flickering candlelight. “Excuse me?”
“Starting tomorrow, you will have a man on you. Someone will be here at the house when you’re here without me, and you will have someone with you whenever you leave.”
“That is insane, Karson,” I groaned, thinking back to the argument we’d had about the party at my place. Since then, I had not seen any armed guards anywhere. I’d really thought that was the end of that. “We literally had a conversation about me being a Viking and you not being an over the top, toxic, alpha male.”
“This is not me being over the top,” he snapped back. “This is me understanding that I have a fuck of a lot more to lose now, and trouble is brewing. This was going to happen whether or not you were pregnant. Just ask Stella.”
I blinked in the darkness. “Stella?” I repeated.
“Yes, Stella. Jay is having her protected every moment she isn’t with him. And Jay is a man of reason. He wouldn’t do this shit if the risk wasn’t real.”
His words were sucked into the void of my fury. I threw back the covers and snatched my phone off the nightstand, stomping out of the bedroom.
I ignored the low thump of Karson’s footsteps telling me he was following me.
“Wren? Is everything okay? Are you in the back of a police car?” Stella questioned sleepily.
“If I was, I’d be calling Yasmin,” I replied, pacing through the living room, switching on the lights. I was looking for the clothes Karson had peeled off me after dinner. Karson was standing in the doorway, watching me with a glower on his face.
