Siena rolled over. She was laughing. Laughing. At him. She sat up, pushing at the heavy fall of hair, still laughing. “Did you just try to spank me? Like as really a spanking, or was that some attempt at an erotic spanking, because I tell you, it didn’t work. It was too funny. Really, Elijah? You spanked me? Like I was a child?” Using both hands, she moved them down the length of her body. “Newsflash, genius. Woman right here. Not child. Woman. All grown up. Spankings went out a few centuries ago. And another newsflash, you won’t be spanking me for some erotic kink you have going, or for some misguided attempt to punish me or our children because, right now, I can tell you after that, it wouldn’t work.”

She burst out laughing all over again. “Seriously, Elijah, you have to get over these little tantrums you throw. I feel as if I’ll be raising two children, not one. You act out again, and I’ll be putting you on time out.”

Relief mingled with his anger. She wasn’t planning on leaving him. Still, having his woman laugh at him wasn’t a good sign. Seriously, the entire world was afraid of him. His name made grown men shake. If he couldn’t control his woman, all that would change and the vultures would begin to circle and then he couldn’t protect her . . .

“Elijah.”

She said his name softly. Tenderly. Wrapping him in love. So much he had to close his eyes. He heard her move close to him, and her hand went up his chest to his neck. Her fingers curled around his nape.

“Honey. I get that you’re a macho man. I totally get that. I get that you’re having a hard time with this, but you solving our problems with your temper isn’t going to work. It just isn’t. You promised me you’d talk about things that upset you. Going off like an idiotic savage, beating your chest and declaring your woman is going to mind you, isn’t going to work. Not with me. You want me to know what I’m getting. You were honest about who and what you are—well, you need to see the real me. I’m not a woman who would for one second put up with a man who won’t share himself with me. Not just his body, but all of him. You have to be able to talk to me.”

He dropped his head to push his forehead against hers. “Baby, you terrify me.” He made the admission without thinking. Before he could examine the words, before he could think what she might read into that.

“I know,” she replied.

Just as softly as before. Just as gently. Making his heart turn over.