Keeping Paige by Michelle M. Pillow

Author:Michelle M. Pillow [Pillow, Michelle M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-16T17:25:18.389000+00:00

Keeping Paige

“Ow, stop.” She squirmed violently, trying to shake him off.

He instantly let go of her and drew his hands back, appearing horrified at what he had done. “Paige, I did not mean to harm you.”

She slipped off his lap into the depths of the water to hide her nakedness. With the sudden tension between them, she felt too exposed. “My desire to make sure we will last before making a big commitment has nothing to do with your honor and everything to do with prudence and good sense.”

“I trust that you will be a good wife.” He looked as if she had stabbed him in the chest. “You believe I will not uphold my end of the marriage. That is the only reason you would say such a thing to me. What is it? You do not think I will protect you? Feed you? Treat you well?”

“You can’t trust me, Aidan, you don’t know me.” Why was this so hard to explain?

Why couldn’t he just let their relationship unfold with time? Why did it have to be marriage and children from the very first instant?

“I know you are an oracle, come to me from the Forestter people,” he said. “I know that you are my blessing. Why would I question anything else? Why would I worry about things that have not happened, will not happen?”

“Yes, and I suppose you know I’m a woman and I have red hair,” she answered wryly. “That is not who I am. Those things are superficial. They do not matter.”

“Then I will spend the years getting to know who you are.” He clenched his hand into a tight fist and his features tightened on his face. “You are my wife.”

“Are you telling me that there is never an unhappy marriage in Staria? That every claimed woman is happy and true to her husband?” Paige swiped her hair from her face, peeling the wet locks off her shoulders.

“Of course not, but I have faith that our marriage will be blessed. I have done everything I was supposed to do.” He slammed his fist onto the edge of the bathing pool with a heavy thud. “Why are you making this complicated?”

“Why are you yelling at me?” She surged to her feet, not caring that she had begun screaming. “Because I don’t want to have thirteen children? Because I’d like to learn a little bit more about the man who has claimed me? Because I want to learn more about this new world? You cannot fault me for that, Aidan.”

“I will tell you what you need to know.”

“Well, kiss my toes!” She snorted sarcastically, lifting her arms to the side in a wide, mocking gesture of relief. “Why didn’t you say so? Had I known there was no need to think and decide for myself, I wouldn’t have put up a fight. By all the trees, impregnate me, oh divine master. I am here to serve as the happy little house maiden.”

“I do not like what you are saying.

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