A single caveat could be enough to make this untenable, and he was bracing for the worst... or at least he thought he was. What she actually said caught him entirely off-guard, and he was sure the confusion showed on his face. "What?" he asked, baffled and a little irritated at the direction that the conversation had turned. Did she really think him capable of that? He was sure that he'd given her no reason to think it. When had he ever done anything but worship her, when they were together?

(Well, he had pinned her down to a bed before, but only after she'd asked for that!)

He was by nature just about the farthest thing from a violent person, but she'd said it so coolly that he didn't think it was wild hyperbole. Something must have put the idea into her mind. The answer might have been obvious if his pride hadn't been so wounded by the implication that he would ever hurt her, but as it was he overlooked it entirely. "I could never — why would you even think that? That I could — do you have such a low opinion of me?"

---