With Everything I Am (18 page)

“What?” she whispered against the skin of his neck, not processing his words. After what happened, not processing anything but the fact that she was absolutely, seriously, totally in
trouble
.

“There are no blondes in my culture,” he explained. “And my people are passionate, far more than most humans, and they like to play.” His fingers dug into her bottom. “You, obviously, like to play.” His hand slid up from her bottom to wrap around her waist and give her a squeeze. “This pleases me,” he muttered this last sounding pleased.

Very pleased.

Even smug.

Sonia didn’t know what just happened or even
how
it happened or even
why
she let it go that far.

“Callum –”

He cut her off. “Is that how it was in your dreams?”

“Um… no, not quite,” she answered automatically, lifting her head to look at him, trying to ignore the fact that he looked content
and
pleased
and
smug
and
it was a great look that did serious things to her innards and she started again, “Callum –”

He lifted his head and brushed her lips with his as he gave her another squeeze with his arms.

“So what was it like in your dreams?” he asked, grinning at her.

She was so panicked, so desperate to get the conversation on track though she didn’t know what that track was yet. She hoped to do some serious back pedaling even if she couldn’t imagine how she’d manage that considering she was naked in his arms and she’d just begged him to fuck her, she answered immediately, “Well, there was no gold chain and no sex and –”

His brows shot up and he interrupted her again with, “No sex?”
 

“No, we just talk for a while and get started with, um… things and then I always wake up,” she replied hurriedly. “Listen –”

He broke in. “Things?”
 

“You know, start having sex and then I wake up,” she told him then went on, “Callum, I’d like to talk –”

But he wasn’t listening, he was chuckling then he tucked her face into his neck again and tightened his arms.

“What’s funny?” she asked his neck.

“Poor baby,” he murmured, his tone low but playful. “Twenty years I’ve been teasing you.” He rolled into her, his head came up to look at her, his hands started to glide along her skin and his voice was husky when he finished, “I’ve got a lot to make up for.”

“Callum –”

She stopped speaking when he grinned again and it was so wicked, so satisfied, so unbelievably arrogant and knowing, she could do nothing but stare.

“You called me ‘wolf’,” he stated.

Her body went tight.

Callum kept talking or, more accurately, teasing, “Nice to know I can cut through one of your grudges with a few kisses.”

At his words, she forgot everything instantly and snapped, “It was more than a few kisses and, anyway, I was not myself.”

“If that wasn’t you, honey, then I’ll do everything I have to do to keep the Sonia I just fucked. The Sonia who came for me so hard I thought her shrieks were going to blow out the fucking windows.”

She’d been wrong two days ago.

He wasn’t a big, bossy jerk.

He was an arrogant bastard.

She tried to push away, shoving at his shoulders, saying, “Of all the arrogant –”

She was writhing beneath him when he cut her off, burying his face in her neck, “That’s it, baby doll, fight me. This should be fun.”

She growled low in her throat.

He chuckled low in his.

She bucked and pushed away.

He caught her hips and hauled her under him, rolling his own hips until she was forced to spread her legs.

She stilled, her eyes locked on his and she cried, “Get off me!”

“No, honey,” he grinned at her, all haughty, arrogant king, “I’m going to get
in
you.”

She gave his shoulders a mighty heave and his cell rang on the nightstand.

Both their heads twisted to it and both their eyes narrowed on it but for entirely different reasons.

“Fucking hell,” he muttered, reaching a long arm out to nab it.

“Get off me,” she demanded again as he looked at its display.

“Settle for a minute, little one,” he ordered distractedly.

“Get… off…
me!
” she snapped and his eyes sliced to hers.

“Settle,” he commanded, his voice a sharp, regal crack.

She settled because, apparently, King Not to Be Denied Due to Royal Birth Callum was lying between her legs.

He put his phone to his ear and said, “Callum.”

Since she was close, she could hear the entire conversation.

“Cal, brother, you need to come down the mountain.”

It was Calder.

“For fuck’s sake, why?” Callum clipped.

“You remember what we talked about yesterday?” Calder enquired.

“Yes,” Callum answered tersely.

“Well, we flipped that brother. He’s talking. Talking
a lot
. This territory is infested. It’s far more dicked up than we imagined. Mona’s… hell, I don’t know what Mona’s been doing but whatever the fuck it is, it’s not her job. Someone has to deal with her and we need to start making moves or this shit is going to start traveling,” Calder answered.

“How bad is it?” Callum asked.

“The scale doesn’t go up to this bad,” Calder replied and Sonia watched Callum close his eyes even as she saw his face set hard before he opened them when Calder kept speaking. “Pack up your mate and bring her ass down the mountain. I’m sure you’ll find time to do her here. We got more important shit to see to.”

Callum’s eyes came to her but she stared at his shoulder angrily at the same time pretending she wasn’t hearing a thing.

“The deed’s done,” Callum announced and it took everything Sonia had not to react to his words.

Good goodness.

Now she was a “deed” to be “done”.

Well, he’d done it all right.

“Hallelujah,” Calder hooted. “I knew it wouldn’t take you long,” he noted with deep respect before finishing, “Now, let’s get to work.”

“We’ll be down by early afternoon,” Callum returned.

“We’ll have everything ready,” Calder replied. “Later.”

Sonia watched as Callum flipped his phone shut and his eyes went to her.

“I’m sorry, honey, we’ve got to cut this short and get back to the real world,” he told her and, she had to give it to him, he sounded disappointed.

But she couldn’t help but think how convenient all this was.

Callum (and his brothers) making it clear (several times) that his time in the cabin with her was something he considered a frustrating annoyance. In fact he, himself, referred to it as a “farce”.

Callum and his brother’s talk about whatever-it-was yesterday.

This morning, Callum wasted no time in seducing her, claiming her and then his brother called to say it was imperative he get back down the mountain.

Royal duty sorted, time to wage war.

“Sonia?” he called and she focused on his handsome face. “We don’t have a lot of time. We need to shower and go.”

“Right,” she whispered, her gaze drifting away while she felt something important curl up in the region of her heart.

“Baby doll,” he murmured and she looked back to him. “We’ll come back. As soon as we can. All right?”

Sonia wouldn’t hold her breath.

“All right,” she replied.

He leaned down, brushed his mouth against hers and then knifed up, taking her with him.

She started to reach for her nightgown but with his hand in hers, he tugged her around the bed (yes, naked!) heading toward the bathroom.

“Callum,” she called, trying to yank away her hand. “You shower first, I’ll start packing.”

“We leave the clothes and food up here. I’ve people that see to the cabin. And we’re showering together,” he announced and her heart skidded to a halt as he pulled her in the bathroom, let her go and twisted immediately to the shower to turn on the taps.

“Um…” she began but gulped back whatever her next words were going to be when his hands came to her hips and he hauled her to his body.

“I know this is a lot and I know it’s fast,” he stated abruptly. “But, soon, you’ll be used to me, my body, the fact that I want you naked in my bed every night and naked in my shower every morning and naked anytime you don’t
have
to wear clothes. So, it’s best that you start getting used to it now.”

She gawked at him.

How much worse could it get?

As suddenly as he grabbed her, he let her go and stepped into the shower, clearly having no time to waste.

She stared at him, clearly having no say in the matter.

With nothing for it because, she was learning quickly, when King Callum wanted something, King Callum got it, her hands went to the chain still hanging at her hips and she started twirling it around to find the clasp.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Callum bit out from the shower and her head jerked up.

“I’m taking this off before I shower,” she told him, her voice small in the face of his sudden anger.

He stepped right back out of the shower (getting water everywhere, incidentally), picked her up, put her in the shower and joined her, not hesitating in reaching for the shampoo.

“That’s a claiming chain, Sonia,” he informed her. “Once it’s put on, you never take it off.”

She blinked up at him as the water fell on her and asked stupidly, “What?”

He turned his attention from squirting shampoo in his big palm to her.

“It’s a claiming chain. You humans have wedding rings, my people have claiming chains.”

Her mouth dropped open.

She closed it.

His words repeated in her head and her mouth dropped open again.

Then she whispered, “You’re saying you
married
me this morning?”

He barely looked at her as he pivoted her out from under the spray and put himself in her place.

“Bound you to me, yes. For life. Same thing,” he replied distractedly, mind on other things,
not
just informing her of the usually joyous fact that that morning they’d essentially been wed.

She stood frozen and stared as he massaged the shampoo in his hair.

And she stood this way for a while.

He’d rinsed and, when he saw her standing there, his eyes narrowed.

Then he said, using a voice filled with strained patience, “Get a move on, honey. There’s things to do.”

She jolted out of her shocked stupor and automatically reached for her shampoo.

There were things to do.

Those things didn’t include Sonia having a moment to process the fact that in three days her life had been turned on its head.

She used to have a quiet life, working in a shop she loved, living in a farmhouse amongst neighbors who were good people. It wasn’t a great life. It was a lonely life. But there were moments of contentment and even happiness.

Now she was queen to an unknown people. She was the destined mate to a man she barely knew but she
did
know he didn’t want her. And she’d just, essentially, gotten married to him.

As that thing that curled up in her heart tightened and prepared to die, Sonia commenced showering, naked, with her husband, a man she met three days before and she wasn’t even certain she liked.

And she hurried through it.

Because
he
had things to do.

Chapter Nine

Duty

Callum pulled his SUV into the sweeping drive of The Territorial Mansion.

As he did he realized during the two and a half hour drive his mind was so focused on what was happening amongst his people, and what he had to do about it, both imminently and in the near future, he’d not said a word to Sonia.

He glanced toward her in the passenger seat and noted her eyes were studying the mansion with curiosity.

Fuck, she was pretty, sitting beside him, wearing an ice-blue thermal, a pale pink, quilted vest with a collar that framed the elegant line of her neck, a woolly pastel green scarf wrapped around that neck and dangling down the front and slightly faded jeans that rode low on her hips and cupped her ass brilliantly. He’d given her the tan leather, low-heeled boots his mother bought her that he’d kept outside in the truck and she’d chosen a belt that matched.

At the cabin, while he called Ryon and Caleb to brief them on what he wanted them to do prior to his arrival, he’d allowed her time to put on a light coat of makeup and dry her thick blonde hair so it fell in sleek, gleaming waves down her shoulders and back.

Examining her loveliness, the casual flair with which she wore her clothes, remembering their morning, knowing his chain hung about her hips, still hearing her heated cries and feeling her pulsating around his cock with her uninhibited orgasm, Callum felt elated.

Today, his people were going to meet their queen.

And she was fucking perfect.

“We’re here,” he told her, slowing as they approached the wide-stepped entry to the mansion.

“Where’s…” she hesitated, still staring at the building, “here?”

“Territorial Mansion of the Western Territories of the Americas,” he replied absentmindedly. Then his thoughts moved from the pleasant ones of Sonia to the unpleasant ones of what he would soon be forced to do, not knowing his words would sound preposterous to her as, to him, they did not.

He knifed out of the car and to his vague displeasure saw she’d alighted without his assistance by the time he rounded the back to her side.

He looked up to the building and saw two of his warriors standing guard.

They appeared to be standing outside chatting as the Mansion, even though it had extensive walled gardens and its function was governmental, was ensconced within the city and open for passersby to see. Humans thought it housed a large, wealthy family with a goodly number of friends though the United States Government knew differently. But humans had no idea its purpose and therefore soldiers guarding the doors would seem unusual. When amongst humans, wolves did their utmost to appear “normal” and, because of that, the men, who were guards, looked like they were having a casual chat.