With Everything I Am (45 page)

“I do,” he grinned again, his voice went soft, his eyes grew warm and his face got closer. “One in particular.”

She pulled in breath and reminded herself that he could be like this, sweet and tender one minute and the next…

Well, the next he would
not
.

“So why don’t you spend time with humans?” she pushed.

He sighed and pulled away, saying, “I just don’t understand them.”
 

Her eyes grew wide. “What’s not to understand?”
 

He gazed at her a second before he threw back his head and roared with laughter.

“What’s funny?” she demanded when his laughter calmed.

“You, baby doll,” he was still chuckling when he responded. “How much of my culture makes sense to you?”

She had to admit, he had a point.

She didn’t inform him of that fact. She looked to the fire and sipped her cider which caused him to chuckle.

“I’ll make you a deal,” he said on another squeeze of her waist, capturing her attention.

She looked at him again and raised her eyebrows.

“I’ll help you understand my people and you help me understand yours.”

Before she could answer, she heard a noise outside. A noise that sounded like someone carrying bags slipped and fell to the sidewalk giving a startled cry of pain. She automatically tensed at the noise, as if she was going to rush outside to help, her eyes flashing to the door.

Then she realized it was a noise that Callum wouldn’t hear and she couldn’t help because she wasn’t supposed to hear it either.

As she had many times in her life, Sonia forced herself to relax and took another sip of her drink.

“Sonia,” he called and she hesitantly turned to look at him.

“Yes?” she answered, trying to look innocent and thinking maybe she failed for he was studying her closely.

He opened his mouth to speak but Ralph was there with two big plates on top of which sat smaller, oblong dishes of browned, fluffy mash potato-topped fish pies that were so hot they were steaming and looked delicious.

“Two fish pies, your grace?” Ralph asked.

Callum didn’t look happy to be disturbed but he nodded, moved them to a table and they ate their pies (filled with salmon, cream, carrots, herbs, onions and cheese, they were to die for and likely a million calories each).

Their conversation died because Callum seemed deep in thought and Sonia didn’t have anything to say.

After that, he took her back to the castle.

But not before taking her to the bakery and buying her a huge Viennese cookie, half of it dipped in a thick layer of chocolate. This he ordered her to eat in the Rover and, when she refused, he pulled the car to the side of the road, turned to her and raised his brows ominously.

She ate the cookie and she hated herself for being so weak.

She hated him more.

But the cookie, she had to admit, was delicious.

* * * * *

Callum made Sonia take it easy the rest of the afternoon but he made her do it while lounging on the couch in his study while he sat at the desk and worked. Clicking through his laptop or talking on the phone but mostly he seemed to spend his time writing notes in longhand.

They ate dinner, he took her to their room for her injection and after they lay on the couch in the room he called “the lounge”. It was a couch
upholstered
in hides (and she told herself it wasn’t soft and snugly, but it was). He threw a woolen rug over them (making them snugly too) and they watched
Cool Hand Luke
which, according to Callum, was his brother, Calder’s favorite movie, a fact Sonia didn’t find surprising.

The phone rang (or, dozens of them rang all through the house) as they were winding their way upstairs to bed. Sonia was also winding herself up trying to figure out how she was going to stop him from making love to her, or, more precisely, herself from wanting him to.

“You go on up, baby doll, I’ll be there in a second,” he murmured distractedly and peeled off into a room.

She was asleep by the time he joined her in bed.

And the urge was over her by the time he woke her with a hand between her legs and fingers rolling her nipple.

There was no chance to fight it, she was too far gone.

She arched her back and pressed her hips into his hand.

“You’re still tender, honey, I’ll –” he started but she rolled to him, dislodging his hands, and kissed him.

Then she did other things to him with her mouth.

Then he did things to her.

Then he took her, not hard and rough, but slow and sweet and she didn’t scream to her wolf when she climaxed. She whispered it in his ear on a contented sigh.

Then she fell asleep in his arms.

She woke up in them too, just as far gone as the night before but Callum wasn’t in the mood to be slow and sweet. He was in a different mood. And, with the urge over her, Sonia liked his mood.

She liked it so much she begged for it.

After, she lay on her belly, her eyes closed, her mind trying to regulate her breathing.

She felt him lying beside her, her head was turned away from him but she knew he was up on an elbow and his fingers were trailing lightly along the naked skin of her back. His hand finally glided down over her bottom and he reached low as it slid down the back her thigh and he gently cocked her leg.

Then, just as he had done after her claiming, he coated her thighs with their combined wetness.

She felt his chest at her back and his fingers digging in her hip when he growled in her ear, “That’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”

Sonia didn’t respond verbally but she shivered deliciously because, somewhere, deep down, even though she told herself she didn’t, she agreed.

His fingers gave her hip another, far gentler, squeeze.

“Dress warm before coming to me,” he ordered before exiting the bed, throwing the hides over her and walking to the bathroom.

Before he left the room, he tucked her stuffed wolf in her arms and kissed her temple.

Sonia stared at the pillows, clutching her wolf, and told herself not to cry.

She also told herself, that day, she was going to find a way to end this.

Before Maraleena could arrive, she threw back the hides, went to the bathroom and took a shower.

* * * * *

However, Sonia didn’t find a way to end it.

Instead, she had breakfast with Maraleena and Callista in the kitchen again and they spent that time teaching her queenly etiquette and protocol and doing it hilariously. Callista acted out the silent part of the queen while Maraleena acted out the domineering part of the king and all three of them giggled until their sides hurt.

When she arrived at the door to Callum’s study, he was already striding across the room. Sonia barely got her mouth open before he took her up the stairs for her injection and then he said they were off to explore the wood.

Before she could say another word, they were off to explore the wood.

That was the worst because it was the best.

Tramping through the snow and the trees, the brisk air in her lungs, the cold on her face, the warmth in her active muscles, she could smell the wildlife, hear it and sense it all around her.

And she loved it.

It reminded her of being out with her father all those times when she was a child. She hadn’t done it since he’d died and she forgot just how much she loved it.

No, how much it felt right, like she was where she belonged, like she’d come home.

And being there with the sweet, tender Callum. Feeling that with him, while Callum held her hand as they trudged through snow. Stopping her every once in a while to place his hand under her jaw, tilt her head to his and brush his lips to hers (and sometimes it was far more than a brush). Coming to a rise which exposed a new vista and both of them halting, standing close and just experiencing the view. She allowed herself to pretend. Just that once, she allowed herself to be where she always loved to be with the man she wanted for so long to be hers.

So, when they returned, without demur, she ate lunch seated in his lap and, after lunch, she made out with him in his desk chair that was turned to face the roaring fire. She didn’t make a peep when he picked her up, walked her to the couch and set her down.

Arranging the woolly throw over her, he murmured in a tone filled with regret, “I’ve work to do, little one.” He framed her face with his hands and touched his mouth to hers. “We’ll finish in a bit.” Shafts of tawny sliced through the blue of his eyes before he whispered, “There’re a few things I want you to do to me in that chair.”

Sonia felt the throb pulse between her legs and she also heard the soft moan that caught in her throat.

The gold took over the blue when he growled with approval, “In heat.”

Then he kissed her, harder, longer and wetter before he let her go and went back to his desk.

Once Sonia emerged from her pretend world of enchanted castles and fairytale kings you met in your dreams, she realized that she’d been in Scotland for three days.

She didn’t intend to go to Scotland at all but she’d been there three days, met people she liked and fell in love with the village and the woods.

She didn’t intend to have sex with Callum again but they’d had sex six times, not passable sex, not good sex, but (as usual)
fantastic
sex.

But she
did
intend to get a few things straight which was the only thing she
didn’t
do.

And she had to find the courage to do it, and soon. Or she was going to be doing things to Callum in his chair, things her mind was making up on its own, things that were making that throb beat between her legs and her breasts swell. Things that, the very thought of them, when Callum wasn’t even looking at her or speaking to her, were deeply affecting her.

And she was, she decided, in serious,
serious
trouble.

So deep was Sonia in her thoughts, when she heard the front door open, miles away (well, not exactly, just two floors of winding stairs and a long hall, but still), she didn’t even think to stop from looking toward the door.

She thought about it when Callum said her name.

Her body tensed but she looked toward him.

He was studying her closely again, eyes narrowed, brows drawn.

His ominous look.

Finally, he asked, “Did you hear that?”

Oh good goodness.

She’d forgotten to hide her gift. Her father told her never,
never
to forget.

She tried to cover. “Hear what?”
 

Callum answered instantly, “Regan and Ryon arriving.”

She stared at him.

She knew it was Regan and Ryon too, she could hear their voices and they were getting closer.

How did he –?

He interrupted her thoughts, “Answer me, Sonia, did you hear that?”

She didn’t have time to think about
him
hearing the arrival of his family. She still had to cover.

“Ryon and Regan are here?” she asked, tossing the throw aside and standing.

“You didn’t hear it?” he returned as he, too, stood and started toward her.

She considered running.

Instead, she lied, “No.” Then she cocked her head and went on lying, “Oh. I hear them now.”

Anyone would, they were coming up the stairs.

Callum stopped in front of her and looked down at her. “If you didn’t hear them, why did you turn your head the minute the front door opened?”

“You can hear the front door open from all the way up here?” she asked immediately, shocked and extremely interested in this news at the same time still hiding her secret.

“I can,” he replied tersely, stepping closer, making her tilt her head back to look at him and feeling the heat from his body then he finished with, “And so can you.”

Her eyes flew wide, her mouth opened to deny it and Regan came through the door.

“Cal! Sonny! It’s so good to be home!” she cried, rushing in, her face wreathed with smiles.

Ryon was following her, his eyes were on both Sonia and Callum and they were wary like he felt the tense air.

Callum turned to face his mother.

“I hate that plane ride. It’s so
long
and you’re so
pent up
. There’s nowhere to
roam,
” Regan declared while placing her hand on Callum’s bicep, giving his cheek a kiss and then giving Sonia a hug.

After Regan moved away, Sonia tried to step away from her mate.

His arm slid around her shoulders.

Sonia stopped moving.

Callum tucked her into his side.

“But I’m home now!” Regan announced gleefully before turning to Sonia. “And I want to know how you’re getting on, Sonny, but the very first thing I’m going to do is change my clothes and take a walk. Then I’m going to ask Drogan to light a fire in the knitting room and you’re going to tell me
everything
. Oh, I do hope Callum took you to the village. They have the best bakery in the world and I’m French so that’s saying something!” She grinned, looked between them and teased, “Then, I suppose, I’ll let Cal have you back for dinner.”

“I’m glad you’re home, Regan,” Sonia smiled at her mother-in-law then turned her smile to Ryon. “And you too Ryon. Glad to see you safe.”

“It’s good to
be
safe, Sonny,” Ryon smiled back.

“Oh!” Regan cried suddenly. Sonia jumped and looked to see her mother-in-law was digging in her purse. “Things were… well, we didn’t get much time and I was just so happy everyone was okay and then I was worried about getting Sonny ready.” She pulled her wallet out of her purse and zipped it open. “So, I forgot, but…” Her arm extended toward Callum and she announced, “Here!”

The wedding band Sonia gave to Callum was gleaming between her thumb and forefinger.

Sonia stared at it and felt every muscle in her body grow so rigid, she feared if she moved she’d break into a million pieces.

She watched as, casually, Callum reached out and took the band from his mother, murmuring his thanks. And, just as casually, he reached across Sonia’s rigid body and slid it on the finger that was curled around her shoulder.

They said that people had their limits, their breaking points.