With Everything I Am (The Three #2)(111)

“Poor baby,” he murmured. “Jetlagged and misused by her king.” His hand slid to her neck and started massaging and she told herself it didn’t feel good (when it did). “I’m sorry, honey,” he went on softly. “After a battle, one like that…” She tensed at his words and he sighed. “Being away from you was not good.”

She wished she could believe him.

She really, really did.

He bent his neck to kiss her forehead and then said, “We’ll give you your medicine, I’ll show you your new home and then I want you to take it easy for the rest of the day. Yes?”

Again she wondered if it was a genuine question or a rhetorical one.

She learned it was rhetorical for he lifted her off his lap and took her to their bedroom. He located her medication and gave her the injection and she found, as much as she hated to admit it, that she missed emerging from the burn in the strong safety of his arms.

He spent some time showing her her new home and it was obvious as he did it, in the pride that was evident in his words and his features, that he loved this castle. Then again, there was a lot to love not only in how it looked and how much there was of it but how it felt.

They went to the library where he ordered her to find a book which she did then he took her back to his study.

He deposited her on the big, fluffy couch which was under a diamond-paned window, just as the snow started to fall outside.

He threw a big, fluffy, warm woolen throw over her body and tucked it tight around her h*ps and legs and arranged a pillow behind her head. After he settled her, he picked up the phone and ordered Maraleena to bring them lunch.

He went to his desk and made calls, went through mail and eventually started writing notes. She set her book aside and stared out at the snow wondering how she managed to find herself trapped in a fairytale castle with a fairytale king when all of it was real but none of it was true (except, of course, the castle).

Callum ate lunch at his desk.

Sonia defied his unspoken command to clean her plate and picked at her food because she was nowhere near finished processing her enormous breakfast.

Callum didn’t have the chance to confront her for she curled up on the fluffy couch under her fluffy woolen throw with her hands under her cheek and fell asleep.

So she was asleep and missed it when her king glanced her way and his face grew soft.

And she missed it when he walked to her on the couch and sat in the crook of her lap.

And she missed it when he slid her hair off her neck but tucked the throw tight around her shoulder so she wouldn’t get a chill.

And she missed his soft kiss at her temple before he dropped his forehead there.

And she missed him whispering in her ear in a voice threaded with an emotion that even Sonia couldn’t have misunderstood, “Fuck, baby doll, I missed you so f**king much.”

Chapter Sixteen

Exposed

Sonia sat on the sofa in Callum’s study, stared out the window at the gray sky, the landscape covered in white snow and tried to find at least a shred of courage to say what she had to say to Callum.

She’d been with Callum at the castle for three days.

Three days!

Had she told him she did not want to be his mate but was willing to be his queen as she vowed to herself she would?

No.

Had she stopped him from making love to her as she vowed to herself she would?

No.

Had she become enchanted by his castle, the people in it, the village at the base of the rise and the people in that?

Yes!

After her first quiet day of Callum ordered rest, she woke up in his bed, in his arms, the urge nearly upon her because his hands were roaming and his lips were trailing across her shoulder.

“Callum –”

His mouth went to her ear and his arm wrapped tight around her, pulling her into his big, warm body.

“Morning, baby doll.”

Good goodness.

If her world was real, she would live for the morning when he said those words to her in his deep, rumbling voice.

“Morning,” she replied, trying to blot the thought from her mind.

“How are you feeling this morning?”

As her body betrayed her and snuggled closer to him, her mind latched on a way out of her first thing in the morning predicament.

“Still a little bit achy,” she told him (and it wasn’t a total lie).

“Poor baby,” he whispered in her ear and, even though he sounded vaguely arrogant, she couldn’t stop the tremble his being close and whispering in her ear caused. “I’ll get Mara to draw you a hot bath.” He bent and kissed her neck. “Have a lie in, little one.”

Then he was gone, out of bed, into the shower, out of the shower, into his clothes and, with a final trip to the bed to lean down and kiss her temple, he was out of the room.

Well, she’d dodged that bullet and she was pretty proud of herself because the whole time he was in the shower she kept thinking of his tall, muscled, na**d body with water sliding down it and she’d had the nearly overwhelming impulse to join him there.

She lay in bed practicing her words for when she would confront him.

However, she lay in bed too long for a knock came at the door.

She pulled in breath.

Then she sighed.

Maraleena (she’d learned the woman’s scent).

She called a good morning, Maraleena stuck her head around the door and smiled huge. “Hi there, Queen Sonia, you sleep okay?”