With Everything I Am (The Three #2)(117)

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 h*ps 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 cl**axed. 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 na**d 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.