With Everything I Am(120)

It was delicious.

So she decided she hated it.

“Isn’t it lovely?” Maraleena asked with a smile in her voice, watching Sonia closely.

“Yes. Lovely,” Sonia agreed, made a comical face, Maraleena burst out laughing again and got back to work.

As she did so, Sonia forced down too much food that she didn’t want even though she hadn’t eaten in ages. Alternately, when she could get a word in edgewise, she chatted with Maraleena as the woman finished with two more suitcases.

It was while Sonia was gulping down the last bit of toast with a sip of coffee that Callum arrived.

Sonia looked at him and her heart leaped into her throat.

He was wearing the chocolate brown corduroy shirt she bought him for Christmas over jeans that fit him well and a pair of brown boots.

Since yesterday he’d had his hair trimmed but he’d also shaved off the beard.

Completely.

No stubble, nothing.

He was exactly the vision of her dream Callum. The vision she’d never seen in real life (except he was clothed).

She was so struck by the picture of him, he was sitting on the bed grinning at her before she realized it.

Then he was leaning in, evading her coffee mug which she was holding aloft and her tray, to brush her lips with his.

He pulled only an inch away before he murmured, “Morning, my little one.”

“Morning,” she replied but her voice sounded husky and low.

She cleared her throat.

His grin turned into a smile.

She wanted to conk him in the head with her coffee mug.

“Brilliant.” They both heard muttered from Maraleena and they both turned their heads to look at her.

She was clutching one of Sonia’s sweaters and watching them openly.

“You’re so cute and sweet together,” Maraleena noted, a big, happy grin on her face. “Brilliant. I love it.” Her eyes moved to focus on Callum. “Hi there, your grace, welcome home.”

“Hello, Mara,” Callum returned, shifting so he was sitting in bed beside Sonia. Close beside her, his legs straight out in front of him, his back to the headboard and he seized her mug of coffee from her fingers and then took a sip.

Sonia clenched her teeth together at the unwanted (she was telling herself) intimacy.

Maraleena continued folding sweaters like she was in a couple’s bedroom every day seeing to her chores while they lounged in bed.

“Well done with routing the rebels,” Maraleena threw out casually on another sunny smile in their direction.

“Thanks,” Callum replied on a half laugh.

“It’s celebration time,” Maraleena noted gleefully.

“It is that,” Callum murmured on another sip of coffee but his arm was pushing through the pillows at Sonia’s waist where it settled. His hand at her hip, finding the wolf charm through her nightgown and, as ever, he started fiddling with it.

Sonia tried not to look like she was seething while allowing herself, if only in her mind, to seethe.

“Can’t wait,” Maraleena muttered as she placed Sonia’s sweaters on a shelf in the wardrobe.

“Mara?” Callum called as he set the mug on the tray and then divested Sonia of it.

Maraleena turned to the bed with her brows raised.

“You want to do me a favor?” Callum asked, holding the tray out to her.

Maraleena’s eyes grew so bright they practically singed the room with their glow.

Then, for some reason, she burst out laughing though Sonia was thinking that Maraleena did that on a regular basis. She rushed forward, nabbed the tray and was out of the room before Sonia could make a peep.

The minute the door closed, Callum turned his body into hers, pulling her down into the bed so her head was on the pillows.

Then he kissed her, soft and sweet but also wet and lingeringly.

It was a great kiss.

Sonia’s body responded but, luckily, her brain did not.

Nevertheless, she was breathing heavier when he lifted his lips from hers.

“Callum,” she whispered.

“You’re here,” he whispered back, his eyes, full-on tawny, roaming her face, his fingers sifting through the hair at the side of her head. “In my arms, in my bed, in my home.”

She had to stop him. She couldn’t listen to this, couldn’t witness it again and want it just as much as she knew he’d never give it to her.

“Callum. I feel strange.” His head cocked to the side at her words and the warm look on his face vanished as his brows shot together. “Not that,” she said swiftly, she couldn’t bear his false, loving concern, not again. “Just, I think jetlag or something. All that food. Everything went so fast yesterday. I feel weird. I think I need a shower and more coffee –”

She stopped speaking because his face relaxed and he touched his mouth to hers.