“What are you like?” she asked quietly, more curious than was prudent as to his answer.
“I like being with my people and I rarely stray into the human world,” he answered honestly.
“Don’t you like humans?” she blurted on a whisper before she could stop the words and then wished she could kick herself because she didn’t care (though, she did).
“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 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.