“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.