“Right,” she whispered, her gaze drifting away while she felt something important curl up in the region of her heart.
“Baby doll,” he murmured and she looked back to him. “We’ll come back. As soon as we can. All right?”
Sonia wouldn’t hold her breath.
“All right,” she replied.
He leaned down, brushed his mouth against hers and then knifed up, taking her with him.
She started to reach for her nightgown but with his hand in hers, he tugged her around the bed (yes, naked!) heading toward the bathroom.
“Callum,” she called, trying to yank away her hand. “You shower first, I’ll start packing.”
“We leave the clothes and food up here. I’ve people that see to the cabin. And we’re showering together,” he announced and her heart skidded to a halt as he pulled her in the bathroom, let her go and twisted immediately to the shower to turn on the taps.
“Um…” she began but gulped back whatever her next words were going to be when his hands came to her h*ps and he hauled her to his body.
“I know this is a lot and I know it’s fast,” he stated abruptly. “But, soon, you’ll be used to me, my body, the fact that I want you na**d in my bed every night and na**d in my shower every morning and na**d anytime you don’t have to wear clothes. So, it’s best that you start getting used to it now.”
She gawked at him.
How much worse could it get?
As suddenly as he grabbed her, he let her go and stepped into the shower, clearly having no time to waste.
She stared at him, clearly having no say in the matter.
With nothing for it because, she was learning quickly, when King Callum wanted something, King Callum got it, her hands went to the chain still hanging at her h*ps and she started twirling it around to find the clasp.
“What the f**k are you doing?” Callum bit out from the shower and her head jerked up.
“I’m taking this off before I shower,” she told him, her voice small in the face of his sudden anger.
He stepped right back out of the shower (getting water everywhere, incidentally), picked her up, put her in the shower and joined her, not hesitating in reaching for the shampoo.
“That’s a claiming chain, Sonia,” he informed her. “Once it’s put on, you never take it off.”
She blinked up at him as the water fell on her and asked stupidly, “What?”
He turned his attention from squirting shampoo in his big palm to her.
“It’s a claiming chain. You humans have wedding rings, my people have claiming chains.”
Her mouth dropped open.
She closed it.
His words repeated in her head and her mouth dropped open again.
Then she whispered, “You’re saying you married me this morning?”
He barely looked at her as he pivoted her out from under the spray and put himself in her place.
“Bound you to me, yes. For life. Same thing,” he replied distractedly, mind on other things, not just informing her of the usually joyous fact that that morning they’d essentially been wed.
She stood frozen and stared as he massaged the shampoo in his hair.
And she stood this way for a while.