He tossed the case away and his eyes came to hers.
“Sonia,” his voice was rough, “are you mine?”
Lost in the moment, immediately, she replied, “I’m yours.”
He made swift work of wrapping the gold chain around her waist and fastening it. She saw a small charm she couldn’t make out dangling from it as it settled above her hips.
His hands spanned those hips and his mouth went to hers.
But his eyes were open and the gold was so intense, it seemed to be glowing and alive.
Then he said something that settled in her brain, her heart and sliced a heated path down to their connected bodies.
“Baby doll, you’re about to be claimed.”
Before she could utter a noise, he moved her. Pulling her off him, he tossed her to the side on her belly. He shifted to his knees between her legs and violently yanked up her hips so she was on her knees but her head and torso were still in the bed.
His big hands wrapped around her hips, he impaled her on his shaft, again and again. It was wild, beautiful. Her head snapped back, her hair flying over her shoulders as she came up on her hands and reared her hips back with greedy need into his thrusting ones.
He leaned over her and fisted his fingers in her hair, muttering huskily, “That’s it.”
He was right. That was it. In fact, it was everything. The whole world.
She felt it coming.
And it was so huge, she feared it.
So she fought it.
“Callum –” she whispered, sudden panic in her voice.
He pulled her upright using her hair but he released it and his arms went around her, one hand slid to her breast and the one slid between her legs as he continued to plunge in and out of her.
“Give into it,” he coaxed in her ear, his breathing heavy.
She continued fighting it. It was too big, huge. It would destroy her.
But it was creeping in, invading, taking over. She wasn’t going to be able to hold it back.
“I can’t,” she breathed.
“Submit.” It was a command now. He meant to be obeyed. Every movement he made demanded it.
“Callum,” she whispered, frantically fighting, and losing. “It’s coming.”
Then it came.
Her head reared back and her body bucked as it overwhelmed her, driving through her as he drove inside her, shattering her.
He twisted her head so his mouth was on hers, taking more, draining her.
In his arms, impaled on his shaft, with his mouth on hers, everything that was him claiming everything that was her, Sonia cried out sharply against his mouth. The noise pierced the air as she shuddered uncontrollably through the longest, hardest, most luxuriously consuming climax she’d ever had in her life.
At the same time Callum’s arms circled her, possessing, protecting. One at her belly, one at her chest, he pressed her down as he drove up into her one last time and the guttural roar of his orgasm mingled with her piercing cry.
After, his breath thick in her ear, her own coming in slowing pants, he didn’t move. Callum held her connected to him like he never wanted to let her go.
Then his hand drifted down, his fingers trailing the gold chain at her hips, he tweaked the charm that hung there, while doing so flicking his fingers against the sensitive skin at her hipbone.
Then his hips moved, pulling out briefly and surging back in one last time, a movement that cut through her delightfully, making her moan.
Finally, he announced, his voice husky but firm in her ear, “You’re claimed.”
She felt claimed, completely claimed, so claimed she felt owned.
Sonia shivered in his arms.
Those arms grew tight and he buried his face in her neck.
Before Sonia could catch a thought, he lifted her off him and set her gently on her knees in the bed but kept her held close.
Then he did something unusual. Something strange and poignant and beautiful. Something that messed with her mind and tore at her heart.
His arm around her waist moved, his hand drifting around, back, and down to cup her between her legs from behind.
Then he rubbed his palm against her.
Her hips bucked and she whimpered.
Then he sniffed.
She froze.
“God, baby doll,” he groaned in her ear. “I wish you could smell us,” he went on, his hand gliding reverently through their combined wetness seeping between her legs. “Perfect,” he kept going. “Magnificent.”
She could smell them.
And he was absolutely right.
He dipped low, his hand sliding up to her belly then down, over the inside of one thigh then the other, coating her.
She trembled against him.
This must be something else his people did.
It was shocking, it was intense but it was also sexy and oddly sweet.
His hand left her and his arm wrapped around her again as his mouth went back to her ear.
“That’s us I bathed you with, little one. Us,” he growled, the intensity of his tone proving the moment was profound. “And we’re… fucking… beautiful.”
“Callum –” she started but didn’t finish.
He fell to the bed, taking her with him and arranging her body full on top of his.
He slid his fingers into her hair and tucked her face in his neck. Leaving his hand in her hair, his other hand cupped her behind.
“You weren’t blonde, honey, after that, I’d think you were one of my own,” he commented, his voice clearly content.
“What?” she whispered against the skin of his neck, not processing his words. After what happened, not processing anything but the fact that she was absolutely, seriously, totally in trouble.
“There are no blondes in my culture,” he explained. “And my people are passionate, far more than most humans, and they like to play.” His fingers dug into her bottom. “You, obviously, like to play.” His hand slid up from her bottom to wrap around her waist and give her a squeeze. “This pleases me,” he muttered this last sounding pleased.
Very pleased.
Even smug.
Sonia didn’t know what just happened or even how it happened or even why she let it go that far.
“Callum –”
He cut her off. “Is that how it was in your dreams?”
“Um… no, not quite,” she answered automatically, lifting her head to look at him, trying to ignore the fact that he looked content and pleased and smug and it was a great look that did serious things to her innards and she started again, “Callum –”
He lifted his head and brushed her lips with his as he gave her another squeeze with his arms.
“So what was it like in your dreams?” he asked, grinning at her.
She was so panicked, so desperate to get the conversation on track though she didn’t know what that track was yet. She hoped to do some serious back pedaling even if she couldn’t imagine how she’d manage that considering she was naked in his arms and she’d just begged him to fuck her, she answered immediately, “Well, there was no gold chain and no sex and –”
His brows shot up and he interrupted her again with, “No sex?”
“No, we just talk for a while and get started with, um… things and then I always wake up,” she replied hurriedly. “Listen –”
He broke in. “Things?”
“You know, start having sex and then I wake up,” she told him then went on, “Callum, I’d like to talk –”
But he wasn’t listening, he was chuckling then he tucked her face into his neck again and tightened his arms.
“What’s funny?” she asked his neck.
“Poor baby,” he murmured, his tone low but playful. “Twenty years I’ve been teasing you.” He rolled into her, his head came up to look at her, his hands started to glide along her skin and his voice was husky when he finished, “I’ve got a lot to make up for.”
“Callum –”
She s
topped speaking when he grinned again and it was so wicked, so satisfied, so unbelievably arrogant and knowing, she could do nothing but stare.
“You called me ‘wolf’,” he stated.
Her body went tight.
Callum kept talking or, more accurately, teasing, “Nice to know I can cut through one of your grudges with a few kisses.”
At his words, she forgot everything instantly and snapped, “It was more than a few kisses and, anyway, I was not myself.”
“If that wasn’t you, honey, then I’ll do everything I have to do to keep the Sonia I just fucked. The Sonia who came for me so hard I thought her shrieks were going to blow out the fucking windows.”
She’d been wrong two days ago.
He wasn’t a big, bossy jerk.
He was an arrogant bastard.
She tried to push away, shoving at his shoulders, saying, “Of all the arrogant –”
She was writhing beneath him when he cut her off, burying his face in her neck, “That’s it, baby doll, fight me. This should be fun.”
She growled low in her throat.
He chuckled low in his.
She bucked and pushed away.
He caught her hips and hauled her under him, rolling his own hips until she was forced to spread her legs.
She stilled, her eyes locked on his and she cried, “Get off me!”
“No, honey,” he grinned at her, all haughty, arrogant king, “I’m going to get in you.”
She gave his shoulders a mighty heave and his cell rang on the nightstand.
Both their heads twisted to it and both their eyes narrowed on it but for entirely different reasons.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, reaching a long arm out to nab it.
“Get off me,” she demanded again as he looked at its display.
“Settle for a minute, little one,” he ordered distractedly.
“Get… off… me!” she snapped and his eyes sliced to hers.
“Settle,” he commanded, his voice a sharp, regal crack.
She settled because, apparently, King Not to Be Denied Due to Royal Birth Callum was lying between her legs.
He put his phone to his ear and said, “Callum.”
Since she was close, she could hear the entire conversation.
“Cal, brother, you need to come down the mountain.”
It was Calder.
“For fuck’s sake, why?” Callum clipped.
“You remember what we talked about yesterday?” Calder enquired.
“Yes,” Callum answered tersely.
“Well, we flipped that brother. He’s talking. Talking a lot. This territory is infested. It’s far more dicked up than we imagined. Mona’s… hell, I don’t know what Mona’s been doing but whatever the fuck it is, it’s not her job. Someone has to deal with her and we need to start making moves or this shit is going to start traveling,” Calder answered.
“How bad is it?” Callum asked.
“The scale doesn’t go up to this bad,” Calder replied and Sonia watched Callum close his eyes even as she saw his face set hard before he opened them when Calder kept speaking. “Pack up your mate and bring her ass down the mountain. I’m sure you’ll find time to do her here. We got more important shit to see to.”
Callum’s eyes came to her but she stared at his shoulder angrily at the same time pretending she wasn’t hearing a thing.
“The deed’s done,” Callum announced and it took everything Sonia had not to react to his words.
Good goodness.
Now she was a “deed” to be “done”.
Well, he’d done it all right.
“Hallelujah,” Calder hooted. “I knew it wouldn’t take you long,” he noted with deep respect before finishing, “Now, let’s get to work.”
“We’ll be down by early afternoon,” Callum returned.
“We’ll have everything ready,” Calder replied. “Later.”
Sonia watched as Callum flipped his phone shut and his eyes went to her.
“I’m sorry, honey, we’ve got to cut this short and get back to the real world,” he told her and, she had to give it to him, he sounded disappointed.
But she couldn’t help but think how convenient all this was.
Callum (and his brothers) making it clear (several times) that his time in the cabin with her was something he considered a frustrating annoyance. In fact he, himself, referred to it as a “farce”.
Callum and his brother’s talk about whatever-it-was yesterday.
This morning, Callum wasted no time in seducing her, claiming her and then his brother called to say it was imperative he get back down the mountain.
Royal duty sorted, time to wage war.
“Sonia?” he called and she focused on his handsome face. “We don’t have a lot of time. We need to shower and go.”
“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 hips 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 naked in my bed every night and naked in my shower every morning and naked 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 hips and she started twirling it around to find the clasp.
“What the fuck 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 t
he shampoo in his hair.
And she stood this way for a while.
He’d rinsed and, when he saw her standing there, his eyes narrowed.
Then he said, using a voice filled with strained patience, “Get a move on, honey. There’s things to do.”
She jolted out of her shocked stupor and automatically reached for her shampoo.
There were things to do.
Those things didn’t include Sonia having a moment to process the fact that in three days her life had been turned on its head.
She used to have a quiet life, working in a shop she loved, living in a farmhouse amongst neighbors who were good people. It wasn’t a great life. It was a lonely life. But there were moments of contentment and even happiness.
Now she was queen to an unknown people. She was the destined mate to a man she barely knew but she did know he didn’t want her. And she’d just, essentially, gotten married to him.
As that thing that curled up in her heart tightened and prepared to die, Sonia commenced showering, naked, with her husband, a man she met three days before and she wasn’t even certain she liked.
And she hurried through it.
Because he had things to do.
Chapter Nine
Duty
Callum pulled his SUV into the sweeping drive of The Territorial Mansion.
As he did he realized during the two and a half hour drive his mind was so focused on what was happening amongst his people, and what he had to do about it, both imminently and in the near future, he’d not said a word to Sonia.
He glanced toward her in the passenger seat and noted her eyes were studying the mansion with curiosity.
Fuck, she was pretty, sitting beside him, wearing an ice-blue thermal, a pale pink, quilted vest with a collar that framed the elegant line of her neck, a woolly pastel green scarf wrapped around that neck and dangling down the front and slightly faded jeans that rode low on her hips and cupped her ass brilliantly. He’d given her the tan leather, low-heeled boots his mother bought her that he’d kept outside in the truck and she’d chosen a belt that matched.