Page 107 of Poison and Wine
I shook my head with a laugh. “Go on.”
“You’re a cruel woman to give me a wee taste and then shut me down again.”
“Just for right now.” I placed my hands on his chest. “Be a good boy, and I’ll reward you.”
“I’m holding you to it,” I replied. With a growl, he pushed past me to grab up his clothes. As he hopped into his pants, I headed into the shower. “You’ll need another shirt,” I called as I turned on the water.
With a grin, he replied, “I’ll just go without one.”
I frowned. “But then the rest of your brothers will know what we’ve been doing.”
A sinfully erotic look burned in his eyes. “Even if I put on a shirt, they’d still smell you on me.”
Shrieking in both horror and mortification, I snatched a hand towel and tossed it at him. “Wash your face.”
A devilish chuckle came from deep in his chest. “I’m wearing you as a badge of honor.”
He winked and headed out of the bathroom, leaving me alone to die of embarrassment.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Caterina
I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when or how, but I knew without a doubt that I had fallen in love with my husband. We’d barely been married for six weeks, but I knew with everything in me what I felt. It had been coming on so gradually. Part of me argued that after our antics on the dance floor at Bandia and our tub escapade, I had fallen in lust, not love.
But it was moments like the one I currently found myself in that made me realize it was love. After several times of badgering him, Callum had finally accompanied me to volunteer at St. Francis’s. As I swept under the tables in the cafeteria area, he sat with two little girls on his lap reading a story. While he helped me serve lunch, the two sisters had fallen in love with his accent, and they couldn’t get enough of the “funny” way Mr. Callum talked.
I leaned against the broom and my heart beat wildly as I listened to him make silly noises during parts of the story. I wondered what his enemies would say if they could see him entertaining the little girls. I’m sure they would call it a weakness. That a true clean leader should never exude anything but menace and cruelty.
But to me, it showed his great strength of character. He could be a cruel gangster and a successful businessman, but he was also human. A very caring human.
When Callum glanced up to meet my gaze, he winked, which sent a beaming smile to my lips. I quickly focused back on the dirty floor instead of mooning over my husband.
“It’s time to go,” the girls’ mother said.
At their whine, Callum said, “All right, lovely lassies, you better go with your mother.”
“Will you read to us again, Mr. Callum?” the youngest girl asked.
He nodded. “It’d be my pleasure.”
To both Callum’s and my surprise, she smacked a kiss against his cheek before scrambling out of his lap. For the first time since I’d met him, Callum appeared speechless. The sight was so endearing my ovaries couldn’t help but take notice.
When the other girl abandoned his lap, Callum rose to his feet. It was a rarity when I saw him outside of the house not wearing a suit. Today he had on black jeans and a long-sleeved black Henley, which I’d teased him made him look like a mafia man.
After sauntering over to me, he asked “Need some help?”
“I’m almost done here, but you could grab the mop.”
“Be right back.”
As Callum started to the kitchen, the little girls called in unison, “Bye, Mr. Callum!”
“Bye, lasses!” he called back.
Once again, my heart started beating wildly in my chest. Whisking the broom around the floor, a beautiful fantasy filled my mind of Callum sitting with our children on his lap. I imagined one with our dark hair and one with his mother and Maeve’s auburn hair.
Callum’s voice caused me to jump. “What are you smiling about?” he questioned.
Ducking my head, a flush entered my cheeks. “You.”