Chapter Twenty-Nine Caterina
Icouldn’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.”
His finger came to tip my chin upward to meet his gaze. “What about me?”
“How good you were with those little girls.” While it wasn’t totally the truth, it wasn’t a lie.
A smirk curved on his lips. “What can I say? I charm the ladies of all ages.”
I playfully swatted him with the broom. “Don’t make this about your charm.”
“I can’t help it if it’s the truth.”
“I’m talking about how I haven’t seen you with children before.”
“And?”
With a genuine smiled, I replied, “I liked what I saw. A lot.”
The cockiness in his expression faded and was replaced by an intensity that sent a shudder through me. “I’d be even better with my own child.”
“I know you would.” Staring into his eyes, I added, “I’d like to see you with one.”
He brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
Of course, Callum had gone straight for the procreation meant consummation. He’d been more than patient with me. And although he was somewhat satisfied by the handjobs and blowjobs I’d been giving him in the last week, I knew he wanted more.
More than anything, I knew I was ready. In spite of my assurance, a nervous laugh burst from my lips, which caused Callum to furrow his brows. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you. It was just nerves.”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about.” Cocking his head at me, he asked, “Haven’t I put you at ease?”
Placing my palm against his cheek, I replied, “You’ve been amazing.”
“So what’s there to be nervous about?”
“It’s a little nerve wracking to ask you to make love to me.”
Callum’s eyes bulged comically wide. “You’re serious?”
I bit down on my lip before smiling slightly. “I am.”
He brought his forehead against mine. “Oh, Kitten, you don’t know how fucking happy this makes me.”
With a giggle, I replied, “I think I can guess.”
Callum chuckled, then his expression grew serious. “Tonight?”
When I shook my head, his face fell, and I fought the urge to laugh again. Instead, I replied, “Unless you have something else to do, I was thinking now.”
He stared at me in almost disbelief. “Right now?”
I couldn’t hold back my laughter this time. “Well, not here, but yes.”
A shudder rippled through him. “Kitten, you can’t say shit like that to me and not expect me to rip your clothes off.”
I smacked his arm. “We’re in church.”
He grinned. “Not exactly. It’s not like we’d be fucking on the altar.”
A shriek of horror escaped my lips before I brought my hand up to cover his mouth. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to have to stop in confession before we can do anything.”
Groaning, Callum rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he murmured against my hand. When I removed it, he flashed me a smoldering look. “I’m not sure I can make it back to the house. Can I take you to a hotel?”
“If you do, I want the nicest suite along with the finest champagne.”
Callum threw back his head with a laugh. “Now you care about the finer things?”
“Since I’ve waited twenty-one years to have sex, I think I deserve it. Especially since I didn’t get a honeymoon.”
His hands came to cup my face. “Kitten, you deserve the world.”
After propping the broom against the table, I undid my apron. Slinging it to a chair, I said, “Let’s go.”
Callum quickly abandoned the mop and bucket and took me by the hand. “If this is the reward I’m going to get for volunteering, I’m going to have to do it more often.”
I elbowed him in the ribs. “Stop talking before you ruin this for me.”
As we stepped into the sunshine, he grinned down at me. “Once I have you naked beneath me, I plan to do a lot of talking. I plan to tell you each and every pleasurable thing I’m going to do to you and how hot it makes me feel. Then I’m going to tell you what I want you to do to me.”
A jolt of lust shot through me. “Maybe I’ll have to gag you.”
Callum jerked me against him. “Damn, Kitten, I didn’t know you had a kinky side.” While he nodded at Owen to open the SUV’s backdoor, he brought his lips to mine. Although I should’ve objected to making out on the sidewalk in front of St. Francis’s, I couldn’t bring myself to put up a fight.
The sound of my moan echoing through my ears was overtaken by a cracking noise. Before I could register it, Callum’s body pulsed like he’d been touched by a live wire. As he slammed against me, the crackling noises started up again. Horror whirled through me as I recognized what those noises were.
They were bullets.
Someone was shooting at us.
Instead of trying to make it the car, Callum slung my body to the ground before covering it with his. “Stay down!” he croaked as a shaky hand reached into his jacket for his gun. When I turned my head on the pavement, Owen and Shane crouched by the SUV returning fire. Screams and shouts of panic sliced through the air around me.
When the gunfire silenced, Shane stayed behind the SUV while Owen ran over to us. “Are you alright?” he asked.
Ignoring him, Callum’s panicked gaze searched my face and body. “Caterina, were you hit?”
Trembling, I couldn’t speak so I resorted to shaking my head. “But there’s blood,” Callum stated.
“Oh fuck,” Owen muttured.
Callum and I both followed his gaze to the blood gushing from the left side of Callum’s chest. In that moment, the adrenaline depleted, and Callum’s eyes rolled back in his head. With a shriek, I sat up to catch his head as he pitched to the side.
“Callum? Callum, stay with me!” I cried.
“We have to get him out of here!” Owen called over his shoulder.
Shane abandoned the SUV to rush to our side. I shouted in protest when Shane knocked me away to help Owen lift up Callum. “Grab the door!” Owen instructed.
Considering the hard shakes running through my body, I didn’t know if I could stand, least of all move. But I pressed forward to rise to my feet. Lunging, I made my way over to the SUV and threw open the door.
After climbing inside, I slid across the bench seat before turning back in anticipation of Callum. Once they lifted him inside, I once again cradled his head against me. Owen stripped out of his jacket and pressed it onto Callum’s wound. Shame filled me that with all my medical training I hadn’t thought to do it. The SUV gunned forward and began racing through the streets. We sped past the flashing red and blue lights of the police as their sirens screamed into the area.
Tears streamed down my cheeks and dripped onto Callum’s face. I reached back into my days as a sister and called out to St. Raphael–the patron saint of healing. “Please, please heal my husband,” I murmured as I ran my hands through his hair.
I couldn’t have come this far and experienced such life and love just to have it taken from me.