Chapter 35 #2
Hers glistened with warmth and tenderness, and I’d know why later when we were leaving and she drew me into a hug and whispered, “Thank you for loving him the way he deserves to be loved.”
Something about her words eased a bit of the guilt I still hung onto from our past.
Coming home to our beautiful house in the woods, it felt almost too quiet after our Sunday dinner with our families. I said as much to Lewis as we snuggled up on the sofa bed we’d borrowed from my parents until our new sofas arrived.
Lewis cuddled me into his side. “Wait until the baby is here. We’ll be pleading for silence.”
I chuckled, resting my head on his shoulder as he flicked through TV channels.
The last six weeks had been a mixed bag of emotions, but what was new? The police had reviewed CCTV but had no luck identifying the men who had broken into the cottage. We were pretty sure from their height and build it was the same men who broke into the house.
I might still be worried about a possible future burglary, but we were all pretty damn certain Nathan was behind it.
Dad had reached out to his contact, and he’d been honest and up-front with me when he said that they’d paid someone on the inside to use force against Nathan.
Despite my black belt, I wasn’t an advocate for violence.
I just wanted to know how to defend myself against it, since it had been perpetrated on me and my mother.
But I felt no remorse that Dad had someone beat up Nathan as a warning. While that put me in a morally gray category, he was the one person in the world I had no compassion or sympathy for. He’d caused us too much pain.
Though he’d sworn to the “contact” that he had nothing to do with the break-ins, they coincidentally stopped after Nathan’s attack.
No more men in black, no more watching over our shoulders.
Nathan was scum of the earth, and I wished it hadn’t been him taking revenge for his parole hearing, but I wasn’t surprised by it.
Intimidation was his favorite game.
Evil arsehole.
I shuddered anytime I contemplated the fact we shared DNA and that my blue eyes came from him. “The only good thing he ever gave you,” Mum used to say.
Lewis loved my eyes too, but I was manifesting our kid inherited his shade of blue instead of mine.
“I missed Eilidh tonight,” I said as we settled on an action movie that I probably wouldn’t watch through to the end because I needed to be up early for work.
“She’s finished filming in Romania,” Lewis shared. I did not know that. “I think she’s avoiding us.”
“Why?” I sat up, frowning at him.
“I don’t know. I’m worried about her.”
“Like how you’re always worried about her, or do you think there’s something to be worried about?”
“I think there’s something to be worried about.”
“Then I’ll call her tomorrow,” I promised and cracked, “I’ll guilt her into coming home by pulling the ‘I’m pregnant with your niece or nephew’ card.”
“Aye?”
“Look at me already pulling the mum guilt card. How ready am I?”
He chuckled and tugged me back into his side. “Do what you have to do to bring her home.”
I nodded, tracing a heart over his heart. “You know who else is avoiding us? Carianne. I’ve barely heard from her in weeks.”
“Talk to her if it’s bothering you.”
“Hmm. I’m just … She seemed cool about us last time we chatted, but maybe she’s secretly upset about me and you. Or maybe she’s no longer interested in a friendship because of the baby.”
“If either of those are true, you’re better off without her.” He kissed my temple.
I melted into him. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Let’s switch off the movie and go have hot, sweaty sex.”
His chest rumbled with amusement beneath my cheek. “One day, people will call you the romantic one in our relationship, but today is not that day.”
Laughing, I got up, tugging him to his feet. “I promise I’ll scream something really romantic when I come.”
“I think we might have a different idea about what romantic actually means.” He switched off the TV before I dragged him toward the staircase.
“Are you saying ‘Lewis, you’re making me come so good’ isn’t romantic?”
His laughter bounced off the walls as I hurried him downstairs. “No, nor is it grammatically correct.”
“Ooh, I love it when you talk dirty to me.”
I squealed as he suddenly lifted me into his arms, carrying me bridal style into our bedroom. “Never change, Callie Ironside.” He lay me gently down on the bed and then braced himself over me, gazing deep into my eyes. “Well, maybe there’s one thing I’d change about you.”
I grimaced. “Oh?”
Lewis’s voice was gruff. “Your name.”
What?
I froze, wondering if he meant what I thought he meant.
“I know I gave you shit for not being romantic and, believe me, this wasn’t how I planned to do this, but I can’t wait any longer.
I love you so fucking much, Callie. And I know this is the opposite of taking it slow …
but taking it slow would be a lie. I’m going to love you forever and I don’t see any point in not telling you I want forever to start now. ”
“Lewis?” Blood rushed in my ears as I gaped up at him in abject joy.
He reached across the bed and pulled open his bedside drawer. I gasped at the ring box he pulled out. Sitting back on his heels, he popped it open, revealing a simple, elegant platinum engagement ring with a princess-cut diamond. It was perfect. “Callie Ironside … will you marry me?”
Never in all the times I’d imagined Lewis Adair proposing did I burst into full-blown sobs. But that’s exactly what I did.
“Fuck, fuck.” Lewis’s panicked voice cut through the painful cries I couldn’t seem to control. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
“Yes!” I sobbed, reaching for him through the blur of tears. “Yes, I’ll m-marry y-y-you.”
Bundling me into his arms, he rubbed a soothing hand down my back and pressed a hard kiss to my temple. “Why are you crying, then?” he whispered hoarsely.
I needed to get a hold of myself for his sake, so I took deep, shuddering breaths.
After a minute, I had calmed, even though salty warm tears seemed to fall with a mind of their own down my cheeks.
I pulled back to cup Lewis’s face in my hands.
“Because for so long I thought this dream was lost. These are tears of relief, Lewis. Of joy. I never wanted to admit, even to myself, how painful those years without you were. Now you’re mine forever.
” I pressed a wet kiss to his lips, and he deepened it.
When we broke apart, I leaned my forehead against his.
“I have a notebook in my room, from high school. It has Mrs. Callie Adair scribbled all over it.” I laughed softly. “I guess I manifested it.”
Lewis laughed quietly and pulled back to raise my left hand. His eyes held mine as he slipped the beautiful ring onto my fourth finger. “Do you like it?”
“I love it.” I kissed him again, smiling between kisses now. “Mrs. Callie Adair.”
Lewis stiffened.
“What?”
He quirked an eyebrow and looked down at his crotch. “I think we just found my new kink.”
I cackled with laughter, pressing my palms to his chest to force him onto his back. “Oh, you like the Mrs. thing, do you?”
“Say it again so I can check.”
“I’m going to be Mrs. Callie Adair.”
Heat flashed in his eyes. “Aye, definitely does it for me.”
Without preamble, I straddled him, feeling the evidence of his newfound kink between my legs, and I whipped off my T-shirt and unclipped my bra. Lewis arched into me, caressing my waist and back with possessive tenderness as he focused on the slight swell of my stomach.
“Do you want me naked with nothing but the ring?” I teased.
His gaze flew to my glittering diamond. “I know you’re joking, but I’d actually really love that.”
I slipped off the bed to wriggle out of my jeans to do just that when I suddenly stopped. “I should really call my mum to let her know we’re engaged.”
Lewis raised an eyebrow and practically squawked, “Now?”
I pretended to take a step away from him. “I’ll be five minutes.”
I’d barely turned when I heard him hop off the bed. Then I was swept up into his arms again before finding myself flat on my back.
Lewis pinned my hands to the bed, his thumb stroking over the engagement ring. “Your mum can wait. Your husband-to-be cannot.”
My belly fluttered deliciously. “I think we just found my new kink.”
“Aye?” Lewis grinned, leaning to brush shivery kisses down my neck and chest. “Do you want your husband to make love to you or fuck you, Mrs. Adair?”
Arousal flooded between my thighs. “Both,” I answered breathlessly. “I think it can be both.”
“Your wish, my command,” he promised.
It was both.
It was very much, mind-blowingly, fucking fantastically both.