20. Chapter 20
Callahan
Something between pride and admiration burned behind my sternum. Rory had not only taken command in there, but she’d refused to show fear. She’d managed to show her disdain for the misogynistic traditions of our world while simultaneously upholding the social graces demanded by those exact traditions. She’d managed to put Mikhail in his place while charming him enough to earn his respect. She’d shown blatant disrespect to Elio and Artur Hajek, while holding her own in a room full of men who expected her to be seen and not heard.
I was incredibly proud of her. I knew that with a little coaxing, she’d open up fully and be fecking unstoppable.
After Elio left in a stomping rage, I invited Nate and Mikhail to stay for breakfast and Rory excused herself to the kitchen. We settled on the couches in my office and made polite small talk until a light tap came on the door.
Mikhail looked at me with a smirk. “Your wife is quite brave, my friend. Irina would never dare to knock on my door while I had guests. I must say, I like her very much.”
I grinned smugly at him and called out for Rory to come in. She pushed the door open and came in with a cup of coffee. She sat on the arm of the couch, the same place she sat last time she’d been in here, and handed me the steaming cup of coffee. I wrapped my arm around her hips and she settled one of hers around my shoulders. I sipped the coffee and hummed as I slipped my fingers into her waistband, stroking her skin intimately. “Did you make this? It’s much better than the shite Orla makes.”
She smiled down at me and again, I was stunned by her beauty. Her round cheeks flushed as she shivered under my touch. “I did. Forgive me, but I indulged already while I gave you men some time to be boring.” She grinned slyly at the other men in the room and they chuckled good-naturedly. “Orla has breakfast on the table if you’re ready.” She ran her fingers through the long hair at my nape and I tilted my head slightly back, leaning into her touch before I stood.
She stood a second after me and led the way to the dining room. I held her chair out at the table and she sat gracefully. I took my spot to her right at the head of the table. The other men waited until she and I were seated before taking their own chairs. Nate, always hungry as he was, immediately reached for the food but yanked his hand back as Rory cleared her throat. She made a show of gracefully leaning forward and pulling the bowl he had just reached for to her side of the table. She spooned a heaping portion of scrambled eggs onto her plate, holding Nate’s amused stare the whole time, before she put the bowl back where it had been.
Mikhail was openly laughing and Nate was clearly holding back his own laughter. I watched her, not moving to serve myself while she piled food onto her plate. It was a whole lot more than she would eat, but she was making a point.
In this house, ladies come first.
I could practically hear her sweet, melodic voice telling these men not to touch a single fecking thing until she was done picking what she wanted. And apparently, they got the message, too, because they didn’t. Once she picked up her fork, Mikhail and Nate began to put food on their plates. I continued to watch her until she felt my gaze. She looked up at me out of the corner of her eye. If I hadn’t been looking so close, I would have missed the way her mouth curled the tiniest bit.
I chuckled under my breath and began piling my own plate with waffles, eggs and bacon. I poured syrup over my whole plate, including the eggs.
I heard an obviously fake gag before Rory said, “I want a divorce. That’s disgusting, Cal. Syrup and eggs?”
I forked a fluffy piece of syrupy egg and held it up. “Have you ever tried it?” She curled her lip and shook her head, her little nose scrunching in the exact same way it does when she comes. Suddenly, eating with Rory was a much more exciting experience. “Open. Try it.”
She closed her mouth and leaned away from the offending fork. I pushed it forward and her lip curled again before she leaned forward and slowly pulled the food into her mouth. My cock twitched. The hesitance was clear on her face but then her eyes closed and a small moan slipped from her throat. Hearing that sound, I suddenly remembered our guests and sat back in my chair, clearing my throat.
Rory took a sip of coffee before addressing Mikhail. “So, Russian, I never got your name.”
Mikahil choked on his food and spluttered through a coughing laugh until Nate thumped him on the back. When his eyes stopped watering and his breathing was less-concerning, he laughed - without the coughing. “My name is Mikhail, khrabraya devushka.”
“What does that mean?” she asked with her head cocked to the side. With her head tilted, I could see the slight bruise my teeth had left on her in the shower this morning. Despite the twinge of guilt that I had marred her beautifully pale skin, I had never wanted to kick people out of my house as bad as I did while I admired my teeth marks on her.
“Brave girl,” I answered for him.
She looked at me. “You speak Russian, too?”
I nodded. “Irish and Italian. Lorcan made me learn since he knew I’d be around the languages. He thought it would be helpful if I was able to know what people are talking about during our…business meetings.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Actually, that’s kind of smart.” She looked at Nate. “What about you? How are you involved in all this?”
He shrugged as he shoveled a huge bite of waffles into his mouth. His cheek bulged as he spoke around a mouthful. “I’m not actually Made. I do a lot of security for these two.” He gestured to Mikhail and me with his fork. “My boss, Elliot, owns Wilde Security.”
Her eyes widened. “Shut the back gate. You know Elliot Wilde?!” I didn’t like the admiration in her voice and cleared my throat. She looked to me and blushed. “Um- not that it matters. He’s not like…anything. Just- you know, famous. That’s all.” I suppressed a chuckle at her sudden nervousness.
Nate took pity on her. “He’s an insufferable grump. Literally, the grumpiest grump that ever grumped. I can’t wait for him to meet a woman that’s going to knock him on his ass.” There was something in his voice that was almost melancholy, but he forced a chipper grin around his food. “Plus, he likes to torture me by putting me on menial jobs. He’s just assigned me to protect a pampered princess.” Nate rolled his eyes and slouched miserably in his chair as he poked his fork into a sausage link.
I frowned at him. “If he’s putting you and your team on them, it must be serious for them. Who is it? Some actor’s kid or something?”
He dropped his fork onto his plate with a clatter and crossed his arms as he frowned at me petulantly. “He’s getting back at me because I tripped the security alarm last time he had-” His eyes flicked to Rory and back to me and he cleared his throat. “Uh- company. I set it off last time he had company.” Rory giggled and I smiled at her as I watched her throat work around the laughter.
“Anyway, it’s a senator and his family. I’ve been assigned to the twenty year old daughter.”
Rory sat up. “A twenty year old senator’s kid? Is it Senator Black and his family?”
“Uh…yeah. You know her?”
Rory turned to me. “That day I first saw you at Thai Moon, I was having lunch with Charlotte.” She looked back to Nate. “She’s my best friend.”
Nate straightened out of his slouch. “Huh. Small world.” He raised his eyebrows. “So I’m about to be guarding your best friend and you married one of mine. Weird.”
Mikhail was quiet but he watched the exchange with an amused smirk, his eyes meeting mine every now then.
“Talk about a coincidence. How do you know Cal?”
“I met Cal when we were in college. When Elliot started Wilde Security, Cal contracted us to upgrade a lot of Lorcan’s security systems. The contract and up-front payment gave Elliot the funds he needed to grow the business into what it is today.”
She raised her eyebrow and picked up the syrup. She drizzled some over her eggs and bacon while listening to Nate’s story. I smirked at her and she scratched her nose with her middle finger, setting the syrup back on the table.
The rest of the breakfast was the three of us reminiscing and telling her stories about our less-tame days at university. She smiled and laughed and interjected into the conversation more than most of the men in our world would have liked. But I could tell by the time we were all full that she had completely charmed these men and had them in the palm of her hand.
As we stood at the front door, saying goodbye to the men, Mikhail asked me for a word. We stepped away a few feet and he lowered his voice. “I hate to ask while you are still enjoying your new bride, my friend, but I need your help.”
Concern for Mikhail and his family made my chest feel tight. “What’s going on, bráthair? What do you need from me?”
“Perhaps we could discuss it over dinner?” His eyes flicked to where Rory chatted animatedly with Nate. Apparently, despite the fact that he clearly liked my wife, old habits die hard.
“Of course. Just tell me when.” He’d be surprised when I showed up with Rory anyway, but we could deal with that when it happened.
“Tonight, if possible. I’m afraid it is an urgent matter.”
I nodded and held my hand out. He grasped my forearm and shook our arms before pulling me in for a hug. He slapped his hand against my back before turning to Rory again. He kissed both her cheeks before smiling down at her. “You really are a lovely woman, Aurora. I look forward to seeing how you fare in this marriage. Though, I feel it may be Cal I should be worried about.” She giggled and he winked at her before walking to the car that waited at the bottom of the steps.
Nate said his goodbyes and made his way to his bike parked off to the side of the circle driveway. I wrapped my arms around Rory from behind and pulled her shirt collar away from her neck. I gently kissed the light teeth marks and she shivered. “So, wife, we have a whole day to ourselves. What should we do with it?”
“First, you’re going to take a bath with me. Then, you’re going to take me to your office while you work because I know you need to. I’ll sit by the fire and pretend to read while I watch you. And most importantly,” she leaned into my chest and tilted her head to whisper in my ear, “you’re going to keep that fucking thing away from me until I’m no longer so sore I can still feel every inch of you.”
Blood rushed from my head and pooled in my groin so fast I felt a wave of vertigo. I went to tighten my grip around her and pull her into my erection, but she neatly slipped away, turning for the stairs. “Chop, chop, Mr. Byrne. My bath is waiting.”