Forever.
So much passes between us sometimes it hurts.
“The pageantry mixed with the brutality of the time, I guess. Or maybe I’m just trying to sound smart, eh, Sassy? Maybe I just like swords.”
The waiter arrives a few moments later, a tall thin man with a bald head and white whiskers. “Sir,” he says.
“Jerry, how many damn times have I told you to call me Kaleb, my friend?”
Jerry’s eyes crease with a smile, but he doesn’t let his lips follow suit. “I suppose I’m old fashioned,” he says in his upper-class British accent.
“You’re not my damned butler.” I chuckle.
Jerry laughs. “I know, but I’m so thankful, sir, so I feel I have to show some respect.”
“What’s this?” Kelly murmurs, looking between us. “Thankful for what?”
I smirk at her. For a young thing who said she was shy, she seems to find it pretty easy to put herself forward. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. The war between her shyness and her true nature – her sexy-as-fuck confidence – is one of the things I’m looking forward to most, being there as my innocent curvy virgin flowers into her true personality.
I wave a hand. “It’s nothing.”
Jerry shakes his head. “It was certainly not nothing, sir. But I’m sure you don’t want to hear it, ma’am. You’d prefer your drinks.”
I’m nodding, but of course, my sassy queen has got something else to say about it. I can’t help but laugh gruffly at the flaring confidence in her expression, the absolute fucking beauty of that light in her eyes, the beckoning glint that’s going to lead our family through the rest of our lives.
Complications fucking be damned.
At this moment, when she’s being so vivacious and captivating, I know we’re going to make it.
We have to.
“I want to hear it,” she says quickly.
I sigh, sitting back with a shrug.
“I’d fallen into a tough point in my life, you see. Simply put, I had come to America with big dreams and they hadn’t worked out. My life went on rather miserably. And then, I confess, I became addicted to drugs. I was sick with my addiction. All I cared about was that sweet sickening needle. It compelled me every moment. And then I almost died, and that was a very sorry affair…
“Anyway, I came to a point where I wanted to get a job. I came in here reeking of homelessness and detoxing from the drugs. I was shivering and falling over myself. Kaleb happened to be here that evening, and he saw me… and he…” Jerry coughs, fighting back emotion.
I feel a swell of pride inside of me, but more than that, there’s the rightness of knowing this man is doing better for himself now.
“He put me up in a hotel while I detoxed. He advanced my pay so I could rent an apartment. He supported me.”
“Because I could see how badly you wanted that job. I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”
“But I was a junkie. I could’ve stolen that money and gotten high for weeks. Most junkies would have, sir.”
“I know that, Jerry. I know.” I turn and stare hard at my woman. “But sometimes, you just know.”
She stares back at me, wide-eyed and ready for anything, ready for us. “Yeah. I guess you do.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kelly
As I sip on my orange juice, I think about the waiter’s story.
“What?” Kaleb says, smirking over at me with that manly beastly charm, like he’s baring his teeth as much as smirking like he’s going to leap at me and sink his teeth into my skin at any moment, as his hand slides up my leg and finds my hole and touches it, oh, fuck, slips inside and…
I focus, letting out a shuddering breath. “Nothing.”
He chuckles, moving his finger around the edge of his glass. We’ve ordered our food and now we’re free to sit in the grandness of this fairytale room, with so much gorgeous artwork on the walls, all of them majorly impressive.
“You’re thinking about how I could’ve hired Jerry to say all that to make me look like a good guy. I get it.”
I giggle at the joke. “No, I wasn’t. I could see how much you didn’t want him to tell me. I could see how much it meant to him. It shows what a caring person you are, Kaleb, when you get past Animal. It makes me think…”
“What?” he growls when I trail off, sitting forward like the beast he is, his body throbbing as if at any moment he could flip the table and maul me. I remember the way he looked in the cage, how hulking his muscles were, how shredded his back was, but he was always calm, distanced.
Now he vibrates. He thrums with primal heat.
My womb core sizzles at the thought.
But this is dinner. We’re being civilized.