“Hey,” Callan said, coming to sit next to me.
I turned to my mate and a smile spreading across my face at the sight of him. After so long I still couldn't get over how beautiful Callan was and knowing this man was mine, knowing we belonged together and would be together for the rest of our life was enough to fill me with happiness at all times.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“You,” I said honestly.
A mischievous grin danced on his lips. "Oh, I've been thinking about you too, and you probably don't want to know what thoughts are crossing my mind."
I laughed, playfully falling over him. “Have you tucked her?” I asked, referring to our daughter who was just a few months old and had taken favoritism to Callan over me. It was sweet how he was just as obsessed with her as she was with him. I didn't mind at all; it gave me some well-deserved time to spend with Leah.
“You are enjoying the fact that she only wants me to tuck her in, aren't you?” Callan asked, shaking his head at my obvious delight.
Blushing slightly, I admitted, "Is it that obvious?"
He burst into laughter, holding me close. "Really, Sophia, you don't even try to hide it."
Laughing along with him, I clung to him affectionately. "I can't help myself," I confessed sheepishly.
He lifted me, causing me to climb on top of him, straddling him as he sat upright. “You know, it's one of the first things I liked about you,” he said warmly.
One of my brows lifted. “What is?”
“How honest you were. I didn't think you had it in you to ever be cunning or intentionally deceitful. Your sincerity felt unreal, I didn't know people like you still existed and it drew me closer to you.”
“Here I was thinking it was because of my long, beautiful hair,” I teased, leaning in closer to him.
Callan chuckled. "Definitely a part of it. If I had to write down all of my favorite things about you, Sophia, there wouldn't be enough ink in this world to document them all."
His words stirred butterflies in my stomach, and my breath caught at the way he always managed to say the most romantic things at the most unexpected moments.
"I love you so much," I confessed, overwhelmed with emotion. "So much that I cannot fathom a life without you by my side."
His mouth met mine in a soft kiss that made me fall in love with him again when we broke apart, Callan rested his forehead against mine.
“You are my life, Sophia. There is no life without you because you are life itself. Waking up every day with you is a blessing, one that I know I am unworthy of, so thank you." He kissed me again. "Thank you for loving me."
I tried to speak, but he interrupted gently, pouring his heart out.
“I love you, Sophia. My love for you surpasses the stars that line the sky, from sunrise to sunset, my affection for you intensifies so much I fear it will rip out from my chest, ending me whole but I would like that, I would like that very much” he placed a soft kiss on the tip of my nose.
“You know I am so hopelessly in love with you. I would like it if my affection for you ends up killing me because, pray tell, what is love if you aren’t willing to die for it?”
And this time, I took his mouth in mine, answering through the kiss that it was not a love worth it if you wouldn't give up your life for them and I knew I would in a heartbeat, I would lay my life for this man, for this love, I would give everything else up.
At this moment nothing mattered, not when his lips were in mine and his touch was igniting a fire in my skin, nothing else mattered, not the horrors we’d survived, not the nights I still woke up shaken by the nightmares of it, and certainly not the glaring fact that Silviu was still out there and was a threat to my family but none of that mattered, not here, not now because now, I was in the arms of the man I loved and in his arms, the world around us simply faded to nothingness.
With Callan, I knew I would be fine, and so I kissed him as if my life depended on it, as if this were the first and last time our lips would meet. I kissed him because in between his lips, everything else simply felt right.
The End.
To Be Continued in HIS FIERY MATE...