“She is.” I placed the phone down on the bedside table.
“You’re not going to text her back?”
“Would it bother you if I did?”
Allegra shrugged. “No.”
Laughing, I gave her a look. “You are shit at lying. No wonder no one believed us about the marriage at first.”
She smacked my shoulder. “I’m not lying!”
I gave her a disbelieving smirk.
Rolling her eyes, she huffed. “Okay. I am trying not to be bothered by the idea of Sorcha being your friend. She was in your life, she’s your friend. It’s just the ‘was your lover’ part that I am trying to get over. But I am trying. I don’t want to be a jealous wife.” She made a comical face and shuddered. “Nope, nope, nope. Don’t wanna.”
Shaking with amusement, I shrugged. “Jealousy is natural. We’re territorial beings.”
“Have you ever been jealous over a woman?” Allegra challenged.
I studied her, expression serious. “Aye. One.”
She waited like she didn’t know it was her.
“You, Allegra. I’ve been jealous over you.”
Delight she couldn’t quite hide glittered in her dark eyes. “Jealous of who?”
“Any man who’s had you like this.”
In answer, she reached for the tray and set it off the bed, the cutlery and plates clattering unsteadily as she did. Then she pulled back the covers and straddled me.
Excitement flushed through me in an instant as I gripped her slim hips. She wore a short, strappy silk nightie thing. She probably had one in every color, and I couldn’t say I didn’t love that part of her wardrobe.
She rested her hands on my shoulders as she kissed me, a barely there touch of her lips to mine. “No man has ever had me like this.”
Triumph and possessiveness flooded my blood with scorching heat. My grip on her hips tightened as I pulled her down over my erection.
“No woman has ever had me like this,” I promised.
“Not even Sorcha?”
The insecurity in that question killed me. “Not Sorcha. Not anyone. Just you.”
“Why?” Allegra cupped my face in her hands. “She seems like a good person. Why couldn’t you give her this?”
I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her tight to me as I sat up. I held her gaze, pouring every ounce of sincerity into that look as I said, “Because it’s meant for you. All for you.Onlyfor you.”
Words I hadn’t said to anyone but family bubbled on my tongue, threatening to jump loose, but before they could, my wife kissed me. She kissed me with such intensity that all thought but that of being inside her, sinking underneath her skin until I was all she could feel and smell and see, disappeared, consumed by insatiable hunger.
Thirty-One
Allegra
“Whoa, Aunt Ally, you look hot!”
Jared chuckled at my side, his palm pressing deeper into my lower back as we entered Sloane and Walker’s living room.
Callie, who had been sitting on Lewis Adair’s knee, sprung off him to bounce across the room toward me. Her pretty face was lit with excitement. “You all look like you’re going to the Oscars.” She glanced back at Lewis who stood up to greet us. “Don’t they?”
