Some Kind of Perfect (Calloway Sisters #4.5) (21 page)

“I never knew that.”

“What would it have changed?” I don’t see it affecting our relationship, which has been up and down and side-to-side and one of the more difficult things to read.

His nose flares, and he shrugs.

Daisy is so lost in thought that she just asks aloud, “Have you ever been in a bad relationship that you thought wouldn’t stay with you…but it did?”

I shake my head at the same time as Ryke.

Daisy’s gaze drags to the tiles. “Sometimes I feel like…the people I chose clawed into me…and it’s impossible to erase the marks they made.”

Ryke hugs Daisy almost immediately, and she reciprocates, burying her head in his chest. I leave them alone, just as another text buzzes.

I’m checking on Jane.
– Rose

Don’t. I’ll be back in less than a minute.
I reply, glancing at my daughter, still asleep, as I exit into the hallway.

Only one room away, I open the next door to find Rose propped up against the wooden headboard with a multitude of hand-stitched pillows. Cellphone in hand.

She reaches over and tugs on the bear lamp, illuminating the room. “Updates.” She raises a manicured nail at me. “And you are so
lucky
I am
this
pregnant or else I’d already be out the fucking door.”

By
this
pregnant, she means that her stomach is much rounder, her curves visible in her black silk robe. Nearing the bed, I can tell how much her back aches. The baby kicked her awake last night, so she hasn’t been sleeping well.

“Richard,” she snaps.

“I’m assessing you.” I sit on the bed by her feet.

“Excuse me? Don’t assess
me.
We have a sick daughter, and a one-year-old with gastrointestinal disruptions, also known as
intense
midnight diarrhea.”
Beckett.
I smile at the way she sits straight and eases forward like she wants to cram the words inside my eardrums. “And not to mention our other one-year-old that already knows forty-words and chooses to say
wrong
more than hello.”
Charlie.

“Anything else?” I go to massage her foot.

She jerks it out of my hand, her toe pointed at my throat in threat. “I’m seconds from decapitating you.”

I arch a brow. “With your toenail?”

She growls. “Richard.”

“Rose.”

“Are we a team?” she asks, and my grin fades.

“Of course.”

“Then treat me like I’m on the motherfucking field and not sidelined because of
this
.” She points at her abdomen. It was never my intention to make her feel benched. “I’m perfectly capable of hearing news and handling it with you in ways that I still can.”

“You are,” I agree. “I wasn’t implying that you weren’t.” I touch her foot again, and she lets me bring it to my lap. I massage her sole, and she relaxes against her pillows. “Just so we’re clear,” I add, “I’m never going to act like you’re not pregnant when you are.”

“I wouldn’t want you to,” she says beneath her breath, right when I knead a knot in her foot. She inhales like
there, right there.
I apply more pressure, and her chest collapses.

When our eyes meet, she glares. “I hate you.”

I smile. “Jane is fine. Both Beckett and Charlie were still sleeping when I checked on them. And your sister has a fever.”

Worry crosses her face and she sits straighter. “Which sister? And what do you mean by
fine
? You couldn’t have picked a more descriptive word? There are literally millions and you choose
fine
?” She crosses her arms.

“Daisy. And
fine
generally means
okay
. Acceptable. Passing. Do you need more synonyms?”

Rose narrows her eyes. “I find your diction
unacceptable
and infuriating.”

“I find your response redundant and attractive.”

She tries to hide a smile by rolling her eyes. “Really, Connor, does she need anything?”

I can’t tell Rose that Jane called out for her. She’d stubbornly try to see our daughter, and it’s not worth the argument. “She’s asleep. She’ll feel better in the morning.”

Rose takes a moment to let this idea settle in. I kiss her ankle and then move closer, sliding my hand up the length of her leg.

Rose watches me with piercing yellow-green eyes. “Are you still
assessing
me?”

I harden by the ice
in her words. “I already know all there is to know.” I reach her thigh and kneel between her legs, untying the loose knot of her robe. She stubbornly knocks her knees together and anticipates me yanking them apart.

I do.

I adore the flash of
I hate you, Richard
in her flaming gaze.

Rose rubs her lips together like she’s smoothing lipstick. I pull her down so she’s not sitting straight up, and her heat presses against my erection.

She gasps and then glares. “That noise was
not
for you.”

Blood pools in my cock. “If not me, then who?”

Rose tilts her chin. “The air.”

It’s hard for me to believe that between air and me,
air
is superior. Frederick would remind me that I’m not herculean, but I’m certainly better than most people and most things. Without much of a pause, I say, “Air doesn’t take precedence over me.”

“Oxygen is
necessary to sustain life,” she combats.

“Oxygen can’t think. Oxygen can’t solve conflicts. Oxygen is necessary for survival, but it’s incomparable to
me.
”

Rose mutters something about my narcissism, but I distract her as I finish untying her robe. The silk slips off her curves like water. Naked beneath, I hone in on the swell of her stomach, her shallow breath, and the fullness of her breasts.

Our gazes drift to one another, calmness flowing through us as we recognize the life we created. I will never stop loving Rose and the future we’ve built together.

“Say something real,” she whispers.

“Je t’aime.”
I love you.

I cup her ass and bring her firmer against me. Rose clutches the quilt with two tight hands, and I place a couple pillows beneath her lower back, hoisting her body towards mine.

Be gentle
, I remind myself. Even if she dislikes those two words, even if they’re not my favorite either—I can’t fuck her roughly, not when she’s this pregnant.

I squeeze her ass and place hot kisses along her abdomen. She sucks in another breath, but she lets me do whatever I’d like to her body—and I’d like to play with my wife.

Fragile, more vulnerable, and she’s still giving me permission to dominate her. This fact, combined with the changes in her body and the way her eyes burn holes right through me, stirs and grips me.

I’m entrapped.

My mind never wanders. Never diverges.

I’m fixated.

I can’t think about anything but Rose.

I lower my head and kiss between her legs. She trembles, her hormones intensifying every sensation. I squeeze her ass again. Rose shudders and shuts her eyes tight. Her sex drive, in the past, has been higher during her first and second trimester and absent during the third.

I study her reaction for a moment, kissing the inside of her thigh. “Tu es à l'aise, là?”
Are you comfortable right now?
I sit up to adjust the pillows beneath Rose. She has frequent backaches, mostly due to high heels, but she’d endure nearly everything to wear a pair.

It’s a paradox.

She’s more comfortable in heels. And yet, they’re the cause of what adds to her discomfort.

Rose blows out a hot breath from her nose. “I have to talk to you.”

I have to talk to you
isn’t a placeholder for
don’t have sex with me.
On the contrary, we talk during sex more often than we have sex in silence.

“I’m listening.” I rub her thigh, and I watch her gaze flit to the outline of my cock and then back to my blue eyes. I free my cock, and her lips tic upwards before she settles back into a glare.

“You’re not going to like the topic,” she explains, “but it
needs
to be discussed.”

“If it has anything to do with Twitter, I’m already dealing with it—”

“It’s not that.” She waves her hand like she’s volleying that topic aside.

I press the tip of my erection against her pussy. “I could guess, but you haven’t given me enough details to make an educated one.”

She props herself on her elbows, as though hoping to near my face and claw it off. “You’re so—” I push into her and she falls onto her back with the new fullness and pleasure. Her warmth wraps around my cock, the sensation pricking my nerves.

“What was that, darling?” I tease.

Rose raises her hand like
shut up
and then she sets her palm to her forehead. “It’s about Sadie.”

I rock slowly in and out, friction building sweat. “We could be talking about game theory, Nietzsche, Foucault, or evolution and you’d like to discuss my misogynistic
cat who’s living with my therapist?”

“Yes,” she says stubbornly.

I spank the side of her ass.

She fights a smile. “I hate yo—”

I cover her mouth with my hand, her rage heating my whole body. “You
love
me, and this just might be the thousandth time I’ve reminded you.” Knelt between her legs, I thrust excruciatingly slow, even for me. My muscles burn. “And I don’t speak in hyperboles.”

I drop my hand from her mouth, trailing the base of her neck, between her breasts, and I rest my palm flat on her round abdomen. I could feel small movements from our son or daughter this morning.

Rose is lost in pleasure for a moment, her breath shortening, but the fire never extinguishes from her voice. “Your ego is going to contaminate our unborn child.” She presses her hand to her mouth, stifling a moan.

I grab her wrist, lifting her palm off so I can hear.

“Fuck,” Rose cries out. Her shoulders dig into the mattress as she nears a peak, and she pulses around my cock.

A groan escapes my lips.

“Harder,” she begs.

I squeeze her ass. “No.”

“Connor…” She places her hands over her face, which she only does when she’s disoriented from an orgasm—and when she’s not handcuffed.

I seize both of her wrists and hold them in one hand. I don’t climax with her, so when she comes down, I’m still rocking inside.

“Sadie,” she pants.

I let her see my irritation and then spank her again. “My name isn’t
Sadie
.”

“I’m serious, Richard.” She catches her breath. “I want to bring her home.” She cuts me off before I can add
we’ve been through this.
“The last time I saw her at Frederick’s, she lazily and pathetically collapsed at my feet. She’s old.” I open my mouth but she says passionately, “I’ll clip her nails every single morning, and I’ll teach Jane not to provoke the cat or pull on her tail.”

“If it was just about Jane’s wrongdoing, we would’ve never sent the cat away. It’s more than that, Rose.” It’s about Sadie being unpredictable and hostile.

“She’s
old
, Connor.” She used my middle name, which means that this subject means more to her. “It’s not about Jane. It’s about keeping our family together, and Sadie is a part of our family.” Rose is loyal to a fault, but if she sees a change in Sadie, then it might be safer to bring her home.

I can convince myself that Sadie is fine without me, so I have no emotions towards leaving her behind, but Rose can’t.

Jane can’t.

I nod but then I shake my head. “I don’t like giving Jane something after we repeatedly told her
no.
” Our children are privileged, but I need them to understand their privilege. Spoiling them like this won’t help.

“We’ll remind her that Sadie isn’t hers. She’s her own
being
and not a toy or a reward.”

It’ll be difficult for Jane to understand the difference.

Rose glowers, her passion practically smoking off her skin. “Richard Connor Cobalt is afraid of a challenge.”

I push deeper, and her collarbones jut out with a staggered inhale. My jaw is tight in arousal. “And Rose Calloway Cobalt is trying to incite me.”

Rose jerks her hands in my hold, on the brink of another orgasm. I clutch her wrists tighter, my own climax on the horizon. Sweat beads across my chest, my abs glistening.

Her fervor stimulates me.

I come as soon as she climaxes. I carefully lean forward to kiss her lips, and I whisper, “Two weeks. We’ll bring Sadie home then.”