Page 341 of Now and Forever

Chapter 124

Callum

For a good hour, I watched as she and Lindsey talked. After I had seen that Stella remained onboard, I sent Mikaela and Maxine back to the mainland and had them escorted back to the airport so they could get to their respective countries.

What really got me all riled up was my reaction to seeing her in the flesh. My entire body burned. Yes, literally burned in hotness as my eyes regarded her with such thorough inspection. So thorough that one might think that I had x-ray vision because my eyes peeled away any scrap of clothing she had on in my mind.

When the two yachts moored next to us, my eyes never left hers. When Emma Anderson came onboard, Lindsey, Dimitris and Jacques all wanted to go in the jacuzzi, which made me more paranoid since men were now vying for Stella’s attention as she followed them in. They were exactly like me earlier, eyes raking all over that tight body of hers.

It wasn’t even a question for me to go and join them.

“Do you mind?” I whispered against her ear as my arm held her stomach securely, pulling her towards me as the bubbles of the jacuzzi surrounded us. She didn’t even get the chance to respond before I had her locked, sitting in between my legs.

“Why does it feel like I’ve come home?” I felt so at peace. It took me back to how content I was each and every time she was in my arms. I knew I had missed her… but God, I just hadn’t realize how much. Holding her like this made me not want to let go. I could die like this and I wouldn’t even protest.

I didn’t know when things shifted really. At first we were discussing Emma’s new movie then the movies that were out—discussing which ones were going to be Oscar-worthy—to watching Dimitris devour his wife before us. Emma and Jacques were in a deep conversation. Jacques was whispering into her ear as she smiled and laughed at something he said. It made me wonder; wasn’t she dating that actor Bass Cole?

Everyone was so busy caught up in their own world when I noticed Stella shifting on my lap. “Everything okay?” I accidently licked on her ear, but I didn’t stop it once I heard her moan. Nor did it help that Stella was now slowly rocking on my hardness. She was discreet about it, though. It was slow, so excruciatingly slow that one couldn’t even tell what she was up to.

If this was her way of punishing me, then she was right on point. Even if I wanted to stop her, my dick had missed her bottom. I would rather cut off my finger than part with my woman—yes, she was mine. The second she stepped foot on this yacht, she became mine again.

I gave her a chance to run away again—to leave before I got here—because I knew, once I saw her again, there was no going back for either of us. If she wished me away tomorrow, it wasn’t going to happen.

Stella played with fire and it was inevitable that she was going to get burned. She could not provoke me and not know the consequences, especially knowing how much I felt for her—especially knowing that.

“You’ve missed me,” I observed, stating a fact.

She nodded her head, looking away. “Yeah…”

I suppose I should be grateful to Lindsey for shoving as much alcohol as she could at Stella because it seemed to mellow her down. She was less catty and tense.

It was easier to break through her thoughts…

I knew I was going to Hell for this, but I couldn’t sit idly by and not take advantage of this leverage, knowing the kind of desperation I had for her. “I missed you too, so much so that you haven’t left my thoughts since I saw you last.”

I wanted to give her everything—whatever she wanted—and it was killing me because the uncertainty was beyond me. However, I knew that my wife needed to know how agonizing it had been for me. “I think I’m falling for you.” The thought alone of leaving her in London had taken a large part of me, but leaving her—knowing that she was dating other men—had driven me crazy. I’d had to do everything to make me forget about her—well, I tried anyway—but it hadn’t worked. Nothing did.

Stella had remained prominent in my thoughts. It suddenly struck me that maybe I had been deluding myself… that maybe I was hiding behind my past with Zara and making excuses so that I didn’t have to face the truth. What was scarier than the truth? They said that truth had the ability to set you free, but for me, it was a shackle to love again. What if Stella decided to leave me later on?

Or what if she finds that she wants Clive and not me?I knew that they hadn met up for coffee a few times. Each time had killed me anew.

Stella looked back, lips inches from touching mine. “You think?”

As much I wanted to drown into her gray pools, her lips entranced me more at the moment. “I’m not sure, but I think I am. It sure feels like I am.” It sure felt like I wanted to get drunk from her lips, too…

“Oh, Callum… don’t mess with my heart.” She looked away, teary.

Did she not know how much this was costing me? How much it had been killing me to be away from her? For me not to even kiss her right now because I wanted her to come to me since I was insecure… that she might not love me anymore.

When I had loved Zara before—before she decided to fuck me over—that woman had been my world. I would have stuck by her no matter what, as long as she continued to be mine. With Stella, though, I was willing to do anything for her, but I had failed to deliver what she had asked me months ago, so she’d decided to cut me out of her life, hurting me—hurting us—because I thought then that I wasn’t falling for her.

Had she stood by me and waited until my mind wasn’t so confused by all the misery that surrounded me by the loss of my father—his betrayal, Zara’s return and revelations—then things might have turned out differently.

However she had chosen to set me aside… not fighting for me. The man she claimed to love. I didn’t know what to make of it, even now. It pained me to have her this close and not know if she still loved me.

Closing my eyes, I buried my face in her neck as I heard moans in the background. I wasn’t sure if they were from Lindsey or Emma, but at this instant, I didn’t give a flying fuck because all I wanted was to be with my wife.

Mine. Stella was mine.

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