“I got your note,” I gritted out.

“I love you,” he told me, looking straight into my eyes. A small smile played across my lips. “I love you. I’m in love with you.”

“I love you too,” I told him, my voice raspy from disuse. “I’ve always loved you,” I continued, clearing my throat. “You’re the love of my life, Callum.”

He laughed lightly, coughing to avoid a sob. A massive smile splayed across his gorgeous face. “I think I’ve waited my entire life to hear those words from you, Harper Tate.”

***

It took me eight weeks to leave that hospital. By the time, I was done, I knew every single person employed there, as did Callum. It was bittersweet leaving but it was most definitely time.

The good news was that I regained control and feeling in my legs which was nothing short of a miracle according to Doctor Sullivan. I’d need extended physical therapy back home but I was healed well enough to travel which is what I wanted more than anything. I just wanted to be home, in my own bed...with my husband.

I could walk short distances only, forced to utilize a wheel chair for any kind of extensive trips. Callum would cart me around like a doll, lifting me into bed, even helping me bathe which was somewhat embarrassing the first time but the nurses would have thought it strange that my husband wouldn’t eventually be the one who assisted me. The first few times, the nurses did it but they told us he needed to learn how to care for me once we left the hospital and insisted he try. Who were we to argue?

The first time he saw me naked was...strange. Gorgeously strange.

“Lean on me,” he had whispered into my ear, making me shiver. I stood on my feet but he held me tightly against him. He had begun to close his eyes but I stopped him with a hand.

“I want you to see me,” I told him quietly, making his eyes shoot wide. I almost laughed but checked myself.

He gulped audibly. “Uh, okay.” Trembling hands came toward me and undressed me slowly, being careful not to jostle me too much, when he pulled my top off. My heart began to race inside my chest, pounding against my ribs at an unhealthy rate. If I’d been hooked into any of the machines sitting inside my room, five nurses would’ve come bounding through the door. I smiled shyly.

Piece by piece, my clothing laid in a pile by my feet and eventually, I stood completely bare, accept for a pair of panties, against him. We both breathed in pants. Callum would see me naked. Callum and naked...in the same sentence. He still had yet to look at me and wrapped me in a towel before he could get a good look. He laid another towel on one of the shower chairs and picked me up, tucking his hands behind my knees. I felt my breath whoosh from my lungs. This was it. Until he sat me there while he filled my bath. I felt my cheeks redden and my feelings were sort of hurt that he didn’t want to see me. A heat crept up my neck and into my face, ashamed that I couldn’t tempt him the way he tempted me.

I had been healing for weeks and all my bruises had disappeared, use of my broken fingers restored. I looked completely normal from the outside, the only thing that ailed me was some soreness in my back and a definite lack of strength but that wasn’t visible to the naked eye. I had just given him permission to look at me naked and he didn’t freaking do it. I was feeling so vulnerable and open it was almost excruciating. Tears began to make an appearance but I bit my bottom lip to prevent them from spilling over.

I watched his broad back as the running water captivated his attention. I bent slightly to the side to see what was so interesting about this seemingly so amazing water. I was offended. Callum’s back rose and feel deeply with each breath. He’s nervous, I realized. His hands made tight fists, then released, over and over and over. Signature, Callum. I sat back and enjoyed the fact that I made my husband nervous. It was flattering.

Once the bath was filled, there was nowhere else for Callum to go. Slowly, he turned my direction and began to undress himself making me tremble a little on my own. All my fears and insecurities dissipated in one swift motion as he shrugged off his button up shirt and pulled his t-shirt over his head.

“Um,” I said, suddenly nervous myself. “Are you, uh, going to fill the bath with soap?”

“No,” he said softly, deliberately taking his time with the buttons of his jeans. Massive pause. “I won’t be able to see you very well if the foam is in my way, will I?” He asked, a knowing smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

My throat closed. I could only nod my response.

He was breathtaking, literally, the lines of his stomach and chest were hard and conditioned like a toned athlete. He was lean and absolutely the most handsome man I had ever seen in my entire life. I loved the way his hair curled around his ears and the way his eyes sparkled in the subtle lighting above him. The heat that had crept up my face before turned into a delicious, warm blush and I couldn’t stop my hand from flying to my chest as I inhaled deeply. A small, smug smile fought to make an appearance on his lips. Never taking his eyes from mine, he pulled his jeans off his legs and stood in his boxers. This is the most I’d ever seen of Callum’s naked skin. I shivered, actually shivered like some romance novel harlot.

Callum walked to me, both our hands quaked but the instant they met, all nervousness disappeared and we held firmly onto the other. He helped me to my feet and I balanced in front of him. Slowly, I removed my towel, letting it pile onto the floor at my feet. I blushed furiously at his own sharp intake of breath.

His head shook lazily from side to side as if in disbelief but his hands fisted at his side, betraying his easy look. Another gulp. “Lord, Harper. You are beautiful.” Callum paused while his eyes roamed my entire body, making me blush an even deeper red. “My God was it worth the wait,” he barely murmured under his breath.

He stepped closer to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders being careful not to squeeze too hard.

And then he kissed me. Deeply.

His tongue found mine and I almost melted in a pool at his feet. He broke away too soon and I felt slightly abandoned but he quickly remedied this by finding the underside of my jaw with his lips, moving up to the side of my neck and across my chin, meeting up once again with my mouth. I wrapped my hands around his neck, running my fingers through his disheveled hair, tugging lightly at the base of his neck, inciting a groan and even deeper kiss. The kiss slowed and he finished with three pecks on my lips.

“Come on,” he said, winded, “before the water gets cold.”

He knelt at my feet. I held my breath as he stared into my eyes, sliding my panties to my ankles. I stepped from my underwear and he stood as his boxers came off. He picked me up, sliding us both into the water. He nestled my back against his chest and I fit perfectly inside his arms. The water was the perfect temperature and I sighed from the proximity of our bodies. I closed my eyes as Callum wet my hair and began to massage shampoo into my scalp, eventually finding the tips of my hair with the soapy lather. He conditioned and lathered my entire body, washing me from head to toe.

When he was done, I sighed, content with being relaxed and clean against him. The bath wasn’t large enough for me to shave my legs with my back against his chest but he wouldn’t let me bend to do it myself anyway, opting to set me on the sink counter later and do it himself over the sink, he told me. He got out himself and wrapped a towel around his waist before hooking his arms around my body and lifting me from the water. He wrapped yet another towel around my torso and took another to my hair, languidly drying it from root to tip. We watched each other quietly as he worked the cloth through my long hair, leaning down occasionally to kiss my lips.

“You drive me crazy,” he almost gasped.

I kissed him yet again before leaning into his ear. “Do something about it.”

He closed his eyes and exhaled from his nose, waiting a moment before opening them and staring straight through me. “Harper, we can’t right now.” His jaw clenched at his words.

“I know,” I said smoothly, “but soon, Callum. Soon.”

“Oh, very soon, Mrs. Tate.”

Gorgeously strange, indeed.

The flight home was rather difficult. I made sure not to drink anything during the flight so Callum wouldn’t be forced to help me use the restroom. I could have probably walked the short distance to the lavatory but I knew Callum wouldn’t let me without him. Not to mention, I had a new aversion to all airplane lavatories. God forbid, Callum and I ever venture out of country. The flights would be torturous.

Turns out, Callum is a nervous flier. That, coupled with the fact that I wasn’t exactly in ‘fighting’ condition, and Callum was a giant bundle of nerves, didn’t help his unease.

“You need a drink, Callum. Something strong,” I jested, prodding my shoulder with his, adding a tiny smile.

“Nothing short of moonshine would take the edge off of me right now,” he teased. Callum turned to me, running a crooked finger down my jaw line. “I want you, Harper.”

My breath sped and my heart beat pushed the boundaries of normal, threatening to rip itself from my chest. I inhaled slowly, closing my eyes. I opened them. “You can’t say things like that on a crowded flight, Callum.”

“Why not?” He asked, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

I took in the people around us. “Because these people seem nice enough and I wouldn’t want to traumatize that little kid staring at us three rows down.”

Callum peeked down the aisle in the direction of the little girl before turning back to me. “We wouldn’t want to do that now, would we,” he said, leaning closely to my face, his lips inches from mine.

I was forced to swallow. “Nuh uh,” I said, leaning closer to close the gap. His breath tickled my face and I sighed in exasperation when he put, what felt like, way too much distance between him and myself. “What a tease,” I said, wrapping my right hand around his neck then letting go for fear I’d do something drastic.

Callum and I made out in the back seat of the cab we took home from the airport like a couple of sex-crazed teenagers. I had forgotten there was a person even driving the cab but when we pulled in front of our building, my face flushed a brilliant red when the cabbie winked at me while placing our bags on the curb. What, ya’ perv? We’re married. And before you go all, eww, on me, know that I hate PDA, hate it, but you know my story. Can you blame me?

Callum threw our bags in the elevator, using one of them to hold the door open. He lifted me up and carried me ‘over the threshold’ of our building’s front door, and placed a kiss at my temple. He kicked the bag holding the door open into the lift and we rode up to our floor, kissing like our lips weren’t already red and swollen.

As we passed each floor, Callum would groan at each bell alerting to us to every floor. We were close, sending my heart into a frenzy. The doors dinged, signaling we’d arrived. Callum set me down right outside the lift doors and grabbed our bags, tossing them in front of our door. I walked closely to him, his hand gripping my waist.

On the door, were ten or so messages from our landlord, letting us know about packages that needed to be picked up or letting us know about visits from the N.Y.P.D, etc. Callum grabbed them all before opening the door to our home and tossing them onto the hall table, the bags came next and then me. He wrapped me in his arms again, locking the door behind us, and made a beeline for his dark bedroom. None of our friends knew we were coming home that night for, um, obvious reasons.