Page 100 of Falling for the Wife

“I’ll let you know my decision this weekend. I also forgot to mention that we’re to leave this Friday afternoon and won’t be back until a week after.”

“A week?” Stella squeaked.

“Tell your friend that I’d be more than happy to find a replacement in your absence. This was, after all, unplanned and I don’t want to jeopardize anything for you. You worked hard to get where you are.” I genuinely smiled at her, eyes roaming appreciatively. “I’m proud of you, Stella.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Cal. Thank you. That really means a lot to me.” She slowly stood up, purse in hand. “I’ll let Luciana know about your offer as well as looking into whether I can take some of my work with me. What time will you be picking me up?”

“I’ll be there around four,” I responded before getting up from my chair and moving towards her. “And Stella, I need you to pretend that we’re madly in love. So, expect that I will be practically glued to your side.”

Stella nervously smiled. “Yeah, I sort of knew that. You know, newly engaged and all; so it’ll going to be a lark,” she rambled, blushing more with every word that came out of her lips “Shit, Cal. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m nervous. Blaming coffee here; I had over three already.”

I arched my brow at her, amused at her reaction. “You sure it’s not because you’d be spending a week with me?”

“Love the sense of humor, Cal.”

Stella, you are far too lovely for your own good.“See you in two days.” I softly brushed my lips against her cheek and then delicately whispered into her ear, “We’ll be sharing a room together. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of things to discuss.”

Stella didn’t even say a thing, but instead, she bit into her lip and tried as calmly as possible to leave my office.

“Stella is off-limits, you worthless swine!” I muttered, half hoping that I’d get this under control in two days time.

Clinical route it was. It was the only way possible.

Sexual thoughts in regards to her should be vanished. I wasn’t going to succumb to my body’s reaction. Heck, I might need to have a healthy dose of a warm woman’s body before I leave in two days. This had to stop and I was damn well going to do it.

Richard and the von Berg’s didn’t deserve such disrespect.

CHAPTER40

Stella

“My motherand grandmother will be interrogating you, so I apologize in advance,” Callum said as he slowly pulled to the curb. “It just occurred to me that we’re almost there and you haven’t said much since we left London. Are you feeling unwell?”

“What if they don’t like me?” This was one of the things that was eating inside me, but most of all, I didn’t want to disappoint Callum. This was his family and I knew it might sound idiotic to some, yet I wanted him to be proud that I could pull it off without a hitch.

Callum’s eyes danced before he opened his car door and spun around the vehicle towards mine. He pulled my door open and carefully guided me out of the car. I didn’t know what was going on, but we were in a quiet street, with barely any cars passing by.

My thoughts turned into nothing as Callum pressed me against the side of the car.

“You will be fine. We’ll be fine. Take my lead and have fun. There’s nothing to be nervous of. I won’t pull any tricks, Stella. You can trust me that I will always try to be honest with you.”

I knew that and I appreciated that he was trying to soothe my nerves. “You’re a good man, I know. No need to show me twice.”

Callum smirked, making me ogle his darkly angelic beauty. “I’m not all good. I’m sure you know the usual bits I get myself into, but with you, I’ll give it a shot.”

Was I really swooning? Bugger.

“Oh, by the way, I thought we might need this.” Callum pulled something out of his pocket. A ring. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, but I had noticed that you weren’t a fan of diamonds, so I got you an emerald instead. I noticed that your mother had a sapphire one, so I thought this was the closest thing I could get you.”

My head simply nodded, speechless at his thoughtfulness.

The drive to his family home was a mere five-minute drive from where he had pulled over. If I thought I was nervous before, I had been wrong. Because the moment his mother appeared in the foyer to greet us, I was thoroughly inspected before she gave me air kisses.

How the hell am I to survive a week here if I was being scrutinized like a specimen already?

? S

Okay, maybe I overreacted a bit. His mother, Bernice, wasn’t as terrifying as I thought at first. She actually had an odd sense of humor; it was off beat to say the least. I found it endearing that she would even try. Doris, his grandmother, was simply over the moon that Callum had actually found a woman to settle down with. Callum was minimal on the touchy feely side, however he was attentive and didn’t leave my side once.