Page 72 of The CEO Alpha’s Substitute Mate

He leans down, his hand wrapping around my hair and pulling my head back. His lips seize mine in a kiss that probably should have been fiercer but is surprisingly gentle. “Come to my bed.”

His touch ignites something hungry in me, a famine that seems to have no end. “I don’t think—”

His next kiss is deeper, just as gentle but as he sweeps his tongue in my mouth, my head grows foggy, and I mumble, “Just once more then.”

His lips curve against mine and he agrees, “Once more.”

Then he sweeps me off my feet, and Luca’s bedroom door closes behind us.

Chapter 14

Callum

The track to the lake runs a mile through the birches, and I’ve walked it alone since I was eleven years old. Today there’s a wicker basket going down it ahead of me on Ariela’s arm with a cloth Reid tucked over the top himself.

All I said at breakfast was that I’d be taking Luca down to the lake for the afternoon. She called it a good idea. Then she wanted to know whether the water went cold this late in the year, so I told her the springs underneath it hold the temperature into November. After that she was telling me she hadn’t been near open water in six years, asking whether a person could reach the lake on foot without going out onto the road.

I’ve never had a problem saying no to anybody. But when it comes to Ariela, the word doesn’t come that easily. Reid was only too happy to oblige her with a picnic basket and an excuse ready, which was that the young master might get hungry. So the run I planned has turned into a picnic.

Luca is out in front with his coat hanging open. He’s been off the sickbed for four days, and he’s spent every hour of them at a sprint, taking the last four stairs in a single jump until Reid gave up watching him do it. Salar says he’s trying to burn all the energy his wolf left behind. I agree to some extent. However, Luca’s wolf is temperamental and wakes at will, which is why the boy needs to learn how to tire it out.

He might not be able to shift and run, but he can run in his human form. Exploring these woods was one of the only guilty pleasures that I allowed myself as a child.

“Mom! Mom, look! There’s a frog!”

I look toward where Luca is pointing, and Ariela is already crouching by his side, her tone dubious. “I don’t think that’s a frog, honey. I think that’s a toad.”

“Really?” Luca leans forward, eyes sparking in interest.

“Yeah, its legs are short. Much like yours.” She chortles, walking away, and my lips twitch unwillingly as Luca runs after her complaining.

“I’m not short!”

For a man who values every second of his time, I should not be so relaxed right now. My wolf is rumbling in satisfaction.

“So.” Ariela falls into step beside me. “This lake, can I really swim in it?”

“Yes.”

She doesn’t seem bothered by my short answer. “How deep is it?”

“Quite, but if you don’t go past the two oak trees on either side, it is shallow.” I glance at the excitement brimming in her eyes. Right now, I can’t tell if she is any better than Luca. “You know how to swim?”

Ariela meets my gaze. “When my mother was still alive, she would take me to her aunt’s place in Connecticut. Her aunt taught me to swim in their local watering hole. I would spend hours there. After that, she moved us to the city, and I never went back there, but I loved that place. Maya once tried to find me a local swimming pool, but they were all too expensive.”

A shutter falls over her face at the mention of her sister.

In the time she’s been here, she’s made a conscious effort not to mention her to me, but from the flash of pain in her eyes, I wonder if that’s easy. My investigation into Maya’s disappearance is still ongoing, and although I now believe she might not have been complicit in anything, the sting to my pride remains. She took my son from me. However, until I have answers, I will not discuss her.

Yet there are times when I see Ariela looking at her sister’s pictures on her phone. She misses her even after all these years. I don’t know what that’s like. I never missed my father after he passed. When it came to Elena, my wolf felt shaken and miserable, and while there were times I noticed the small things, I’ve never felt the kind of grief that one should experience after the death of a mate.

My eyes flicker toward her again. Should I offer comfort? And say what?

I’m not really good at considering other people’s feelings. I could kill somebody for her, shower her in money and jewelry, but I don’t know how to get rid of the pain in her eyes. So we walk in silence as Luca races ahead of us, and I try not to let the domesticity of the scene get to me.

The lake opens up where the birches stop. It’s black in the middle and green at the edges with a shingle bank on the near side that my grandfather had laid in and a stand of alders going down into the water at the far end. Steam sits over the surface because the ground underneath runs hot. Luca gets his shoes off without untying them.

“Sit down. Take them off properly.” Ariela has the basket open on the bank with his swim shorts already out of it. “If you go in with your socks on, you’re walking home in wet socks, and I’m not carrying you.”