He stares a challenge at me. With the force of his words still swirling around my body, I find myself rising to it.
I pick up the burger and take a massive bite, tasting the juiciness of it, and then chew ostentatiously as he smirks and his eyes glitter brightly.
When I imagined a date with suave and serious Solomon Sky, I never expected to be doing this.
But it feels right, sinking into the fun back-and-forth banter with my man.
My man.
It feels so right already.
I don’t want to question how or why it feels like this.
I just know that we’re destined to be together, with a conviction that surges up from my womb, from my soul, from someplace I wasn’t even aware of before Solomon Sky declared that I belonged to him.
I swallow the burger and wash it down with some champagne, thankfully not burping this time.
“Okay, that might’ve been a little disgusting,” I laugh. “Shall we eat like normal people now?”
Solomon chuckles. “I was about to pick up my steak bare-handed and gnaw into it like a wild man. But sure, let’s do it your way.”
I feel a question rising up on my lips as we go on eating, maybe because of what Caitlin and I spoke about yesterday. She said that Solomon has never been close to anyone, not even her mother. The need to ask him about it flurries around inside of me, but at the same time, I don’t want to shatter the delicate atmosphere of our dinner together.
“What is it, my little dreamer?” Solomon says, holding his knife like a weapon like he’s ready to kill or hurt anyone that would harm me or our children.
“Who says I’m thinking about anything other than how tasty this burger is, huh?” I shoot back.
“You can never lie to me,” he says fiercely. “Do you really think I’m incapable of reading my woman? You’re itching to say something, Sophia. So say it. You don’t have to be nervous around me. Ever.”
I sigh, fiddling with my cutlery.
“It’s about Caitlin’s mom,” I murmur.
“Okay—what?”
“Are you sure you’re okay talking about another woman with me?” I say, surprised by how sharp my words are.
It’s not fair, allowing jealousy to swarm into me like this, but just the thought of Solomon with another woman gets my blood hot.
“Sophia,” Solomon says sternly. “I never cared about her. I know how that sounds. It’s fucked up. It’s a horrible thing to say. But it’s the truth. I stayed with her for Caitlin, nothing more. And when she walked out on us, part of me was glad.”
I wait, watching.
He’s talking in a faraway tone as if he’s never approached this topic intimately before.
He sighs, running a hand through his iron colored hair.
“We were both drunk when Caitlin was conceived,” he says. “After that, she came on heavy. She said all sorts of crazy things, about how we were soulmates and things like that. I didn’t believe her. I didn’t feel it. But I wasn’t about to abandon my daughter. And then I discovered what she’d been doing.”
“What?” I murmur.
He sighs again, glancing aside.
I reach across and touch his hand.
“Solomon, you can talk to me as much as I can talk to you.”
He squeezes my hand in return. The power in the touch ignites something primal in me, as though there are pieces of us communicating without us being aware of it.
My womb twinges and sizzles and screams in pure joy.
He’ll kill anybody who tries to harm our babies, a voice murmurs in my mind. So be there for him. Be patient. Try not to be jealous.
That’s easier said than done, but I hold those words close as I stare into his dreamy eyes and wait for him to speak.
Finally, he sighs and his grip on my hand tightens.
“She was stealing from me,” he says. “She’d gotten some dirt on one of my business associates and she was using it to make him siphon some of my company’s funds to her. They started in small amounts, but they gradually got larger until she’d accumulated a nice little nest egg for herself.”
“Oh, Solomon,” I murmur. “I’m so sorry.”
He grimaces darkly. “Do you know what the fucked-up thing is? I’m not mad about it. I’m glad she did that. I’m glad she showed her true colors. I’m glad she gave me an excuse not to have to be with her anymore. Because, otherwise, I never would’ve found you.”
My heart beats so powerfully I feel like a river of love is seeping into every part of me, my nerves, my bones, and my soul. I ache at the word love, wondering if it’s possible. If this pulsating warmth inside of me can really be branded with such a lofty label.
“Is that why she’s not in Caitlin’s life anymore?” I murmur.
“Has she never talked about this?”
I shake my head.
“A little, but not really. She’s still really torn up about it.”
He sighs and his jaw twitches, his eyes narrowing as though he’s looking at something long past.
“Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. No, Sophia. I didn’t stop her mother from seeing her. Her mother—she chose it. She chose not to see her own daughter. She’d rather live in Paris as a socialite. Caitlin has tried writing to her over the years, but the truth is, she never wanted to be a mother.”
Rage unfurls inside of me as though it’s been waiting a long time to make itself known. I grip the edge of the table with my free hand and fight the urge to flip it.
“Abandoning a child like that is disgusting,” I hiss.
Solomon’s smirk twitches, his eyes dancing with playfulness now instead of pain.
“What?” I ask, smiling despite myself.
“It’s just good to see how much value you place in motherhood,” he says, a gravelly conviction to his voice. “It makes me even more certain you’re going to be an incredible mother.”
We stare into each other’s eyes for a long time, getting
