Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

Magnus wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. It had sounded suspiciously like… “Without,” he bit out gruffly, not breathing as he waited to see what she would do next.

He watched through narrowed lids, his heart pounding loudly and his cock becoming instantly hard, when Sapphie stood up to unfasten and then push her skinny jeans down the slenderness of her legs before taking them off completely. She wore tiny pink bikini panties beneath them, edged with a matching pink lace. Panties that would have probably been mistaken for a bikini on a beach but were glaringly nothing as innocent in the sitting room of his apartment.

He never brought the women he slept with to his apartment here or in New York. When he did have sex, he either took those women to a hotel, or they went back to her apartment. Both ways allowed Magnus to leave when he wanted to, rather than having some random woman in his apartment who he really wished was no longer there.

That rule didn’t apply to Sapphie, whom he never, ever wanted to leave.

Magnus’s mouth went dry just looking at Sapphie in those pink panties. Her purple sweater only reached down to her navel, revealing several inches of bare flesh above the waistband of those lacy pink briefs.

“What now?”

Magnus’s gaze moved up to her face. He easily recognized the challenge in her eyes and slightly raised chin.

Daring him?

Or because she was embarrassed at being half-naked as she stood in front of him?

He wasn’t happy if it was the latter. “I need to ask you a question before we go any further.”

She eyed him warily. “What question?”

He drew a deep breath into his lungs, and then immediately wished that he hadn’t. Because by doing so, he had breathed in the floral-and-musk scent that he knew was Sapphie’s arousal. The same arousal he had gorged himself on the previous evening.

Damn it, he was sure if he touched between her thighs right now, her panties would be wet with those delicious juices.

“What’s the question, Magnus?” she prompted again.

He could see her tension now, in the set of her jaw and the clenched fists at her sides. As if preparing herself for some sort of blow. “Did Carlucci ever hit you?” Magnus grated.

She took a step back. Her surprised expression implied it was more from shock than bad memories. “No.” She finally found her voice. “Marco never hit me. He never hit either of us.” She snorted. “I don’t think we were a significant enough presence in his life for him to ever feel the need to trouble himself to do so,” she added dryly.

Magnus breathed out the air he’d been holding in his lungs. “That’s disgraceful. But I also wouldn’t want anything I did to spark an unpleasant memory for you.”

Her tension eased before she gave a soft laugh. “I only have good memories of being with you.”

“That’s a relief?—”

“Especially when I remember the look of horror on your face when Angel ran through from the bedroom earlier bringing Henry with her in his case.” She was chuckling in earnest now.

“You just added two more spanks to the five I had already decided to give you.”

She gave another splutter of laughter. “I would really have loved to have been there to see you in our old bathroom trying to entice Henry to step inside that case. ‘Here, spidey, spidey,’” she taunted.

“And another three, which makes a total of ten,” he bit out. “Get your arse down here now.” He pointed at his denim-covered thighs. “But I’d like you to remove your panties too before you do that,” he added huskily.

Sapphie stilled. Not because she was averse to removing her panties, because she really wasn’t.

Last night, when Magnus made love to her, had been the first time she had truly felt worshipped, possibly adored, maybe even loved. The thought of having that again now, with the possibility of the two of them going further than they had the previous evening, made her feel hot all over and caused the juices to gush between her thighs.

Her hesitation was from shyness. She had thought she was being daring when she removed her jeans, but removing her panties as well would leave her bare from the waist down. It was one thing to become lost in the heat of the moment, as she had last night, but something else entirely for her to deliberately leave herself naked and vulnerable.

Even if she knew with absolute certainty that Magnus would never hurt her.

Sapphie didn’t even hesitate in that belief. She just knew it to be the truth. Magnus had shown her, beyond question, that he was a man who would never use violence against a woman.

He was also hot as hell. Too sexy for any woman’s peace of mind. With a muscular body that?—

That she hadn’t yet had the pleasure of seeing completely naked, despite her having been half-bared to him twice, if she included tonight.

And she did. “Do you think we could we go to your bedroom and do this?”

He shrugged. “If you would be more comfortable there.”

“I think there’s less chance of Angel walking in on us if we go to your bedroom. But I’ll still hear her if she wakes up and needs me.” She picked up the child monitor from where she had placed it on the coffee table earlier, along with her discarded jeans.

Magnus stood. “Fine.”

Sapphie could feel the heat of his gaze on her bottom as she walked to the door. “One other thing.” She turned to face him. “When we get there, we’re both going to get completely naked.”

“Fuck!” Magnus breathed raggedly.

She grinned at the flush in his cheeks and the unmistakable heat in his eyes. “We might get to that too—” Her words came to an abrupt halt as Magnus placed his fingers against her lips.

“I will only ever make love to you, I will never fuck you,” he assured.

“Unless I ask you to?” she challenged.

He studied her face intently before answering. “Unless you ask me to,” he echoed. “In which case, I will happily fuck you until you scream for mercy.”

“That’s always supposing I do.” Sapphie smiled at him before turning to walk down the hallway to the bedroom she knew was Magnus’s. And if she put a little extra sway to her hips, knowing that hot green gaze was still fixated on her, then she had absolutely no regrets for doing so.

Her shyness returned once they had entered Magnus’s bedroom. The walls were decorated in an array of blues and grays, from dark blue to the palest gray. There was a duvet and throw pillows in the same shades on the king-size bed. She looked at the adjoining bathroom through the open doorway. It was almost as big as the bedroom, a huge shower unit with at least a dozen jets at one end of the room, twin sinks in the middle, and a huge sunken bath she was sure could accommodate at least a dozen people at the other.

“Do you throw orgies in there?” she teased to hide her nervousness.

Magnus stepped forward before lifting one of his hands to cup her heated cheek. “No one else, no other woman, has ever been in my bedroom with me in this apartment or the one in New York. I consider them my private spaces. I’ve only ever welcomed you and Angel here. Just as only you are welcome in my bathroom and bedroom. In the bath, shower, or my bed. With or without me.”

Whoa. Although she hadn’t asked him that, Sapphie couldn’t deny being pleased with his answer. His very specific answer. Because he didn’t want there to be any doubt in her mind that she was special to him.

Whether she was special enough for their relationship to continue after their current situation had been resolved, one way or another, Sapphie had no idea. But she had lived with uncertainty for the whole of the past two years, she would continue to do so now if it meant she could be with Magnus.

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Clothes off. Now.”

A sensual smile curved his lips as he pulled the Henley over his head and dropped it to the carpeted floor. Revealing that muscular chest covered in a fine sheen of dark hair.

“I think I like it when you’re bossy. My cock certainly does.” He gave a rueful glance at the bulge of his arousal as he removed his boots before unfastening the button on his jeans and sliding the zip down. “I like you even more when you’re naked,” he admired as he watched her remove the rest of her clothes.

Sapphie stopped breathing as she, in turn, watched him push the jeans, then his boxers, down his long legs before stepping out of both of them. When he straightened, he was standing before her completely and gloriously, naked.

Magnus was, as Sapphie had thought the first time she saw him, BIG. All-over big!

His six-foot-four-inch frame was all defined muscles in his chest, arms, and abdomen, his legs long and powerful. His engorged cock, and the heavy sac beneath, were completely in proportion to that build. At least eight inches long, his cock was so thick around, Sapphie doubted she would be able to encircle it completely with one hand. Defined and throbbing veins ran along its length, the mushroomed top a swollen purple and slick with the juices escaping from the slit at the top.

Sapphie wanted to lick it as if it were a popsicle in danger of melting!

She also wanted to suck, one at a time, those heavy balls lightly furred with dark hair, into the heat of her mouth.

“Ah-ah,” Magnus chided, grasping her arm as she would have sunk to the floor at his feet to do exactly that. “Punishment before pleasure.”

“You know, if we lie on the bed with me facing the bottom of the bed and you the top, I could suck your cock at the same time as you’re spanking my bottom.”

“So you could.” Magnus’s eyes had darkened, obviously liking that suggestion. “But you could also bite my cock off in reaction when the first smack lands.”

He had a point, Sapphie admitted ruefully. “Ten, you said?”

He nodded. “Ten.” He sat at the bottom of the bed, legs spread wide to accommodate those heavy balls, his erect cock reaching as high as his navel.

Sapphie drew in a hissing breath as she laid herself across his naked thighs and felt his heated skin against her abdomen and thighs. Her breasts hung over his thighs, aching and aroused, the nipples pointing to the carpeted floor and painfully engorged.

“I really wanted to take my time with this,” Magnus murmured as he put an arm across her back to keep her in place. “But the quicker it’s over, the sooner I can suck your nipples and then play with them as I eat your pussy.”

Sapphie was so hot, every part of her sensitized, it felt as if she was about to combust. “Then do it,” she instructed fiercely. “Just do it!”

Even so, she gave a surprised gasp when the first heavy smack landed, Magnus’s hand so big, it covered both her bottom cheeks at the same time.

It hurt, she wasn’t about to claim that it didn’t, but the pain, as each smack landed with repetitive precision, quickly mutated into a heated pleasure that caused her pussy lips to swell and the juices to gush between them, wetting her inner thighs.

Magnus’s cock leaked pre-cum from the bulbous top and moistened the dark hair on his lower abdomen, the scent of their juices combining in a heady perfume.

“Eight,” he bit out from between gritted teeth as he administered another smack before pausing. “Tell me the reason I’m doing this.”

The brief respite was somehow worse than the previous smacks, allowing her to feel the burn on her skin and the heat in her core.

“Sapphie!” The heat of his hand grasped her burning bottom cheeks.

She searched her brain for the answer. “I— You said it was to remind me not to talk down about myself or my worth again.”

“Not ever again,” he emphasized forcefully. “Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

“Do you believe it?”

“I—”

“I’m going to start again if your answer isn’t yes,” he warned gruffly before landing the ninth spank.

“Yes!” Sapphie gasped at this fresh explosion of pain on her already sore bottom. “Yes, I believe it. I believe it!” she cried out as the tenth, and last, smack landed.

“Good,” Magnus growled his satisfaction as he easily lifted and turned her before sitting her on his parted thighs, his arms about her waist. “If I hear you doubting yourself again, this is going to happen. Do you understand?”

The pressure against her bottom hurt like hell, and her breasts felt heavy, the tips sensitive, but Sapphie also knew she had never felt more aroused or appreciated in her life.

She lifted one of her hands to cradle the side of Magnus’s face and turn his head totally toward her, their gazes clashing and holding. “I have never felt unworthy in your presence, Magnus,” she stated, knowing it was the truth.

Not once, in any way, had Magnus ever made her feel less than in the way that Marco had during those months before he died. As far as Sapphie was concerned, his parents had continued to treat her with the same contempt by trying to take Angel from her after Marco’s death.

“Because you’re very worthy. Of being given respect and having your feelings taken into consideration at all times,” he stated forcefully. “Never let anyone try to tell you otherwise, or treat you badly.”

“I won’t.” Here, in Magnus’s strong arms, Sapphie felt cherished and cared for in a way she never had before. “Can I kiss you now?”

“You can do whatever the hell you like with me,” he assured as he fell back on the bed, taking Sapphie with him so that she half lay across him. “I’m all yours.” He flung his arms to the side in invitation.

Sapphie felt a brief ache in her chest, wishing it were true. But as quickly as those thoughts came, she dismissed them.

Here and now was what mattered.

Being with Magnus was all that mattered right now.