Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

“Is Mummy sick?” a worried Angel prompted after Magnus had helped Sapphie to sit on a bench before putting his hand against her nape and pushing her head down between her knees.

“She’s fine,” Magnus assured, despite the fact he could feel how badly Sapphie was shaking against his fingers. “Just a little hungry, I think.” He gave the little girl a reassuring smile.

Angel nodded. “I’m hungry too. Maybe we should go to MaccyD’s for lunch?”

He frowned. “MaccyD’s?”

“Golden Arches, a kids’ meal that has a free toy with it,” Sapphie prompted, some of the tension easing from her shoulders.

He eyed the little girl. “I’m guessing that you usually only go to McDonald’s as a special treat?”

“I’m guessing you’ve never been to a fast-food place in your life?” Sapphie derided softly.

“Then you would be wrong,” Magnus murmured. “It’s been a while, but I believe I did grab a burger from one once out of desperation. It was the middle of the night and nowhere else was open,” he explained.

“Just the once?” she continued to tease.

“Yes, because I discovered from that single visit that I would need at least six of their so-called ‘meals’ to feel as if I’ve eaten anything.”

Sapphie gave a soft snort of laughter in response to his obvious disgust.

“Mummy says a fast-food meal doesn’t provide the five vegetables and the protein I need each day to stay healthy,” Angel answered him, obviously parroting something her mother had said to her on the subject.

“Mummy is right about that.” Magnus had to hold back his grin, guessing Angel was too young to know what the protein part of that comment meant. But he agreed totally with the rest of the comment. “I believe they now do bags of fruit you can order to go with the burger.”

“That might work. Mummy?” Angel prompted eagerly.

When Sapphie raised her head, Magnus was relieved to see that the banter between them seemed to have helped to ease the last of her tension. She wasn’t as deathly pale as she had been a few minutes ago either.

Magnus wasn’t about to admit it, but the break-in at the nursery and her apartment worried the hell out of him.

Linus had people keeping an eye on both places, but so far, it seemed the download of information at the nursery was all that had been taken.

Noticeably so, as far as Magnus was concerned.

Just as the deliberate damage to where Sapphie and Angel had been staying until yesterday sounded personal to him because of the words that had been spray-painted on the walls. Unless she asked, he had no intention of telling Sapphie what they were, and for the moment, she seemed to have been distracted by Angel’s request for a burger for her lunch. Magnus was happy to let it remain that way.

Sapphie now smiled at Angel. “I think a burger and a bag of fruit sounds like an excellent idea for our lunch. After which, I believe we’re collecting our stuff from our room before flying back to London with Magnus. We will probably also be staying with him for a while,” she accepted with a shaky smile in his direction that allowed him to know that, for the moment, she was conceding defeat on where she and Angel stayed.

“Will Angus be there too?” Angel pounced.

“Yes, Angus will be there with us.” Magnus knew Rufus would understand this temporary change of the dog’s residence after Magnus had had chance to explain the situation to his cousin.

Rufus would no doubt laugh his head off too, once he returned from his honeymoon and learned how Magnus had fallen in love at first sight and was now determined to remain working at the London office rather than returning to New York.

His brothers and cousin were all aware of his no-complications rule when it came to relationships. Sapphie wasn’t a mere complication. She had created a whole new category of her own.

He really wished Sapphie and Angel were coming to stay with him under better circumstances. But for now, he’d work with what he had. And right now, protecting Sapphie and Angel wasn’t just a priority, it was the only thing that mattered. It would remain that way even after he had ensured the two of them were safe.

“This is nice.” Sapphie was tired, after their less than satisfying burger meal followed by a drive out to the private airport just outside Edinburgh.

The helicopter ride had been noisy and nauseating, and she’d still been feeling ill during the drive into London. She’d regretted, many times, eating the burger earlier. Although Magnus and Angel, with Angus seated on her knee, had seemed unaffected by either the travel or the burger.

This lukewarm compliment about Magnus’s penthouse apartment was all Sapphie could manage right now.

Magnus had explained on the flight here that he only stayed at this apartment on his regular trips back to London. It was every bit as luxurious as Sapphie had imagined it would be, even if it was a little lacking in personal items, for obvious reasons. Being the penthouse apartment, it also took up the whole of the top floor of the twenty-story-high building.

Magnus had given her a brief tour, with the added comment she was welcome to go into any of the rooms, that nowhere was off limits.

The apartment had half a dozen bedrooms, all en suite, one of which Sapphie had said she would share with Angel. It also had a view of the London skyline out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that took up one wall of the open-plan sitting room/kitchen.

Sapphie and Marco had lived in a modern and luxurious three-bedroom apartment in Washington, DC, itself. But it had been nowhere near as big or as opulent as this penthouse apartment in the most prestigious area of London.

The walls were all painted white, with chrome and black decor. Totally unsuitable for sticky little fingers. The pale gray carpet was just as unsuitable for a child’s and doggy’s possibly muddy feet.

It was obviously an apartment owned and occasionally lived in by a bachelor.

Although, Angel and Angus seemed oblivious to Sapphie’s reservations as they sat on the couch across from the wide-screen TV attached to another wall of the sitting room. They were happily watching cartoons and sharing the bowl of popcorn Magnus had made for them in the microwave before then making a pot of tea for him and Sapphie to share.

“We can make any changes you want in the short-term while we look for a house to move into in the long-term,” he told her after pouring out two cups of the steaming brew.

Sapphie frowned. “We won’t be staying with you long enough for that to be necessary.”

Magnus stepped into her space. So close she could feel the heat of his body. She also had to tilt her head back, and then back again, to be able to meet his narrowed gaze.

“You’ll be staying with me for as long as it takes to ensure you and Angel are safe,” he growled.

Sapphie felt a fluttering in her chest, like a hundred butterflies flapping their wings. She was unsure if it was from apprehension at his warning tone or arousal at his proximity. “And when that happens, we’ll be moving on to somewhere new, not moving into a house with you.”

“Angel needs a garden to play in.” He glanced across the room to where Angus was snuggled up against a sleepy Angel on the couch. “And a dog of her own.” That piercing green gaze turned back to Sapphie. “She also needs a normal family, a father as well as a mother to protect and love her, and later on, brothers and sisters to laugh and argue with.”

Tears stung Sapphie’s eyes. She was well aware of what Angel needed. What she had thought her life was going to be as Marco’s wife. And look how differently that had turned out to her romantic dreams.

No, grateful as she was for Magnus’s help, she daren’t allow herself to rely on or trust him, or any man, in the way she had once trusted Marco and then been so let down and betrayed by him.

Which meant a family for Angel wasn’t going to happen, either in the short or long term.

“Linus is currently checking into everyone who arrived from the US in the past week,” Magnus told her. “He’s looking for anyone who could be connected to or employed by the Carluccis.”

Sapphie couldn’t believe this was happening again after all this time.

There had been a few times in the past two years when she had felt as if someone was watching her. When that happened, whether it was real or imagined, she had always moved them on to another city. Much as she had tried to do yesterday.

But that move had been because of Angel’s visit to the park rather than anything alerting Sapphie to danger. That lack of warning only made this latest situation all the scarier.

Would the Carluccis ever give up looking for them?

Or was this constantly running and hiding in yet another city going to continue being her own and Angel’s life for the foreseeable future?

Dear God, Angel wouldn’t be eighteen for another fourteen years.

“It’s ridiculous to think you can run and hide for that amount of time,” Magnus murmured, letting Sapphie know she had either said that last comment out loud or Magnus had been able to read her thoughts from her expression. “Someone needs to approach the Carluccis and tell them to back the fuck off.”

“You?” she scorned.

He nodded. “If you give me permission to do that on your behalf, then yes, I’ll do it.”

Sapphie gazed at him searchingly, but no matter how hard she looked, she could only see complete sincerity in those green eyes that steadily met hers. The same sincerity that had made her trust him enough to leave Edinburgh with him.

Her jaw tightened. “I can’t allow them to take Angel from me.”

“I’m not going to allow that to happen,” he rasped. “They already fucked up their son. I don’t intend to let them do the same to their granddaughter.”

Sapphie shook her head. “They won’t be happy accepting the same impasse we’ve had for the past two years,” she stated bleakly.

“They obviously never learned to share?—”

“I won’t allow them to take Angel for weekends either,” she snapped. “Once they had her, they would never give her back.” Sapphie was absolutely certain that would be the case.

“I was thinking more along the lines of supervised visits within your home, with either you or me or both of us also present.”

“You?”

“Have you given my marriage proposal any further thought?” Magnus prompted gruffly.

She gave a choked laugh. “No, and I’m not going to.”

He scowled. “Because you still suspect I might be in cahoots with the Carluccis.”

“No, I don’t think that anymore.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “Because if you were, then they or their representative would have been waiting for us at the airport when we arrived from Edinburgh, and Angel and I would already be on their private jet back to the US.”

“You now believe I truly want to help you, but you still won’t marry me?”

She winced. “No.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because I still can’t think of a single reason why you would want to tie yourself to a woman and a small child. One, moreover, who has serious and ongoing issues with her deceased husband’s parents.” She looked at the minimalistic decor in the sitting room. “You obviously enjoy living alone here and in New York, and going where you want and seeing who you want.”

“I did, yes.”

“Then why on earth would you want to give up any of that to involve yourself in the complication that is my life? And no, that wasn’t me being self-derogatory,” she quickly added when she saw the displeasure darken his expression and remembered his threat from earlier.

Although, that sudden warmth between her thighs from merely thinking of being put over Magnus’s muscular thighs and having her bottom spanked by him told her that certain parts of her weren’t averse to that outcome.

What was wrong with her?

Her sex life with Marco had been enjoyable at the beginning of their relationship. Nothing earth-shattering, but he was her first lover and she had believed herself in love with him. But in the end, the thought of Marco’s frequent infidelities had made it impossible for Sapphie to want to share a bed or herself with him ever again.

She hadn’t so much as looked at another man in that way since.

Until Magnus.

She had a feeling, just from the intense kisses the two of them had already shared, that making love with Magnus would not only be deeply sensual but also world -shattering as he focused all that intensity on her and on giving her pleasure.

Sapphie was trembling, aching, just from thinking about it.

“I wouldn’t be giving up anything that I don’t now consider superfluous to my life going forward,” Magnus reassured her.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Sapphie maintained stubbornly.

No, it didn’t. But if Magnus answered Sapphie’s question honestly, then she was likely to run for the hills and take her daughter with her. She already thought his marriage proposal was insane.

Telling her that what he felt for her, after only knowing her for twenty-four hours, was deeper and stronger than anything he had ever imagined he could feel for anyone, was more likely to scare her than reassure her.

Sapphie wasn’t just beautiful. She had remained faithful during her marriage, despite knowing her husband was constantly involved with other women. A lot of wives would have had a retaliatory affair. Sapphie hadn’t done that, even though Magnus believed she would have been perfectly justified in doing so.

She had also been strong and resourceful in her protection of her daughter, by taking Angel and running and continuing to evade being found for the two years since then.

“Angel told me you go to the library to work on a Tuesday,” he recalled curiously.

Sapphie nodded. “When I can get the work, I illustrate children’s books. Libraries have the open internet connection I need to be able to talk to my clients without it being traced back to me.”

“Linus would have been able to,” he warned. “He can hack into and hunt down anything and anyone he chooses.”

She sighed. “I did what I could to still be able to create a career that would give me the money Angel and I needed to be able to live off the grid.”

“So you’re an artist?”

She released a shaky sigh. “I only studied art and design at uni for one year. I gave it up when I met and married Marco and moved to the States with him.”

“Are you any good?”

She smiled wistfully. “My clients seem to think so, yes.”

Marco Carlucci had a lot to answer for!

“You could resume your studies if you married me,” Magnus assured.

Her eyes narrowed. “Marco said that too when I agreed to move to America with him. But once we were living in DC, we were always out at social engagements that would further his political ambitions, during the day as well as in the evenings. He especially liked showing me off once I was visibly pregnant with Angel. The devoted family man and all that,” she added bitterly.

Magnus felt a tightness in his chest just thinking of seeing Sapphie’s body round with his child.

“I’m nothing like Marco Carlucci,” he growled.

“I wouldn’t have come here with you, no matter how dire our situation had become, if I thought you were,” she stated flatly.

Magnus studied the pallor of her cheeks and the pain he could see in those beautiful violet eyes. “I would never betray our marriage or you in the base way that he did.”

She avoided meeting his gaze. “I can’t marry you, Magnus. I can’t marry anyone. Protecting Angel has to be my priority, my life, and I will not risk doing anything that would allow the Carluccis to find me and take her away from me. I appreciate your kindness in helping us so far. I really do. You’ve done everything you said you would, and more. But the last thing I want is to be trapped in another unhappy marriage.” She reached out to squeeze his forearm before walking away to join Angel and Angus on the couch.

Magnus had inwardly flinched at hearing her describe marriage to him in that way. Immediately followed by the thought: why wouldn’t she ? She didn’t know him. Hadn’t even met him until yesterday.

“I think you need to back the fuck off, bro.”

Magnus turned to see his younger brother had now joined him in looking across at the woman, child, and dog, all seemingly engrossed in watching the cartoon on the TV. Magnus doubted Sapphie was as engrossed in the colorful images playing on the screen as her daughter. In fact, she still looked a little shell-shocked.

He knew the reason he hadn’t heard Linus arrive was because he was so concentrated on Sapphie. “Did I say you could let yourself into my apartment, little brother?” He spoke softly so as not to disturb the trio on the couch.

“You said you wanted me to install greater security here, so yes, you did. I’ve also brought you some fresh groceries and Chinese food that can be warmed up for your dinner.” He placed the bags on the breakfast bar. “Before I came up, I also checked in downstairs on the upgrade I’d made to tighten the security in the building and to your apartment specifically.”

“Doesn’t seem to have kept you out,” Magnus rumbled.

“That’s because I’m the mad tech guy who not only built but can override every bit of security in this or any other of our buildings.”

“Thanks for the groceries,” Magnus muttered after looking in the bag and seeing bread, milk, and eggs, as well as cartons of delicious-smelling Chinese food.

Linus shrugged, still looking at a Sapphie, who appeared to be on the verge of falling asleep. “She’s beautiful.”

“And mine,” Magnus warned.

His brother grinned. “She doesn’t sound as sure of that as you are.”

“She will be.” She had to be. Magnus couldn’t imagine living his life without her and Angel in it now.

“If you say so.” Linus shrugged. “But I meant it about backing off. It might look romantic in the movies or to read about in books, but in real life, women really don’t like the full-on growly ‘you’re mine’ caveman routine.”

Magnus raised challenging brows. “How would you know?”

“By reading the expression on Sapphie’s face and her body language,” Linus came back. “She looks young to me, Mag, so God knows how young she looks to your old arse.”

There was a six-year age gap between the twins and Linus. It had seemed immense when they were young, but not so much now they were in their midthirties and early forties.

Unless Linus drew attention to it. Like now. “She looks like perfection to me,” Magnus affirmed.

“That’s good.”

“Angel likes me,” he added in what he recognized as a defensive tone.

“I’m sure that Sapphie likes you too; otherwise, she wouldn’t be here. But maybe drop the subject of marriage for the moment, hm?” Linus quirked one eyebrow.

Magnus felt the heated color enter his cheeks. “It’s what I want.”

His brother grinned. “I gathered that, and I’m thrilled that you’ve found the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with.”

“But back off talking to her about marriage?”

“It doesn’t have to be forever, just for now. She’ll come around. She certainly won’t find a better man than you to be her husband,” Linus added gruffly before straightening. “Now, introduce me to my future sister-in-law and step-niece.”

Magnus liked the sound of that. He liked the sound of that a lot.