Magnus Read online

  Magnus gasps and his face contorts with a dilemma. And I know he wants to back off, and I know he wants to keep me safe.

  For once in my life, I’m making the move. And I’m taking my man.

  Rising to the tips of my toes, I let my breath caress his mouth as I brush our lips together. Unbuttoning the front of his suit, I run my fingers up his hard chest until I grip his necktie, forcing him to face me. Our gazes lock, and there’s defiance in mine.

  I defy him to back off on me. Defy him to deny his nature. To reject the calling inside him, the yearning I know his panther has for me.

  Magnus’s face relaxes and I see the moment he accepts his defeat. But when he clashes his mouth to mine, the kiss doesn’t feel like he’s losing anything. No, he’s winning. Winning me. Us. And he devours me hard, letting me know that’s exactly what he thinks.

  Us. That’s what matters. Screw the rest.

  Hands on my hips, his fingers curl and uncurl, grip and release. The kiss leaves me breathless just as the one in the storage. And I’m sure every other kiss we share will feel exactly like this.

  Like we’ve been drowning. Like we’re each other’s salvation.

  In mere seconds, his lips and his body are all I feel. The pressing of his erection against my lower belly, harder with every second that passes, the heat of his breath against my cheek. Every sweep of his tongue wrestles a new moan from me. New desire. My flesh crawls with need, fierce and sharp.

  Magnus runs his palms up my thighs to grip my backside, hauling me over the kitchen sink. My legs come around his waist and he fumbles with the length of the dress until he can touch my knees. His fingertips sear the places they touch and I jerk, pressing him harder against me.

  “I want you more than anything,” he groans into the kiss, our mouths separating for seconds as we breathe. He looks straight into my eyes, truth across his gaze. “There’s a huge quandary inside of me because of that. I want you. I’d die for you. But I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  Folding my arms behind his neck, I breathe his scent in. Musky and powerful, an aroma I will never forget. “I could get hurt walking down the stairs in heels, Magnus. You can’t stop that from happening. Don’t keep me away from you because of that possibility.”

  He shakes his head, pressing his lips into mine desperately. “I won’t. Never again.”

  Parting my lips for him, I receive his tongue once more, and we kiss more passionately than a second earlier. His hands come up my thighs, flipping the dress up so my panties are exposed.

  Magnus drops to his knees between my legs and pulls me to the edge of the sink. I gasp with the hard motions, bracing myself as he buries his face between my thighs.

  A gasp escapes me as he takes a deep breath, releasing something akin to a growl against the inside of my leg. “Fuck,” he says, “you smell fantastic.”

  And before I’m able to conjure any word, he pries my knees apart, hooks his thumb on the hem of my panties, pulling them sideways, and devours my pussy. My knees jerk as I try to close them, but he keeps them apart, my nakedness revealed.

  Magnus’s tongue licks along my seam, and he grunts to the taste of me on his lips. I’m quivering as I grip the edge of the sink until my knuckles bleach, the attention he lavishes upon my clit like nothing I’ve ever felt. He’s thorough as he adores my folds, exploring and delving deeper, kissing, and licking.

  Closing his lips around my clit, he sucks hard, taking turns with his motions until he has memorized the way I like it. The way he makes me shudder, the way my moans grow more intense. Magnus grips my thighs and brings me higher with every lap of his tongue, and when I start bucking against his face, he braces his hands around my hips to help.

  He gives me the freedom to press my pussy against his lips as I approach a climax, and the strength of a release runs down my spine. My chest heaving with how hard it has become to breathe, I drop my head back and let the orgasm crash over me. Pleasure explodes on the back of my eyelids like fireworks, hard like a punch, and it stretches on and on as Magnus doesn’t release me. I buck, riding his face, riding that bliss.

  My toes curling inside my shoes, I cry his name out loud, and I savor that absurd moment as the guy I had a crush on eats my pussy on my kitchen sink.

  My mate.

  Magnus comes up as I shiver with aftershocks, and he brings me against his body, carrying me off the kitchen. I hold on, letting him do whatever he will to me. Lips press into the crook of my neck as he walks me into my bedroom and presses me down the mattress. His hands are gentle as he undoes the straps of my sandals, but hurried as he frees himself of his necktie.

  His irises are pure gold as he watches me through half-lidded eyes.

  I pull my lower lip between my teeth. “Are we mating?”

  He nods, gravely. “I can’t wait another second to have you.”

  Gooseflesh covers my skin as he comes over me, and his body fits between my legs like we’re two puzzles pieces. Clicking in place.

  Meant to be.

  10

  MAGNUS

  The taste of my woman’s cunt coats my lips, and I lick at them, hungry. Starved for more.

  My woman. Karen’s mine, and she wants to take every challenge and every danger with me. And even if I had been unwilling at first, I can’t stay away. I just can’t.

  My panther had been so fucking mad at me. Roaring, threatening to take control if I dared to send Karen away. A shifter waits for his mate his entire life. How did I dare thinking that? Thinking of not having her?

  Our kisses are things I dreamed of. They connect. Perfect synchrony. Delectable taste. We don’t miss a beat as our mouths search and ache for more, kissing and exploring and nibbling. Karen finds a place on my pulse where every bite of hers drive more lust coursing through my body. My member hurts with how hard I am for her right now. How hard I’ll always be when she’s with me.

  Finding the zipper of her dress, I pull it down slowly. Inch by inch I reveal more of her skin. The straps come down the smooth, creamy length of her arms. The cleavage reveals her chest, the swell of her breasts. Torturing myself, I reveal her stomach, and the curve of her large hips. When the dress drops to the floor, I’m almost coming in my pants.

  A snarl escapes my lips. Karen presses her arms to the sides of her breasts, making them jiggle.

  “Oh, mate, won’t you ever stop teasing me?” I say as I stand back and take a good look at her form. Burn it to my memory.

  “Teasing?” She chews on her lower lip, batting her lashes in a coy expression I want to wipe off her face. I want to see her eyes rolling to the back of her head, her mouth hanging open in stupid pleasure. The flush across her cheeks can stay.

  I kick off my shoes, then let my suit, shirt and pants drop. When we’re both in our undergarments, I crawl on top of her again, running my nose over the center of her body, inhaling the sweet mixed scent of her natural aroma and her powerful arousal. My cock presses into her center, and my panther purrs in delight.

  “Do you know how it works?” I ask her as my fingertips run down the curve of her neck.

  “Sex? Or the mating mark?” She smiles, and in her eyes there’s so much affection I press a kiss into her lips. When she breaks it, she murmurs, “I know about both.”

  “The mating mark is permanent,” I let her know. Not because I want to scare her, but because I need her to be sure of our next steps. Fucking her without the mating mark can happen, but since she’s my mate, it would be so much better to have both. The connection of mates is indescribable. It’s everything a shifter wishes for. “You’d be stuck with me for the rest of our lives.”

  “You say it like it’s a bad thing.” A smile spills from her lips, and I can’t help but smile back. “I’ve always had a crush on you. Today, it may have flared to something bigger than that.”

  I groan into her throat. “I want you so much it’s hard to put into words. Even for me. And I can never shut up.”

  She chuckles, the sound low,
muffled. When I meet her eyes, they glisten with an earnest feeling. “I want it. Everything. The good and the bad. The peace and the war. Just keep me with you, and I’ll be happy.”

  Her words reach deep inside my chest, clutch at my heart, squeeze it. I release a breath, every restraint dropping.

  She’s mine. All is well.

  Kissing her jaw, I brush my lips down the thrumming pulse in her throat to the point where her neck connects with her shoulder. I kiss the place, nibble on it. Karen knows what’s about to happen, and she shivers in expectation. Her knees lock around my waist, her nails digging into the flesh of my hips.

  We move together, her pussy rubbing along my length, precome staining my boxers. A moan leaves her as she rolls her hips against mine, as she seeks and finds her pleasure. Roping her blond strands between my fingers, I pull her head sideways, a long groan spilling from her pillowy lips. Exposing her neck to me, I take a deep breath in and press my teeth to her skin.

  My panther rises to the surface, stretching, taking as much pleasure of this moment as he can. My teeth sharpen to fangs and I lock my jaw, sinking into the tender flesh.

  Karen gasps, her hold tightening around me. I stay, unmoving, waiting for her response. Once she relaxes, her legs parting once more, her hips seeking mine, I know pain has released her, and pleasure has taken control. I sink the rest of my teeth in, concluding the mating mark.

  It clicks. My entire life is worth this moment. The moment our mating bond falls into place.

  Her sounds are of pure bliss as I pull back and lick along the wound. It shall be purple and sensitive for a few days, but soon it will be gone for human eyes. Only shifters will be able to see it. To know she belongs to me.

  A moment later, I free both our bodies of the last of their clothing. Karen’s head bobs from side to side in delirious heat as I push her breasts together and suck on her hard nipples. I adore the orbs, kissing along every inch of her skin, then moving down to find her entrance with my cock.

  She snaps her eyes open so our gazes lock. A thumb on her cheek, our lips brush against one another as I sink my cock inside her.

  I press a kiss to the mating mark on her neck. Her brows rake up her forehead and her mouth drops open as she feels it too. The connection goes both ways. We’re forever joined now.

  “Karen,” I mumble, my breath hitching. “My sweet Karen.”

  “Yours,” she agrees, bringing her knees up so I enter her even deeper. A moan is muffled as I clash our mouths together, and from now on, there’s no more romance.

  When I grip her hips and start to move, it’s primal. Raw. Shifting so I can look at the place our bodies become one, I watch my girth spreading her cunt, her juices overflowing with every pound of my hips. Karen moves as if in a fever, her breasts bouncing with the motions.

  “Tell me, mate,” I roar with a voice not entirely my own. “How does it feel? To be mine?”

  “So good,” she mumbles amid moans and sharp circles of her hips. “So good!” Then her voice lowers to a mutter, and a torrent of “more more more” is all I hear, mixed with the slapping of our bodies. Gripping her knees, I push them up and apart, spreading her for my viewing pleasure.

  The rocking of my hips into hers becomes sharp, hard as I feel her inner walls clamping down around me. Karen wails as she fists the sheets, her brows pressing together in concentration. From how high her moans grow, I know she’s teetering on the edge. I feel the tightening of her little cunt around me, the slight tremors as she approaches her climax.

  Tilting my hips, I watch with rapt attention the moment Karen bursts at the seams. Just the way I wanted, her eyes roll to the back of her head and her jaw slackens as she cries out. Deep, desperate sobs escape her as her every muscle tenses and relaxes. Her cunt tightens around me like a vise and stars explode on the back of my eyelids as I hold my orgasm back.

  I need her to come again. Just once more.

  Pulling back, I let my cock escape the sweet wetness of her core. Clutching her hips with both hands, I flip her, covering her body with mine and slamming into her entrance.

  My lips meet the place I bit her, and I nibble the sensitive skin as I drive my meat into her. Hard, violent, my nails turning into claws as my panther fights for control. Fights to be the one taking her.

  Karen’s moans are muffled by the pillows and she reaches up to throw them off the bed. We’re one in that moment, and every jerk of my hips brings the two of us closer to the edge. Together.

  Fisting her hair and tilting her head sideways, I devour the moans leaving her lips, fucking her into the mattress until she’s a mewling, crying mess, ready to come all over again.

  Karen tilts her hips up. “I’m coming,” she moans, out of breath, against the kiss.

  “Come for me, mate.” I tighten the grip around her hair. “I’m only putting my load inside you after you come.”

  “Fuu—” She groans, her brows pinching. Her body trembles and Karen screams her pleasure to the world as she creams my cock.

  And I’m next.

  With a tingle darting down my spine, I burst. My balls squeeze every drop of my seed straight into her womb, and I’m left gasping as I hold myself inside her. We take a moment to catch our breaths, and I kiss a trail down her spine. Karen’s skin shimmers with a thin veil of sweat, and I spend a beat exploring her backside. Kneading her plump bottom, promising myself I’m spanking that next time.

  When I pull out, with regret, Karen plops to her side to grin at me. The smile across her face is open, heartfelt. Beautiful.

  “I wonder if every sex is going to be this amazing. My brain kind of exploded at the end,” she says with a chuckle.

  I lie next to her, bringing her close to my chest. Her head fits the space between my chest and my shoulder perfectly. As if we’ve been built for this.

  “From what I’ve heard,” I breathe against her temple, “yes. Every sex is better than the previous.”

  “Wow, I don’t think I can handle that.” She chuckles into my throat, and with my hand in her hair, we kiss. Over and over and over, until her lips are bruised and I’m digging my hard-yet-again dick into her thigh.

  I’m carrying Karen to the bathroom to bathe her when I hear the buzz of a phone. Hers, clearly.

  Karen slaps a hand to her forehead. “We forgot about your driver!”

  I legitimately think about ignoring the call. All I want in this moment is to bathe my woman and care for her. Once she’s ready, I’ll fuck her once more. As previously mentioned, that ass needs some spanking. It just begs for it.

  But I put her down and stride into the living room, fishing the phone from the couch. Walking back to her, I offer the device and contemplate her eyes flickering with doubt.

  “What do you want to do?” She asks with hesitation in her voice.

  Hugging her close, I kiss the top of her head. “I want to stay with you. Send him off. We’ll call him when we’re ready.”

  And with a smile, that’s what she does. It’s the first day of the rest of our lives, and I’m not wasting a second parted from her.

  EPILOGUE

  KAREN

  ONE YEAR LATER

  The flash of a camera pops to my left. It always catches me off guard. With a jerk, I look at the source of light with raised brows.

  “Wow, these guys never give up,” Jason says from where he walks behind me.

  The paparazzi stands half-concealed behind a black car, his large lens propped upon the hood.

  “No, they don’t,” I reply, raising a hand and waving at the paparazzi with a smile. My other hand cradles my swollen belly. At first, I hated the pictures and the media attention I got from being Magnus’s mate, but you get used to it. You either learn to deal with it, or it’ll drive you mad.

  And that’s the very reason we’re planning a six-month vacation to a secret place once the baby’s born. We want that moment to ourselves. Or at least ourselves and the several guards that follow me ever since I mated Magnus.
/>   Jason’s always around, but if I keep a sharp eye, I can identify three or four more as we walk from the office to the waiting car. Jason opens the door for me and I slide in to meet my husband’s smiling face.

  “Hey, mate,” he murmurs against my lips as he kisses me. Magnus has been true to his word. We’re never parted for long. Sex is always better than the previous one. He makes me a bit happier every day.

  I snake my arms around his neck, hugging him close as Jason takes the passenger seat. He checks the street ahead with his contact on his earpiece before giving our driver the go. Magnus fastens my seatbelt around my belly, then leans and kisses the top of my stomach.

  After that incident in the coffee shop the day we met, Magnus grew serious about the protecting business. At first, we feared what the public would think once they found out the attacker was a shifter. The man, arrested in the same day, had been an underground fighter. He was fired once his boss found out he was half-lion, judging the shifter nature an unfair advantage. The man was bitter, and decided to take it out on Magnus. Thankfully, after Magnus went to the public to explain what happened, a wave of sympathy washed over people and the threats ceased. The terrorists may have noticed they were in a much smaller number, and every time we went to a march or Magnus gave a speech, people were quick to put down any offensive signs.

  It had become a common effort. Though there are still challenges to overcome, we feel much more hopeful now.

  “How was your morning?” Magnus says into my ear as we drive off. The way he says it makes it sound erotic, and the hand brushing up and down my thigh does not help.

  “Good,” I tremble out. Clearing my throat, I shoot him a glare. He smiles as the cat he is. “It was good. We’re about to sign a partnership to have a physical store downtown. Nat loves the idea, and she’s all over Pinterest looking for decoration.”