Page 107 of My Favorite Boss

I would hold him until he felt my love. Until it filled him up and he could stand on his own.

And I would be right beside him, ready to fill him up again anytime he needed it.

BANE

I held her as tight as I could. No one had ever defended me the way she had done. Stood up and yelled at the two people who liked to criticize and tear me down. I had long since stopped caring what they thought and let their words roll off my back, but there was a small part of me that still cringed at their hateful vitriol.

But with Magnolia wrapped around me, none of it hurt. I had her.

And she’d said the words to me.

I love you.

No one had ever said those words to me before today.

I only wished I were capable of saying them back. Of feeling them.

But my mother and her cold ways had long since stripped me of those emotions.

I cared. I truly cared. I wanted Magnolia safe, appreciated, even cherished, but I couldn’t love.

However, I could make sure she would never want for anything.

There was another knock, and I felt Magnolia tense.

“That better be some spring rolls,” I muttered. “Anyone else, and they’re getting a punch in the jaw.”

I stepped back, instantly missing the warmth of her against me. Wrapped in her arms, I had the sense nothing could hurt me. She wouldn’t allow it.

It was disconcerting, to say the least.

But I liked it.

I opened the door, taking the bag from the usual deliveryman. I tipped him well and went to the kitchen, setting the bag on the counter. Magnolia was quiet, staring at the island, tracing a finger over the design in the quartz repeatedly.

“Hey,” I called.

She looked up, clearly distraught.

“They’re gone. I refuse to let them take away the evening we had planned. I want this time with you, Maggie darling. Us. Okay?”

She nodded halfheartedly.

“I want Chinese, a movie, and you under me later, groaning my name. Maybe on top too.”

A glimmer of a smile crossed her face.

“Is that all you think of?”

“When you’re close, yes. Now, if it would make you feel better, I have a key to Terry’s place I stole once, planning to play a joke on him. I never did, but we could go hide in the dark and jump him when he gets home. Leave him naked and tied up with the doors open. Call the rags he loves to have his name in and let them find him. Then we could go to my mother’s and rearrange her pristine wardrobe so she couldn’t find anything. Steal all her matching shoes and only leave her with one of each. That would hurt her more than physical violence.”

That brought a grin to her lips. “Did you see?” she said with a giggle.

I returned her grin, handing her a spring roll.

“Once you pointed it out. Which I loved, by the way. She was as horrified by the idea of me shitting my pants in public.”

She nodded, sliding onto a stool and taking a bite of her spring roll. “Same thing in her eyes.”