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“I definitely will,” she assured him. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he answered. “Good night.”
“Night.”
With that, he disconnected the call and grinned. He realized as he hauled himself out of bed that it had been a long time since anyone said those particular words to him. He didn't exactly dwell on it, but not hearing it in over sixty years could really make a man wonder. For the first time in longer than he could recall, he was content.Chapter Twelve
Caroline stepped out of the bedroom and walked down the hallway. She followed the sound of cursing until she found Magnus standing at the mirror by the front door as he adjusted his tie. “Problem?” she asked.
“Yes. This bloody tie won't...” he grumbled, turning his head slightly to acknowledge her. When he spotted her, he broke off, turning around to take her in. “You look amazing, love.”
“Thank you. You look pretty handsome, yourself. Except... Here. Let me mess with the tie,” she said, stepping forward.
He settled his hands on her waist and asked, “Can we just skip the party? We can stay here. I can peel this lovely dress off of you. I wager you're wearing something equally enticing underneath. Why don't you tell me about it while you're fixing my tie?”
“We've gotta leave pretty soon. Are you sure?”
“Tell me,” he ordered, his eyes darkening.
“Black opera lace garter belt, matching panties, and no bra,” she said, giving his tie one last tug before she stepped back.
“No bra?”
Oh, Caroline realized. He hadn't seen the back of the dress yet. She'd gone shopping the other morning and found a fantastic sheath dress. It was a dark purple with shiny black threads shot through the fabric. The cut was conservative in the front, ending at her collarbones. The back was another story entirely. Laced together with strands of crystal, it was nearly backless. Rather than explain all of that, she merely turned around to show him.
“You in that dress is doing things to me. We need to leave now or I'm going to drag you into the bedroom.”
“Feel free to follow through on that threat. Later,” Caroline said. “I just need to get my shoes and we can leave.”
Magnus gave her an unrepentant grin. “Don't take too long, now. My self-control is already taxed whenever you're near.”
Caroline smiled as she walked back down the hallway into the bedroom. When she didn't see her overnight bag, she called out. “Where did my overnight bag go?”
“Closet,” he answered, his voice carrying down the hallway. “I cleared a bit of space out for you so you don't have to lug things back and forth!”
She opened the closet and raised an eyebrow. It looked like roughly half the space in the closet was clear. She wondered if this was a subtle hint.
Reaching for her bag, Caroline unzipped it and pulled out the shoes. Placing it back on the shelf, she turned around to find Magnus standing in the doorway. “A bit of space?” she asked.
“I was hoping you might consider moving in with me,” he admitted, hovering apprehensively in the doorway. “With you being here almost every night, I thought maybe...”
“You thought maybe I'd want to stay permanently?” she asked, the shoes slipping from her fingers.
He nodded.
Just looking at his hopeful gaze moved something inside her. God, but she loved this man. She felt her eyes water and desperately needed to put herself back on a more even keel. So, she studied him for a moment, as deadpan as she could manage under the circumstances and asked, “Would your spa privileges extend to me, do you think?”
Magnus snorted, clearly on to her game. She could already see the pleasure and triumph warring with some other unnamed emotion on his face. “Is that what's important here? Spa privileges?”
“Uh. There's a lot to be said for deep tissue massages, Magnus. I have to consider all of the facts!” she teased.
Magnus stepped away from the door and around her, a smirk on his face. He said, “Sorry. If you'll excuse me, I just need to move these clothes back over here.”
She watched as he started to scoot hangers back across the rail into the empty. “Fine, fine. No spa privileges needed. When my lease is up at the end of December, I'll move in.”
“For the record, I think you do get spa privileges. I'll look over the contract to confirm it includes everyone in the unit, though,”
he said, love written all over his face.
