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“What didn’t you like about Colton?” Magnus asked.
The question caught me off guard, but I forced myself to focus. No way was I getting into it again with Magnus…not when I felt like I was going to bust apart at the seams like I nearly had earlier in the kitchen before Rachel had arrived. I could still feel the heat of Magnus’s fingers where he’d held on to my arms. My skin tingled at the memory of his callused hand brushing my hair back out of my eyes. As angry as I’d been, I’d wanted him to thread his fingers in my hair, get a good, strong grip that I wouldn’t have been able to escape from…all so that he could kiss me however he wanted.
Which made no sense because kissing wasn’t my thing.
Not anymore.
“Like I said, totally fuckable,” I responded as casually as I could. In truth, Colton was a good-looking guy. Nearly as tall as Magnus with dark brown hair and a rangy body that could only have come from working the land. He’d had a much more pronounced Texas drawl than Magnus, but he’d been polite and friendly, unlike that prick Jeff from Magnus’s office. To Colton’s credit, he hadn’t asked a lot of questions when Magnus had introduced me as a friend who’d come down from Seattle to help him move.
Magnus let out a brief sigh, but didn’t say anything. I expected him to finally step aside and let me pass, but he surprised me when he straightened and then stepped even closer to me. My back was against the door which opened inwards towards the bedroom, so I was effectively trapped. Yeah, I could have easily escaped if I’d wanted to, because unlike in the kitchen, Magnus wasn’t touching me. But it would have looked like I was retreating and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let him see just how much his presence was really affecting me…not when we were no longer on even footing.
“Dante,” he said softly, his voice washing over me like an intimate caress. His head tilted just a little bit as if he was trying to find something in my expression. “Tell me how to fix this.”
Anxiety tore through me as I realized he was taking us right back to this afternoon before Rachel had shown up.
No. No fucking way.
I made a move to push past him, but his hand settled on my upper arm, gently holding me in place. “I need to go call Memphis to give him a status report,” I managed to get out, though my voice sounded uneven and shaky.
But Magnus didn’t release me, and to my shock, he stepped even closer so that we were practically nose to nose. It would have taken very little effort to brush my mouth over his. I shifted my hips back just a little to make sure he wouldn’t feel my growing erection, though I wasn’t sure why I cared since that was a surefire way to put an end to this conversation.
“I swear on Matty’s life,” he began, his voice fierce. “What happened in Ronan’s office the day of the wedding wasn’t about you…not about your skills anyway.”
Heat and need were making it hard for me to think clearly and I had trouble focusing on the words he was saying. I just needed to taste him so fucking bad, my feelings about kissing be damned. But what he said was finally registering in my addled brain and I forced myself to settle my gaze on his eyes instead of his tempting mouth. But before I could respond, he continued.
“I’ve been taking care of myself since I was ten years old. As a cop, I’ve been shot at, knifed, and threatened with death on a pretty regular basis and I’m still here. So, you can imagine what it was like to walk into that room and have someone tell me I needed a keeper.”
“That’s not what Ronan and Memphis were saying…they were just worried about you.”
“That’s something else I don’t have a lot of experience with,” Magnus said softly. I struggled to ignore the pleasant sensation traveling up my arm where he was holding on to me. “Truth?” Magnus asked.
I nodded.
“I like knowing someone has my back.” He paused for a beat and then his voice dropped even lower. “And I like knowing it’s you.”
I didn’t even know how to process that. I so badly wanted to believe him, but it made no sense. He hated my guts. I hated his.
Except I didn’t. I hated how he made me feel, but I didn’t hate him. Far from it.
Since I had no idea what to say, I settled for, “He has trouble looking you in the eye.” At Magnus’s confused look, I said, “Colton…when you talk about certain things, he doesn’t look you in the eye. Like when you told him how much you appreciated his wife’s help.”
