AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After a moment, I realize I can’t stop thinking about being put over his knee. That image making my nipples draw tight and tenses the muscles inside my girl parts. “So, what other transgressions might beget me a spot over your knee?”
“Not doing as you’re told.” He glances over, then back at the road, his smile fading a bit but not disappearing. “If I tell you to do something, I’ve thought it through. Whatever it is, it will be what’s best for you. You are from this day forward my primary responsibility, and I take that seriously. Test me as you wish, you will never see me angry. I will be your greatest hero, and sometimes that might get you what you think you want, but I assure you, babygirl, Daddy will always give you what you need.”
My stomach feels like it just took a ride on a tilt-a-whirl. Whenever he says that word my legs press together and muscles I didn’t know I had tighten up.
The Charger is pristine, like he just drove it straight off the lot. The dashboard gleams as the sun comes through my window and onto the black vinyl. The car is as pressed and clean as Magnus himself, and that’s a bigger turn on that I ever expected.
I am lulled into an odd sense of connection and security at the sound of his gruff, smooth voice. His choice of words. The meaning behind them. My girl parts are still tingling, and yet I’m more peaceful than I’ve been in months. Maybe even years.
“I don’t know what to say.” That’s complete honesty. I want everything he said, and for once, I’m not over thinking it. I’m following this feeling he’s bringing out inside me. I have no questions.
More than anything, I want to be curled into his lap, his hands in my hair, his lips wherever he wishes to put them. A shiver courses down my back at that thought. The way he attacked me with his mouth was unlike anything I could imagine.
“Then say nothing right now. But I want you to know, your voice matters to me. More than anything, so when you do have something to say, I want to hear it. But...” He pauses, turning and tipping his chin lower so he can look at me from under his brow. “Sassy little girls are punished.” He turns back to the road. “So, keep that in mind.”
My heart leaps as he takes the exit ramp toward Denning just outside of Lake Sherwood, the resort area where my mom and I used to go sometimes.
Magnus said we were going to his family’s cabin out here. The idea of sleeping with a view of the lake is wonderful, and I’m hoping that a nap is in my near future, because my eyelids seem to be weighted.
By the time we pull into the gravel driveway, I’m close to dozing off, but even through my tiredness I can’t help but take in how magnificent it all is. This was not what I expected at all. I guess it is technically a cabin because it’s all timber-framed and log built. But, wow, it’s not a little family cabin on a lake. It’s as big as the apartment building where I used to live with my mom. The front entry arch is up so high I have to turn my head to the side and look out the front windshield, straining to see the peak.
Then, as Magnus pulls the car to a stop at the entrance, I get a little taste of magic. Taking a deep breath, I let out a little moan. The sun is dipping down, and I can see the glass surface of the lake reflecting the tangerine orb as it hits the horizon and ignites in pink and orange.
“That’s so beautiful.” I let out the sleepy words, a little embarrassed that I’m nearly falling asleep on our first official date. But I’m that comfortable. More so than I can remember for so far back.
“No.” He lifts the back of my hand to his lips. “That’s a su
nset. You’re beautiful.”
Magnus is out of the car and at my door in what seems to be a single stride, swifter than a man of his size should be. He takes my hand and gently pulls me out of the car.
“This is your family’s place?”
“Yep. See over there?” He wraps an arm around my shoulders, turning me to face a small, dark-wood cottage, sitting closer to the lake. “That’s the place my mom and dad bought. We used to spend summers here, and holidays too. Ice skated on the lake at Christmas and learned to sail in the summer.”
There is a wistful distance in his voice, a fondness tipped with sadness.
“Good memories.”
“Very good. I still miss my parents. Dad died around twelve years ago and Mom five years later. She just didn’t have the heart to go on without him. They were...” He trails off and hugs me tighter. I press my face into his leather jacket. His scent is there along with the leather, fresh but masculine, and I draw a deep breath as he continues. “...great parents. And they loved each other every day. Dad always said he fell in love with my mom in one second.”
We start toward the front door of the huge cabin when Magnus stops dead, and my heart clenches. Maybe thinking of his parents makes this seem trivial.
“I don’t want you going back to that job.”
His voice takes on an authority that shifts parts inside my body.
“There are these things called bills.” My reply meets his authority with a bit more snot than I intended, but it’s true. It must be nice to be all set up with family money, but most of us aren’t that lucky. I have not had the same experience. “Not everyone has a silver spoon to call on when they need it.” I top off my snot with that snark, and I half expect Magnus to let me go from his embrace, but instead he pulls me closer.
“Baby,” he says, turning to look down. “You’re tired. But when you’re ready, in the next few days, I want to know all about these ‘bills’ you have to pay. I don’t think you quite grasp the idea yet. Daddy wants everything from you. That includes your bills. But I get it, this is new to you; you will come to understand. For now, as much as I’d like to get you inside and continue what we started in the car, you need rest. And it’s my job to give you what you need.”
He has to bend far down to plant a kiss on the top of my head, and as much as I want to tell him I am perfectly capable of paying my own bills and that he should mind his own beeswax, a bigger part of me literally swoons.
I think I should tell him that, but if I’m being honest, and it seems he’s bringing the honest out in me, it would be really nice to be so taken care of. I don’t care about a lot of money, never have. Mom taught me to live in the moment. In the experiences of life, not in things. But bills still had to be paid, so I learned to persevere with my reading. I love my books because they let me have experiences I couldn’t have any other way. I’ve traveled, I’ve been in love, I’ve witnessed murders and horrible family drama. It may take me ten times longer than most to get though my books, but I love them just the same.
But right now, I want to experience this. And this is real.
We blend together as we walk under the entryway. Magnus has a key ready and the deadbolt makes a thump that matches what my heart is doing inside my chest.
