Defending Destiny (The Warrior Chronicles) (22 page)

Magnus took a step forward, then another. He didn’t stop until he was just out of touching distance for her, not him. He could reach out and grab her if he wished. She had no way to get around him without being captured and he was in a capturing frame of mind. Yet he wanted her to come to him knowing it would be that simple, that complex, and that elemental.

“If all I wanted was sex, I’d jack off in the shower.” She startled at the bluntness of his words. Want and need and uncomplicated sex were fine things. Just not for them. Not now. Not ever again, and Daisy needed to know it in her bones and acknowledge it.

Silently praying that she would, Magnus poured out all the raw emotion running through his veins. “It was never just sex between us and it will never be. Not for me. Not for you. I will use every tool I’ve got to make your eyes shine with love for me again. My hands, my lips, my tongue. There will be no place and nothing left unexplored. I’ll remind you that I was your first love and I plan to be your last with every stroke, with every touch, with every kiss. When I make love to you, I’ll be giving my heart, my mind, my body, and my spirit.”

Her eyes widened.

Magnus gave a small smile. She was achingly beautiful when she let him see into her heart, even if it was only just a glimpse.

“You’ll be getting all of me, lass, and I’ll be demanding all of you. Every time. Every day, from today until the day you die. On that day, Goddess willing, many decades from now, I’ll be the one cradling you to my chest as my last breath leaves my lungs in a prayer of thankfulness for every moment spent with you. For every smile, every touch, every passing glance filled with love.”

Magnus reached down to cup Daisy’s lovely face and placed a damp corkscrew curl behind the shell of her ear. He could see her pulse beating at the side of her neck. Her sherry-colored eyes, so thick with pupil, deepened with his touch. Her breath caught and she moved her cheek to his palm, rubbing her soft skin against his hardened callouses. She wanted him too, that much was clear. The question remained whether or not she’d take him, knowing he meant every word. If she did, there would be no going back. For either of them.

“In light of all that, will you take me inside you, Daisy? Will you make love to me with your heart, your body, and your soul? Do you understand what I’m asking, lass?”

Daisy closed her eyes.

Magnus let his hand fall to his side. That was her choice, and he’d try to honor it if she turned him down, not knowing if he was strong enough to walk away, having come this close to her flame.

A second passed. Then another. And another.

Daisy opened her eyes and looked at him with the tiniest whisper of the love she once had for him. She opened her mouth and said the one word he ached to hear, “
Yesss.
”

That was all.

It was enough.

…

It wasn’t until much later that Magnus realized his mistake. He should not have asked the last question. Of course she understood him and his intent. The question remained, were her heart and spirit as open to him as her body?

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Before the word was out of her mouth, Daisy was lifted from the tub and plastered against Magnus’ slick chest, soaking his jeans with the water from her bath. He held her to him with his two massive hands, one under each arm, for a second before scooping her up and carrying her to his bed.

He placed her gently on top of the lightweight down comforter—that was Scotland’s nod to summer bedding—then stood back. His gaze flowed over her like warm honey, slowly but surely, covering everything in its path in its sweet embrace. His nostrils flared and his pectoral muscles rippled. For the first time in a long time, Daisy felt fully at home in her skin. It was an odd feeling since she could feel every beat of her heart, every pulse of it riding her skin.

Daisy welcomed it without judgment. She felt right, there with him. She was exactly where she was supposed to be and no matter how his declarations of intent scared her in the tub, they didn’t now. Now there was no room for questioning. No room for doubt. She’d made her choice, and she was going to enjoy every second of it.

Daisy moved to her side facing him, one hand under her ear, propping herself up. She lifted one leg slightly, rubbing up and down, enjoying the feel of skin against damp skin. The chain around her neck shifted with her movement, the pendant she wore caught in the space between her breasts.

Magnus’ gaze followed the movement. When his eyes lit on her pendant, a sound, not unlike a wild animal in pain, tore from him. Deep, low and so full of raw emotion it needed no words. Then she was flat on her back with him above her. He cradled her head in his large hands and pinned her legs between his, keeping his weight from her chest. His thumbs were infinitely gentle as he traced her check bones, her temples, her ears. His platinum irises had gone stormy, circled with a ring of gray so dark it appeared charcoal.

Daisy reached up and cupped the side of his face, tracing his thick, silky black brows before moving to the smile lines so evident at the corners of his magnificent eyes. “You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen, Magnus Shamrock Alexander.”

Those lovely eyes flashed, but he ignored her compliment. He had something else on his mind. His gaze moved from her face to her chest, where the pendant he’d made for her so long ago rested. “You kept it.”

He sounded awed and surprised, like he didn’t quite believe what hi
s eyes were telling him. “I watched you throw it in the pond.”

Daisy moved her head to the side, shaking off his hands. She wanted to see him, but he wasn’t looking at her. He seemed lost in a memory, one that caused him pain.

“I was alone that day,” Daisy said, and she had been. It was the day she fled Potters Woods. The day she was supposed to meet her family at the Celtic Studies building for the grand opening of the new research center. She’d didn’t make it.

“No, you weren’t alone. You only thought you were.” Magnus looked up at her. “I watched you throw my gift away. Something inside me broke that day. How did you get it back? That pond is nothing but silt on the bottom.”

Daisy didn’t want to talk about that day or the hurt that made her impulsively throw away something she loved. She didn’t want to talk about the overwhelming feeling of loss and regret that washed through her the second the stone left her hand. She didn’t want to think of the endless dives she made to the bottom only to return emptyhanded and more desperate and alone than before. She didn’t want to talk about it, so she didn’t.

She looked up into his heated, questioning eyes and told him the truth. “I don’t know how I got the pendant back. It just appeared under my pillow three nights later. I tried to find it, but couldn’t. Apparently no one but you saw me toss it into the pond. So I don’t know who
found it for me.”

Daisy cocked her head at him. “I lived seventy-two hours without it. That was long enough. I’ve lived much longer without you. Way too long. Can we just be grateful that we, and it, are here now and let the rest go?” She wanted to forget the past and start anew.

Magnus didn’t answer, he simply scanned her face, her eyes, her mouth, for the truth of her words. Then he kissed her and rolled her on top of him, holding her to him by her nape and the small of her back. His lips devoured hers, hard at first, seeking entrance. Once granted, his grip eased and his tongue explored hers. As her need grew, his touch became more languid, more teasing.

His hands found her scalp, fingers entwined in her curls. He pulled her head back and exposed her neck, her collarbone, and the top of her breasts to his mouth and his hot tongue. Daisy groaned as his breath, his lips and his tongue blazed a trail from behind her ear, across her collarbone to the valley between her breasts. Watching her, he took her pendant into his mouth. She couldn’t look away. His eyes glazed, changing from storm to bright sterling then back again. Daisy felt the pull on the back of her neck as he pulled the chain taut and she watched the most erotic display she’d ever seen. He was overloading her emotions and her senses.

She was going to explode before he even got his jeans off.

She rocked her hips back against the damp denim and a bolt of electricity shot through her. Magnus’ hands went to her hips and he pulled her back against him. He let go of her pendant at the same time he arched his back, rubbing his pelvic bone against her heat. His jeans felt cool and rough and so good she moved against him once more.

“That’s it, lass. Ride me.” His voice was rough and welcoming and fiery sweet, like it was doused in whisky cream.

She felt the heat of it to her core. When she moved again, his hands went to her breasts. He pushed them together, rubbing her nipples with his thumbs, and watched her face, her every reaction. He squeezed one gently, then a little harder. He must have liked the noise she made, because he smiled the kind of satisfied smile only a man who knows he’s pleased his woman smiles. That look made Daisy groan. She threw her head back and rubbed against him again.

Magnus grabbed her hips and lifted her at the same time he moved himself further down the mattress and away from the headboard, giving her something to hold on to. It took less than a second to know what he intended.

Daisy wiggled against him. “I want you inside me.”

“I will be, lass. After. Now do as you’re bade, woman. Ride me.”

His hot tongue found her and all her protests disappeared. He held her fast until she found her own rhythm. As soon as she did, he let her go. She rode his mouth, his tongue, rubbing, pushing against them putting both exactly where she needed them. His hands were suddenly everywhere. Soft and light. Plucking and demanding. When his fingers entered her, finding the same rhythm as his tongue, her world imploded. She held herself to him for as long as she could before all the colors around her turned black and a sea of heavy air lifted her up before collapsing her lungs. The rest of her body quickly followed suit, splaying her across him like a formless gift from the sea.

He wrapped his arms around her. Magnus picked up the edge of the comforter and covered her as best as he could. “Rest, love. We’ll finish when you wake.”

…

She was limp against him, all her energy spent in an explosion of pleasure he’d waited far too long to see. Daisy letting go—wrapping her world around her, sucking it in before shooting her light back to the universe—was a sight to see. It was one that could never be captured by word or tape, but an indelible impression on his soul marked him as hers. Forever.

Magnus laughed at himself as he made his way as silently as possible to the shower. Did other men feel this way, he wondered? His father did. Magnus knew that from the second he first saw Shannon O’Shay starring at his mother with a look of possession and wonderment in his eyes. His father hid it well in those early days. Shay didn’t even try to hide it now, a baker’s dozen or so years since his father reunited with his love, Magnus’ mother.

His parents’ journey didn’t exactly mirror his own, but it was hard to shake the similarities. He’d learned one thing from his father—when love branded, your heart you didn’t give up on it or on the one who made it happen. Magnus started the shower and shook his head at his thoughts of future uncertainty. He glanced back at his bed, seeing the soft rise of the comforter pinned across Daisy’s body by one of her arms. She seemed so much smaller when she slept. Fragile, even.

The weaker sex. Yeah. Right.

Magnus stripped the clammy, damp denim from his body and stepped into the shower. He wanted to wash everything but the last few moments with Daisy away and start again. It took him less that five minutes to soap, shampoo, rinse, and do it all again. In less than ten, he peeled the comforter from Daisy’s body.

He didn’t have to wake her. He’d felt her eyes on him since he got out of the shower. She lifted her arms to him in a welcoming gesture as the comforter fell away. When he didn’t move fast enough for her, she sat up and pulled him to the side of the bed, splaying her hands on his chest, his abdomen, then running them down his sides to his hips.

Her eyes latched onto him and suddenly he was thick and hard and throbbing. Magnus watched her slowly swallow and part her lips with anticipation. He’d never make it if she tried to reciprocate with her mouth now; he’d come in record time. He didn’t want that yet. He needed to be inside her first. He needed that connection more than he needed his next breath.

Her lips parted and she leaned further into him.

Magnus groaned. Stopping her was not something he imagined doing. Ever. “Not yet, lass. Later.”

Her eyes flew open in surprise and he read disappointment there which made him smile. Slowly, he pushed her back until he was on all fours above her. When she scrunched up her brow into a frown, he grinned, feeling just as cock-heavy, but more lighthearted. “Don’t worry, love. It willna’ be
that
much later.”

The look she gave him said she didn’t know whether to chastise him or smile. He kissed her before she could decide. Her arms came around his shoulders and pulled him down to her. She deepened the kiss as she ran her hands from his nape, over his shoulders, down his ribs, past the line of hair leading to his groin. She wrapped one hand around him, making him jerk in response. Blood pulsed as she squeezed, lengthening him more with the tug and release of her hand.

She pushed up the bed, no easy task with his weight on her, but she made up in determination what she lacked in brute strength. He didn’t make it harder for her, but he didn’t help either. He wanted to see what she was going to do.

In the next second that became obvious. She’d wiggled her way into position so that all she had to do was shift her hips and pull his arse and he’d be well and truly a part of her. Her small hand had his small head bathed in her wet heat as she smiled triumphantly up at him. She slowly parted her lips and made her command. “Now, Highlander, do as you’re bade, mon. Ride me.”

Magnus captured her mouth as he shifted upward, taking him far enough that when she pulled his bottom he had nowhere else to go but in. She was hot and wet and so ready for him. He pushed, probably harder than he should have, and he was suddenly fully sheathed in her liquid heat.

Daisy started to move before he was ready, but there didn’t seem to be any slowing his flower down now that she was opened. The pace she set was anything but slow and sensual. It was hard and fast, and he wasn’t going to last long if she didn’t calm down.

She didn’t calm. She came in waves, small jerks raking her body. When the last one crested she bit down on his chest, just above his tattoo. Softly at first, then as he continued to sink into her, with more force until he cried out his pleasure, jerking once, twice, and once again. He’d filled her with his heat and—since he hadn’t grabbed a condom from the bedside table—his seed. He didn’t know what kind of birth control she used and he didn’t care. The thought of Daisy carrying his bairns didn’t scare him. In fact, he liked the idea. But he was pretty sure she wasn’t ready for the thought, much less the reality, of that quite yet.

Magnus dropped his forehead to Daisy’s. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, making an
uummming
sound he wanted to hear over and over again. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Um. Very,” Daisy answered, stretching.