Page 38 of Magnus
He scowled at her obvious surprise. “Yes, they’re still very much alive, both aged in their sixties and living in the South of France,” he said in answer to her incredulous look. “I’m not that fucking old, thank you very much,” he muttered. “But to get back to what I was saying…”
“Do you remember what you were saying?” Sapphie challenged teasingly.
“You are only adding to the number, little girl,” he warned with a growl that was becoming a regular occurrence in every conversation that either concerned or was with this woman. Either through frustration or jealousy.
She frowned. “Number of what?”
“How many spanks you’re going to receive forimplyingyou are less than worthy of someone’s—in this case, my—care and protection. Did you think I’d forgotten that too?” he taunted as her cheeks blushed a fiery red. “As I was saying, I was brought up to believe you should never make a threat you don’t intend to carry out.”
“I’m sure your mother wasn’t imagining you spanking unsuspecting young women when she instilled that belief into you,” Sapphie defended.
“Probably not,” he allowed. “But you aren’t unsuspecting, because I warned you what would happen if you talked down about yourself like that again. You’re the one who decided to go against that warning. Now you have to pay the price for doing so.”
“By letting you spank me?”
“Yes.”
Sapphie wasn’tagainst the idea per se. In fact, certain parts of her body had heated merely from thinking about the sharp sting of Magnus’s palm on her flesh. That heat was now radiating to other parts of her body.
A spanking might even help to ease some of the tension she’d felt weighing her down since they returned from Scotland.
But she couldn’t just agree to let Magnus spank her.
Could she?
He wasn’t asking!
Was he…?
She raised her chin. “And if I don’t let you?”
“Then I’ll find some other way to punish you for talking badly about yourself,” Magnus answered. “But I think you need this spanking as much as I want to give it to you,” he added shrewdly.
Sapphie released a shaky breath, not sure what she wanted. In fact, she felt totally unsettled inside herself, and had done since the moment she first met Magnus. A restlessness that had only deepened the longer she was with him.
His dark good looks were imposing enough on their own, but Magnus also stood as solid and unmoving as a long-established oak tree. He radiated self-confidence and capability, along with the unspoken message:don’t mess with me or what’s mine.
Sapphie knew they hadn’t known each other for very long, but it was long enough for her to already know she very much wanted to be his.
Except Magnus hadn’t mentioned his marriage proposal again since she’d refused him.
Linus had said earlier today that Magnus was behaving like a “possessive arsehole” where she was concerned.
Whether he was or not, Sapphie knew that deep down, she wanted to surrender to whatever Magnus wanted to give her. That she was tired of always having to be strong and making all the decisions. Right or wrong.
The problem was, she never knew which of those things it was until after she’d made those decisions. She doubted anyone did, really.
Except, so far, she hadn’t regretted making a single one that included Magnus.
And maybe because of that, it was time for her to take a leap of faith.
She released a slow and calming breath before answering him. “With or without my jeans on?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Magnus wasn’tsure he’d heard her correctly. It had sounded suspiciously like… “Without,” he bit out gruffly, not breathing as he waited to see what she would do next.
He watched through narrowed lids, his heart pounding loudly and his cock becoming instantly hard, when Sapphie stood up to unfasten and then push her skinny jeans down the slenderness of her legs before taking them off completely. She wore tiny pink bikini panties beneath them, edged with a matching pink lace. Panties that would have probably been mistaken for a bikini on a beach but were glaringly nothing as innocent in the sitting room of his apartment.
