“You’re upset,” he said, pulling her against him and rubbing her arms gently. “Don’t be. I just wish you had more room because I imagine this is hard on you.”
She shrugged. “It’d be harder for me to see one of my cats put down, so I make do.” Even as she spoke, Tripod leapt back up on the couch and head-butted her, asking to be petted. She obliged, and to her surprise, Magnus petted the cat, too. “I should feed them and give them their medicine before we move on to other things or they’re going to sit outside the door and meow at us.” She felt awkward bringing up sex. What if he wasn’t interested in more?
He chuckled. “I don’t know if I’d like that much of an audience for our performance.”
A blush crept over her face. “Probably not.” Okay, so maybe he was interested in more after all. Of course he was. He was a man. Weren’t they always interested in sex?
She went to the pantry and got out the cat meds, then cans of food. First up was medicine, and like an assembly line, she gave out diabetes medication, gave Sneezy her inhaler, and Tripod her infection meds. Edie then doled out wet food according to cats. The diet food went to Chunk, the elderly cat chow went to Tripod, and so on it went. Magnus said nothing as she fed the cats, just watched her as she moved through the furry little bodies and gave a petting here and there. When everyone was fed, she put spoons in the sink and turned to Magnus. “Well, can I get you a drink? Or a snack? While I’m feeding everyone?”
That predatory grin spread over his face, one that made her heart flutter. He’d been sitting at her dining room table while she fed the cats, but he got up and approached her. “Are you adopting me to take care of, Edie? I thought you only went after the old and infirm.”
“Don’t forget, I go after the ones that are too unpleasant for anyone else to adopt,” she said, brushing her fingers over a grass stain on the front of his jersey. It gave her a scorching memory of just a few hours earlier, him rubbing his cum off of her thighs with a handful of grass as she lay spread before him as if on an altar.
Tonight definitely had been one of her more memorable nights.
“Do you think I’m unpleasant?” Magnus asked, moving forward and bracing his hands on the kitchen counter on either side of her, pinning her in.
Her heart fluttered at how near his face was to hers, that kissable grin just begging for her mouth on it. “You forget,” she teased. “I have a soft spot in my heart for surly creatures. I find that most of them can be tamed with the right amount of petting.”
His eyebrows waggled at her. “So you’re taking me home to . . . pet me?”
“Maybe a little bit of stroking,” she said breathlessly. “It would depend on what you responded to.”
“I’d definitely respond to stroking,” he told her, moving in so close that his lips brushed against hers. “Most definitely.”
“Then you’ve come to the right place,” Edie said, and kissed him.
His mouth was just as heavenly as she remembered, his lips soft and his tongue possessive. He kissed her as if he wanted to devour her. There were no soft, gentle kisses from Magnus. He kissed as if she were something to be conquered, and his open-mouth, tongue-sweeping kisses made her weak in the knees. She sagged against the counter as his mouth claimed hers, stroke after stroke of his tongue reminding her that she still had no panties and oh, god, she was so damn wet for him still. Her hands went to his shoulders—and banged into the ridiculously huge shoulder pads.
Magnus made a small growl in his throat. “Bedroom? I need to get out of this uniform before I kill someone.”
Giggling, she pointed at the door to her room.
“Hold on,” he told her, and swept her up into his arms.
She clung to his neck as he opened the door to her room and pushed inside. At his growl of frustration, she knew what he was thinking. Her room had a slanted ceiling, as it was tucked under the staircase, and was barely tall enough for him. In addition, her room was so tiny that her full-sized bed barely fit between the two walls.
“Please tell me that Bianca’s room is as small as yours?” Magnus asked, irritation in his voice.
“The bigger room does me no good if it’s upstairs, does it?” Edie told him as he set her down on the bed.
“You’re letting your sister take advantage of you—”
“And how is that any different than you and your brother?” she asked, indignant. “He farts around all day and won’t work while you’re tearing your hair out. Now go on and tell me that I need to be sterner to my sister.”
“Farts around, huh?” Magnus’s lips twitched. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that Bianca works hard all day long?”
“At least she works!” Edie retorted.
He leaned in, teeth bared. “Are you trying to piss me off so I’ll lose my temper and fuck you hard and dirty?”
“Well, no,” Edie said in a shaky voice, pinned by those gorgeous eyes. “But now that you mention it, that sounds pretty damn good.”
Magnus pressed his mouth to hers and gave her another searing kiss, then pulled back. His gaze hot on her, he straightened and began to pull his jersey off. She watched in fascination as he tore his clothing off his body, his arms hitting her slanted ceiling when he raised them over his head. Gone went the jersey, onto her floor. Next went the shoulder pads, and then his undershirt. Then Magnus was topless in front of her, and he rubbed a hand across his chest, as if bringing attention to the fact that his pectorals were utterly perfect.