She attributed the current spike in her pulse to the gorgeous, yet menacing woman towering on the other side of the door. Jet hair barely brushed her shoulders and clouded grey eyes sharp enough to pierce Magdalena’s sensitive skin stared back through the peephole. She swallowed past the swelling of her throat and looked at Law.
“Is she bloody huge?”
“Tall. Not fat.”
“Right.” She opened the door and the Amazon breezed past her, a bright lipstick orange-red mouth creased in a determined scowl. Slaughter, if ever there was an apt name, plopped the duffel bag she carried onto the bed and dropped to her knees beside Law.
“Next time, listen to me, would you? God damn it! If you’d had back-up this wouldn’t have happened,” Khani snapped. Before he could answer she rattled on. “That’s one hell of a shiner you’ve got there. You know your mum is gonna kill us both for it?”
Onyx flashed in the lamplight then those stormy eyes were on her. Mags preferred obscurity to the direct poke of Khani Slaughter’s gaze. “You’re the one who got him into this mess in the first place?” Though phrased like a question it sounded more like an accusation of high treason.
“How about you take care of him first and grill me later?” Mags said with surprising grit.
“Fair enough.” Khani turned her thickly lined eyes on Law and propped his chin on her folded index finger. “Looking at about ten sutures, give or take two, and a gnarly scar through your brow.”
“Add it to the collection, doc,” Law said.
Khani set out several packets of hospital grade supplies, stalked to the sink, and scrubbed her hands before scooting the other chair between Law and the bed with her knee-high laced boot. Over her shoulder she flashed Mags that daunting gaze. “You might want to go take a walk or go shower for this.”
Magdalena shook her head. The Amazonian couldn’t make her leave, unless she physically removed her from the room.
“Your lunch.” Khani shrugged.
Law’s swollen-lidded eye prodded Khani. “She’s stronger than she looks. Braver than me, and you. I’d be dead, if it weren’t for her.”
Magdalena’s chest squeezed at his praise, until Khani cleaned the gnarled wound above Law’s eye. She hung back, giving Khani space, because of her own discomfort with the stranger who had such close ties to the man who held her heart. But when Law ground his jaw so tight the muscles in his face bunched, Mags no longer cared about anything other than comforting him. She walked to the far side of Khani’s work station, clasped Law’s left hand in her own, and hung on for dear life.
Every prick of the needle had Mags clamping down on Law’s hand in encouragement, but by the fourth suture she knew he comforted her, not the other way around. Just when she thought she’d do him more good by going to take a shower, Khani hit a nerve and he seized her hand in a strangle hold. She squeezed back, lending her abiding love and ready support.
It seemed an eternity before Law lay passed out on the queen-sized bed, the hole on his brow stitched and tidied. Khani had checked his ribs which, judging by the breaths he hissed and sucked, hurt more than the closure, and given him the all clear. She ordered him two days rest, four if he could possibly manage.
“You go get cleaned up,” Khani said. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Reluctantly, Magdalena left him. She showered in record time, dressed in her last clean tank and pair of boxers, and returned to the room feeling more awkward than ever. Like the first day of school the summer after she had gotten boobs hadn’t been enough embarrassment to endure a lifetime.
“Thank you,” Mags whispered. “I don’t know what I would have done if…”
Khani shook her head. “I’m sorry. I was an ass. Law is my family. Not by blood. Thank fuck. But by bond. He’s like my brother and I get a little overbearing sometimes. Thank you for whatever it is you’ve done for him.”
Mags quirked a brow.
“He’s different, besides having the shit kicked out of him. And it’s a good different. Make sure it stays that way.”
“What is it with you two and threats?”
“Sorry, I work with a bunch of men. It comes naturally. Anyway, I brought you each some clothes. Life on the run sucks.”
“So I’m learning.”
“If you think of anything else, call me. We’re following the money on the assassin from the park, but it’s taking a while. Tons of offshore and dummy accounts to work through.”
“Assassin?”
Khani’s expression lightened. “We’ll figure it out and get you your life back soon. I promise. If you want to get some sleep, I’ll drop food by this evening. Oh, I packed some granola bars, nuts, and fruit in the bag too.”
“Sleep?”
“Yeah, take it while you can get it.”
After locking the door behind Khani and thinking about sleep, Mags found her lids unusually heavy for mid-day. Then again, these past few days had been anything but typical. She crawled up the far side of the bed and rested her head on top of the covered pillow. Law’s chest rose and fell, expanding his fresh white tee in a shallow but steady pace. Magdalena locked on the movement, thankful for each breath he took, because she’d sworn they’d both taken their last today.
30
“Why are you up?” Mags bolted upright and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Law stood at the small rectangular table by the window. Tiny rays of daylight glistened from the edges of the heavy curtain lighting the room and the purple and fuchsia shoe prints staining his bare abdomen. He laid his phone on the table and walked to the foot of the bed in a surprisingly even gate, given his earlier hunch.
His mouth curved in a smile and the perfection of his expression made her want to weep. He winked. “A man has to pee and shower.”
“You should be in bed. They beat…” Her voice wavered.
Law shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”
“Not helping my piece of mind.”
“Checked on our breakfast too. It’ll be a couple of hours. Khani’s pulling a bullet out of Street.”
“Breakfast? He got shot?”
“Yep. You slept smooth through the afternoon and night, tart. And the kid needed his edges dulled. Better shot than killed. He’ll be fine.”
“I’m not cut out for this shit.” Mags flopped back on the bed and rubbed a hand over her heart.
“You’re actually a little too good at dealing with it.”
Law sat on the edge of the bed and she rolled toward him. The swelling in his face had diminished over the hours, leaving only a streak of violet over his left eye. His right hosted a brilliant starburst of color at his brow. Both his hypnotic green eyes studied her in the morning light. He lifted the hand at her chest and his warm fingers eased away her creeping sorrow.
“I don’t know how to love you.”
Magdalena’s heart cracked. She felt the fissure form under the space where her hand had been. She tried to pull away, but his grip tightened. “You said that yesterday. So, just stop. Please.”
“But I didn’t finish saying what I needed to say. What I need you to know. I don’t know how to love you, Magdalena, but I do.”
Mags held her breath as he shifted toward her. A grimace echoed on his face then faded into a smile that zinged from her heart to her toes. His other hand cupped the nape of her neck.
“And, if you’ll let me, I’ll practice every day, for forever, until I get it right.”
Her lips spread in a gasp. A quiver shook her lower lip. “You’re gonna want to run away.”
“You won’t let me.” He smoothed his thumb over her mouth.
“Damn straight,” she agreed.
Law pulled her up to sit with him. Mags marveled at the change in him. Gone was the wall he’d hidden behind and in her lap dropped everything she’d never known she’d wanted. A dangerous man with the ability to pluck her heart right out of her chest without words. A man who made her stronger than she’d ever known herself to be. A man who saw the best in her when she
was at her worst, who saw her worst and opened his arms to embrace it.
“What about my scars,” she asked. “They scared you right out of my arms last time.”
“We both have them, Magdalena. I can handle yours, if you can deal with mine.”
He stood and his hands went to the button of his jeans. Magdalena’s lungs constricted as though the air had evaporated from the room, but she panted her impatience.
Her nipples peaked beneath her shirt. Like the fire of her need had only been banked since their last encounter, it roared to life, melting her and coating the lips of her sex in desire. He hadn’t even unfastened his pants and she was ready to come from the sight of him, from the pent-up angst of their denied hunger. Battered and bruised, he revved her to red without trying.
Those sure hands and deft fingers opened his fly in a blink. The flaps fell wide, revealing the beveled edge of his lower abdomen. Smooth skin wrapped tight around the curve of muscle that V'd to a short-cropped patch of dusky hair. Magdalena shifted to her knees, trying to glimpse lower still. When their gazes fused, Law shucked his pants, kicked them off his bare feet, and stood with his hands at his side.
His flame-green eyes seared her with the reflection of her burning passion and the mixture of his hunger and vulnerability. Again she took the pleasure tour of his body, roving the contours of his ripped arms, abdomen marred by contusions, and the cut at his side. Only this time she added the densely corded muscles of his legs to the visual indulgence.
A hollow in the relief of his left thigh caught her gaze just before it alighted on the heft of his erect sex. Over his hamstring, scar tissue knotted the skin of the indention with pink threads that ran a jagged line nearly a foot in length. Beside the distortion a web of rose-colored flesh crawled out the center point in a misshapen circle.
The scars he spoke of were physical, not just emotional. If she let herself, the sadness over the suffering he’d endured would engulf her in a tidal wave of misery. But this was the best day of her life. The man she fully expected to love forever and never touch had told her he loved her, and offered himself to her, flaws and all.
“Law,” she said, meeting his gaze. “I love and accept every part of you.” Her battered warrior smiled and she returned the radiant beam with her own. “And,” she added, “I plan to take my time getting personally acquainted with all of you.”
Law’s fists tightened. The squint of his brow smoothed away. His tongue swept over his lips as though in preparation for a feast. The air between them crackled with sexual awareness. Magdalena giggled a moan as the length of Law’s silky cock bobbed in agreement. Veins splayed over the wide column, hugging tight beneath the flushed skin.
“Sounds like the best plan ever, but tonight it’s gentlemen first.”
He walked toward the bed. Anticipation fluttered her heart. His fingers caressed her brow, down the round of her cheek, and over the wetness of her lips. He pulled her chin forward and she went willingly, giving him anything and everything he requested because she belonged to him. Before he knew it, even before she’d known it, she’d given him her heart. Now she gave him her body.
Law pinched the hem of her shirt with his eager grip and slowly pulled the fabric up her sensitive skin. Every inch revealed shot a wave of adrenaline through her already amped system. The collar collected her hair off her back, and then dumped it as the shirt came free. He tossed it to the floor and shook his head.
“I am the luckiest damn man on the planet.”
His mouth worshiped hers with light grazes. The smell of his skin, a blend of soap and sex, permeated her brain, making her achy all over. Her breasts weighted and begged for praise. Her sex throbbed, needing the fill of him all the way to her cervix, and she had no doubt he’d get it there or that he’d get her there without much effort. But he seemed determined to take his time, nibbling and sucking her lips in turn.
Those agile hands of his didn’t caress her skin. His hard chest didn’t mash her supple breasts or abrade her rigid nipples. Only their mouths mingled. He nudged her chin up with his wandering lips and her head sank back, enjoying the feel of his hot breath on her exposed neck.
“You know,” Law mumbled as he nipped her ear. “There’s a picture in the living room of you wearing a short green skirt and tiny white top.”
“Mmmhum.”
He kissed a line to her collar bone, across her upper chest, and to her other ear. “Your feet are in the sand and your skin is red from the sun,” he whispered.
“From my trip to Saint Tropez after graduating the second time.”
Law licked a small line below her lobe and blew. Magdalena moaned at the astonishingly erotic sensation coursing through her body. It had been a long time since she’d had sex, but in all the sex she’d had, she’d never been loved. No one had ever made love to her. And the phenomenon heightened every touch to the point of exquisite pleasure and pain.
“I fantasized about reaching under that skirt, slipping the panties off your pert ass, kneeling at your feet, and sucking your pussy until you could no longer stand.”
Magdalena teetered at the blazing image he painted in her mind.
“Easy there, tart.” She caught the edge of his curved cheek in her periphery. He took her mouth in a hot kiss, licking deep and curling his tongue around hers in a possessive embrace before sliding out and traveling south. His cheek nuzzled the side of her breast then he licked out, flicking her stiff peak. “Sometimes I’d turn you around, flip your skirt over her sweet cheeks, pull your panties to the side, and slide my dick inside your hot cunt. You’d arch your head back and moan my name.”
“Law?”
“Yes?” He suckled her right nipple into his mouth. His hands lifted toward her breasts and Magdalena rejoiced, until he fisted them and lowered them back to his sides. He switched to her other swollen bud. “You were saying?”
She moaned and growled. “If you don’t put your hands on me, I’m going to die, and if you keep talking to me like that, I’m going to come.”
His gaze rose to hers. “I can handle the latter.”
He hugged her sides with his palms just under her breast and ran them over the curve of her waist. “Other times, I’d slip my hand into your panties. You’d be so wet you’d slick my fingers before I even guided them into your slick pussy. I’d massage your clit and you’d beg me to fuck you.” His hands glided over the cotton of her boxers and curve of her ample butt and back around to her hips.
“And did you fuck me?”
“Sometimes, yes. Other times, I’d work you with my hands and make you come. Three or four times.”
“Jesus,” Magdalena gasped.
“Even in my fantasies, you were a fireball. By the third orgasm you’d demand I suck my fingers clean, so I’d taste you on my tongue and know what I was missing.”
Every muscle in Magdalena’s body tensed, needing release, begging for it. His fingertips delved behind the edge of her boxers and she panted, rocking against him in an unconscious effort to lure him closer.
“Fuck me, Law. Please.” His fantasies were pretty damn accurate. She’d beg. She’d bargain. She’d do just about anything to get his cock inside her. To rub against him and ease the ache building in her core.
“There will be plenty of time for fucking, Magdalena. Right now, I’m going to love you.”
“Can’t you love me faster?”
“No.” He smiled. Damn him. “If I love you any faster, I’ll cheat us both by coming on your belly.”
“It sounds like you’ve been getting off quite a bit lately. Though, we’ve been together a lot and I’ve missed my pleasure expeditions.”
“Pleasure expeditions?”
“Me time. Jerkin’ off. Pettin’ the parrot. You know.”
Law toppled her with a kiss, guiding her to the bed with a hand on her nape. He didn’t crawl atop her, but knelt to the side. “Magdalena, I haven’t pleasured myself in far too long and it’s been way longer than that since I’ve been wi
th a woman.”
“How long?” Mags had a sudden and irrational fear he hadn’t had sex since Clara. But he was such a virile man and ardent lover. Surely, it hadn’t been that long. Thought she was anxious for the answer, she appreciated the ripple of muscles beneath his tanned skin as he sat back and braced his hands on his thighs.
“Eight years.”
Her mouth gaped then closed only to gape again. Then she remembered a conversation they’d had about his motorcycle and how he’d never had anyone on it but her. She asked even though she didn’t want to hear the answer. “Since Clara?”
“Yes.”
The answer pricked her heart and she hated that any part of her was jealous over a dead woman. But she wasn’t just a woman. She was the woman Law loved. The one he’d be with, if death hadn’t taken her away. The pain must have shown on her face, though she hadn’t meant it to. Law didn’t deserve her grief, but he accepted it all the same. He stretched out next to her, snuggling his body against hers, and cupped her face in his hand.
“After she died, I shut down. Not because we had an epic love. Those take a lifetime to form and we didn’t have that kind of time. But I played the game and lost big. I never thought it was worth it to gamble another hand. Made it a few years like that too.
“Then I moved in with Baine and saw your pictures plastered throughout the house. Heard the colorful tales of Magdalena, the wild cat next door. I saw the way your father’s face lit up when he talked about you, and how Baine’s did too. And I was terrified to meet you.”
“Terrified?”
“Yes, I hadn’t even met you and you stirred a longing I’d banished to the pits of hell. So, when I knew you were coming to town I took assignments or made excuses to hide out. Why do you think I still have my flat?”
“Seriously?”
“I fall hard and fast, tart. And I knew if I ever met you, I’d be doomed.”
“You make it sound so horrible.”
Justice Mine: a Base Branch Novel Page 16
