Magni couldn’t breathe and didn’t want to, didn’t deserve to, after the awful weight he’d let a young girl carry around. Not let, made. He cut Christine off as she tried to warn him, making her promise never to use her gift on him again.
She tried to tell him and he wouldn’t let her, forcing Christine to keep a secret she never wanted. And she’d done as he asked even though it meant she had to live her life knowing the truth about what happened that day and what happened after.
Magni dropped to his knees in front of Christine for the second time, this time to beg her forgiveness.
He pulled her body against him, burying his face against her softness. “I’m so sorry.” He said it over and over, knowing it would never be enough. He could never take back the years of pain and guilt he forced on her. “I’m so sorry.”
Christine pulled back. “No.” She shook her head at him. “You don’t understand. I knew about Lori when I was fifteen. I knew she was pregnant and I didn’t tell you. I let you believe she was dead all this time.”
Magni stared up at her. Why was she trying to take the blame for something he was responsible for? Christine was just a kid when she tried to tell him. He was an adult. A grown man who acted more like a child, yelling, threatening, belittling. All because what she saw was his greatest fear back then. Being married to Lori was more work than he’d ever admitted to himself and deep down he knew it was because it wasn’t right. Deep down he knew it wouldn’t last.
“You did tell me.” He remembered it like it was yesterday. He’d played it over in his mind almost every day since, looking for clues, wishing he hadn’t cut Christine off but too much of a coward to tell her that and too stubborn to ask for her help. “You told me you had a vision that Lori was gone. Anything more that you didn’t say was because you couldn’t say it and that is on me.” Magni shook his head at her. “Not on you.” He stood up.
“I told you I wasn’t going to let you hide from me anymore Christine and I meant it.” Magni grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled gently. She came to him easily but her body was stiff against his. “I never thanked you like I should have.” He cradled her cheek in his hand and tipped her face up until he saw the soft blue-green of her eyes. “You put my happiness before your own and I’m so sorry for what I gave you in return. How I acted.”
Christine pressed her lips together as her eyes shimmered up at him. “You don’t understand.”
He pressed one finger to her mouth. “I do.” He looked down at her face, remembering the young woman who so desperately tried to help him. Now it was his turn to return the favor. “I understand how much pain I caused you and if I could take it back I would. I understand it made you scared to let anyone in and I understand it made you doubt the gift God gave you.” His voice caught as emotion threatened to take control of his words. He cleared his throat. “But now I need you to understand something.”
Christine blinked up at him, as she fought against the unshed tears rimming her lids. “What’s that?”
He smiled down at her. “I’m not going anywhere until I make it up to you. And I figure it took twenty-five years to get here, it’ll take at least that long to get back so you should probably get used to seeing this face.”
One lone tear managed to break free and snake its way down her cheek. She sniffed. “I guess I could try.”
Magni laughed as he leaned down to kiss her lips. They were soft and warm and perfect under his. Just like her. He pulled her in tight against him, licking along the seam of her lips until she opened for him, letting him taste her, stroke her, fill her. The kiss that he meant to be sweet and gentle quickly turned needy and demanding as the reality of how close he came to losing her settled around him.
He lifted her off the floor, wrapping her legs around his waist as he walked to her bedroom. His hands slid up the back of her shirt to smooth across the soft skin of her back. Christine’s arms held his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair as he navigated past the dining room table and into the short hallway. Suddenly she pulled back.
“What are you doing?” Her eyes were wide as she looked around their location.
“Sweetheart if you don’t know then I’ve obviously been doing it wrong.” Magni waited. If she didn’t want this it would kill him but he would wait until she was ready. However long it took for Christine to forgive him, he would give her. Because he loved her more than he loved himself.
And someday he’d be able to tell her that.
Christine looked down at her shirt. “Um. I haven’t taken a shower yet today.”
“Is that supposed to be a deterrent because I can let you in on a little secret.” He leaned into her ear. “I don’t care.” He would take her after she’d rolled in a hog pen and do it with a smile on his face.
The admission didn’t relax her like he hoped. “But if it would make you feel better.” He let her slide down his body. The minute her feet hit the floor Christine dashed to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
“I’ll be really quick.” The door locked, killing his plan of following her in.
Magni huffed out a breath and propped his hands on his hips as the shower water started. He looked down at his throbbing dick, pushing painfully against his jeans. At least this gave him a chance to calm down a little otherwise they might both be really quick.
He peeled off his shirt and tossed it onto the small, upholstered chair in the corner of her room and chucked his jeans, sending them to the same spot before crawling onto the bed and lying on his back, hands folded behind his head, hoping he looked more relaxed than he felt.
Being with Christine was different than any of his other dalliances. Primarily because she wasn’t a dalliance. She was more. She was everything. That made each time with her important in a way sex never was to him before, but this time...
This time could make or break him.
The water shut off. His breath hitched as Magni waited for the door to open.
It didn’t.
Seconds ticked by with barely a muffled sound coming from behind the bathroom door.
Maybe a shower was long enough for Christine to think about what happened and the memory of that day was too powerful for her to move past. The words he said too awful to forget. Or forgive.
The door clicked as she twisted the handle and the lock snapped free. By the time she peeked around the door, his heart was pounding in his chest, certain she was about to throw him out of her bed.
And her life.
Magni pushed up to sit against the headboard, no longer able to even pretend to be relaxed as he waited.
“Why aren’t you all the way naked?” Christine’s voice was a little husky as her eyes moved up his body, hanging on the fit of his boxer briefs across his dick.
“Um.” Magni looked down, more than a little thrown off by the way she was looking at him. “I didn’t want to be too forward I guess.”
“Take them off.”
He didn’t like to be ordered around.
Usually.
But with her it was different. Especially this time.
He slid off the bed and stood up, hooking his thumbs in the band around his waist. “You didn’t say please.”
She gave him a slow smile. “I’m not going to either.”
He tipped his head, trying to see behind the door jam, hoping to catch a glimpse of the smooth skin of her naked hip. Maybe the curve of her breast. “What about you?”
She shook her head. “Not until those are on the floor.”
It was the power struggle that pushed and pulled its way through all their time together, somehow managing to end up a perfect balance between them. He was strong and demanding. A man who took what he wanted.
And Christine wanted him to let her be the same way. Lucky for her, all he wanted was to make her happy.
His shorts hit the floor.
Her eyes moved over him, lingering in certain places, grazing over none. Finally they landed on his. “Lay down.”
&n
bsp; He raised a brow at her. “I want to see you.”
“Then lay down.”
Magni stretched back out on the bed. “Happy?”
Christine stepped from the doorway she’d been hiding behind, naked as a jaybird. Her black hair draped over one shoulder, curving over and around the swell of one breast, the pale pink of her nipple peeking out at him. Christine walked down the short bit of hall between her bedroom and the bathroom and stopped at the foot of the bed. One knee rested on the mattress between his feet, followed by the second. Her hands skimmed up his legs as she eased her way up the bed.
“You have a beautiful body.” The tips of her fingers traced over his hips and across his stomach. She leaned forward, catching her weight on one hand as she continued to slowly torture him with the other. Her touch was soft and smooth as it wandered over his body, dragging her gaze along with it.
Magni sucked in a breath as one finger circled the flat disk of his nipple, grazing over a spot he never realized was so sensitive. He closed his eyes as she found the other one and repeated the soft caress. Her hair tickled his chest and a second later Christine’s mouth was on his skin, open and hot as her teeth scraped against the tight nub. He groaned as she sucked at a part of his body that until now he’d assumed was completely useless. The sensation shot straight to his already straining cock making it twitch and jerk.
Maybe they weren’t as useless as he thought.
Her mouth left his nipple and licked down his stomach. One hand closed over his shaft and slowly stroked as her lips moved closer and closer. The heat of her mouth closed around him as she pulled his length deep into her throat, swallowing more of him than he thought possible before pulling back, her tongue stroking across the underside of his dick as it slipped between her pursed lips. The head popped free, shiny with moisture that chilled in the cool air of her bedroom and made it feel that much hotter when Christine wrapped her lips around him again, pulling his dick back into her sweet mouth.
His balls pulled tight as the tip of his dick bumped against the back of her throat. Magni held her head gently and yanked himself free. “No more.” Christine gasped as he grabbed her, rolling her soft body under his. “Not now.”
Magni pushed inside her, gliding easily into the wet heat of her body. He wanted to be slow and soft, careful and quiet, but he couldn’t. Not this time. He needed her to see how she made him feel. What she did to him.
And he needed to make her feel the same way. Out of control. Half-crazed. Powerful.
Complete.
Her hands gripped his arms as he set a demanding pace, his body and soul pushing him to move faster, take her higher. Give her what no one else could.
Everything.
Christine clenched around him as her fingers dug into his skin, his name on her lips as she came. Magni thrust into her one last time as his own climax chased hers then collapsed against her, having just enough of his mind left to remember to catch his weight on his forearms as he fell.
He tucked his head into the crook of her neck and breathed in Christine’s sweet scent, letting it roll around him, calm the beast, still raw and riled from the sight of her empty work table this morning.
The sight of that bare plane of wood hit Magni like nothing else had in his life.
Christine was a part of him. She was his. Her life was his life.
And it was time for her to be where she belonged.
19
“I’m so glad you came to have lunch with us.” Rhea smiled across the table at Christine. “I’ve been dying to bring Cora here but didn’t have a good excuse to drive all the way to Norton.”
Christine poked at her smothered burrito. “I always need to go to the post office so I’m good for an excuse to get out of Greenlea anytime.” She smiled at Cora. “What do you think of it so far?”
Cora set her fork down and took a deep breath. Christine could almost see Rhea’s sister’s mind working behind her chocolate brown eyes. “It’s beautiful.” She took a long drink of her diet cola before setting it back down. “I wish I came sooner.”
The sadness and regret in Cora’s statement was clear. Christine reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “But you’re here now.” She gave it a squeeze. “How long are you staying?”
Cora shrugged. “I don’t really have anything pressing to get back to in Wisconsin so...” She glanced at Rhea then back to Christine. “Indefinitely I guess.”
“That’s sort of why we wanted to take you to lunch.” Rhea wiped a napkin across her mouth, her eyes never leaving Christine as she did.
Christine raised an eyebrow at Rhea. “That’s not a good start to this conversation.”
Rhea held up one hand, palm facing Christine. “This is a good thing I promise.” She tipped the hand from side to side. “You just have to not be upset that I told Cora about your boob issues.”
Christine looked at Cora. She looked back at Rhea. “Why would Cora have any interest in my boobs?”
“I’m an oncologist.” Cora said it matter of factly. No pomp. No ego. It was a simple statement for what Cora appeared to think was a simple career.
“Remember how I said life has a way of working things out?” Rhea looked at her sister. “Well, Cora had some things happen and decided she needed a change.”
“A big change.” The words were sharp. The most impassioned ones she’d heard from Rhea’s sister.
Rhea nodded at Cora. “A big change. I found out she was coming right after you finally,” she paused to glare at Christine, “told me about the biopsy.”
“Breast cancer wasn’t my specialty but I know enough to be dangerous.” She gave Christine a small, hesitant smile that disappeared as quickly as it came. “Or in this case helpful.”
“Oh.” Christine sat back in her chair. Somehow the number of people in her formerly empty inner circle was growing exponentially, whether she liked it or not. And, considering how hard she worked to keep it from happening, having Rhea and Cora in her business didn’t feel like she thought it would. Instead of feeling invasive, it felt... supportive.
Maybe it was because Rhea strong armed her way in, making it clear there were no other options. Or maybe it was because Christine was so freaking tired of bearing the weight of her life and her gift alone. Either way, knowing Rhea and Cora were at her side was a comfort Christine didn’t want to admit she needed. Until now.
Christine looked at Rhea. The woman she saw in her mind’s eye so many years ago. What if she could see her own future? Would Christine have seen Rhea pulling her from the darkness too?
Probably.
Definitely.
****
“Keep them closed.” Magni led her through the front door to her house. “Are they closed?”
“Yes they’re closed.” Christine rolled her eyes behind their lids. “I almost fell over the top step remember?” She’d lived in the house almost five years and apparently still didn’t know how many steps led to the front porch.
Magni held her by the arms, carefully directing Christine into the living room. “I had you.” He pulled her back and leaned her into his chest. “I wouldn’t have let you fall.”
She smiled at the sound of his voice in her ear, ignoring the tug of fear that tried to creep into each moment she spent with him now. At least the fear was still just trying. The guilt she felt set up camp and didn’t look ready to leave any time soon. “I know.”
His hands moved to rest on her shoulders, the weight making her feel grounded and secure, pushing away the uncertainty tainting her life. “Open them.”
Christine hesitated.
“What’s wrong?” His voice was low and soft making her want to admit things she shouldn’t.
“I’m scared.” It was the truest of true statements. One he wouldn’t understand was as far reaching as it was and Magni was partly to blame. His words were perfect when she told him the truth about her vision, which was a terrible thing. She wanted him to be angry. Blame her for ruining the life he co
uld have had with his son. Call her the liar she was.
But he didn’t. Magni took the blame she tried to give herself. Stole it right out from under her and laid it directly on his own shoulders. It was a perfect example of the man he was, but it only made Christine more certain she was doing the right thing by not telling him about what was happening medically.
Instead of blowing her off, telling her there was nothing to be scared of, Magni pulled her close. He wrapped his arms across her chest, surrounding her with his strength just as he did the day the evil in the woods tried to pull her in. He protected her then and he was protecting her now. But this time there was nothing he could do to stop what might be coming for her.
Christine swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked her eyes open.
“Oh Magni.”
A narrow table sat just inside her front door in the spot she’d imagined the table at the gallery. The one Lori bought.
While that table was pretty, it was nothing compared to this one. This table was a work of art designed to be right where it was. Taller than the other and slightly more narrow, the entry table was clearly built specifically for this very spot.
Christine stepped forward and laid her hand to the smooth finish. It was a rich, warm brown with a band of lighter wood inlaid around the edge. The satin sheen was cool under her palm as she stroked across the surface. “It’s beautiful.”
The legs were delicately turned into a graceful curve that narrowed to an antique gold capped foot. Christine dropped down to run one hand down a leg. “It’s perfect.”
She turned to look at him. “How did you know?”
“Rhea.”
She should have guessed that. “Rhea has a big mouth.”
Hopefully not too big. She’d sworn her and Cora to secrecy at lunch today. Rhea still wasn’t happy about it but hopefully her friend understood this was the best way. There was no reason to give this man more to worry about until she absolutely had to.
Magni Page 21
