Her palms flew out, bracing against his chest as she steadied herself. Beneath her, his body went rigid.
And then she felt it.
The unmistakable change in his lower body.
Before she could pull away, his head turned. His face buried into the curve of her neck, warm breath brushing her skin. Hislips grazed her throat, lingering, trailing upward toward her ear before drifting back down again, soft enough to make her pulse jump.
She pulled back, breath uneven, and looked down at him. That faint frown returned, deeper this time.
A thought slipped free before she could stop it.
‘How many women has he slept with before, for his body to react this fast?’
Magnus caught the shift in her expression immediately.
Lying beneath her, his eyes narrowed slightly, sharp and assessing. “What are you thinking?” he asked.
Then, as if he had already read the answer in her face, his tone cooled. “Don’t overthink it. I don’t sleep around!”
Her eyes widened. ‘How did he read my mind?!’
Heat flooded her face. She shoved him away without another word, slipping out of his lap and backing off the bed before getting to her feet in a rush.
Magnus rose after her.
He reached for his shirt and draped it over his shoulders, his movements brisk, almost rough. As he shrugged into it, his eyes stayed locked on her, tracking every step as she backed away, putting distance between them like a reflex she couldn’t control.
He buttoned the shirt halfway, fingers moving faster than necessary.
A bitter thought cut through his mind. ‘She’s going to be the death of me. All it took was touching her damn waist, and I’m already fighting my own damned body.’
His expression hardened—aggressive, tense—and then shifted into something even darker. He was furious with himself. He felt like a reckless teenager, all impulse and hunger, unable to stop himself from touching a woman.
Her.
The more that thought took root, the angrier he became.
Sophia noticed the sudden shift in his mood. She shifted uneasily on her feet, watching him.
‘Why is he always like this?’ she thought. ‘One second calm. The next furious.’
She didn’t wait for it to spiral further.
She twisted out of his reach, turned on her heel, and rushed for the door. Her steps were quick, almost unsteady, the sound of them fading down the hallway in seconds.
He lunged after her, arm shooting out on instinct, fingers grasping at empty air. She was already gone.
Magnus stopped short, feet planted where she’d left him. He dragged in a harsh breath through his nose, then another, slower but no less strained. His shoulders rose and fell as he exhaled through clenched teeth, jaw tight, chest heaving, frustration coiling beneath his skin.
A hand raked through his hair.
He exhaled slowly again, tension still coiled tight in his body, refusing to ease.
His gaze dropped to the phone on the bedside table.
He stared at it for a long moment. Then he picked it up and dialed.
Gregory answered after a few rings. “Hello?” Music thumped faintly through the speaker, club noise bleeding into the call.
