Another swipe of Magnus’s fingers.
“E.”
Shivers were electrifying my skin with every pass of his calloused finger over my back.
“R,” I said quietly as I began to realize where Magnus was going with this.
When I didn’t answer after the next letter, Magnus settled his hand on my waist and began rubbing it up and down my side.
“What was the letter, Dante?” he asked, all humor gone now.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked as all the pleasure fled my body and I turned my head back towards the window so I wouldn’t have to look at him anymore.
“What was the letter?”
“F, damn it. It was an F. Perfect,” I snapped.
“Do you know why I chose that word?” Magnus asked as he moved his hand up to my shoulder and began massaging it.
“Because you think I’m perfect,” I bit out as I tried to control my anger. Why the fuck had he gone and ruined everything?
“I do think that, but that isn’t why I picked the word.”
“Fine. Then why?” I asked, though I didn’t really care.
“Because that’s what this moment is,” he answered. “You here like this,” he continued, his voice soft. I felt his fingers sift through my hair and couldn’t deny how good it felt. I felt him shift and then his arm curled around my shoulders. “Sex with you is unbelievable, Dante. No argument there. But this,” – he urged me to my side and then shifted until his body was pressed flush against mine, our lips just millimeters apart – “is what I want.” He kissed me softly before saying, “Youare the main course, Dante. Sex with you is just dessert.”
I wanted to come up with some joke about dessert being the best part, but I was too raw. “Fuck, this is hard,” I whispered as I wrapped my arms around him.
“I know, baby,” Magnus said softly and then he kissed my forehead. The endearment made my eyes sting. “We’ll figure it out.”
“And if we don’t?” I asked. “I’m going to fuck up, Magnus. It’s who I am.”
Magnus pushed me to my back and skimmed his fingers over my cheek. “If I ever meet whoever made you believe that about yourself, I’m going to kick their ass.”
I smiled at that and then lifted my hand to brush over the bruise on Magnus’s jaw…the one I’d given him. I hadn’t missed the other faint bruises on his body where I’d lashed out at him the day before when he’d stopped me from leaving. “Magnus,” I began, but he shook his head and his hand came up to rest on my wrist.
“Don’t apologize,” he said. “We both hurt each other yesterday.”
I nodded. “I didn’t sleep with Shelly and her friend,” I blurted out. “I was just pissed that you’d been ignoring me and I wanted to get back at you…” I shook my head as I realized how incredibly stupid I sounded. “It was childish…”
Magnus sighed and turned us so he was lying on his back and I was tucked up against his side. “We really did a number on each other, didn’t we?”
I let my fingers toy with his chest hair as I considered his words. “Can we just start fresh, Magnus?” I whispered. “Can we just put all that shit behind us?”
“Yeah,” he murmured. “Clean slate starting now.”
Magnus’s fingers were running up and down my back and I couldn’t hide the shiver of pleasure that rippled through me. He was right. Being here like this with himwasperfect.
“Dante, would you do something for me?”
I nodded against his chest, enjoying the sound of his heartbeat.
“Will you tell me who hurt you?”
I stilled at that and then lifted enough so I could look at him. “No one hurt me. No one ever raised a hand to me,” I said, confused as to why he’d even ask that question.
“I’m talking about the kinds of wounds that don’t leave bruises behind.”
