His tone was stern, but the worry in his eyes was clear.
“You have food poisoning. You can’t just get up and walk around.”
Sophia remained seated on the bed, staring at Magnus for a moment before her gaze slowly drifted away from him.
Her eyes moved slowly around the room.
And then she froze.
It was the bedroom she had lived in with Magnus two years ago. The place felt painfully familiar. Nothing had changed.
The color of the walls was exactly the same as she remembered. The furniture stood in the same places. Even the small decorations on the shelves were untouched, as if time had simply stopped here.
Not a single thing had been moved.
A wave of nostalgia washed over her so suddenly that it almost stole the breath from her lungs.
For a moment, her chest tightened.
Memories she had tried so hard to bury rose quietly to the surface.
Her eyes stung.
Tears threatened to gather, but she quickly turned her face away, blinking them back before they could fall. Taking a slow breath, she forced herself to calm down before turning back toward him.
Magnus was watching her quietly.
Sophia looked at him for a moment before sliding her legs off the bed.
“I need to leave,” she said softly. “Thank you for helping me when I was sick, but I think I’m fine now.”
She slid toward the edge of the bed and started to stand.
But before she could fully rise—
Magnus moved.
He stepped forward and placed one knee on the bed, blocking her path. One hand went behind the headboard beside her head as he leaned closer, trapping her between his arm and the bed.
His face lowered toward hers.
Sophia stiffened.
Magnus stared directly into her eyes. A dark flash crossed his gaze as frustration finally surfaced.
“Can you stop fighting me all the time?” he growled. “I’m trying to take care of you, and all you do is push me away.”
“I don’t need you to care about me,” Sophia snapped instantly. “You should care about your girlfriend, not me, Mr. Graves.”
Magnus fell silent.
Anger flickered across his face before a dangerous expression slowly formed.
“Why do you keep bringing that up?” he asked, his voice low.
A teasing edge slowly appeared on his face as if he had suddenly caught onto something.
“Are you jealous?”
