Ava peered up from her iPad as Magnus appeared in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. “Not yet. But I will.”
“Goddammit, Ava!” He spun on his heel and marched back through the kitchen, then down the hall.
She flinched when she heard his bedroom door slam shut.
Ava might not be the smartest woman in the world, but it didn’t take one of those to figure out that Magnus’s frustration wasn’t because she hadn’t called the psychiatrist yet. If she had to guess, Trey had done or said something. It seemed Magnus was operating on a hair trigger these days, counting down until something happened. Since she’d witnessed the two men drifting apart over these past four months, she figured they’d either cut ties completely or were dangerously close. She sincerely hoped not because she’d seen the two of them together. What they had was special, and it was real. They brought out the best in the other.
Setting her iPad aside, she leaned back against the cushion and closed her eyes. She wished she could go back in time and do things differently, because if she had, she wouldn’t have come between them. And though she knew it was nothing she did or said, her mere presence had presented a roadblock for some reason.
She was pretty sure Trey liked her. In a friendly way, of course. They laughed and talked, and there’d been those few times back at the beginning of her recovery when he would sit with her through the night, watching over her so Magnus could get some sleep. Once or twice she would watch him through slitted eyes, listening to the sound of him breathing, wondering how anyone could be that still and be awake. And she’d made a point to thank him for his help and kindness throughout. Truth was, she liked Trey. And fine, there was a good chance she’d developed a crush on him, too. But that was all it was. A silly crush conjured up by a lonely woman forced to sit around until her wounds were completely healed while two ridiculously hot men tried to punish the other with orgasms.
So why is your ass still on the couch?
Oh, how that voice irritated her. She’d been fighting the damn thing for the past week, ever since she accepted that she should not be confined to the house anymore. What she wanted to do was help Magnus and Trey with Camp K-9.
She used to love working at Storme Kennels when Magnus’s father ran them before Magnus changed the name. They weren’t quite what they were today, but the work was relatively the same. It had expanded, a few upgrades were made, and a little more pampering went into it nowadays, but that seemed fair since dogs were people, too. Or so Magnus always said. But for Ava to make a contribution, she would have to start counseling. Magnus had made it a stipulation. And since she couldn’t muster the courage to make the appointment, she was forced to sit here and wallow in it.
Only she didn’t have to sit here.
Getting to her feet no longer took any effort. She could probably use some exercise to strengthen her unused muscles, but aside from that, she felt good. More so as she neared Magnus’s bedroom door. She lifted her hand to knock but stopped herself. If she gave him the option of permitting her to come in, he would tell her no. Magnus liked to sulk in silence, and he did so in his bedroom.
So, she did the only thing she could. She turned the knob and walked in like his bedroom was her own.
Since he’d moved everything from the guest bedroom—which he’d been using as a game room—into here in order to give her a room of her own, space was in short supply. The room was relatively large for a house this old, but that was because he’d remodeled in recent years, changing the original floor plan. The fire had demolished most of this side of the house, which had been two rooms—his parents’ and his sister’s. It had originally been repaired—back when Edgar had become Magnus’s legal guardian—but it had been rebuilt exactly as it previously was. When he’d remodeled, Magnus combined the two rooms and added a master bathroom, turning a three-bedroom, one-bath house into a two-bedroom, two-bath. She didn’t know the first thing about resale value like they talked about on the home improvement shows she’d watched when nothing else was on, but it worked nicely as a bachelor pad.
His bedroom was the ultimate in masculine design. His king-size bed with the oversized walnut headboard was on the right side of the room, neatly positioned between two windows, with matching, single-drawer nightstands on each side. The bed was always made, the navy-blue comforter perfectly straight, and the pillows staged like they do in furniture stores. Directly beside the door was a large armoire, which usually stood sentry on its own. Now a gaming desk with all his equipment was tucked behind it, mostly hidden from view when you walked in.
Ava expected to find him sitting in his chair, controller or keyboard in his hands, but Magnus wasn’t at his desk.
She headed toward the bathroom. The door was open, and the shower was running. She knew she should give him privacy, but there was a little ornery voice in her head telling her he’d violated hers so many times these past four months it would serve him right if she walked right in.
So she did.
And she stopped short when she saw him in the shower. Her brain instantly snapped an image of his masculine beauty so she’d have something to reflect on later. Magnus had one hand planted on the wall, his head hanging down, his other hand wrapped around his cock. Hisenormouscock. Holy crap. That thing had to be like ten inches long.
Ava stared brazenly as he took his time stroking up and down his thick shaft, the water sluicing over all those glorious muscles covered by golden skin. She’d never seen anything quite as intriguing as this man in the shower pleasuring himself.
Every so often, a grunt or groan would echo off the tiled walls, but he never lifted his head, and he never stopped stroking. Ava knew it was wrong to watch, but she couldn’t look away. If she moved even an inch, he would likely see her, and he would stop what he was doing. That felt like a crime in the making because … holy crap, the man was beautiful.
You should move.
Yes, yes, she probably should. But she didn’t.
And she still didn’t.
Magnus’s fist worked up and down, his pace gradually quickening, as did the rise and fall of his chest. She could hear the rough rasp of his breaths, even over the white noise of the shower.
Ava welcomed the warmth that pooled between her thighs and the twinge in her core, although she ignored both. She couldn’t remember a time she’d ever been turned on like this. Maybe back at the very beginning of her marriage when Harrison had treated her with a modicum of respect. That didn’t last long, though, and they’d only been married a few weeks when sex became a chore she despised. And when she’d stopped wanting it altogether, Harrison took it upon himself to use her body without her consent, insisting that since she was his wife, it was her duty.
Because of him, Ava had grown to hate sex. She figured she always would—that she would never want another man’s hands on her, never want to feel a cock inside her. Only she knew that wasn’t true because she’d always been attracted to Magnus. She knew being with him would be how it was meant to be. Which was probably why seeing Magnus like this triggered something. It made her want, made her ache.
“Oh, fuck,” Magnus rasped, jerking himself harder now. “Please … I need…”
Ava ignored the way her insides trembled and her clit pulsed as she watched him pleasure himself. She wondered who he was thinking about as he pumped his hips, driving his cock into his fist. Was he thinking about Trey? Did he imagine Trey on his knees, his enormous cock sliding into his mouth? Ava could almost see the image in her mind. She probably would’ve if there weren’t a small selfish part of her that wondered if he was thinking about her. On her knees, her fingers curled around the base while she tried to take him deep in her throat.
She swallowed the whimper that erotic fantasy induced.
There were times she’d wanted Magnus to kiss her. Mostly that was back before what had happened, but there’d been a couple of times since. She saw how he looked at her, and sometimes she was convinced that he wanted her the same way she’d wanted him all those years ago when her teenage heart set its sights on him.
