THE RISK OF LOVE AND MAGIC (13 page)

And Nadine started to sing in the shower.

Damn, damn, and triple damn. He couldn’t leave La Loca loose on her own.

He couldn’t take her out in public.

For once in his life, he had to think first and act later.
Fuck
.

Well past disgruntled, Magnus forwarded the message to Conan. He refused to question the mumbo jumbo that had produced the mysterious address. He just wanted this over while he still maintained his sanity.

As if in reward for his good behavior, Nadine emerged from the bathroom wearing nothing.

Riding on the courage of half a bottle of excellent pinot noir and Mad Max’s admiring gaze, Nadine did her best to imitate a model and swayed across the room. “Vera received our message,” she said in triumph.

“Or she checked your old Dropbox just in case,” Magnus said, but his tone didn’t sound argumentative. He wasn’t saying she was nuts, and that’s what mattered. “I forwarded the address in her message to Conan,” he added.

Nadine rolled her eyes. So much for seduction. “That was stupid. I told you, she scares easily.”

She hurried over to her laptop to send a message to the Dropbox to warn Vera of the approach of strangers.

“Tell Conan to use the code words
Maximus Grandus
, and she’ll know he’s safe,” she ordered as she typed.

“Way to kill a mood,” Magnus grumbled, grabbing his phone.

She was standing there bare-assed naked, and they were both typing on keyboards. This was so not what she’d intended.

“You’re the one who shot off her address without warning me.” This was probably why she’d never have sex. She didn’t know how to shut up. Still, she had to learn to stand her ground or be walked over by obsessive military take-charge types for the rest of her life. Wine nicely removed her inhibitions. “Two-way street, buddy. If you want to go your own way, leave me out of it, and I’ll go mine.” She turned to face him.

His chest and shoulders filled her field of vision. Nadine whacked him on a shirt button. “You’re not Tarzan and I’m not Jane.”

He grabbed her waist as he had earlier, lifting her until they were face to face. Only this time his rough hands dug into flesh, and her bare breasts rubbed his soft polo shirt. He smelled of raw male with a hint of salt air and sent her senses reeling.

She propped her hands on his gorgeous shoulders, meaning to blast him again, but he wrapped his arms completely around her and crushed her against him. Before she completely understood the turn around, Magnus kissed her. One big hand slid through her hair and pressed her closer.

Forget argument. She nearly strangled on the rush of desire. Falling into those firm pecs, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and returned the kiss with all the fervor that had been pent-up inside since he’d stomped into her life.

His tongue touched hers, and in an excess of energy, she wrapped her legs around his waist and thought she might never let go. He took her weight without flinching.

Bliss and excitement and raging need spun her head far more than wine.

He explored her mouth while she explored his. He still tasted of coffee. His jeans abraded her thighs as he carried her toward the bed, as if she cared about abrasion when she had his tongue claiming her mouth. She wanted his shirt off but couldn’t work out how to do it while she was clinging to him for dear life, feeding on the heady elixir of his desire.

Magnus set one knee on the bed and lowered her, still covering her with soul-searing kisses. His bristled jaw scratched her cheek, but his big hands were gentle as he settled her against the silken sheets. He stroked and squeezed her buttocks until she tugged inexpertly at his shirt, and he had to let her go to help her pull it from his jeans.

Big silent Max didn’t say a word when she ran her hands under his shirt and explored the powerful muscles he concealed there. He was solid as rock but warm and smooth, and she didn’t think she could ever let go. She found his nipples and tweaked, and he finally growled and climbed over her.

“You’re not going to tell me tomorrow that you were drunk and didn’t mean this?” he asked, tearing his lovely lips away from their plundering.

“I’m not any more drunk than you are, and I’ll regret it more if we
don’t
do this,” she said honestly. Even her awkward timidity didn’t stand a chance against the burning desire to
feel.
For once in her life, she wanted
to surrender all thought and just enjoy the moment.
“No strings, I promise. Just please, let’s have this one night.”

He hesitated, but Nadine caught his hand and tugged it toward her breast and there was no turning back. She cried out with the sensual wonder he created with just the brush of his rough hand against sensitive skin. Need coursed through her like liquid flame.

He bent and licked the nipple he’d just set on fire, and she grabbed his hair, murmuring senseless encouragement as her body came truly alive for the first time in her damned sheltered life.

At some point, she became nothing more than sensation. The surf pounded against the rocks in time to the beat of her heart. The night smelled of salt and male sweat and sex, and hunger consumed her. She cried out at the chilly air when Magnus rose to remove his jeans. She shuddered happily from a different sensation when his naked heat covered her again.

She reveled in the brush of his hairy masculine legs against hers as much as in the soft caress of his kisses along her belly. He pried her thighs apart, leaving her vulnerable and aching. When he applied his tongue there, she nearly shot off the bed.

She needed only that slight spark to ignite a river of desire. Twisting, rocking, more out of control than in one of her psychic seizures, she wept with pleasure as he tormented her with his tongue. Tremors rushed through her in waves more forceful than the surf outside.

Finally, when she was limp and wrung out, Magnus rose on his powerful arms, kissed her cheek, and rolled over to don a condom. She tugged him back, needing his heat and strength to hold her together. He resisted until he was ready, then sprawled on top of her again.

“You’re amazing,” he murmured, spreading his kisses across her cheek and nibbling at her ear. “I may explode if I don’t have you now.”

“Now, please,” she whispered eagerly, opening her legs, needing more than she could possibly explain.

He lowered his hips until his rock-hard penis brushed wet, aroused tissues. Mindlessly, she rose up to meet him.

He was huge.

She obviously wasn’t.

He pushed. She cried out and backed away.

He slid gently back and forth to arouse her again, then pushed deeper.

She dug her fingers into his biceps, bit his shoulder, and tried not to fight him.

“Damn, you’re tight,” he whispered as if it were a good thing. “Wrap your legs around me.” He helped her raise them to show what he wanted.

Dazed, she did as instructed. He sucked her breasts until she whimpered and squirmed with need again. And then he pushed so fast and deep that her head hit the headboard, and he filled her so completely, she no longer existed.

That’s when her vision opened and she saw him in entirety, as if she had slipped outside herself.

Nadine watched his large, magnificently male body bucking over hers, filling all the empty places, taking charge—
possessing
her. She saw his taut buttocks pump, his hard tree-trunk thighs conceal her more slender ones, his wide back obliterating all but her inner vision.

And she fell apart, weeping, clinging, hanging on as he overpowered her with sensation, as the tides of pleasure ripped through her, and Magnus shouted his own release.

Exhausted, unable to separate what was real and what was not, Nadine fell asleep in his arms.

***

Magnus considered himself an uncomplicated man. He’d had his fair share of one-night stands, walking away in the morning without regret. Sex was sex, just as food was food.

Nadine turned that theory on its head and whacked the stuffing out of it in ways that Diane never had.

He woke in the morning with her head on his shoulder, her breasts cuddled against his side, and her hand curled trustingly on his chest. His morning woody was ready to play.

He had the uncomfortable notion that he’d hurt her last night, and she wouldn’t be as eager as he was.

Words like
sheltered
formed in his brain.
Naïve. Inexperienced.
He nudged uncomfortably around
virgin.
She was twenty-three years old, dammit. Surely . . .

How rough had he been? Alarm and regret roiled through him. The black cloud of responsibility formed. It ate at his gut as she stretched and shifted to warm herself against his body heat. They’d left the balcony door open and the air was damned chilly.

He’d
hurt
her. She should have warned him . . . Damn, but he was the one who should have known.

He didn’t have time for inexperienced females and nut cases, Magnus reminded himself. Diane had wiped out all hope that he might learn how to do relationships. Nadine
knew
he wasn’t the lovey-dovey kind of guy that women wanted. Besides, she would be off with her sister in a day or so, and there was no sense in getting used to this.

And he was lying through his teeth. He
wanted
the comfort Nadine offered. He wanted to teach her that last night wasn’t what real lovemaking was about. He wanted to watch her reaction to each new discovery in the world she scarcely knew. She was even more intriguing than the damned new Camaro engine.

There be dragons.
Magnus carefully unwrapped himself from Nadine’s embrace, pulled the covers over her luscious curves, and took his hard-on to the shower.

He’d left his clean clothes in another room and had to don yesterday’s. She was awake when he emerged. Her big green eyes filled her elfin face.

Magnus wanted her nimbus of hair back. It had made her look stronger and older. Short curls emphasized her vulnerability.

“I’m going to fix some coffee. Conan will bring your sister here if he can. We’ll hear from him if anything goes wrong.” Magnus felt like a heel as she watched him with a hint of wariness.

“How long will it take to drive across the mountains to here?” She pulled the sheet around her and up to her chin.

“I’ll check online. Go back to sleep, if you like. We have time.” He walked out with a ten-ton load of guilt on his shoulders.

Francesca was already downstairs, fully dressed, sipping coffee, and reading from her tablet computer. She gave his unshaven jaw a cursory glance, snorted, and returned to reading.

The whole damned family would know what he’d done by sunset.

Disoriented by Max’s abrupt departure, Nadine checked the time and hurriedly rolled out of bed. She was sore, damned sore. At the same time, she felt remarkably centered.

She’d done it. She’d finally had sex. And it had been miraculous. And incredibly painful. Exhilarating and . . . dangerous to the heart. Rather like she’d imagined a roller coaster ride.

It had almost made her mind as sore as her lower parts. She’d never had a vision that had taken her outside her body! Or maybe that had been the wine.

She wasn’t certain she wanted to try again, but the craving for the adrenalin rush was strong.

Except, Magnificent Max had made it perfectly clear that she’d merely been a one-night stand. She was good with that. More than good. She didn’t think she could take another night like that.

But her stupid heart yearned for hot kisses and tender touches. And adrenalin rushes.

Vera
. Vera came first.

Nadine hurriedly showered and dressed. Grabbing her glasses and the laptop, she headed downstairs, following the scent of coffee.

In the kitchen, Maximus was leaning against the counter top, sipping his coffee, while gorgeous Francesca munched daintily on some granola concoction. Nadine grabbed the cup Max handed her and headed out to the patio to avoid interaction. Francesca’s mind was an uncomfortable place.

Max followed and flung a blanket from the cabana over her shoulders. The morning was still misty and chilly.

“Conan’s team is stationed around the address, making certain no one is watching but them.” He leaned over and hit a few keys on her keyboard. “I set up this account for you earlier. That’s where they send their reports.”

She was placing a lot of trust in the Oswin family, for good reason, she supposed. They’d accomplished miracles over the past year. She wished she could be the one rescuing Vera, but she was smart enough to know that her presence was more danger than help. The general would kill to find her.

Donning her glasses, Nadine impatiently scanned the cryptic notes of the team members, then hit the live video links. Her heart raced as the computer called up the images of the team stationing themselves around a simple bungalow. The camera showed a house on a street of similar tiny houses with patches of sand for yard. Landscaping consisted of a few scraggly palms and extremely large cacti.

Magnus hovering over her with his big hand on the chair back reduced her formidable concentration to nil. Nadine sipped her coffee black, forgetting that she hated black coffee.

“Who’s filming this?” she asked as a scrawny dog or coyote raced down the street and a rusty Ford pick-up trundled past on the screen.

“I doubt it’s Conan. He’s snug in bed with Dorrie. One of his team, I assume. He makes certain they have the latest tech. This looks like a dashboard cam. He’s been building the team since the nanny snatched Oz’s kid. It practically runs itself these days.”

“They find lost kids?” Nadine asked, just so she didn’t have to think too hard about Vera and never seeing Magnus again after this.

“Lost and stolen kids mostly. Teens are tougher because they often go off on their own. But Vera wants to be found, apparently, and that’s a different angle. Besides, we’ve pretty much declared war on the general for what he did to Dorrie’s family and others like them. Conan would finance the devil to bring him down.”

Nadine didn’t say anything in response, couldn’t. The front door of the bungalow on the screen was opening. Vera walked out carrying a backpack and walking a small fluffy dog.