Defending Destiny (The Warrior Chronicles) (23 page)

Magnus kissed her leisurely before he pulled away, warmed by the thought that she continued to try to hold him. “You keep that up and you’re going to be hungry much longer.”

She dropped her arms and let him go.

Magnus threw on a clean pair of sweatpants and made his way to the kitchen for some snacks. He felt like devouring half the fridge. By the time he made it back to the room the sun was setting, bathing the bed in shades of orange and red. Daisy had finished showering and was sitting, freshly scrubbed, on top of his bed, sporting damp curls and one of his black t-shirts. She looked about ten years younger than she was, and his heart caught in his throat as a last beam of the day’s sun caressed her face.

They finished the massive plate of cheeses, fruit, and bread he brought up along with a bottle and a half of red wine before Daisy started yawning. She beat him at three rounds of cribbage before his own eyes started to feel heavy.

Later, after he’d read to her one his favorite bits from Yeats about miraculous creatures, and he was just about to drift to sleep with Daisy in his arms, he began to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

He squeezed her. “Nothing,” he said.

“Tell me.”

His laughter shifted to a smile that made his heart sing. “I was just thinking about flowers.”

“What about them makes you laugh?” She sounded puzzled.

He shrugged. “Nothing much. I just like the fact that mine bites.” he squeezed her again. “And I can’t wait for her to do it again.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY

Magnus
woke rock hard and ready to go.

That wasn’t unusual, it
was
morning.

What was unusual was the soft brush of silky curls on his inner thighs. He processed that, right before a soft, liquid warmth enveloped him, sending him from sleep-induced lethargy to wide awake in less time than it took for him to groan in pleasure. He whipped off the comforter to find Daisy, naked, smiling up at him as she ran her tongue from the base to the tip of him before tarrying there awhile.

Magnus threw his head back and strained against the urge for release. Daisy appeared to be receiving as much pleasure as he was. She sucked softly, then with more force. Then softly again before running her tongue around the head of him, taking in only that much.

He pushed her away and pulled her up the length of him while he still had the ability to control his release. He wanted her on top of him this time when he came.

Daisy growled at him.

Magnus gave a half-groan, half-laugh at the sound. Her disgruntled face pleased him even more than the noise she made deep in her throat. Magnus pulled her to him for a long, languid kiss. When she stopped trying to make her way back down his body, he positioned her so he could lie back and let her take over. He wanted to see as much of her as he could as the bright morning light streamed through the windows. He also wanted unfettered access to her body. It was all part of his devious plan to tie her to him so completely, she didn’t ever want to let go.

She gave him a narrow-eyed look that said his plan wasn’t working.

“It’s later,” she said, clearly disturbed that he cut off her oral exploration. The thought that she truly enjoyed servicing him that way had Magnus smiling inwardly as he silently thanked the gods once more. He enjoyed sex. Every aspect of it. The earthier, the better. Apparently, so did Daisy.

“Yes, it is.” He smiled at her. “And after we’re done here, it’ll be later again. Then you can have at me, lass. My body will be yours to command.”

Her face dissolved into a look of what he could only describe as angelic naughtiness. “Promise?”

Oh, aye. I promise with every ounce of my being.

Magnus’ verbal reply was cut off by the ring of his phone. The notes from Steve Miller’s “The Joker” filled the air. Magnus scowled, let go of Daisy’s bare hips, and reached for the phone. “Your boyfriend has terrible timing.”

Daisy hit him, which he guessed he deserved. After last night, he had no business being jealous of Gerry Butler. He pushed the green button. “This better be good, Butler.”

Gerry’s voice was affable, too affable for that time of morning or for their less-than-affable relationship. “This is a courtesy call. The courtesy is for Daisy, not for you.” There was a short pause, then Gerry spoke again. This time there was no mistaking the laughter in his voice. “I’d say you’ve got about sixty seconds before lift-off.”

Gerry clicked off.

Magnus’ cell rang again before he could set it down. Hearing the ringtone, he moved Daisy off of him, ran from the bed into the bathroom, retrieved his robe, and tossed it at Daisy. “Put it on.” When she didn’t move fast enough, he hissed at her. “
Now.
”

She put it on.

He managed to slip into his boxers while the notes of “Shipping up to Boston”
by the Dropkick Murphys continued to wail like Thor’s thunderclap through his bedroom.

Not good.

An image of getting caught by his parents all those years ago flashed through Magnus’ mind. He was angry then. Daisy had been humiliated, much of that due to his own asinine behavior. The last thing he wanted was for Daisy to revert to her distain for him.

Probably shouldn’a tossed yer robe at her head then, you daft shite. Pull yourself together, mon.

Magnus let his cell go to voicemail.

He looked at Daisy and hoped his face didn’t give away his anxiety. “It’s going to be all right this time, lass. I promise.”

He tried to keep his emotion in check. Perhaps that was a mistake. He’d obviously transferred his stress to her. Fear was written in every lovely line of her face.

“Gus? What’s going on?”

He crossed to her, took her in his arms, and kissed her forehead. “Unless I misread my clue, my parents will be coming through that door any second now.”

Daisy stiffened in his arms.

A second later his mother’s perfume and his father’s disapproving presence hit them both like a wave of paternal doom.

Lord and Lady…do we really have to go through this again?

The gods didn’t answer.

…

“Magnus, I want to talk to you. Alone.”

Shannon O’Shay’s voice bounced off the walls. The man Daisy had known all her life, the man she called “uncle,” hadn’t shouted, yet the energy in those few words slapped against her, making her stiffen in Magnus’ embrace.

Magnus’ back was to his parents. He tried to hold Daisy’s gaze, but her head shot around him despite his best efforts. It was like hearing an accident and having to look even though you knew what you were about to see was going to be painful.

Magnus went from stiff to concrete as he geared up to handle the situation. She didn’t need him to handle it. Not this time. This time she was an adult in an adult situation, not a teenager in over her heart and over her head.

She beamed a smile at Shay and at Magnus’ mother, Mari. Mari smiled back. Shay didn’t. Mari’s eyes, so pure a green they were like freshly mown grass in June, held kindness and a hint of humor for Daisy and the situation. Shay’s eyes, as gray and mercurial as his son’s, held no humor, although they softened when they moved from shooting daggers at Magnus’ back to meet Daisy’s gaze.

There was concern in his voice when he spoke to her. “He didn’t do anything to hurt you, did he, lass? He didn’t hurt or force you to do some’ting you dinna want ta do?”

Shay didn’t revert to his Northern Irish cadence unless he was under extreme stress. In all the years Daisy had known and loved him, she’d only heard it a handful of times. Most of the time, Shay spoke like any other Midwesterner, clear and precise with a dash of ya-hey-there thrown in, because it was charming.

Daisy tried to move out from Magnus’ shadow.

His grip tightened. He held her fast.

Craning her neck farther, around the stubborn block of a man Magnus had become, she addressed Magnus’ father. “No, Uncle Shay, Magnus did not force me or hurt me…”

She paused, and Daisy stared meaningfully up at Magnus before addressing her uncle again. Her words were for Mari’s benefit as well, but she’d never be as rude to Magnus’ mother, as she was about to be to his father.

“Although he’s being a pain in my
arse
right about now. But, be that as it may, what you see here”—Daisy gestured as best as she could given the fact that Magnus was still holding her arms—“is entirely my doing. I seduced your son—”

Shay cut in. “Now, lass, there’s no need to be protecting Magnus again.”

Daisy cut him off. “Uncle Shay, I need you and Mari
and
the thick-headed, unmoveable mound your overprotective son has morphed into to get this straight the first time, because I don’t want to be this blunt with any of you again.”

The room grew quiet. All eyes were on her. The two sets across the room, inquisitive. The one right in front of her, irritated. Daisy looked down at his hands on her arms. He didn’t let go at her silent demand, but his grip loosened. The second it did, she made a large, looping circle with her arms and broke his hold. She could have done it earlier, but she didn’t want to give Shay any reason to believe she needed to use force to get away from Magnus.

As soon as his grip broke, Daisy moved out of reach.

Magnus took a step toward her.

She arched her brow at him and gave him her do-not-cross-that-invisible-line stare. Just in case he was feeling particularly obtuse this morning, she added, “Stop right there, Gus. One more step and parents or no parents, I’ll drop you where you stand. You make me do that and this conversation is going to last far longer than it needs to.”

He looked at her like she was speaking Swahili.

She lifted her chin, widened her stance, and made fists of her hands. Slowly. One finger at a time. “I mean what I say. One step and you’ll not only be hearing this conversation from the floor, you’ll be celibate for the foreseeable future.”

Magnus stood still.

Daisy heard Mari make a choking sound and turned enough to see Shay haphazardly patting her on the back. He stared at Daisy as if his goddaughter had just sprouted horns. Her gaze landed on Mari, who was trying to extricate herself from Shay’s less-than-gentle ministrations. Mari winked at her.

Well, that’s one down. Two stubborn ones to go.

Daisy addressed the room, but she really only spoke to Shay and his son. “I am not seventeen. I am a grown woman with a healthy sexual appetite and every intention of satisfying it. Last night I satisfied it with Magnus.”

Daisy looked from Magnus—who shot up both eyebrows and crossed his arms around his chest, waiting no doubt, to see what she’d say next—to Shay. Shay looked puzzled, like he was having trouble picturing her as a grown-up. He was the one who taught her how to hit every vulnerable part of the male body. He was the one who sat her down at thirteen and told her not to treat boys as rational human beings until she was thirty. He was the one who presented her with her own set of brass knuckles, specially made to fit her hands. And he was the one who made sure she took them on her first date.

She sighed.

This is not going to be as easy as it should be. Goddess save me from well-meaning men who love me. Maybe you could shake some sense into both of them for me.

“Uncle Shay, I’m twenty-seven years old. I do not need protection from you.” She shot Magnus a withering glance. “Or from your son. If you want to protect someone here, choose to protect the one who needs it.”

Magnus’ eyes flashed first in surprise, then in warning at her. Daisy ignored him and concentrated on making Shay understand her position. She almost smiled when Mari gave her a nod of encouragement.

“
I
was the one naked in your son’s room last night.
I
was the one who said ‘I want you’ to
him.
And just so there’s no mistake about the morning after you caught us the first time,
I
was the one who came to Gus’s bed that time too.”

Magnus tried to say something. She stopped him with a glare and a growl that promised painful things if he didn’t let her finish. She wasn’t angry, she was determined. It was well past time to clear the air about the past, so it could die, and about the future so it could flourish. And if not flourish, grow organically from fresh seed.

“You can scream and yell and make all the ultimatums you want, but the fact remains that I slept with Magnus last night. I’ll be sleeping with him tonight and every night until
we
decide what’s next.”

Mari linked her arm in Shay’s, smiling fully and not bothering to hide her pleasure. She nudged Shay’s side and something changed in his expression. It wasn’t pleasure, but there was a glimpse of the merry Irishman lurking in his gaze.

Daisy gave Magnus a quick glance. Pride and something downright possessive radiated from him, making the skin at the back of her neck prickle. A smirk lingered at the corner of his mouth before it turned into a very naughty, very challenging smile.