Bite Me (The Transfigured Ones Book 2) (9 page)

“Caroline,” he groaned, closing the space between them. Grabbing twin handfuls of her ass, he squeezed until she moaned, then released her. “I hope you're not attached to these panties.”

“Why—”

Rather than responding to her question verbally, he simply gripped the strings that rested on her hips and snapped them. Then he pulled the panties away from her body and tucked them in his pocket.

“Magnus,” she gasped, her hips pressing back, seeking him.

“Hold still, love. I believe we discussed the fact there would be some punishment. Don't think I've forgotten about that.”

Her voice a little breathy, she admitted, “I've been wet all day thinking about it.”

Magnus reached forward with one hand and grabbed on to her ponytail. Pulling her head back, so that he was able to put his mouth next to her ear, he said, “For the next few minutes, I'm in charge but if at any point you want to stop, tell me.”

“Okay,” she whimpered, rocking back against him, trying to rub her slit across the fly of his pants.

He stepped backward, releasing her hair. Wicked girl, he thought with a grin. “I'm in charge, love. Be still.” He gave her ass a quick, loud smack that made her moan softly.

“Shh,” he reminded her, trailing his fingertips down between her thighs. “There are still people wandering about. Unless you'd prefer that I find something to occupy your mouth.”

She let out a soft shuddering breath that quickly turned into a sharp gasp when he drove three fingers deep into her sopping wet pussy without warning. The agony of being silent was clearly written on her face as she turned her head and met his eyes briefly. They were glassy with want, and her bottom lip was caught between her teeth. She was absolutely gorgeous.

“Good girl,” he praised, when she began to silently rock herself back against his fingers. He laid several more smacks against her ass that had her shuddering. “That's right.”

When he felt her begin to flutter around his fingers, he pulled them out of her and said, “Not quite yet. This is a punishment, remember?”

              He grinned at her displeased huff. Her sharp intakes of breath and the fact that she was beginning to subtly rock back into each smack of his palm told him what she wasn't able to. She was enjoying every second of this.

Her sense of adventure both in and out of the bedroom was one of the things that he truly loved about her.  Magnus froze, his hand in mid-swing at the word choice. Love? He shook his head, trying to dislodge the thought. When it didn't, warning bells began to go off in his mind. Too much. Too soon.

              Returning to the present, Magnus realized she was looking over her shoulder at him. Her gaze was heavy lidded when she whispered, “Don't stop.”

As her gaze grew more hesitant, he shoved his wayward thoughts aside and swatted her again. Over the next few minutes he varied the locations of his swats until his hand began to sting from the impact. Changing tactics, he lightly traced the tip of his finger over her slightly reddened ass cheek and then dipped it between her thighs. He let out a long groan when he found her absolutely soaked.

“Fuck, Caroline. You don't know how gorgeous your ass looks with my handprints all over it. I don't think I've ever been so turned on in my life.”

Caroline let out a soft whimper as he continued to tease her. “Oh god, Magnus. Fuck me please,” she begged in a harsh whisper.

In no mood to argue, Magnus fumbled with his belt buckle, desperate to free himself. “Christ,” he muttered, his fingers no longer working.

“Oh god, please hurry,” she begged.

When he was finally able to free himself, he shoved his pants and briefs down in one swift motion. With no preamble whatsoever, he drove himself into her on a ragged groan of pleasure. “Oh, fuck. Caroline.”

“So good,” she panted, pressing her hips back in an attempt to take him deeper.

He settled his hands on her hips and something primal inside him took over. He let loose, hammered into her roughly. The velvety grip of her cunt had pressure building at the base of his spine almost immediately. He was about to blow. “Rub your clit for me, love. I want to feel you come all over my cock.”

Seeing Caroline's hand slip down between her thighs didn't help the situation, either. If anything, it only added to the mounting release. Thankfully, she let out a muffled whimper seconds later and clamped down on his cock so hard it bordered on painful.

The last bit of control he possessed came completely untethered, burying himself as deeply as he could. Then he exploded inside her, biting back the words he knew it was far too early to say to her.

“Jesus Christ,” he panted, slumping against her back momentarily, resting until his legs could function again.

“Mm,” she mumbled, her elbows now propped on the crate. “Been looking forward to that all day.”

Hearing the relaxed slur of her voice, he stood and asked, “Care to accompany me upstairs for a bite to eat?”

“I didn't even have to cry Easy Mac that time,” she joked, standing up on wobbly legs.

When she looked up at him with that mixture of sleepy satisfaction and vulnerability, he was a goner.  “No, you didn't. You never do. I'm happy to feed you whenever you like, so long as I can keep you.”

Caroline looked at him, heart in her eyes. “You have quite a way with words.”

“Thank you. I'm going to go take a last look over the kitchen while you write that email. After, we'll go upstairs, get a bite to eat and curl up. I'm bloody exhausted since someone woke me up so early this morning,” he teased.

“Magnus?”

“Yeah?”

“Be honest with me. You're always honest with me, right?” she asked, her expression sober.

A mixture of panic and concern settled in his chest at the solemn look on her face, he said, “Always.”

“Do I look like I just got fucked in an expensive liquor closet?”

He let out chuckle, then surveyed her and nodded. “Yes. You do look freshly fucked, I'm afraid.”

“I thought so. And not to be indelicate, but um, you're currently dripping down my thighs. Oh, and
someone
decided to tear my panties off so now I get to walk around work without underwear. You know, like the classy lady I am.”

“I'm so sorry you have to suffer through that,” he acknowledged, his smirk firmly in place again. “I'll never do it again since it was so awful. Promise.”

“Let's not get hasty,” she cautioned, her lips twitching.

Magnus reached into his pocket, pulling out the torn panties. Gently, he knelt down to wipe her thighs off and then pocketed them again.

“Aw,” Caroline teased, her eyes sparkling with humor as he stood.

“Never let it be said that I'm not a romantic,” he murmured, leaning in to kiss her once more before he pulled her toward the door. “You ready?”

At her nod, he preceded her out the door, pleased to find the hallway deserted. He moved toward the kitchens and wondered if
he
was ready. Because god knew, he was completely in love with her and had no idea what to do with that knowledge.

Chapter Ten

“I really hate that part of the job,” Caroline lamented, slouching in her desk chair. Security reviewed the tapes and caught Joey taking a bottle out of the storeroom and going into the employee locker room area. It was, based on the way he held the bottle and the general graininess of the image, difficult to tell if that was
the
bottle. It didn't matter though. He'd crumbled immediately under their scrutiny.

Lilly agreed. “I hate that he stole. Don't get me wrong. It's more about the fact that I made the choice to hire him on, though. The little bastard had me fooled. How much of the under stock do you suppose he's taken?”

“Not as much as you'd think,” Caroline explained. “The inventory system tracks a bottle's usage based on how many drinks per bottle you can pour versus what's rung up. A whole bottle during inventory would have thrown up a flag, like it did this time. We've been short a few pours but never an entire bottle. I'm going to say I believed him when he told us it was his first offense.”

Sighing, Lilly said, “That's why I hired you. That right there. That and your magnificence behind the bar. Oh. Speaking of magnificence. The event planner sent out the invitations using the guest list from the last party we threw. She said she sent you an email but you didn't respond to her. I hope that's okay?”

Caroline tried to remember the people on her guest list. It had been her parents and grandmother that she'd invited. There was no way she'd be able to go get her grandmother, so that was out. As for her parents, they'd skipped the last one so it wasn't like they'd show up anyway. “That's fine I guess. I didn't get an email, though.”

“Trinity Vickers?”

“Lemme check my spam folder, because I'm usually pretty good about my email,” she explained. Clicking on her spam folder, she scrolled down the list and asked, “
[email protected]
?”

“That's her,” Lilly confirmed.” Spam?”

“Yeah. I'll respond and apologize. She ended up buried with a bunch of Viagra ads and I totally missed this. Was there anything else she needed?”

“Not that I know of,” Lilly answered, frowning. “It's time. I have to get up or I never will. Now, please look away. It's not even remotely graceful anymore.

Caroline dutifully turned her head until Lilly gave her the all clear. “Thanks for your help with the Joey incident. It's pretty generous of you to not press charges.”

Snorting, Lilly said, “If I thought it would stick, I'd absolutely press charges. That little shit stole $34,000 from me. The camera didn't get a clear enough shot of the bottle. I'm surprised it was enough to scare him into confessing. I figured he'd just deny it.”

“I wasn't expecting him to come clean either,” Caroline admitted. “I almost felt a little sorry for him when he started crying. Almost.”

“Yeah. I can't handle when grown men cry. Don't tell him I told you this, but Talan cried in front of me once and it absolutely gutted me.”

“I can't even picture that. Talan is so tough and in control all the time. He's not even mine and I think that would ruin me.”

Lilly's eyes zeroed in on her neck as she gestured. “You might want to adjust your shirt a little bit. Your bite marks...”

“Crap. I'm sorry. I thought this shirt would hide them. I've been shifting it all day.”

“Doesn't bother me any, clearly,” she laughed, tugging the neckline of her own shirt to the side a bit to show off her own set. “How's all that going, by the way?”

When Lilly wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, Caroline couldn't help but laugh. “Really well. I like him. A lot. Underneath all that grouchiness, he's actually a very sweet man.”

“Sweet? Magnus? I'm glad I'm blown up like a beach ball right now. Once I've had the baby, I won't have
any
advantage. Magnus seems a little frightened of the fact I'm pregnant. Like, he doesn't want to be too cranky because he thinks I'm going to cry. Since he's sweet to you, I'll just bring you with me to all major conversations going forward.”

Laughing, Caroline imitated Lilly, “'
Magnus, I brought Caroline along and she'd like to talk to you about some issues with last night's dinner service. Did you have a minute?'
”

Lilly snorted. “Yeah. I'm sure that would go amazingly well.”

“Um. Can I ask you something? You said if I needed to talk that I could come to you.”

Her face sobering, Lilly said, “Sure. What's up?”

“The differences between he and I don't seem to matter. The longer this goes on, the more they will though. I don't want to push things too fast, too soon, but I worry about that. Inevitably, one day, I'm going to...”

“Oh, honey. Trust me. I know exactly what you're talking about. Even as I was falling in love with Talan a part of me was thinking that there was no possible way things could work out. If it comes down to it, you're going to have to choose whether it's worth changing your entire life. Talan and I talked about it at length. After the baby is born, I'm doing to do the gene therapy. I can't imagine leaving Talan behind. Or this little guy,” she finished, rubbing her belly. “Thankfully, it's not a decision you need to make overnight. If it gets to that point, you'll know what to do. Things are getting serious?”

“I haven't been home other than for a change in clothes in almost a week. It definitely feels like it,” Caroline admitted.

“Enjoy your worry free relationship as long as you can. Don't go borrowing trouble. You've got a couple of years to think about it. Will your family object?” Lilly asked.

Caroline sighed. “They object to me, so I can't imagine they'll be thrilled by this development. We're on the outs at the moment, though. My grandmother is behind me as long as, and these were her words, he's not a dickhead like the last guy.”

Giving a shocked laugh, Lilly said, “Go Grandma!”

“She's a pistol,” Caroline agreed, laughing. “She's supposed to visit on Sunday assuming I can still take the time off the bar. I'll see if Kristi wants to pick up additional shifts. She mentioned something about wanting more hours. Cody Lee just became Lead Bartender by default. Let's hope he can be motivated to take on some extra responsibility. Otherwise my weekend is shot.”

“Keep me posted. I'll fill in where I can but,” Lilly gestured at her stomach, “Talan will kick my ass if I try to bar tend at this point.”

“I'll kick your ass if you try to bar tend!” At Lilly's glare, Caroline quickly added, “I'm sure you're capable, but you're also really pregnant. I worry about the baby.”

Lilly's lips twitched. “Nice save. And on that note, I'm going to eat. Firing thieves makes me hungry, apparently.”

“Thanks for your help with that, by the way. I've never had to fire anyone before.”

“It's never fun, but it gets a little bit easier. The first time I had to, it was awful. The asshole took a swing at me.”

“What a dick!”

“True story,” she agreed, with a wave. “All in all, that went as well as a firing could go. Good work.”

“Thanks,” she said to Lilly's retreating form. “I guess.”

****

Magnus lay next to her in bed, his breathing so deep and even that she was almost certain he was asleep. Gently, she tried to disentangle herself but stopped when his arm tightened.

“You weren't trying to sneak away, by chance?” he asked, his voice husky.

“I told you I was going to head home tonight. It's been almost a week since I've seen my apartment. I desperately need to do laundry or I'll have to start going naked,” she complained, laughing.

“As much as I'd appreciate that, I'm not inclined to share the view. I suppose you can go do laundry if you really want to,” he said on a sigh.

“Magnus?” she asked incredulously. “Are you pouting? Really?”

“Not precisely. It's just that I've grown accustomed to you stealing all of the covers at night. I quite like having you here with me,” he admitted.

“I steal all the covers? I'm just taking my share of them back from you! I wake up with no covers, hanging off the edge of the bed. You're a bed
and
a cover hog!”

He frowned. “I suppose that's plausible. I do like to bundle up.”

“Well you'll have full control of the covers this weekend. My grandmother is coming into  town, so she'll be staying at my place.”

“That ruins
that
idea, I guess,” he grumbled. “I was going to ask you on a real live date. In public.”

“Ooh. That would be different. Bummer,” she said, a little disappointed. “No can do this weekend, though. I'm leaving early to pick her up on Sunday morning. I was going to take her around the city on one of those sightseeing buses. Maybe hit up the food festival they have at the park for dinner. I promised her tacos.”

“Tacos without me, love? I'm a bit hurt,” he joked. “I thought we had plans. Me, you, your grandmother, the butler. She is bringing the butler, right?”

Caroline laughed for a moment. Then, after an awkward pause asked, “Um, well. She did ask me whether she'd be able to meet you. I told her I wasn't sure. Would you want to spend the evening with us? You can totally say no if it's too strange. I wouldn't blame—”

He touched a finger to her lips. “Caroline. Shh. You're rambling, love. I wasn't angling for the invite. I was just making a joke. So if it makes you uncomfortable, then don't worry about it.”

“No, no! It's not that,” she explained. “I just feel weird asking you to meet a member of my family. Is it too soon for that?”

He shifted underneath her, until he lay stretched out on his side, facing her. Tilting her chin up with his hand, he gazed at her. “If you want me there, just ask. I'll tell you if it makes me uncomfortable, love.”

She let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. “You're right. So, uh. Wanna go get tacos with my grandmother and I on Sunday night?”

“Oh. I think it's a bit too soon for that. Don't you?” Magnus asked, giving her a mock frown. At her poke in the ribs, he wiggled. “Kidding, love. Kidding. Yes. I'd love to. It won't be too late for her? It stays light out for so long during the summer here.”

“Nope. She's a night owl too. She lives in Orillia near my parents. I get the impression she gets bored. She'll be excited to have the company.”

“You don't think she'll have an issue with my being Transfigured?”

“I'd have heard about it by now if she did. She's quizzed me several times so there's been ample opportunity for her to object.”

“Quizzed you? About what?”

“Just some practical stuff,” she said, glossing over it quickly. “Oh, I got an informative lecture on sex, too.”

“Uh, does she understand it's a little late in life for the birds and the bees talk?”

Caroline laughed. “Not
that
kind of lecture. She went on and on about sampling the merchandise before I buy it. I finally broke down and told her I was sampling it quite extensively so she'd stop.”

Magnus snorted. “Oh God. I can't wait to meet this woman. She sounds amazing!”

“This was a tame discussion in comparison to the time that I told her I was becoming a nun. I had just broken up with a guy in college and I was a total wreck. She just looked me in the eye and suggested that I join a convent that had a cucumber patch.”

He snickered, “Now I know where you get your filthy mind from, love.”

“She's something else,” Caroline agreed, as she relaxed against him again, tucking her head under his chin.

“I must admit, though. Some of the practical questions have occurred to me,” he said, quietly.

She sighed. “Me too. I keep telling myself that it's too early to worry about them, but  I've never been very good about going with the flow.”

Caroline felt the unmistakable press of his lips against the crown of her head a moment before he said, “This is an entirely unique experience for me. I've never felt like this before. I... I
crave
you, Caroline. I know there are things that we'll have to talk about as we move forward, but I very much think they're worth discussing.”

She exhaled the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. Caroline leaned back and looked at him, her hand moving up to the side of his face. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that I'm not the only one who feels that way.”

“I know I'm not the most expressive, man. I'd blame it on my upbringing, but it's been nearly half a century. I suspect the ball is firmly in my court at this point. I'm trying, though. You're the first person that's ever made me want to try.”

She blinked back the tears that were forming in her eyes and kissed him. She tried to show him without words what she was terrified to say. There was no telling whether he was ready to hear it but Caroline was pretty sure she'd just fallen completely in love with him.