Page 1 of Magnus
CHAPTER ONE
“Can I pet your dog?”
Magnus looked up from where he had been scrolling through the emails on his cell phone as he sat on a bench in one of London’s smaller parks. It was late summer, and the sun was shining brightly overhead.
He immediately did a double take as he found himself looking into the most innocent and unusual violet-colored eyes he had ever seen.
The innocent part, considering the little girl standing near him could only be, at most, four or five years old, was a given. She also had long golden hair brushed back in a high ponytail and was wearing a T-shirt with a rainbow unicorn depicted on the front of it, along with pink shorts. Her pink-sandaled feet dangled a foot or so off the ground as she sat opposite him. All adding to her air of innocence.
None of which was in the least relevant when a hasty glance in the near vicinity didn’t reveal a frantic mother, or father, desperately searching for their missing angel.
“Are you here with your Mummy?” Magnus considered her to be a very remiss mummy if the lack of her concerned presence was any indication.
“No.”
“Daddy?”
“No.”
The fuck…!
“Nanny or Grandpa, then?”
“No. Can I pet your dog?” she repeated with a covetous look at the panting cream West Highland Terrier sitting at his feet.
“You can, yes,” he answered. Angus was super friendly and not at all aggressive, but Magnus was becoming more and more concerned at the lack of an adult to supervise—and protect—this beautiful little girl. “But he isn’t my dog,” he added distractedly.
Luckily, she had chosen wisely when she had decided to speak to Magnus. There were a hell of a lot of deviant men, and women, whose motives in answering her wouldn’t have been as trustworthy.
“Then why is he sitting beside you?” she persisted.
“Because I’m looking after him for a friend.”
“What friend?”
“My cousin Rufus.”
“Your cousin is your friend?”
“He’s also my business partner.” He didn’t feel the need to tell a little girl that he and his two brothers, plus their cousin, owned and ran the worldwide company, Wynter Security.
Magnus usually ran the New York office, but he had stayed on in England, in the apartment he kept in London, after Rufus’s wedding so that he could look after the London office in his cousin’s absence and also take care of Angus. He was enjoying it so much, he was thinking of moving back to London permanently and letting Knox, his deputy, remain in charge of New York.
“I don’t have any cousins or a busi—busi—a partner.”
“I’m sorry.” Considering the sadness of her expression, it seemed the right thing for him to say.
“Why isn’t your cousin looking after his own dog?”
“Because he’s away on his honeymoon.”
She wrinkled her tiny nose in concentration. “What’s a honeymoon?” She looked up into the moonless sky, as if searching for the answer to that question.
Magnus grinned at how cute that was.
Cute?
Had he just thought something this little girl said and did wascute?
