Page 13 of Magnus
His throbbing and engorged cock thought so too.
But her shoulders were too thin, he acknowledged with a frown. So was her face and the rest of her body.
Stress could do that to a person, and he now knew Sapphie had been living under the stress of the Carluccis finding her and taking Angel away from her, for the past two years. Her unhappiness had probably existed for far longer than that, if her husband’s infidelity was any indication.
His jaw tightened at the thought of Marco Carlucci behaving so cavalierly in regard to Sapphie and their marriage vows.
Magnus very much doubted that when she married the other man, she had expected that within a few months he would be jumping into bed with other women. No wife should expect or have to tolerate that betrayal.
If the bastard was still alive, Magnus knew he would very much have enjoyed choking the life out of the other man for treating Sapphie with such disrespect.
Considering he had always thought of himself as being the most accepting member of his family, that was testament to how quickly and deeply he had fallen for this woman.
Which was why, whether she wanted his help or not, that was exactly what Sapphie was going to get. “I don’t lie.” He stopped internalizing to answer her question. “I’m here because you can’t keep running forever, and I want to help you put an end to this problem.”
She tensed. “Who says I’m running?” she challenged.
“I do. And so does your unexpected flight from London.”
“We left by train.”
“Ha-de-ha.”
Her chin rose at his obvious sarcasm. “I can take my daughter away for a surprise holiday if I wish to.”
“Sure, you can.” Magnus nodded. “But eventually, you’re going to run out of places to hide her.” He glanced down to where Angus was lying unashamedly on his back having his tummy rubbed by the giggling little girl. “Not that I blame you. I would hide her too if someone was threatening to take her away from me,” he added huskily.
“I’m not hiding her,” Sapphie defended.
He didn’t like saying what came next, but Sapphie’s continued denials made it impossible for him to do anything else. “I know about Marco, Sapphie, and how the Carluccis tried to take Angel away from you after their son died.”
She flinched, all the color leeching from her cheeks. “How can you possibly know that?”
“I had my brother Linus, who is the company tech expert, check into your background.”
“Angel, come back into the room, please,” she encouraged softly so as not to alarm the little girl.
“Can Angus come too?” Angel pleaded as she rose to her feet.
She shook her head. “Mr. Wynter has somewhere else he needs to be, which means Angus has to go too.”
“We could look after him until Magnus comes back,” Angel pressed hopefully.
“No.”
“But—”
“Please do as I ask, Angel.” Sapphie’s voice didn’t rise in pitch, but something in her tone must have alerted her daughter to the seriousness of the request.
Despite the tears of disappointment balancing on her long lashes, Angel instantly did as her mother requested and went back into the room. “Goodbye, Magnus. Goodbye, Angus,” she murmured, her voice breaking as she sat down in front of the quietly playing television. Except now she seemed to be just staring at the screen rather than watching the cartoon.
“This is no way for the two of you to live.” Magnus growled his displeasure with the situation as Angus, seemingly unaware of the tension in the room, trotted over to sit beside Angel.
“It’s none of your business.”
“I’m making it my business.”
“I don’t need your interference.”
