Page 25 of Magnus
Sapphie had expected to find Magnus in the sitting room when she left the bedroom, maybe watching the news, but he wasn’t there. The kitchen was clean and tidy, as she had thought it would be. But there was no Magnus there either.
The doors to the other bedrooms in the apartment all stood open, but a wander down the hallway showed Magnus wasn’t in any of those rooms either. Although, Sapphie guessed that the room decorated in blues and grays, with a king-size bed dominating the space, belonged to Magnus.
Having been constantly on the move the past two years, always worried about being found by the Carluccis, Sapphie hadn’t allowed herself the luxury of feeling lonely during that time.
She hadn’t wanted to need anyone, or for anyone, apart from Angel, to need her.
But here and now, with Angel asleep and Magnus nowhere to be found, Sapphie felt the raw depth of the bleakness of that loneliness inside her.
And she was at a loss to explain to herself why, in such a short amount of time, she had come to value and rely on Magnus’s company so much.
He was handsome, yes. His desire to protect her and Angel was so intense, he had totally upended his own life to ensure the two of them not only felt but actually were safe. To the extent he’d even had his younger brother increase the security of this whole building, not just the apartment.
No one hadeverprotected her the way Magnus now was.
He’d also asked her to marry him.
Twice.
Which… Well, Sapphie wasn’t quite surewhatthat was about.
She couldn’t accept, of course. But they could have talked about it some more. Magnus could have explainedwhyhe was making such a generous offer.
Sapphie certainly hadn’t expected him to just disappear while she was putting Angel to bed.
Had she maybe hoped, now that they were alone again, that she and Magnus might share a few more of those devastating and arousing kisses?
If she had, Magnus’s absence said she was going to be disappointed.
She wandered about the apartment for another half an hour before taking herself off to the bathroom to shower before going to bed. It was still early, but it had been a long night and day, and watching television on her own didn’t appeal.
She had no idea how long she stood beneath the hot shower after washing herself and her hair. Marveling, wallowing in the luxury that the water didn’t go cold after a while, as so many of the showers had in the rooms or apartments she’d rented during the last two years.
Her heart gave a jolt when she heard a noise in the otherwise silent apartment as she stepped out of the shower. A barely discernible noise, and not one she recognized, but she could definitely hear a repetitive thump, thump, thump coming from somewhere close by.
She quickly finished drying herself before pulling on a silky purple camisole top with matching shorts. Her normal bedtime attire, unless it was cold. Which this apartment certainly wasn’t.
Even the wooden floor was heated beneath her bare feet as she cautiously followed the noise to the end of the hallway and took a left. She knew she had taken the correct turn as the thumping sound turned into a steady thwack the farther down the hallway she walked.
A crack of light showed from the door that stood slightly ajar at the end of the dark hallway. Drawing Sapphie closer, and then closer still, until she was near enough to gently push the door open and look inside the room beyond.
Her breath caught and held in her throat as she stared at Magnus.
His tanned body was gleaming with sweat in the places the body-hugging black tank top and loose black shorts didn’t cover. He wore boxing gloves as he methodically landed punch after punch on the scarred leather bag hanging from the ceiling. The source of the thwacking sound.
Sapphie could now see that the room was set up as a home gym. But one whose equipment—weights, a cross-trainer, rowing machine, a treadmill, and several other machines she didn’t recognize—rivaled the ones in the exclusive health club she and Marco had belonged to in Washington.
Sapphie couldn’t stop staring at Magnus as he continued to punch the battered leather, so focused on the task he was completely unaware of her watching him.
As she had thought might be the case, without the tailored suit, Magnus had bulging and defined muscles in his arms and shoulders. The tank top clung to his lean torso and washboard abs, with an eight-pack disappearing beneath the loose shorts sitting low on his hips. His long legs were also tanned and muscled, the trainers on his feet black, to match the rest of his attire.
Several damp tendrils of his dark hair, usually brushed back from the harshness of his features, fell over his forehead, making him appear younger than his forty-two years.
Sapphie gave a self-derisive snort, knowing that Magnus could be aged sixty-two and he would still possess that totally masculine aura that drew women’s gazes wherever he went.
She had seen that for herself earlier today as they walked through the park, as female after female, young and old, turned to watch him and his long-legged stride. Those female gazes didn’t seem to be drawn to just his rugged good looks, but also to the way he moved so confidently.
It didn’t seem fair for one man to possess quite so much raw charisma?—
