MAGNUS

I’ve been on the road for three hours to get here, and when I see her it’s not what I’d hoped.  I swear to God whoever made her cry is going to die.

I never want to see this again.

Never.

Fuck, my hands feel like they’re going to tear the steering wheel apart like it’s someone’s throat. 

She looks so lost, so alone standing out here in a parking lot in the cold, sobbing and shouting and scared.  She looks scared.  My heart is trying to burst out of my chest.

Something about touching her, whispering those words I’ve wanted to say to her for so long set me on a path that can’t be stopped.  I don’t just want her.

I need her.

And as much as everyone would tell me I’m crazy, I know she needs me. 

If I didn’t know what my purpose in life was before, I do now.

To never let anyone make her cry again. 

I spin the Charger into a parking spot, and try to calm myself for a second by revving the engine and twisting the wheel back and forth.  I don’t want her to see me when I’m this angry, don’t want her to be afraid of me.  But someone is going to be afraid.

Someone is going to breathe their last breath if I have anything to do with it.

Nearly every day since I laid my eyes on her I’ve followed her.  Shadowed her like some criminal.  I had to have her in my life, even in such a distant manner.  She didn’t know I watched her, walked the perimeter around her apartment making sure no one was lurking. 

She almost always looked content, coming and going, but deep inside my own self-loathing pounded.  I called myself a coward because I couldn’t step forward in her life.  But I told myself it was for the best. 

I mean, look at her.  She’s so small, so delicate; I want to care for her like the little girl that she is, want to be her Daddy, and keep her safe and loved.  And then there’s the other side of it – my gnawing need to consume her, my ideas of fucking her.  The filth that plays over and over in my dreams with her at the center of every one.

None of this can be what she would want.  Lurking is for the best because this obsession is dangerous, the dreams I have of her can’t be normal. 

A need like mine would surely only end up harming her.  And I could not take that chance.  I’d miscalculated on an important decision once before and look what happened.  The loss of half my lower leg is nothing.

My mistake took the life of an innocent woman, and that is something no one could forgive. Least of all me.  For a year I didn’t know what would become of me.  If at any moment I would be arrested.  Branded a criminal.  A murderer even.  Yes, they say it was a mistake, but in my mind, a killer is a killer and I didn’t want my shame to ever touch her. 

But, something shook loose in me yesterday and I branded her with the name I’ve had for her for far too long.  The name I call out every time I jerk off and cum with her in my every fantasy.

Angel.

I drove like a mad man, making it here in under three hours, and thank Christ I pulled up now.  I throw myself out of the Charger, the metal that replaces my foot scrapes on the ashphalt of the parking lot as I lunch forward, getting to the door just as her desperate hands find the handle.

She’s shaking, and a fury bubbles up inside of me in an emotional intensity I’ve never experienced.  I know now how a man can lose himself and kill with his bare hands.

“Who did this to you?”  I force calm into my voice, but it still bursts out at a volume that startles her. She gasps and flips her head in my direction.  I’m on her, my hands brushing her wind-blown hair from her face, my thumbs rubbing to erase the tears, because it hurts me too much to see them there.

“What are you doing here?”  She makes no effort to remove my hands, not that she could. 

My brow draws tight, the muscles in shoulders and back twitch and tighten uncomfortably.  The sight of her sweet face in this much turmoil is hurting me.

“I’m here for you.  Tell me.  Tell me right fucking now.  Who made you cry?”

She brings one hand to flutter over her mouth and nose, and a new torrent of tears seep from her eyes.  They’re tears of relief.  I feel it.  She needed someone to be here for her.  Well I’m here now, and I’m going to make someone pay.

“Are they in there?”  I look toward the door, and I instinctively know I’m right.  Whoever hurt her, they are inside that building, because I feel her resistance in the slight tightening of her lips.  “Stay behind me.”  It’s an order and when she follows my command without question, I fall in love with her even more.

I blink once at the word that just hit me in the chest like a canon shot.

Love.  Is that what this is?  I lock my jaw tight and shake it off, my inner conflicts need not be solved this moment.

I swing the door open and secure her hand in mine reaching behind me; it’s like a doll’s hand in mine. I want to pick her up and carry her wherever she needs to go.  I want her sweetness to cover me and my mark to cover her.

I want to see her sweet lips dripping with my semen, and my cock clenched in those tiny hands while she looks up at me with awe in her eyes.

And the name she will come to know as her everything.  Daddy.

“Where?”  I ask on a growl as I turn to look over my shoulder.  “Where?”  I repeat, louder and that one word booms off the walls in the back hallway as we step in from the outer door.

“He was in the office.”  The words are barely audible from her shaking lips but I see a spark in her eye and it only makes my need to be her champion more furious.

My chest constricts, rises and falls like a tidal wave as I try to soften my expression, arranging her gently against the wall just inside the back entrance.

“Listen to me.”  I bite my bottom lip and put both my hands on her face.  “What happened?”  I lower my voice, my ears picking up any errant noise from down the hall.

I search her expression for clues.  Her green eyes sparkle and dilate, and she looks down at her feet.

“I want to protect you.  I want to help you.  Please, let me.  I have to do that.”  My voice turns to a growl.  “I need to know what happened here so that I can fix it.”  The words grate as they come out.  “You don’t understand.  I have to fix it.”  Her eyes widen at the desperation in my voice.

“My boss.  He sort of...”  I watch her eyelids close for a moment too long and I already know what she’s going to say.  I can feel it pushing at my temples, and everything turns red.  “He wanted me to suck —”

I push two fingers over her lips, because I can’t hear the next words.  A shockwave of pain reverberates through me and if she says anything more right now I think I would die.

“Don’t move.”  I grit the words out between my teeth.

I lean down, my hands gripping the sides of her head harder than I should, willing my strength to make everything in her life better.  I bring my mouth down, kiss the crown of her head and turn on my heel toward the shuffling I hear coming from the office a few feet away.

“Chastity?”  An irritated male voice barks and the grizzly roars to life between my ears.  Four more steps and I meet him inside the office doorway.  “Is that you—”  Those are the last words the fucker gets out before his jaw and my knuckles are introduced.

My other hand juts forward and clutches his windpipe.  My nerves sizzle and my jaw aches as I grind my teeth.  The thought of anyone else touching her, anyone else expecting her to touch them, turns off any parts of the civilized Magnus.

I want to see blood, hear bones cracking; I want to hear him beg for his life.

I want to hear him apologize for hurting her.  I want him to realize she is forever out of his reach.  Because she belongs to me. And no one will ever get through me.

My gaze sharpens, I know this asshole from the other store.  His eyes are bulging from his skull and his hands slap with a feeble attempt to pull mine from around his throat.

I shift my shoulders, pulling him around me to slam him into the wall, his feet barely touching the ground.  My hatred for this man is matched by my hatred for myself.

Why did I wait?

Why didn’t I take care of her sooner?

I let this happen, and that is going to haunt me.  Because she’s my responsibility.  I’ve known that since the moment I saw her, and I hate that I was so self obsessed.  My own turmoil and past kept me from her and led to her getting hurt.

“I could kill you.”  I spit the words into his face, tightening my grip and turning his head to the left against the wall with a thud. 

“Magnus—”  Angel’s voice cuts through my rage.  “Don’t, please, just take me away from here.  If you do this, you can’t be here for me.”

No other voice but hers could reason with me right now. 

I drop the piece of human filth like a lead weight, not caring if the fall breaks him.  He crashes to the floor, knocking over a waste basket and landing forward on his face, blood streaming in a long string from the gash on his lip.

“You don’t deserve to live.”  I kick the spilled garbage over him but it’s her I need to care for right now.

My Angel turns her lips upward and then sticks her tongue out at the lump of flesh on the floor.

“You wanna take a shot?”  I can’t help it – she looks so fucking cute staring him down with me at her back.

“Naw.  I think you covered it.”

A relieved smile breaks out on her lips, like finally she knows she’s going to be safe, and it’s so damn beautiful.  She just made me her bitch.  My cock is diamond hard, but at least today I wore armor, two layers of Under Armor, and it’s still barely enough to trap my dick so it won’t scare anyone within a hundred yards.

“Come here.”  I lean down and I can’t help myself.  I have to pick her up. She gives me a quizzical stare for just a moment, but she’s light as a feather, and when she opens her legs and wraps them around my waist, I know what it means to love someone more than yourself. 

By most people’s standards I barely know her, but I know what’s mine and I will protect her and love her until the last breath I take.

I start to lead us toward the back door as she brings her hands to the back of my neck.

“Wait.”  Her eyes go wide and my heart sinks.  “My purse.  It’s in the office. On the floor.”  The sparkle in her eyes turns dark, her fear returning for a moment. She doesn’t yet realize that I am her shield against anything and anyone that could harm her from here on out.

I’m at the office door again in three huge strides keeping her tight against my chest.

She clings to me, her sweet warm breath floating next to my ear and bolts of dangerous sexual energy ripple through my body.  “That’s Eddie.”

“Um hum,”  I grunt, giving him the stink eye. He’s managed to get himself on all fours and that’s exactly where a bitch like him belongs.  “Don’t get up.  You stay right down there until we’re out that back door.  And if you ever do anything to hurt her again, I’m going to tear out your throat with my teeth.  And that includes you thinking you should call the cops. Trust me, you don’t want to do that.”

“Fuck you.  I’ll call the fucking cops and you’ll be banged up right where you belong, motherfucker.”  Eddie manages to rise to his knees.  His bravado is only half-cocked but I can’t believe he’s even this brave.

“You want to call them?”  I step forward and watch him flinch.  “Sure, you could.  But you and I both know that’s not in your best interests, don’t we?”  Eddie’s eyes narrow as he grabs a handful of napkins from the top of the desk and wipes the bloody saliva from his chin.

“Magnus, please can we go?”  Angel’s hands squeeze my shoulders, making me sigh even through my anger. 

“I know you, I know everything.  You’re like an open book.”  I wag my finger at him.  “Why’d your wife leave you, Eddie?  Huh?  Maybe we should call her and find out.”  I taunt him.  His eyes are wide, glancing between Cassie’s face and mine.

I know it must look fucking bizarre how I’m carrying her like a doll on my hip, but it’s the most perfect spot and I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks.  Least of all him.

He licks his lips and falls back on his heels.  His chest deflates a bit and he stares at the wall.  Anyone that was around her, I did some digging and made sure I knew who they were, and this piece of shit has some background that would not work in his favor if he called the police.

“That’s what I thought.”

I turn to gather Angel a little higher on my hip.  Her eyes are darting from me to Eddie, then back as I secure her.

“We’re done here.”  Three steps and we are on our way out the office door.  And that’s when Eddie barks at us from behind.

“You’re not safe with him, Chastity.  Maybe you should find out who he is.  The things he’s done!”

A knot tightens inside me as I step up the pace of our retreat.  Angel is quiet by my side, but Eddie’s last words scratch in the back of my brain.

WE’RE IN THE CAR AND I’m having a very hard time not pulling her over to me and tearing her clothes off.  The need that courses through me cannot be contained much longer, and if the way she allowed me to carry her out of that place was any indication, the months of subtle cues and clues about who we are and how we feel about each other simply needs to be unearthed once and for all.

“I guess I’m out of a job.”  Angel’s got her hands in her lap and I love that she looks over at me when she says it. 

The energy is charged; the inside of the car nearly vibrates in the space between us.  The way she’s clasping one hand inside the other, then releasing and doing it again tells me she’s feeling it too.

“Do you really want that job?”  I ask.

I want her in my bed, in my house, so that I can take care of her every want, need, and desire, and I’m fairly sure this job will get in the way of my plans.  But if she loves it, then I’ll make it right and have a chat with Eddie to be damn sure she is not only secure in her job but that he finds himself new employment elsewhere.  Because if she wants to go back to work, I get it, but there is no fucking way that jagoff is going within ten miles of her ever again.

“I don’t mind it.  And I have bills to pay.  And it could be worse.”  She brushes her hands across her forehead, then fusses with the neckline of her rose pink sweater.  The way the buttons down the front strain over the swell of her tits has my mouth watering to taste them.

“Okay.  Then you don’t work there anymore.  You don’t have bills to pay; you don’t need to worry about that now.”

I slip the key into the ignition and roar the Charger to life.  I can see her nipples pressing out from the clinging pink fabric and I can’t deny how badly I want to suck those nipples hard and full until my mouth is stuffed with her.  I want her innocence around me, and I want to make her filthy with every depraved fantasy I’ve had for the last three months.

I want the world to see the sweet, naive girl, but behind my doors I want her completely at my mercy.  Available and greedy for me as I am for her.

“But—”

“Stop.”  I turn to her with a harder voice than intended, but suddenly all the waiting has come to a peak and I don’t just want to start at the beginning with her.  I put the car into reverse, thinking of where I want to take her.

I don’t want a date.  I want a life.  And I want it now, with her. “We’ll talk about that later.”  I reach over and draw her hand away from her neck where she can’t seem to stop fidgeting.

Her eyes fall from mine, looking everywhere but my direction.  I press on the gas, the car inching backwards out of the parking space.

“I want to take you to my family’s house on Lake Sherwood.  It’s only twenty minutes from here.  Let’s go there and talk.  I want to know so much more about you.  I want to know everything about you.  Would you like that?”

I want to jump right over the impatient, self-conscious beginnings of this and straight into showing her what her new place in the world will be.  With me eating her pussy or her between my legs with either her hand or her mouth on my cock.

I want to move her in, but I’ll hold back.  Because I have to, for her sake.

“Sure.  This has been a very strange day.”  The soft giggle that falls from her sweet lips tightens my chest and thickens my cock until it can barely be contained. 

“I know things have been bad for you today, Angel, but I hope they’re also starting to become good. Because this is quickly becoming the best day I’ve had in as long as I can remember.”

Her hesitant, sweet smile lights up my heart and I swear her shoulders quiver as she starts to laugh, the tension of what’s just happened starting to ease.  When I give her fingers a little squeeze and she returns the same, I feel like the world has become a more beautiful place. There’s fucking rainbows and unicorns dancing around in my head. Maybe that’s fucking crazy but it’s true.

I reach my left hand across my body to put the Charger in drive because I refuse to let go of her hand.  As I ease the car forward, I hear the soft sigh that tumbles from her ripe, glazed lips and I imagine what sounds she will make the first time my tongue slips inside her cunt.

Hell, I’m almost afraid of the sounds I will fucking make the first time I get my mouth on her innocence.  I know a lot of people think I’m half animal already, and fuck, maybe I am because the thought of her flavor as it spreads over my tongue has rumbles and growls already surfacing from some primal part of me I’ve never known before.

The sound of her happiness is my muse.  It’s more beautiful than anything I’ve heard before and it makes me wonder what I will do when I hear her cum for the first time.  It may just be what kills me.

We’re at the back of the parking lot when she draws our entwined fingers over onto her thigh, hiking up the hem of her skirt a little.  I’m not even sure she knows why she’s doing it, but I do.  As she exposes the warm, silky skin, my ability to concentrate on driving gives out.

I aim the car into the furthest back corner of the lot, where huge oak trees overhang, nearly covering us, then I put it back in park and release her fingers from mine. The windows are nicely tinted as well, so I’m sure no one will be able to see.  I’m greedy to feel her flesh under my palm.  Even now my fingers are tightening on the inside of her thigh, and I just wish I were kissing her there.

“Why are we stopping?”

“Because, Angel, I can’t wait.  There are things I can’t stop thinking about, things I want to do to you, and I’m afraid I will drive us off the road if I don’t get some relief.  I can’t stop thinking of how your cunt will taste, how your tongue will feel inside my mouth, and that’s just the beginning.”  I search her face, almost shocked at the honesty and vulgarity of my own words.  I fully expect her to smack my hand away.  But somehow I know it won’t matter.  What’s mine is mine, and sooner or later she will come to understand.

But my Angel has a surprise up her sleeve for me.

“Why aren’t you kissing me then?”  She pushes my hand another two inches up her silky skin, turning her body my way, and my mind goes blank.

For the space of a single breath, my life is focused on those beautiful words, and I can hear my blood pumping in my ears.  A single sentence, but it means the universe to me.

You’ve never seen such a giant man move so quickly.