Magnus stepped out of the shower, his body still thrumming as he toweled off. Despite an hour of some of the least sexy music he had in his collection while he played puzzle games on his computer and then a half-hour cold shower, he couldn’t get her off his mind.

For a week now, they’d been spending hours together, and even though Kim had mentioned it to him, he’d fought it. The way her body filled out her clothes, voluptuous curves that said she was strong and all woman at the same time. The way her face was the epitome of regal beauty, a princess without a crown with her high cheekbones, gray eyes, and slightly bronzed skin. Even the way her hair was always in that thick cable braid, a cable for a man to hold onto as he . . .

“Shit,” Magnus growled as his cock stood up again, not caring that it’d been half frozen for a half hour. It knew what it wanted, and it didn’t give a shit about the fact that Kristina wasn’t a Lycan. It wanted her.

Growling in a mix of desire and anger at himself, Magnus reached down, wrapping his hand around his now fully stiff cock, closing his eyes as he remembered what it felt like to kiss her. The way her lips were soft and yielding to him, the way her ass felt in his hands, big and firm but not too hard, feminine strength in a single curve.

“Shit, Kristina,” Magnus moaned as he stroked his cock, his hand squeezing and massaging his shaft. He was hung, even for a Lycan, but he knew deep inside that Kristina could take all of him. She had a body that was built for all of the power that he could deliver. His hand pumped his cock as he imagined her under him, bent over with her fantastic ass pointed in his direction, begging him to give it to her as hard as he could.

“Take it . . . that’s it, bitch, take it!” he growled as in his mind, he grabbed her thick braid and plunged into her body, her pussy gripping him as he thrust into her hard, powerfully letting loose his instincts. He’d always had to hold back, but Kristina took all he had and more, her breasts swaying as he shook her body with every slap of his hips, pulling on her hair and making her moan in lust and pain.

His hand was a blur on his cock, and he was about to come when he heard a soft whimper from the heating duct and he realized she was on the other side. Their quarters shared a heating duct, and she must be on the other side, touching herself and doing the same thing he was doing. Magnus’s eyes opened, and a naughty thought came to him as he grinned. Maybe he couldn’t fuck her the way he wanted right this minute . . . but he could play a game.

“That’s it, Kristina, take me deep inside you,” he moaned a little louder, slowing his hand and drawing out his pleasure, pumping his cock as he stepped a little closer to the heating duct. “My cock feels so good, pumping in and out of your wet pussy.”

He didn’t know what came over him as a stream of dirty, sexy words flowed from his mouth, describing what he wanted to do to her, how he wanted to suck on her tits, how he wanted to squeeze her ass as he pounded her from behind, spanking her and doing every sensual thing he could think of to her curvy body.

“Mmm . . . mmm . . . fuck me.” he heard her moan softly, and he growled, his hips thrusting on their own as he sped up again, needing his release.

“Yes . . . yes . . . fuck, I’m going to come.” he gasped as his cock throbbed, swelling in his hand as his mind imagined Kristina quivering underneath him, begging him to let her come too. “Come for me, baby.”

“Oh, God!” Kristina wailed on her side, pushing Magnus over the edge as his cock erupted, thick spurts of his seed splattering the wall and dripping down to the floor so heavily that his knees shook and the stone tiles looked frosted.

“Fuck!” Magnus moaned as the last spurt dripped between his feet and he put his hand on the wall to keep his balance. It had been the most intense orgasm of his life, and he hadn’t even touched her.

He grabbed a towel and started mopping up, unable to think of anything to say. He should have gone over to her room, or at least gone back to his bedroom where he could have taken care of himself without teasing her like he’d just done. He was ashamed, and as he changed clothes, he was also angry. She had to have heard him, and she kept up with him, teasing him right back.

As he left the bathroom, he stopped, hearing something but refusing to admit it. He swore she said, just as he was mopping up, “Please come over.”

* * *

“Good morning,” Kristina said tersely as Magnus came into the kitchen the next morning, her eyes accusing. He gritted his teeth, his jaw clenching as he scooped bacon, eggs, and potatoes onto his platter. “Sleep well?”

“Fine,” Magnus replied, sitting down at the far end of the table from her. “You?”

“Like a baby,” Kristina growled back, stabbing her thick slab of Canadian bacon with a fork and slicing it in half to shove it into her mouth, eating in quick, efficient, angry motions.

Magnus followed suit, eating not for pleasure but for the pure need to consume calories, and he was halfway through his first plate when the doors opened again, Edward, Kim, and the babies entering, Kimberly laughing lightly. “Well, good morning,” she said, looking at them. “How’s the morning for you?”

“Fine,” Kristina growled, staring at Magnus still. “Although if it’s possible, I’d like to change my quarters. There’s a . . . I think there’s a weird echo or something.”

“Oh?” Edward asked, concerned. “What was it?”

“Not sure . . . whatever it was, it wasn’t that big, more of a tiny pounding sound that just annoyed me,” Kristina spat. “Never mind, I’ll be able to ignore it.”

“Probably should ask if it can ignore you,” Magnus growled. “You don’t want to be asking for things that are impossible. And for your information, I heard it too. It was long and very drawn out.”

“You know . . .” Kristina growled before her lip quivered and she stared at her plate, stabbing another slice of ham and chewing. Kim, who’d just filled her plate, looked in shock from Kristina to Magnus, her eyebrow lifting.

“What’s going on?” she asked, her voice half friendly, half commanding. Magnus could tell she didn’t want to invoke her position as Alpha Female, but she would if she had to. “Is there a problem?”

“No, no problem,” Magnus said, shaking his head. “Just slept wrong I guess.”

“I see,” Kimberly said. “Well, after breakfast then, Magnus, I’d like to take a helicopter flight. I’ll need a co-pilot for The Wolf. Edward, would you be willing to take Kristina to town for a supply run?”

Magnus could tell that for every word being said, another three were being communicated over Kimberly’s link with her mate, but Edward nodded immediately. “Of course. I think we need laundry detergent anyway.”

Breakfast continued in a strange double-triangle of conversation, with Magnus and Kristina pointedly ignoring each other until the dishes were cleaned and everything was taken away. Magnus went upstairs and changed into his flight suit, going out to the Bell 222 dubbed ‘The Wolf’ just as Kimberly stepped out as well, her suit and helmet under her arm. “Ready?”

Magnus climbed into the chopper, running diagnostics from the copilot’s seat while Kim did her walk-around and got in, firing up the engines. While The Wolf lacked the distinctive howling sound of its television inspiration, inside the chopper, Magnus felt a thrill as Kim pulled back on the stick and they lifted off. “Where to?”

“Just a pleasure run,” Kimberly said, turning and pointing the helicopter toward the river. With a tilt of the rotors, the helicopter catapulted forward, following the narrow borders of the Highland ravine, swinging left and right as Kimberly adjusted and steered. “So what was that at breakfast?”

“What do you mean?” Magnus asked. Suddenly, Kimberly yanked the helicopter into a dizzying vertical climb before twisting just as it began to stall, pointing it back toward the river and plunging back in a stomach clenching dive. “Jesus!”

“I can do more,” Kimberly said quietly, her voice carrying all the intensity of her Alpha status. “Magnus, Keith’s not the only one who’s made people puke in this chopper, and you know if you do, you’re going to be cleaning it up personally. Now . . . what’s going on between you and Kristina?”

Magnus glanced over at Kimberly, then sighed. “Last night, Kristina and I both heard you and Edward . . .”

“Being mates?” Kimberly asked in good humor, her voice losing none of her Alpha intensity. “Yeah, sort of happens. You’ve heard stuff like that before, I’m sure.”

“Yes, but Kristina hadn’t, and I’ve been feeling . . . on edge around her,” Magnus admitted. “So we took a walk and got to talking. And we . . . well, we kissed.”

“Usually, kissing doesn’t lead to biting each other’s heads off,” Kimberly noted as she leveled out the chopper and pointed it north again. “So what happened in between?”

“I was tempted to go further, but I didn’t want it to be because we were worked up hearing you guys . . . well, mate,” Magnus said. “I tried to deal with it with a cold shower, but afterward I started . . . you know.”

“Again, I lived with Keith. Our rooms were right next door to each other and . . . oh, my,” Kimberly said, chuckling. Her voice softened, and she glanced at Magnus, amused and friendly again. “I forgot—before that was my mother’s room as Dame Lockwood, that was my old room. And you can hear.”

“You can hear. The timing must have been just right because I heard her, she heard me, and we sort of . . . verbally played. But it just pissed me off in the end, and I ignored her when she asked me to join her in her room,” Magnus admitted. “I’ve got more self-control than that.”

“Self-control is only helpful if it doesn’t get your damn head bitten off, you know,” Kimberly said with a wise chuckle. “Okay, at least I can understand why you were both snippy with each other. And maybe if this is going to be a problem, I’ll have you move to another room in another wing of the manor. But for now . . .”

Kimberly went silent, her eyes going wide as she pulled The Wolf into a hover, and Magnus watched as her face went pale. He reached out, taking the co-pilot’s control stick and steadying the chopper, making sure they stayed in control. “Kimberly?”

“Edward just got a call,” she said, turning her eyes to Magnus and reasserting her self-control. “Take us back to the manor. We’ll refuel using the stocks there.”

“Refuel? Why? We’ve got almost a full tank of fuel.”

Kimberly nodded. “You’re right, but still, I need some privacy. Edward just a phone call. His mother has died.”