Chapter 18 – Damara
Chapter Eighteen
Damara
Igot him off my back for now, but I don’t trust Magnum’s disappearance into the shower.
He’s way too quiet. I won way too easily, especially because my suspicions might be coming true.
It’s actually happening. Magnum might be catching feelings for me.
This man doesn’t realize how dangerous that really is, honestly.
I have a fucked up past. Even my sister Tamiya doesn’t know all the things that I’ve been through.
I don’t want or need anyone to know about the darkness that I’ve been through.
It’s a part of my past and it won’t come back to haunt me.
I put my past six feet under and if I’ve done wrong by anyone, I’ll kneel before God when he finally rings the bell and calls me home.
Every time he touches me outside of the bedroom, I flinch.
You wouldn’t think these small acts of intimacy would bother me more than the kissing and fucking, but they do.
I sense Magnum’s feelings growing, but what does it really mean when a man’s feelings for you grow?
The vulnerability represents all the aspects of my past that I’ve tried to leave behind.
Heat swells around me in the kitchen despite the cracked window and as strands of my hair stick to the back of my neck, I love the control over my life that I feel when I’m cooking a meal for Magnum.
This is the one part of our dynamic where I feel like I have a say in things – I tell him what we’re going to eat, I season the food, I prepare it.
My “job” doesn’t require a whole lot of work compared to the daycare since we haven’t opened the storefront yet.
Everything I have to do is pure management, which mostly involves making phone calls, sending Magnum’s staff on errands, looking at products on websites, and sending a lot of emails.
The storefront won’t open until after the baby gets here since Magnum made me push the opening date back.
I know he means well and just wants the best for us, but moving the opening date for the baby just makes the pregnancy feel so much more real.
And to me, that means scary. The tough girl who might have shot a man out in the desert (allegedly) scared of a little baby?
Yes. I have a fear of the “body horror” aspect of it all, the way I’ll contort and shift for this mysterious life.
Putting my business plan together excites me more than imagining a baby doing somersaults in my abdomen. I can’t share that business excitement with Magnum because anything that brings us closer feels like it brings me further away from myself.
I promised I would never let another man do me dirty the way that my ex did, but I gave Magnum the ultimate opportunity to utterly destroy my life with both the contract and this baby.
What if he’s just using me for a sick fetish?
What if he just wants to get me to prove to himself that he can live out some fucked up fantasy?
By the time I plate our food, I’m too hungry to keep fussing over what plans Magnum might have.
“Dinner’s ready!”
He’s done with his shower, so it shouldn’t take him too long to show up. Magnum appears in the doorway and for a man who has been done with his shower for several minutes, he’s still… woefully underdressed.
“You’re coming to the table in the towel?
” I ask Magnum, ignoring his little plot for attention as he shows up to dinner wearing nothing but a tight black t-shirt and a towel.
Is this man trying to dress like a male thot to get me to change my mind?
It won’t work. Just because he has a lower-body build like Saquon Barkley and a dick the length of my forearm doesn’t mean he’s going to get in my head tonight.
I’m stronger than Magnum’s tricks.
“I stained my sweatpants.”
“With what?”
“They’re in the dryer,” he says, pulling out his seat and staring greedily at the dinner I just made him. “What’s all this?”
“You know it’s filet mignon, Magnum.”
“Hm,” he says. “Looks delicious.”
Magnum gives me a grateful smile, but his efforts to placate me just make me more infuriated. I don’t want his gratitude right now.
“Enjoy.”
I quietly tuck into my food, hoping that Magnum takes the hint and stays quiet. After his first bite, he of course, refuses to stay silent.
“Mmm,” Magnum says. “This is goddamn delicious.”
Great. Hopefully he keeps eating and cuts off the talking right here because I’ve truly had enough of that.
“Thanks.”
“You’re an excellent cook, Damara. I would love to take some work off of your plate today.”
There’s something downright suspicious about Magnum right now. I don’t believe the excuse he gave me for showing up in just his towel and I want to ignore any potential manipulations this man could throw in my direction, especially with his dick almost out of his towel.
“I don’t need help with anything.”
“I’m sure you need help with some things,” Magnum responds stubbornly. This man is making it downright impossible to get through this meal without starting a fight. It’s bad enough that I’m pregnant, the last thing I need is fighting off mind tricks from Magnum Sinclair.
Where are this man’s pants by the way? Magnum eats like a beast and normally I would ignore all the steak sauce covering his lips, but his animalistic lip smacking distracts me from my food.
I glare at him and swear I detect the slightest smirk on Magnum’s face.
He’s doing this on purpose. Whatever. I need to just ignore him. It should be easy, right?
Not every woman gets completely distracted just because a man-beast is sitting there butt naked with nothing on but a towel.
I strengthen my resolve to just eat and finish long before Magnum does.
It would be awkward having a meal in silence if I didn’t desperately crave peace of mind from this man – and distance.
When I’m finished eating, I don’t leave any reasons for Magnum to bitch and complain.
I clear my plate up and start quietly washing up my dishes.
I expect him to either leave his plate on the table and take his naked ass upstairs or to bring it over to me.
I don’t expect this giant to soundlessly cross the room – without his plate – and wrap his arms around my waist.
My stomach clenches up nervously as his warm, giant arms slide around me. What the hell is Magnum’s deal here? I stop washing my fork as my body responds with immediate tension. I don’t need Magnum coming over here with his mysterious arm movements.
“I’m busy, Magnum.”
“You’re pregnant. You could use a hug.”
“I could use…” I trail off and bite my lower lip. For the first time in my life, there isn’t actually anything that I need. Magnum provides for all of my needs – including my need to stay busy and have my own income with the business. I can’t complain about anything.
He only makes it worse when he kisses my neck and whispers, “Whatever you want, I’ll make it happen.”
“I don’t need you to make shit happen in my life.”
My aggression comes out so easily the second I have room to express my feelings.
It’s been years since I’ve been vulnerable with anyone – especially a man.
Magnum strutting into my life with his gigantic pierced dick and his warm arms, constantly wrapped around me, just adds to my internal confusion.
He doesn’t even balk at my rude statement. He doesn’t pull away when it’s abundantly clear that I’m shoving him away from me. Magnum remains steadfast in the wake of my emotional instability – and I hate feeling so exposed.
“I know you don’t need any man at all, miss pink hair,” he says. “But I’m the father of your child and contract or not… if you really think about it… we’re connected forever.”
Those words send a surge of terror straight through me.
I fight back the urge to respond physically and kick my legs back like a donkey breaking free from the farm.
I push my hips back instead, intending to shove Magnum away from me, but instead pressing against his barely-covered crotch.
That towel does absolutely nothing to hide his erection.
Magnum wants me to feel it too. His arms tighten around my body and he pulls me close, purposefully misinterpreting the way my hips push into him as a sign of my desire for him. My baby bump doesn’t exactly help me to keep my balance.
“We don’t have to be connected forever. We have a contract and at the end of the contract, I can afford my own lawyers and cut down on all the interaction between us.”
He chuckles. Which just infuriates me more.
“We won’t be cutting down on our interactions at all, Damara,” Magnum says ominously. Does he think I have no choice here? His ass is lucky I haven’t taken this baby and escaped to the first country I can think of that starts with a ‘T’.
Trinidad? Magnum thrusts his hips forward with a throaty growl that makes me forget all about the land of doubles and Machel Montano. His dick pokes my back aggressively and I can feel it smacking against my organs with as much force as I would expect from a baseball bat.
“You’re going to take your sexy pregnant ass upstairs and spread those legs for me,” Magnum murmurs. “After I’ve fucked your pregnant pussy until you cream all over my cock, you’re going to sit up in bed nice and relaxed and start planning our wedding.”
He breathes out slowly with a predatory warm breath creeping up my neck. I freeze in utter disbelief. Magnum has lost his mind.
The worst part is that he doesn’t seem to realize it.
“If you want to punish me, make it expensive,” Magnum says, as if that will make me suddenly want to hear out his insane fucking plan. Planning our wedding.
My ears start ringing from the sound of the crazy ass bullshit Magnum just said to me. I respond reflexively, even if I’m clearly in danger. “We’re not getting married.”