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Author’s Notes…

Yes, this chapter is a day late, but it was very difficult to write because it was a powerful chapter where I needed to get the connection between Magnum and Zuri. I hadn’t come up with a way to join them. Yet I also had to explain why FT felt he was connected.

Now, if you know about the connection (see Delilah’s Desire for details), it doesn’t make a mistake. What’s meant to be is meant to be. We as humans make the mistake of what we want, which is not what we need.

On top of that, I needed to clear some things up between what happened in that room and why the past needs to stay the past.

But I still apologize for it being so late. And thank you for your continued support of my literary endeavors.

Enjoy. Your author, Sylvia Hubbard

(click here to buy me a cup of coffee).

By continuing to read, you acknowledge that you are over 18. Otherwise, please leave this site and block it from your memory. If you’re a pearl-clutching heifer, please go too because I ain’t got time for that either.

Companion Books

Stealing Innocence 1

Black’s Innocence

Sin’s Iniquity

The Other Side of Love (WIP)

Tanner’s Devil

Dreams of Reality

Emperor’s Addiction / Heart

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…Enjoy. Happy Reading. Your author, Sylvia Hubbard

Chapter 28 – Who to Choose

Mitchell Knight had kept her away from her father, who had been trying to save her. Yes, she had not been in agreement with what her father done to save her, but she couldn’t regret the hard decisions he’d made to set her up for life for the love of his daughter. Because of her father’s decisions, she was so close to living her dreams. Yet, her deepest fear was losing herself to the very dangers her father sought to protect her from, while her greatest desire was to reclaim the life her father had envisioned for her. If he had not acted, she would have ended up where… with this psychopath who seemed obsessed with her? And what did he mean that he connected to her?

“Why now?” she questioned.

Because I underestimated your father. Before he even met me, he kept his identity a secret. Perhaps it was a precaution for any money-grubbing hunters, or to hide the money he had funneled into hiding you from his wife. And you were so drugged out of your mind, running around with a fake ID, hiding from your parents. Either way, once I saw you, I knew I had to have you. Returning you to your father was never in my plans. Soon, though, the clock is ticking for you to make a choice—one that could change everything. Think carefully, Little Queen. Not everyone who seems to be protecting you has your best interest at heart.

After reading her father’s letter, she had an idea of what happened, but she wanted confirmation. “So how did my father get me away from you?”

FT sucked on his teeth and derisively tightened his mouth. Zuri noticed that FT carried a faint hint of cedarwood and leather, a distinct, sharp scent that contrasted with Magnum’s smoother, earthier undertone. ‘Del Heart. When your father realized I wasn’t coming back, he hired my nemesis. The only one almost as good as me. Your father had you kidnapped and then squirreled you away with Dr. Baelen.’ His eyes slowly traveled down her body, as if he were visually removing each piece of clothing. “Let’s get out of here, Little Queen. Let me show you what my brother can never.”

FT was reliving past days, but this time his goal was to take her away from Magnum, just as he had Eli. Planting distrust in her of Magnum would have probably worked in the past, but she wasn’t that drugged-induced, trying to get away from reality, little girl anymore.

“You only came to me because of Eli,” Zuri realized outloud.

FT immediately stiffened and glared at her. His eyes lowered to her neck as if he were contemplating how much pressure it would take to choke her.

“Let Her Go, FT,” Magnum growled at the doorway to the room.

FT sucked on his teeth again, and there was a flash of reluctance before he moved out of her way to allow her to get to Magnum.

Zuri didn’t hesitate, but then diverted her eyes in shyness, seeing that Magnum only had a towel wrapped around his waist and dripping wet as if he had rushed out of a shower. Her heart skipped. There was an awkward pause, and she could feel the tension wrapped around her like a cloak. She offered herself a moment for quiet reflection, a space to assess her conflicting feelings for him. The electric attraction was undeniable, yet tangled with a thread of vulnerability she couldn’t quite shake. This brief internal pause offered her a measured breath before she stepped forward.

Magnum immediately grabbed her hand and led her to a room next to the room she had been in.

This room was larger than hers, and she knew instantly it was his. The dark decor, but with the allure of plants all around, surprised her. As she stepped further into the room, she felt the gentle caress of the hanging plant leaves above the doorway against her skin, mirroring the soothing effect of his presence. She was sure she could hear running water somewhere, its serene murmur echoing her rising calmness and alleviating her earlier tension. It was like stepping into a bedroom in the middle of a tropical forest, an environment that seemed to hold its breath, waiting in tune with her own anticipation.

The sound of a door closing made her turn to see Magnum turning to her. The beads of water running down his chest caught her eye, and she watched as they trailed down his beautiful brown skin to a well-sculpted chest and ribbed stomach. She let the breath out that she didn’t know she had been holding as she moved her eyes back up to his face. He was looking at her, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Who’s Eli?” she questioned.

His body elongated, like something had been injected into his spine, and his cheeks tightened. “A girl I thought I loved.”

“And you killed her?’
“No,” he barked and walked over to the large king-size bed decked in black satin and a black duvet with lots of pillows. He tapped the end of the bed and then huffed. “FT took my clothes.”

“I thought they weren’t his,” Zuri noted, folding her arms over her chest, forcing herself not to draw her eyes all over his body. This was the first time she saw him almost naked, and her senses were going out of her mind.

Magnum grimaced. “You knew the clothes he was wearing were not his?”

She searched herself and what she had been feeling when she was with FT in that room. The apprehension, but not fear. The attraction, but was it because he had Magnum’s physique and face, even down to the cut of his hair? Her heart quickened, the inkling in her brain growing stronger as if she should know him but not be comfortable with him.

Was it the past memories knocking on her conscience, trying to bring back what she was made to forget? Briefly, she thought about the red envelope and wondered when she should bring that up to Magnum or FT. They needed to be together when she spoke about it.

Magnum moved to the dressers and pulled out another t-shirt and a jogging pant set.

“Are you going to tell me about Eli?”

“Same thing, I will tell you when I spoke to the police a long time ago. I liked her for a while, and I thought we clicked. I thought wrong. She was dating someone else.”

“What did FT mean he cleaned up your mess?”

“Turn around, Zuri,” he ordered.

“Why?”

Running his hands slowly down his chest, until his finger hooked around the edge of the towel, he asked, “Do you want to see me without this?”

Zuri blushed and turned to the door to listen to him move around behind her.

“She approached me at this stock job I was working at the time, and I got the balls to ask her out. First time I had the balls to approach a girl without FT being around. And I thought it would lead to something, until…” He took a deep, regretful breath. “End of the night, when I walked her to her door and started to kiss her, there was something inside of me that wouldn’t let me. I got back in my car and cursed ten times, promising tomorrow I would call her up on a second date and kiss her then. I didn’t get that chance. She disappeared.”

The warmth from his body pressed against her back, and she knew he was standing behind her. Slowly turning around, Zuri noted he’d put on a black t-shirt, but was wearing the same outfit as FT, and she knew she would have no problem telling them apart.

Turning to him, she looked up into his eyes. “And was the fact that I look like her why you were attracted to me?”
The side of his lip twitched, and he moved himself closer to her. She instinctively stepped away until her backside pressed against the door. He followed, putting his arm above her head so he could look down at her.

“I saw your trauma. It drew my soul. There was something in you that drew me, and I had to touch – feel you release to me and know there was heaven on earth because I had been in hell for so long.” His other hand moved down her shoulder, arm, and then her waist.

Zuri gasped as he squeezed her side to let her know his touch. She could feel the brutal strength of him, but it didn’t hurt her. Was that a warning to let her know he could be as dangerous as FT or maybe even worse? Magnum never broke eye contact, as he pressed his hand inside of her jogging pants and moved between her legs, settling his fingers in her panties. Shuddering and breathless, she pressed her hands into his jogging pants. She trusted him, despite the raw power he held over her. He didn’t deny her, while his fingers slipped between her lower lips, wet, welcoming him.

It was hard to concentrate, but she pressed her hand until she gripped him around the base. Just as she remembered, he was thickly based even with him semi-hardened. Feeling the twitch in the palm of her hand, encouraged herself to feel him from the base to the tip and then down again.

His breath drew sharply as she repeated her actions. When he breathed in, so did she, until their movements and breaths synced, each exciting the other, while still keeping eye contact. And his breath was not heard just in her ears; she could feel him breathing in her brain, her chest, and her core.

Something was happening to her, to him… to them, and Zuri did not want to stop it.

She could barely see as her arousal increased while his fingers increased and then decreased in pressure and movement, but with her mimicking his rhythm, it wasn’t until he fully stopped her arousal for just a moment that she understood he was enjoying what she was doing – He was slowing them down, bringing the journey to a peak to elongate. By the third time, Zuri was closing in on sexual delirium, crying out her frustration. The thickness in her hand increased as his face pressed against the side of her, while his breathing became just as ragged as hers. With her other hand, she held him around his neck, loving his deep groans, while she whimpered until…

Her heart seized, but the titillation between her body and mind made her not care, and then it was as if all the blood in her veins rushed into her life. Was she dying? Being reborn?

His body fully flushed against her, sandwiching her between his body and the door firmly. Boom!

Her heart palpitated hard, and she heard herself scream, but something was holding her mentally, wrapping around her consciousness in security and calm while the rest of her body moved higher and higher.

Buh-Boom

Was that her heartbeat?

Buh-Boom.

This vibrated her chest.

Yes, it was hers and..

Buh-Buh-Boom.

His! She could feel his heartbeat in her, resonating like an echo of their union. This shared rhythm wasn’t just a reflection of their emotional bond, but an uncanny alignment, as if their heartbeats had always been destined to find one another.

‘Zuri,’ his deep voice called in her thoughts, the familiarity laced with a slight tremor, hinting at vulnerability. She sensed more than heard him, a subtle shift in the dynamic between them.

‘Magnum,’ she responded in her head, her tone a blend of curiosity and confidence. It was she who now felt a spark of empowerment. Together, synchronizing their emotions, their bodies culminated.

Magnum pulled her down to the ground, drawing her into a hug, as if he were trying to mold her inside him. Zuri was still clearing her vision, welcoming the closeness of his embrace, feeling their unity in newfound ways.

And she felt him draw her down to the ground, away from the door against him, until she collapsed to the floor between his legs, folding her body around his. Pulling her hand from his pants, she saw the creamy liquid dripping from her finger, and she gasped.

“You came,” she said, looking up at him in awe.

Magnum only looked down at her with a frown.

“What?” she asked because she felt he was trying to say something to her.

And then she felt a warm glow in her chest.

He continued to look at her as if he were waiting for her to say something.

‘You don’t feel that?’

Pushing away from him slightly, she did a self-assessment. Was it heartburn? Remnants of sexual delirium?

Buh-Boom.

She gasped.

The heartbeat was loud in her head, slow and steady, but it wasn’t hers. He was still looking at her. No, watching her.

He could feel hers.

“What’s happening?” she asked, confused, folding into his arms again.

His hand cupped her face, and she sensed the heartbeat quickening as his thumb ran over the bottom of her lip.

“I didn’t think…” he said, amazed. “You.”

There was so much confusion and frustration, but he was just as perplexed as she was. And she knew this because…

Were they joined?

“How?” she asked, unable to look away from him, loving this feeling of connection.

“So much to explain.”

The heat in her chest increased, and she smiled. Whatever this was, she loved knowing she could be so intimately close to Magnum.

The bedroom door opened, and FT stood there, glaring at them. His breath quickened upon seeing them together, but more importantly, he was looking at his brother as if he had been betrayed.

“You fucking did that on purpose,” FT accused his brother, tightening his fist until she could see the white’s of his knuckles.

Magnum took her chin and moved her so she had to look at him. “You know it can’t be controlled, asswipe. I didn’t know it was going to happen. I swear, but I don’t regret it.” He didn’t break eye contact with her. “And it wasn’t like Eli at all. I thought it was, but it’s different. It Is Different.” As he held her gaze, a flicker of pain crossed his eyes, a testament to the scars left by Eli’s memory. Yet, hidden behind those eyes was also a newfound softness, a vulnerability he hadn’t allowed himself to feel before. With Zuri, it was as if his heart had unlocked possibilities he dared not explore back then.

She could feel everything with him, and this thrilled her down to her toes. Did Magnum feel that?

FT slammed his fist against the wall, almost shaking the whole house. “Fuck you! And fuck her!” He stormed away, but Magnum never stopped looking at her.

It was as if he were trying to probe her with his eyes, and she liked feeling this closeness to him.

“Twinning, they used to call it, but it’s something more. I remember my mother talking about it. My father connected with her, and when FT and I were born, they knew there was something different about us, but as they had not expected twins, they didn’t expect the twinning experience to happen outside of people who aren’t twins.” He took a deep breath, and she could suddenly feel a loss, like he’d stepped away. “Sorry, talking about FT made it… go. He’s angry.” Magnum helped her unravel herself from his body, and they stood up together. “Let me clean up.” He was formal and reserved again as he walked into his bathroom after grabbing some more clothes from his dresser.

At least he didn’t shut the door. Zuri could see as he stood in the bathroom with his back to the mirror and changed out of all of his clothes, but from where she stood, she could see … all of him.

Dear lawd, the man’s firm physique was beautiful, and she found herself aroused again.

Magnum suddenly stopped after he pulled on his pants, to turn around and look at the mirror – at her. And then he came to the doorway of the bathroom and leaned against it as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’m going to have to get used to this,” he said.

Already she was feeling the heat in her chest moving down her stomach and then to her lower parts. Would she always feel this way? This attraction. This drawing is for him. This lust.

And then there was… thirst.

He was thirsty.

Going to bed, keeping eye contact with her, she slowly started taking off her clothes. His breathing increased.

Boom. Buh-Boom. Buh-Buh-Boom. Buh-Buh-Boom.

The rhythm started to change as he started to walk to her, and she lay on her back on the edge of the bed.

The thirst grew. The heat grew.

Magnum dropped to his knees, his actions almost mechanical, as if driven by an unseen force. As he began his intimate ministrations, a sudden flash of insight crossed Zuri’s mind: a vivid memory of the same face doing this so long ago. A sense of instant relief from the addiction woven in her veins, but with Magnum, there was a deeper connection filled with trust.

Zuri dug her fingers into Magnum’s neck, surrendering to the pleasure while the back of her mind tried to dissect the past that had come to her.

His tongue laved from the outer lips to her inner lips, sucking her juices, quenching the thirst. The more he drank, the more the need appeased him, but he didn’t stop until she culminated.

Her body bucked against him, but her mind raced, absorbing each sensation like pieces of a larger puzzle, and she felt this connection might unlock answers to the questions haunting her since childhood.

He held her hips firmly to hold her in place, but she still shivered against his face, while he mercilessly drank every drop of her orgasm, humming his engorgement as he moved his hands over her breasts to massage them.

Were they going again? Ah-yes! She didn’t have to wonder what he was feeling. She knew. And he knew what she desired.

An irritated voice cleared at the open doorway of the bedroom. “Dinner is getting cold, brother,” FT growled. “And if you keep eating fucking dessert, you’ll ruin yourself.” His eyes went briefly over Zuri’s naked body lustfully. “And she’d die of fucking hunger if you don’t let her up.”

Magnum leaned over her body, not removing his hands from her breasts. “You hungry?” he questioned.

“A little,” she admitted.

Without looking at his brother, he said, “We’ll be down in a moment, FT.”

FT moved away from the door, and it was only then that Magnum let her up and placed her clothes beside her.

She drew his face to hers and kissed him, tasting her all over his mouth. He groaned, and it only brought her arousal back, as their first kiss deepened.

Buh-Buh-Boom!

His arms encircled her body, pulling him to her. The thirst was still there… for her.

Zuri loved this feeling, this closeness… this oneness.

Reluctantly, he pulled away. “We need to eat,” he insisted.

But she could feel his reluctance, and she smiled with a nod.

Instead of closing the bedroom door, Magnum stood there with his back to her. She realized he was being a gentleman, and she went to the bathroom to wash up quickly before putting on her clothes. When she walked up behind him, Magnum turned around, eating her up visually as if it were his first time looking at her.

“We didn’t talk about what happened after Eli disappeared,” she said.

Magnum shrugged. “Her boyfriend found out about the date. Thought we’d been seeing each other longer than we actually had because she was pregnant. He killed her and hid the body.”

A tense silence hung between them, charged with unspoken fear and doubt. The revelation scratched dangerously at the surface of their newfound connection. Zuri took a step back, her mind spinning with possibilities. Was she safe with Magnum, or was she unknowingly involved in something more sinister? The risk seemed immediate, her heart racing with the weight of this uncertainty.

“Are you sure it wasn’t FT?”

“I’m positive, but then shortly after the boyfriend disappeared, and no one ever saw him again.”

She didn’t need to ask her question again because she could already feel the answer.

“No one ever found him. Thought he ran away and that was it.”

“That was it?” she asked with frustration. “Your brother could be a killer.”

“Could be, or he knows how to scare the fuck out of someone. Either way, we didn’t hurt Eli. I know, she meant something to FT. She connected to him. She was destined for FT.”

“Did you know Eli was a child of my mother’s?”

“No, not until I beat the shit out of FT recently. He revealed to me everything. I was going to discuss it at dinner with you.”

Her assumption had been right. FT only wanted her because she was close to Eli.

She asked, annoyed, “Why do you want him here, Magnum?”

Magnum shrugged again. “He’s going to help me.” His momentary pause gave her insight into something dark within him, but it was gone as quickly as it was felt. “His presence is already working.” Magnum held out his hand for her to take. “Are you scared? Of us? Of this?”

The anticipation of FT’s presence faintly discomforted Zuri, like a storm brewing just beyond the horizon. Her instincts whispered a warning—something was about to change.

FT came out of another bedroom near the stairs and leaned against the railing, looking highly disgruntled.

She sensed the heat in her chest increase, reminding her of her connection with Magnum. Putting her hand in Magnum’s, she answered, “No, not as long as we’re here.” Zuri’s thoughts solidified her resolve; she chose to trust this bond, this shared experience with Magnum. It wasn’t just about being with him but about embracing the part of her that craved something more, something different, something empowered. Zuri didn’t need to explain that, because she knew Magnum understood. They were connected. Simply put, their bond defied explanation but spoke volumes in action, more profound than any words relayed.

End of This Chapter | Post your thoughts in the comments | Let the author know what’s going on in your head

He Touched Me (c) 2026 Sylvia Hubbard All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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• Companion Books
  • Stealing Innocence 1
  • Black’s Innocence
  • Sin’s Iniquity
  • The Other Side of Love (WIP)
  • Tanner’s Devil
  • Dreams of Reality
  • Emperors Addiction / Heart

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