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Author’s Notes…
When you’re conflicted but turned on, it’s really hard to think about the danger you’re in.
Zuri has that problem. She’s got a lot going on, and I think that’s why I’m the complicated writer that I am. My brain is constantly thinking of all her crap while she’s just willy nilly-ing it around with her new sex drive.
I loved this chapter because it shows so much growth with Magnum and the conflict that is arising between him and his brother. He knows the inevitable will come when he has to make the hard decisions. the ones he’s been fighting all his life.
the ones that i know you know what’s coming.
The ones that should have been made a long time ago.
My brain is fighting it because my heart loves FT just like Magnum does.
Can we do it? Can we make the hard decisions?
Do you want us to?
Let’s hear what you have to say.
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.
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Chapter 31 -A Love That Burns and a Past That Haunts
Zuri didn’t just feel him physically; she felt him mentally! The intensity of their connection tethered them together, bringing her powerful orgasm to stay on the brink with him until…
Her entire muscular system seized like a stroke gone wrong, pushing her to the edge as waves of euphoria cascaded through her. The warmth of his breath against her skin, mingling as their inhalations synchronized, anchored her in a sense of profound security she hadn’t felt in a long time. Her body seemed to instinctively recognize him, embracing his presence as if they were two parts of a whole. The past felt distant, sealed away, leaving her future destined to be held in his arms.
Tears erupted from her eyes, but her whole body seemed to cry with a feeling of satisfaction as he trembled deep within her. This was not just passion; it was love. She knew with certainty she loved this man, not for the act itself but because with him, she would never want for anything else in this lifetime.
Zuri whimpered in relief as Magnum pulled out, and that moment of the past disappearing forever was not about loss, but a sense that her body was moving forward.
Magnum seemed in a daze as she looked up at him, and she gave him a moment while she looked around the room. “He’s gone,” he said with a mix of relief and longing.
FT must have slipped out quietly during their intimate moment, leaving a strange feeling of abandonment lingering in the room. FT’s departure was unexpected, and it mattered because his brazen presence had been an unsettling constant. His absence left a gap that both relieved and worried Zuri—had he watched, or was he planning something? Would Magnum be the same or different now that his brother’s presence wasn’t there?
Standing to straighten her t-shirt, Zuri realized her pants’ elastic was gone, adding another layer of unease to the night’s events. At this rate, she was going to need a whole new wardrobe, but would she be able to wrestle sex with Magnum as she’d done with FT? She had definitely seen that as just another way she enjoyed getting aroused.
“Because he felt left out?” she asked sarcastically.
Smirking, swiping up her pants, he took her hand and guided her from the room and up the stairs. She hoped he wasn’t going to end the night.
“Get your things for the night and come to my room,” he ordered, reading her thoughts again.
Getting on her tiptoes, she kissed his cheek to show she appreciated the invitation.
She walked into her bedroom, but she immediately knew FT had been in there again – recently. Had she locked up her room prior to leaving it? Zuri wondered to herself.
Going through her personal bags, she couldn’t tell if they had been disturbed, but she had a feeling, even though she didn’t feel it as she went through her things.
Grabbing a nightgown and underwear, she looked around for her bathroom bag and found it in the bathroom, but she hadn’t put it there. She was sure of that.
Next to it was the prescription bag given to her when she’d picked up the Plan B pill. She realized the second dose had been taken out and was ready for her.
She could almost feel FT saying sarcastically, Don’t forget, especially after tonight.
He would have said that if he were there, but had he come into her room? How? Magnum said the rooms were secure. Shadow of doubts filled her as she doubted whether she had locked her bedroom door and taken her bags out, or not, before leaving the room. The ambiguity of her memory bothered her immensely.
This solidified her decision to stay in the room with Magnum. It would probably be the only safe place in the house.
Quickly, she took her pill, used the bathroom, cleaned up a little, and brushed her teeth before proceeding to his room. As she reached Magnum’s bedroom door, she noticed it was partially closed, light spilling out through the gap, casting shadows on the hallway floor. Before she could knock, the door swung open, revealing Magnum with the phone pressed to his ear. He took her hand gently, guiding her to the edge of the bed.
“You’re where?” he asked whoever he was speaking to. “When? Find out where she is and only stay with her, FT. Don’t you dare do anything to her.”
He hung up the phone and cursed.
“What?” she pressed, feeling his upset.
“Brenda got out of prison on bail before your lawyer could stop her from using your house,” he said with disappointment.
“But it wasn’t in her name.”
“Details were missed, and before the court realized her mistake, they let her out.” He locked his bedroom door and then took items from her and placed them on a dresser near the bathroom. “He asked, ‘ Did you take your pill?”
She pressed her lips together and then nodded. “I did when I went into my room. He wants to be sure I dont get pregnant.”
“I don’t think you’d want a baby by FT.” He disappeared in the bathroom, and she heard the shower start.
The horror of that man being her baby daddy made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Seeing her pants on the floor, she picked up her phone and saw a message from her lawyer.
‘My office. Eight am. Bring him.’
She knew exactly who Tyler Black was referring to, and she called Magnum. “Would you be able to go to my lawyer in the morning?”
“Yes,” he said, coming out of the bathroom, but she could tell he had something heavy on his mind and would have agreed to fighting a dragon off if she’d asked.
He took her hand again to lead her into the bathroom. The unspoken invitation to join him mirrored their bond.
Zuri’s eyes were riveted on his body, loving how perfectly muscular he was. There were old bruises all over his body.
“You fight still, don’t you?” she asked as he moved to her.
“Yes,” he answered, taking the hem of her shirt and pulling it over her neck. “I needed the thrill of the hurt.”
A different fear filled her at the power behind this man and the demons he hid. Was he worse than his brother?
Magnum stopped her at the open doorway of the shower, so as he advanced to her, she had no other exit but to step into the shower, and he followed her. He locked eyes with her, their shared heartbeat pulsating in rhythm.
He pulled her into his embrace, shielding her from the water. “You know what this means,” he said, his voice rumbling so deep she could feel it in her chest.
“What?” she asked, having no idea, as her body heated up, ready for everything.
In a fierce growl, he warned, “I’m going to become addicted to you, Zuri.”
“I don’t know if that will be good or bad.”
“Oh, it’s bad,” he said hungrily, possessing her lips.
She could feel the certainty of his words deep in her, but she didn’t care because that wild hunger for him returned. As he lifted her and pressed her into the wall, her legs eagerly circled his waist. His partially hardened shaft slipped inside her with ease, just as his mouth grazed her breast. Zuri gasped, overwhelmed at how naturally he moved inside of her. In her mind’s eye, there flashed a fleeting image of Magnum in a past fight, his fists swinging with raw power. The juxtaposition of his tenderness now and the brutality then made her heart pound faster, adding another layer of depth to her desire.
And she could see how much he loved being in her. She brought his face to her again, kissing him feverently, needing his mouth on her, around her, in her.
“I’m going to fuck you forever, Zuri,” he swore, stroking into her as if his life depended on her. His strokes powered his heart, and she could feel all of him, everywhere.
Forever was going to be fucking amazing with Magnum Knight.
***
Somehow they made it to the bed, and when she could think straight about the entire night, she asked quietly, “You were a part of those experiments too, weren’t you?”
“Of course,” he said easily.
The lights were all off, so even if she raised her gaze to his, she couldn’t see his expression. Closing her eyes, she searched inside herself. Feeling him was a little easier for her.
There seemed to be a knot in his chest.
“Did they hurt you? Physically?” she questioned.
“More mentally than anything.. They got into your head. Wanted you to think the worst thing possible and then hurt others.”
“But why?”
Soldiers of evil. That’s what Dr. Baelen would say, but it was a deeper purpose. My mother always knew Dr. Baelen wasn’t the face of it. There was someone else, and when she started to probe, she… “Let’s just say her curiosity killed her, and my father and a lot of the rest of the participants in the study, along with their parents as well. If FT hadn’t made me leave with him that night on some stupid… He said we had to go because he felt something.”
Zuri felt the weight of Magnum’s words sinking in, the murky history unraveling a part of her she hadn’t realized was tied to him. Her heart ached for the parents, and for the kind of life they might have had. The idea of FT, unpredictable as he was, acting on an inexplicable urge to leave resonated with her own instincts—those internal whispers warning of danger in her past. It struck her that maybe FT wasn’t just impulsive but intuitive, a thought both comforting and alarming. She considered how these puzzle pieces fit Magnum’s hardened exterior, a shell formed from pain and loss, yet now showing cracks as he shared these truths. But why? Was it to protect her or to unburden himself of the ghostly shadows he carried?
I don’t know. I never questioned, but from there, I tried to fight away the pain of losing my parents and the things the study had done to me… to my mind. We got kicked out of so many homes. FT always took the fall, but it was me. I couldn’t stop fighting. I didn’t want to stop. FT blackmailed the Knights into adopting us by promising to allocate the majority of the company’s profits. My father had started working with the Knights’ parents. This company was more than just a business; it was a lifeline that tied us to our past, a project that both our families poured their lives into. It represented the legacy and the dreams my parents had for us to rise above the trials of our past and find stable ground. If the company’s profit didn’t match its first-year earnings, we would sell or close it. Since we’ve hit that point for five years straight, I’ve been dissolving the company under my cousin’s nose. He can’t code to save his life, and I refuse to bring in any new clients using his old templates. That’s not coding; it’s just reproducing the same outdated systems. My cousin hasn’t realized it yet. Ending this company is like reclaiming a part of myself, freeing myself from the past’s manipulation. In dismantling it, I find peace, returning to what my parents might have wanted.
“Won’t this adopted family be upset with you doing this?”
“I could give a fat shit,” he rumbled, wrapping her closer to him.”I get pennies in profit from that endeavor.”
Yawning with him, she said, “Where do you get your money from?”
“Fighting and other coding projects. I’m just taking up space at the company because it’s named after my family. I think FT thought it would ground me.”
“Does he make the majority of the decisions for you?” she wondered worriedly.
“He’s not making the decisions. We don’t have to discuss what to do next. He’s just the one who can bend people to what we want.”
She raised and looked down at him, even though she couldn’t see his face. “You don’t do that?”
“I hit either people or the keyboard, Zuri. That’s all I want to do.”
“And me? Will you eventually hit me?”
He rolled her over until he was over her.
She felt the heat in her chest grow exponentially, like a volcano about to erupt.
“Do you feel that?” he asked.
Breathlessly, she answered, “Yes.”
Zuri’s mind flickered back to a memory of clenched fists and a harsh, deadly voice, the edge of fear she had lived through with such bland colors. But here, held in Magnum’s embrace, the contrast was stark. “I can’t hurt you, Zuri. I can’t be without you, so everything in me stops me from hurting you.” He lay his head down on her chest. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes, I trust you, Magnum.” She wrapped her arms around him as the intensity of feeling him increased.
“Good.” He kissed her collarbone and nuzzled his face on her breast. “By morning, you’re going to have to come up with a safe word. I understand your body, but I want to make sure I respect your boundaries, Zuri.”
She smiled sleepily, feeling the serotonin effects from their lovemaking taking hold of her. He was nothing like FT. Magnum was much, much more.
***
FT snarled, “Where did that come from last night, Mag?”
“You know what the fuck is up, FT. You did what I needed, and that’s the end of the discussion.”
They didn’t seem to bother FT, who changed the subject: “When were you going to tell me about what you were doing with the company?” FT sneered.
Magnum snorted, “Did you really care?”
“I don’t, but they will. It’s their bread and butter, and that puts you in danger. Now you have to watch your back.”
“Unlike their parents, our cousins are weak, greedy shit stains on society,” Magnum sneered.
There was a moment of silence stretching between them like a taut wire ready to snap.
“Now, did you find her mother? Did you find Brenda?” Magnum asked his brother.
At the mention of her mother, Zuri pulled herself from her sleep, opening her eyes. Magnum was standing in the doorway, only wearing a towel, while FT stood in the hallway, a shadow of tension draped over him. There was something about the way he clenched his jaw and how his eyes flicked over her that hinted at a brewing storm beneath his cool exterior.
“She’s holed herself up in some seedy motel on the boulevard,” FT answered.
“You can’t hurt her,” she said sleepily.
Both men looked her way – Magnum in concern, and FT sucking on his teeth slowly, predatorily as if he was deciding to kill her or not.
FT met her eyes, his lips twisting ever so slightly as if weighing the gravity of her plea. There was a momentary flicker of something unreadable in his gaze, but then it melted away, obscured by his usual facade.
Sitting up in bed, wrapping the sheet around her. “Don’t kill her, FT,” she asserted with a mix of urgency and hope.
His response was to walk away from the doorway, his shoulders tensing almost imperceptibly, leaving an ambiguous sense of what his decision might be.
Magnum closed the door, but he didn’t move from that spot.
“Should I be worried?” Zuri questioned, seeing the hard-pressed, tight lines on Magnum’s face, a mix of anger and worry.
“About your mother or you?” Magnum questioned.
“He’s upset about us? About you getting your mojo back?”
“Weakness is not allowed in FT’s world. As much as he detests our sibling connection, he hates when it’s not there.”
“He can’t feel you when you’re with me,” Zuri determined, understanding Magnum’s worry. “Is this when I tell you I think he went into my room, but I didn’t think it needed locking up when I was in there.”
Magnum huffed. “If you could make a habit of that until he’s gone.”
Worriedly, she asked, “Will he ever be, Magnum?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t answer that.” Frown lines came to his forehead, and she could feel he was stuck between his heart and his head.
Zuri decided to help him think of something else that would not drive him to want to drink. “What time is it?” she asked, getting out of bed and coming over to Magnum, dropping the sheet at her feet. As she briefly looked at the bottom of the door, she saw a shadow from the hallway. The faint creak of an old floorboard and a lingering scent of danger confirmed that FT was lingering in the hallway, silent and most likely listening. He’d come back.
Was he going to bother them some more? Most likely to piss Magnum off, but Zuri wanted the connection broken between these two brothers. She felt that if FT stayed around any longer, Magnum could lose what she had found to be a beautiful human when he was in his right mind, despite all the things that had affected him all his life.
Almost five,” he answered, his eyes moving down her body and then back up. “I thought I’d work while you get dressed. I’ve already told your bodyguard to meet us in an hour and a half out front.” His words hung in the air, a subtle reminder that they had exactly ninety minutes to prepare and depart. Zuri felt time slipping through her fingers, each minute a tick marking them closer to what lay ahead.
She smirked wickedly, tugging on his towel. “That means we have a good thirty minutes before I have to-“
There were no more words needed as he jerked her into his arms, finding her mouth. As she was finding herself lost in Magnum’s mouth, she could hear a faint fustling outside the door.
But the heat in her chest increased, flowing to the rest of her body. Magnum knew where to touch to arouse her without thinking. Reluctantly, she pushed out of his arms and moved to her knees to engulf his manhood down her throat. His manhood was only semi-erect, but her mouth stimulated him even more. No alcohol was starting to have a positive effect on his body.
Magnum had to fall back against the door, and she loved how he responded to her as she delighted in orally pleasuring him.
The more she opened her body to him, the more he wanted. He pushed her to the floor and dove between her legs. Zuri couldn’t stop herself from squealing in joy and then releasing the loudest moan.
The shadow from under the door, lingering, moved away as Zuri engrossed herself in Magnum’s beautiful mouth.
***
Somehow, she made it back to her room after another shower with Magnum to get dressed. Lucas was waiting for them at the front of the house.
She’d put on a two-piece with a long-sleeved cream silk shirt and a long black skirt. She was running out of clothes to wear and really needed to get some more soon.
When she got in the vehicle, he looked her over suspiciously. Magnum was grabbing some things from his office before joining her, so she had a moment alone with her driver.
“You look different,” Lucas said. “I stayed up practically all night waiting for you to call.”
“He’s right. The safest place is with him,” Zuri responded with a wicked smile on her lips.
Lucas grumbled, “You’re aware Brenda is out on bond.”
“I know, but with you and Magnum, I’m not worried.” She received a text from the laboratory letting her know her supplies would arrive at the beginning of next week. By then, she’d have formulated the testing and looked through most of the resumes, with an assistant unpacking everything and setting up the lab.
Magnum got into the car, and they started the drive to Tyler Black’s office. She could instantly tell that Magnum was tense about something, but decided to wait until after they spoke with the lawyer to see if that would ease his stress.
“Can we go to my house afterwards, after this meeting, and pick up some personal things of mine? Now that no one’s there, I think it’s safe to go there,” she asked Magnum.
“Are you sure we can’t pick up some clothes and things from a store for you?” Magnum questioned with a frown.
“It’s not just that. It’s stuff I want with me.”
Magnum addressed Lucas. “I trust you’re carrying.”
Lucas only nodded.
She didn’t think it was a big thing. Even if Brenda wanted to confront her, it wouldn’t necessarily come to violence that would need a gun, would it?
Her conflicting thoughts of her mother instantly stopped as she felt Magnum’s hand move to her thigh. The warmth of his touch sent a familiar thrill up her spine, yet a knot tightened in her stomach. She started to put up the partition, but he grunted for her to stop as his hand moved up her dress. Zuri found herself caught in a whirlwind of longing and a sudden flash of unease, her mind flickering to Lucas in the front seat. The silent presence of her bodyguard carried with it an awareness that twisted her sense of discretion slightly. Despite the car’s steady rhythm, the air felt charged, each breath between them a silent acknowledgment of the struggle within her.
As her gaze briefly met the rearview mirror, she caught a subtle shift in Lucas’s eyes, a quick reflection that hinted at his awareness, whether imagined or real. Though Lucas’s steady hands on the wheel offered a buffer of normalcy, she wondered if he could feel the shifting currents in the back.
The car seemed like a fragile sanctuary, where her sense of propriety clashed with a fiery connection she couldn’t deny. In this confinement, her desire battled with the voice of caution, heightening the complexity of her emotions. Zuri hoped she could hold herself together so Lucas wouldn’t know what was going on. Her mind played scenarios of what could happen, and the risk of being discovered both terrified and excited her, deepening the journey between her heart and mind.
Magnum had warned her he was going to become addicted to her. The more he wanted, the more she desired him. And Zuri was becoming insatiable for Magnum. Yet, she couldn’t shake the feeling of an impending emotional challenge, as if the intensity of their connection was heading towards an inevitable reckoning. A nagging doubt lingered, whispering that love alone might not shield them from the shadows looming on the horizon. She feared their insatiable craving for each other might reach a threshold where they would have to confront the depths of their vulnerabilities, testing the resilience of their bond. And as she considered this, a shiver of anticipation mixed with apprehension crept up her spine, making her wonder what price their passionate addiction might demand.
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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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