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Author’s Notes…
So this happened. I was able to get another chapter out between all the other things I’m supposed to be doing.
Of course, the snow doesn’t help. It draws something out of you. Or maybe it’s the cold. I’ve been going thorugh loops trying to make sure you’re still staying with me, and we can do a lot of things. I included some questions I might address in a video tomorrow. Let me know if you like them and if you’re interested in discussing this chapter and any other chapters you’ve read.
Let me get my butt back to writing and I’ll see you around
Your Author, Sylvia Hubbad
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Chapter 22 – What Had Happened
Reaching over and lightly brushing his thumb on her bottom lip, Magnum immediately countered, “Why didn’t you tell me to stop?”
Zuri blushed because she knew that at any point, she could have pleaded to Magnum for help, and deep down inside, he would have come to her rescue. Yet knowing he couldn’t give her that deep-seated pleasure of being inside of her, she had used his brother. Even though the prospect of Magnum being excited by it thrilled her, there was a pang of guilt twisting in her stomach. The taste of her own betrayal lingered like a bitter flavor in her mouth, gnawing at her conscience. Was she risking the purity of what she and Magnum could have had for the fleeting thrill of dangerous seduction?
Did she want to play this dangerous game between brothers? Her heart beat with uncertainty, a single, visceral tremor running through her hand as doubt crept in. A bitter taste lingered in her mouth, embodying the internal conflict she tried to suppress. Zuri hesitated for a heartbeat, feeling the peril of the situation as she stood teetering on the edge of something unknown and potentially destructive.
“FT brings the worst out in me,” he quietly explained, retreating his hand away from her.
She frowned and blurted out, “He permits you to be your true self, Magnum. You can’t blame your brother for who you naturally are.”
His eyes narrowed as if she had exposed a secret. “I’m not trying to be like him.”
“You aren’t,” she assured him. “But there is something dark about you that is unlike FT. A quiet control darkness.” She licked her bottom lip, remembering how he had gripped the base of his shaft, and he pressed in her mouth. That unsettling gleam in his eyes, like a predator savoring the chase, as his brother encouraged him. She tightened herself up, trying not to show her arousal, just thinking about tasting him. “I can’t deny the events of the night with him were arousing despite pushing my morals to the brink.”
“You liked it,” Magnum stated, leaning forward.
Biting the inside of her lip and controlling her emotions, she made sure she didn’t hold her breath as she spoke. “I’m still deciding that. It was arousing, Magnum. I wanted to taste you and feel you in my mouth, Magnum,” she admitted. “I liked seeing that darkness come out in you, watching me with your brother. Have you done that before with him?” she asked, trying to get the attention off her.
He moved to lie on his back and pulled his hands under his head to look up at the ceiling. “It was an I’d set them up, and he’d finish them off situation.”
Zuri could understand that happening. “How did you know that guy was following me?”
“I didn’t. FT had been following you. He saw the attack and knew who attacked you, but that won’t be enough evidence for the police unless this one admits to what he did by the time FT finishes with him tonight. No witnesses, no cameras, just his word against theirs.”
Remembering that feeling when she caught FT at her door, she said, “And your brother knows for sure it was that guy.”
Magnum looked at her. “Do you think it wasn’t?”
That night of almost being attacked and looking out the peephole, she had seen them up close, and her mother’s coworker had that build. He’d come to the house a couple of times, but Zuri had been in her own world and not really paid attention to him. Big, burly, and gruff.
“He could have been,” she mumbled, still trying not to face the fact that her mother was trying to do her harm.
Magnum rolled to his side toward her, resting his head on his hands so he could look over her. “You’re still not believing your mother could hurt you, even after you saw the envelope.” He paused, then added, “Just like you said about me embracing my ‘true self,’ maybe you’re struggling to accept your mother’s true nature.”
That was another thing Zuri had pushed out of her mind. Was the envelope still at the cemetery? “I have too many questions for her.”
“Want me to call FT and get him to drag the guy here so you can ask that bastard what the fuck that woman really wants?”
Why did she almost say yes, only to feel Magnum would do it for her? A thrill shot through her, but Zuri forced herself not to blush. “Magnum, she’s my mom.”
“All I hear is a woman out for money,” Magnum sneered.
“How do you know that?”
“I know greed,” he growled. “And it doesn’t care about blood, love, or family. Just promise me you won’t do it by yourself, Zuri. You will not put yourself in danger.”
Four months was nothing to keep that secret. By then, she’d be past her thirty-fifth birthday, and the danger would be over. Her money would be gone, and her mother had to give up any greedy behavior.
“I promise, Magnum,” she said, pressing her lips together and looking down at him, wondering how he would taste again.
He looked down at hers, and she was sure he was holding his breath just as she was holding hers.
“I should let you know, my experience with women has been little to none.” The way he sounded diplomatic about the matter amused her. He ran his thumb over the bottom of her lip again, as if the feel itself anchored him in the moment. “I get off on the illicit, but going all the way doesn’t turn me on that much.”
“Is that why you drink? Along with having an asshole brother like FT?”
Magnum smirked, “That was only part of the problem. Our parents were brutally murdered, and I got to watch.”
For a moment, the room felt suspended in time, as if the world had been muted. The air was thick with an unspeakable weight, a gravity that pulled both their souls into an abyss of shared pain and lost innocence. Silence filled the space between them, heavy with unspoken grief and a lifetime of shattered memories.
The interruption of thoughts was palpable, a vivid reminder of past wounds. Slowly, Zuri’s presence returned to her as she broke the silence. The revelation smoldered her tease. “When you said you set him up, did you mean you do all the work and he gets all the fun?”
“Mostly,” he responded, cutting his eyes away from her for a moment.
Zuri mimicked his stern glare.
He reiterated, “Mostly all the time. Mostly all our lives.”
“And that’s why your experience has been little to none,” she determined. “And the alcohol doesn’t help.” Zuri ran her hand down his chest to his groin. The hard muscles she felt underneath the clothes told her this man was still in fighting shape and could probably crush her and whoever he wanted to physically. Rodney wasn’t in the strength department at all, not like this, and Zuri knew she would love to have Magnum naked more than anything.
Magnum didn’t stop her, and she liked that he didn’t tighten up. Bravely, Zuri ventured lower to cup his phallus and testicles.
When he had been in her mouth, she remembered the slight rigidity, but knew it wasn’t enough. Even though his shaft rested flaccid, ascending her hand on his body again, she wondered if she would ever have him in her mouth again.
I want to taste you, she screamed in her head as she brazenly met his eyes.
Magnum rose from the bed and began straightening his clothes, taking his bowtie from his pocket to tie it. He paused for a moment and looked back at Zuri, uncertainty flickering in his eyes.
She was positive he couldn’t have read her thoughts, but damn the way he had jumped out of bed, it was as if she had said those five words out loud. Her tongue felt like lead in her mouth, unsure of what to say.
“Good night, Zuri,” he said stiffly and left the room.
Sitting up in bed, Zuri watched him leave, feeling like she had been smacked in the face. This invisible shock to her soul felt worse than being slapped on the behind by FT.
Was this what she was going to have to expect for the next four months from him?
Flopping back on the pillow, Zuri huffed in frustration.
Which was worse? Rodney’s lame over lubricating sex or Magnum’s demisexual ways.
She fell asleep trying to decide.
***
Zuri was back in the graveyard, feeling the rough texture of the bench beneath her thighs. The cool, stone surface sent an unexpected shiver through her, anchoring her in this moment. It wasn’t as cold as before, but the sting on her bottom was a sharp reminder of where she was. Suddenly, she was flipped on her back, and Magnum was lying over her.
Those fierce, angry brown eyes seared her soul but heated her core. She wanted him still and ground her body against him to encourage him to do what he wanted.
He dipped down to her neck and kissed her neck, her collarbone, and then took both breasts in his hands, pushed them together, and lavished licks and suckles all over them.
Gripping the back of his neck, she ground her body on his, loving his mouth as he voraciously licked her body with heated arousal.
“Oooh,” she gurgled and was thrilled as he kissed down her body, between her legs, and greedily laved all over her womanhood.
But just as his licks were getting close, he’d switch up strokes with his tongue, teasing her endlessly, until her frustration was like hell. No! Magnum was thorough. He’d have taken her to her plateau!
THIS WASN’T MAGNUM!
A sudden chill enveloped Zuri’s consciousness, a creeping realization that the sensations coursing through her were foreign. Her heart skipped, caught between the remnants of a dream and the starkness of reality. Her eyes shot wide open. The bathroom light was off, and it was utterly dark, but there WAS someone between her legs. Zuri’s ears caught the sound of a deep, ragged breath, and whoever this was gripped her thighs extra tight, still lapping her juices like it was his last meal.
Zuri screeched and reached over to turn on the lamp, and for a quick second, she saw the plaid shirt. Yet, that was all she was able to see
Before she could see his face all the way, FT growled and knocked the nightstand over, darkening the room immediately.
At the same time, she kicked him in his gut with the heel of her foot and flipped out the side of the bed away from Magnum’s brother, clutching the pillow to her naked body, with no idea where her shirt she had been wearing had gone.
“How the fuck did you get in my room, FT?!” she demanded to know.
Zuri saw his shadow bent over, then found his hat, which had fallen off.
“As if it matters,” he snarled, putting the cap on. “Let me finish you off, Zuri.”
The arrogance in his orders enraged her. “GET OUT!” she screamed, forgetting she was naked, and threw the pillow at him, but then grabbed the covers off the bed.
“Fine,” he said with disappointment. “But you’ll remember if it’s the last thing I do, little queen.”
“Don’t call me that!” she hissed, stepping back until her back was against the wall, terrified he would turn toward her and force her back on the bed to ‘finish her off.’
The door to her room opened, and Zuri watched until he walked out, then listened as the door to her hotel room opened and closed.
What the hell?! The man was insane!
What had she signed up for?
***
Magnum had been sitting in the parking lot of a seedy bar on the worst side of town when he heard a ping on his phone. All he kept doing was remembering moments of the night. Feeling Zuri take him between those beautiful lips; seeing FT press into her and watching his brother lose control for once in his life, and then lying there in so much peace and looking down at those lips of Zuri’s that forever drew him into some deep dark place that he knew if he let himself go, he would enjoy.
He permits you to be your true self, Magnum. You can’t blame your brother for who you naturally are.
Of course, Magnum knew who’d ping his phone before he looked at the screen.
‘Unlock the door.’
He popped the lock and straightened himself up before FT opened the door, looking sour as shit, even going so far as to hurl his hat on the dash and rush frustrated hands through his hair several times.
With the lights from the parking lot, Magnum could see his brother a lot better than from the significantly darkened hotel room and the cemetery. Magnum noted the fresh cut, which replicated his short style, while FT usually kept his hair long enough to have six diagonal cornrows. And he also noted FT was freshly shaven.
It suddenly clicked: what his brother was doing, and that FT smelled exactly like… Magnum hauled off and tried to punch FT in the face, but his brother caught his fist, but not Magnum’s other fist, which landed on the side of FT’s head.
They fought for a good minute before FT shoved Magnum back to the driver’s seat.
“Wait a fucking minute!” FT huffed out of breath.
“What the fuck did you do? I swear if you hurt another hair on her head-” Magnum was about to jump right back over on the passenger side.
“NO!” FT snarled. “I didn’t, Magnum.”
“So why the fuck do you smell like her?”
FT couldn’t stop the wicked smirk on his lips, which sent Magnum back over there to try to crack his skull.
“Alright!” FT railed again, breaking free to shove Magnum back over to the driver’s side, rocking the truck so hard that one side of the vehicle came up off the ground for a brief second. “You fucking never minded before, Mag. And you knew I wouldn’t stay away.”
“I told you to leave her alone.”
“You said, don’t hurt her. And I didn’t. Even after that bitch kicked me in my fucking balls and almost kicked my fucking teeth out flipping out the bed to get the fuck away from her.” FT rubbed his crotch and winced. “She fucking kicks hard, Mag.”
Magnum instantly calmed down, and it was his time to smirk. “Wait, she knew?”
“That’s what I was going to ask you. Does she know?”
Running through his head the moment at the cemetery, he was sure it was too dark. “Are you sure?”
“As soon as she realized it was me in her fucking sleep, she scrambled away like I was the fifth fucking plague of Egypt.”
A thrill flooded Magnum.
“But you didn’t connect to her, Magnum,” FT said sourly. “I did. And I could give a fuck’s ass what Balen did to her head, you know, eventually she’ll come around.”
Immediately, Magnum felt a wave of disgust, knowing what could happen if she remembered the past.
FT changed the subject. “How long have you been fucking sitting here?”
Magnum looked at the bar that was closing. If he’d gone in when he initially parked, he’d been drunk by now, but for some reason, all he could think about was drinking Zuri and fighting not to drive back to the hotel to eat her out until the morning.
His whole being was still in disbelief that he had her all to himself, even though she was supposed to be FT’s. And his brother was right: once her memory returned, she’d remember her connection, and Magnum would lose her.
But until then…
“Stop thinking about her,” FT sneered. “I can’t feel you when you think about her.”
Magnum felt the strange heat in his chest, a subtle vibration signaling the connection he often tried to ignore. It was as if FT’s presence tugged at the very fabric of his being.
“I never saw you lose control like that before, FT. Is that the connection?”
FT snarled, “You fucking don’t understand it. You never tried to, and you never wanted to.”
“You know it wasn’t my fault. Father made sure I never did. When he even suspected I did-” Magnum stopped himself, getting a headache from remembering the powerful hits to the head for connecting to his brother. “Weakness will not be tolerated,” he said, repeating his father’s words.
“You’ll never connect to anyone, Magnum. And I’ll never be weak for anyone, not even her. I’d rather be in pain for the rest of my fucking life.”
Magnum looked at his brother with a deep frown. “When she does remember, what will you do? What is the next step, FT?”
“What the fuck do you care? You don’t want to feel shit, so why does it matter to you?”
“Because I know what you do to anyone you care about, FT. I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it.”
“She’s mine!” FT snarled possessively. “That pussy is just as sweet as I remember it.”
Gripping the wheel to hold back his jealousy that his brother tasted her before him, Magnum calmly spoke, “And you’re right, FT. Once she remembers you, that will be it for me, but until then she’s mine.”
Magnum was sure his brother was going to jump over on his side of the vehicle and attack him as he had done, but FT only slammed his fists several times in the front of the dashboard, raging angrily as if fighting off demons.
Waiting until FT’s anger dissipated, Magnum said, “But you could show me.”
By this time, FT’s face was buried in his hands, and he slowly looked over at Magnum. “Show you what?”
Magnum was sober enough to let the heat in his chest rise, knowing what it would do to FT. “You’ve had to deal with it all your life. I’ve ignored it. You hated all weakness in you and around you, and I’ve learned to hide from it.” He paused, feeling the tension between them. “I don’t want to ignore anything anymore. And since I can’t kill myself at the bottom of a bottle or blacking out drunk and fighting my way to death, I could try the other way.”
“And if she remembers.”
“Then you’ll enjoy seeing me suffer when I lose to you, yet again.”
“Fuck you!” FT jumped out of the vehicle. “FUCK YOU, MAGNUM!”
Watching FT storm away into the darkness, Magnum looked at the time. He could still get to underground fighting pits, and maybe, sober, he could actually enjoy himself.
Perhaps Zuri was right. Magnum’s nature was much darker. He craved misery and being hopeless. The fact that he’d asked his brother to show him the way to Zuri had to be a cry for hurt, but Magnum was at a desperate point in his life when he wanted nothing, and that thought made him even more miserable.
Zuri had become some light at the end of his tunnel, and if he got there, perhaps he would stop trying to stop living or experience a fucking good time with Zuri and then lose her to FT. Either way, he would feel something which he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Fiction readers might ask.
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Character motivation · What exactly drives Zuri to stay involved with both brothers despite the danger and emotional turmoil?
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Backstory · What happened in Zuri’s past with FT and Magnum that led to their current dynamic?
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Mother’s intentions · What is Zuri’s mother’s true motivation, and how does the envelope factor into the plot?
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Supernatural or psychological · Is the connection between the brothers literal, supernatural, or a metaphor for trauma and codependency?
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Consent and boundaries · How does Zuri process the blurred lines of consent, especially in the scene with FT in her room?
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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