AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Four
Blood rushed to Kayla’s head, and she slowly turned toward the front of the bar.
Walking over to her with a small bouquet of flowers, Rafe wore an easy smile on his chiseled face. He was clean-shaven and his hair looked like it had seen a shower and a comb, too. It was a good look for him, almost as good as that sort of unkempt wild thing from the night before. The way his brown eyes fixed on her had her heart beating faster and her temperature rising. Damn, that spell was a curse.
He closed the distance between them and stopped closer than the average guy would. Then resting a hand on her hip, he leaned down to drop a quick kiss onto her temple—which was possessive and sweet all at once, and exactly the sort of tender showing Kayla didn’t need when she was trying to keep a level head.
“Hey, beautiful,” he murmured close to her ear. “Been thinking about you all day. Finally decided I’d gotten enough of my stuff moved in, and figured it was time for a break. How about dinner? I hear that little Italian place down the street is pretty good.”
Her gaze tracked from the warm spot where his hand rested on her hip, up his muscle-roped forearm, to where his olive skin was covered by a white Oxford shirt cuffed loosely below his elbow. She swallowed hard, her mind suddenly inundated with images of her licking that tantalizing stretch of skin, her body heating as she imagined unbuttoning his shirt and letting her mouth at more of him.
Peering up to his gorgeous face, she was about to tell him she’d go anywhere with him when she noticed Opal still standing across the bar from them. Opal who’d cast the spell, she was most definitely still susceptible to.
Biting her lip, she glanced away. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t real.
She forced herself to meet his eyes, licked her lips. “Rafe, it’s really nice of you to ask, but I can’t.”
“You working already?” he asked, undaunted, catching her fingers in a loose hold. “Need a hand tonight? I promise not to break any glasses.”
Sweet. She drew a breath, picking up the clean scent of him and felt a dizzying rush come over her. She was already leaning into him, Rafe’s smile widening as she did.
Dang it, when was that spell going to wear off? She inched back, trying to clear her head.
“Actually, I’m not working tonight. But I still don’t think it’s a good idea for us to go out. Things are complicated.”
His sexy smile didn’t falter, like he’d been expecting exactly this. Drawing her hands into the hollow of his chest, he shook his head. “Still not going anywhere, Kayla.”
God, that didn’t help at all, because not only was he showing her he wasn’t giving up, but now she was touching his chest. Thinking about how much she wanted to flatten her hands against it. Ball them in the fabric and pull him close. No!
“So what is it that’s so complicated?” He looked down at the floor, a scowl overtaking his rugged features. “It’s not…shit, there isn’t someone else?”
“What? No!”
In a flash that sexy smile was back along with the determined glint in Rafe’s eyes. “Then whatever it is, we can figure it out.”
Maybe she should have told him there was someone else. She had the sense he was the kind of guy who wouldn’t be cool with that. Only seeing that look on his face when the possibility occurred to him—she couldn’t take it.
Though it physically hurt to do it, she pulled her hands back. “Rafe, it’s not you.”
“Oh, shit. It’s that bad?” he said, only half laughing. “You’re giving me the it’s not you, it’s me line?”
“No. It’s not me, either. It’s something…outside of us.” She shot a scathing look at Opal, who was shamelessly eavesdropping at the end of the bar. “Come on, let’s sit down a minute.”
They moved to one of the booths lining the far wall and sat. She’d lay it out, plain and simple. Just tell him what Opal had done. She’d sound loony, but that would definitely get rid of him, and without having to bring up Aaron.
Just thinking about him had her glancing at the ceiling, wondering if he was back. She’d been relieved not to have had to deal with him the night before, but it really was a long time not to hear from him.
“So you were just about to tell me what it is, since it’s not me and it’s not you…which for the record sounds a whole lot like we ought to tell it to screw off.”
Her eyes closed and she gave into a soft laugh. He really wasn’t a quitter. If only things could have been different.
Clearing her throat, she met his eyes. “It’s a spell.”
“Come again?” Rafe narrowed his eyes, and the corners of his mouth twitched.
Here it came. The laughter, and his efficient exit. Might as well to get it over with now. “A spell, as in magic. A curse. My well intentioned, painfully misguided, novice witch sister cast a spell on us last night and it sort of drew us together. Powerfully.”
His jaw cocked to the side. “Okay, for the sake of argument, why?”
