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“I don’t have a lot of dates, so she decided to step in and hook me up.” It was a humiliating reveal, but she didn’t have any other choice. She looked up at him. “I know this sounds like I’m grasping at straws so I don’t have to take responsibility for my actions, but—“
“But the spell made you do it.” Rafe was watching her now, probably waiting for the punchline. And she didn’t have one.
“That’s right.”
Finally, he asked, “So, what exactly are you telling me? That if it hadn’t been for your sister’s dabbling in the occult, you wouldn’t have been interested?”
Oh geeze, Opal wasn’t going to like that dabbling comment. And now that she’d proven her spells could work, Kayla was going to have to keep an eye on her. Smooth her feathers.
But first—“No, I’m saying that my interest might not have been quite so extreme. I’m saying that the way we’re feeling, the intensity isn’t…organic. This connection between us is magic.”
“That would be an awesome line, if you didn’t seem so disappointed when you said it.” Rafe laughed and shook his head. “So you feel a connection, and it’s strong?”
“Almost irresistible, yes. But it isn’t real.”
He should have been getting up to leave by now, but instead he was just sitting there, studying her from across the table. He reached for her hand and rubbed his thumb across her knuckle. “Here’s the thing, Kayla. I’m more of a see it to believe it kind of guy. I don’t believe in magic. So I’m not gonna be able to give you up over that.”
All the more reason to expect that this burgeoning relationship didn’t have a chance. See it to believe it didn’t bode well for holidays around a Ouija board.
She let out an exasperated sigh. “Rafe, you have to. I’m worried I won’t be able to resist you. But because of the spell, not because of what’s really between us. It won’t be fair to either one of us.”
“For the sake of discussion, if your sister did her little spell thing yesterday… then how do you explain that I’ve been thinking about you for a year straight? This connection you don’t believe in…I felt it the night I left town, I felt it for a year, and I felt it when I got up yesterday morning, hell bent on getting to you before the night was through. How do you explain that?”
She didn’t know how to explain it but she knew the magic was real, and that her actions the night before weren’t.
Maybe the spell only worked on her. Hope bloomed in her chest, making her heart beat double time. Maybe what Rafe was feeling was real. Maybe this amazing guy who’d taken a piece of her heart when he left for Portland twelve months before really was there for all the right reasons.
Her eyes met his, locking them together. “You really felt this way since last year?”
“Yeah, Kayla. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. This is different for me. Special.” His gaze dropped to the table before coming back to hers. “I still can’t believe you’re single. That there isn’t a line of guys trying to knock me on my ass for talking to you.”
No. Only one.
And like that, the hope drained out, leaving her cold.
There was more at issue than magic alone. She couldn’t get involved, knowing what Aaron did to her dates.
She had to put a stop to this. “My family is protective of me when it comes to men. They can be…intimidating.”
“I don’t scare easily, and I’ve got to tell you—I’m a pretty decent guy.” His cocky grin settled into seriousness. “Maybe your family should meet me, so I can take you someplace nicer than the stairwell behind the bar.”
“If you meet my family, you’ll run like hell.”
Another shake of his head, and that too-confident smile. “I don’t intimidate easy.”
She wanted to believe him. God, the way he was looking at her, she wanted to just take his hand and go. Leave everything behind and for once just let a man love her. But she never would.
Deep down, she could never give up Aaron and Opal like that.
She smiled weakly, knowing there was only one thing left she could do.
“Let’s go upstairs.”
* * * * *
What awaited them in her apartment, Rafe could only guess, but whatever it was, he had a sense Kayla was expecting it to run him off. Not gonna to happen. Sure, she’d surprised the hell out of him with that spell talk. It wasn’t how he thought. That said, the fact that she believed in something more than he could see didn’t put him off. Yeah, he’d be down with it a hell of a lot more if she’d been more in the love like magic camp, rather than love like a curse.
Love?
