It's Just Love by Kate Richards Read Free Book Online Page A

on her other
side. And she shivered for another reason. Electricity ran up her arm. Glancing
to her right, she watched Gage’s aura, almost the same color as his indigo and
gold eyes. Despite his delusions, he was a good man with an old soul. It was a
shame they’d never get to know one another in this life—maybe some other time.
    “Got it?” repeated Harry Montclief.
    “Sure,” said Gage, too casual to be picking up the
undercurrents she did.
    “Yes,” she murmured. Of course, she’d stay on topic. Every
shield she had shot up, protecting her from the discomfort to her left. She
attributed her missing it before to the nerves and excitement of being on
television and in front of a live audience.
    It was quite different from her cozy cottage and her cat.
She closed her eyes and pictured the ocean, the waves rushing up on the beach.
She rarely surfed in the middle of the day, but she needed the cleansing the
foaming tides could provide. She’d take a swim the moment she got home.
    “And we’re back.” Beaming again, all signs of negativity
banished. Harry’s aura even cleared up, not to a gorgeous shade like Gage’s,
but the red paled to almost a rose pink. Weird. But that explained how
she’d missed it before. “And our topic is, what is love?”
    Harry smiled at Coral, and she quailed. His gleaming teeth
were sharp. What the hell had she gotten herself into?
    “Miss Nixie, Coral, I understand you provide love spells to
seekers?”
    She licked her dry lips and cleared her throat, forcing the
words out. “Yes, I try to help my clients achieve happy relationships in any
way I can.”
    “With love spells?” he persisted.
    “Sometimes, or…other things.”
    “I see.” His eyes burned into her; what the hell did he
want? “And so what do you think love is?”
    “Magic.” And she did believe it. What else could bring
people alive in the way true love did? She pictured the couples strolling the
boardwalk hand in hand, and the ridiculous bicycles built for two that lovers
rented and wobbled away on, laughter floating behind them. A young man she saw
carting ice cream to his girl, who sat on their beach blanket, watching him
return with heat in her eyes. Just being around them was intoxicating. Nothing
but magic could do that.
    At a snort from her right, she spun to face Gage. “Yes, you
have a comment?”
    “There’s no such thing as magic. And by feeding your
clients’ delusions, you do them a great disservice.” He crossed his arms over
his chest, looking so smug she wanted to smack him—or kiss the expression away—no,
smack him.
    What was wrong with her? This man represented the part of
society that put her clients in the shape they were in, desperate and unsure
how to find happiness. She flushed, heat rising until her ears burned. Focus. “My work is very important to me. And I believe I help people. Not every time,
of course, but sometimes what they think they want isn’t what’s good for them.”
    Gage faced her. “And you feel qualified to judge what is
‘good for them’? On what basis?”
    Meeting his eyes, she fought to keep her breathing even
through her anger. She put every bit of herself into the spells she gave
people. She might not have a wall full of degrees, but she held high standards.
How to answer his question, without revealing more than she wanted to on national
television though?
    She shrugged. “I stay in touch with my clients. They often
visit me months later to report on how things are going. What I do helps people
find happiness, or at least learn what happiness means to them.” She struggled
to find the words. “I believe in people. I believe in love.”
    Gage shook his head. “And I believe in compatibility. When I
match a couple, I can tell them on a percentage basis what their odds are of
making it in a relationship, or when to walk away, immediately, before they
spend precious time satisfying their libido when they should be finding the
right