Must Be Magic (Spellbound) by Sydney Somers Read Free Book Online Page B

temporary truce.”
    “A friends-with-benefits truce?”
    She snorted. “No.” Though she’d apparently thought so last night. She couldn’t decide what was more humiliating—all but throwing herself at Bryce or that he’d turned her down.
    Dante stopped in front of the door. “Then why was he staring at you last night?”
    So her brother had noticed. “He was probably wondering when I’d go back on my word and pull something.”
    It was his turn to snort. “I don’t like that guy, and neither do you.”
    “I know.” Too bad she hadn’t remembered that little detail last night, like right around the time she’d gone for Bryce’s zipper.
    So help her, she wasn’t touching another drop of alcohol this weekend. It should have taken more than a few drinks—okay, a lot of drinks—to forget how badly things had ended between them, to even think about having sex with him.
    “I’m going to jump in the shower.”
    “Wait.” Dante’s expression softened. “I know that being in a place like this probably brings back memories—”
    Memories were only part of the problem. It didn’t help that being in a place so similar to where she and Bryce met was messing with her head, but worse than that was the truce.
    Forty-eight hours of not fighting should have given her nothing more than a little breathing room. Instead, it made it harder to breathe without remembering the difference between Bryce’s polite smile and the one that she used to believe was meant just for her, or the teasing light in his eyes that transformed him from aloof to devilish.
    And that shiver…the one that curled up her spine, all slow and delicious, and like nothing she’d felt with anyone but him.
    He broke your heart.
    Her hand drifted across her stomach, her mind replaying her and Bryce’s conversation last night and wishing…what exactly?
    Dante glanced at where her hand stalled at her abdomen. “Darby?”
    She nudged him toward the door. “We really don’t need to do this. Nothing is going to happen between Bryce and me.” She opened the door. “And don’t go off half-cocked and warn him to stay away from me. We don’t need any more family drama this weekend, okay?”
    He sighed. “Just promise me that you won’t let some truce make you forget what that bastard put you through.”
    “Do you really think that’s necessary?”
    He stepped out onto the porch. “You tell me.”
    Sometimes she really hated how well her twin thought he knew her. She hated it even more when he turned out to be right.
    “Out.”
    “Darby—”
    “Bye, Dante. Clausus. ”
    The door had barely slammed in his face when he knocked.
    She sighed and yanked it open.
    “I just don’t want to see you hurt like that again.” He glanced away, and any annoyance at his overprotectiveness instantly fled.
    “I know.” She released a slow breath. “I haven’t forgotten.” Not how much it hurt or how much she’d cried. Or that it had been Dante in that hospital room, holding her hand because Bryce hadn’t wanted to be there.
    She hadn’t forgotten any of it. If she let herself, she could still remember the way she’d watched the door, hoping that Bryce would walk through at any moment, even though he’d refused to acknowledge her pregnancy altogether.
    And last night she’d tried to seduce him.
    God, it didn’t even make sense how those details, so clear in her mind this morning, had gotten lost in the shadow of the old Bryce, the one she’d fallen so hard for. Yesterday she would have insisted he didn’t exist anymore, that maybe he never had, but after last night…
    Not that it mattered, she thought, despite the tiny voice that whispered she was a horrible liar.
    “I’m not crazy enough to go there again, okay?” Just crazy enough to try feeling Bryce up, apparently.
    “You weren’t crazy the first time it happened either, but sometimes—”
    She opened her mouth, but he held up his hands in defeat.
    “Okay. I’m going before you try