Spellbound & Seduced by Marguerite Kaye Read Free Book Online Page B

purity of feeling. ‘You are insatiable,’ she said, deliberately misunderstanding him.
    He caught her wrist as she rose to tend to the fire. ‘Jura?’
    â€˜I’m a little tired, Lawrence.’
    â€˜These last days together—I’ve never felt like this before.’
    â€˜You’ve never met a witch before. The novelty will wear off.’
    â€˜That’s what I thought at first, but it is showing no signs of doing so.’ He touched her cheek, wrapped a long tress of her hair around his wrist, an endearing habit of his, as if he would bind her to him. ‘There’s a thaw coming, even I can tell that. I’ll have no excuse to stay here once the bridge is mended, I shall have to go off and claim my castle, but…’ He grimaced. ‘I don’t want to go. I don’t want this to end, Jura. Whatever it is.’
    â€˜Lawrence, it has to. You know it has to.’
    â€˜I don’t know anything anymore,’ Lawrence said ruefully. ‘I know it’s only been a week, but I feel as if my life has been turned around—as if I was looking at it before through the wrong end of a glass. I know I’m not making sense, and I am not making any promises either…’
    â€˜No! Stop!’ Jura interrupted, thoroughly panicked at this wholly unanticipated turn of events. ‘I don’t want you to make any promises,’ she said, though even as she spoke she couldn’t help wishing—but there was no point in wishing! ‘Lawrence, there is no point in talking about this, you know we can have no future. You can’t care for me, any more than I can care for you in—in that way.’
    â€˜But what I’m trying to say is that I might. Damn it, Jura, I don’t know what I’m trying to say or what the devil it is that I feel for you, but I feel something and I know you do too!’ He had not meant to say even this much, but her very rejection made him more sure. ‘What we have—don’t you think it’s worth giving it a chance?’
    â€˜I can’t, Lawrence,’ Jura said, blinking desperately in an effort to control the hot swell of tears. She gripped the tabletop so hard that her nails dug into the wood, every bit of her recoiling at what she had to say, but knowing that she did, indeed, have to say it. ‘You know I can’t. The curse. My spell…’
    â€˜Are you so sure that it’s working?’
    â€˜Yes! Yes of course it’s working,’ Jura exclaimed defiantly. Though it certainly didn’t feel like it at present. The thought of losing him, though she had known all along that she would, was unbearable. But she would bear it, because the very notion of hurting him was impossible. ‘Lawrence, I’m sorry, but there is no point in us talking about this. You have quite mistaken what I feel.’ It was an agony, but she met his gaze unflinchingly, determined to allow him no room for doubt.
    He could not quite believe what was happening. He felt as though he’d been put through the mangle which stood in the little wash house at the back of the cottage—wrung out, turned inside out, and then flattened. This morning, sitting at the table beside her, he’d thought nothing more than that she made him happy, and that he liked being happy, and he had believed he made her happy too. He’d wanted to go on being happy with her, but she…would not, could not, it didn’t matter which. She did not want him, and that hurt much more than he could have believed possible. He felt bereft, deprived, strung up and out, all at the same time.
    But there was no point in prolonging the agony. ‘I see,’ Lawrence said stiffly, for her rejection pierced his pride as well as his newfound feelings. ‘I think perhaps it’s best if I leave today. I’m sure I’ll be able to ford the river, if the bridge is still not repaired.’
    The change in him