Heart's Magic by Gail Dayton Page A

faulty
logic and--and blandishments. She didn't wait for Harry to finish
buttoning her dress. She stood and dragged her jacket on over the
half-open bodice, then her shawl, trying to tie her bonnet at the
same time.
    Harry came after her, but
he only settled her shawl over her shoulders so it didn't drag the
ground, then turned her so he could tie her bonnet. "This ain't
goin' away, Elinor. There's something between us."
    "Sheer animal lust," she
snapped, jerking her head away. Her bonnet came untied, since he
kept hold of the ribbons.
    "Likely." He took a step
closer and patiently retied the bow. "Nothin' wrong with that. We
got bodies as well as minds, Elinor. To keep the one working
properlike, we got to take care of the other."
    "By fornication?" She
transformed all her shame into scorn and put it into her voice.
"For my health? "
    "I ain't sayin' that. But I
am sayin' it does no good to ignore it, what's between us. It's
there, and it's real, and it ain't goin' away. Nor am
I."
    "Then I will." Elinor
brushed his hands off her shoulders, where they'd gone when he
finished with her bow.
    She hunted for her best
haughty look--difficult to summon given what she'd just done--and
strode out of the room, out of Harry's house. She had to find
another place to live. Immediately.
     
     

 
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
    Harry thrust a hand through
his hair, then scrubbed it down over his face before adjusting his
trousers over his too-eager cock. Had that been disaster, or
success?
    Both, maybe. The trouble
with that was, he didn't know which parts were which.
    He'd got his kiss,and more.
He lifted his hand for another scent of her desire. She'd liked it,
what he did for her. What they'd done together. That was a success,
he thought. But she didn't like that she liked it. That wasn't
disaster, though. A challenge.
    He'd never intended to
propose marriage, but he wasn't sorry he did it. It made sense.
While he was trying to talk Elinor into it, he decided he liked the
idea.
    He liked having her around
and not because she organized his household to run more smoothly.
His servants did that. He liked talking with her, liked bouncing
his ideas off her clever mind. Who knew what things she might come
up with? Like throwing her wands. Who would have
thought?
    During the few short months
she was his apprentice--from last August halfway through
January--he'd got used to seeing her, talking with her every day.
If they got married, he wouldn't have to give that up, now she
wasn't his apprentice any more.
    Even better, if they
married, he would have access to that lush little body of hers any
time he wanted. And with marriage, he could protect her. Not just
from scandal. A husband had a duty to protect his wife, like a
master protected his apprentice. He didn't have that right any
more, since she took master level, and he didn't like
it.
    She couldn't be worried he
would interfere with her magic or start ordering her around. He
gave her orders now, like he did pretty much everyone around him.
She either ignored him completely and did what she wanted or she
told him it was an idiotic order and then did what she wanted.
Sometimes she did what he ordered, but that was only because she
agreed with what he said. He didn't see how marriage would change
that.
    But she didn't turn him
down because of how things were between them. She turned him down
because of the rest of the world and what it thought.
    His bollixed-up proposal
hadn't helped any, he was sure. So that was a bit of a disaster
there. And a challenge.
    Because, like he told
Elinor, he wasn't giving up. She wasn't his woman yet, but she
would be.
    Her body's reaction had
surprised her, caught her totally off guard. Harry had the thought
that she mostly ignored her body, as long as it functioned the way
it ought, and wizards tended to be healthy. All magicians did. So,
Harry figured, her mind could build all the barriers between them
it wanted, but her body was vulnerable to him. It