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The candles burned low, and the air was full of fragrance and soft light when she woke She felt him there almost before she felt herself The warht of his worry For an instant only, the years vanished and her heart was light with love What she&039;d felt once, what she felt now, collided and dissolved before she could hold either

"Here, drink this" As he had hours before, he lifted her head, held a cup to her lips But this time she sniffed speculatively before she sipped "Hyssop Good choice"

"How do you feel?"

"Well enough Better, I&039;d say, than you There was no need for you to sit up all night" The cat that had curled beside her now slithered under her hand for stroking "What tiuish the candles "You only had about nine hours You could probably use more"

"No" She sat up, shook back her hair "I&039;lanced back She sat in the old bed, her face flushed with sleep, the black cat in her lap He wanted to slide into bed with her Just to hold, just to rest Just to be "I&039;ll fix you sos and toast," he answered as he stalked out of the room

"Cranky," Mia said to Isis The cat swished her tail, then leaped off the bed to trot out after Sa shot of caffeine would clear his head and improve his s, his steady concern of the night, had juht to annoyance the minute she&039;d awakened and looked at hirumbled, he turned on the cold water tap in the sink and dunked his head under the flow And rapped his head sainst his legs He saw stars, swore, then s When Mia walked in, he was standing, glaring at the cat, ater running down his face She picked up a fresh dish towel and passed it to him

"You&039;re welcome to use the shower if you&039;d like to doa decidedly felance with the cat, Mia opened the door to let her out Rather than trust hierator, took out a carton of eggs Mia reached down to get a skillet out of a cupboard, then held out a hand "Why don&039;t I take care of this?"

"I said I&039;d fix soht" Co over to get doowhile Sam slammed around her kitchen But the first sip of coffee o ten rounds with the cha on the side of a bowl "Any other complaints?"

"No" She decided to be broad-one into the bowl along with the egg Sipping delicately, she wandered to the back door again, and opened it to theto rain"

Barefoot, her white robe billowing, she stepped outside to look at her garden and leave Sa the paths There were always surprises A new bloom just opened, a bud just hazed with color The blend of continuity and change was one of the great appeals of the garden for her

She glanced back toward the kitchen The boy she&039;d loved was now the ht with a sigh She supposed, under it all, that was one of Sareat appeals for her

And because she remembered he&039;d held her hand while she slept, she broke off a tightly budded peony Curving her hand over it, she encouraged the bud to unfurl and free its soft, fragrant pink petals Brushing it against her cheek, she went back to the house

He was at the stove, looking wonderfully out of his eles were spread, and the spatula held like a weapon in his hand He was burning the eggs

Foolishly ently turned off the flame She kissed his cheek, handed hi over me"

"You&039;re welcome" He turned away to reach for plates, then silass doors of her cupboard "Damn it, Mia Da to do?

Why didn&039;t you callyou"

He straightened, ahim

"I don&039;t say that to hurt you" She spread her hands "I don&039;t It sis my way, and on my own"

"Fine Fine" But it wasn&039;t He rattled plates as he dragged them out of the cupboard "When it&039;s you, it&039;s just being who you are and doing what you do But when it&039;sbehind your back"

She opened her ain and clear her throat "You have a point" She walked by hierator "However, what you did on your oas step into my territory, risk bodily harm, then call out the troops"

"Your territory isn&039;t exclusive And you risked bodily harm"

"That&039;s a matter of debate I didn&039;t do this behind your back, not deliberately In hindsight, I&039;ll admit your presence in the circle would have been valuable" She set the toast, stone-cold and crisp at the edges, on the table "You&039;re a better witch than you are a cook"

"You&039;re a hell of a lot cockier than you used to be," he countered "And you alere cocky"

"Confident," she corrected "You were cocky"

"A fine distinction" He sat with her, scooping half the eggs onto his plate, half on hers The peony lay pretty and pink between them He took his first bite "These are terrible"

She sa and bits of shell "Yes, yes, they are"

When he grinned at her she laughed and went right on eating

He took her up on the shower and ran the spray hot to ease il He supposed they&039;d called a truce, a s and cold toast Maybe, he thought, they&039;d taken a tentative step toward being friends again

He&039;d missed that part of thehter He&039;d knohen she was sad, often before she knew it herself He&039;d felt the thousand little pinpricks of her hurt whenever her parents had blithely, benevolently, ignored the child they&039;d made between them Even before he and she had become lovers they&039;d been a part of each other And how could he explain to her that it had been the link, the absolute and unquestioned link in the chain of their destinies, that had driven him to break the tie?

She didn&039;t ask, and he didn&039;t say He thought that was for the best, at least for now At least until they were friends again

The muscles in his belly contracted when she stepped in behind hiainst his back

"I thought you ht share" She nipped playfully at his shoulder This time, they were fated to reverse the process Lovers first

He turned, and fisting his hands in her hair, dragged her with hi spray

"You have the water too hot," she told hi the side of her throat

"I needed hot"

She picked up a bottle, squirted soreen liquid over both their heads

"Wait! What is that? Girl stuff?"

Amused, she reached up to lather it in his hair God, she&039;d always loved his hair So black and thick and untamed Wet, it fell nearly to his shoulders, a dark rain of silk

"My own blend The roseood Even for manly men"

He worked it into her hair as well Sniffed at it "It&039;s not just rosemary"

"Not just Some calendula, linden flowers, nasturtiu them "It works on you"

"So do you," she said when his rant with herbs and flowers, rose as they washed each other Teased each other Slippery hands over slippery skin aroused in slow beats that savored each , lazy strokes coaxed the pulses to quicken and low, lingeringwater

Her rew eager under his She deepened the kiss as her body rubbed and rocked against his Invitation, deht And every breath he took was full of her scent

As the air turned sultry, he turned her so that he could trace kisses over her back, so that he could mold and cup her breasts His thumbs scraped her nipples, tortured the hard points while her back arched in pleasure

When his hands ski her ar on to hi

"Now" She turned to hily slow And she felt herself open, and give She gripped his shoulders while the water sluiced over the, silky strokes so that pleasure was a low, sustained beat Everything she was focused on the need to prolong, to hold thisand rich Her blood pulsed, see under her skin until the beauty of it wept inside her

She crested, an endless, ave, and her mouth pressed to his as she rode it They ended up on the bed again, flat on their backs

"We never seeed

"Be that as itfor a living"

"Yeah I&039;ve got an eleven o&039;clock h to twist for a look at the clock "You&039;ve got soet a little sleep?"

"Huh"

She rose, raked her fingers through her daain, and didn&039;t move a muscle

Nor had he rooly, she

set the alar at hi in ain?" she wondered aloud "Does it make me weak, stupid, or just hu

Nell pounced the ht? I orried"

"I&039;m fine"

"Don&039;t look any the worse for wear," Lulu commented after a careful study All the tension balled in her stomach loosened and sled with the hitch in her conscience She wasn&039;t being as forthcoht I should"

"Of course Is the coffee up? I&039;m desperate for a decent cup And to econoo upstairs and have so at me about what happened"

"You were so pale" Nell went up the steps first "Ripley and I were about to pull you back when you ca her province, Nell hurried behind the counter to pour the coffee "You were gone for nearly an hour"

"An hour?" Mia was surprised "I didn&039;t realize It didn&039;t seem likeHis power&039;s crafty," she said quietly "He blocked , which explains why I was so hen I came back"

She took the coffee Nell offered, sipped, considered "It won&039;t do to forget that a second time You look a little peaked, Lu Aren&039;t you well?"