Alchemic Love
Page 2
She didn’t comment, because what was there to say? Foolish man, mortals don’t live that long? He’d known that, as any witch would.
“There was a witch once, a long time ago, but she wouldn’t have me.”
She snorted. “Silly woman.”
He looked at her and quirked an eyebrow. “I tell you that all the time. It’s nice you’ve finally realized.”
No. That wasn’t what she remembered. That wasn’t right at all. He had it wrong. He was getting so old that he was going senile. She’d been young—and perhaps a little clueless—but not that clueless. No one could be so clueless as to fail to discern the attention of the then much younger Bedivere.
He’d been a legend. A man of myth.
Perhaps he’d seemed out of reach to a young witch. A dream that could never be. But even so, even if he spoke the truth, that moment had passed.
“Watch it. You’ve got smoke coming out of your ears.”
And there was the man she knew.
She narrowed her eyes. “What exactly was in that potion? I think your love potion didn’t do at all as it was intended, and most certainly had some side effects.”
He shut the burner off, covered the beaker with the unfinished antidote in it, and then turned to her. “You simply refuse to see what’s in front of you. How can you be so adept when interfering in others’ love lives, and yet so completely incompetent with your own?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” But she most certainly did. She bit her lip, and his eyes dropped to study her mouth.
Tracing her jaw with the tip of his finger, Bedivere looked into her eyes. So deep, with those piercing blue eyes, right into her very soul, but then he blinked and, in a relatively normal tone of voice, said, “It wasn’t a love potion.”
Several seconds passed with his fingers resting lightly against her face, and only when he ran his thumb along her lower lip did she realize she’d opened her mouth in surprise.
She batted his hand away. “Then what was it?” She snapped out the question, aware not only that she was the one who’d leapt to that conclusion, but also that she was as nervous as that young witch who’d once thought Bedivere so beyond her reach.
“Just a gentle nudge to allow some friends”—he quirked an eyebrow—“a charming married couple, to be more open with one another. They’ve had a rough time lately, and I made the potion as a favor to both of them.”
Glenda considered the implications. More open. Honest with oneself. Perhaps that was something she hadn’t always been. Perhaps she had been blind in the past. Blinded by fear or doubt or simply youthful inexperience.
Since she’d been exposed to the potion, she’d been more annoyed than usual with Bedivere, her patience shorter…and much more attracted. She’d also felt a tug of affection, maybe something more, that she’d buried and hidden so long ago. If she pulled it out now, would that affection have grown over the years?
Good heavens.
Chapter 4
“Well, that’s awkward,” Glenda said.
He made a small sound in the back of his throat. Agreement? Denial? More likely, a typical noncommittal Bedivere response. The man was infuriating.
Although there was that look.
That smoldering, incredibly hot look.
And the man had just touched her mouth. Oh. There was no mistaking the intimacy of such a touch. She blinked at his now inscrutable expression.
Perhaps Bedivere wasn’t the noncommittal one. Perhaps Bedivere wasn’t the problem. Math had always served her when making matches, and it was a crutch she desperately wanted to rely on in this tense, and perhaps not entirely awkward, moment. The moment was more than awkward. It was fraught with another kind of tension entirely.
“I don’t think so.” Bedivere clasped her right hand, the one she’d lifted without conscious thought. “No numbers, no math. That’s not where the answer lies, Glenda. Not this time.”
Because in lifting her hand, that was exactly what she’d intended to do: take a quick peek at her own probable future. It didn’t quite work that way. Emotion muddled the magic and made the math all wrong. But she’d almost tried, because she was simply that confused.
His hand felt comfortable in her own. As if it belonged there. But it also made her heart race.
Bedivere and her…together? That couldn’t be a good idea.
Could it?
And then she felt it. His hand slipping from hers. In a flash of self-awareness, of honesty, and of pain, she realized that all those years ago, she’d been the one to let him slip away, not the other way around. He’d never been beyond her reach; she’d simply failed to hang on to the man who’d been right in front of her.
Not today. Today was a day of hope and dreams. Today was a day to look to the future. Today she was going to hang on.
She closed her fingers around his and clung tight. With a saucy look—goodness, she hoped it was saucy—she said, “Where do you think you’re going?” And then she went one step further: she tugged him closer.
His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t resist. In fact, he wrapped his arm around her. “It’s about time.”
“Shush. You can tell me later about what terrible mistakes I made in the past.” She smiled up into his eyes. “After you’ve kissed me.”
He chuckled, and his eyes warmed with humor. Well, at first it was humor, then it was something else entirely. Because then he kissed her socks off…or rather her very cute peep-toed Louboutins.
I hope you enjoyed this look into Glenda and Bedivere’s history and the beginning of their romance. Check out The Goode Witch Matchmaker Collection to see Glenda in all her matchmaking, magical-math-loving glory.
Bonus Content
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Also by Cate Lawley
THE GOODE WITCH MATCHMAKER
Timely Love
Ghostly Love
Deathly Love
Forgotten Love
The Goode Witch Matchmaker Collection
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Tickle the Dragon’s Tail coming in 2018
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VEGAN VAMP
Adventures of a Vegan Vamp
The Client’s Conundrum
The Elvis Enigma
The Nefarious Necklace
The Halloween Haunting
The Selection Shenanigans coming in 2018
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DEATH RETIRED
Death Retires
LUCKY MAGIC
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Luck of the Devil
Luck of the Draw coming June 2018
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Writing as Kate Baray
LOST LIBRARY
Lost Library
Spirited Legacy
Defensive Magic
Witch’s Diary
Necromancy coming September 2018
Lost Library Collection: Books 1-3
Lost Library Shorts Collection
The Covered Mirror: A Lost Library Halloween Short
Krampus Gone Wild: A Lost Library Christmas Short
SPIRELLI PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS
Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Episodes 1-3
Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Episodes 4-6
Entombed: A Spirelli Investigations Novel
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Writing as K.D. Baray
BEAUREGARD
Mistaken: A Seth Beauregard Short
About the Author
Cate Lawley is the pen name for Kate Baray's sweet romances and cozy mysteries, including The Goode Witch Matchmaker and Vegan Vamp series. When she's not tapping away at her keyboard or in deep contemplation of her next fanciful writing project, she's sweeping up hairy dust bunnies and watching British mysteries with her pointers and hounds.
Cate also writes urban and paranormal fantasy as Ka
te Baray and thrillers as K.D. Baray.
For more information:
www.catelawley.com