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“
Sorry, but I
couldn’t let him leave before I’d done that,” Ayden said with a
grin.

Ciaran helped
Eli pick Quinn up off the floor. Quinn was conscious, but his eyes
were rolling around in their sockets.

“
Do not tell
Alastair. If we find out that you’ve been to him, I will kill you,”
Ciaran whispered the words, but they were loud enough for everyone
to hear.

Quinn was
conscious enough to nod his head. They turned and watched Ciaran
lead Quinn from the shop and shut the door behind him.

Once the door
shut, Jack felt his shoulders relax. His feet felt heavy as he
slumped to the floor. They’d done it. Cora now knew who Quinn
really was, but Jack couldn’t find the joy to jump around. Things
had gone south very quickly for Cora once she’d chosen Quinn, and
he could see that she wasn’t handling this situation very well. The
thing that really grated on his nerves was that he didn’t know how
to comfort her now. They’d lost some of what they were. But he
would fight tooth and nail to get it back.

Cora was
sitting on one of the bean bags in the little room with her head
down. Tabitha moved to her and placed her arms around her
shoulders. “Cora, please do not blame yourself...” Tabitha
whispered.

Jack watched,
desperately wanting to pull her in to his arms and hold her there.
Would she want his arms around her? Did she hate him? He didn’t
know how she felt about him. He needed to know how she felt about
Quinn before they could move on.

“
I’ve been so
stupid, Tab. You knew, everyone knew, apart from me.”

“
You were not
stupid...”

Cora looked at
Tabitha and smiled.

“
Okay,”
Tabitha conceded, “You were rather stupid, but you were in a
vulnerable state after what happened with the Corenthio Coven. That
young man took advantage of that...and he took advantage of Jack’s
temper.”

Tabitha cast
him a quick smile. He had a temper, he knew he did, but any man
would throw a fit if someone was trying to take the woman they
loved.

“
I think we
need a meeting to sort everything out after this revelation. We
have to prepare ourselves for Alastair because he
will
come. You can count
on that, and we need to greet him as a united coven. I will go and
make the hot chocolate.”

Tabitha stood.
As she brushed past him she patted his arm. He loved the
gesture.

Jack had
missed this, the family bond between them. He’d missed visiting the
shop. He’d missed the hot chocolate and the conversation after
work. He’d missed the freedom to simply kiss Cora when the feeling
arose. “Cora...” he whispered, edging closer to her.

“
Jack... I
really don’t know where to begin...” Cora sighed, lifting her head
to look at him.

He could see
the embarrassment there, as well as the hurt. “We start at the
beginning and see where that leaves us. Come on, the new table
needs christening.”

His words
brought a touch of a smile to her lips. She stood up and followed
him to the small table.

46

RECONCILIATION

Cora sat
silently beside him with her hands bound nervously together on the
table. He could see that she was struggling with this. He could
almost hear the cogs working in her mind as she finally understood
what had happened over the course of the months. She’d been used
for the power of her new position. Jack knew that she wouldn’t like
that.

Tabitha had
placed their hot chocolate in front of them. He couldn’t help
smirking when he saw his superman cup was now in use again. Tabitha
looked at the two of them and then with everyone else, they
disappeared upstairs leaving the two of them together. This was the
coven meeting? Perhaps Tabitha wanted the two of them to sort
things out. Once they did, everyone else would be okay again. The
coven had nearly broken apart because the two of them
had.

For a while,
they sat in silence listening to the murmur of voices upstairs as
the others discussed the events without them.

“
I’m so sorry,
Jack. After everything we’ve been through, I can’t believe I didn’t
trust you.”

Jack sipped
the hot chocolate. She was right. She hadn’t trusted him and this
fact hurt. He couldn’t deny that. But was it worth trudging up his
feelings on this? It wouldn’t help them to move on. They’d get
stuck, he didn’t want that. “Like Tabitha said, he picked at your
vulnerability after everything that has happened. I hope that now
you can trust my opinion.”

“
I know how I
must have hurt you. I do trust you, but you make it so hard because
of your-”

“
Temper,” Jack
finished for her. “I know that I have a temper and I have tried to
work on it. If the roles had been reversed, are you saying that you
wouldn’t see red if I had women falling at my feet? That you would
sit back whilst another woman brushed her lips over
mine?”

“
I would have
dealt with them,” she snapped, her fists balled around her mug of
chocolate.

“
Exactly my
point.” He enjoyed the angry blush that flushed her cheeks. At
least she still liked him enough to feel jealousy.

They sipped
their hot chocolate for a moment. He watched as she finally lifted
her eyes from the table to meet his, the brown of them swimming
with tears. “I’ve ruined everything; I should have listened to my
coven, to you. I’m sorry that I pushed you away. I wasn’t thinking
straight. I’m sorry that I kissed another man. God... I can’t
believe...” she broke, choking on her tears.

Jack placed
his hands on hers, the warm touch of her soft skin sent sparks
flying into his chest. He couldn’t dwell on this.
They
couldn’t. They had
to move past it. He wasn’t going to let her slip through his
fingers, not when he’d experienced life without her.

“
You haven’t
ruined it. You know I wouldn’t let him win that way. Plus I pushed
you away, and for good reason, but perhaps I did it more than I
should have done.”

This
revelation was greeted with silence. She swallowed, looking at his
hand holding hers. At least she hadn’t pushed it away,
yet.

“
I want to
explain our plan. You need to know what was happening behind the
scenes.”

“
Okay,” she
whispered. The hard lines on her face already told him she was
struggling with this.

“
Ciaran, after
helping you with your move, overheard Quinn talking on the phone
with Alastair-”

“
Why didn’t
he...”

“
Why didn’t he
tell you?” Jack interrupted. “He did tell you, I can see that in
your eyes... the realisation...you remember now. After Ciaran came
to us, we knew that we had no other option. I had to push you into
Quinn’s arms. As much as that hurt me, I had to do it. I had to
lose you in the hope of getting you back. My temper only served to
push you further away. You wouldn’t listen...we had no other
option.”

“
I guess I can
understand that, I can see how you had to push me away to make me
see the truth,” she whispered.

“
God, Cora,
losing you for even this short time isn’t something I want to feel
again. But I know how stubborn you are. You wouldn’t believe
whatever I said about him. So I had to trust that actions speak
louder than words.”

She sat
thinking over this. He watched her eyebrows collide above her eyes.
“You went to Edinburgh again?”

He nodded his
head, encouraging her to think it through.

“
That’s why
Ayden was away?”

“
Yes. We had
to go back there and retrieve Alastair’s phone.”

“
How did you
get in?”

“
Eli, myself,
Ayden and Ember went to Edinburgh. Ember used her ability to get us
into their coven room.”

“
Ember?”
Cora’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

“
Yes, don’t
you see? Everyone loves you, and this was something we had to do as
a coven to help you.”

“
How did she
do it?”

“
Well, it
wasn’t easy, let me assure you of that. We practised a whole day
just so Ember got it right. She can teleport which usually means
leaving her body behind, but she mastered teleporting others with
her. I actually lost my arms at one point...”

Cora’s eyes
shot to his arm looking to see if they were put on
backwards.

“
I was
bleeding out until Ember reappeared holding them. It hurt like
hell, but we had to make sure she got it right. We had to make sure
we could get in and out. Don’t worry, my arms are just fine now, as
is my ear, my toe... Anyway, Eli lost his feet when he tried. They
were still tapping when he’d disappeared.”

The quirk of
her lips made his heart flutter. He’d wanted to see that smile for
so long.

“
How did you
know your plan would work?”

“
We didn’t,
but you have Clay to thank for that,” he said grinning.

She took a sip
of the hot chocolate. “Clay?”

“
After Ciaran
came to us about the phone call, Clay came up with this whole plan.
Clay knew the only way our plan was going to work was if I made
sure Quinn believed that our relationship was pretty much
finished.”

“
It hurt me,”
Cora whispered, “To lose you all like that. Didn’t you think about
that whilst you thought of your little plan?”

“
I know it
hurt, but the main point of the plan was to get you back,” he
sighed.

“
You stood
aside and watched me hurt. Watched me, forced distance between my
friends...”

“
I had to. You
hurt me. You chose another man over me...” Jack shook his head. “We
can’t go into hurt, Cora. We could sit here and talk about it for
days. I’ve stood back and watched another man kiss you, touch you.
Talk about ripping my heart out.”

“
You blame me?
That was part of your plan.”

“
No,” he shook
his head sternly. “I blame Alastair and Quinn for this mess. They
used both of us to try and get the power they crave, but they won’t
win. Now that Quinn has gone, we will deal with Alastair next. I
know that there was a plan...but I’d hoped you would fight for
me...”

“
I didn’t know
if you wanted to me to fight. I felt so certain that you’d given up
on me. Things were so complicated at the time,” Cora
muttered.

“
You do
realise that you could have chosen me at the beginning? After each
date with those men, you could have chosen me. What stopped you?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer but he’d asked
anyway.

“
It was the
attention...” Cora admitted.”

“
Do I not give
you enough?” Jack felt more hurt fire up in his gut.

“
Yes, you
do...I just didn’t know how to handle it. I’ve never had that kind
of attention before... it was weak of me. I’m sorry, I really am so
sorry. I realised too late that I could have chosen you. At that
point you’d given up on me...”

“
I would never
give up on you...”

“
I won’t let
Alastair get away with this,” Cora snapped with certainty. More
like the Cora he knew and loved.

“
I love you so
much,” he whispered as he brushed his hand against her hair pushing
back the stray strands.

“
How can you
forgive me after everything that I’ve done?”

His eyes
traced the line of her lips as they spoke. “That’s simple. I love
you more than life itself, and I wouldn’t allow anyone to force us
apart. I was equally to blame for what happened, and I pushed you
away, but what we feel between us is so right, so real that it was
always meant to be. Our parents knew that so long ago, and I’m not
letting them or you down because of some Scottish git.”

Cora sighed,
her eyes shimmering as her hand brushed up against the one resting
on the table. This was the first contact she’d unconsciously made.
Up until now, he’d been the one making the moves. He felt the knot
in his chest loosen a little.

“
I need to ask
two things though...” Jack swallowed nervously.

“
I didn’t
sleep with him... if that is what you wanted to know... it didn’t
feel right...”

Jack breathed
a sigh of relief. He loved Cora with the whole of his being but he
wasn’t sure he if he could come back from it. He was happy he
didn’t have to think about it. He had to know the next answer, even
if the answer crushed his heart. “Did you love him?”

Cora’s eyes
widened in shock and then closed when she knew he needed to know
the truth. His heart thumped hard and loud.

“
No, it wasn’t
love, it was lust. I know that. It felt like more, I guess, because
I only had him to go to when I needed you. I thought of you,
compared you, nothing comes close to you. It’s always been
you.”

He took a deep
breath and leaned into her. His hands brushing against her hair as
she parted her lips slightly. With his hand at the back of her
head, she moved into him as their lips finally fused
together.