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Authors: Mackenzie Lucas

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BOOK: To Have & to Hold
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Chapter Seven

 

“How did you find me?” Why was he here
,
inside her house? 

“I have my ways.” Michael
smiled,
the warmth touched his amazing blue eyes and fanned tiny laugh lines at the corners. “Hello,
Cate
. I

ve missed you. You look
gorgeous
. The mountain air agrees with you.”

“What are you doing here? And how did you get in?” Did he not under
stand he looked like a stalker?
Creepy.
And how had he gotten by
Anu
and Declan?
Or Hattie, for that matter.
Something wasn

t right. A tingle of
magic
k
al
awareness hovered in the room. Michael?
Magic
k
al
?
No. She would have sensed it before now. She

d spent the better part of the past year with him. She

d know if he was
magickal
.

Cate
muttered the same words she

d used outside The Tea Cozy, her voice barely above a whisper.
The powerful words wrapped around her and spread out, a
wispy
trail of sparks dispersing in their wake.
Reveal your source of magic.

He cocked his head, the corner of his mouth lifted. He didn

t seem to notice
the spell
. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“You did that, all right.”

The
magic
k
swirling around Michael became visible to
Cate
. Dark golden swirls in an intricate pattern. An old language she recognized from her
time
with Grayson.
Dragon
magic
k
.
But different.
Weaker.
Not coming from inside Michael, but maybe from something he wore or carried.

He walked toward her holding the glasses in one hand and pulled
Cate
close with his free hand. He kissed her temple,
then
brushed past her to set the champagne flutes on the nightstand. He picked up the bottle and removed the wire cage from the cork.

The dragon tattoo on
Cate

s
neck prickled, like a premonition of something bad.
But what?
This was Micha
el, her friend and
Grayson

s best friend. He couldn

t be a murderer. But she

d heard otherwise from Hattie, and now he wielded dragon
magic
k
.

He popped the cork on the bottle. Vapor swirled from the lip like the smoke from a witches brew.

“What are we celebrating?”
Cate
knew what his note had said. She wanted a better explanation.

“New beginnings.”
He handed her a flute filled with golden pale champagne.

“Michael, it

s too early to drink.” She needed to come up with a plausible excuse for not drinking. She didn

t plan to tell him she was pregnant. She wasn

t sure why. Just that she wasn

t interested in sharing that bit of news with him.
Maybe self-preservation?

“Nonsense.
Just a sip or two won

t hurt you or the baby.”

She stilled.
How
did he know? Surely Grayson wouldn

t talk about his baby or how he

d abandoned them both, not even to Michael. Would he? God, she hoped not.

“What? I know you

re pregnant.”

Suspicions confirmed. Damn it, Grayson. How could you?

Not from me.
The sound of Grayson

s sexy-as-hell voice caressed her ear. She
glanc
ed
over her shoulder to see if he also stood right behind her. Nope. The man wasn

t even here and he
was fucking
with her head.

I hate you. Anger surged in her chest. She did hate him at the moment. For everything he

d done to her, every disappointment he
’d
foisted on her, for making her love him so she couldn

t walk
away.
Ever.

No
,
you don

t. You love me. Don

t drink the champagne.

Now she had certifiably gone over the edge. She lifted the glass to her lips, tilt
ed
it to prove a point. He couldn

t control her. Not from a continent away. Not standing in the same room.

I don

t want to control you. I want to take care of you and the baby.

She stopped, drink half-way to her mouth. That

s not what the letter said.

Not me.
Never me.

“Grayson
instructed
me
to
draft the letter he sent to you about the baby. I

m sorry. I didn

t think you

d keep it a secret. He surely didn

t.”

Liar.

The skin on her neck itched. “Wait, what? I don

t understand. You wrote the letter?”

Michael sat on the bed. Lifted one leg onto the counterpane and propped himself against the headboar
d, watching her. “Guilty. Yes, s
weet
Cate
. It was the hardest thing I

ve ever done. I wanted to find you. Tell you it would be okay. I

ll take care of you. Divorce the rat. Marry me, instead. I

ll b
e a good father to your child.”

Over my dead body.
Do not listen to him. He lies.

S
omeone shoot her now. She was having a virtual conversa
tion with her husband who was an ocean
away.
Pathetic how her mind created such a fanciful pastime in absence of the real thing.

I am the real thing. I

ll be there shortly. Hold on. And for God

s sake, don

t drink the champagne. He

s drugged it.
Like he did last time.

Last time?
On the boat?
Yes, she

d fallen asleep without any memory of what had happened for several hours only to find herself locked b
elow deck and her husband wounded in a sinking
yacht
. She

d assumed Grayson had drugged her to pull off some kind of elaborate
embezzlement
scheme that had gone horribly wrong.
If it had been Michael, then why?

“Michael, I can

t marry you.”

“No, not when you

re still married to Grayson. But we can fix that problem.
Easily.”

“I don

t want to fix that problem.”

Atta girl!

Hush.

“Drink the damned champagne,
Cate
,” Michael
commanded,
his voice a threatening growl. He looked manic. His eyes glowed feverish in his flushed face. He twitched, humming with an erratic energy, while he watched her every movement. He grew a little
more tense
with each second that ticked away.

To place as much distance as possible between them, s
he sat in the white armchai
r in the corner
. She lifted the glass to her lips, pretending to take a sip,
then
lowered it.

Mmmm
.
That

s good.” She placed the glass on a nearby white wicker table.

He relaxed against the headboard again.

“Michael, I don

t think you understand. I

ve taken sacred vows.”

Why would Michael want to hurt her or Grayson for that matter?

He wants you and your money. Always has.

She was getting damned tired of the whispered conversation taking place in her head.

“If your vows are so sacred, why are you
living
in the middle of nowhere,
separated
from your husband? I

d say you

ve already given up on your marriage.”

That

s kind of the way she felt, too. But she

d never admit it to Michael.
“Family emergency.
I had to come. My grandfather

s estate needed attention and I decided to take a prolonged holiday because I didn

t feel well.”

Michael
dra
nk from his flute,
but
the liquid didn

t lower in his glass either.
Hmmm. Interesting.
She played with
the stem of her glass and wondered
if Grayson
would
come to her rescue.

Count on it.

There wasn

t much she could count on these days.
Michael did
show
up unannounced in her bedroom.
Which was crazy in itself.

Your bedroom?
Get the hell out of there.
Now.

Cate
shifted in her seat, ready to stand. Why the hell was she listening to the whispered warnings of her imagination? She

d gone over the edge.

She couldn

t help searching for the truth in Michael

s face. And there it was. His eyes had turned wary, like an animal about to strike.

“Drink up.
Shouldn

t be long now before you begin to feel more relaxed.”
A self-satisfied smile crossed his face. He almost purred.

The bastard had drugged her champagne.

“Michael, I can

t. It

s not good for the baby.”

In normal circumstances, a drink or two wouldn

t hurt. But she didn

t want to drink. Especially if there was even a remote chance that Michael had drugged her a year ago and was trying the same thing again.
But why?
What did that buy him?

Cate
changed the subject. “Why don

t you come downstairs and meet Hattie? She

s my companion and the midwife I

ve hired to help me through the pregnancy.”

“No!” Desperation leached the jovial expression from Michael

s face, draining it a pasty white. “Not yet. I need to talk to you first.”

“Michael, I

m not going to change my mind. I

m not divorcing Grayson.”

“I don

t understand you. You know what kind of shit Grayson is
. Y
ou travel half a world to get away from him and yet you won

t take the legal action necessary to sever that relationship
?
I just don

t get it
.”

“You don

t have to
, Michael. I

m not your responsibility.
Never have been.
Never will be.”

“No, I may not be responsible for you, but you owe me. I stuck by you for a whole year while you waited for your brilliant Grayson to show up. I held your hand. I talked you through some pretty rough times.”

BOOK: To Have & to Hold
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ads

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