Authors: Isabella Ashe
"I don't know, it sounds kind of interesting to me." Zach glanced over at her, enjoying her discomfort. "I have to warn you, though -- I don't fall in love easily. No matter how pretty the woman or how potent the so-called magic. So don't get your hopes up."
"Don't worry," Bryony said. "I don't have any 'hopes.' Not where you're concerned, at least. Besides, I read the papers. I know all about your reputation for loving '
em
and leaving '
em
." She turned to her sister, frowning. "I don't see the point,
Viv
. He'll just write a nasty column anyway."
"Then what have you got to lose?" Vivien asked.
Bryony glanced over at Zach and caught the challenge on his rugged face. He didn't think she'd do it. He thought she didn't dare. Zach was so smug, so sure of his heart was invulnerable.
She knew she wasn't unattractive. Other men had claimed to love her. Would it really be so impossible to make this one fall for with her? Slowly, Bryony nodded her head. "But it's not fair if you drink it and then go back to San Francisco in a day or tw
o," she said. Her mind raced furiously, plotting and planning.
"No," Vivien said. "If it's going to work, you've got to spend time together."
"I've got to
get back
to the magazine in a week and a half," Zach said, a look of annoyance flitting across his face. "This is only a two-week vacation, and I've been gone three days already. Besides, I've got a deadline for the column. If your love magic can't work faster than that, forget it."
"A week and a half should do nicely," Vivien said. "You can move in tomorrow."
"Excuse me? I can do what?"
"Move in," Vivien
repeated .
"Didn't we just agree that you two have to spend time together?"
"I don't think . . . ." Bryony began.
"Is this really necessary?" Kevin asked, throwing his wife a worried glance.
"We do have an extra bedroom," Vivien said. "And we can hardly ask Zach to pay his own expenses during this experiment. But I'm sure if we explain the situation, your mother would waive the cost of his room at the Inn."
"She'd think we were crazy," Kevin said.
"And tell the entire county," Bryony added.
"So it's settled," Vivien said. "Let's all sit down for dinner before the salmon gets cold, shall we? And you can bring your things over tomorrow, Zach."
"Fine," Zach
said,
a slightly dazed look in his eyes. Bryony couldn't help feeling a flash of triumph. He'd obviously thought she would refuse, and now he couldn't get out of their deal.
They all sat down for dinner around the mosaic-covered dining room table. Bryony shot her sister an irritated look when Vivien seated her next to Zach, instead of opposite him, but she kept her lips clamped tightly shut.
Zach asked Kevin about his work with the Park Service, and they discussed the local hiking trails as Vivien served the cold cucumber soup. Vivien, Cypress Point's only pediatrician, told a few funny stories about new parents who called her, frantic with worry, whenever their baby so much as burped.
Bryony, lost in
her own
thoughts, let them talk. She was starting to have second thoughts. Stealing a glance at Zach's handsome profile, she wondered if perhaps she had been too hasty. There was something cold about his eyes, something in his glance that
made her feel she were nothing but an amoebae under his microscope. Uncertainty mingled with excitement in the pit of her stomach. Her confidence began to drain away.
At that moment, Zach turned his head gave her a searching look. His dark eyes awoke new and uncomfortable sensations. Her breath seemed to catch in her throat, and she could feel her heart slamming against her ribcage. Bryony looked away, unable to bear his scrutiny, and pretended to concentrate on the grilled fish Kevin had set in front of her. "This is absolutely delicious," she said.
"It certainly is," Zach agreed, an amused smile hovering on his lips. Bryony refused to look at him. She knew he was laughing at her. She took a dainty sip of her chilled white wine and trying to pretend she couldn't sense him next to her with every inch of her body.
As the dinner progressed, she participated in the conversation only in response to her sister or her brother-in-law's comments. When Zach directed an occasional question her way, she answered politely but with a hint of frost in her voice.
When Vivien went to fetch the dessert, Bryony jumped up to help her sister in the kitchen. Vivien wouldn't hear of it. "I'm the hostess tonight," she said, dribbling cherry syrup over slices of cheesecake. "If you've got to do something, go get a bottle of your love potion before Zach changes his mind."
"Or I do," Bryony said, but she obeyed.
Her workshop was upstairs in a glass-enclosed room facing the ocean.
Bryony's
own bedroom, bathroom, and small sun deck took up the rest of the second floor. Here Bryony stored her extra merchandise, dried her herbs, filled catalogue orders, and manufactured her love potion. She loved the room, which had once been her mother's study.
She'd furnished it with an overstuffed velvet couch, white lace curtains, a unicorn tapestry in scarlet and gold, and several crystal vases full of bright dried flowers. Working there made her feel like a character from one of her fairy tales, like Rapunzel in her tower.
On an impulse, she drew a leather-bound book from the bookcase. Its worn cover was butter soft and stained by the touch of a hundred hands. Bryony traced the title with one finger.
Love
Magiks
, it said.
She opened it carefully and brushed her palm over the brittle, yellowing parchment, remembering how she had found it in one of San Francisco's antiquarian book stores and felt a sudden, overwhelming need to own it. It was like running into an old friend quite by accident. Bryony had often wondered idly if the book might not possess some magical powers of its own.
She flipped to the page marked by a silk-tasseled bookmark and read the words scratched into the paper with a quill pen, though she knew them by heart. She'd had them printed on a card she gave out with every bottle. Despite its familiarity, the warning made her shiver a little:
If you will take a man for your own, give him this love philter. Yet do so not lightly, nor if you are not for each other. For that will lead only to misery.
Underneath this inscription the author had written a neat column of ingredients and specific instructions for mixing them. Bryony closed the book and slid it back into its place. She pressed cool fingers against her throbbing forehead. Would this crazy bargain with Zachary Callahan "lead only to misery"? She didn't know, but she was about to find out.
Bryony eased up the lid on the cedar chest where she stored extra vials of the love potion and selected one crystal container at random. She clutched it so tightly she could feel the edges of the bottle pressing lines into her palm. Pausing for a moment to gather
her courage, Bryony closed her eyes and drew strength from the rhythmic sound of the ocean outside.
She had nothing to be afraid of. If her sister's plan didn't work, the rest of the world would read Zach's column and think her a fool. But the people she cared about knew the truth.
If the plan did work . . . .
If it did . . . .
She couldn't even think about that. She didn't dare.
She padded down the spiral staircase into the living room and crossed to where the others sat at the table. "Bryony," Zach said, letting her name roll wickedly off his tongue. "We thought you were never coming back." He stood and gallantly pulled out her chair.
Bryony sat down. "No such luck," she said.
"Now that you're back, we can get going," Kevin said. He looked at Vivien. "Grab your coat, honey, or we'll miss the last show."
"You're leaving?" Bryony said. She felt panic rise in her throat. "You can't leave. We . . . we have a guest."
"Oh, I told them I don't mind," Zach said. "In fact, when Vivien explained how much she'd been wanting to see this movie, I urged them to go."
"But --
but
--" Bryony sputtered, giving her sister the evil eye. "Vivien --"
Her appeal was useless. "Have a good time, you two," Vivien said, winking at Bryony. "We'll be home late."
A moment later Kevin shut the front door firmly behind them. Bryony decided she would never speak to her older sister again. This was a rotten trick. She turned slowly to Zach, who was standing just behind her.
"Well. Here we are."
"Here we are," he repeated, giving the words a lascivious twist. He raked her body with his gaze, lingering on her firm breasts and the fabric skimming her hips. Bryony felt excitement begin a lazy spiral through her body.
She tried to match his impertinent look with her own. Her eyes lingered on his broad, muscular chest. She couldn't resist dropping her eyes to the flat plane of his stomach under his button-down shirt, and then lower still. That was a mistake. His pants fit well.
Extremely well.
It was clear that she was alone in the house with a man. A very masculine, well endowed, sensual sort of man.
Zachary Callahan was not someone to be trifled with.
Earlier, she had thought she could control him, master him,
make
him hers. Now, watching the way he took arrogant possession of her using nothing but his eyes, she considerably less sure.
She gave him a tremulous smile. "If you want to change your mind about this whole thing . . . ."
"Do you?"
"No," she said.
"Then let's get on with it." He strode to the table and picked up his glass. It was half filled with sweet dessert wine. "Will this do?"
Bryony nodded, speechless. She unstopped the bottle and walked to where he stood. With a quick motion of her wrist, she let the amber fluid spill into the glass and mix with the deep burgundy wine.
Zach swirled the glass so that the two liquid mingled, and then brought it to his lips. He lowered it again without taking a sip, and Bryony's heart rose to her throat. He wasn't going through with it after all. He would tell her it was all a joke, to see how far she would go.
Then Zach grinned. "Promise you didn't add a dash of hemlock?"
Bryony laughed, and Zach joined her. The joke broke the tension. "It won't hurt you," she said. "I promise."
"I believe you." He downed the wine in one gulp and set the glass back on the table. "There. Now what?"
"I suppose," Bryony said, "we wait and see."
He checked his watch. "While we're waiting, I'll be getting back to the Sea View Inn."
"Oh," she gasped, before she could stop herself. Her disappointment showed plainly on her face. Until that moment she hadn't known how much she had hoped -- for what? That he would stay awhile? That they could talk? That he would cover her mouth with his in the deep, passionate kiss she ached for? Bryony quickly schooled her expression to one of unconcern, but it was too late.
Zach closed the space between them before Bryony could flinch away. His body was only inches
from her own
. If she leaned forward just a little, they would be touching. She thought he might lower his head and kiss her, but instead he laughed and brushed her cheek with the pad of his thumb. Even that brief touch inflamed her senses. It left her burning for more, but he stepped away again and moved toward the door.
"Sorry to disappoint you, babe," he said. "I don't know what you had planned for tonight, but I've got a full day of hiking tomorrow. I don't want to exhaust myself, uh, enjoying your company. Pleasant as that might be."
"Oh," Bryony gasped again, angrily this time. "I didn't have anything
planned
, as you say, and I could care less if you go." Her chin came up sharply.
"I think you do care, but I'm leaving anyway," Zach said. His eyes mocked her, and Bryony clenched her teeth in annoyance. He opened the door and stepped out, then
paused. Bryony's heart fluttered in her chest as he gave her a long, hard look and shook his head.
"What?" she said, when she couldn't bear it any longer.
"It isn't working," he said. "I don't love you yet." Throwing back his head, he burst into a peal of full-throated laughter at his own joke. He closed the door behind him, leaving Bryony to seethe. Long after he had gone, she could still hear his derisive laugh ringing in her ears.
"It was all a mistake," Bryony said. "I should never have agreed to the deal."
"Why not?" Vivien asked. "He's half in love with you already. Don't you see the way he looks at you?"
"There's a difference between love and lust," Bryony said, rolling her eyes.
Her sister made a noncommittal noise. "Don't worry so much," she said. "Let's just wait and see, shall we?"
"Wait and see?" Bryony said. "I don't think I have that kind of patience." She was pacing back and forth across the kitchen floor, too agitated to eat the granola with sliced bananas she'd fixed for breakfast.