Natural Magick by Kathi S. Barton Page A

only wanted to talk. So she sat at the kitchen desk top and worked through what Duncan had done. To her surprise, it took her nearly two hours to muddle through the problem. It should have taken less time, but her mind kept drifting to the man in the other room. It was not until she pulled it away from the wall to check the connection that she noticed he had switched around the input cables. She switched them back and sat back while the machine rebooted. She looked at the man hovering about the kitchen with her.
    “ You know,” Pete said, not looking at Duncan. “Once I agreed to talk to him, you could have told me what you had done to get me here. It would have saved everyone a few hours of waiting for me to find it.”
    “ I’m sure I do not know what you are talking about, Miss Pete. But having someone stew in their own juices has never hurt anyone. And if I were a young lady such as you, I would not take any poop from him either,” Duncan said with a snort.
    Pete laughed and didn’t even bother correcting him. She really liked Dunc and would certainly miss the odd little man. She waited until the computer finished its set up then went to find Dominic.
    He was in the half room, so called because it was halfway between the living room and the dining room. When either of the two rooms needed extra space, the pocket doors could be slid into place, making the rooms appear to be one.
    She walked in and stood near the doors. She was not sure what she was supposed to call him, or how to address him, so she did neither.
    “ You wanted to speak to me?”
    “ Yes, thank you for allowing me this time. I wanted to apologize to you for my behavior the other night. I...I don’t have an excuse for the way I acted.” He stayed seated. She looked around the large room and saw that they were alone.
    “ Are you telling me you’re sorry for the way you acted or that you kissed me then pushed me away?” Leave it to me, she thought, to get to the heart of the matter. “Or is it because you kissed me at all? You know, it doesn’t really matter. Thanks. I’ll be going now.” But she couldn’t make herself walk away.
    ~~~
    Dominic stared at her. She was really quite beautiful and he suddenly realized that he had never seen what color her eyes were. Sara had said they were unique, but he wanted to, no, he needed to see them for himself.
    “ Why do you wear sunglasses all the time?”
    His question threw her off, he could tell. And he was just a little bit glad about it. She had thrown him off at least daily since the first time he saw her.
    “ They put people off. The color, I mean, it puts people off. They don’t know what to do when they see them, so I wear the glasses to hide them. Plus, the light makes my eyes sore a little and sunlight can give me a migraine if I’m not too careful. Most people believe me to be weird anyway. This is just another thing for them to speculate on. You didn’t answer me.”
    “ No, I didn’t. I’m not sure I want you to know my answer just yet. May I see them? I just realized that I have never seen your eyes.” Dominic wanted to go to her, but he waited, waited for her to indicate that she would not bolt if he did. He wanted to touch her, feel her skin next to his again, but he didn’t, for her.
    She shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “What do I care? I warned you about them.” He walked slowly across the room to her, and when he was less than a foot from her, he started to reach up and remove the glasses from her face. He looked down at her then and silently asked for permission to remove them. Instead of answering, she reached up and pulled them off, closing her eyes against the sudden brightness of the room as she did so.
    When she opened them, Dominic slowly reached out and cupped both cheeks in his large hands and tilted her head at a better angle to the light. He studied her intently, moving her head this way and that to watch the light reflect off of the brilliant silver