Witches: Wicked, Wild & Wonderful by Paula Guran Page A

morning—so late that in a half hour it would have been “afternoon”—and lay quietly for a long, contented moment before wriggling out of the tumble of bedclothes and Andre. No fear of waking him—he wouldn’t rouse until the sun went down. She arranged him a bit more comfortably and tucked him in, thinking that he looked absurdly young with his hair all rumpled and those long, dark lashes of his lying against his cheeks—he looked much better this morning, now that she was in a position to pay attention. Last night he’d been pretty pale and hungry-thin. She shook her head over him. Someday his gallantry was going to get him into trouble. “Idiot—” she whispered, touching his forehead, “—all you ever have to do is ask —”
    But there were other things to take care of—and to think of. A fight to get ready for; and she had a premonition it wasn’t going to be an easy one.
    So she showered and changed into a leotard, and took herself into her barren studio at the back of the apartment to run through her katas three times—once slow, twice at full speed—and then into some Tai Chi exercises to rebalance everything. She followed that with a half hour of meditation, then cast a circle and charged herself with all of the Power she thought she could safely carry.
    Without knowing what it was she was to face, that was all she could do, really—that, and have a really good dinner—
    She showered and changed again into a bright red sweatsuit and was just finishing dinner when the sun set and Andre strolled into the white-painted kitchen, shirtless, and blinking sleepily.
    She gulped the last bite of her liver and waggled her fingers at him. “If you want a shower, you’d better get a fast one—I want to get in place before he comes out for the night.”
    He sighed happily over the prospect of a hot shower. “The perfect way to start one’s day. Petite, you may have difficulty in dislodging me now that you have let me stay overnight—”
    She showed her teeth. “Don’t count your chickens, kiddo. I can be very nasty!”
    “ Ma petite—I— ” He suddenly sobered, and looked at her with haunted eyes.
    She saw his expression and abruptly stopped teasing. “Andre—please don’t say it—I can’t give you any better answer now than I could when you first asked—if I—cared for you as more than a friend.”
    He sighed again, less happily. “Then I will say no more, because you wish it—but—what of this notion—would you permit me to stay with you? No more than that. I could be of some use to you, I think, and I would take nothing from you that you did not offer first. I do not like it that you are so much alone. It did not matter when we first met, but you are collecting powerful enemies, cherie. ”
    “I—” She wouldn’t look at him, but only at her hands, clenched white-knuckled on the table.
    “Unless there are others—” he prompted, hesitantly.
    “No—no, there isn’t anyone but you.” She sat in silence for a moment, then glanced back up at him with one eyebrow lifted sardonically. “You do rather spoil a girl for anyone else’s attentions.”
    He was genuinely startled. “ Mille pardons, cherie, ” he stuttered, “I—I did not know—”
    She managed a feeble chuckle. “Oh Andre, you idiot—I like being spoiled! I don’t get many things that are just for me—” she sighed, then gave in to his pleading eyes. “All right then, move in if you want.”
    “It is what you want that concerns me.”
    “I want,” she said, very softly. “Just—the commitment—don’t ask for it. I’ve got responsibilities as well as Power, you know that; I—can’t see how to balance them with what you offered before—”
    “Enough,” he silenced her with a wave of his hand. “The words are unsaid, we will speak of this no more unless you wish it. I seek the embrace of warm water—”
    She turned her mind to the dangers ahead, resolutely pushing the dangers he represented