Witchcraft

and cautious then as you are at the moment." He was right, Kimberly thought. She was wary.
    But for different reasons. Falling in love with Darius Cavenaugh had been a dangerous thing to do. It left her vulnerable in a way she had never been before. She wished desperately that she really could see into his head. What was he thinking she wondered. How did he feel?
    How long would it take him to fall in love with her? Or would his feelings always be limited to a combination of duty, responsibility and attraction? "I think," she began hesitantly, choosing her words carefully, "that we need more time ." To her surprise,, he nodded and lifted his glass to his mouth. "I agree with you. We need time for you to get to know me well enough to trust me again. Unfortunately, time is not something I have a great deal of to spend as I choose. You've lived in my house for several days. You know what it's like. Someone or something is always needing attention. It would be hard just trying to get away to see you on occasional weekends. And I don't want to limit our time together to just weekends."
    "A life full of responsibilities," she said thoughtfully, more to herself than to him. "It's the life I've chosen, Kim. Or perhaps it chose me. I don't know and it doesn't matter. That's the way it is. That's the way I am." His voice had roughened and it seemed to her that the emerald in his eyes was lit with implacableness. "And you want me to be a part of that life?"
    "I think you can be happy in it if you'll give yourself a chance. I know it will be a change for you and I know there will be adjustments. But you've already proven you can handle the day-to-day hassle. You've taken control of it rather than let it control you. Things are so much more organized at home now and they'll be even calmer when Julia and Scott move out. You can have all the privacy you need for your work. I'll make certain the staff understands that. I'm asking you to make changes, I know, but I think that a woman who is brave enough to taunt a witch and face an attacker with only a broken wine bottle in her hand is brave enough to risk a new lifestyle."
    " Cavenaugh ... " He lifted a hand to silence her. "Let me finish, Kim. I said I understand your need for time, and I'm proposing to give it to you." "How? You've just said you would find it uncomfortable to install me as your live-in lover." she gritted, thoroughly irritated with the description. "I'm asking that you marry me. In return I'll give you the time you want." She looked at him blankly for a second, not comprehending. And then it hit her. "Oh, I see." She was suddenly, inexplicably embarrassed. "We'll, uh, have separate bedrooms after we're married?" Cavenaugh took a very long swallow of wine. Kimberly had the feeling he was nerving himself up for something. "I thought it would take some of the pressure off you," he explained evenly. "I realize that for you the sex is more than just, well, pleasant."
    "Pleasant?" she repeated faintly, wondering how going to bed with Darius Cavenaugh could ever be described by such a mundane word as pleasant. "Is that all it is for you?"
    "No!" The glass in his hand suddenly appeared very fragile as his knuckles whitened around it.
    "You know damn well it's not just pleasant. Now let me finish!"
    Kimberly arched an eyebrow but kept her peace. It was becoming clear that Cavenaugh was straying near the bounds of his normally excellent self-control. She wondered why. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he hadn't had any sleep in the past twenty-four hours. "As I was trying to say," he went on, "I am aware of the fact that you give a great deal of yourself when you go to bed with me. To be blunt you give yourself completely." His eyes locked with hers as if daring her to deny it. Kimberly again kept her mouth shut and covered the uncomfortable moment with another sip of wine. Cavenaugh continued cautiously. "I feel that asking you to share my bed would be putting an added strain on you while you settle down in my household as my wife.
    It might make you feel too vulnerable, too committed to something you weren't yet really sure you wanted."
    "And you don't think just the existence of the wedding license would put a similar sort of strain on me?" Kimberly inquired far too politely. "Are you trying to tell me that if I decided I don't like being married to you I will be free to walk out the door? That I will feel free to do so because we're not sleeping