Captivated Read Online Free PDF

up, and Nash was struck by the gleam of deep blue eyes against that silver fur. “God, you’re a beauty, aren’t you?” He held out a hand, sincerely hoping the dog would let him keep it. It was sniffed thoroughly, then rewarded with a lick.
    Lips pursed, Morgana studied them. Pan had never so much as nipped anyone’s ankle, but neither was he given to making friends so quickly. “You have a way with animals.”
    Nash was already crouched down to give the dog a brisk scratching. All throughout his childhood he’d yearned for a dog. It surprised him to realize that his boyhood desire had never quite faded. “They know I’m just a kid at heart. What breed is he?”
    “Pan?” Her smile was slow and secret. “We’ll just say he’s a Donovan. What can I do for you, Nash?”
    He looked over. She was in the sunlight, her hair bundled under a wide-brimmed straw hat. Her jeans were too tight, and her T-shirt was too baggy. Because she hadn’t used gardening gloves, her hands were smeared withrich, dark earth. Her feet were bare. It hadn’t occurred to him that bare feet could be sexy. Until now.
    “Besides that,” she said, with such an easy ripple of amusement in her voice that he had to grin.
    “Sorry. My mind was wandering.”
    It didn’t offend her to be found desirable. “Why don’t you start with telling me how you found me?”
    “Come on, honey, you know you’ve got a reputation.” He rose to walk over and sit on the grass beside her. “I had dinner in the place beside your shop, struck up a conversation with my waitress.”
    “I’ll bet you did.”
    He reached over to toy with the amulet she wore. An interesting piece, he thought, shaped like a half-moon and inscribed in—Greek? Arabic? He was no scholar. “Anyway, she was a fount of information. Fascinated andspooked. Do you affect a lot of people that way?”
    “Legions.” And she’d learned to enjoy it. “Did she tell you that I ride over the bay on my broomstick every full moon?”
    “Close enough.” He let the amulet drop. “It interests me how ordinarily intelligent people allow themselves to get caught up in the supernatural.”
    “Isn’t that how you make your living?”
    “Exactly. And, speaking of my living, I figure you and I started off wrong. How about a clean slate?”
    It was hard to be annoyed with an attractive man on a beautiful day. “How about it?”
    He thought it might be wise to take the conversation where he wanted by way of the back door. “You know a lot about flowers and stuff?”
    “A few things.” She shifted to finish planting a fresh pot of lemon balm.
    “Maybe you can tell me what I’ve got in my yard and what I should do about it?”
    “Hire a gardening service,” she said. Then she relented and smiled. “I suppose I might find time to take a look.”
    “I’d really appreciate it.” He brushed at a smear of dirt on her chin. “You really could help me with the script, Morgana. It’s no problem getting things out of books—anyone can do that. What I’m looking for is adifferent slant, something more personal. And I—”
    “What is it?”
    “You have stars in your eyes,” he murmured. “Little gold stars . . . like sunlight on a midnight sea. But you can’t have the sun at midnight.”
    “You can have anything if you know how to get it.” Those fabulous eyes held his. He couldn’t have looked away to save his soul. “Tell me what you want, Nash.”
    “To give people a couple of enjoyable hours. To know they’ll forget problems, reality, everything, when they step into my world. A good story’s like a door, and you can go through it whenever you need to. After you’ve read it or seen it or heard it, you can still go back through it. Once it’s yours, it’s always yours.”
    He broke off, startled and embarrassed. This kind of philosophizing didn’t fit in with his carefree image. He’d had expert interviewers dig at him for hours without unearthing a statement as simple