Entranced Read Online Free PDF

have?
    Then she faded away from him like a chalk portrait washed away in a shower of rain.
    Sleeping. Dreaming easy dreams, with a slash of sunlight just beyond your fisted hand and the shade cool and soft as a kiss. Peace, utter peace.
    When it was broken, there was sleepy irritation. Small, healthy lungs filled to cry, but the sound was cut off by a hand. Unfamiliar hands, unfamiliar smell, and then irritation turned to fear. The face— There was only a glimpse, and Sebastian struggled to freeze that image in his mind for later.
    Being carried, held too tightly, and bundled in a car. The car smells of old food and spilled coffee and the sweat of the man.
    Sebastian saw it, felt it, as one image stuttered into the next. He lost whole patches as the child’s terror andtears exhausted him into sleep.
    But he saw. And he knew where to begin.
    *  *  *
    Morgana opened the shop promptly at ten. Luna, her big white cat, slinked in between her feet, then settled down in the center of the room to groom her tail. Knowing the summer trade, Morgana went directly behind the counter to check the cash register. Her belly bumped gently against the glass, and she chuckled.
    She was getting as big as a house. And she loved it. Loved the full, weighted sensation of carrying life. The life she and Nash had created between them.
    She remembered how just that morning her husband had pressed kisses to that growing mound, then jerked back, eyes wide, as whoever was sleeping inside kicked.
    “Jeez, Morgana, a foot.” He’d cupped a hand over the lump, grinning. “I can practically count the toes.”
    As long as there’s five to each foot, she thought now, and she was smiling when her door jingled open.
    “Sebastian.” Fresh pleasure filled her face as she held out both arms to him. “You’re back.”
    “A couple of days ago.” He took her hands, kissed them soundly, then drew back, wiggling his brows as he studied her. “My, my, aren’t we huge!”
    “Aren’t we just?” She patted her belly as she skirted around the counter toward him.
    Pregnancy hadn’t dimmed her sexuality. If anything, it had enhanced it. She—as they say about brides and expectant mothers—glowed. Her fall of black, curling hair rained down the back of an unapologetically red dress that showed off excellent legs.
    “I don’t have to ask if you’re well,” he commented. “I can see that for myself.”
    “Then I’ll ask you. I’ve already heard you helped clean up Chicago.” She said it with a smile, but there was quiet concern in her eyes. “Was it difficult?”
    “Yes. But it’s done.” Before he could say more, before he was certain he wanted to, a trio of customersstrolled in to explore the crystals and herbs and statuary. “You’re not working here alone?”
    “No, Mindy will be here any minute.”
    “Mindy is here,” her assistant announced, bounding into the shop wearing a white catsuit and a flirtatious smile for Sebastian. “Hello, handsome.”
    “Hi, gorgeous.”
    Instead of heading out of the shop, or ducking into the back room as was his habit when customers filed in, Sebastian prowled around, fiddling restlessly with crystals, sniffing at candles. Morgana took advantage of the first lull to join him again.
    “Looking for some magic?”
    He frowned, a smooth, obsidian ball in his hand. “I don’t need visual aids.”
    Morgana tucked her tongue in her cheek. “Having trouble with another spell, darling?”
    Though he was very taken with it, Sebastian set the ball down. He’d be damned if he’d give her the satisfaction. “I leave the casting to you.”
    “Oh, if only you would.” She picked up the ball and handed it to him. Morgana knew her cousin too well. “Here, a gift. There’s nothing like obsidian for blocking out those bad vibrations.”
    He let the globe run from palm to fingertips and back. “I suppose, being a shop owner, you’d be up on who’s who in town at the moment.”
    “More or less.