Seaspun Magic Read Free Page B

secondhand wooden table was scrubbed and scarred from years of use. The six mismatched wooden chairs around it appeared inviting—to her, anyway. She wondered what Leo Donev thought of it all.
    She had recently put new curtains up in the kitchen, a terrible extravagance, but the old lace sheers and delicate paisley flounces fitted the room's ambience perfectly and added a soft touch. She was glad now that she had spent so much more than planned on them. She glanced back at the fair head bent toward her child's dark curls.
    Leo Donev's hair was the color of liquid honey, thick and fine and straight, shaped to suit him. Cut long, it brushed his collar. She caught his profile, the strong jaw and broad curve of his cheekbone. Flesh close to the bone, it was a lean profile that gave him a predatory look. Arianne wondered what had possessed her to agree to Jill's plan. Somehow, chitchatting with the baby, he managed to look dangerous.
    And she now had to share her bathroom with this stranger, for the house boasted only one facility. Arianne had to admit she hated everything about the arrangement so far...everything except for the fact that he was utterly fascinating. She wasn't nearly so bored as she'd been just moments ago.
    While she was studying him so single-mindedly he turned and saw her puzzled, rueful, exasperated stare and, staring right back for a second, smiled suddenly.
    Her black eyes widened on him, and then her gaze fell to her slippers. How could she justify the fact that he'd owe her sixty-five dollars a day, every day of his stay? Sixty-five dollars! He had to pay that much to share a bathroom with her. It made no sense. Why didn't he stay in town and enjoy his very own tub! Sixty-five dollars seemed so astronomical, and it came with the possibility of a baby squawling all night.
    Turning the crocodile over to its rightful owner, Leo Donev rose to his feet, and her kitchen seemed to shrink in size. Not that he was particularly tall—he was average in height—but his shoulders were broad and he was well built. Then, too, his presence was the kind that commanded attention and filled space.. .solid, like the rest of him.
    Arianne felt absurdly like backing away, even though he hadn't moved; she probably would have but for the sink in her way.
    A whimsical smile edged his lips as he regarded her unhappy demeanor. "I won't get in your way... and I pay by the week." Reaching into an inside pocket, he drew an envelope out of his jacket and handed it to her.
    Flushing slightly in embarrassment, Arianne took the envelope, while he asked her to count the cash inside right then. She did. He was staying a week, she surmised from the bills enclosed. Well, that wasn't too terribly long, and if she and Jill split the profit they would both make a lovely extra bit for Christmas and—
    "I'll have some of that coffee now, if I may."
    "Oh, yes, I'm sorry—" Arianne didn't know why everything she said came out sounding so clumsy. He must think I'm dreadfully scatterbrained , she thought. If only he had called before his arrival. If only she'd been ready.... But for some reason she hadn't believed Jill's guest would show up before her return from Seattle. The possibility hadn't occurred to her until those headlights shone through the trees.
    Placing a mug on a glass tray, adding sugar and cream and a plate of chocolate-chip cookies made by her cookie-mogul cousin, Mikey, Arianne collected her thoughts on the matter of what needed to be done to make her guest comfortable. Her guest, meanwhile, had started rambling around the kitchen. It was exactly the sort of thing she didn't want him doing. Since she hadn't expected company, she hadn't tidied up after herself and there was no knowing what might be left out in plain sight.
    "Oh, this is beautiful!"
    Arianne turned a little pale when she saw he'd found precisely what she had prayed he wouldn't. On the little shelf beside the rocking chair stood her crystal ball, where she'd left it