Free Into the Woods by Linda Jones Page A

Vanessa. Perhaps it lost its potency overnight, or perhaps it's effective on some people but not all."
    "I'll give you your money back," Matilda said. "I'm so very sorry it didn't work for you." She wasn't sorry at all, she decided. Marriages shouldn't be made with powders and potions, but with love. She frowned at the unexpected thought, glancing past Declan to the tree-lined road that would lead her home. Love brought nothing but heartache and pain to those who suffered from it. There was, perhaps, a momentary bliss, but what followed was always so messy and agonizing.
    "I don't want my money back," Declan said sharply. "I want you to try again."
    Matilda shook her head. "That's not a good idea. Maybe it's for the best that the potion was ineffective. Maybe it isn't fair to win a wife with a tonic meant to set her heart afire for a short time."
    "Fair?" Declan said, a spark of amused incredulity in his voice. "Life isn't fair, and I am certainly no tower of integrity."
    Matilda couldn't help but smile, in spite of Declan's apparent seriousness. "Why am I not surprised to hear you say that?"
    He cocked his head to look at her and returned the smile. Oh, she liked what a simple grin did to his face, how it made him look warmer. Softer.
    "You've found me out," he said softly intimately. "I am a ruthless man who will do whatever is necessary to get what I want."
    Matilda's heart did a strange little flip in her chest when he smiled at her this way. Something deep inside fluttered and she found herself, once again, staring at the fascinating lines of his neck. It looked very... tempting. She shook off the response, dismissing it as a lingering aftermath of the potion. Heaven knew she still felt the unnatural warmth that concoction had inflicted upon her. And the powder hadn't worked on Vanessa Arrington at all?
    "I suppose I can try one more time," she finally conceded. "But no matter what happens, no matter how badly you want something to bring Vanessa to you, I refuse to prepare anything I think might be hallucinogenic, and I will have to draw the line at killing animals for their... parts."
    "I'm in total agreement," Declan said calmly.
    Matilda swung her basket lightly. "I will need a few more days, of course. Come by the cottage Sunday evening, after dark. I'll have something for you then."
    She expected him to make a quick escape and head back to town, since their business was concluded, but he didn't. He simply nodded and then glanced into her basket.
    "What do you have there?" he asked conversationally.
    "Spices," she said, holding the basket up so he could see. "Jamaican ginger, cinnamon, and cloves."
    "What will you make with them?" He seemed truly interested.
    "Sweet bread and cookies."
    "My mother makes the best cinnamon raisin bread," Declan said. "It's really fabulous. Unfortunately," he added with a narrowing of his eyes, "it's the only thing she can cook that's worth eating. When I made some money, the first thing I did was hire her a cook."
    "A man who will hire a cook for his mother can't be totally ruthless," Matilda said lightly.
    He glanced at her, narrowing his eyes and trying to look harsh and failing miserably. "I was required to eat Sunday dinner at her house every week," he answered. "Trust me, my motives were completely selfish."
    She stopped in the middle of the road and turned to face Declan. He stopped as well and stared down at her. There was something undeniably brutal in the set of his jaw and his mouth, something as heartless as he claimed to be. But in those dark eyes she saw something more; she saw his heart.
    "Why are you trying so hard to convince me that you're incapable of doing something nice?" she asked.
    "Because I'm not nice," he insisted, leaning closer to her, trying, and failing, to appear threatening. "Nice guys don't get anywhere in this world."
    "How very miserable you must be, if you really believe that," she said, resuming her journey.
    "How very naive you are," he countered as