Free A Kind of Magic by Susan Sizemore Page A

to sleep with him anytime I want.” She turned a glare on Rowan. “And I want to right now.”
    He understood immediately and with relief that what she really wanted was to get the wedding night over with. She wanted to do her duty, not make love. He couldn’t fault her for that. He could tell that her demand wasn’t fueled by passion. She had none of the teasing, wanton light in her eyes, none of the provocative grace he’d seen many times in the fairy wife when she’d easily seduced his father away from important work.
    This mortal woman was practical. He approved.
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    Susan Sizemore
    Though his heart cried out that he wanted more than that, a life without love was for the best.
    “All right then.” He grabbed her hand and led her out of the church.
    Maddie regretted everything she’d said and done since she’d gotten out of bed this morning as Rowan led her across the courtyard. She especially regretted the way his expression had gone all hard and closed off when she’d told him he wasn’t ugly. She didn’t know why that had hurt him but it had. It had actually been an understated way of saying he was the handsomest man this side of his look-alike back in her century, if completely impossible to deal with and rather rough around the edges.
    The man must think he was a real dog or something. Great, a husband with a self-image problem as bad as her own. Just what she needed, someone else’s problems to deal with just when she’d discovered that she wanted to fix her own. He hadn’t shown any sign of being the least bit vulnerable since she’d met him. Of course, neither had she. He’d given her the impression of being the confident master of his fate and hers.
    “Who knew?” she grumbled as he pushed her up the tower ladder before him and into the hall.
    Besides, she was the one who was prostituting herself in return for security while she figured out how to get home.
    Oh Lord! That was exactly what she was doing, wasn’t it?
    She might suspect that Rowan didn’t like himself very much but she was none too proud of Madalyn McCullogh at the moment. What would her mother say if she saw her right now? Her father would be furious at her for agreeing to a shotgun wedding in the first place. Her brothers would offer to lynch Rowan and her sisters—rabid though happily married feminists to a man, uh, woman—would actually do it.
    And once Rowan was swinging from a tree, she’d be left alone to face the lectures, not to mention the disappointed looks from her parents. Her only consolation was that if this had to be happening, at least it was in a foreign land in a far-off century.
    Otherwise, she’d be in big trouble for getting involved in a marriage of convenience even if her mother had insisted she was getting a little long in the tooth.
    She was in big trouble. This was a big mistake. Worse than that, it was wrong, immoral. It was too late to back out. This hit home when he dragged her up the stairs and the door slammed closed on his bedroom. Oh hell , she thought. Then she reminded herself that she’d instigated the proceedings, she had no one to blame but herself and it was time to get on with it. She was an experienced woman of the world. More or less.
    She’d just never had sex with anyone before. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know the mechanics.
    She just had absolutely no idea what to do with the man now that she had him alone. Yesterday, when he’d been interested, her reaction had been to knee him in the groin. She’d followed this up by threatening to run him through. He’d still forced her to marry him. He’d still accompanied her to his bedroom.
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    A Kind of Magic
    “Where’d all these candles come from?” Rowan asked as he took in the sight of his bedchamber lit with a soft, golden glow.
    His question jolted her out of her self-absorption. “I have no idea,” Maddie replied.
    “I didn’t tell anyone I was going to—well, you know.” The castle women must have divined her