Free Cursed by Love by Jacie Floyd

let’s make the outcome more
interesting.” If Gabe had to romance her to coax her cooperation on the Lotus,
he didn’t have much time. He’d need bigger stakes than ice cream. “How about
dinner and a movie?”
    “Hmmm, possibly.” Molly pinched her
lower lip between her fingers while she considered. “Who gets to pick the time
and place?”
    No way would he risk having her refuse
the wager based on anything as immaterial as food choice or viewing
preferences. “If I win, you do. If you win, you do. Shake on it?” Holding out
his hand, Gabe forced the issue.
    Molly nodded and slid her soft, small
hand inside his. He wrestled with himself to let her go after she sealed the
deal with business-like efficiency. “When do we start?”
    “Game on,” he said with a wink. “One,
two, three, go.”
    “Cheat.” She made the accusation as she
flew into action. She flipped pages, marked passages, amassed other tomes, and
ran her finger down indexes.
    Gabe set to work on his keyboard and
located curse sites with no trouble at all. His only problem was his
concentration.
    Or lack of it.
    With Molly sitting innocently across the
table, her delicious orange scent swirled around him. Her simplest gesture,
like stretching on a yawn, or nibbling her bottom lip, distracted him.
Silver-tipped fingernails tapped against her chin while she concentrated.
    Her charm bracelet tinkled when she
tucked her chin-length hair behind her ears, revealing tiny silver unicorn
earrings that fascinated him.
    His mouth went dry when she reached up
for a book on a top shelf and her shirt rode up, exposing a smooth expanse of lickable lower back with a tramp-stamp of a
thumbprint-sized dragon with colorful wings.
    When she returned to the table, he
noticed a ring decorating one of her toes. And then her toenails—painted the
same shade of shiny as her fingernails—drew his eyes to the most adorable feet
he’d ever seen.
    Adorable feet? Oh, come on. He shook his head.
He’d never had a foot fetish before this. Get a grip. So she had feet.
Didn’t everyone?
    Disgusted with himself, he turned the
laptop at a ninety-degree angle away from her, removing her tempting face,
form, back, and yes—feet—from his line of sight.
    Much better. Now he could think
straight.
    Within seconds, he found what he needed.
He quickly read over the wording of Li-Wang’s curse, groaning at the reaction
he expected from Molly when she heard about it. But then he skimmed down to the
next paragraph. Some people, the web source claimed, believed the Sleeping
Lotus held potent powers, like an aphrodisiac. Just as James had indicated.
    Apparently, when the two pieces fit
together, they produced a powerful essence that stimulated sexual awareness,
arousal, potency, even endurance.
    Holy crap. Had the ancient equivalent of Viagra
prompted the clinch he and Molly shared? Had the attraction he felt toward her
intensified before or after James linked the jade halves? He honestly
couldn’t remember. He looked up to find Molly studying him with a puzzled
expression. “What?”
    “I found the information about the
curse.”
    “Me, too.” He sounded normal, but his
mind continued to trip over the aphrodisiac bit. Had that been part of the
information she’d uncovered too? “Did you just locate it?”
    “A few minutes ago. I read some of the
information first.”
    “Me, too.”
    Her luscious mouth turned down at the
corners. “So the bet’s a draw? A tie? That’s no fun. What do we do about that?”
    “We’ll work something out.” He gestured
to the place she’d marked in her book. “Read yours first.”
    She cleared her throat. “‘When the root
of the male symbol joins together with the open petals of the female, the
Sleeping Lotus bestows passion, good fortune, and fertility upon its
possessors. Separate Yin from Yang by design or fate, the hearts, spirits and
souls of the possessors are doomed to unrequited love, loneliness, misery, and
death.’” She looked