Free StrategicLust by Elizabeth Lapthorne Page A

soul, a whip-smart brain and, despite his
every intention of hiding it, he is a closet chivalrous wizard who leaps forth
into the fray to defend witches and the weak alike without a single thought for
his safety or the larger situation at hand.”
    “In other words,” Aubury summed up neatly, “he can give you
passion, zest and an intoxicating freedom of life, while you can offer him
reliability, organization and a safety he has never dreamed of? Sounds like a
match made in heaven, sweetheart.”
    “He would hate being tied down,” Kate said with a frown.
Aubury shrugged, completely unconcerned.
    “You’re not the sort to insist a man wear a chain to your
belt,” he insisted. “You never have been and you’re not likely to want to start
now. Josh will help you to relax and let go, and you can prove to be the safe
harbor he can find peace in. I think I like this wizard already.”
    “He divides my focus. I’ll be lucky if they don’t suspend me
from duty.”
    “He makes you feel and react,” Aubury countered.
    “I don’t need to feel!” Kate insisted vehemently. “I need to
do my job. I need to be three steps ahead of the enemy, analyzing the data,
assessing the risks, saving lives. Not jumping into a knock-down fight with
another witch and having Joshua clinging to me telling me how pretty my hair
is. That wizard will drive me batshit insane.”
    “He…what?” Aubury appeared caught somewhere between being
perplexed and on the cusp of laughter. Kate sighed, not even wanting to recount
it.
    “You know the rules,” Kate answered more wearily now. “You
know how strongly I need to focus on the job. I can’t have him distracting me.
Teasing me. Tempting me.”
    “Darling.” Aubury cupped her jaw and Kate was reminded of
all the scrapes this man had fixed for her, all the tears he’d wiped away when
the loneliness or pain or a bitter disappointment had seemed to shatter her
world. “I’m not saying you should let this young man walk all over you. Far from
it. Nor do I think you should neglect your duty. But if he’s half the wizard he
appears to be—even unconscious—and if he makes you even a tiny bit as happy and
satisfied as you seem to me right now, then he’s worth a bit of pain and a bit
of extra focus. Don’t you think?”
    Kate swallowed hard, feeling for some strange reason on the
verge of tears. Hearing Aubury state the very words she’d been repressing made
them more real. Better yet, it proved to her that she wasn’t as biased as she’d
believed. If her mentor and beloved grandfather figure believed she could
juggle this, then it was more than possible.
    “He might break my heart,” she said with a wobbly tone to
her voice. Neither needed to speak of it, but they both knew she was bouncing
her own thoughts and fears off Aubury, wanting his input.
    “He might make you happier than you dreamed possible.”
    “He might dump my ass when he’s finished with me,” she
postulated with a small, weak chuckle.
    Aubury snorted in abject disdain. “Then we can rend his body
limb from limb and together we’ll bury the charred remaining pieces.”
    Kate laughed, lighter and happier than she’d been in days.
She threw her arms around the old wizard and hugged him tightly.
    He was right—she had to try. She’d already practically
decided it, but hearing Aubury insist on it and knowing he believed her
perfectly capable of juggling her personal and professional duties gave her a
zing of confidence she’d badly needed.
    “Your Joshua should be waking soon.” Aubury soothed her with
a quick pat to her shoulder as if she were a young witch who had skinned her
knee out in the playground. “Just be a little patient—his body is ridding
itself of the neurotoxin and these things happen in their own time. I’ll be in
the den if you need me.”
    With a quick peck to her cheek, Aubury picked up the cane he
had left resting against the single, cot-style bed Josh lay on in the spare
room and