His warm brown eyes stare into mine. “Tricia, I love you.”
My heartbeat speeds up. These are the words that I’ve been waiting to hear. The ones that beat a fast tempo in my chest every time I see or think about Matt.
But they are hollow, meaningless words.
Words that a spell has manipulated him to feel and speak.
He’s waiting for me to say something. Each second that passes, I see the hurt creeping into his features.
“I know it’s early and far too soon,” he says, pulling back slightly, disappointment tightening his jaw.
I’ve hurt him.
The absolute last thing I’ve ever want to do.
But to continue this relationship is wrong.
“I need to go,” I say, whirling out of his slackening embrace. “You need to drive me back to my car.”
“Tricia! I’m sorry,” he says, hurrying after me. “Please, forget I ever said that.”
Tears burn and blur my vision and I can’t stop my lips from trembling. “I don’t want to forget,” I whisper more to myself than him.
He darts in front of me. His big body blocking the door. “I don’t understand. Did I do something wrong? If you don’t feel that way about me, I get it, but can’t we talk about this?” His chest rises and falls rapidly as he releases a ragged breath. “Things have been going so well between us… I…”
Unable to bear hearing the pain in his voice, nor seeing the misery pulling his handsome features down, I cut him off. “Matt, it’s not you. It’s me. You’re too good for me. You’re perfect.”
“So perfect that when I tell you I love you, I chase you away?” he asks, his dark, heavy brows dipping low over his eyes.
“You don’t understand,” I say.
He nods. “You’re right, I don’t. So, explain it to me.”
Running a hand through my hair, I can’t meet his gaze. “It’s all because of a love spell.”
“A love spell?”
Lifting my chin, I stare into the face of the man I love. “Yes, my friends and I cast love spells, and mine worked.”
His big body noticeably relaxes. “You think a love spell brought us together?”
“Yes. You are everything I asked for.” Tracing his dear familiar features, I try to ignore the way my heart is crumbling at the thought that this is over between us.
“Yet you’re running out on me. Doesn’t sound like a good love spell to me.”
“I’m not running out.” I blink back more tears. “I’m doing the right thing. It would be wrong of me to use you like this. We’re both going to get hurt when the love spell ends.”
To my shock, Matt throws his head back and laughs. I’m so stunned that when his hands cup my face, I don’t move. When his warm lips press against mine, I can’t hold in the tiny moan that escapes, nor the way I kiss him back.
Spell or not, I love him.
Tenderly, his lips move over mine, his tongue teasing and stroking. The kiss ends and his hands remain holding my face.
Opening my eyes, I see Matt smiling down at me. “That doesn’t sound like a spell. It sounds like life, Tricia. People get hurt in relationships and people find happiness in them. I’m happy with you. I’m not perfect and it wasn’t a spell that made me fall for you. It’s all you. I fell in love with you.”
“I’m not that special,” I argue, though a spark of hope burns in my chest.
“You are very special,” Matt says quietly, his lips capturing mine again in a slow kiss. “You are the woman I love,” he says when our lips part. “The one I want to wake up with every day and putter around the kitchen burning food with. The woman I hope will be my wife, and the one I want to build a family with.”