Read Online Once upon a Dream by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online Page B

and that was all. No conscientious magician brought harm to another deliberately, that was certain. All he’d done was take a few examples of technology, of art and comfort, from various points in time. He could hardly be expected to live in a bloody cave, could he?
    Stealing? Why, the very idea of it!
    He sat on a chair in his workshop and indulged in more brooding.
    It wasn’t meant to be stealing, he thought now. Magicians had moved matter from place to place since the beginning of things. And what were jewels but pretty bits of matter?
    Then he sighed. He supposed they were considerably more, from her point of view. And he’d wanted her to see them as more. He’d wanted her to be dazzled and delighted, and dote on him for the gift of them.
    Much as he had, he admitted, wanted to dazzle and delight the woman who’d betrayed him. Or, to be honest, the woman who’d tempted him to betray himself and his art. That woman had greedily gathered what he’d given, what he’d taken, and left him to hang.
    What had Kayleen done? Had she been overpoweredby the glitter and the richness? Seduced by them?
    Not in the least. She’d tossed them back in his face.
    Stood up for what she believed was right and just. Stood up to him. His lips began to curve with the image of that. He hadn’t expected her to, he could admit that. She’d looked him in the eye, said her piece, and stuck to it.
    God, what a woman! His Kayleen was strong and true. Not a bauble to ride on a man’s arm but a partner to stand tall with him. That was a grand thing. For while a man might indulge himself in a pretty piece of fluff for a time, it was a woman he wanted for a lifetime.
    He got to his feet, studied his workroom. Well, a woman was what he had. He’d best figure out how to make peace with her.
    Â 
    Kayleen considered having a good cry, but it just wasn’t like her. She settled instead for hunting up the kitchen which was no easy task. On the search she discovered Flynn had chosen to make his point with only that one empty room. The rest of the house was filled to brimming, and in his fascinatingly eclectic style.
    She softened by the time she brewed tea in a kitchen equipped with a restaurant-style refrigerator, a microwave oven, and a stone fireplace in lieu of stove. It took her considerable time to get the fire going and to heat water in the copper pot. But it made her smile.
    How could she blame him, really, for wanting things around him? Pretty things, interesting things. He was a man who needed to use his mind, amuse himself, challenge himself. Wasn’t that the man she’d fallen in love with?
    She carried the tea into the library with its thousands of books, its scrolls, its manuscripts. And its deep-cushioned leather chairs and snappy personal computer.
    She would light the fire, and enough candles to read by, then enjoy her tea and the quiet.
    Kneeling at the hearth, she tried to light the kindlingand managed to scorch the wood. She rearranged the logs, lodged a splinter painfully in her thumb, and tried again.
    She created a hesitant little flame, and a great deal of smoke, which the wind cheerfully blew back in her face. She hissed at it, sucked on her throbbing thumb, then sat on her heels to think it through.
    And the flames burst into light and heat.
    She set her teeth, fought the urge to turn around. “I can do it myself, thank you.”
    â€œAs you wish, lady.”
    The fire vanished but for the smoke. She coughed, waved it away from her face, then got to her feet. “It’s warm enough without one.”
    â€œI’d say it’s unnaturally chilly at the moment.” He walked up behind her, took her hand in his. “You’ve hurt yourself.”
    â€œIt’s only a splinter. Don’t,” she said when he lifted it to his lips.
    â€œBeing strong-minded and being contrary are two different matters.” He touched his lips to her thumb, and the