In the rosy gentle light of the deepening spring evening, the skyline looked like a fabled city in a fairy tale, a place that someone might fight with everything they had to reach, where one might hope to find brains, a heart, some courage, or to discover the way to go home.

As for the wizard… There was only one person that could be. Josiah. But he was too magnetic and powerful in a way she had never known before, both personally and magically. His dark, polished essence frightened as much as it enticed her.

She could feel the urge to go to him, and it disturbed her. He tugged at the weakest, most vulnerable part in her right when she needed to find her strength, not collapse into old, negative patterns of behavior.

Consumed by her thoughts, she parked the Escalade in the hotel parking garage and made her way to the lobby’s bank of elevators. All she wanted to do was take a shower and put her feet up, maybe watch some mindless television and then go to bed.

“Molly!”

She had been watching the floor as she walked. At the sound of Austin’s voice, she jerked her head up.

He strode across the lobby toward her, handsome face hard and eyes glittering.

Her mind launched into frantic speculation. How had he found her? Had he used the firm’s private investigator? Or—damn it, she had used her credit card. All he’d had to do was check their bank’s website.

Whatever. It didn’t matter. The expression on his face, along with the tight, fast way that he moved, told her everything she needed to know. He was the angriest, iciest she had ever seen.

Another quick glance told her that nobody was around to witness what happened next. Earlier the hotel had been busy, but by an odd trick of circumstance, now traffic was at a minimum. And nobody stood at the concierge desk or the check-in desk.

She didn’t pause to question her instincts. Instead, she bolted.

Chapter Four

Austin called out again sharply. She knew without looking that he was racing after her.

Bursting out of the nearest exit, she darted west and immediately ducked behind a six-foot-tall potted plant by the hotel entrance. A moment later, Austin raced past.

She slipped back into the hotel, ran to the elevators, and jabbed the Up button repeatedly. Her feint wouldn’t confuse Austin for long. As soon as he looked around and realized she wasn’t anywhere to be seen, he would head back inside.

It didn’t matter. All she wanted was to get to her suite and slam the door on the world.