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leave?”
    “Yep,” Harry said. “You’re a mess. But we’ll put you on the
list for next time we cover a topic you might enjoy discussing.”
    “Two minutes, Harry.”
    Coral looked up and saw a man in a booth above the audience
at the back of the room. He waved, and Harry nodded.
    “Get these people out of here, please, and Dr. Middleton, if
you don’t mind, scoot down and sit next to Miss Nixie. Now, we can take care of
business.” Coral studied Gage’s face; twinkling eyes and a small smile lit his
features. His aura, smooth indigo with glints of gold confused her. She’d never
seen one like it before, but it made her instinctively like the man.
    Stifling in the scarves wrapped around her neck and waist,
Coral yanked them off and dropped them behind her chair. If they were having a
thoughtful conversation, it was time to do it as herself. She didn’t intend to
be part of a three-ring circus or to look like a clown.
    A generational witch held the dignity of the centuries, or
should.

Chapter 5
     
    Gage shifted to sit next to Coral Nixie. Without all those
enveloping, multicolored, and fringed scarves, she looked quite respectable,
for a witch. Surely she didn’t believe in all that mumbo jumbo? While she
answered a question about something, he allowed his gaze to wander from the top
of her silky-haired head to the pretty, tanned toes peeking out from under her
skirt. Sun-lightened waves fell over her shoulders, all different shades, from
dark strawberry to the platinum he’d noticed first. Natural—no salon could
equal a true summer blonde. And her cheeks bore the golden glow to match. His
fingers itched to trace the fine lines by her eyes.
    Sun and humor. A combination that reminded him of the girls
on the beach when he’d been younger and had time. When he and Sid had taken his
new car to the shore, they’d dreamed of the day they’d be able to make the trip
in the Charger. Covering the leather seats of the Beamer with towels and making
sure their feet were free of sand before getting in, always afraid of damaging
something and having to hear about how expensive it was. Funny…he never even
thought about it being a BMW.
    The corners of Coral’s lips went up as she smiled, matching
the up tilt at the corner of her cat’s eyes. Her high cheekbones and the smooth
line of her jaw made him think of a Scandinavian princess. The white tee she
wore tucked into her long, colorful skirt emphasized her peach blush, and he
followed its V neckline to find a silver circle with a half circle facing out
from each side. Dangling there. The curves it caressed made him jealous of a
silly ornament for its nearness to such glowing skin.
    “Mr. Middleton?”
    Heat rushed from his neck to his cheeks. With no tan to
disguise it, he must be red as a beet. How humiliating. “I beg your pardon? I
didn’t hear the question.” It galled him to have been so lost on national
television. Maybe the witch did have some kind of magic. Right.
    Montclief grinned at him, and Gage peeled his lips back from
his teeth in what he hoped resembled a pleasant smile. A wink from Coral didn’t
help, but it did help him want her a little less. Maybe.
    “I asked if you would mind if we focused on the topic at
hand, now that we’ve cleared the stage of the combatants.” He grimaced at the
audience and nodded as they roared and clapped in response. “Let’s get down to
talking about what we’re all interested in. What is love?”
    Was he kidding? Another burst of applause. The largely
female group seemed delighted to address such an esoteric topic. With Aaron and
his publisher in mind, Gage strove to clarify the issue. “What we think of as
love is a complex chemical reaction to a number of stimuli. Pheromones, the
instinct to reproduce, the human urge to connect, not to be alone. Females in
particular seek a protector, a good provider. All these instincts combine to
tell the woman she’s found a good mate. “
    “So the dinosaurs