Spellbound (10 page)

Something inside him refused to believe it was that simple. Thinking through the events surrounding his interactions with Belle, Nick ascertained some facts. He knew for certain that he’d felt emotions that weren’t his own – that had somehow been planted in his mind. Even as he’d been experiencing them – the inability to ask her out, the struggle to get to her door, the deep and unsettling self-doubt and anxiety – he’d recognised that they were foreign, that they came from somewhere outside his own consciousness.

Yet the feelings of belonging, joy and pleasure: those he was absolutely sure were his; they came from within.

Then there was the crystal and the fact that it seemed to mitigate the spell. And when Belle had brought it around to his apartment, hot and glowing, he’d been sure it meant something important. He just didn’t know what.

Nick pushed away from the table he’d been leaning against and headed outside into the clear, chilly night. He set off towards the apartment building, just a couple of blocks away, zipping up his leather jacket in protection against the cold.

The pattern, he decided, was that the feelings that drew him
towards
Belle were his own, while the feelings that pushed him
away
from Belle came from somewhere else.

Who would cast a spell on him like that?

Belle? As much as all the evidence pointed towards her, he realised he didn’t really believe it could be true. The way she looked at him, the way she responded to him – no. She wanted to be together as much as he did.

Who then?

Someone who wanted to keep him and Belle apart.

It didn’t explain why she had his photo, but then there was still so much of this that defied explanation. He still wasn’t sure what to make of that. Why would she have something like that in her possession?

A bright flash in the sky caught Nick’s eye and he glanced up just in time to see a golden sparkle burst and fade out. Someone was setting off fireworks. It also seemed like a thunderstorm might be brewing – dark clouds were gathering in the night sky behind the fireworks.

He continued walking, head down and hands jammed in his pockets, searching for an answer, ignoring his surroundings.

He was almost at the front of his building when a small car pulled up beside him with a painful grinding of gears. The driver’s door flung open and a large, short, multicoloured person bustled out.

Nick’s surprise passed quickly when he recognised the strange fortune-telling woman who’d nearly killed him the week prior. She came to a halt in front of him, bejewelled hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. ‘What did I tell you?’ she demanded.

Nick stopped a few steps from her. ‘Huh?’

‘Just take a look at what you’ve done,’ she said, reminding Nick of a school principal. She gestured with a glittering hand towards the top of Nick’s building. His gaze followed, and the first thing he noticed was the heavy clouds that had drawn together almost directly over the roof. Then he was surprised to see more fireworks burst in a spatter of colour against the dark clouds. They seemed to be coming from above Belle’s apartment. They weren’t proper fireworks, though; they had no discernible pattern, just a scattering of shiny gold and red and blue sparks.

Too late, rational thought hit.

‘Oh my God, fire!’ Adrenaline pumped through him. How would he get to Belle’s apartment? Would she use the fire escape or the internal stairs? How could he —

Nick had taken a few steps towards the building but something yanked him back. He looked down to find the handle of a pink bamboo cane looped around his elbow. ‘What —’

‘Calm down! There’s no fire. She can wait a moment until we sort this out.’

Nick turned back to the rotund woman, surprised at her apparent strength as she dragged him towards her with her cane. ‘Sort what out? If Belle is in danger I —’

‘She’s not in danger. Well, not much anyway. Well, not right now, anyway. She could spontaneously combust, I suspect, but we’ve got a little time before that happens.’

Nick stared at the woman and suddenly the pieces clicked into place. ‘It was you! You’re the one who cast a spell on me.’ He stepped close, threatening her, his hands bunched into fists.

She blinked up at him, seemingly unconcerned. ‘No one cast a spell on you, boy,’ she said. She looked down and seemed to consider one of the rings on her hand for a moment.

‘Then on Belle. You cast a spell on Belle – you want to keep us apart!’

‘And why would I want to do that? I’m her godmother. I want her to be happy. And, for some strange reason,
you
seem to make her happy.’ She sighed. ‘Thought she’d pick someone smart, but anyhoo, no accounting for taste when hormones get in the way.’

‘Godmother? But you . . . What’s going on? Tell me! I need answers!’ His fingers bit into his palms and his arms quivered with restraint. Frustration began to bubble over – but he wouldn’t hit an old lady.
Would he?
A surge inside him urged him to strike out.

No.

He gritted his teeth. He
was
frustrated, but there was another feeling muscling in on him, another of those fake, imposter feelings. This time it wasn’t anxiety or doubt or fear. This time it was rage – pure and violent and red.

‘Haven’t figured it out yet, boy? I really hoped for better, you know.’

‘What?’

‘My Belle – Isabella Boadicea Petrovich – can trace her family line back to Russian royalty; the magic was strong in them, you know. But you’re no slouch either. With a name like Marchetti I expected more. Your father is the great-grandson of a powerful Romany witch, and I’m sure I can feel some powers in you. Latent, certainly, but there. That was why I was positive you’d work this out.’

‘Work it out?’ Nick said in wonderment.

She reached out and put a hand to his arm, closing her eyes for a brief moment. ‘Yes. You’re almost there. I wasn’t far off. You’re on the right track.’

Her touch eased the rage inside him and Nick could breathe again. He pushed aside the bizarre, surreal nature of the situation just as another shower of sparks sprinkled down onto the grass beside him. Belle’s safety was uppermost in his mind. ‘On the right track? You mean I’m close to solving it? To knowing who cast the spell?’

The fortune teller nodded slowly.

‘So I’m right in thinking that the spell is trying to push me and Belle apart?’

‘Yes.’

‘But when Belle has the crystal with her, the spell doesn’t work.’

‘Right.’

‘Except that’s not quite true. There have been at least a couple of times when Belle hasn’t had the crystal and yet the spell hasn’t worked.’

‘Think.’

Nick sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. Think? Wasn’t that all he’d been doing? At least this time he had an audience. When had the spell failed despite the crystal’s absence? ‘When I was in Belle’s apartment the first time, when she invited me in, she asked me to kiss her.’

‘Go on.’

‘And another time . . .’ Nick hesitated. He wasn’t about to share his and Belle’s experience in the shower with a stranger,
especially
if that stranger happened to be her godmother. ‘And another time when we kissed.’ That was sort of true.

‘What were you thinking at those times?’

‘What was I
thinking
?’

The fortune teller didn’t elaborate.

Nick paused. ‘I was thinking how much I liked Belle, how much I was enjoying being with her.’

‘And what was
Belle
thinking at those times?’

‘How should I know?’ Nick threw up his hands in frustration. ‘Something similar, I guess. At least, that’s what I’d like to think.’

‘And what about when the spell
was
working? What were you thinking then?’

Nick made a strangled noise of annoyance. This was all so futile. He glanced up at Belle’s apartment, noticing the sparks were still sputtering from the roof. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking,’ he said. ‘I just know that there were other thoughts, other feelings in my head. Ones that weren’t mine.’

‘And what was
Belle
thinking?’

This woman was going to be the death of him. ‘Honestly? How am I supposed to know?’

‘What. Was. Belle.
Thinking
?’ she repeated, tapping his chest with her pink cane for emphasis between each word.

‘Belle thinking?’ he repeated dumbly as his brain began to form an idea. No. It couldn’t be. Were those imposter thoughts – were they
Belle’s thoughts
? After they’d made love in her bed that first time, she’d become all nervous and awkward. That’s when the headache had started and he’d begun experiencing those strange self-doubts. And then there was the crystal. When Belle had thought about herself and her life, the orb had become hot and shiny.

‘Maybe there’s hope for you after all,’ the fortune teller muttered. ‘Go up there and save her. Stop this from happening again. All this gallivanting about in the cold weather is playing havoc with my gout.’

Nick stared at her.

She reached out and seemed to pluck something from thin air, before giving him a strange, distracted smile.

All of Nick’s rage and frustration vanished, replaced by pure determination: he was going to sort this out.

‘Have a nice night.’ The woman turned away with a clink of beads. She leaned on her pink bamboo cane but marched energetically to her car, jumped in and disappeared in yet another ear-splitting grinding of gears.

Nick bounded into the building just as another shower of sparks hit the ground outside, sizzling in the damp grass. He spurned the old lift and took the stairs, racing to the top floor, heart pounding. Was he right? Only Belle would know the truth.

He banged on Belle’s door, shouting out her name. He could hear noises inside, things being thrown, stomping footsteps. A moment later the door was flung open.

Belle stood there, breathing heavily. Her hair was a wild halo around her head, her cheeks pink and shiny with exertion. Her eyes flashed, and Nick thought he’d never seen her look more desirable than she did right then. He tamped down the urge to throw her over his shoulder and head for the bedroom, knowing that they had to sort out this mess first.

‘Belle,’ he said, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace.

‘Go away, Nick. I’m warning you. I’m not a very safe person to be around right now.’

‘I know. I can help.’

‘I doubt that.’

‘Please. Let me in. Just to talk to you.’

Her hand still held the door and she blocked the entrance.

‘Please. Trust me.’

He could see the war in her eyes, but slowly she stepped back to let him inside.

They walked into the living room and Nick wasn’t surprised by its dishevelled state. Cushions were scattered around the room and the sofa had been upended. Someone had raged inside the room, but nothing was broken – yet. Good. It meant Belle was still reachable.

‘Belle, I know who cast the spell.’

Belle snorted. ‘Does it matter?’

‘Yes, it does.’

‘I’m too angry right now, Nick. Go away and come back later.’ Her eyes glowed with her fury. The fortune teller’s warning about spontaneous combustion came back to Nick and he silently vowed he wouldn’t leave until those sparks had stopped flying. In echo of his thoughts a shower of gold and red and blue sprinkled down past the window.

‘Who are you angry with, Belle?’ he asked, taking a cautious seat on the edge of one of the sofas.

‘Who am I angry with?’ The question seemed only to irritate her further. ‘The world!’

‘The world? It’s pretty hard to be angry with a whole world.’

‘It’s not fair! I’m a good person.’

‘Yes, you are.’

‘And I do good things. I work hard.’ She paced back and forwards.

‘Who are you really angry with, Belle?’

She spun on her heel and faced him. ‘Me!’ she yelled. ‘I’m angry with me, okay? I’m so stupid and afraid and I never let myself go! I never get what I want! I never take any risks, and I tell myself it’s because I don’t deserve good things, but I do! I do deserve good things, Nick. Don’t I?’ Tears began streaming down her face. And just like that her rage had turned into pitiful sorrow. She suddenly crumpled to the floor and crouched in a ball, hiding her face.

Nick jumped up and strode over to her, sitting down and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

‘And I hate this,’ she said, sniffing and sobbing. ‘It’s so pathetic. I . . . I don’t even know why I’m angry or sad like this.’ She took another broken, sobbing breath. ‘It doesn’t feel right.’

‘It’s because you’re under a spell,’ Nick said. ‘They’re not your feelings. Well, they are your feelings, but they’re magnified. Blown out of proportion.’

She raised her tear-stained face to look at him. ‘Wha-what do you mean?’ She sniffed loudly.

‘Belle, you cast a spell on yourself.’

‘Huh? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m hopeless at spells. I can’t even do simple ones like making a fake lover.’

‘What?’

Her face flushed but she stared at him defiantly. ‘I suppose I might as well tell you. That’s the reason I had your photo. I was sick of men ignoring me. I would go to bars with my friends and no one would even look at me, let alone speak to me. Even you said you’d never seen me there before, but I’ve seen you there a lot.

‘So I decided to create a phantom lover, a ghost to make love to me for the night. Only . . . only . . . I wanted him to look like you. So . . . I’m sorry, I’m really sorry about this, but . . .’

Nick felt her body shudder against his and she looked away before she continued.

‘I stole your photo. But you don’t have to worry, the spell didn’t work. That first night you came to visit me, I thought you were a phantom. But it was really you.’

Nick thought about that evening. Belle’s story certainly explained why she’d said some of the strange things she had. And it also explained why he’d been able to speak to her – she’d wanted him to be there. She’d thought he was her magical creation, her phantom lover, so her usual uncertainties had disappeared.

Nick shook his head, still amazed at how well he seemed to be coping with this new understanding of how magic worked. ‘Belle, I don’t know when it happened, but you cast a spell on yourself. The spell takes your feelings and projects them on other people.’

Her nose crinkled in disbelief. ‘What?’

‘That night,
you
were feeling confident because you thought I was your creation, so
I
was confident. But earlier, in the lift, you were feeling nervous and insecure, so I couldn’t ask you out. I couldn’t talk to you.’

Belle stared at him, her mouth slightly ajar.

‘Don’t you see? Men never noticed you at the bar because you didn’t feel you deserved to be noticed by them. You made it happen.
You
made yourself invisible because you felt invisible.’

‘No,’ she whispered.

Nick stroked a lock of her behind her ear. ‘Yes. I couldn’t talk to you, I couldn’t come to visit you, I couldn’t ask you out, because something kept stopping me. It was you. You didn’t think I could possibly want you, so the magic kept me away. Until you had the crystal – that somehow interrupts the spell.’

‘But I don’t understand . . .’ Belle swiped at her tear-stained cheeks with the back of one hand.

‘Remember in the shower?’ Nick prompted. ‘How were you feeling?’

‘Huh?’

‘Trust me, Belle,’ he said gently, giving her a gentle squeeze of encouragement. ‘Answer the question. How were you feeling, just before I joined you?’

A pretty little flush crept up her face to her hairline before she answered. ‘Sexy. Desirable. Turned on.’

‘And we made love and everything was fine, even though you weren’t holding the crystal.’

She frowned. ‘But then you got the headache . . .’

‘Because I found the photo. And you started feeling anxious and afraid. I can only think that as we grew closer the spell affected me more – that’s why it was starting to cause me pain.’

‘So you’ve been feeling
my
feelings?’

Nick shrugged. It was the best explanation he could come up with.

‘And I cast the spell on myself?’ Her bottom lip wobbled.

‘What’s going on, Belle?’ He pushed a lock of hair back behind her ear. ‘How did this happen?’

Belle took in a deep breath and let it out in a rush. ‘Tony,’ she said in a small voice.

‘Who’s Tony?’

‘My ex-boyfriend.’

‘Did he hurt you?’ Nick tried to keep his voice calm while anger built inside him. If this guy had hurt Belle, Nick would seek him out and extract full and painful revenge for even the tiniest mark the bastard had made.

‘No, he didn’t. Not really. We just weren’t right for each other. He liked to criticise me; I think in his mind he was doing me a favour.’

‘What?’ Incensed, Nick’s grip on Belle’s arm tightened. How could anyone think that?

‘But now I realise it was my fault too. I knew we should have broken up long before we did. I just thought that I needed to have a boyfriend.
Any
boyfriend. When we split, he said I should have been grateful for his putting up with me. I didn’t really believe him. Not
really
. But I didn’t meet anyone for a while, so I started to think that what he’d said to me might be true after all.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like I wasn’t sexy or attractive. Like my body was ugly. Like I was stupid.’ A single tear trickled down her cheek. ‘Oh Nick, I
have
been stupid. Why didn’t I see this before?’

‘Because you were under a spell,’ Nick said firmly. He had an idea. It was ridiculous, crazy, and everything in his rational mind rejected it. But it just might work. ‘I think I know how to break it.’

Nick sat up straighter and pulled Belle’s arms away from where she’d wrapped them around herself. Then he reached behind her neck and began to work on the knot of the ribbon that held the crystal against her chest.

It took her a moment to realise what he was doing. ‘No, Nick!’ Belle grabbed the green sphere and held it tight. ‘You can’t. I don’t want to hurt you.’

‘Let go, Belle.’ Nick finished untying the knot and tugged on the ribbon to pull the crystal out of her grasp.

‘But it will hurt you.’

‘You’re going to focus,’ Nick said, staring at her fiercely. ‘Instead of projecting your feelings onto
me
, you’re going to absorb my feelings into
you
.’

‘No.’ Belle shook her head. ‘Nick, I don’t know how to do that. I don’t even know how I managed to project my feelings onto you. I can’t read your mind!’

‘You don’t need to read my mind. You just have to see for yourself how I feel about you. That’s all. Focus on me. Feel what I feel. Think about me,
only
about me. Don’t think about yourself, your body, your insecurities.
Only me
. Okay?’

‘But what if it doesn’t work?’ Belle whispered.

‘We’ll keep the crystal close by,’ Nick reassured her. ‘Just in case.’

Slowly Belle relinquished her death-grip on the crystal. She was certain this wouldn’t work, but Nick seemed so determined, so resolute, she knew she had to give it a try.

‘Focus on me, Belle.’

He winced as soon as he set the crystal down on the floor, and Belle immediately tried her hardest to concentrate as he’d asked her to. The first thing she turned her attention to was his appearance.

Nick was beautiful, as usual, but maybe a little tired. His hair showed signs that he’d run his fingers through it. His jaw was darkened by a five o’clock shadow. His casual red shirt was rolled up at the sleeves and tucked into jeans that were held up by the belt he always wore.

She reached over and ran her fingertips from his temple to his jaw, stretching out her little finger to gently trace over his lips. His mouth parted slightly and Belle remembered his kisses, how varied they could be: from those tiny, sweet, nibbling little pecks through to those drugging, all-encompassing kisses that filled her senses. ‘How do you feel?’ she asked him.

‘Like I want to kiss you.’

Belle examined his expression. He was in pain, she could see it, and she wanted nothing more than to alleviate it. She tried hard to push away the doubts that hovered in her mind, the fears that seemed unconquerable. This was all her fault! If only she weren’t such a hopeless witch.

‘No,’ Nick said, the pulsing vein in his temple showing the pain he was struggling to suppress. His hand cupped her cheek. ‘Think about me, remember?’

‘Right.’

Belle focused. His hand was warm on her face; his body had tilted closer to hers. His lips were parted. Belle pressed her hand against his chest, feeling his heartbeat, strong and rapid under her palm.

He wanted to kiss her.

Nicholas Abner Marchetti wanted to kiss
her
, Isabella Boadicea Petrovich.

He wanted to kiss her.

Suddenly Belle could
feel
that Nick wanted to kiss her. She didn’t just construe it from his body language or the way he was looking at her – she could somehow feel it in her very bones. A deep, longing desire to meld his lips with hers.

‘Yes, that’s it,’ Nick whispered. ‘I don’t know what you’re doing, but that’s better.’

‘I don’t know either.’

‘Don’t think about it. Just go with it.’

Belle nodded. A pulsing feeling was growing in her groin, a feeling that was at once as familiar as it wasn’t. A different kind of heat. A swelling.

Belle’s eyebrows shot up.

Nick chuckled and his eyes widened. ‘Yeah, I know. This seems to be working both ways. It feels . . .
amazing
. Weird, but amazing.’

His lips touched hers and Belle suddenly found it easy to obey his command not to think. The kiss started out simple, chaste, but within a few seconds his tongue swept across the line of her lips, demanding entrance. Belle opened her mouth to his and was overcome by the feeling of taking and being taken, of plundering and being plundered. Her head swam and Nick groaned.

Belle reached for the buttons on Nick’s shirt, tugging the tails out from his jeans to get at the last one. She opened the shirt and threaded her fingers through the hair on his chest, relishing the touch of hot skin and hard muscle. His heart pulsed under her hand.

The ache between her legs was growing unbearable, a longing to be filled and a longing to fill, a desperate need for release that only increased when she undid Nick’s belt and freed his cock from the restraining denim of his jeans.

She swept her thumb over the bead of moisture at the tip, swallowing Nick’s groan as his tongue plunged deeper into her mouth. She ran her fist the length of him, root to tip, again and again, concentrating hard on every sensation her movement provoked. He was hot and she could feel him throbbing in her grasp. A trickle of fluid beaded and she wiped it away, relishing the feel of delicate skin and powerful hardness. She swirled her palm around the head and then pulled away from Nick’s mouth to gasp – it was as if someone had just circled her clit.

‘You make me feel so good, sweetheart,’ Nick murmured, pressing kisses along her jaw and down her neck.

She did make him feel good. She really did. Belle knew it now with certainty.

Before she could touch him further, Nick pulled away and began tearing at her clothes. ‘Naked. I need you naked.’

‘You too,’ Belle panted as he squeezed her breasts in his palms.

They were becoming tangled, each trying to remove the other’s clothing, and they quickly pulled away to strip off. Nick grabbed a couple of the large sofa cushions to make an impromptu bed. He lay down on his side and gazed at her, a wicked grin on his face as his eyes swept over her body.