Under His Spell by Jade Lee, Kathy Lyons Read Free Book Online Page B

into sweaty panic attacks. She snatched up her phone and hit the send button.

6
    T HIS WAS A BAD IDEA, Jim thought as he crossed the street and headed down the block. This was perhaps one of the worst ideas he’d ever had. But when Nicky had called him, clearly overwrought, he hadn’t been able to say no. She’d spouted all sorts of nonsense, something about him putting a posthypnotic sex idea in her head. She hadn’t sounded angry, really. More distraught in a way that went beyond one-night-stand embarrassment. And that’s what did him in. He couldn’t ever resist a damsel in distress, especially when that damsel was Nicky.
    It wasn’t PC of him, was certainly not something he’d confess to anyone in this day and age. But yeah, he had a chivalrous streak a mile wide. When a woman was in trouble, he couldn’t resist running to her rescue any way he could. And since this particular woman was Nicky, he was doomed the moment he’d picked up the phone. So here he was, about to enter a café near his home, just because he couldn’t stop the stupid swell in his chest that made him want to be Nicky’s magic man.
    He pulled upon the restaurant’s door with a fatalisticshrug. Only about half the tables were full, so he saw her immediately. Hard to miss her tight bun, dark suit and legs that went up to her neck. Everything about her was neat, precise and so hot he nearly broke out in a sweat.
    She liked a lace bra beneath that demure silk blouse. He knew what she smelled like when her thong was dripping wet. And he knew the sounds of abandon she made when she came apart on his lips. He’d peeled back the layers of her tight, corporate exterior and touched the wanton beneath. And damn if he didn’t want to do it again.
    The restaurant was narrow, the tables marching in a straight line back from the front door. There were more intimate booths along the side, but she’d chosen a table dead center in the room. He took his time crossing to her, studying her as he moved. She’d set her menu to the side and was sitting precisely still. The only sign of agitation came from the way she kept crossing and uncrossing her legs beneath the table. She linked her feet together at the ankle, then released them to push one heeled pump into the floor. Then she flattened her foot before crossing her ankles again. He counted five shifts in the time it took him to make it to her side.
    “Hello, Nicky. You look very corporate tonight.”
    Her gaze shot to him, and he could see that her face was still tinged with panic. Her eyes were wide, her mouth pinched, and she kept her jaw tightly clenched.
    “I—I don’t know how to answer that,” she said. “Was that a compliment or a jab?”
    “Just a statement of fact,” he said as he slid in beside her. “Does it have to be something more?”
    Her gaze followed him with a wary anxiety. “I don’tknow. The Jimmy I remember didn’t have any guile. I don’t know about the Magic Man.”
    He almost laughed at that. He’d picked that name with her in mind. Well, her and the Heart song. Either way, he’d wanted to be mesmerizingly special to a girl. To Nicky. Who was staring at him as if he was about to turn into a serial killer. He sighed.
    “‘Jimmy’ sounds like a pet dog. My name is Jim now. I sometimes even go by James. But not Jimmy, not the Magic Man, not anything weird.”
    She nodded slowly, and her eyes lost some of the anxiety in them. “Okay. Jim. Thank you for coming to see me.”
    He didn’t have a chance to respond as the waitress delivered coffee to the table for her, then asked him if he wanted a drink. He ordered a soft drink and dinner without even looking at the menu. He’d had his own share of confusion about yesterday. He’d spent a good deal of his adolescence mooning after Nicky. Last night had been a fantasy come true for him, but this morning’s scene had hurt. She’d meant so much to him way back when. That she didn’t even remember him come morning had