Quentin got back to me two hours later, looking excited with his new purchase. He kissed me way too passionately, pulling me close to his body. I felt people watching me, the tingle of energy running over my back.
‘I got what I wanted, now I think it’s time to leave and take care of my girlfriend,’ he whispered, as that wave of magical current pinched my skin. It was strange, my power was usually calm when Quentin was around, so this felt a little out of place.
‘It’s a great idea to disappear. I was thinking—’
‘Excuse me, I was wondering if you would consider selling this little treasure,’ said the voice behind me that I knew so well. Within a moment my lungs felt like they stopped working. Warmth and the smell of lemons flooded all over me. Nathaniel was crashing my party. He’d probably watched that possessive kiss Quentin gave me.
I should have known that something was wrong.
I couldn’t turn around, my breath caught and my pores opened up sending long streams of magical power down to my core.
Quentin frowned at first, then smiled a little. ‘I’ve been hunting this beauty for ten years, so I’m sorry Mr.— ?’
‘La Caz. Nathaniel La Caz, and this is my fiancée Meredith Valesco,’ Nathaniel said.
Our eyes fixed on one another’s, seeing each other in pubic, each with our partners. I sucked in my breath, feeling like a nervous wreck around him. I couldn’t believe that he approached us, with his stunning fiancée. Meredith looked incredible with her sheet of caramel hair, wearing the tightest pink dress that I’d ever seen that hovered over her perfect body.
I hate her more than I hate myself right now.
‘La Caz…that name sounds familiar. Honey, doesn’t Paranormal Personnel have a client—’
‘Yes, Mr. La Caz is our primary client, so yes, we’ve met before,’ I said, clearing my throat, straining my voice. Our eyes stayed locked, trapping heat that swirled between our silent exchange. That fire that I saw in him the other night was still there, burning, igniting my own magic again.
‘Nice to see you again, darling,’ Meredith said, showing off her Hollywood-perfect white teeth. ‘I hope my Nate is behaving. He is normally so harsh with all his clients.’ For a brief moment I saw that ring on her finger and my chest heaved, my stomach churned, and blackness obscured my vision.
‘So, now the small talk is over, let me give you the price for that painting, Mr—’
‘Van Rooyen,’ Quentin cut him off, not losing that cheerful voice. ‘I’ve been dealing with art for some time now and I know that this is business, but this is a sentimental painting and I won’t sell it.’
Nathaniel pinched his eyebrows, staring at Quentin with frustration and hint of anger.
My pulse raced and my heart was beating so rapidly that I could have sworn I was going to pass out in front of all these people. Nathaniel had his fiancée by his side, his arm was around her waist and I hated myself for what I had done. I kept coming back to him, like he was God, a saint, and there wasn’t anyone else in this world for me.
My magic was all there, surging through me, ready to reach out and reduce the whole house to ashes. A few glasses cracked and certain paranormals were staring at each other in confusion, looking for the source of these disturbances. I had to calm down, otherwise I was going to explode and I wasn’t prepared to make a scene in front of all these people. Fairies were glancing at the four or us, probably wondering why my ex was talking to my current boyfriend. I tried to keep Quentin away from my drama and Nathaniel, but most everyone at this party knew that we used to date. Well, everyone apart from Meredith and Quentin.
‘That’s understandable Mr. Van Rooyen, when we treasure something it’s difficult to let go,’ Nathaniel muttered, pinning me down with his eyes, sending heat down between my breasts. Meredith was smiling moving the straw around in her cocktail glass.
‘Oh, Queni, there you are,’ Joshua said, appearing out of nowhere and patting Quentin on his back. ‘And Mr. La Caz, pleasure, real pleasure seeing you here. I heard about the great news. Did you guys set the date yet?’
Oh God, oh sweet God, please don’t go there. I don’t think that I can take this.
Meredith’s face flashed with anger for a brief second, and Nathaniel lips twitted in a forced smile. My energy was whipping through me fast and I had at least a minute to get the hell away from him, otherwise something was going to explode. I was scared that Joshua was going to say something about me and Nathaniel, so I had to disappear.
‘Excuse me, I need to get to the ladies’ room,’ I gasped out, hurrying away. I couldn’t listen to any more of the lies and pretense. Maybe he was still planning to get married, maybe sex with me was just a phase that he was going through. I almost ran upstairs to the bathroom. I locked the door and slid onto the floor, breathing hard, shaking and tasting grudge in my mouth. The sparks of magic danced all over the bathroom.
Nathaniel had crossed the line, and I just stood there hot and flushed, not able to shout out to Quentin that we were screwing each other behind everyone’s back. When I lifted my head, the mirror cracked and I flinched. My energy was already infected by him. It was time to confess all my sins to Quentin, it was time to come clean.
I loved Nathaniel so much that it hurt. For some time now I thought that he was the love of my life, and now that he stopped hiding his feelings it was easier to think that we were going to be together. But a voice in my head reminded me—
He hasn’t told her yet.
That was the truth. If he was so serious about us, he would have told her. Nathaniel only wanted me when he couldn’t have me.
When I left the bathroom my hair were in perfect order as usual and I needed to tell Quentin that we had to go home. This wasn’t that simple. Nathaniel’s scent was all over me, and as soon as I opened the door, someone was waiting for me outside. Long fingers pushed me down to the small bedroom next door. It was Nathaniel again, locking the door quickly and standing in front of me. His face showing no more emotion than it had during the entire party.
‘What do you think you are doing talking to Quentin? Are you insane or just plain stupid?’ I hissed, ready to punch him.
‘Stop it, Julia. You make me so hard when you’re angry,’ he growled, moving towards me.
‘No bloody way. We are not doing this here after the conversation about your WEDDING!’ I hissed, ignoring the pulsation between my legs. I was wet for him and so ready to rip his clothes off and just make love here and now.
‘I’m telling her now if you want. God, Julia, don’t you get it? I can’t stand this anymore, hiding and lying. We both know that you don’t love that giant. Fuck, I want you,’ he said taking me into his arms.
‘No, we can’t do this. It’s not fair to them, please,’ I begged, as his lips were all over me, sucking my neck. He pulled away, looking directly into my eyes, and there it was: love and devotion. All those emotions that were so well hidden, but now were out in open.
‘Let’s go and tell them. I can’t stay away from you for any longer. Julia, you are the woman that I want to spent the rest of my life with. Please let me love you.’
My heart was jackhammering in my chest. I buried myself in his torso inhaling his scent. He was the person that I’d been dreaming of. There was no point denying that I didn’t want him.
‘No, we can’t just tell them here. Not like this in front of all these people. We don’t want to humiliate them.’
Nathaniel’s heart was beating equally as fast as mine and I didn’t want to let go of him, but Quentin was downstairs, probably looking for me.
‘Firecracker, I’ve been trying to stay away, but everywhere I go I see your face, feel your wetness and want more.’ he growled.
I kept shaking my head, trying to block off his paralysing words. I hadn’t planned to tell him anything about my blackouts, I didn’t even want to be in this room with him, but I was afraid that if I got arrested Nathaniel wouldn’t get it that he was the one that triggered my magic.
Not intentionally, but mixing with him would bring more bad than good.
‘I’ve been having blackouts. The first one happened almost two months ago. Then I woke up in my apartment covered with blood, having thoughts about Jennifer, violent memories of me stabbing her over and over. I didn’t remember what happened that night. It was like I had this black hole in my head.’
Nathaniel placed his hands on my back, looking at me intensely. ‘Blackouts? What are you talking about?’
‘I’m losing hours, events in my life. I hurt people and being around you doesn’t help. My energy becomes lethal when I’m around you.’
‘That doesn’t mean anything. You’re working hard, the amount of stress that you have to go through—’
‘You don’t understand and I can’t explain it right now. I have to get back downstairs to Quentin,’ I cut him off, swallowing the tears. He didn’t understand what he was doing to me when we were together. His closeness, sensual or rough sex provoked the source of my magic, erupting my flaming power. Tron was right all along. We both sparked the lethal and unexpected power, but as usual Nathaniel didn’t want to listen to me. For him it was just passion and sex. I had to find the time to explain to him that I was a killer.
‘God, Julia. I’ve made a mistake. Please don’t punish me. After Isabelle I was …’
‘Stop, Nathaniel, please stop. Get back to your fiancée. I really can’t talk to you about this now.’
‘We both know that I won’t go through with the wedding,’ he hissed, running his hand through his sandy hair. ‘This is going to be over soon, I promise.’
‘Just let me go, and stop running after me. Let me take care of it,’ I said, opening the door. My heart pounded in my chest when I saw Jasper there by the wall, where I stood only a second ago.
‘Julia, hey, nice to see you again. What a coincidence,’ he said. I panicked when Nathaniel came out of the same room a few seconds later.
Jasper took a step back, moving his eyes from me to Nathaniel and his matted clothes.
Crap, crap, crap, why does this keep happening to me?
Chapter twenty
Just keep smiling. This isn’t the right time to confess that you’re fucking your own boss.
‘Jasper! What are you doing here?’ I asked, glancing up and down the corridor, wondering who else was going to find out about my dirty secret. My luck was slowly running out and I had no idea if I should start running or just stay in the same spot pretending that there was nothing going on between Nathaniel and me.
My ex-boyfriend number one shot Nathaniel a strained look, pinning him down like he was ready to stab him. It was clear that he put two and two together really quickly. Nathaniel shoved his hands in his pockets narrowing his eyes on Jasper. For a long moment they were measuring each other with angry stares, like they were in a boxing ring. Panic crawled under my skin fast. Nathaniel had no idea that Jasper had saved me from being raped by McGregor and I deliberately kept that away from him. I’d always complained that Jasper was messing with my life and I didn’t want Nathaniel to know that he was the one that murdered his biggest rival.
‘Stay away from Julia,’ snarled my ex number two to my ex number one leaning dangerously close to his face.
‘Okay, that’s enough. Nathaniel, just leave, please. I can handle this,’ I said quickly, standing between those two, afraid that I was going to bring more attention to me.
Nathaniel opened his mouth to throw some more threats at Jasper, but I frowned, so he backed away. Dad didn’t say anything about letting Jasper go, maybe there wasn’t enough evidence to keep him locked up.
‘Remember what I said, Julia,’ he added, before he turned around and walked away.
Right then I wanted to kill myself.
‘So you’re back together I see, you and that leech?’ Jasper snarled with a silent laugh. ‘What happened to the giant that everyone is talki—’
‘I’m warning you, Jasper, this is none of your business,’ I said, trying to figure out how he knew that I was seeing Quentin. From our last conversation it was clear that he had been away from London for some time.
‘I wanted to show you that I’m not the same person anymore, so I didn’t bring up that giant when you came to see me.’
I felt painful throbbing in my scull. Jasper kept saying that he changed, but he could ruin my new relationship if he wanted to.
‘Jasper, we were together a long time ago and I can’t talk to you about this. Just keep your mouth shut and let me deal with my own life.’
‘I thought you were happy? You looked happy when you spoke to me the other day.’
I bit my lips, glancing back and forth, wondering if anyone was approaching. Jasper was clearly going through a transformation. So far he didn’t attack Nathaniel, but I had no clue what he might have done if I hadn’t been standing between the two of them.
‘I can’t talk to you about this, not right now, not ever, please.’
I started walking away, expecting him to throw some sarcastic comment, but no, he didn’t say anything else. He just let me go. Maybe that incident from eight months ago changed him, because he reacted like an understanding human being, and as far as I was concerned, he’d never been understanding about anything.
As I walked downstairs I searched for Nathaniel, but it looked like he took his beautiful fiancée away and left, giving me some space. Quentin was talking enthusiastically to his friend Joshua. I grabbed another drink from the bar and finished it straight away. My magic calmed down. Nathaniel wasn’t in the room anymore and I didn’t have to worry about smashing glasses and unexpected lashes of power.
After a few mores canapés and even more drinks later, Quentin finally found me by the buffet table.
‘Ready to leave? You look a little bored?’ he asked, when I tried to get control of my hiccup. I put my coat on, wanting to get the hell out of this party, when I saw someone on the other side of the room. Quentin was saying his goodbyes to Joshua. My heart leaped in my throat when I spotted Abi by one of the paintings. She couldn’t see me, but I was curious to know what she was doing here. She was standing next to Fiorillo and my stomach lurched as I tried to hide between people. Fiorillo looked elegant in an expensive dark suit and even fancier white shoes. Kate had spellbound that bastard when we wanted to find out more about Rufus’s disappearance. Kate’s spell was illegal and if he ever found out, the girls and I could land in prison for at least couple of years.
‘Right, let’s go,’ Quentin said. I bared my teeth wondering if Fiorillo was sleeping with Abi. He was a womanizer, but Jennifer’s pal didn’t strike me like that sort of girl. After all she was going through a terrible breakup.
‘Yes, I’m ready, but maybe you want to stay a bit longer?’ I asked, keeping my voice smooth and my eyes on Fiorillo.
‘No, the auction is finished. I’ve enough to get busy for the next couple of weeks.’
‘Great.’
‘Speaking of work. La Caz, hmmm, I had no idea that he uses your agency. From what I heard his business is flourishing. He makes more money in an hour than me during one sale.’
Just keep smiling. This isn’t the right time to confess that you’re fucking your own boss.
‘Yeah, he is our main client,’ I said.
Quentin asked me a few more questions about Nathaniel. I responded curtly, doing everything I could to look like I shared a professional relationship with La Caz, nothing more, nothing less. Quentin knew about Jasper. He told me a few things about his previous girlfriends, but I was never that interested in his past. Today I lied to him yet again and I was making it very difficult for myself to go through with the truth.
Soon I was going to regret what I’d done. Once Quentin found out what sort of girlfriend I became, he would never forgive me.
***
My energy kept me up all night, so when I got to work the next day I was exhausted. Rufus showed up in the office later on, glaring at me, probably noticing my bags under my eyes.
> ‘How are you anyway? You don’t seem like yourself?’ he asked, after we were done with our conversation about work.
‘Fine, just tired.’
He didn’t push and I was happy to stay in my little world surrounded by lies. Kate gave me a look that said ‘ignore him, you’ve got enough on your plate’ before going back to her computer screen. She was my best friend and I felt sick that I was keeping this secret away from her as well.
The Easter holiday was just around the corner and I was sick of getting phone calls from my mother about bringing Quentin for dinner. She wanted to meet him officially, so she could start planning our wedding and I just wasn’t in the mood.
When I got home later that night I switched off my phone and snuggled on my sofa with a romance novel. Quentin was working late and I wanted to stay away from trouble, which meant to stay away from Nathaniel.
At eight I took a break and put a ready meal in the microwave. My world was moving out of control and I had no one else to blame but myself. During my time in University I was always the responsible Julia that didn’t like to have fun, and now I was sleeping with an almost married man and running around London killing people.
After catching up on some crazy TV, I went to bed hoping to have an early night. Tomorrow as usual was going to be a hectic day and I had to speak to Lucinda, and for certain I wasn’t looking forward to this. Surprisingly, I drifted off to sleep fast, jumping straight into another dream that I didn’t know could have been my last one.
I felt like everything was fine and my body was part of me, even when I looked down I recognised my bare feet, but somehow my own will had been taken away from me.
I found myself on the street, in a wide busy space walking through familiar surroundings. Streetlamps on the right and to the left and a round of businesses. It was already dark outside, and there weren’t that many people around. The same creepy voice in my head ordered me to keep a slow pace until I stopped on the corner, eyeing the street where I’d been before. My task was clear: the voice told me to wait until an attractive blonde mermaid left work in a couple of minutes.
Paranormal Personnel Saga Box Set - Books 1-3 Page 67