“Both of you are ridiculous,” Leo said. “I’m not that out of shape.”
“You look good,” Keely said.
Nicholas hid a smile as they both stared at each other. One day, they’d decide they’d waited long enough, but until then, he was going to keep them focused on the show.
“Are we almost ready to go?”
“Yes,” Keely said. “I’ve got everything set up on the ground. Trixie is going to warm up the crowd, and then we can get started.”
He nodded as his team stepped away from him. He had to get his head in the right space to do this trick. The stunt was part of a pre-opening publicity push that Talia had arranged. They were going to have a soft opening on Thursday and then the big grand opening on Friday.
He was ready to perform the new show for an audience. It felt like ages since he’d debuted the illusion at his home. In reality, it had only been months. When he was working so hard to bring a new show out, everything else faded away. But not this time. Zelda had been there for the last six weeks, and he’d enjoyed every minute of having her by his side.
In a way, he was reminded of his time with Jade before she’d left them…which stirred that worry in his soul. He glanced through the crowd and saw Zelda standing off to the side with Stetson, her eyes on him. Their gazes met, and, even through the crowd, he could feel her worry and her affection for him.
He was looking for troubles. She was his. That’s it. They were in a relationship that neither of them was sure how to navigate. The explanation worked for him and eased his worries about Leo’s comments. He knew they hadn’t told each other everything, but he was also sure that if Zelda had come from a magic family, she’d have mentioned it. After all, they talked about his magic all the time.
But he had no more time to think about that, because Trixie was announcing him and it was time to perform. He shook his arms and stood a little taller, flexing his muscles as he walked out and waved to the crowd, ready to wow them with an illusion that he’d perfected years ago. But he couldn’t help but wish that he’d perfected the art of reading Zelda as well.
Chapter Twelve
Zelda had seen this illusion before, but it had been a long time since she’d been this close to a performer. Nicholas was going to walk to the edge of the security glass, disappear, and then reappear floating above the side of the towering casino. The fear that gripped her was reminiscent of how she’d felt the very last time she’d performed the water-escape trick with her sister.
She didn’t believe in premonitions, so it wasn’t as if she thought he was going to be horribly injured. Still, she just hated this feeling. And it told her that she was going to have to start putting some distance between herself and Nicholas. She couldn’t be this close to someone who constantly put himself in danger. Tricks could always go wrong—she knew that better than anyone else—and the danger was real. He might have his team, and they’d gone over the many safety procedures necessary, but her heart was still pounding, her throat tight as he stretched his arms out to his sides to reveal he wasn’t wearing a rig.
She remembered kissing that chest just this morning. Shaking her out of her thoughts, Stetson grabbed her hand as Nicholas stepped up onto the ledge, squeezing it tightly. He strained to get closer and watch his hero performing a trick that she could tell scared him a little bit.
“One of the things I like best about illusions is that you see something that you know can’t be real, but your eyes are telling you it is. Today I will be performing one such stunt for you. Levitating is one of the oldest magic tricks in the world. Back in ancient times, wizards and seers regularly lifted their bodies over crowds to get the attention of the people watching them,” Nicholas said. “Today is no different.”
His theme music, which was a mix of space-age sounds and some mystical melody, started to play as soon as Nicholas had moved into position posed on the edge of the balcony, walking carefully, his arms outstretched for balance. The wind blew, and he swayed with it, carefully letting it subside before he stretched his arms up above his head and then brought them down to his sides. His body lifted off the ledge first, just a few inches, and then, as he moved his arms slightly, a few feet. He kept his eyes closed, concentrating on maintaining the illusion, and when wind blew around him, he just floated on it.
Zelda hated every second of it, and as the gust swooped up, he snapped his fingers and completely disappeared. Everyone gasped. Those close enough rushed to the side of the building to look through the safety glass to see if he’d fallen, and the large screen monitor that had been set up revealed he hadn’t.
The music swelled, and he reappeared, floating behind the crowd not too far from where Zelda and Stetson stood. Their eyes met, and she knew then that she loved him. That this kind of fear didn’t come lightly. She was in love with this man who did something that terrified her.
He levitated back to the center of the crowd and then slowly put his feet back on the ground. Thunderous applause broke out, and he took a bow before Trixie came back on the microphone and reminded everyone that the new show started on Friday and there were many more death-defying stunts lined up. Nicholas took a bow and then stepped out of sight with another snap of his fingers.
“Oh my God, Z. That was incredible. I want to learn how to do that. Do you think he can teach me?” Stetson asked.
She hoped not, but she suspected that Nicholas would. He had been unfailingly kind to her godson and would probably mentor him in the magical arts if that was what Stetson wanted. She was finding herself embroiled in the world she had thought she’d left behind, and there wasn’t any easy way to extract herself from it.
“You’ll have to ask him. But I think it will be a few years before you are ready for something like that.”
“Yeah, you’re right. But I’d love to be able to disappear,” Stetson said. “I could do it during a test if I needed to go look at my notes.”
She ruffled his hair. “That does sound as if it would be beneficial.”
“Don’t you want to do that?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “Some tricks are more dangerous than you might think.”
“Well, Mom said there’d be no tricks that involved me escaping from chains in the water,” Stetson said as they followed the crowd toward the elevators. She took him to the private elevator at the end of the hall, which led to the penthouse apartment level where Nicholas, Casey, and Darien all had residences. She used her thumbprint and the code that Nicholas had given her to access the elevator. When they got on, Nicholas was waiting for them.
“Dude, that was so cool. How’d you do it? I know you’re not supposed to tell, but I swear I won’t tell a soul. I mean, we can wait until Z isn’t here so you can only tell me,” Stetson said.
Nicholas laughed and turned to say something to Stetson, but Zelda couldn’t concentrate on his words. She was just so happy to see him safe and sound. She knew he was a professional, and her rational mind told her that he wouldn’t do the trick if he hadn’t mastered it, but her heart still had doubts. She reached for him and hugged him tightly. He seemed surprised at first but then returned her hug, rubbing his hand up and down her back.
“You okay?”
She nodded, afraid to trust her voice, and then took a step back from him. “That trick was a little too good. I wasn’t sure we were going to see you after you disappeared like that.”
“Don’t worry about me, Zelda. I’m not going anywhere as long as I have you to return to,” he said, bending his head to kiss her. She tried to let the familiar taste of him ease her fear, but it didn’t. She was scared, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to be in love with Nicholas. But it was far too late to do anything about it.
…
Nicholas listened to the sound of Zelda singing along with P!nk as she got ready for the evening in the bathroom and stopped for a moment to listen. Today, his stunt had been a big
success…and it had been a turning point for him. He was finally ready to let go of his fear that Zelda was hiding something. She’d been an open book to him from the start. And he loved her for it.
They’d had a quiet dinner at his penthouse apartment, and later on, they’d join Talia and Casey for drinks. Dare had been invited, but he’d told them he wasn’t a fan of all the lovey-dovey shit. Casey had just shaken his head. But Nicholas had realized that it wasn’t too long ago that he’d have said something similar. But with Zelda, it didn’t feel saccharine sweet. It was different, and he didn’t think they were over-the-top with the PDA.
He knew in the past he would have been suspicious of her, but this was Zelda, the woman who’d hugged him tightly after a stunt he’d performed a bunch of times and then held his hand while he’d treated her and Stetson to lunch. If she’d been part of a magic community, the illusion would have been one she understood, and there would have been no need for her fear.
When the invitation had arrived from the Golden Palms Hotel to attend the premiere of Jade’s newest show, he’d almost tossed it in the trash. It had been more than five years since he’d last seen her in person like this. Despite the fact that she’d come to his show, he hadn’t talked to her or been this close to her. Of course, she was opening her new show two days before his. But he no longer felt competitive with her, no longer felt the need to show her up and prove he was better than the woman who’d left him. He was over that, and he knew he owed it in no small part to Zelda. She’d brought something into his life that he hadn’t realized he’d been missing.
He was wearing a bespoke suit that he’d ordered from a shop on Savile Row in London. They kept his measurements on file, and the pants and jacket were close-fitted. As was his style, he’d wear his shirt open. And he took some extra time with his hair, knowing that tonight he wanted to be there as Nicholas Pine, master illusionist, not just Jade’s former lover. He had his usual tricks in this suit, and he’d use them to distract and mesmerize the others who were at Jade’s show.
That’s what magicians did. They tried to look bored and above all the nonsense. But what he really wanted was to be the one everyone talked about tomorrow. Not Jade.
That was why he’d invited one of her showrunners to preview the illusion he was going to be premiering in Phantasm. He wanted everyone to know that he was working on something bigger and better than they’d ever seen before.
When Zelda came out of the bathroom, he felt his knees go weak, and he put his hand on his heart as it raced. She was beautiful. Her long red hair was caught up at the back of her head, and she’d left a few tendrils to frame her heart-shaped face.
She wore a halter-neck cocktail dress that ended just above her knee, and her legs looked longer and even more shapely in those strappy heels she had on. She paused in the doorway, and he felt that familiar zing that was purely sexual. But there was something else now, something that had come from weeks of living together.
He hesitated to label it “love.” The last time he’d admitted to loving anyone, it had been his grandmother and grandfather. But they’d been playing the biggest illusion of all on him. Love had always been the one thing that he both loathed and craved. He knew that love was wrapped in artifice, but he wanted to believe it.
With Zelda, everything felt different. Even the emotions Jade had stirred in him paled when compared to what he felt for Zelda. He didn’t want to admit he had fallen for her, but he knew that not admitting didn’t change the facts. He couldn’t imagine a time when he wouldn’t want her with him. When he wouldn’t feel this strongly and deeply in love with her.
She tipped her head to one side as she watched him, and he closed the distance between them. He knew he shouldn’t mess up her hair or makeup, but he couldn’t help reaching for her, pulling her into his arms, and kissing her deeply.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him back.
When he lifted his head and their eyes met, her pretty chocolaty brown eyes shining up at him with something that he couldn’t help but think was love, he realized that he had found something in Zelda that he’d never dared to hope for.
“I love you,” he said. It made no sense to hide it when it was the truth.
He saw a shadow pass over her expression, but then she put her hands on either side of his face and went up on tiptoe to kiss him back. “I love you, too. But tonight, when we get back, we need to talk.”
That gave him pause, though he had to admit, he wished his grandfather had just once said those words to him. Given him the truth. Could this be as big a deal as his parentage? It seemed unlikely. “What about?”
“It’s nothing, really. Just some stuff from my past…that baggage I hadn’t wanted to share with you. But the way I feel now, I want you to know it all.”
“Tell me,” he said.
She shook her head. “Not now. It’s not a big deal, and after the show, we’ll have more time.”
He didn’t like it, but she wouldn’t be persuaded to share her news now. He hated that she had mentioned this the moment he’d revealed how he felt to her. Had she been waiting to make sure he had fallen for her before she told him…what? What could it be? And how bad was it that she didn’t want to talk about it until later?
He tried to smile and go on with the evening, but even he wasn’t that great an illusionist.
…
Zelda hadn’t been able to keep from telling Nicholas she loved him, but she knew that she had to come clean about her past. He was a man who demanded honesty from those he allowed himself to care about. And she understood why, having heard about his grandparents’ deception. It had been done with love, but at the same time, it had shown Nicholas that love and lies could come hand in hand. She had a feeling that her lie by omission was going to hurt. Maybe it would have been better not to have said anything, but as soon as he’d told her he loved her, her heart had filled with joy and then fear. He had a thing about people not being who they said they were. She knew that. And though she hadn’t lied to him, exactly, there was a big part of her old life that she’d kept hidden.
She had her reasons, and she wasn’t going to pretend that it didn’t matter to her, because it did. But still, she knew that she had to tell him now, before they went any further. It was too bad she’d had to mention it, though, right before they left to go to his ex-lover’s show. She knew what it was like when a magician opened a show right before another magician’s premiere. Zelda suspected that Jade was doing it to needle Nicholas, but he was so composed it was hard for her to believe that it bothered him at all.
But then again, he was a master at hiding his emotions. And tonight, nobody would guess there’d ever been a problem. He was dressed in a pair of slim-fitting pants that hugged his thighs and a jacket that was nipped in at the waist, showing off his muscled torso. They arrived at the Golden Palms and the VIP red-carpet area set up just for the show. Jade’s act was called The Escape Room, homage to an older Houdini show. The staff were all dressed in what Zelda could only guess were outfits more suited to BDSM players. They looked kinky, and she wondered if she’d gotten too prudish after years of working in her antique shop.
“I think that Keely and Trixie would walk out if I suggested they wear chains for the show,” Nicholas said under his breath.
“I don’t blame them. This looks like we are going into a S&M den.”
“Have you been to many?” he asked, quirking one eyebrow at her.
“None!” she said quickly. “I’m not into that scene at all.”
“Me either,” he assured her with a quick smile. “Unless you put me in my own handcuffs.”
She tingled, remembering the night he’d performed the straitjacket escape for her. “I like the sound of that.”
“I thought you would,” he said. Then he pulled her aside, allowing others to enter the show ahead of them. “Listen, I know you feel like
you have to tell me about this baggage from your past, but I don’t need you to do that.”
“Why not?” she asked, knowing that it wasn’t something she could continue to keep to herself. She had to tell him. If she was going to be in his life and in the world of magic, she had to come clean.
“I trust you, Zelda. I haven’t said that to many people, but you make me feel like whatever is in your past isn’t important. I know the woman you are today, and your past shaped you,” he said.
Those sweet words made her feel cherished, because she could easily read the sincerity in them, but also cruddy, because she knew he’d see her family history and her past as a magician’s assistant as a betrayal.
“I have to tell you,” she said. “If not for you, then for me.”
He nodded, then rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip before bending and giving her the sweetest kiss she’d ever experienced. “Fair enough. Just know there is nothing you can say that will change the way I feel about you.”
She felt a shaft of relief go through her. “Thank you. I feel the same way about anything you have in your past.”
“I think that’s how it should be,” he said. Then, glancing behind her, he stiffened.
She turned to see a tall, incredibly beautiful woman standing there. She had long black hair that framed her heart-shaped face. Her wide-almond shaped eyes were lined to draw attention to them. They were dark brown, almost black and her nose was a sharp blade. She held herself with the kind of confidence Zelda freely admitted she’d never had and always envied. She’d changed from her show outfit and now wore leather pants, a leather bustier, and a delicate piece of lace around her neck.
“Nicky, I’m so glad you could make it tonight. I’ve got a showstopper that’s going to blow your socks off,” she said.
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