She held on with her legs wrapped around his lean hips and her arms around his shoulders. She opened her eyes, wanting to remember more than just the feeling of being in Nicholas’s arms. She wanted to see his face. His eyes were open as well, and as their gazes met, something deep and profound passed between them. She felt like he could see all the way into her soul.
But that moment was fleeting, driven away by his urgent thrusts toward her climax. She closed her eyes and arched her back, giving in to the moment. He bit lightly at the column of her neck and tightened his grip on her backside, driving into her faster and harder, and she felt the beginning of an orgasm, and then it was upon her. She clung to him, calling out his name. He slammed his mouth down on hers, his tongue going deep into hers as he came hard, his body shaking and shivering in her arms, and she held him until he stopped moving.
He laid down on her but kept his weight from crushing her before rolling to his side and taking her with him, tucking her into the curve of his body. She rested her head on his chest, the scent of his aftershave and sex mingling in each breath she took. And without any doubt, she knew that he had been sent into her life for some reason.
She no longer questioned that. It might have been to help her find the beauty in magic or for her to show him something she hadn’t figured out yet. But it no longer mattered. They were together for a reason. Her heartbeat slowed, and his did, too. He shifted up on his elbow to look down at her.
“Will you spend the night here with me?” he asked. “I’d like to hold you in my arms all night and know that I don’t have to run off in the morning.”
She looked up into those electric blue eyes of his that had enchanted her from the first moment she’d gotten close enough to see them and knew she was lost. She was falling for this man who was, in his heart, a magician. And that didn’t scare her the way she knew it should have.
“Yes,” she said. “I would like nothing better.”
“Perfect,” he said, then sat up. “I will take you home in the morning.”
“I’d like that.”
He told her to leave their clothes and then took her upstairs to his bedroom and drew her a bath. But that made her panic, and some of her good mood started to ebb away. How could he be meant for her when he kept pushing these buried memories up from the depths of her soul? Yet how could he not?
“I don’t like baths,” she said softly. Just the thought of being submerged in water brought back all the memories of that failed trick.
“That’s okay. I have another solution,” he replied.
She nodded, and they moved to his huge two-man shower, where he held her as if he couldn’t stop touching her. And, slowly, her panic ebbed. He gave her one of his T-shirts to wear and then climbed into bed naked next to her, pulling her into his arms. She curled against his chest, not having to remind herself of the many good things in her life to fall asleep. Instead, the solid beating of his heart under her cheek lulled her, and she didn’t wake up until she felt his hands moving over her hips as he pulled her underneath him and made love to her as the sun streamed into the windows.
She told herself not to get used to this—to him. But in her heart, she knew she’d already fallen for him. And there was no stopping those kinds of emotions—they came from the deepest part of her psyche, where she thought she’d forgotten how to feel and need and want. But he made her desire all of that and more.
Chapter Eleven
Waking up with Zelda in his arms wasn’t a bad way to start the day, even if it was a Wednesday. He shifted his weight, leaning on his elbow to look down at her where she lay sleeping. She always had so much energy when she was awake that seeing her like this made him realize how small she was.
Last night had been the first time since Jade that he’d let a woman and magic cross over. He had been cautious, after Jade, never to mix the two. Sex was a need that had to be taken care of. And he liked women, but they had never come close to fulfilling what magic did in his soul. Until Zelda. There was something about her that came too close to that border, and it should make him jump from the bed and hustle her out of his house.
But he was comfortable here with her. His emotions might make him feel a little bit tense, but he could deal with them the way he dealt with stage fright. Although he knew she had secrets, he was beginning to believe that she wasn’t hiding anything significant. She’d been open and honest with him from the first. Of course, there were parts of her past that she was reluctant to discuss, but everyone had baggage. She was also so blunt and in his face with her damned-the-torpedoes attitude that he’d been afraid he was missing something crucial, but more and more, it seemed as if he wasn’t. It was as if what he saw in Zelda Quincy was all that she had to offer.
And he definitely wanted all that she was offering.
“Why are you smiling like that while you look at me?” she asked.
He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “I did have a very good night’s sleep.”
“Me, too,” she admitted almost shyly. “I have some issues with insomnia at times. Actually, this is the second time you’ve helped me with that.”
“Tequila night?”
She nodded.
“What is it that keeps you from sleeping?” he asked. He wasn’t too sure of the different reasons why people had insomnia, but he did know that hiding something was one of them. Was he fooling himself that she was as guileless as she seemed? He had been a fool once for a lover, and he really didn’t want to be again. Zelda was different. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t deceiving him.
And what kind of ego did that betray? That he thought she was out to fool him… But he didn’t think it was deliberate.
“Nightmares mixed with old memories. Mainly from my mid-teens,” she said.
“I assume you have someone you talk to about it,” he said, shifting around on the bed and stuffing some pillows behind his back. She rolled to her side, propping her head up on her hand as she stared at him.
“I don’t, actually. Talking about it makes it worse,” she said.
He nodded and realized that she knew what was best, but he was a man who liked to fix things, to figure out the “why” of things to satisfy his own curiosity. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Keep sleeping with me,” she said. “I know neither of us… Actually, I shouldn’t speak for you. I wasn’t looking for something permanent, but I like you, Nicholas. I’d like to see you again.”
It was odd how she’d done that, made herself vulnerable by asking for a relationship with him. He thought about last night, when she’d hedged about wanting him. “I do. I do want that. But I’ll be honest and tell you I have no idea if I’ll be any good at any kind of relationship that isn’t just sex.”
She started laughing. “That’s fair. I don’t know if I am, either. I’ve been pretty much a loner except for hookups for the better part of my adult life. Edna, Molly, and Stetson are the only ones I’ve allowed to get close to me, and even they don’t know everything. I guess we can both just figure out what works for us.”
What works for us.
He liked the way that sounded, as if suddenly they were a couple. He hadn’t been looking for that, but he did like the feel of it. “Sure.”
“Okay then. We can start by maybe staying at my place the next time, because this house of yours is gorgeous but way out of town,” she said.
“It definitely is. I normally use my penthouse at the Jokers Wild, so we can alternate between that and your place, if that’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got a jam-packed day and have to stay late tonight to rehearse the show. So if we want to see each other tonight, it will have to be after nine.”
She pursed her lips and tipped her head to the side. “I told Molly I’d watch Stetson while she goes to some parent-teacher meetings at school tonight. So let’s just see each other tomorrow?”
In his m
ind, he imagined she’d just be sort of waiting for him when he was done working and they’d be together, but he knew that wasn’t realistic. Life was complicated, and neither of them had been waiting for the other to appear.
“Yes. I’ll look over my schedule to be sure, and you can do the same. We’ll get this figured out,” he said.
“We will,” she agreed. “But for now, we’d better get moving. I have to be back home and open my shop by ten.”
“Why don’t you use the bathroom first?” he suggested. “I’ll make us some coffee and leave some clean sweats out for you to wear back to your place.”
“That sounds perfect,” she said, then pushed herself up and straddled him. “Good morning, Nicholas.”
She put her hands on either side of his face and kissed him. He rolled her over and made love to her again. And then they were really in a rush to leave his place. But it was so worth it.
…
They spent a lot of time together over the next few weeks as Zelda worked on bringing together the exhibit and Nicholas worked on his show. The closer they got, the more that Zelda realized she needed to tell him about her past connection with magic. But there were times when it felt like he was waiting for her to admit she wasn’t what she seemed, and that made her more stubborn about actually saying anything.
Molly, who had no idea about her past, said she was being foolish, but Zelda’s gut told her she wasn’t. She’d been a part of a huge magic family and had a magical pedigree. There weren’t many people around who had the kind of background she had, not even Nicholas. This was something she needed to figure out. If he was meant to bring her back to the world of magic, to show her that she didn’t need to cut herself off from it, then she knew she was going to have to tell him about her past. But if she was meant to help heal him and his mistrust of others… Well, keeping quiet was really the only thing she could do.
Right?
“Hell’s bells, I’m an idiot,” she said out loud as she staged her antiques in the exhibit.
“Why are you an idiot?”
She turned to see Talia standing behind her. She’d gotten to know the social media manager for the casino very well over the last few weeks and was starting to think of the other woman as a friend. She was engaged to Nicholas’s good friend and casino partner, Casey Waltham.
“Just trying to figure out what’s going on with me and Nicholas.”
Talia started laughing. “Sorry, I’m not being unkind. But it’s still like that with me and Casey, even though we are engaged. I mean, honestly, sometimes I think love makes fools of us all.”
“I agree,” Zelda said. “But I’m not sure what Nicholas and I have is love.”
“Fair enough, but the sentiment is the same,” she said.
It was. This relationship of theirs was making everything more complicated. She knew that he’d be bothered by the fact that she hadn’t mentioned her family’s name. When they’d been just randomly hooking up, it hadn’t been important. But now…
“It is,” Zelda agreed. “I just wish…”
“What do you wish?” Talia asked.
She looked at her new friend and realized that she couldn’t say she wished Nicholas did something else, anything else but magic. She couldn’t tell anyone about their shared connection because if Nicholas ever heard it from someone else, he’d feel doubly betrayed. When they’d been doing shots of tequila and dodging the tough questions, it had been okay not to mention her connection to the famous Waterstone family, but now that they were more than just drinking buddies, now that she was falling for him, she knew she needed to come clean. But telling him about her past wasn’t going to be easy to do. In fact, she was dreading it. It was tied to the part of herself she hated.
“That he wasn’t so Nicholas,” she said at last. “He overwhelms me and makes me forget about these niggling doubts when we are together.”
Talia shook her head. “Girl, I totally get it. We should hang out sometime. My friend Sami and I are overdue for a girls’ night.”
“I’d love that,” she said. “Maybe I’ll bring my friend Molly, if she can find a sitter.”
“I know it might sound odd, but my gran would probably be a good option. She’s always looking for a kid to spoil.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “What do you think of the exhibit so far? Trixie has really been a huge help. She knows all the background to Nicholas’s tricks, so I have been able to get right to his original source material to plan them.”
“I love what you’re doing. We have been getting Nicholas and his team to do videos to go along with them. Soon we’ll have one in each of the alcoves. I can’t wait for the show to open. We had a preview of the illusion he’ll be anchoring the show with a few months ago at his mansion outside of town, and the reaction was over the top. Everyone loved it.”
“Is that when his Houdini water chest was taken?” she asked.
“Yes. Security was tight around the large ballroom where he was doing the illusion, but I guess it was taken from another room,” Talia said. Her phone pinged, and she stepped away to take the call. “I’ve got to get back upstairs. I’ll be in touch for girls’ night, okay?”
Zelda nodded and went back to working on the exhibit, but she couldn’t help thinking about that chest. Someone had come to his preview with the sole intent of stealing from him. She wondered who would hate him that much…or was it hate? She had a feeling that this theft had been emotionally motivated, because the chest hadn’t shown up at any dealers—even the disreputable ones. She’d been watching all the online sites. And nothing else had been taken. Just the chest that had started Nicholas’s magic journey. Her heart ached for his loss.
Sure, I don’t love him, she thought to herself.
It was complicated. The feelings she had for Nicholas were all tied up with her past and her regrets. It was hard to sort through which were genuine feelings for him and which were guilt over her exit from the world of illusion.
No matter how she sliced it, she cared for him—a lot. But she needed to figure out how to prove to him he could take her at face value, because that was a hot button for him. But to do that, she had to come clean about her past. He had to know about that if she was going to stay with him.
Or she could just end it.
Her heart hurt at the thought of that.
She heard a snap and sizzle behind her and turned around to see Nicholas appearing in a cloud of smoke. No, she couldn’t walk away from him, she thought as her pulse started racing when he smiled at her.
“Out of thin air,” she said.
“One of my more impressive tricks,” he said.
“It is,” she said, smiling at him. But she had a growing sense of dread that time between them was growing short. She had to tell him about her family. And the longer she waited, the more it would hurt him.
…
Nicholas had never felt happier, which conversely made him worry. Leo was his usual pragmatic self, warning him not to let a pair of nice legs go to his head. But it wasn’t just her legs, but Zelda herself that was making him feel like this. She wasn’t a pushover in any way, and she didn’t hesitate to let him know if he was doing something that she didn’t like. Like today, when he had a camera crew and a crowd of VIP Pine Nuts—his fan group had named themselves that—there to see a trick. The stunt was dangerous but one he’d done before. Zelda had at first refused to come and watch him do it, saying he was an idiot. But he saw her familiar red head in the crowd as Leo and Keely made the final adjustments to his gear and got ready for the illusion.
“What are you staring at?” Leo asked as he checked the rigging.
“Nothing,” Nicholas said, but he lifted his hand and waved at her, noticing that Stetson was at her side. Her eight-year-old godson waved enthusiastically at Nicholas.
That explained Zelda’s presence. He
had noticed that she’d do just about anything for the people she loved, even if it wasn’t something she wanted to do for herself. It was one of the things he truly admired about her. She was a good person, which, of course, he’d already figured out. And she was honest. She was always upfront with him about everything, and as their relationship developed, it was something he valued more and more. She might be the first person he’d ever met who wasn’t lying about something.
“Oh, good, Zelda’s here,” Leo said. “Now you’ll stop searching the crowd for her.”
“I wasn’t—”
“Don’t bother, boyo. I saw you. I like her. She reminds me of someone, though,” Leo said.
“Like who? Jade?” he asked, because honestly, he didn’t sense that he’d met her before. “Do you think she’s been to a show before? She said she grew up on the east coast.”
“Not Jade. She’s nothing like that grifter who was just out to take us for everything we could give her.” Leo’s brow wrinkled, and he strained to look at her again. “Does Zelda have a sister?”
“I don’t know,” Nicholas said. “We never discussed the particulars of family, just that she grew up out there. Why?”
“It’s probably nothing,” Leo said. “Definitely not anything you need to worry about. I just think she looks like a kid I used to see in one of the east coast shows.”
“I don’t think she’s in a magic family,” Nicholas said. Surely she’d have mentioned it by now. “That’s not something she’d keep to herself. I mean, we talk about magic all the time.”
“I’m probably mistaken, then,” Leo said. “I was drinking a lot in those days, and there are times when I wasn’t even sure I was where I thought I was. I’m probably wrong about her.”
“I like her. I think Leo is trying to say he met her first because he likes her, too,” Keely said with a grin.
“She’s too young for me, brat,” Leo said to Keely. “Besides, she only has eyes for our boy here.”
“She likes muscles, Leo. So if you are going to make a play for her, you are going to have to start working out,” Nicholas teased. He knew his friend and mentor wasn’t interested in Zelda. No, he was totally interested in Keely but hadn’t let himself make a move on her because Leo thought he was too damaged for good women.
Wild Nights (Jokers Wild) Page 11