Chapter Nine

It had led him to her, he thought. He wasn’t certain at all how to take that. There was something about her, so honest, so forthright, that made him wonder if he was looking too hard to find fault with her. Yet at the same time, experience was screaming in his ear that he just wasn’t looking hard enough.

“Do you need to be home at a certain time?” he asked.

“No, do you?” she countered.

“Well, I can’t do shots with you tonight,” he said.

“That’s too bad. Why not?”

“Let’s just say I wasn’t at my best the next day at work,” he said with a laugh. “If I show up like that again, I’m going to have a mutiny on my hands. But I do have something I’d like to show you.”

“I’m game,” she said.

He paid the bill, waving away her offer to pay her half, and then led her out of the restaurant. They got his car, and then he drove them away from the bright lights of the city toward his home, nestled on the outskirts of town. “I’m taking you to my place. Still game?”

She reached up and pulled the pins from her hair as they turned onto the highway that led out of the city. “I am.”

He opened up the throttle, putting the pedal to the floor and flying along the highway. Her hair whipping out behind them in the wind, she tipped her head up toward the sky and started laughing.

Nicholas found himself joining her, and while he kept his speed to a respectable seventy-five miles per hour, he realized for the first time why Dare liked speed. Though his friend would probably poke fun at him for thinking that seventy-five miles per hour was fast. He slowed down as they neared the gates of his property. His car was fitted with an automatic sensor, and the gates were opening as they pulled up to them. She didn’t say anything as he drove up the winding road that lead to the top of the hill and the circle driveway.

Though he’d had his grandparents’ mansion modernized, the house was old. In fact, this was the original property that his grandparents had left him. He parked the car, turned off the engine, then turned to face Zelda. The wind had made her hair into a red halo around her head and shoulders. Her eyes were wide with that curiosity that he loved seeing in them.

“That was incredible. Thank you. It’s been a long time since I just let go,” she admitted.

“You’re welcome,” he replied. He got out of the car and went around to open her door, but she already had it open. He offered her his hand, and she got out of the car.

He had called ahead to let the couple who kept the house know that he’d be home tonight so they wouldn’t come and investigate when they saw lights on in the main house. The Shaws lived in a bungalow down the hill, but it was still on the property. They were the caretakers he’d hired once he’d finally inherited the property from his guardian. He unlocked the door and led the way into the house, stopping in the foyer to drop his keys in a bowl on the table near the door.

“I like this,” she said. “It’s very turn-of-the-century paper baron.”

He started laughing. “How did you know? My grandparents’ fortune came from paper. They left the house to me, and I kept as many of the original parts as I could. The house was built in the Craftsman style, when form and function were prized.”

“I can tell. It’s really extraordinary. Is this what you brought me up here to show me?” she asked.

“Partly,” he said. “But I have a surprise for you.”

“You do?”

“I do. Close your eyes,” he said.

“Is that really necessary?” she asked,

“Don’t you trust me?” he countered, leaning in close to her, and she canted her body toward his.

“Of course I do. It just sounded so dramatic.”

“I am a showman,” he said.

“Yes, you are,” she admitted, then closed her eyes and held out her hands. “I’m yours.”

A shaft of pure possessiveness went through him. He wished she was his. He wanted her to be his. But he wasn’t sure that was realistic. He took her hand in his, brushed his lips over the back of her knuckles, and started to lead her across the foyer to a room that he kept locked at all times. “Close your eyes.”

“I hope you know you don’t need all the drama to lead me to your bedroom,” she said. “Just take off your shirt, and I’ll follow you anywhere.”

He chuckled. “Good to know. But I’m not taking you to my bedroom.”

“Damn.”

He smiled again, leaning in to use the retinal scan he’d recently had installed and then the biometric keypad to open a panel in the wall. He led her over the threshold and into the center of the room. He stopped when he was in front of the item he wanted her to see, the very object she’d said would be a challenge to obtain for his exhibit. It was an original straitjacket and suspension post from the 1890s.

“Open your eyes,” he said. “Surprise. It’s a Waterstone straitjacket and post. I know you mentioned you hadn’t been able to find one. This is what I based my very first illusion on.”

She caught her breath and stared at the object with something more than joy in her eyes. He couldn’t define it, but she quickly looked away. “So, do you know how to use it?”

Her words were light and flirty, but for the first time, he didn’t sense the sexy lust he usually heard in her voice. There was something else there, but what?

“Of course I can. Want to help me demonstrate?” he asked.

“Will you be removing your shirt?”

“I will.”

“Then I’m definitely in.”

…

Naturally, his surprise was something that she hadn’t been prepared for. When she’d first seen the straitjacket, she’d remembered how it felt to wear it while suspended on the post. She’d never been good at escaping. When she’d first been learning, her sister had been better at the tricks. But Zelda had always been better with the crowds.

She shook off those old recollections. She had to stop this flood of memories from the past. As soon as Nicholas turned toward her, she tried to compose her face, but the truth was right there on her lips. She hadn’t told anyone her real name in almost fifteen years, and now she was tempted. But he wasn’t the right person to tell. He’d ask too many questions—questions she didn’t want to answer. The only way to get through this was to keep silent.

“Want me to be your assistant?” she asked, focusing instead on him. On those electric blue eyes and the way they made her feel. That was the only way she was getting through this.

“I’d love that,” he said.

“What do I do?” she asked. She hadn’t performed in years, but she knew that each illusionist did something different with their assistants.

“Well, for starters, you help me take off my shirt,” he said.

“Yay, just what I was hoping to do,” she said. “Is it just so you can flex your muscles and show off for the crowd?”

“Partially, but it also shows the audience that I’m not hiding anything.” He held his arms out. “Now you undo the cuffs and then the buttons.”

“I’m liking this more and more,” she said, slowly undoing the cufflinks at his wrists. They had the same sigil that he had tattooed on his wrist. “Where do I put these?”

“Put them in my pocket,” he said.

She slipped her hand into his pocket, stretching her fingers to caress his upper thigh and to reach the tip of his cock, which hardened almost instantly. She took her hand from his pocket and then did the same thing on the other side. He cleared his throat, and she looked up at him.

“Am I doing it wrong?”

“No, you’re definitely not doing it wrong,” he said. “Now undo my shirt.”

She slowly undid his tie, taking it off. “Where do you want this?”

“Just put it on the table over there,” he said.

“Not your pocket?”

“Not if you want to see this trick,” he said.

“I do,” she admitted. She did want to see him perform magic up close. It was so much a part of him that she felt like she needed to see it. Maybe then she’d be able to understand what it was she was supposed to be doing here with him.

Because this was more than lust, she thought. She undid the buttons on his shirt and caught her breath at the sight of his muscled chest. She took a step back as she finished, and he stood there for a long moment. Their eyes met, and she felt that electric current pass between them.

“Now you walk around behind me and help me out of the shirt,” he said. “If this were a show, you’d take your time and do it leisurely. We’d have music, and you’d pause for effect before pulling it off of me.”

She licked her lips and moved toward him, touching his chest with her fingers. Then she caught the open edge of his shirt, unhurriedly drawing it down his arm as she walked around his body to the side, finally tugging it free from him.

He stood there with his arms outstretched. “As you can see, there isn’t anything taped to my body. My assistant will now run her hands over me to prove it.”

A jolt of feminine awareness went through her, pooling between her legs as she moved closer to him. “Do you do this in your show?”

“Not all the time, but I want to feel your hands on me,” he admitted, his eyes meeting hers.

She put her hands on his shoulders and then slowly swept them down his muscled arms, feeling his biceps flex under her touch, and then moved her hands to his waist. She drew her finger along the top of his trousers, reaching lower with her palm to brush the tip of his erection. He let out a little moan, and his hips thrust toward her, but she kept her touch moving along his body, over his hard stomach and up his abdomen and ribs. She spread her fingers wide so that she could cover the padded muscles of his pectorals.

“Turn around,” she said, her voice husky and deep, the arousal that was spreading through her evident in her tone.

He turned under her touch, and she cupped his butt, even though she knew she didn’t need to. But he had a nice ass, and she’d missed touching it, she realized. It had been too long since their night together.

She took her hands to the small of his back and then slowly caressed her way up to his shoulders again. He turned so quickly she almost lost her balance, then lifted her into his arms, pressing her body to his. He brought his mouth down on hers hard, kissing her so deeply that she forgot to breathe. He lifted his head, his nostrils flaring. Then he seemed to get control of himself again and set her on her feet.

She stepped back. “What’s next?”

“Get the straitjacket and help me put it on,” he said.

She took the jacket, and, as she lifted it, the scent of her grandfather’s cologne wafted out to her. It was faint, but she could smell it. Startled, she dropped the straitjacket but bent to pick it up. This was harder than she thought it would be.

“Do you want to skip the escape trick?” he asked.

She shook her head. She wanted to see him do it. She needed to have a new memory of someone performing this trick who wasn’t related to her. And besides, she was having fun teasing Nicholas. Though the balance of sexual fun and painful past was a delicate one, she wasn’t ready to give in and admit it was too much for her.

…

He was on the edge of just carrying her to the corner of the room, using the wall for support, and taking her as hard and fast as he could. But he’d brought her out tonight for more than sex. Of course, that undercurrent wasn’t something that either of them could ignore. He knew he’d been risking his self-control when he’d asked her to undress him. But he’d wanted to see if she still wanted him.

He’d definitely missed her touch. He could have called her and asked her out any time since the night he’d spent at her place, but he’d been playing games with himself. Telling himself that if he just focused on the show and not Zelda, he’d forget her.

As if she was ever going to fade from memory the way all the other women between her and Jade had. She was important. He could feel it, and not just in the pulse beating in his dick. He wanted her for more than sex. And somehow, it felt tied to magic. She put the straitjacket on him, fumbling with the fastenings.

He stood there until she had them all. “It’s more spectacular when I’m suspended from my feet, but I don’t dare try that with just you and me here. Leo is usually the one who does that part. And then I’m winched up over the stage.”

“I think I saw you do this in that show I watched earlier,” she said, her skin still flushed with arousal, her lips slightly swollen from his kiss. Perhaps he’d been too rough with her.

“Did I hurt you when I kissed you?” he asked.

“What? No. Is that part of your show?”

“No, of course not,” he said. “Now you walk around me and count slowly to five.”

He was already working to get out of the straitjacket, and by the time she’d walked around him, he was free. He shook his arms, and the jacket came off of his body. He held it out just as she finished saying five.

He caught her to him with his arm around her waist. “Impressed?”

“Yes. I’ve never seen it done so quickly.”

“Have you seen it before?” he asked, lifting one eyebrow.

“On your special. I watched it on YouTube, and they had other attempts. I liked yours the best,” she admitted.

“There is a guy who likes to break down tricks on there. He does all of mine, and I’m not sure if it’s deliberate or not, but he usually leaves out one or two steps.”

“I didn’t see that,” she said. She knew how much magicians hated it when someone revealed their secrets. All of their tricks were learned from a mentor or kept within a magical family. It was meant to preserve the mysticism but also to keep the performers safe. Years of practice went into every one of those illusions so that when one was finally performed for an audience, no one was injured.

She felt the water closing over her and shook her head. She remembered what Trixie had said about him not hitting all the rehearsals. “Are you putting in enough time on your new illusion?”

“Yes,” he said. “Why?”

“The rumor, remember? I just know that tricks can be dangerous if they aren’t well-rehearsed,” she said. “Or at least that’s what I read.”

“Concerned about me?” he asked.

She knew he was teasing her, but she put her hand on the side of his face and felt the stubble under her palm as their eyes met. “Yes. I don’t want anything to happen to you, Nicholas.”

He leaned down, their foreheads touching, and his lips brushed over hers in a kiss that was soft and gentle, yet still as potent as the hard kiss he’d given her earlier. “I don’t, either. I don’t take chances like that. I think the team is worried I’m off my game because my Houdini water chest is missing. But I think I’ve found a new talisman.”

She stepped back. She wasn’t sure what he was going to say next, but she knew he couldn’t be referring to her. She was bad luck when it came to magic. She’d used every bit of luck she had to save her sister, and she didn’t want to have to worry like that for Nicholas.

“The straitjacket?” she quipped in a gruff voice. Her throat was dry and felt like it was closing up as she talked.

“Only if you come up onstage and help me out,” he said.

“Uh, no. You have Keely or Trixie for that. I’m definitely not performance material,” she said. There was no way she’d get back onstage. Ever.

“I don’t know about that,” he said.

She turned away, moving deeper into the room. He had some really old props as well as some newer ones. She lifted a pair of manacles and held them up. They weren’t dissimilar to the ones she’d taught Stetson to use in her shop.

“Want to try to get out of these?” she asked.

“I would love to see you try to get out of them,” he said.

“I’m not the master of illusion,” she said.

“Then why do I have the feeling that you are?” he asked. “But I’m done with tricks for tonight.” He pulled her into his arms once more. “What about you?”

She looked up into those electric blue eyes and felt a tingle go through her. She put her hand in the middle of his chest and spread her fingers wide. She wanted him, and it was easier to go to bed with him than to spend any more time in this room of magic.

“Yes. I’m done with tricks.”