“And you mentioned a herd of elephants?”
“Pretty much from the moment I touched the ring, it’s been hammering away at me, like someone is pounding against my head, trying to get me to…”
“Let go? Give in?”
“Yeah, I think so. It’s mental torture 101. Won’t let me sleep. Making it harder to think. Or make decisions. Wearing me down.”
“That’s why you were acting a little spacey at Aunt Lucy’s!”
“I hadn’t had a moments peace for over six days before I walked into the Valhalla farmhouse.”
“How is that possible? You seem…” Gigi searched Nico’s face for any sign of fatigue or insanity, because clearly the ring was trying to drive him nuts. “…fine.” Such a small word to describe someone so sinfully hot and annoying, just because he was cursed didn’t make him any less annoying.
“That’s the thing. Somehow you’re like a mute button. I noticed it first at that meeting with Lucy. The moment you walked in, bam, silence.” He wasn’t ready to share with Gigi yet that heappeared to be doubly cursed. That though she was his mute button when it came to the ring, the silence came with a price, that subtle, seductive pull that Gigi exuded. A faint tugging on his senses that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
If she even gave the slightest indication that she was doing it on purpose, or actively pursuing him, he’d tell her to cut it out. But all he usually saw in Gigi’s sparkling eyes when she looked his way was generally irritation and exasperation.
“I mistakenly thought the ring had burnt itself out. Unfortunately, the moment I left, it was back hammering away at me.”
“But that meeting with Lucy was days ago. How are you still functioning?”
“It took me a while to put it together. I wasn’t sure if it was you or the rabbit who was the key to muting the ring, not until you walked into the bar by yourself just now. Click. Off it went the moment I saw you.”
Something was missing, something he wasn’t telling her. Why would he look so wary of her if she was the key to bringing him peace? “But you said you can’t sleep with this thing in your head. You should be an incoherent vegetable by now.”
“Yeah, about that. I’ve been sleeping on your deck for the last few nights. Your outdoor recliners are surprisingly comfortable.”
“You’ve been sleeping on my sundeck?”
“Yes, I was out running a few days ago and literally stumbled into a zone of silence, it was your deck. Since then I’ve been spending every night there. So thankfully I have a work around now for the no sleep part of this bloody curse.”
“As long as it doesn’t rain.” Gigi observed dryly. A little miffed she hadn’t realised her private space had been invaded.
“True. My next pressing problem appears to be, thanks to the ring’s influence, suddenly all these women are chasing me.” Reaching into his jeans pocket Nico pulled out a wad of barnapkins, all had phone numbers scrawled on them. Several had lipstick stained kisses acting as exclamation marks. Scowling down at the crumpled mess he threw them in the rubbish bin. “Like I said. At first I put it down to Adelaide’s book getting re-released. But after this morning, it’s pretty clear that I have a new problem…that I’ve become some kind of—”
“Chick magnet?” Again he blushed. She was not charmed. She wasn’t. “So this ring, along with trying to get into your head to control you? Changes you? Or perhaps the women’s adoration is just another form of bait it uses. Like, if you give into it, these women could all be yours?”
“That’s sick. Who would let an object manipulate them like that? Want that kind of forced adoration and bask in it?”
“A grumpy, sullen, arrogant he-man, who’s never known what true love is, I’m guessing.”
“I am not secretly pining for my one true love. And I’m not sullen or arrogant, I just have a lot on my plate at the moment.”
Gigi couldn’t quite hide her smug gotcha smile, though she did her best to give Nico innocent doe eyes. “I was talking about Aploonius. Who appears to have transitioned from bad-ass warrior army general to some golden haired, peace on earth, flowers for all, love everyone hippie lifestyle.”
“Oh. Yes. Him.” Nico scowled. “So you think it’s trying to lure me to the love-side?”
“Lure? More like brow-beat. It’s approach isn’t exactly subtle, is it? Kind of ham fisted really. Perhaps it thinks every man’s secret wish is to have a flock of women pursue them. Fight over them. Shower them with blinkered adoration and praise. Basically the ring turns those it curses into rockstars. Many men would happily give into that kind of curse.”
“Yeah, well, count me out. I don’t do love, ever. And a bunch of women batting their eyes at me whilst treating me like a stripperon a stage and stuffing their phone numbers into my pockets, isn’t going to change my mind.”
“And yet somehow, someway, the ring managed to coerce or browbeat Aploonius, a blood-thirsty, notorious battle general to the love side. Aren’t you a little worried?”
“I have something he didn’t, you.”
“Me?”
“You don’t just mute the mental hammering. You negated the effect of the curse on those women at the bar. The moment the ring stopped hammering at me, they seemed to wake up. Shake off the effects of the ring or me.”
