“I can get this one, you get your tea ready,” she went back to the office with her mug, leaving me alone in the kitchen. I took a few deep breaths, trying to centre myself and will away the nausea as I poured the boiled water into my mug.
I left the tea bag in and finished chewing on the granola bar while it steeped. Once I had that bit of food in me, the nausea eased up. I used a spoon to fish the tea bag out and squeezed it on the side of the sink, dropping it into the compost bin beneath the counter.
When I returned to the office, Noah was gone.
Chapter Ten
Noah
* * *
After Nellie went pale and all but ran off, the spell between us broke as suddenly as it was cast, and I came to my senses. They’d been more than a little out of whack since I leaned over her to help her with Georgia Moran’s call.
That was a mistake. I shouldn’t have gotten that close, shouldn’t have let the strawberry scent of her hair draw me in. I shouldn’t have been paying such close attention to the way her breath caught at my nearness. I shouldn’t have been wondering if she’d been thinking about our night together, too.
I definitely shouldn’t have put my arm so close to her to needlessly point out the reservation on the booking software. Nellie had eyes; she could find it herself.
But I hadn’t been in control of myself. I’d had to force myself to step away and sit down, giving us the space we needed.
I suited up and went outside, needing the fresh air to snap me back into reality.
It was cold and snowing lightly. The perfect weather for ice fishing, ice skating, and tobogganing.
Walking aimlessly toward the frozen lake shore, I hoped the cold air would jolt me back to my senses. I needed to get my head on straight, but Nellie’s presence skewed my sensibilities. I had no choice in my body’s reaction to her. It’d been that way ever since the first night I met her.
The night of the Witches’ Ball, I’d noticed Nellie the second I arrived. She was in the middle of the dance floor with Sage and our other friends, her back to me—her body moving in perfect time to the music. The short skirt of her costume put all her incredible assets on display, her well-toned glutes and her killer legs that left me panting. Half the dress was made to look like a doctor’s jacket with green spills on it, while the other half was a brown suit dress style, strategically torn.
When she turned, her ample breasts stole my attention. I wanted to bury my face in them, which was a roguish thought to have but my physical attraction to her had been like a strike of lightning.
I caught a glimpse of the half of her face not obscured by the purposely grotesque Jekyll makeup and contact lens, and it was evident that beneath the special effects makeup, she was hot. Then she caught me checking her out and flashed me a smile, and I was hooked without reservation. I felt the overwhelming need to get to know her.
She looked like my kind of fun, and as the night progressed she proved that she was. The moment my hands went to her waist when we started dancing, I felt the thing between us brewing. By the end of the night, our desire for each other was boiling over.
We took shot after shot, letting the liquor drive us closer and closer together, until we were all but entwined on the dance floor, until I was whispering in her ear that she should come home with me. And then she did.
That night had left more of a mark on me than I ever could have imagined.
The cold bite of winter wind did nothing to douse the flames of the memory. My desire for Nellie still lived beneath my skin, and it took her returning for me to acknowledge it.
But I couldn’t just act on that desire the way I had that first night. Nellie had been very much into it. There had been no walls erected around her for me to climb over, no boundaries in place.
Even with those walls—those boundaries—I knew that if Nellie gave even the slightest indication that she was interested in a repeat, I’d happily get on my knees for her.
* * *
Nellie
* * *
Sage texted me after work, asking if I wanted to meet her at The Hungry Hub for dinner. I managed to score a parking spot out front. When I entered the bustling diner, I spotted Sage sitting in a booth near the back.
She waved at me, and I made my way over, past tables full of patrons. The delicious smell of food wafted over, and my mouth started to water in anticipation. My appetite was out of control. I was always hungry, and if I wasn’t, I was nauseated. It was one extreme or the other.
“No Daphne?” I asked as I removed my jacket and hung it up on the hook on the wall that divided the booths.
“She’s having a sleepover with Riley.”
“Oh fun!” I sat down across from her. Sage was looking at me with a huge, knowing smile. “What?” I asked.
