Spellbound Read Online Free Page A

head: Belle, you’re just not very sexy. It was one of Tony’s favourite refrains.
    Nick went to speak, his mouth opened, but no sound came out. He took a drink of wine and tried again. Still, no words.
    ‘Great,’ Belle muttered. She’d stuffed up the spell. And the voice had been such a nice surprise. ‘I guess if you can’t talk you can still use your tongue for other things?’ she said.
    ‘Excuse me?’ Nick sputtered through his mouthful of wine.
    ‘Oh good, you can talk,’ Belle said.
    A confused expression crossed his face. ‘Yes. No. I don’t, uh . . .’ He rubbed his throat distractedly.
    ‘It’s okay, I want you to talk. You can say anything. Ask me anything.’ Belle was hoping her phantom lover would have a dominant side to him. No chains and whips – not this time anyway – but maybe the odd little sexy command or forceful gesture. That would be very nice.
    Nick’s face suddenly relaxed and he settled more comfortably into the couch. ‘That’s better,’ he said. He shook his head and gave her a puzzled look. ‘I was feeling kinda strange, but now I feel fine.’
    ‘It’s probably the shock of being corporeal.’
    He frowned. ‘Uh, I guess.’
    There was a moment’s silence and Belle took the opportunity to study the way Nick’s jeans stretched tightly around his muscular thighs. Any last remaining nerves disappeared, replaced with anticipation for the night ahead.
    ‘Belle?’
    ‘Nick?’
    ‘Are you busy tomorrow?’
    ‘Why?’ What would a phantom with a two-hour lifespan care about the future?
    ‘I was reading in the newspaper this morning about a new cafe in St Kilda. Apparently they do great breakfasts. Would you be interested in trying it out with me?’
    Reading the newspaper! Belle’s nerves finally began to settle. Apart from that little hitch with the talking, it looked like the spell had not only worked, it had worked perfectly! She’d put in the newspapers and the movies so they’d have something to talk about, so that it would feel more like a regular date.
    Only now that it was going all regular-date-like, Belle found herself itching to get to the pointy end. The bedroom side of things. Or the floor. Or the sofa. She wasn’t picky.
    ‘I’d love to have breakfast with you,’ she said, putting on her best sultry voice. ‘I’m not sure if you’ll last that long, but let’s go with it for now.’
    He paused for a moment. ‘You’re really quite odd, you know that?’
    ‘Is that a problem?’
    ‘No.’ He sounded surprised. ‘It’s . . . interesting.’
    ‘You know what else is interesting?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘How much I want to kiss you.’
    His eyes went wide. ‘Really?’ One side of his mouth quirked up.
    Belle’s confidence faltered. So far she’d been doing pretty well, sounding all sexy and in charge. But throwing herself across the small space between them and launching her mouth at Nick’s seemed somehow undignified. And scary.
    He arched an eyebrow. ‘Why do you think that is?’ he asked. He twisted a little in the seat, bringing them closer together.
    Oh yes, this was more like it. ‘I really have no idea. Possibly your arms.’
    ‘My arms?’
    ‘I like your arms.’
    ‘Oh. That’s . . . nice.’
    ‘Very.’
    He leaned a little further forwards and Belle was close enough to see his long dark eyelashes framing soulful blue-grey eyes, and the prickle of his stubble along his jaw. ‘And I like your smell.’ Her brain, fully occupied with taking in every detail of his face, was paying little attention to what her mouth was doing.
    Her comment made him pull back and squint at her in disbelief. ‘My smell?’
    Belle’s cheeks flamed. ‘I didn’t mean to say that aloud.’
    He chuckled and the sound went straight to Belle’s stomach, making it tumble over. She laughed a little nervously in response.
    Then, suddenly, he was right next to her, not touching, but his mouth and nose were just inches from her neck. She could hear