Page 37 of Love Spell

Timo stared at him, silent for the first time.Julian took a drink, gazing back into his eyes.Although unsmiling, his eyes were dancing — laughing at Timo.

Timo spoke slowly and carefully, trying to make himself understand, to force this to be real and therefore fixable.“You put a love spell on me?”

“That’s right.”

“You somehow made me obsessed with my most junioremployee, who has absolutely no interest, who is more than a decade younger and scared shitless of me, wrecking my whole life,to prove a point?”

Julian grinned.“Nice.I only worded it to be someone totally and maximally wrong for you to fall for.I’d no idea who it’d be.”

“You think this is funny?”

“That you still don’t believe in magick while also claiming that your life was destroyed by it?Yeah, that’s pretty funny.”

“Take it off,” Timo ordered.

“Sure, but we’ll have to go in the back.Public decency laws in this city.”

Timo half stood, hands on the table, leaning towards Julian.“Take your fucking spell off me and Noah.”

“There’s nothing on Noah.You’re the one lucky winner.”

“Then take it off of me.Stop it, destroy it, burn it, whatever it is you do.Cancel that spell.”

“Or what?”Julian raised an eyebrow.“You’ll sue me?”

Timo looked down at the coffee cup.

Your Honour, this man put a magic spell on me and I demand that he remove it.

I see.What kind of magic spell?

The kind that drives a man mad.

Indeed.The court can see as much.

Slowly, Timo sat, only for Julian to stand.

“It’s been time-consuming running into you again, but I must be on my way.”

“You’re not going to leave?You haven’t even explained what’s happening.”

“I did.And you did,” Julian said coolly.“I put a spell on you to drive you to fall for the most unsuitable person in your social circles.You’ve been managing all the rest brilliantly.You, however, don’t believe in magick or energetic influences, do you?So that’s that.”He drained the final swallows from his coffee cup.

Timo also stood.“You can’t leave me like this.”

“Why not?”

“It’s taken over my life.I don’t deserve to be tortured for no reason.”

“Sounds very character-building to me.”Julian pocketed his phone.“Now I must be off to actual clients.Yours is just a charity case.”

“Charity —?”Timo moved to intercept as Julian turned away.“That’s it then?I’ll pay you.I’ll pay you to undo whatever it is you’ve done.How much do you want?”

Julian directed a cold gaze at him.“You know, I didn’t like you from the moment I saw you.But I do love being validated on first impressions.”He walked out.

13

The trouble was that Timo had allowed himself to get all worked up over something that wasn’t real.Not that how he felt for Noah wasn’t real.That was as real as a nuclear bomb — and nearly as inconvenient.No, it was the whole magic spell rubbish.He had grasped at straws, risen to being taunted by some arsehole.Obviously there was no spell on him because such things did not exist.