Page 89 of Love Spell

“Ah, no.He said …” Noah took a chocolate and nibbled and edge to test the flavour.“Orange cream — best one.”

“Julian said what?”

Noah finally met his eyes.“He said he’d lifted the spell after I saw him the first time.Before our Paris trip.He said everything you’d done since then was totally on you.”

Timo opened his mouth, glared, shoved the lid on the box.“Everything was on me all along.That’s how free will works.”

“But …” A smile twitched the corner of Noah’s mouth.

“But nothing.”

“That was when you started sleeping properly again.”

“Only natural since it was when we went away together.Nothing strange about that.How I felt about you didn’t change.How I feel about you has only grown stronger.”

“I know it has.I guess I didn’t want to tell you in case it was like a placebo — like you started to believe a love spell had been lifted, when, really, isn’t falling in love always magical?Don’t we all sometimes feel out of control under its influence?”

Timo started to say not like this love: not like going to bed one night hardly knowing who someone was and waking up the next morning obsessed.No, that wouldn’t help his case.

“Sure,” Timo said.“All part of the fun.”

Noah gave him another chocolatey kiss before returning his head to Timo’s shoulder.

Noah calmed down after that.Having polished off the whole box by the time they reached Fairbanks late that night probably helped.Whatever the reason, he was the one who took Timo’s hand before they disembarked.

Timo kissed his knuckles.He smiled into Noah’s eyes, chest full with the pride he felt for Noah being ready to face the world as who he was, which meant the two of them facing it together.