Page 23 of Under Your Spell

‘And I’m going to go and find Henry and drag him off to a dark corner,’ Lil puts in brightly.

‘You two have been at it non-stop.’ Serena grimaces.

‘It’s the hot sex spell.’ Lil’s eyes are round. ‘I told you we were some seriously powerful witches. The magic has, like, spilled over.’

‘Can’t say I’ve noticed,’ Serena says with a feline grin, ‘but then I’m always having hot sex anyway.’ And on that note we go our separate ways.

I notice the crowd has grown considerably as I weave my way through, squeezing by with plenty of muttered ‘excuse me’s’ until my elbows rest on the bar.

I lean my chin on my hand, expecting a long wait, but one of the bartenders makes a beeline for me straightaway.

She’s very pretty with long dark hair, and a lip piercing. ‘What can I get you?’ she asks me.

‘Um, Martini please,’ I say. ‘Dirty.’

‘Sure, and for your friend?’ Her eyes slide to the person next to me, her smile widening into something predatory.

‘Oh, I don’t—’ I begin, turning to follow her gaze, but the words die on my tongue and my heart stutters in my chest because standing there, smouldering down at me, is Edward.

We stare at each other for a beat, and I swear the music stops and all the other people in the bar just melt away. He looks good. Really good. His hair is a bit longer and his face is unshaven, his jaw covered in dark stubble. He’s wearing black trousers, a black shirt open at the collar, and a black silk jacquard jacket covered in a pattern of red roses. There are silver rings on all the fingers of his right hand. There’s something piratical about him that is deeply attractive, and given the attention he’s drawing I’m not the only one who thinks so.

He turns to the bartender, offering her an easy grin. ‘I’ll have a soda water with lots of ice please,’ he says, before his attention returns to me. ‘Hello, Clementine.’ His voice is velvet, the smile he gives me setting off some sort of nuclear reaction in my blood stream.

I’m sure my mouth must be hanging open.

‘Edward!’ I finally manage. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Ah,’ he grimaces, ‘about that…’

‘There you are!’ Serena is suddenly beside me, having elbowed her way through the crowd. ‘I see you beat me to it.’ She beams at Edward and then at me. ‘Clemmie, have you introduced yourself to Theo?’

I blink. ‘Theo?’

‘Yes.’ Serena gestures to Edward. ‘This is Theo Eliott. Theo, this is my sister, Clementine.’

Chapter Nine

‘This isn’t Theo,’ I say, confused, at the same time as Edward says, ‘Clemmie is your sister?’

The bartender places our drinks on the bar and leans forward to make sure Edward gets a good look down her black tank top. He keeps his eyes on me and I’m not proud of the smirk that puts on my face, but some cavewoman part of my brain wants to wrap myself around the man and hiss at her like a cat.

My God, Clemmie. Calm down.

My sister is frowning at me and for a moment I worry she can read my mind. ‘What are you talking about, Clemmie?’ She puts a hand on Edward’s arm, tugging him forward. ‘This is Theo Eliott.’

‘No,’ I say, putting my hand on his other arm. ‘This is Edward.’

‘Clemmie,’ Edward interrupts softly, putting his hand over mine. ‘I was just trying to tell you: my name’s not Edward, it’s Theo.’

I’m so thrown by the way my body reacts to his warm hand covering mine that it takes a beat too long for his words to reach me. ‘W-what?’ I ask when they finally do.

Theo-not-Edward says nothing, but removes his hand and sips from his drink. I think he looks nervous.

‘Edward?’ Serena’s face is baffled for a moment, then her eyes round in shock. ‘As in Double-O Edward?’ she hisses.

Theo splutters into his glass, and I wonder if I have perhaps died and am in some sort of previously unwritten-about circle of hell. Dante would absolutely love this shit.

‘Double-O Edward?’ Theo repeats, and there’s a slow, delighted grin spreading across his face.