Page 86 of Under Daddy's Spell

“Let me guess, with your nose in a book?”

This was one of the many things the madame had guessed correctly about her, but Tessa didn’t tell her that. She was still trying to assimilate this new mind-blowing information with what she already knew about Jordan.

It explained why he was gone so much, flying around the country to a different city every weekend, and why the gym was closed on Sunday. It was football day; even she knew that.

Owen, the big-mouth body builder, had mentioned a game. At the time, she was more concerned about the woman he was with rather than where he was. She hadn’t considered it would be at a football game, or that the man she knew as the owner of the gym next door would be up in the broadcast booth high above the field announcing to the millions who watched on TV.

She knew nothing about the game, much less what a tight end was. But she knew the Saints emblem when she saw it and should have suspected, when he had it permanently inked on his body, that Jordan was much more than a fan.

As the reality of who he was sank in, Tessa was convinced, now more than ever, that the spell had worked. Why else would a famous, wealthy sports hero have any interest in an overly round pain-in-the-ass bookstore owner when he could have any woman in the world?

“Listen,” she said, slapping her hand on the glass counter. “I want this undone, now. Can you help me or not?”

“I can,” Lucinda answered quietly. “But I want to know why?”

“Because he doesn’t want me for me,” she exclaimed, her voice raw with a whirlwind of emotions—pain, dejection, and bitter disappointment. “He’s compelled by magic. I don’t want his love and affection that way. I’ll have the real thing or nothing at all.”

She still looked at her as if she were nuts, but now with the addition of sympathy, or perhaps pity.

“He’ll remember what happened when the spell is removed. If his feelings abruptly change, what if he gets ticked at you for what you did? Or worse, reverts to the arrogant asshole you knew before, what then?”

“I’ll deal with the fallout, but at least I’ll know we weren’t meant to be.”

Lucinda shook her head, her long crystal earrings jangling as she did. “I think you’re making a huge mistake, but to each her own.”

“You’ll help me undo it, then?”

“Yes.” She waved her hand over the book. “Show me.”

Tessa spun the book her way and flipped through it until she found the napkin she’d used as a bookmark. With it open to the spell, she turned it toward the madame, who put on a pair of glasses and began to read.

“You spilled something on it,” she suddenly exclaimed.

“No. I was very careful with it. It’s in the exact condition as when I got it.”

Lucinda’s head didn’t move, but she skewered her with an irritated look over her glasses before she resumed reading.

When she reached the bottom of the page, she flipped to the next. But she only read for a second before she frowned and turned back then repeated the process—twice.

“Here’s your problem,” she announced as she ran a long, crimson fingernail along the bottom of the page and up the side. “These two pages are stuck together.”

Tessa watched wide-eyed as she peeled them apart.

“Look here. You’ve got the beginnings of a peace spell.” Lucinda tapped on the title of the first page before flipping fit and tapping on the next. “But the ending of another.”

With a sense of dread, and a little nausea, she dared to ask because she had to know, “What’s that one for?”

Lucinda’s head didn’t move, only her eyes did as she peered at her over her glasses. “Inspiring lust.”

Sakes alive! Of all the possibilities, she got lust? It was too improbable to believe. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

The madame spun the book around once again and invited, “Look for yourself.”

After she read the first line,drop three pinches of the crushed herbs into the spring water, Tessa didn’t need to go any farther. No wonder the instructions seemed to jump around. With her elbows on the counter, she dropped her head into her hands. “Mercy sake’s alive. When I fuck up, I fuck up big.”

“It would seem so, dear. But this doesn’t change how you proceed.”

With a glimmer of hope, Tessa looked up at the madame. “It doesn’t?”

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