Love Spells and Other Disasters

by Angie Barrett

  “Yeah, I just thought you’d show up.”

  “And stand by the sidelines? Nah, better to make a clean break. Start fresh.”

  Del nods his head up, then he looks me over. “Looks that way.”

  I get the distinct impression that he’s judging me and also referring to Shelley. I’d feel more insecure if Luca and I hadn’t already cleared the air where she was concerned. I mean, obviously everyone knew her, even Abby who’s suddenly looking everywhere but at me.

  A group of guys shout for Del. He nods, holds up his hand, then turns back to Luca. “One more team play? One for the road?” he says. “We’ve got the hot tub lined up.”

  Hot tub?

  Abby’s smile widens and she leans closer to me. “Told you you’d end up flashing your underwear tonight.”

  Chapter Ten

  I’m not even drunk enough for this to make sense. I mean, seriously, here I am, being talked into stripping down to my underwear so I can join the freakin’ football team and their various girlfriends in this giant hot tub.

  But I’m doing it…somehow. I know that in this moment, and maybe only in this moment, I’m one of the crowd. Abby acts like it’s totally cool for me to be standing next to her, and her friends, Bella and Eva, didn’t even bat an eye. No one expects me to back out. For the first time in my life, I fit in. I mean, sure, they’re using me for the spells they want me to write, but hey, no friendship is perfect, right?

  Do I even want to be friends with these people? No. Yes. Maybe? I want to be more than friends with Luca so I guess I’m stuck hanging out with whoever he’s friends with.

  Luca tried to get us out of the hot tub idea. He attempted to make an excuse but the team wouldn’t hear it and it’s impossible to avoid the frenzy. The music, the booze, the unstoppable force that is peer pressure, when an entire football team is demanding you participate, you just do. I never knew such a world existed. It makes me wonder how Luca can walk away from his team. It seems like they aren’t the type to let someone go off and do anything for themselves.

  The guys all take their clothes off, right down to their underwear and I can feel the party crowd turn. Girls are gawking. Guys are staring. Everyone has to be drooling because these football boys are all hard bodies and defined muscles. Some have tattoos, some don’t, but all are undisputedly hot.

  Ethan has been right all along. I’m enthralled. I flit my eyes over the group, then land on Luca who is just as buff, just as defined. He’s got abs on abs on abs and a trail of dark hair that goes right down to his boxers. He’s model material and here I am staring like I’ve never seen such a beautiful thing. Which, I guess, I haven’t.

  Luca gives me a half smile and shrugs before slipping into the tub. It’s bubbling and steaming and he’s joking with his team. One of the guys. He fits in perfectly.

  Somebody turns on a new song. It’s a song that I know is supposed to be hot. It’s slow and has a heavy beat and suddenly the girls around me are moving their hips, urging me just by proximity to do the same.

  I watch from the sidelines. Tights, leggings, pants, skirts all come off. I take a deep drink from my bottle. I can be one of the girls. No one questions why I’m here. In fact, Abby motions me to join them.

  Join. Them. In. Stripping.

  The girls continue to dance. The guys are all cheering, hooting, hollering, catcalling.

  Luca and I lock eyes. He’s leaning forward. His hands are under the water. His eyes are saying something to me. You don’t have to do this, is what I think he’s trying to convey. Or maybe, please do this.

  I down the rest of my drink before putting the bottle on a table, and then reach deep into the cave where my courage hibernates and coax it out.

  Then I yank my halter off, thank the universe that it doesn’t get snagged, and toss it to the side. Luca’s eyes go wide. I unbutton my jeans. His eyes drop to where my hands are. I slowly work my jeans over my hips, down my legs, bending so that my boobs are nearly falling out of my bra, never taking my eyes off Luca. I’m trying to be seductive. I know I’m being bold. I think it’s working.

  He gulps. I watch his Adam’s apple bob. I kick my jeans away, take my socks off, then follow the girls into the tub.

  I have never done anything like this. Never thought about doing something like this. It’s liberating and amazing.

  “There isn’t room for all of us,” one of the guys shouts. “Girls you have to sit on your man’s lap.”

  Oh crap.

  Luca has his hands up, he’s reaching out to help me move closer to him. He’s got a space between him and Del, motioning for me to sit there. I look over my shoulder for a split second and see Ethan standing by the wall, leaning, lifting a drink to his lips, watching me. One eyebrow cocked, a sly smile there and gone. He has to have seen the whole thing. Me stripping. Me getting into the water. He raises his cup in salute, then downs whatever is in there.

  I smile. Okay, then—I’m doing it.

  I turn back to Luca. He’s being jostled around in his attempt to save a space for me. I think about what Ethan would do, close my eyes for a second, and then slide onto Luca’s lap.

  Our skin is slippery and Luca immediately wraps his arms around my waist to keep me from floating away or sliding off. At first my boobs are practically pressed up under his chin and my hands are on his shoulders. It’s oddly up close and personal and I can’t help but think how this is so not me…but I want it to be. In the process of everyone getting settled, I’m turned around and my butt’s pressed firmly against his… Oh wow.

  He has one hand on my thigh and the other against my stomach. That familiar tingle of heat rushes through me, pooling low…lower… This feels good. I’m doing this, like really sitting on Luca’s lap. Like we’re a couple. Like this is totally something that we do.

  “If this is uncomfortable…” he says into my ear.

  I shake my head and lean back more, relaxing into him so that I’m kind of floating, kind of not.

  That’s when the shots start coming around. I don’t know what it is but it tastes awful. One shot down my throat and my belly is on fire. The heat rising up from the tub makes my head feel light and my body tingly. I look slick and sleek. I can’t believe I’m here, in this tub, with all of these people who never gave me the time of day before now. I didn’t even know I wanted to be here, in this moment, until now.

  “Your girl’s body is rad,” the guy on the other side of Luca says.

  “Shut up, dude,” Luca grumbles.

  “No seriously, her tits are—”

  Luca shifts sideways, hard, and nearly topples me over in the process. Then we’re moving, both of us, to the other side of the tub where there’s apparently more room because two people have gotten out. He’s got his arm around my waist and the water splashes around us in waves. Luca helps me sit on the bench and then slides in next to me.

  “Sorry about that.”

  I laugh awkwardly. No amount of booze is going to help me navigate this situation. Suddenly all the courage I had getting into the tub is gone.

  Luca reaches behind us and then produces two bottles of cider. “Want one?”

  I nod. “Do you guys do this kind of thing a lot?”

  “The team wants to do everything as a team.” Luca shrugs, takes a drink, and then drapes his arm around me. I think he’s doing it more to keep the guy on my side away from me though because his hand isn’t touching me, it’s up, like a stop sign almost. “But sometimes the team gets carried away with the idea of sharing and stuff.”

  My eyes go wide. I flick my gaze around the tub. Noticing for the first time that, sure enough, Abby is kissing someone other than Del and other girls are being passed like a platter of food. “Oh!”

  “Yeah, so I’m not great with the idea of sharing. I mean, if it’s something you’re into—”

  “Um, no. Definitely no
t into that.” I laugh, take a few good healthy gulps of my cider, and thank the universe that the heat is making my skin just as red and hot as my blushing probably is.

  I look at him then and he’s watching his team, his eyes narrowed, his lips turned down, like he’s seeing them all for the first time. It can’t be easy for him to feel like he’s not the same as they are anymore, that he doesn’t belong. I know that feeling well. I don’t want him to experience it. Not tonight.

  So I put my drink on the ledge behind us. Impulse pricks along my skin. An undeniable urge to be brave. Be bold. Be irresistible. I move myself back onto his lap. This time I’m kind of sideways, kind of not. My thigh is pressed against his crotch and I’m angled so that I can wrap my arms around his neck. I slip my fingers into his hair, so soft, and pull him closer. Our breaths are one, laced with sweet cider, loaded with intention.

  His eyes are on me now. Locked with mine. His frown slips away as I pull my shoulders back and press my boobs against his chest.

  My breath catches. His chest is so hard, mine so soft. We fit together perfectly. My body is on the brink of supernova but not because of the hot water. No, this is definitely because of the heat Luca is giving off.

  I want him to feel like he’s still part of his team even if this is the last time he does. I lean in. I kiss him like I’ve never kissed any guy before. Be brave. Be bold. Be irresistible. I take the kiss deep like he did to me when we first kissed in his truck. I’m wild. One of the girls. Just for him.

  His hands come around me, gliding across my skin, leaving a trail of sparks, moving me so that I straddle him. And the jolt of that sensation, of how right this is…feels electric. He deepens our kiss and I suddenly can’t make sense of who is kissing who. Our tongues are entangled, our hands are touching, stroking and ohhhhh, yes, this is exactly where I want to be. I know people are watching us and I’m wondering if they can see just how much chemistry we have together because it’s like a thousand volts are plugged into my body and I know I must be glowing.

  He breaks away from our kiss and he’s panting, his eyes are hooded, full of octane, and he’s saying something that I don’t really understand.

  “We should get out.”

  “What?”

  He lifts me, helps me get out of the tub, finds giant towels for us, wraps me up in one and grabs our clothes before he moves us out of the hot tub room and away from the noise of the team. It all happens so fast that my head spins.

  I’m confused. Slightly embarrassed. Did I do something wrong? My brain is so fuzzy.

  “Here,” he says as he opens a door to a random room.

  He turns on the light and ushers me in before closing the door and then locking it. I’m shivering now that we’re out of the hot tub room where the steam was so thick and warm. We’re in a den or office or something. There’s a large, plush looking oversized leather couch and a desk. Books line the one wall along with knickknacks and other things.

  Luca lets his towel drop then starts to warm me up by rubbing my arms, then my legs, drying me off in the process. “Booze and heat like that are not a good combo.”

  My thoughts are cycling around that kiss and why he stopped it from turning into something more. I pushed too hard. I shouldn’t have done that. I read him wrong. Oh God. I rein in the urge to grab my clothes and run, like lock my knees and grit my teeth and force myself to stay put. This is no time for my courage to go slithering back into its hole.

  When he comes back up I put my hand on his arm and stop him from rubbing me more. “Luca, I’m sorry if I overstepped. I thought you wanted me to kiss you.”

  Luca’s eyes go wide. “I did.”

  My frown tugs right down to my toes. “Then why did you stop me?”

  He sighs. “Because I didn’t want to stop.” He puts his hands on my arms. “But I also didn’t want our first time together to be like that, in a tub with my team all around us. Both of us drinking. As much as I want to and as hot as you look tonight, that’s not the way for a relationship to start.”

  I blink. Did he just say that?

  “You’re not like the other girls I’ve known. Or like those other girls in that tub.”

  I sink again. “Oh.”

  “Hey. That’s a good thing.” He brushes the side of my cheek, a whisper of a touch. “You’re different and special and I like you just the way you are. So don’t change because you think that’s what I want.”

  Any response I might have had lodges itself in my throat with no hope of coming out coherently. Was that what I was doing? But more importantly, he likes me for me?

  His smile falls and he looks worried. “That’s why I stopped. Is that okay? Are you good to wait for a while? Get to know each other better?”

  I nod and he visibly relaxes…then he pulls me into another kiss. Softly, tenderly, hot but without the heat. There’s nothing urgent in his kiss, it’s just him and me, exploring each other in a way that seems so perfect I could die.

  When we settle onto the couch, there is absolutely nowhere else I’d rather be.

  Chapter Eleven

  “You want to know what my first memory of you is?” We’re curled up on the couch together, our bodies pressed so close that I can feel every breath he takes. My back is to his front and he’s cocooning me in all of his warmth. I’ve never felt so safe before.

  I gulp. Nod. Oh, hell yes, I do…or do I?

  He runs his fingers up and down my arm, creating a pattern with his touch and giving me all the good kind of shivers. “The Spring Fling dance last year.”

  I lift my hand like a shield to my forehead and cringe. “Oh crap, you saw me there?” I totally didn’t want to go but I lost a bet with Ethan and there was no way he would let me off the hook. Not only that, but I had to play fashion doll for him because that was part of the deal.

  “I did.” He’s still running his fingers over my skin and it helps to tamp down my embarrassment. “How could I not? That was quite the dress you were wearing.”

  “Yeah.” I laugh awkwardly. “Ethan—” My voice cracks over his name. I clear it, start again. “Ethan likes to play costume stylist. I can usually escape his attention or at least stay out of public when he corners me, but I lost a bet.” Ethan put me in a prom dress that had to be circa 1950s, complete with all the layered frills and crinoline. The dress was baby blue and my makeup matched. Don’t get me wrong, he did me up so I looked incredible. Unrecognizable, actually. My mom couldn’t stop gushing over the outfit. Everyone saw me that night because I definitely stood out.

  “You’re a good friend.” Luca chuckles and I feel the rumble of that roll through his body. “I could tell you were uncomfortable when you got there. So many people were staring and you kept blushing.”

  I’m blushing now just at the memory. “At least he let me wear my Converse.”

  “There’s that.” He nudges me so I shift onto my back, then look up at him. He’s resting his head on his hand, his elbow braced against the arm of the couch. He traces his fingers along my collarbone and my skin gasps. “Every time I looked at you—and it was many times that night,” he says with a grin, “I remember thinking how brave you must be. How interesting you seemed. And how totally devoted you were to this guy you clearly gave no crap about what everyone else was thinking.”

  Yeah, Ethan made his suit in the same baby blue color. He wore the same makeup, too. His hair was spiked and wild looking. We were quite the pair.

  “He just really, really wanted to go to the dance but no one asked him.” My heart tugs a bit because Ethan was so sad. He even asked out a couple of guys who he thought he’d have a chance with only to be rejected.

  “Well, I couldn’t take my eyes off of you.” His gaze is unwavering as he looks into my eyes. “I just kept thinking about how much I needed someone like you in my life.”

  Awww.

  “And what’s intere
sting is that I was thinking that before, like way before, anything bad happened to me. Way before I had any reason to think I’d be getting a chance to be with someone like you.”

  “Someone like me?”

  “Different, but in a good way.”

  “You didn’t have to be hurt to have a chance with someone like me.” I’m whispering and my voice is a little shaky because it’s sinking in that Luca thinks I’m that special…and that’s just…wow.

  He closes his eyes for a second and when he opens them again his eyes are turbulent. “I thought the guy I was before I got hurt didn’t deserve a girl like you.”

  His words hit like an anvil. For him to have felt unworthy…of me? I can’t even…

  I reach up and cup his cheek. I want him to feel me here with him. I want him to know that I’ve always felt the same way, like I’d never be the kind of girl who would catch the eye of a guy like Luca. Words aren’t enough to convey that so I lean in and touch my lips to his, slip my fingers into his hair, press my body against his, and pour all of those feelings into him.

  We ended up falling asleep on the couch in that den. We stayed up talking. Kissing. Touching. But nothing more than that.

  Luca isn’t what I expected.

  I like waking up curled against his chest, his arm draped over me. I like the sleepy look in his eyes when he starts to wake up. I like the way he smells, even in the morning.

  Chai lattes have nothing on Luca.

  He noticed me way before I even knew who he was. It’s funny how off our self-perception can be. You might think you’re a typical wallflower but maybe you’re not blending into the shadows after all. I’d blame the blue dress Ethan put me in, but Luca makes me feel like there was more to it than that.

  Abby catches sight of me beelining for the restroom and snags me just before I close the door.

  “I’m leaving. You’re coming with me.”

  “Um…what?” I’m not really awake and all I want to do is pee, then get back to Luca. What time is it anyway? I swear I just closed my eyes ten minutes ago.