Under His Spell by Jade Lee, Kathy Lyons

cut deep. Even though he wasn’t an anxious kid anymore, he sure as hell didn’t want to expose himself to more pain. But if he had a real shot at Nicky, an honest shot for a relationship, then he didn’t want to throw that away.
    Which left him confused and nervous and all the things he thought he’d outgrown. So rather than talk to her, he stalled with food. At least if he was eating, he wouldn’t be struggling for something to say to her. Besides, they made the best meat loaf here, especially when layered with extra barbecue sauce.
    When the waitress turned for Nicky’s order, Ms. Corporate shook her head. “I’m not hungry,” she said.
    He arched a brow at her. “The brain needs food to work right. How many years have you lived on just coffee?”
    She quirked a brow at him. “I eat,” she said defensively. “Just not when…not…” Her face tightened into a grimace. “My stomach isn’t so settled right now.”
    “How about a bowl of soup? If memory serves, your favorite was broccoli cheddar.”
    Her eyes widened. “You remember that?”
    That and a whole lot more, but he didn’t say that. Instead, he looked at the waitress. “She’ll have the broccoli cheddar in a bread bowl.” The waitress nodded and walked away, which left him once again sitting awkwardly across from Nicky. And one look at her face told him she was feeling at least as anxious as he was.
    He shifted in his seat and decided to go straight for the honest truth. “I didn’t plant a post, pre, or during hypnosis suggestion, Nicky. It was a stage act. I made you throw your cell into a volcano. And sing. You still sing beautifully, by the way. Still in the church choir?”
    She shook her head. “I gave that up years ago. No time.”
    “Pity.”
    She didn’t answer, choosing instead to bury her face in her coffee mug.
    “I didn’t ask you to come to my house, to undress on my porch, or anything else beyond that,” he said.
    “Yes, you did,” she said, her voice tight and high.
    “No, Nicky—”
    “You said, ‘And I wanted to make your fantasies come true.’ I heard you say that and…” She bit her lipas her gaze zipped to his face then darted away again. “I heard you say that and I was still…hypnotized or something…and…and…”
    He frowned, thinking back. He remembered exactly when he’d said those words, but she couldn’t have heard them. The bar was so noisy. She couldn’t possibly have heard him. Except she obviously had.
    He leaned forward. “Even so, even if you did hear what I’d said and you were still hypnotized, that’s not a compulsion. I didn’t make you do anything last night. That’s not how hypnotism works. I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to.”
    She looked down at her hands where she gripped her coffee mug. “I know,” she finally said. “I looked it up on the Internet. But…” She shook her head. “I would never, ever do that on my own.”
    He looked at her. Truthfully, he believed her. The uptight executive across from him didn’t look as if she would crack a smile, much less scream while her legs were wrapped around his neck. But she had. So clear, she was capable of doing things that her corporate persona did not suggest.
    She shifted again in her seat, obviously feeling excruciatingly uncomfortable. “I—” She took a deep breath and lifted her gaze to look him in the eye. “I remember everything from last night. I remember…” She swallowed. “I liked being under, Jimmy. I didn’t want to come out of it.”
    He stared at her, trying to process what she was saying. Sure, he’d heard of people doing that. Of subjects so suggestible that they stayed hypnotized. But he’d never have pegged Nicky as one of them. She was too in control for that. But then again, maybe that was exactly the point. Maybe hypnosis was the only way she could lether inner vixen out, so to speak. And once released, that part of her didn’t want to be caged up again. It sounded