Page 82 of What The Hex (The Family Spells)
I curled my legs up on the sofa and leaned in toward him. My plan was to press my lips to his, amp up that shock just a little bit more, see how he reacted to it. He surprised me by reaching out and taking my face between his hands. When his lips met mine, it was far more than the simple welcome home peck that I’d intended.
Hex swept his tongue up against mine, savoring the taste of me before pulling back and meeting my gaze from just a few inches away. I could feel his breath feathering against my wet and swollen lips.
“Told ya I was an affectionate sort of guy,” he murmured as Caine snorted and crossed his arms behind his head. Hex narrowed his orange eyes in annoyance.
“Coulda fooled me, partner,” he said, exaggerating his drawl for comic effect. It worked, and I ended up chuckling. Hex just sighed, but then, as if something had just occurred to him, he flashed a wicked smile and pulled me into his lap.
Oh.
This I liked.
Caine leaned forward and narrowed his amber eyes, but he didn’t move. I would, however, probably get fucked hard as punishment for this. Oh thank you, Oracle! I thought with a perverse glee. I mean, I knew she hadn’t actually gifted me my soulmates; they were mine by default. But still, wow. Adding Hex in later was going to amp up the possessiveness and jealousy in the boys, and I would happily endure. For their sakes, you know.
I pretended not to be affected by Hex’s hot, hard body, or the way his cock thickened beneath the borrowed plaid pajama pants he was wearing. I wiggled a bit, and he grunted.
“Your grandmother …” I started, wondering how much of the story I should tell. My gaze shifted away from Hex, but he reached up with a single finger and turned my chin back in his direction.
“Lay it on me,” he said, and all I could think was yes, sir, I’d love to lay it all the fuck over you, but I forced my brain away from my vagina and back into my head where it belonged.
With a quick glance over at Caine, I gave Hex a quick rundown, pausing midway through to take what I thought was coffee from Spectre. Only, it turned out to be a warm spiced drink instead, like hot buttered rum but without the alcohol. He’d come up with the recipe himself when I was pregnant with Zavier: brown and white sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and heavy cream mixed into hot water. I smiled through a mouthful as Argent rejoined us in the living room, taking the other sofa and frowning as he listened to me talk about Monster and Lulu.
“Fuck,” Hex groaned as soon as I finished, rubbing both hands over his face. I brushed his hair back from his forehead out of habit, and he went still. We looked at each other, and I swallowed hard, covering up my nervousness with a sip of my drink. “Poor Lulu, but also … screw her. Can I feel two opposing things at once?”
“She raised you; you love her.” Spectre shrugged his shoulders and took a seat on the festive snowflake rug in front of the fireplace. “Even if she’s doing wrong by you now, that doesn’t change the good she’s done for you in the past.”
“Look at Graceley,” Argent commented, and I rolled my eyes because I already knew where he was going with this. “Abigail is a horrid bitch most of the time, but we just gave up all our magic for months in the name of saving her.”
“Thank you for that,” I said with a tight smile, and he smirked stupidly back at me. Idiot faerie. I sipped my drink as Hex mulled over what I’d just told him.
“What a nightmare,” he murmured under his breath as Caine tilted his head to one side.
“You’re tellin’ me you didn’t know about any o’ this? Why wouldn’t your grandmother tell you she was plannin’ on making you the king of Hael? Seems sort of important, don’t it?”
“I’ve never been particularly reliable or trustworthy,” Hex admitted, and Caine groaned. Spectre just smiled and took a drink from his mug while Argent remained stone-faced and blank. He’d been alive for a long, long time, far longer than any of us. In fact, he’d been alive for so long that he’d actually dated past incarnations of Spectre, Caine, and myself when he was young. After we’d passed away, he’d lived on, hoping to find us again.
And he had.
But he’d never met Hex.
“What a wonderful new soulmate we’ve acquired.” Argent crossed his arms and waited for Hex to quip back at him but, other than a slight lift of his lip, Hex said nothing in retaliation.
