Page 129 of Not Your Ex's Hexes
She cocked an eyebrow. “I was about to say you’ve been getting along better, but if you expect me to disagree with your Mad Libs, you’ll be waiting a long time, doc.”
He flashed his sexy grin. “You called medoc.”
“I’ll be calling you an ambulance because hypothermia is minutes away from setting in if you don’t get to the point of all this.”
“I was wrong to send you away,” Damian admitted, his voice husky with emotion, and yeah, his hands shook again. “So, so fucking wrong.”
She really looked at him, noticing the slightly green, dewy hue to his skin. “Are you okay?”
“I will be once you hear me out.” Damian’s smile trembled, and for the first time since she’d known him, the man looked unsure. He also looked about to yak. “I was wrong to pretend what we had was nothing more than a convenient arrangement when it wassomuch more. Falling in love with you has been everything I’d ever hoped for and then some.”
“Everything, huh? Then why did you…” She forgot how to breathe. “What did you just say?”
Damian stepped closer, and as if he’d sucked down a healthy dose of fresh air, his coloring improved. He even stood a little straighter, a gorgeous, nervous smile tilting up the corners of his mouth.
“I love you, Rose Maxwell.” His admission made her knees knock together. “I never had a chance to do otherwise because you’reitfor me. My match. My conscience. My beating heart and my next breath. I didn’t realize it until you weren’t there. When you walked out of that barn, you took my heart with you. Becauseyouare my heart.”
Tears filled her eyes as she flicked a glance back at Callie. “I don’t understand. The hex…”
Callie smiled regretfully. “Not even the witch who casts a Soul Hex can break it.”
Rose whipped her head back to Damian, frantic. “Then you need to take it back. Now. I won’t be responsible for bringing you that kind of unhappiness.”
He shook his head, swallowing audibly. “I’ll never take it back, and Callie can’t break the hex because I was the only person who could do it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The only thing that can break a Soul Hex is knowingly, and willingly, succumbing to it. Goallin. To puteverythingon the line, with no guarantee of a happy ending. To keep my heart, I had to risk my heart.”
Callie stage-whispered from the sidewalk, “He had to create a grand gesture.”
Tears clouded Rose’s vision. “You hate grand gestures. You don’t see the point of them, or what’s so great about them.”
She used his earlier words against him, and judging by his sly smirk, he realized it. “I didn’t then, but I do now. I realize so much more than I ever had before, and not only how wrong I was, but how empty my heart was until I met you. No way could I lose my heart and soul to a teenage hex… because they’re not mine to give away, little witch. They’re yours.”
Rose lost the war with her welling tears. One fell, and then a second. Fat rivulets dripped down her face, turning her into a soggy, snotty mess. She was not a pretty crier.
Damian’s hands cupped her face, thumbs gently rubbing all her fluids away as he dropped his forehead onto hers. “Everyreally cold inch of meis yours, Rose Maxwell. You’ll make me the happiest Dr. McGrumpy Pants in this realm and in every other if you say there’s even a chance we can have a future together.”
“There’s not a chance,” Rose whispered through her tears. Damian’s worried eyes searched hers, and she gifted him a waterysmile. “There’s only one hundred percent certainty because I loveyou,Damian Adams. I love your grumpiness, and your dry humor. I love the way you care for those who can’t care for themselves. I’ll gladly own your heart if you accept mine in exchange.”
“Now that’s a deal I’ll happily make.”
Their mouths clashed in a kiss Rose felt right down to her soul. Her Magic flared bright, wrapping around them in swirls of pink and covering them like a warm blanket.
But it wasn’t the only thing linking them.
Rose chuckled as Damian’s gaze landed on the obvious golden link connecting their bodies… and their hearts. “Is that what I think it is?”
Rose nibbled her bottom lip nervously. “If you think it’s a soul mate link, then yes. Guess you were more right than you thought, doc. We really do hold each other’s hearts in our hands.”
And it was a gift that not even an ex’s hex could take away.
Epilogue
Bella and Cusack—named after the actor who took part in one of Rose’s favorite cinematic grand gestures—yipped excitedly as they bolted through the two-bedroom Harlem apartment, the mom-and-son duo chasing each other from room to room.
Rose laughed at their antics and tucked yet another box of Olive’s belongings into Bax’s spare bedroom—strike that.
