Page 93 of Not Your Ex's Hexes
He looked amused at her appalled expression. “I move my lips and the words spill out. It’s easy. You try it.”
“Thatis a romantic gesture.” She pointed to the TV screen where John Cusack still held up a boom box, “In Your Eyes” playing loud.
“Thatis disturbing the peace, and not to mention the girl’s trying to sleep. Let her sleep.”
“She’s not sleeping. She’s in turmoil. How can you not see the poignancy of this moment?” She stared at him, aghast. “He knows he’ll get in trouble, and he knows it may not even work, that it’s a long shot, and yet he still does it. To show her where he stands.”
“He’s standing in front of her house with a boom box. Sorry, little witch, but I don’t see what’s so grand about it.”
With a low growl, Rose stopped fighting the urge to throw popcornat him and upended the entire the bowl over his head. The bastard laughed, and Rose laughed, too, dodging a handful of popcorn he’d picked up and tossed back at her.
Soon, they were in a heated popcorn battle with the heart of the eighties rom-com on the line.
Wiggling to her knees, Rose struggled to shove popcorn down his shirt, but the damn man was too fast and too strong, easily holding both her wrists in one hand, and instead, shoved a few pieces up her own.
When he changed tactics from popcorn shoveling to tickling, Rose squirmed to get away, hitting DEFCON-1. It was either play dirty or pee her pants, and her clean underwear drawer was too low on stock for her to accept the latter.
Rose summoned her Magic to the surface, and it came eagerly, instantly raising the hair on the backs of Damian’s arms.
“We’re playing dirty now are we, little witch?” In a quick move, he wrapped his arms around her waist and, taking the brunt of the fall, rolled them to the floor. He grinned wickedly. “I win.”
Magic swirled around her hands, and with a small burst of energy, she flipped their positions. Palms braced on his chest, she sat astride his hips and grinned down at him.
“You were saying, doc?” she teased.
His hands anchored on her upper thighs, holding her close. “You may have won this round, but you’ll never convince me that this grand gesture thing is a real, worthwhile thing.”
“We’ll see, doc.” She smirked, his determination sparking her own. “We will see.”
20
Buffy Banter
People who believed in the chaos of the full moon either worked in healthcare or in a bar, because there was no other explanation for the pure bizarreness that walked through Potion’s Up every time the door opened.
Fights. Feuds. Squabbles over blood donors.
Rose’s hair still smoked from the night’s earlier dragon shifter altercation. A lesson learned on her end: don’t stand between a shifter that can spew fire and a Mate suspected of cheating. As it turned out, the shifter’s Mate and the man she met in the corner booth were cousins, a misunderstanding for sure, but it didn’t make Rose’s singed hair any less real.
Chaos, Thy Name Was Friday Night.
Gage shot her a concerned look, expecting her to quit at any moment. “You good over there, Maxwell? That dragon got a little too close for comfort.”
“He singed off an inch or two, but it’s okay. I’ll use some hair-healing conditioner tonight when I shower off the day and it’ll be good as new by morning.”She hoped. If not, she might be sporting a layered bob, a hairstyle she hadn’t rocked since middle school.
“I’m impressed.” Gage continued stacking the tower of clean mugs into the lower cabinets.
She passed a customer his beer refill. “At what? My ability to pour drinks?”
“Your restraint. Vi would’ve threatened to hex at least a dozen people already tonight, or at the very least, stuck pool cues into certain orifices.”
Nowthatshe could see her sister doing. “I won’t deny it. That bachelorette party came pretty damn close to being hexed with Wicked Witch of the West noses when they asked to see my witch’s wart.”
Gage chuckled, the gesture lightening his eyes. “Now wouldn’tthathave made memorable wedding pics?”
“Stick me with a dildo and turn it on high speed.” Harper’s tray hit the table as she stared agape at the usually serious vampire. “Youlaughed. I’ve never heard you laugh. Hell, I didn’t think you possessed the proper throat muscles!”
He rolled his eyes. “I laugh.”
