Not Your Ex's Hexes (Supernatural Singles, #2)(95)

The Norm stepped aside, allowing Damian into the building.

“Thanks,” Damian grudgingly said to his brother.

Julius nodded, his face devoid of his usual snarky smile. “No thanks needed. You wouldn’t be at one of these things unless it was an emergency. Is there anything else I can do?”

Damian shot him a glare. “I think you’ve done enough, don’t you? If this is your way of apologizing for what happened, it won’t work and I don’t accept.”

“It wasn’t.” Julius sighed. “Okay, so maybe I hoped the good deed wouldn’t go without a little appreciation. Can’t blame a guy for trying. And I’ll do you another. Rose is in the solarium with her sister. I can take you there.”

Damian followed his brother through the gala, the two of them receiving more than a couple looks. Hell, he would’ve looked, too. Dressed in a designer tux that had been tailor made for his tall frame and broad shoulders, Julius looked as if he’d stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine, whereas Damian looked like he’d stepped out of a horse’s stall.

Literally. He so didn’t belong here, and he couldn’t wait to get back to the stables.

The second they stepped into the lush green wonderland of the solarium, Julius didn’t need to play tour guide. Rose’s presence lit up the room like a homing beacon, his demon instincts carrying him right to her.

Her musical laugh hit his ears before he saw her, and when he turned the corner …

Sitting on a bench between Olive and a blond woman, her head tossed back in laugher, Rose’s beauty made him stumble.

Fuck, she was gorgeous.

Luminescent.

A sharp wave of need ripped through him, both the man and the demon wanting to whisk her away and keep her for themselves. But there was also a rightness he’d never felt before.

A strength that made him feel as though with her by his side, he could be anything …

A fierce loyalty that for her, he would do anything …

Feelings of love stirred and welled … and then …

“D-Damian?” The woman on Rose’s left shifted in her seat, her wide eyes trained on him. “Is that really you?”

Damian regretfully pulled his eyes away from a startled Rose, and to the woman who wasn’t a stranger after all. In fact, she was the very reason why his growing feelings for Rose couldn’t happen …

She was the ex who’d hexed him.





24





hEx Me


Rose glanced back and forth between Damian and Callie, unable to hide her confusion as the two of them stared at one another. “You know each other? What are the chances of that?”

Callie’s smile flickered tentatively, her cheeks looking a little pale. “Extremely low I would’ve thought. The Goddess works in mysterious ways. We haven’t seen each other in a long time. It’s been what? Fifteen years?”

“Eighteen.” Damian’s tense voice threw Rose off. His eyes flickered from gray to hazel to that golden amber, signaling his inner demon was precariously close to the surface as he glared at the other witch. “Hex so many people that you’ve lost track of time, Cal? And you used to blame my perpetual lateness on my Hunting.”

Rose furrowed her brow, trying to follow. “Can someone shine a little light on the situation here because I’ve obviously been left standing in the dark.”

Eighteen years.

Hexes.

Olive gingerly touched her arm, casting a wary glass at Damian and Callie. Rose digested the scene in front of her, slowly putting two and twelve together.

She turned toward her new friend and potential business-partner/boss with a gasp. “You’re the witch who hexed Damian?”

Callie’s gaze quickly shifted around the group, everyone now looking at her with varying expressions of anger and outrage. “I can explain. I know it looks bad, but—”

“Looks bad? No, it is bad. A Soul Hex. For what? Because he didn’t get you a corsage?” Rose snapped. She faced the woman whom she had hoped to call a friend, her agitated Magic lifting the hair off her neck as her emotions climbed.

“It’s not what it seems…”

“Oh, so you didn’t hex him?”

Callie shifted uncomfortably in her heels. “No, I did … but it wasn’t supposed to—”

Rose held up a hand. “Save it for someone who likes listening to meager excuses.”

“Rose…” Damian touched her hand, whipping her attention back to him and the tense flexing of his jaw muscle. “I came here because I need your help. It’s Jasper.”

“What’s wrong?” She wrapped her fingers around his, but he gently pulled them away. She tried not to read into it, too worried about the stallion. “Is he okay?”

“He won’t let anyone near him, and if he keeps kicking like he is, he’ll bring the whole barn down on top of him. We need you back at the sanctuary.”

Callie’s own realization sank in. “You’re the owner of Mari’s Sanctuary?”

Damian threw her another glare. “Didn’t think I’d ever make something of myself, did you? Despite all your best attempts to assure I didn’t.”

“Damian, I—”

“Let’s go.” Rose stepped between them, as much for their sake as Callie’s. “Before Jasper hurts himself, and before I do something Gran will really give me a lecture about.”