Don't Hex and Drive (Stay a Spell, #2)

by Juliette Cross

I settled into the passenger seat with a heavy sigh. “I know that feeling,” said Ruben, pulling away toward Barrel Proof.

My three sisters’ heads swiveled to face me. Violet grinned with far too much glee. “It’s the movie you tossed in your trash in your bedroom. Dilwala Deewana.” “Are you kidding me?” I snapped. “Why would you rummage through my trash?”

Some women’s fantasies, anyway. Not mine. Totally not mine.

I was completely and utterly transfixed. So much so that I didn’t notice three people enter the room. It wasn’t until I heard a deep, familiar voice directly behind me that I was able to snap out of my trance. “Sorry to interrupt, ladies.” I felt the words brush against my bare neck, my hair twisted up in a bun.

He was so close that when I spun around, I nearly fell forward right into Devraj. He caught me by the arms. Oh, my God!

Clara slapped Livvy’s arm, which made me want to hug my sweetest sister. How could they be so embarrassing?

Devraj didn’t appear ashamed at all. If anything, he seemed quite pleased. Especially when he swiveled his dark gaze back to me.

I could’ve stared at the woman all night.

I figured she truly was immune to my charms. As unbelievable as that was, I was thinking of giving up my pursuit. But not fucking now. After seeing her reaction to watching my movie, there was no possible way I was letting this go.

She was turned on. By me. It took me a full minute to remember we were in a hurry to get to the girl at the hospital. And the most shocking fact was that my canines had sharpened to razor points. I’d had a hard time hiding them and my reaction to her.

Hunger. Pure, primal, feral craving. One that still ached inside me, making my gut clench with need. And unfortunately, made my dick twitch with need as well.

He was distracting me. Somehow, he’d sensed my sanity fraying as we silently rode along into the night.

It just proved how powerful Isadora’s magic truly was. It was sexy as fuck.

“What is it?” asked Ruben. I met his gaze in the rearview. “This wasn’t a blood orgy. It’s a blood trafficking ring.”

“Tia said that when you mix sex with the bloodsucking, it can be too heady a combo for humans. They become dangerously addicted to the vampire, and it’s resulted in seriously unhinged stalkers and stuff.

When I glanced up, Jules’s face was white as a sheet. “What do you mean? How would I know that?”

Jules was whisking her eggs furiously. And though I totally understood her angry vibes, that’s not what I was feeling. It was envy twisting my stomach into knots, not anger. These other women had experienced pleasure in the arms of Devraj. Suddenly, I had the craziest thought. Why shouldn’t I do the same?

Okay. Now I officially forgave him, and we were even.

Hell, after falling asleep thinking only of him, I couldn’t deny my attraction to him. One meal couldn’t hurt, right?

Make no mistake. Whether she knew it or not, this was a date.

This was no fly-by fascination. This was hardcore witchery. Oddly, she wasn’t flirting or being overtly friendly or doing anything other women have done to lure me in. She was simply being her lovely self.

She looked at me with an appreciative smile, and there it went again. My pulse tripled just from making her smile.

Damn. I really needed to adjust my crotch, but I didn’t want her to know quite how arousing I found this conversation.

“I imagine you think you could do better than Big John,” she teased, trying to lighten the heaviness hovering between us. But I wasn’t ready to let this go. Not even close. “Maybe not. He could join the party if you like.” I licked my lips before whispering intimately, “Actually, I think that would be a fantastic idea.”

“You’re being serious, aren’t you?” “Deadly.” I held her gaze, green eyes swamping with heat. “Give me one night, and I’ll prove it to you.”

She busied herself with her salad, and I let her eat in peace. I wanted her to mull over our conversation, hoping she might come to the conclusion I truly was being serious.

I slid the bite inside and watched as she chewed and licked the syrup off her lips. That was a really bad idea. I could barely breathe, wanting to lean across and taste the syrup from her mouth. “You’re right. I’m wowed.” Then she continued eating her meal like she hadn’t just punched me in the gut with an explosion of lust.

We were quiet a little while. Her enjoying her meal. Me wanting to pull her across the table into my lap and eat her for my next meal. Oh, fuck.

My tongue licked over my extended canines. I sure as hell didn’t need her to notice that lapse of control. And I didn’t need to be imagining what she tasted like because I was pos...

It had been only two weeks, but that didn’t seem to matter. I craved the woman sitting across the table like mad.

Yet again, my stomach clenched with some foreign emotion I wasn’t familiar with. I’d wanted and sated my hungers with many women over the ages. This craving felt different.

Just being in her presence, soaking up her smiles and sweet company, was feeding a hunger I didn’t realize I had.

my shy girl only opened up like this for people she trusted. A fact that had warmth blooming in the center of my chest.

During my ridiculous word-vomit, I made myself hold still and not fidget while his smile slipped and his jaw slid open. He blinked. And blinked again. Did I break him?

The thought of him doing something simple and domestic when I knocked on the door—rather than him ravishing some nameless woman in his bedroom—had me breathing easier.

I licked my lips but couldn’t seem to find any words. “You are hungry, aren’t you, Isadora?” Those dark eyes rolled with silver. I nodded. “For food?” he asked. “Or something else?” “Something else. I already told you.” And I wasn’t going to repeat myself because once was all I could bear.

He glided one hand around my nape, holding me still, firm and possessive.

I dared to open my eyes, knowing I’d find that smirky smile of his as he watched me come undone from a not-quite kiss. But he wasn’t smiling. No. Quite the opposite. His dark eyes shimmered with the silver of his vampire. And the lust pouring off him licked me like flame.

Thoughtful was becoming synonymous with Devraj. And so many other words. Kind. Strong. Beautiful. I’d been too quick to judge when we first met, but the more I learned of him, the more I sank into a world of feelings.

The cuff on his wrist reminded me again of his love for his mother. Why did he have to be so magnificent in every way?

“I was right.” “Right?” I barely managed to ask. A sharp nick of my shoulder before he licked the spot. “I wanted to see how amazing you’d look naked on this rug.”

So aggressive, so demanding, I hardly recognized myself. All I knew is that he had what I needed, and I wanted it right now. Something wild and ruthless sparked behind his vampire eyes, glowing with an intensity that had my pulse speeding to a maddening pace.

I couldn’t speak at the moment, panting uncontrollably, scraping my nails down his flexed back. “Scratch me up, Isadora. Mark me good.”

He was so right. Sex wasn’t boring. I’d been with boring partners perhaps. Or maybe I was boring with them. But with Devraj, something had ignited inside of me, pulling the wild girl out of her hiding place.

He did this for quite some time, and though it was too intimate for my comfort level, I couldn’t seem to push him away. To kiss him like this felt so natural, which in itself was strange.

I slid my eyes away from his, suddenly feeling shy. The men I’d been with had never said anything like that to me before.

I felt adrift. Unmoored. Lost to any other purpose but the one that mattered. Her.

A stirring of what I could only describe as panic—though I’d little experience with the emotion—filled my body. Why? Because she’d said this was a one-time hook-up, and my entire being was one-hundred percent against that ridiculous, asinine notion. This needed to be repeated. Often. Every day.

I kissed up her jaw. She tilted her head back, offering me her throat. She obviously had no idea that in the vampire world, that was equivalent to full submission. For blood. For sex. I bit back a groan, knowing she had no idea what this meant.

Even so, I pretended for one fleeting minute that she was mine, licking a line down her throat to the base where her pulse beat hard. “Stay with me,” I pleaded. “A little longer,” I clarified.