Don't Hex and Drive (Stay a Spell #2) - Juliette Cross Page 0,85

with her back to her house. I changed the subject to something lighter so I didn’t lose my shit over the thought of her entertaining some other vampire. Her letting another vampire touch her, bite her. The burning jealousy that image stirred in my gut was crippling.

So I steered us onto something else. “You like dogs?”

She glanced at me as we passed by Maybelle’s and through a laughing group of friends going somewhere. I placed a light hand on her back, and she let me, thankfully. So maybe she wasn’t that angry with me. Perhaps she was just giving me a little payback for ruining her evening with Terry the Witless Wonder. Maybe it was a dick move to butt in, but I had zero regrets. That idiot had no business with a woman like Isadora, who was so far out of his league.

“How’d you know I like dogs?”

“Your profile on Zapp.”

“You read my profile?”

“Of course, I did,” I answered shamelessly.

My bold admission sent a flush of pink crawling up into her cheeks. I wanted her to know I was interested. I just couldn’t let her know how interested. How fascinated. That would terrify her.

She hiked her bag on her shoulder again nervously as we turned the corner onto our street. “Yeah, I love dogs.”

“Then why don’t you have one?”

“Well, I do sort of—” She glanced at me, biting back what she was going to tell me for some reason. “It’s just that we have Z and Fred, and they’re enough right now. I’m not sure how a new pet would fit into the mix, you know? I mean, being a pet owner is a big responsibility. I wouldn’t want to bring him into the house if he wasn’t going to fit in well with the others.”

“Him? You have a dog in mind already?”

Her focus remained straight ahead, but I caught the widening of her eyes as though she hadn’t wanted me to pick up on that. This woman had no idea how hard I listened to her. How much I obsessed over every word that came out of her mouth. Over every lithe movement of her body, every soft expression, every blink of her haunting green eyes.

We were turning up her walk through the wrought iron gate. “You’re coming in?” she asked, surprised.

“It’s almost time for Violet’s reading.”

She squeezed her eyes shut with a little shake of her head as we stepped up to the porch. “Right, right.”

She was a little more scrambled than normal. I wasn’t sure if it was me interrupting her date. Or if it was just me. What I did know was that her pulse always picked up pace when I got close to her. And that was definitely a good sign.

I followed Isadora into the house and down the foyer to the living room.

“Hello? Anybody home?” she called out.

“In my study!” yelled Jules.

Rather than head into the living room, Isadora glanced over her shoulder and pointed down the longer hallway. “This way.”

I gave her a reassuring smile and followed, happy to sense her anger had subsided. When we arrived in what must be Jules’s library, Violet was already there, the wooden coffee table set up for the reading. White pillar candles sat staggered on the table, a smudge stick burning upright in a bowl of black sand. Incense filled the room with spice and sage.

Violet sat cross-legged on one end, shuffling her Tarot cards. They were all face-down on the table as she roamed her fingers over them, moving them under and over each other. Already I sensed a pulse of magic sizzling in the air.

Jules sat on the other side of the coffee table on the floor, her demeanor calm and watchful as always. “Isn’t Ruben with you?”

“We came separately.”

Isadora scoffed. Jules eyed her with a raised eyebrow, but Isadora just shook her head. She would most likely wait till we left before she spilled about my interference.

“How was your date?” asked Violet, grinning down at the cards as she scooped them up.

“We’ll talk later,” Isadora promised with a hint of warning.

Violet smirked then glanced at me and winked. Somehow I felt like Violet was on my side. She was now my favorite sister.

“Would you like a reading while we wait for Ruben?” she asked me.

My pulse tripped. I wasn’t sure why. Then I glanced at Isadora who took a seat in a chair behind them near the bookshelf. “Why not?”

I settled into a wingback chair on the opposite end of the coffee