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CHAPTER ONE: DEVIL'S BARGAIN- PART TWO
“You want me to hire you?” Harri blinked, confused. “To be my fake boyfriend?”
The man — no, the demon — shrugged. “Why not? I heard you talking to your friend; you need someone and I am uniquely qualified.”
Harri frowned. “As a waiter?”
He rolled his completely, endlessly black eyes, the shifting ruby red ring around his pupils the only movement, and gestured at the short, goat-like, bone-white horns on his head. “As an incubus. Making people fall for me was how I made my living.”
She’d bet. Harri hadn’t really thought about it before but, not being much for bad boys, she hadn’t really understood why people would be interested in demons. Why would someone sell their soul to have sex with some inhuman monster out to ruin them? Just didn’t sound worth it.
But, looking at Azel… Yeah, all right, she could see it. This baddest of boys had the face and body of one of those marble statues of fallen angels she’d studied in her college art class. He was all broad shoulders and long limbs with a strongly chiseled jaw. Bedrumpled black curls fell carelessly over his forehead and around his horns. His skin was a bronzed scarlet and looked as if just touching it — not to mention being touched — would burn deliciously. And his smile looked like it ought to be criminal to possess in most places. What was an eternity of damnation in Hell compared to even seven minutes of heaven with someone like that?
Trying to regain her senses, she shook her head. “I’m not looking to fall for anyone.” She shut her eyes and snorted, marveling at how easy a pretty face could make her forget exactly how she’d gotten in this mess in the first place. No. She needed to remember that romance just wasn’t meant for her. “The reverse, in fact.”
Frowning, his inky eyes searched hers. “What does that mean?”
Not that it was any of his business, but… “My ex won’t leave me alone. That was why Megan suggested getting a new boyfriend.”
He shrugged, his covered wings fluttering against the confines of his coat. “Scaring people isn’t what I usually do, but I am a demon.”
Harri wanted to groan. “I don’t want to scare him. I just…” She frowned. What did she want? “I just want him to move on.”
Azel leaned back and studied her, his arms crossing over his chest skeptically. “What did you do to him that got him so stuck on you?”
She shrugged and shook her head. Damned if she knew. “Nothing, really.” Honestly. Before Nate, it was true; she wasn’t really the type to trap partners’ attentions. Hell, she’d barely dated much before Nate. And none of them had seemed to have any particular problem letting her go.
Harri knew who she was. She was rather forgettable. Easy to overlook. She’d long since accepted it. Which was what made Nate so different. “We’d been together a year or so and it all was going too fast. He was talking about moving in together and marriage and kids and…”
“You didn’t want that?”
She shook her head. “Not with him.” Maybe not at all. “I don’t know. He talked about it like it was an inevitability. Started making all these plans that involved me without, well, involving me.”
He nodded. “So he needs to see you make some plans that don’t involve him.”
“Which really shouldn’t need to include another boyfriend.” She could get a new hobby. Or go out more with friends.
“But it helps?”
She sighed. Megan was right. When Nate had first shown interest, Harri hadn’t really been interested then either, so she’d put him off. Told him she was too busy to date. She had gone out with friends. She’d stayed late at work. She’d made herself unavailable.
But he’d persisted. Chatting up her friends and finding ways to invite himself out with them. He’d shown up at her door with food, after a long day at work, making it hard to turn down dinner with him. It’d seemed romantic, at first, seeing him do so much to get her attention. It’d been flattering, if a bit flustering. And, in the end, it’d worked. She’d given in and gone out with him. He’d woven his way into her life and now, without something dramatic, it seemed impossible to untangle them.
Harri stared at Azel. He definitely seemed dramatic enough. “Okay,” she said, sipping her soda, the surgery fizz tickling her throat and making her feel daring, “say, I’m willing to consider this, what would hiring you entail? I’m not selling my soul just to get rid of Nate.”
Azel chuckled, the sound an enticing rumble barely heard over the bar’s din but felt like a sensual slide over her skin. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself as if assuring herself that no one was touching her but her. “What would I do with your soul nowadays anyway? Can’t exactly pay my phone bill with it, can I?” He shook his head. “I need cash, same as anyone else. For the right price, I’ll make sure this Nate believes you don’t even notice anyone else on this plane of existence but me.”
Harri made a skeptical sound. “I don’t know.” Her gaze narrowed on his knowing, cocksure smile. His strutting words echoed in her ears. He sounded so certain. Like it was a done deal already. Like she was a sure thing. She wrinkled her nose, distrust and unease churning inside her.
For a moment, he just studied her and she had the sneaking suspicion he was seeing things she didn’t mean him to. But before she could worry too long or hard about it, he sighed. “Look.” Harri met his gaze as his whole demeanor changed. He frowned and rolled his shoulders awkwardly. “I really do need the money. This could help me out a lot. Help you out too.” He tapped her phone with his blunted talon-tipped finger, making his contact information light up on her screen. Azel Brimm. Nice name. It sounded branded, like something some producer or agent named a rock star or Hollywood actor. The sound itself felt seductive, enticing, as it echoed in her mind. He smiled wryly, a disarming vulnerability making it just a bit crooked. “Just think it over, okay? We can negotiate everything.”
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