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CHAPTER FOUR: THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS - PART ONE
Frowning, Azel listened to the polite voicemail. “Management has reviewed your resume and, unfortunately, we will not be able to offer you employment. But we thank you for thinking of us.”
Damn it! How hard was it to find a job? Azel glared at his phone and the job posting site he’d been making his way through all morning. Two waiter positions. Three sales associate positions. A bartender gig. Even a warehouse worker temp job. He’d been on the phone or in interviews with employers all day and none of them — not one — gave him so much as a second glance. Fuck!
What the hell was he going to do?
He looked back at his phone’s screen, when he heard his notifications chime.
HARRI: Just checking that we’re still on for tonight. I was thinking Mexican, if that’s okay with you.
Azel grimaced and rubbed the nape of his neck uncomfortably. Ever since he’d left Harri’s apartment yesterday, he’d had this niggling feeling in the back of his brain. Guilt. Not exactly a feeling he, as a demon, felt very often and he decidedly did not like it.
He sighed and rubbed his horns frustratedly. This was supposed to be an easy gig. Get wined and dined by some well-to-do stranger who wanted to use him to get her ex off her back. Simple.
Except, like every other employer in the city it seemed, he had the awful feeling she didn’t even need him. Harri was sweet, if a little skittish. A bit of a control freak, but in an achingly endearing way that made him think she’d been pushed around too much in her life.
And, as plain as he’d found her at first… she had this intriguing way of changing so completely with each emotion — the way her dark eyes lit up with joy, or how those soft lips looked hungry with curiosity when wrapped around her seemingly endless questions, or the way her defiant shoulders stiffened with determination, or the absolutely enticing way her whole body seemed to writhe with embarrassment every time he teased her — it made it impossible to not want to stare and watch the dynamic shifts play over her.
Azel shook his head. Yeah, she didn’t need someone like him. She could be — probably should be — doing all this with a real boyfriend. Or at least a date she didn’t have to pay for. He wasn’t doing anything worth getting paid for and it felt… wrong taking it.
At least before, with the people he used to make deals with, he’d been giving them the fantasy treatment, becoming everything they’d ever wanted but couldn’t have — for whatever reason — for the duration of their agreement. A balanced contract. A fair deal.
Azel stared at her text. Maybe that was the answer. He just needed to give Harri the full service. Be the best fake boyfriend she could imagine. Apparently, that was the only marketable skill he had and she was the only one in the city willing to hire him for it, so she deserved his best. And that was what he’d damn well give her. He grinned as he typed his message back.
AZEL: Mexican, huh? So you like it hot then?
He chuckled as he watched the tiny ellipsis bounce, pause, bounce, pause, and bounce again in an indecisive dance as she crafted her own response.
HARRI: Do you not like spicy food? We can go somewhere else, if you’d prefer.
He laughed out loud, imagining the blush that he’d bet was flushing her cheeks as well as the cautious, almost distrustful look in her eye — as if she had absolutely no idea what he was doing or why — that made him think that not enough people had flirted with her. Though he didn’t know why, when it was so much fun.
AZEL: Oh I can definitely handle the heat. Meet at your place at 6:30?
He smiled at her nervous Okay, wondering what it would take to get a more playful reaction from her. He wondered if she’d ever sent a sext or a dirty pic in her life. She didn’t seem like the type. But even something like Can’t wait or I’ll be waiting would be nice.
But that would be something she’d send someone she was actually dating. Had she sent Nate messages like that? With a determined frown, he typed again.
AZEL: Can’t wait
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