Page 2 of The Demon's Queen

“You too, Miss Eve.” He shuts the door, careful not to catch the hem of my dress in the process, and then we’re speeding away from the curb toward the high-end hotel I always meet Azazel at.

His preferences vary, but tonight he requested we have a drink in the hotel bar before going up to the room. I don’t mind in the least. He’s a great conversationalist, and while he very carefully doesn’t share much of his past—no more than I do—he has no end of stories to entertain with. I’m not certain if they’re lies or the truth, but they makes for a pleasant time either way. And I don’t particularly care whether he’s lying; I’m not his girlfriend, for all that I offer a similar experience for the right price.

The hotel bar is crowded for a weekday, but that’s fine. It will give me a chance to people watch before Azazel arrives. I find a high-top table in the corner and arrange my chair so I can see the entirety of the room.

In the fifteen minutes I wait, I pick up more than one person doing their best to covertly slide a wedding ring into their pocket before approaching a prospective one-night stand. There’s a person on the opposite side of the bar who I’m nearly certain shares my profession. They watch me closely before realizing I’m not looking to pick up a new client here, then they lose interest. It’s all deeply entertaining.

Until a familiar man walks through the door—andnotthe one I’m expecting.

“Shit.”

Tanner cases the room in a single sweep and starts toward me. How the fuck did he know I was here? Finding my phone number is difficult but not impossible. Finding my location?That offers up a number of problems that I don’t have time to deal with, because he’s closing the distance between us. Fast.

I try to catch the bartender’s eye, but he’s busy flirting with an exasperated businessperson who may or may not be interested. No help there. I bypass my phone and go for my Taser. Even if I could get a text off to Pope, it won’t make a difference. Iknowthey have someone in the building because it’s standard practice, but it will take them too long to get here.

Tanner reaches me in seconds. He’s a tall white guy with the kind of good old boy looks that are a generic sort of handsome. Or they are usually. Right now, he’s nearly purple with rage. “You cheating bitch.”

“Tanner.” I keep my voice low and even. De-escalating. “I didn’t expect to see you.”

“Because you cancelled on me!” He’s yelling, not seeming to care in the least that he’s making a scene. The bartender finally lifts his head and narrows his eyes. Too damn late.

“I have rules. You broke them.” I am not going to apologize for holding the boundaries that keep me safe, but fuck if I like this kind of mess. Azazel will be here any moment, and the last thing I want is to force him to deal with this. “And I’m not your girlfriend, your partner, or your wife. You are myclient.”

“Whore!”

I roll my eyes. I can’t help it. “Yes, yes, that’s very original. Please leave before the nice bartender calls the police.” Pope will do worse; they donotlike people fucking with those under their protection.

“I’m not leaving without you.” Then the fool lifts his clenched fist to strike me.

I have my Taser halfway to his balls when a hand appears and grabs his wrist. Tanner grunts with the slowed effort, though I can tell by his eyes that he’s waiting for the moment he can try to hit me again. We both look over at the same time to see Azazelstanding there as if he appeared out of thin air. Azazel’s got a bored look on his face... until you get to his dark eyes. They’re filled with so much rage, I panic and Taser Tanner in the balls just to do something other than embarrass myself by cowering.

His legs give out and he collapses. Except he doesn’t hit the floor, because Azazel still has a hold of his wrist. It leaves him dangling like a toddler throwing a fit. The absurd urge to laugh nearly overwhelms me. Thiscannotbe happening.

I clear my throat. “Azazel. Lovely to see you.” He doesn’t respond, doesn’t so much as glance at me, all his murderous rage narrowed entirely on Tanner. Fuck. If I don’t do something—and fast—he may go straight from protecting me to an assault charge. Or murder, for that matter.

I shove my Taser into my purse and rise to press my hand on Azazel’s chest. “Leave him. He’s not worth it.”

“I think you’d be surprised on how I measure that worth.” But he releases Tanner. Azazel turns smoothly, putting himself between me and the other man, and presses his hand to the center of my back. “Let’s go.”

Relief makes me a little dizzy, but I manage to walk out of the bar with my head held high, ignoring Tanner’s increasing volume of curses behind us. It’s only when we reach the lobby that Azazel hesitates. “I know we had a night arranged, but if you’re too rattled, I completely understand.”

If only he knew. It takes so much more than a mess like this to rattle me. Tanner is proving to be a nightmare, but he’s not the worst I’ve dealt with. I smile up at Azazel, and I don’t even have to fake it. He’s as beautiful as a model: sun-kissed skin, dark eyes, and stylishly cut dark hair. But it’s more than that. He’s courteous, he seems to listen, and he eats my pussy like he never needs to breathe. If the bed play gets a little possessive, that’s a red flag I’m happy to ignore until I can’t do so any longer, because everything else with him is pure pleasure.

“Ginger?”

I laugh a little. “Sorry, just a little off from that encounter. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.” I slip my hand into the crook of his arm. “As long asyou’renot turned off, I’d love to still spend the night with you, Azazel.”

He’s already turning toward the elevator. “There’s nothing related to you that could turn me off.” But as we step into the elevator and the doors start to close, I catch him watching the space as if expecting a threat to burst through the shrinking gap. Before I can comment on it, he smiles down at me. “You look lovely.”

“Thank you. You always do, and you know it.”

He chuckles. “You can’t blame me for trying to impress you.” He slides his hand down my spine before stopping at the small of my back. Azazel never gropes, never fumbles a single step of the dance we engage in from the moment we meet to the morning when he sees me to the waiting car.

I have the whole mess with Tanner to deal with tomorrow, but I’m not about to let it distract me from the pleasure of Azazel’s company. I press him back against the wall of the elevator as it ascends and stroke my hands down his chest. I stop at the band of his pants, and his hips jerk before he can get himself under control. There’s no lie in the wicked smile I give him. “You never fail to impress me. I highly doubt tonight will be the exception.”

There’s a flash in his dark eyes, there and gone in a moment, and then he sweeps me out of the elevator and down the hall to the hotel room. Once we’re inside, I don’t care about the luxuriousness of the room, because he’s here with me and I can almost feel his hands against my bare skin.

Azazel is a classy motherfucker. He wants me enough that he’s practically ripping my clothes off with his gaze, but he walksto the table and the waiting bottle of wine there. “Let’s have a drink, and then we can talk about what I want from you tonight.”

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