Page 21 of Succubus Shadows (Georgina Kincaid 5)

"Cool," she said, flipping through the pages. "I can't wait to read it. It'll give me something to do before your next one."

"Well, don't get your - oh, hey."

Seth had spotted me. I came to a stop beside them, and Simone turned toward me politely.

"How's it going?" I asked, voice harsher than I intended.

Seth, always sensitive to me, looked a little surprised at my tone but didn't acknowledge it. "Fine. Georgina, this is Kelly. Kelly, Georgina. Georgina's the manager here."

"Hi, Kelly."

I shook her hand with a hardness she matched, and we both continued grinning at each other like Stepford Wives.

"I met Kelly at a coffee shop," said Seth mildly, not aware he was in succubus crossfire. "Told her she should see the store sometime."

"It's great," said Simone, all adorable innocence. "I'm a big reader. I love all things books. And meeting one of my favorite authors has given me great insight."

"Well," said Seth, a little embarrassed at the attention. "I don't know how much insight I'm really offering."

Simone laughed. "Lots. I feel like I'm getting something from you each time I see you."

"Have you seen each other a lot?" I asked.

"Kelly moved to Queen Anne," said Seth. "So we keep running into each other."

"It's a great area," I said. "Where do you live?"

Simone faltered. "Um, on Queen Anne."

"Street, Avenue, or Drive?"

Seth seemed surprised at the interrogative style of the question. Simone turned nervous. "Eh, Avenue."

Damn. Lucky guess. Queen Anne Street didn't exist.

"Nice place." Turning my back on her, I looked at Seth. "I came over because I heard someone say Maddie was looking for you." That wasn't true at all. Maddie wasn't even in for another hour. I gave Simone a casual glance. "Maddie's his fiancée."

"I didn't think she was in yet," said Seth.

Why, of all days, would his memory be up and running today? "Maybe I misheard," I said with a shrug. "But I figured you'd want to check."

"I will," he said, still a little puzzled. "I need to show Kelly one more book."

She shot me a triumphant look, but I knew she'd accomplished nothing with Seth. He had that expression he got when he was so focused on something - in this case, the history of books - that he was distracted from the world. "Kelly" was a pleasant coincidence. Simone was too overconfident to notice.

Seth turned back to the shelves, and me staying would have seemed awkward. With his attention elsewhere, I shot Simone a warning look. "Well, I'm sure I'll see you around."

"Oh," she said with a serene smile, "you will."

When I got home later that day, I was ready to break some furniture. "Did you see - "

"Yes, yes, I saw," said Roman, materializing beside me. "Calm down."

I let out a small cry of frustration, something primal with no real form. "I can't believe that bitch! Can't believe she'd actually do it right in front of me! She did it on purpose. She did it on purpose to taunt me."

Roman was the picture of tranquility as he leaned against the wall, a far cry from my frazzled, pacing state. "Of course she did. It's like mobsters who threaten their victims in a crowd - there's absolutely no way you could have fought back, not with that many witnesses."

"Nice analogy," I muttered. "Maybe there'll be a horse head in my bed next."

"I could leave one in hers, if it would help," he offered.

That almost made me smile. Almost. Except I wasn't entirely sure he was joking. "The really comical part is that Seth brought it about, you know? He was trying to stay away from me and walked right into this."

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

I didn't dignify that with an answer.

"Look," he said in all seriousness, taking a few steps toward me. "It sucks that she's doing this, and we can definitely rule out coincidence. But if Seth's with Maddie while she's there, you know nothing's going to happen. And Carter will report back to us. No point in getting worked up over it."

"Easier said than done. Nothing's going to distract me from this."

He moved closer still and rested his hands on my upper arms. "Oh? When was the last time you went dancing?"

I blinked in surprise. The last time I'd been dancing? It had been a salsa lesson at the bookstore earlier this year, after which Seth and I had ripped each other's clothes off in my office.

"A while ago," I said evasively, thrown off by both the question and his fingertips on my skin. "Why?"

"Let's go out," he said. "There are a million places we can go. Any kind of dance you want. If memory serves, you're an okay dancer."

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm an excellent dancer, and you know it."

He leaned his face closer. "Then prove it."

"Irrelevant. I don't feel like going out."

Roman sighed and stepped away. I found I was a little disappointed to have him let go. "Man," he said. "I remember when you used to be fun. I'm glad I left town when I did." He walked over to my entertainment center and knelt down. "Well, if Muhammed won't come to the mountain..."

"Good grief. You're a wealth of religious proverbs tonight, aren't you?"

"Hey, just trying to - Jesus Christ. CDs? You do know the Dark Ages ended a long time ago." He pointed at my collection with disdain. "Everyone's gone digital now. You know, those little magical devices that store music? Or do you consider them some kind of witchcraft?"

"Technology changes every year. Jump on a fad, and you're obsolete before you know it."

"Honestly, it's a wonder you aren't cooking over a fire in the middle of your living room."

"You forget - I don't cook."

"I live here. I haven't forgotten."

By then, he'd put one of my "archaic" CDs in the player. I laughed. "You're one to talk about ancient history. This is old school."

"Nah." He rose and offered me his hands. "This is classic. Never goes out of style."

"Yeah," I said, as the music began playing. "All the kids are doing foxtrot nowadays. Geez, it's even the slow style." But I still let him take hold of my hands.

"Hey, you're the one who owns that CD."

We both fell into the steps effortlessly, gliding around the living room and managing to dodge the furniture with some grace. Roman had a long list of flaws, but one of his better traits was that he was almost as good a dancer as me.

"Why do you dance so well?" I asked, stepping over Aubrey. She didn't seem concerned at all about getting squashed and had shown no signs of moving when we began to dance.

"What kind of a question is that? Why do you dance so well?"

"Natural instinct, I guess. That's what I'm wondering. Was it something you were born with? Or is it something you can't help but perfect over the years? I mean, you've been around for a while. I suppose if you put your mind to something that long, you can't help but master it."

He laughed. "To tell you the truth, I don't know. Maybe it's in the blood."

"Oh, come on. I cannot picture Jerome out on the dance floor."

"Not him. My mother. She was a dancer. A slave girl for this king a long, long time ago..." Roman's gaze turned inward. He didn't seem angry, so much as nostalgic. "Of course, he was pretty pissed off when she got pregnant. That kind of thing tends to ruin the chorus line."

"What happened to her?" I hadn't been around that long ago, but certain things stayed the same through time. Slaves who angered their masters got beaten or sold to someone else. Or worse.

"I don't know. Jerome took her away, off to some village where she could be a free woman."

I frowned. I still had trouble wrapping my mind around the idea of my boss falling - romantically and divinely - for a mortal. "Did he stay with her? He would have been a demon by then...."

"He never came back. First time I saw him was last year. My mother didn't hold a grudge, though. She would talk about him all the time...said he was beautiful. I don't know if she meant as an angel or a demon, though. Probably he looked the same, seeing as they're the same beings, really."

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