by Opal Carew
Her lips curved. “This is a Voodoo shop. I should have absolutely no problem explaining why they’re here. Now, go before the police get here.”
“Thank you,” Drake said. “For everything.”
“I’m glad I was able to help.” Aniyah said. “Go and be happy.”
Simone could tell that Drake was still reluctant to let Aniyah have to explain everything to the police on her own. So was she. But she could already hear sirens and Aniyah was right when she said explaining what they were doing in this part of the city might be a little difficult. Drake must have thought so, too, because he gave Aniyah a nod, then took Simone’s hand and started for the door. But Aniyah stopped Simone with a hand on her arm.
“You must come back sometime,” she said. “There are things we need to talk about.”
Simone knew what the other woman wanted to talk about and she really wanted to talk about it, too, so she nodded.
“What was that all about?” Drake asked as they followed Beck to his car.
Simone hesitated. It wasn’t something she could explain easily. In fact, she wasn’t even sure she understood it herself. So all she said was, “Nothing. Just girl stuff.”
Drake looked at her curiously, but didn’t ask for details.
She slid across the bench seat to sit between the two men, then rested her head against Drake’s shoulder as Beck started the car and pulled out onto the street.
“Where to? Simone’s place or yours?” Beck asked, giving them a sidelong glance.
Simone lifted her head to give Drake a questioning look to find him regarding her the same way.
“What do you think?” he asked.
She thought a moment. The last time they were at her place, there were two zombies in it and she had no idea if they were still there or not. Besides, she really wanted to see where Drake lived.
She smiled. “Yours.”
It was well after midnight when they got to Drake’s apartment building. As Beck pulled up to the curb, Drake opened the door.
“Want to come in?” he asked Beck.
The other man shook his head. “Thanks, but I want to go home and clean up. Besides, you two probably want to be alone.”
Though Simone wouldn’t have minded if Beck wanted to come in, she was glad he hadn’t taken Drake up on the offer. She wanted to be alone with him.
Taking Drake’s hand, she slid across the seat and stepped out onto the sidewalk, then turned back to the car when he leaned down to talk to Beck again.
“You said if you ever tracked down the Voodoo priestess for me that I could finally pay you for all your hard work. So, add it all up and let me know what I owe you.”
Beck waved his hand. “Forget about it. You can owe me a favor.”
Drake lifted a brow. “Considering what happened to the cabin of the other guy who owed you a favor, I think I’d rather just pay you.”
The other man chuckled. “Okay, but I’m pricey. You’d do better just owing me a favor.”
As Beck pulled away from the curb, Drake put his arm around Simone and led her up the front walk and into his building. It was a lot fancier than her walk-up on the Upper West Side, with both an elevator and a twenty-four-hour concierge. The man looked a little surprised to see Drake, though Simone wasn’t sure if that was because Drake rarely left his apartment or because they both looked as if they’d just spent the better part of the evening fighting an evil Voodoo priestess and her army of walking dead. The concierge didn’t remark on either, but just gave them a smile and told them to have a good night as they stepped onto the elevator.
Chapter Eighteen
Simone’s lips curved into a smile as she watched Drake study the skin on his forearm in the late afternoon sunlight. They’d just swung by her apartment to pick up some things and decided to stop for dinner at the same café where they’d had their first date.
“You don’t have to keep checking yourself out, you know,” she said. “You’re not cursed anymore, remember?”
He gave her a lopsided smile. “Sorry. Force of habit.”
She leaned over to give him a kiss. “Well, you can stop because you’re not going to turn into a zombie anymore.”
It had been a week since that awful night on Flatbush Avenue and even though Drake hadn’t so much as had a patch of dry skin, she still occasionally found him looking for signs he was going zombie on her again, as he called it.
Simone hadn’t bothered to go back to her apartment for a couple of days, mainly because she and Drake were in bed most of the time. When they finally did go to her place, they found crime scene tape across her door. It turned out Emily Hayden had called the police because she found the door to Simone’s apartment wide open and the place a shambles. Thinking Simone had met with foul play, the cops immediately launched an investigation and called not only Megan, but Simone’s parents and sisters as well. Simone had to spend the whole day calming everyone down and convincing them she was just fine.
Simone explained she and her boyfriend had decided to go to the Catskills for the weekend on the spur of the moment, but that her apartment was fine when they left. While the cops had been more concerned with who might have broken into her apartment, her parents were more interested in hearing about her new boyfriend, especially since they hadn’t even known she was dating anyone.
Of course, after finding out she was okay, Megan was more interested in the fact Simone and Drake had gone away together.
“You just met the guy and you’re already running off to a romantic, secluded cabin with him,” her friend said. “Okay, now I’ve got to meet him. Or should I just wait until the wedding?”
Simone laughingly promised they’d get together for dinner sometime soon. She even mentioned Drake had a friend she wanted Megan to meet. The other woman immediately forgot about Drake and wanted details about Beck instead.
After that, she and Drake had spent the next few days moving some of her stuff to his place. Between that and making love, she didn’t get much done on her book, but she wasn’t too worried about that now. She was confident now that she had a live-in consulting editor, writing would be a snap.
She’d also visited Aniyah’s shop quite a few times. Though Simone doubted it, the other woman insisted she had the blood of a Voodoo priestess running through her veins and wanted to start teaching her spells right away. Simone didn’t want to hurt Aniyah’s feelings after everything she’d done for them, but she really wasn’t comfortable with all that Voodoo stuff. It creeped her out. She preferred to think it was her love that had saved Drake that night. The funny thing was, when she told Drake what Aniyah had said, he sided with the other woman. It seemed he thought having his own personal Voodoo priestess for a girlfriend was a good idea, just in case he got cursed again.
Simone’s brow furrowed as she caught Drake looking at something under the table. Remembering the mirror he’d brought with them on their first date, she leaned forward a little to try to see over the edge of the table. But even though she was sitting adjacent to him this time instead of across from him like she had the first time, she still couldn’t see over the edge of the table.
She set down her glass of iced tea. “Please tell me you didn’t bring a mirror with you.”
Drake lifted his head to give her another smile. “No, I didn’t. But I did bring something else.”
That sounded mysterious. “Oh yeah? What?”
“This.”
As he spoke, Drake set a light blue jewelry box on the table and slid it toward her. Simone’s pulse quickened. There was no mistaking the jeweler that blue box had come from. The question was, what was in it? She jerked her head up to look at him.
His mouth twitched. “You thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you?”
She eyed him warily. “Forgotten what?”
“That I asked you to marry me right before I went over to confront you-know-who.”
Simone smiled. Drake had taken to referring to the Voodoo priestess as “you-know-who” as
if he were afraid by saying her name he’d bring the curse back. Now that she thought about it, she actually did think Drake had forgotten about asking her to marry him. And while her answer had been sincere that night, when he hadn’t mentioned it again she figured it was just one of those things he’d done in the heat of the moment and that he hadn’t really meant it. She supposed she should have brought up the subject herself, but she just hadn’t been able do it. Apparently he hadn’t forgotten, but was just waiting until he bought the ring.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Drake asked.
Reaching out a trembling hand, Simone picked up the box and slowly lifted the lid. Nestled inside was the most beautiful diamond engagement ring she had ever seen. Tears of happiness blurred her vision and she blinked.
“Will you marry me, Simone Kent?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you, Drake Parrish.” Leaning close, she gave him a long, lingering kiss, then pulled back to look at him. “Will you put the ring on for me?”
He flashed her a smile. “It would be my pleasure.”
After he slipped it on her finger, she held out her hand to admire it, deciding it looked even better on her finger than in the box.
Simone was about to lean forward to give him another kiss when their waiter appeared at the table with a slice of cheesecake and two forks. She looked at Drake in surprise. They hadn’t ordered cheesecake, which meant he must have arranged to have it brought over after he’d popped the question.
She was about to dig in when he stopped her. She lifted her brow questioningly, then watched as he scooped up a forkful and offered it to her. Smiling, she closed her lips over it. He let out a groan as he watched her mouth.
“You have no idea how sexy that is,” he said huskily.
Her lips curved. “I do now.”
As they ate, she and Drake talked about the wedding, where it would be held and who they wanted to invite. That conversation naturally led to discussing where they were going to live. Simone pointed out that his apartment was much nicer than hers. Bigger, too. And he had a complete home gym. That made her wonder if he was going to continue to work from home like she did.
“Are you going to go back to working on Wall Street now that you’re no longer a zombie?” she asked.
“Actually, I’m thinking of writing a romance book.”
Simone blinked in surprise. “A romance book?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s about this woman who falls for a guy who’s a zombie. Only she doesn’t know it…”
Other Books by Paige Tyler
SERIES
X-OPS Series
Her Perfect Mate
Her Lone Wolf
Her Wild Hero (Releasing Spring 2015)
SWAT (Special Wolf Alpha Team)
Hungry Like the Wolf (Releasing January 2015)
The Buckle Bunnies Series
Ride of Her Life
Team Roping
Ride ’em Hard
The Badge Bunnies Series
Seducing Officer Barlowe
Two Cops, A Girl and A Pair of Handcuffs
A Cop, His Wife and Her Best Friend
Ride-Along
Hands-On Training
The Cowboy Series
Karleigh’s Cowboys
And The Ranch Hand Makes Three
More Than a Cowboy (Special Two-Book Set)
Alaskan Werewolves Series
Animal Attraction
Animal Instinct (Releasing Soon)
The Cutler Brothers Series
Cade
Madoc
The Cutler Brides
Modern Day Vampires
Vampire 101
The Friends Series
Spicing Up Her Marriage
Taking Her Friends Advice
It’s Just a Job
INDIVIDUAL BOOKS
Western
Kayla and the Rancher
Paranormal
Dead Sexy
Just Right
The Magic Spell
Contemporary
Security Risk
The Postman Always Comes Twice
Good Cop, Bad Girl
Mr. Right-Now
Erotic Exposure
Unmasked
Sexy Secret Santa
If You Dare
Librarian By Day
Protective Custody
Spanking Sydney
The Real Thing
Not Really the Outdoor Type
The Wager
Maid for Spanking
The Girl Who Cried Wolf
Stop, or I’ll Spank
Samantha and the Detective
Nosy By Nature
All She Wants for Christmas
About the Author
Paige Tyler is a bestselling author of sexy, romantic fiction. She and her very own military hero (also known as her husband) live on the beautiful Florida coast with their adorable fur baby (also known as their dog). Paige graduated with a degree in education, but decided to pursue her passion and write books about hunky alpha males and the kickbutt heroines who fall in love with them.
www.paigetylertheauthor.com
Asmodeus
DEMON OF LUST
***
Princes of Hell
Book 1
by,
Sara Humphreys
Asmodeus, Demon of Lust Copyright 2014 by Sara Humphreys
Published by Sara Humphreys
Cover design by Hot Damn Designs
All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author. Please contact the author a [email protected]. This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
For more information on the author and her works, please see www.sarahumphreys.com
Also by Sara Humphreys
Amoveo Legend Series:
Unleashed
Untouched
Undenied (free e-short story)
Untamed
Undone
Unclaimed
Unbound (February 2015)
Dead in the City series:
Tall, Dark, and Vampire (Read on for a sneak peek)
Vampire Trouble
Vampires Never Cry Wolf (March 2015)
Chapter One
Struggling with the skeleton key, Kai swore under her breath as she fought to open the attic door of her grandfather’s old, colonial house. Her mouth was set in a firm line as she wrestled with the uncooperative lock and reminded herself it was now her house. For better or for worse, the enormous place was now hers.
Kai hadn’t ever met her maternal grandfather and if it weren’t for an old picture her mom kept she wouldn’t even have known what Jacob Kelly looked like. Kai’s parents were killed in a car crash a couple of years ago, and not only did the jerkoff skip the funeral, he didn’t even call. Not a card, a note, a text. Nothing. Not a Goddamn word.
What a prince.
Then about a month ago, Kai received a call from Ben Flaherty. He claimed to be an attorney in Idaho and said that she was the sole beneficiary of her grandfather’s estate. At first she thought it was a joke or a scam or something, like one of those emails from the guy in Kenya who said you inherited a billion dollars. But after learning a
few pertinent facts, she realized it wasn’t a joke.
Ever since her parents died it was like she’d been traveling under a dark cloud of shitty luck. Kai’s little tarot shop in New Hampshire went belly up last year, her boyfriend cheated on her—again.
Needless to say, life was sucking in a big, fat way. The only soul in the world Kai could count on was her Siamese cat, Zephyr, and she was a moody little thing. So, when Mr. Flaherty had laid it all out, the inheritance wasn’t easy to turn down.
The property was in Bliss, Idaho with a whopping population of about three hundred people, but when Kai heard that Bliss was located in Magic Valley, that was when she knew it was all going to be okay. She’d always been fascinated with all things mystical and, at a young age, had discovered she had a knack for reading people, or more specifically the auras that surrounded them. Tarot cards helped her get a more in-depth reading but, in most cases, she was able to get a solid bead on people by studying the color of their aura.
When she was little, she called it the glow and only her mother knew what she was talking about because she could see it too. Kai’s dad would chuckle when his girls yammered on about auras, inner light and so forth. Kai was relatively certain her father thought it was just a silly game, but she and her mom knew better.
While Kai’s mother was happy to discuss it in private, she discouraged the idea of sharing their intuitive nature with other people. So when Kai opened the tarot shop, her mom was less than thrilled and worried that Kai might attract the wrong sort of people—the ones without light.