NOT DEAD YET: A Lucy Hart, DEATHDEALER Novel (Book Two) by Eva Sloan, Alice Bello Read Free Book Online Page B

glow.
    At first Lucy felt too self conscious to take any of it seriously.  But after well over a half hour of intense scrutiny, Lucy headed for the front door of the little SMBD shop with five bags of loot... and the buttery leather jacket she first saw when entering.
    It was a man’s jacket, and Lucy could clearly envision Gabriel pulling it on over his broad, naked shoulders.  She wanted to watch him pull it on, to watch him shrug it over his bulging biceps, over his chiseled chest.  And she wanted to slip into his arms, into the open front of the jacket to wrap her arms around his broad, strong torso. 
    She could practically feel the softness of his skin, the hardness of the muscles beneath it… she could practically hear the powerful beat of his heart in his chest.  She wanted him so badly...
    Just then Lucy’s legs stopped moving, and her train of thought stopped on a dime.  Standing in front of the mannequin sporting the strap on phallus was a familiar, rather tacky sight.  Darla, Francis Luvici’s secretary and not-so-secret mistress, stood in her five-inch stiletto heels, holding her hand contemplatively to her chin as she scrutinized the obscene mannequin.
    Abbey stopped, her pigtails twirling in her black and blue manicured fingers, and looked back to Lucy.  Lucy just stood there, shaking her head as Luvici sauntered from behind a rack of practically not there negligees.
    Holy crap!   Lucy took a hasty step back, ready to turn and bolt for the back door to the little shop of libidinous horrors—Lucy wanted a big black hole to open beneath her feet, and for it to swallow her whole. 
    Abbey reached out and took hold of Lucy’s wrist, pulling her closer, and uttering a sibilant word Lucy could not recognize.  She felt a shift in the air around them, and the tug of an all too familiar force—dark and sickly sweet.  It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
    But when she looked around her everything was a little fuzzy, and tinted a little darker.  She looked back at Abbey, but she was still as clear as ever.  Abbey put a finger up to her smiling lips to tell her to be quiet.
    Luvici walked right past them and didn’t as much as blink in their direction.  It was eerie, and unnatural, but it was also thrilling.  Somehow Abbey had become fluent enough in magic to be able to throw a spell of invisibility over not only herself, but others… and on the fly.  A useful trick, to be sure.
    Abbey started to pull Lucy slowly toward the front door.  Unfortunately, as they moved closer to the door, they had to move past Luvici and Darla... and hear their conversation.
    “But why not?” she complained.  She gestured with a hand manicured with the most garish hot pink.  “You like guys too.  If I put this get up on—” she waved her hand at the strap-on wearing mannequin,  “then you could get the best of both worlds.”
    Luvici and I winced at the same moment.  “Darla!” he said exasperated, “I’m still... I’m—it doesn’t matter if I’m with a guy or a girl... I’m still me.”
    Darla looked at him with a confused expression, and then her eyes went wide.  “Oh... ” she said, and then took a big step back, nearly running into Abbey.  We both took a big step back, and started again for the door.  I didn’t want to hear anymore about Darla and Luvici’s sex life.
    But then Darla said, “We still need to get them a present... you know, for the bridal shower.”
    Luvici groaned.  “You’re still going?”
    “She invited me.  Why wouldn’t I go?”  She started to talk in a stage whisper.  “I mean, your wife never goes to any of your family’s events.”
    I looked back as we moved past them, and saw sadness on Luvici’s face.  The dirty crook of a lawyer had many, many faults, but he had helped me out when no one else would—even though it had turned out to be a mixed blessing... a very mixed blessing.
    Darla must have seen the same sadness in his eyes.