Succubus in the City by Nina Harper Read Free Book Online Page A

whether we should try to develop a strategy to get rid of drugstore cosmetic support.
    So I listened to the same arguments again and then went back to my office and spread photos of chunky bracelets over my desk, circling the best ones with a blue marker and making notes on the appropriate places to insert in the single page of text. It was diverting enough that I forgot I was, in fact, a personal courier to the Prince of Hell Herself, and mostly considered myself an ordinary accessories editor at Trend magazine.
    Which was still the way I felt as I took the subway home and stopped in the bodega on the corner for some fresh flowers to brighten up the living room. After working on Spring and Summer collections all day (not to mention scheduling a page of beach totes and the best in dressy flip-flops) I needed something to counteract the dark and chilly reminder that it was still February.
    Vincent saw me half a block away and had the door gaping for my entry. “Would you like me to help you carry those up?” he asked eagerly.
    “It’s okay,” I told him. “It wouldn’t look right if you’re not here in the lobby, especially after dark. I mean, really, we’re counting on you for our safety, not to carry flowers around.”
    That straightened his shoulders. “Oh, and I have to tell you,” he whispered as I got my mail. “There has been a man asking for you. Says his name is Nathan Coleman. He said he called but you were out, and said that he’d try to drop by again. I’ll get rid of him if you’d like.”
    Nathan Coleman? The name rang a bell—yeah, the e-mail about the missing man. Guess he wasn’t a spammer then. I was going to have to get rid of him.
    There were ways to deal with this. The easiest was probably the most direct. I could just meet with him and act confused, and it would be all over. I couldn’t help him. If he persisted, I could use my attraction on him and that would end the situation immediately. He’d be missing then, and I might have to think about moving, or change my name or something. I’d had to do it before and I really hate that, though with Eros buying five apartments at least there was a place I could go on short notice.
    The one thing I did know from all my experience was that putting off the inevitable didn’t make it any easier. Or better. Better to just get it done with. “If he comes back, call me on the intercom,” I told Vince.
    “But he could be dangerous,” he protested.
    I smiled. I could be dangerous, too. And it was better to appeal to the doorman’s sense of honor and protective nature rather than make points for feminist self-determination.
    “I think I know who he is,” I mollified my would-be knight. “It’s really okay, he just wants to ask about a friend. And if there is any trouble, I just have to hit the intercom and I know you’d be up in a second.”
    Vincent smiled. Oooh, Martha does pick the cuties.
    Anyway, much as having Satan’s minions in the lobby can annoy me, they really do take care of a lot of my needs. And they’re always eye candy, and I’ll bet would happily be more than eye candy if I asked. And since they’re already dead and in Hell I don’t have to worry about the incendiary consequences.
    Hmmm, so why had I never considered dating another demon? There were more than a few that were cute and smart and fun. It wouldn’t make me mortal, though, wouldn’t change me from being a succubus because a demon doesn’t count as a man. Not worth the bother.
    I managed my keys between the flowers and the bag with my Ben & Jerry’s and a take-out box from Benny’s Burritos on Fifth and Avenue A. Yeah, it was a bit out of my way, but I’d really been jonesing for one of their steak-extra-cheese burritos in salsa verde, and none of my posse were really Benny’s freaks. Which I do not pretend to understand. Sybil doesn’t like Mexican at all, and Eros only wants the very elegant stuff. Benny’s is too low class for her, though she’s