Succubus Takes Manhattan by Nina Harper Read Free Book Online Page B

style?”
    I shrugged. “Yes, well, I’d get bored if I didn’t work. And besides, I’m the accessories editor at an important fashion magazine.”
    “And since you are so much the leader of fashion in any event, best to use the media,” Marten agreed. “It is generous of you to share your expertise with the world.” His tone was not even a little bit sarcastic.
    “So as long as you don’t mind making it an early night, I could spend some time in the evening. And I could tell you some places to go, if you’re interested. What kinds of things do you like to do?”
    Funny, I’d spent three days in Aruba with this man. We’d gone to bat caves and clubs and had fabulous sex. I knew what he did for work, and that he’d been born and grew up in Rotterdam and had only moved to Aruba two years ago. And that was all I knew about him.
    Except, of course, that he was a ceremonial magician. And that I had an odd idea to plant him in Marduk’s department.
    “Well, I do plan to go to Weiser’s and The Magikal Childe,” he said. “And possibly the Masonic Lodge in New York—I believe that it is quite magnificent.”
    “Is that the one on Twenty-third and Sixth?” I asked, knowing full well it had to be. “There’s a very good restaurant near there, very popular, with excellent cocktails.”
    He nodded and his lovely blond hair fell into his eyes. “Then it is settled. I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you, Lily. I have thought of you so often since you left.”
    “It’s nice to see you, too, Marten,” I said. Nathan had broken my heart, and the ego boost of having another handsome, charming gentleman (who wanted to see me more than once) was a kind of solace. I smiled at him and held out my hand. He gathered me into his arms.
    As we swept around the room, turning to the music, I was happy. Really honestly just happy. I forgot everything except the music and the dancing, the glittering lights and parade of beautiful clothes—and the handsome, accomplished man who held me in his arms.
    I felt pretty again, and lighthearted, so long as the music played and we danced. Sybil and Vincent were on the dance floor as well. So was Eros—with Beliel. I knew they were friends but when they danced they looked like a couple, and Eros hadn’t said anything about Beliel that would lead us to believe he was anything more than just a friend.
    And then Marten steered me expertly to the edge of the dance floor and slowed down the whirling so that we finally came to a halt by the tables and chairs. “My lovely, lovely Lily,” he murmured into my ear. “I would love to stay with you all the time I am here. I would love to whisk you off to my hotel right now and never let you go. But alas, there are things that I must do. I must make a meeting tonight and will not be available until tomorrow afternoon. But after that, I am all yours.”
    He bowed in the courtly manner I had not seen in two hundred years, and I wondered whether he actually was a demon after all. Most ceremonial magicians were old and sour and didn’t go out dancing or have fun. Their rituals took forever and often called for all kinds of disciplines (which often included celibacy) and constant attention.
    Marten wasn’t like them at all.
    “Do you skate?” he asked me, breaking into my thoughts.
    “Skate?”
    “Ice skating. That is one thing I have missed since I have moved to Aruba. Do you skate?”
    “I never have. I’m willing to try it, but you’ll have to promise to teach me, or at least hold me up so I don’t fall,” I told him. “I grew up in Babylon. We didn’t have much in the way of ice rinks.”
    The one thing I could never, ever tell Nathan I could say to Marten perfectly casually.
    “Well, then, it is well past time to rectify this,” he said, grinning. “But now I must go. I see my host and I have promised to spend some time with him and his friends tonight.”
    I nodded, but didn’t quite understand why. I thought that