Free Sculpting a Demon by Lisa Fox

right now. I don’t think I can make it.”
    “Oh dear Lord,” Angie said, and Lila could practically feel her friend’s eyes rolling. “Just humor me, okay?”
    “Ah, I, um,” Lila said, struggling for a viable excuse.
    “No,” Angie said, cutting her off. “I don’t want to hear it. I’m sick of you sitting home all the time. Put down the chisel, wash the dust out of your hair and get down to the club. I’ll be in the VIP Lounge.”
    Lila rubbed her hand over her forehead. She knew that tone in Angie’s voice all too well. If she didn’t agree, it was very likely Angie would show up at her door and physically drag her out of the loft. “I have a guest,” she said.
    “A guest?” Angie asked. “Really?” She paused. “Oh shit, Lila,” she squealed. “Is he there now?”
    “Yeah,” Lila said.
    “Oooooo!” Angie said. “Is he hot?”
    “Yeah,” Lila said, smiling as she blushed.
    “Who is he?” Angie asked, and Lila was once again unsure of how to respond. “It doesn’t matter,” Angie continued, saving Lila from having to think up an answer. “I’ll meet him when he gets here. See you at ten,” she said cheerfully, and then hung up.
    Lila looked at the now dead phone in her hand. “Sure,” she muttered. “See you then.” She dropped the phone and scrubbed her fingers through her hair. “We have to go out,” she said, giving Arien a tight smile.
    “When?” he asked.
    “Ten.”
    He glanced at the clock. “Plenty of time.”
    Lila laughed, recognizing that now-familiar gleam in his eyes, but her stomach growled loudly and she pressed her hand to her belly. “I can’t,” she said with much regret. “I really can’t. I have to eat.”
    “Of course,” he said, flicking his wrist, and the food she requested earlier covered the coffee table.
    “That’s some talent you have,” she said, sitting on the floor in front of the feast.
    “I have many talents,” he said.
    “Oh yeah?” she asked. “Like what?”
    He flashed her that grin and she was struck once again with how gorgeous he was. Just looking him was a treat, like eating rich chocolate cake topped with berries and sauce and whipped cream. Better than that even. He sat down behind her and drew her into his arms. She willingly submitted, her body relaxing against his. “I thought you were hungry,” he said, selecting a piece of chicken and feeding it to her. “But if you require further demonstration…” He brushed his lips over the nape of her neck, sending tingles all through her.
    Lila laughed and fed herself some more chicken. “Maybe later.” She gasped as he nuzzled the spot right behind her ear, the spot that drove her wild. “Okay, definitely later.”
    He shifted her slightly in his arms, his erection fitting snuggly against her backside. He stroked her ribs as he ran his lips back and forth over her shoulder. “So,” he asked between light nips, “where are we off to this time?”
    “We have to go meet my friend Angie at a club in the Southside.”
    “A club?” he asked. “What kind of club?”
    “You know, the usual kind,” she said. “A place where they play loud, often obnoxious music and people gather to be social and drink to excess and then go home with other people who they generally regret fucking the next day.”
    Arien chuckled behind her. “You make it sound so enticing.”
    “Maybe it won’t be so bad,” she said. “But I usually prefer to stay home. I don’t like the club scene.”
    “I would have never guessed.”
    “Yeah, I’m known for my subtlety.”
    She picked up some chicken and offered it to him over her shoulder.
    “Thank you,” he said, licking her fingertips clean. He took her hand in his, caressing her palm, the length of each of her fingers. “Your hands have seen much work.”
    “It’s from sculpting,” she said, looking down at her hand cradled in his. She’d never realized how small her hands were, how delicate. Then again, maybe it was only because