Free Deal with a Demon (Kindle Serial) by Celeste Easton Page B

quick pat down of his legs and tried not to linger on his inner thighs even if it meant she missed something. “Where’s your weapon?”
    “If you’re done stroking me, I’ll explain.”
    His words stopped her short and she pulled her hands back. He was very nice to feel, but she didn’t want him thinking she’d noticed. She also didn’t want to give him or the jerks who took her brother any other reasons to laugh at her. “Fine. Say whatever it is you and your buddies cooked up to spoon-feed me, and then we’ll start talking about why you’re really here.”
    “I told you. I’m here to help you.”
    “Sure you are.” No matter how serious his expression, she didn’t buy it. What kind of drug dealers did business this way?
    “OK. Maybe we should start over.” He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “You called for help.”
    “I said I didn’t call—”
    “Wait.” He held up his hand to silence her. “The book you nailed me with. What was it?”
    “I don’t see what the stupid book has to do with this.”
    When he stepped toward her all her senses fired up and for a minute she lost focus. He looked vicious, and his dark handsomeness hid — she was sure — a deep penchant for violence. He picked the book up from the floor.
    “What could a book have to do with your little game?”
    “This is not a game.” He flipped the book over, and when he read the title he laughed, his emerald eyes sparkling as he looked up at her.
    Nic ignored the little jump from her stomach. “What’s so funny?”
    “Go figure.” He chuckled and one corner of his mouth tilted up in a smirk.
    “Would you please tell me what in the fuck is so amusing?” Her thin patience was all but exhausted and she edged nearer to popping him one in the nose.
    “Do you know who wrote this?” He turned the cover around to face her.
    “ A Purposeful Existence ,” she read. “ A Mortal’s Guide for Demon Assistance .” Some tiny nugget of memory tugged at her brain, but she pushed it away.
    “And the author’s name?”
    The name was long and foreign looking and when she tried to pronounce it, he laughed. “Az-mo-dee-us,” he said, enunciating the syllables as if he were teaching it to a toddler.
    She bit at the inside of her lip. Hadn’t he mentioned the strange name when he’d given her his bullshit intro? “Is that who you work for or something?”
    He laughed again. “Hardly. Asmodeus is my father.”
    “Very funny.” Nic didn’t know how far his act was supposed to go, but judging by the goose bumps on her arms, it had reached the punch line. “Your father is a demon who writes books? Yeah, OK. Your joke stopped being hilarious about two minutes ago.”
    “This. Isn’t. A. Joke.” His smile took on a feral look and she figured he must be tired of the game too.
    She stared at the author’s name. Something about the book…
    Then she remembered. The book had jumped at her. She’d been standing just inside the doorway to the bedroom, her discoveries in the apartment and her desperation brewing a toxic soup in her gut. When she’d asked out loud for some answers, it had flown across the room, end over end, and landed open at her feet.
    Her gaze jumped from the cover to her visitor’s face. She remembered reading a passage about “Calling,” but it must have been right before she fell asleep because the memory was hazy.
    Wait. Wait one fucking minute. Could the book have put a spell on her or something? If it could fly across the room, what else could it have done?
    But one thought stood out in her brain like a lone grave on a cemetery hill — Summoning a Helper; the last section she remembered reading. Could she have really done that? Had she summoned a demon to help her find her brother?
    No. Nope. No. No way was she going to buy any of it. Before she’d set foot in Drew’s apartment earlier she’d been sane. Now? Well…sanity was as absent as her brother.
    She looked up at the man standing in