The Summoner. Alisha Steele

      Alex hung up, feeling guiltier than ever. Nicole was a four-year-old cutie who seemed to have some balance problems, no doubt due to the number of blows her father, Darryl Grier, had rained down on her little blond head the night her mother had finally wised up and left the bastard. The restraining order against Darryl was firmly in place, charges pending. They’d booked a CAT-scan for Nicole, but the earliest appointment they could get was in two weeks. Until then, they’d just have to keep a close eye on her.

      Alex sighed and ran her hands through her hair, or tried to anyway. Her fingers got snarled at the base of her skull, where a huge rat’s nest had formed thanks to all that slip-sliding she’d been doing between the sheets. With a soft curse, she set about pulling apart the hopelessly knotted clump as she walked into the kitchen. Coffee was definitely in order.

      * * * *

      Alex poured a capful of lavender bubble bath under the running water in the claw-foot tub. Then she picked up the brush and continued the almost impossible task of unknotting her hair.

      “Alexandra?” Kasdeya asked in a deep, sexy voice from behind the sheets she’d hung up over the mirrors.

      Startled, Alex dropped the brush in the tub. “Uh, yeah?” she called, fishing through the foam.

      “Could you pull back the cloth? I’d like to see you.”

      Looking like death warmed over? She didn’t think so! “Umm, I’d rather not.”

      “Please, Alexandra. I simply want to see if you are well.”

      “Why wouldn’t I be well?” she asked, moving to where her pink terry robe was hanging on the back of the door.

      “Last night, I was a trifle…” Kasdeya trailed off, sounding embarrassed. Alex was surprised. If asked before now, she would have firmly stated her belief that nothing could faze this Prince of Hell. “Please, pet. Indulge me.”

      That’s what got me into trouble the first time, she thought wryly. But, after wrapping the robe around her slight frame, she pulled back the sheet over the sink. “See? I’m fine.”

      He eyed her critically. “I cannot see anything with that housedress covering you. Remove it.”

      Alex blushed. It was fine for him to stand there all naked and gorgeous, but she didn’t happen to have a perfect body, and the daylight was much too bright for her peace of mind. “No way.”

      He smirked and leaned against the clear wall separating them. “I have already seen you nude, Summoner. Spectacularly so.”

      “Yeah, well, nonetheless.”

      Kasdeya sighed and raised one hand to trace his thumb over the glass. She felt the caress against her lips. “Then tell me, are you bruised? Sore? I can see that I’ve marked your throat. Where else are you hurt?”

      “My throat’s not…” Her gaze left his to find her own in the mirror. “Oh.” There was indeed a large hickey just under her jaw. She edged the robe’s collar away and discovered another in the angle where her shoulder met her neck. Great. It was too warm to wear a turtleneck and she only owned one scarf: a horrid blue floral number that her brother had given her as a gag gift. Just great. At least she’d be able to hide the purple marks on her hips.

      “Come back to me, Summoner, and I’ll heal you. If I overheard correctly, you’ve nothing else to do right now.”

      “Quit eavesdropping on me! Anyway, you obviously didn’t hear correctly. Otherwise, you’d know that I have an entire house to unpack.”

      “Then summon me to help you.” He flexed one bicep for her, the muscles beautifully delineated. “I am perfectly capable of manual labor.”

      Alex forced herself to turn away from his gorgeous body and walked back over to twist off the taps. An abundance of lilac-tinted bubbles shivered on the water’s surface. “I’ll manage, thanks.” She sat on the tub’s edge and started working through her hair once more. If it got wet when it was this tangled, she may as well cut it off; it would be impossible to set straight again. His phantom touch trailed over her head and she shivered, despite herself.

      “I could brush your hair, bathe you…” His voice dropped an octave. “Make you scream in pleasure…again. Your wish is my command, Alexandra. All you have to do is set me free.”

      She shook her head and twisted to look at him, ignoring the pitter-patter of her heart at his outrageous beauty. “I already told you, dark man, it’s not gonna happen. I refuse to let loose a demon on the world.”

      His hand closed into a fist and he slammed it into the glass. The mirror trembled. “Fallen!”

      She didn’t bother to reply, just continued to brush her hair.

      Kasdeya turned away, striding a few paces from the glass. His wings fluffed and fluttered, like a bird’s after it’s been dunked in water. “What if I vowed that—for the duration of this thousand-year sentence only—I will not harm, or caused to be harmed, any mortal on Earth?”

      “How can I trust your word, Kasdeya? The word of a d—a Fallen?”

      He whirled around so swiftly that his hair arced out from his head before settling around his shoulders once more. “What an infernally stupid question,” he said. “You’re the Summoner. Any pact I make with you is unbreakable. Do you not know this?”

      She knew nothing of the sort. Hell, he could be lying right now. Alex finished with her hair and walked toward him to close the gap in the sheets. “I’ll think about it.”

      He glared at her from a few feet away. “Wait!”

      She was stretched up on her tiptoes, trying to tug the cloth over a bump where the curtain rod was joined. When she glanced into the mirror again, it was to find him directly on the other side. How had he moved so fast?

      “Wait,” he said in a gentler tone. His gaze was trained on her breasts. She looked down to discover that her robe had parted. Her left breast was fully exposed. Kasdeya licked the mirror and her nipple hardened. She froze, unable to retreat when his ghostly tongue was playing so deliciously over the hardened peak.

      “At least come to me tonight,” he said between licks, his voice dark and seductive. “Will you do that?”

      “Yes,” she was surprised to hear herself say. “I’ll come.” Then she forced her arm to move, sliding the fabric safely between them.