Playing with Fire Read Free Page B

with the after-sex high, I felt sure would remain for a long time.
    The fire demon sighed and green smoke misted into the air. I waved a hand through the sigh. "You are one hot number."
    "I like numbers. Mathematics are my thing."
    "Is that so? Never would have guessed. You always been a demon?"
    "Why do you ask?"
    I shrugged. "I don't know. I was born mortal. Only been a bloodsucker for a decade."
    "I've been demon for..." His sigh hushed over my sex-warm skin. "Ages. You ever hear of l'homme vert ?"
    "The green man? Isn't he some forest myth? I thought you were from Beneath?"
    "I am. L'homme vert was a myth created by mortals. You know Paris experiences sinkholes a few times every year that fall many stories into the underlying tunnels?"
    "I'm from Venice. I'm not much up on Paris, other than the Eiffel Tower and the banana and Nutella crepes. Man, do I miss eating."
    "A rather large hole sunk into the tunnels in the seventeenth century, and went down forever. Or as close to Beneath as you can get. Mortals fell in and died in the fall, but some did not. Those that were rescued reported seeing a green man."
    "You? Because you've got that cool green smoke?"
    He nodded. "I had come up to reconnaissance, and some saw me."
    "Did you...take them Beneath?"
    "I used to guard the gates to Beneath. I have only ever received souls destined for my gates."
    "Oh." I turned onto my back and closed my eyes. Souls destined for Beneath. Ugh. I'd needed that reminder. Papa waited for me. How could I have forgotten? I had to get out of here. "Now that you're not Beneath, who takes the souls?"
    "Not my concern. I'm done with that nasty business. Trying to live on the up-and-up now."
    "With numbers?"
    "Security and IT work does demand a love for numbers."
    Cinder sat and turned his legs off the other side of the bed. He reached for his clothes. Feeling a strange loss, I turned to touch him, and for the first time, saw the massive tattoo on his back. It was thick and black and curved in wicked arcs and scythes, seeming to almost clutch his spine.
    And then I suddenly knew it wasn't a tattoo. "Himself's mark!" I gasped.
    He turned abruptly, but didn't twist around enough to hide the mark.
    "You belong to...?" I clutched my throat. Saying the dark prince's name was never wise. Say it three times and he'd invite himself over for dinner--and food would not be the menu. "But you said you didn't work Beneath anymore?"
    "I don't. I escaped a decade ago, but I still wear his mark. He owns my soul. But he hasn't come to claim me since I've walked mortal ground, so I'm of a mind to keep quiet and live my life while he turns the other cheek."
    "I'm sorry for you."
    "Why? I'm a demon, Parish. Most of us are in Himself's ranks, and those who are not, are deemed worthless."
    "But you work for the Council."
    "They don't know about my alliance with Him--the dark guy. Former alliance." Pulling on his shirt, he glanced to me. "You won't tell anyone, either."
    "I won't." And, despite his warning tone, I meant it. I shuddered, because having no soul was all too familiar to me. "Without a soul you can never love."
    The demon cast a smirking gaze over my naked body. "Love isn't necessary to lust."
    And suddenly I felt cold. Discarded. What did you expect, Parish? You were both using each other for distraction. Until... It had changed to something more than a distraction.
    Wow. I can't believe I'd admitted that to myself.
    Cinder leaned in and kissed me. Gently, tenderly, brushing his lips over mine to linger. What was he about? Telling me he couldn't love in one moment then kissing me like he loved me in the next?
    Like you would know if love bit you on the neck, you silly vampire .
    "I've never been bitten by a vampire before," he said. "That was amazing. Made the orgasm twice as strong. I'd thought vamps were disgusted by our black blood."
    "I've been told the same, but you taste like every treat in the book all rolled into one. So good."
    And I looked aside, because