Sucker for Love Read Free

as she came up behind me. “Daddy’s going to take it out of my allowance for sure.”
    “I don’t think this is a spilled drink,” I finally managed, my voice small and tight. I picked at a torn piece of Esther’s dress that had caught on the edge of a mirrored coffee table. The fabric was soaked with red, the edges jagged where it had ripped on the table. Or where someone had ripped it.
    An image flashed and I remembered Esther, a strange expression on her face as Justin had led her from the ballroom.
    I’d been five steps behind them because I’d wanted a pic for the brochure. I’d paused to calm down an overly excited were who’d been upset because we’d run out of au jus for the roast beef.
    By the time I’d reached the sitting area—mycamera poised and ready to capture an eternally-ever-after in the making—they were gone.
    “Holy shit,” Nina gasped as the reality of the situation seemed to hit her. Her nostrils flared and her eyes brightened. “That really isn’t wine, is it?”
    “No.” My throat tightened around the word. “It’s Esther.” I forced a swallow. “I think she’s been kidnapped.” The ripe smell of fresh blood flooded my senses. Goose bumps crawled up and down my arms and a strange sense of doom settled in the pit of my stomach. “Or worse.”

“T his isn’t so bad.” That’s what Ash Prince told me when he and a handful of men I didn’t recognize showed up a half hour later to examine the crime scene.
    I’d called Ty first, but he was off chasing one of New York’s Most Wanted vampires who’d skipped out on bail (not that Ty discussed his cases with me, but we were mentally linked thanks to some mutual bloodsucking and so I picked up on a few details every now and then when he let his guard down).
    With Ty going straight to voice mail, I’d had no choice but to call the only other name in my iPhone who hunted bad guys for a living.
    Make that bad demons.
    Ash and his brothers worked for the Big D himself(that’s Devil not Daddy). They hunted condemned souls on the lamb from hell. Rapists, murderers, IRS auditors. They had expertise when it came to dissecting a crime scene.
    Or so I hoped.
    “No headless corpse.” Ash typed in notes on his BlackBerry and walked the small sitting area outside the ballroom. Inside, his men had spread out to question the few remaining guests. “No smoldering ashes. No brain matter splattering the walls.” He hunkered down and looked under the sofa. “No scattered body parts.”
    Ugh. Can we tone down the details?
    “She’s definitely not dead,” he added, pushing to his full six foot plus height. His rich chocolate gaze locked with mine. “Not yet anyway.”
    “You’re not making me feel any better.” Talk about the wrong thing to say to a sexual demon. His gaze brightened, gleaming a brilliant gold. Heat rolled off his sexy body, curling around me and luring me closer.
    He had short, dark hair that looked as if he’d just rolled out of bed and shoved a hand through it. He wore a brown Henley that hugged his broad shoulders and accented a narrow waist. Faded jeans clung to his long, muscular legs. He had bedroom eyes and perfect white teeth and more sex appeal than Eric Bana, Brad Pitt and my favorite clerk at the Starbucks all rolled into one.
    Talk about some serious temptation.
    “I’m in a relationship,” I blurted. “A happy, committed, monogamous relationship. With Ty,” I added on the off chance that guys didn’t talk about these things. Ash and Ty crossed paths on occasion, but I couldn’t really see them having a heart-to-heart. Especially since demon Ash didn’t actually have a heart and Ty’s ticker had been dead for quite some time now.
    “So you two are together now, huh?”
    “That’s right.”
    He arched an eyebrow. “Are we talking together as in getting wild and naked on the weekends, or together as in picking out his and hers coffins?”
    “Definitely coffins.” He arched an eyebrow and I