What A Demon Wants. Kathy Love

      Jo stepped forward, raising a hand to stop the tirade she saw coming. “Ellina, just let Maksim hire someone for a couple weeks. If nothing else happens, then you can let him go.”

      Maksim made a noise as if he was going to argue the plan, but Jo waved her hand again, silently shushing him.

      “And you know with the baby nearly here, Maksim won’t be able to watch out for you himself. And he will worry.”

      Well, that was great. Now they were guilting her for not taking around-the-clock security. And sadly, it was working. Darn it.

      “What can it hurt?” Jo added, driving in the last nail of the coffin of her will.

      Ellina looked at her note-cluttered desk, then her computer screen with a Word doc opened and reporting a mere twenty pages finished.

      What could it hurt?

      Her career. Her deal with her publisher. Her future deals.

      Then she glanced back at her brother and sister-in-law, and selfishness created a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Both of their expressions showed how worried they were. And they had a baby due to arrive any day.

      What could it really hurt? It would calm Maksim down and allow him to fully focus on Jo and their new baby, and it did only have to be for a little while. She could suffer through it for a little while, right?

      Once Maksim realized he was paying someone for nothing, she’d be back to her normal life.

      “Fine,” Ellina muttered, but waved the unwanted résumé at Maksim.

      Maksim frowned but accepted the paper. “Don’t you want to look it over more?”

      “I’m assuming he’s already your choice,” Ellina said, not bothering to hide her irritation with being railroaded.

      “Well, I do think he’s the best, yes.”

      Ellina made a well there you go face at him.

      “Now,” she said, turning her attention back to her computer, “why don’t you give me a little time to—”

      A loud, abrupt rap echoed through her apartment.

      Ellina glared at her brother.

      “That’s him,” Maksim said with a smug smile.

      So much for work now.

      Jude stood in the doorway of a shotgun cottage that looked as if it had fallen out of the pages of a fairy tale. He half expected children in lederhosen to answer the door.

      But instead of Hansel or Gretel, the door was jerked open by a tall man, fit and tough enough to be a bodyguard himself.

      “Jude Anthony?”

      Jude nodded. “Yes.”

      The man extended his hand. “Maksim Kostova. I’m the one who contacted you on behalf of my sister.”

      Jude had guessed as much. He accepted the man’s hand, giving it a brief, firm shake. As he released it, he fought the urge to wipe his hand on his pants as if there was something thick and slimy clinging to his fingers.

      Demon. That particular preternatural aura affected him more than some others. The energy from Maksim was strong and heavy, coating Jude’s palm and fingers, creeping up his arm like a living thing. The Blob from horror movie legend.

      Damn, he hated that sensation. He flexed his fingers, trying to subtly shake the sensation off.

      Maksim raised an eyebrow, obviously aware that Jude had had some reaction to him, but he didn’t inquire. Instead he stepped back, opening the door wider.

      “Come in.”

      Jude moved past him, keeping a good distance between them. This male was clearly a powerful, high-ranking demon. Jude could even feel his aura just in passing.

      Jude steeled himself to the sensation, but was pleased to step into a fair-size sitting room. More space was always better.

      He could do this. Just a few more jobs, and he’d be done with this life. No more paranormal creatures. No more of this existence. He would reinvent himself.

      With renewed determination, he turned his focus away from the demon and to the room they’d just entered. His impression again was that of being in a fairy-tale world. Lavender walls, gold brocade furniture, and beaded lamps gave the room a feeling of a princess’s private parlor.

      But the woman who entered the room was no fairy-tale character. Not unless fairy tales had changed greatly since he’d last read one. She was hugely pregnant, making her hard to miss. Her belly protruded, almost comically large when compared to her slight frame. Then his gaze moved to the tall, blond-haired woman who followed the waddling pregnant one.

      She was stunning. Definitely princess material here…except instead of a flowing gown she wore a faded concert T-shirt that clung to her small, pert breasts and slender midriff.

      Dark washed jeans encased her long legs, accentuating the flare of her hips and cupping what he had no doubt was a great ass—not that he could see that, but he just knew. Pale bare feet with her toes painted cherry red peeped out from under the cuffs of her jeans.

      Jude’s body tensed, very aware of her.

      Just observations, he told himself. What he was paid to do. Notice—things. But his body told him it was more than a detached inventory. He reacted. Instantly. Viscerally.

      Don’t let this be Ellina Kostova. Please don’t let this be her.

      He tried to ignore his response, relieved when Maksim spoke. “Jude, this is my wife, Jo,” Maksim said, gesturing to the very pregnant woman, drawing Jude’s attention away from the beauty.

      His wife stepped forward and offered her hand. The briefest touch revealed she was human. A welcome sensation after making contact with her husband. No supernatural residue there.

      But of course, Maksim redirected him back to the other woman. “And this is Ellina, my sister. The one you will be protecting.”

      Shit. He’d been hoping this wasn’t her. She certainly didn’t fit his image of Ellina Kostova—the reclusive, eccentric author who preferred to stay in her world of demons, monsters, and other things that went bump in the night.

      He hadn’t expected her to be so young…or so lovely. She had an almost ethereal quality to her features. Full lips, large pale eyes, creamy skin.

      She moved closer and offered a hand to him. Her fingers were slender, elegant. A beautiful hand.

      But she was paranormal, he reminded himself. So really, would she be anything less than perfection? On the outside, at least. That was the way of preternaturals.

      He reached for her hand, waiting for the same clinging, distasteful aura to encompass him. The aura that would remind him that not all things were as beautiful on the inside as they were on the outside. He knew from the information her brother had given him that she was only half demon, but half was all it would take for his preternatural awareness to kick in.

      But instead of that sickening, clinging, creeping sensation, her touch sent tingles up his arm. Tangible, electric pulses. Pulses that were anything but unpleasant.

      As if in utter synch, they released each other, both stepping back.

      Unlike him, Ellina didn’t show any outward reaction to the touch. Her lovely face was as serene as that of a mannequin. Certainly she didn’t show any indication she’d felt the same shock waves passing between them. Instead her pale eyes roamed over him, taking very obvious inventory, although her expression revealed nothing of her thoughts. Just an assessment. Testing his musculature, his strength. Like appraising a horse about to be purchased.

      Except he was no stoic equine. His body tightened further—his mind imagining what her fingers would feel like moving over him. Those tiny pulses radiating from her fingers into him.