Steal the Light (Thieves) (41 page)

I pointed to the T-shirt. “I think it brings out the nerd side of you.”

Daniel shrugged and smiled. It was a gesture I remembered from long ago, and it brought back so many memories. “Speaking of the nerd in me, I’ve been in a cell in underground Paris for four months. Can we watch some TV?”

I laughed, knowing that letting him in was probably a mistake. I also knew I would never be able to shut him out. I opened the door for him.

“Come on, Neil,” he shouted at the darkness. “We’re in.”

“Thank god.” Neil huffed as he carried a huge trunk up the steps. “I thought the two of you were going to leave me out there all night while you worked out your issues. Please tell me you TiVoed my shows. Oh, I got evicted while I was in Paris, but I bought you the sweetest Louis Vuitton bag. Which room is mine? Can we order pizza?”

“Take the last room on the left.” I knew better than to argue. It would be nice to have a roommate. Besides, Neil was a pretty awesome cook.

“So.” Daniel gave me a knowing grin. He looked so right standing there in my rundown house. “When do we go?”

“Go where?”

“To get Sarah, of course.”

My mouth hung open in surprise for a moment. I’d spent the last two of our months apart planning to do just that. I’d been putting out some feelers to people who could make things like this happen. It was tricky, but I managed to keep it from Dev. It wouldn’t be easy to get into Hell and steal a person out from under a demon’s nose, but hey, I like a challenge. And there was no way I was leaving her there.

“I’m in,” Daniel said. “So’s Neil. We talked about it on the plane trip back. Do you have a plan, yet?”

“Yes.” It was an awful plan and would probably end badly. “We go to Hell, get Sarah, and kill everything that tries to stop us.”

When he grinned this time, I got the sexiest hint of fangs. My breath caught, and I knew there was no way this “friends” thing was going to work for long.

“I like it,” he said as he threw that gorgeous body onto my couch. “I always said I’d go to Hell and back for you, baby.”

Daniel started fiddling with the remote, and Neil walked into the room chattering about the clothes he’d had some hot vamp buy him. Any minute now, Neil would realize Daniel was turning on some bad sci-fi movie, and they would fight over the TV. I was going to have to play referee.

The phone rang. I looked down and saw it was Dev. I was surrounded by the people I cared about. They would bring complete chaos to my life and I couldn't wait.

I stood in the middle of my formerly empty house and realized I was finally home.

* * * *

Zoey, Daniel, and Dev will return in October, 2013, with
Steal the Day
. Read on for an exclusive excerpt.

Steal the Day

Thieves, Book 2

By Lexi Blake

Coming October 2013!

The world’s most unusual thief faces her greatest challenge—stealing a soul from the depths of Hell…

When a member of her crew is dragged to Hell by a demon, Zoey plans the most dangerous heist of her career. With her team at her side, Zoey intends to sneak onto the Hell plane and steal Sarah back.

The job seems impossible until a new client makes them an offer too good to refuse. If she can find an ancient artifact called The Revelation, she can use it to locate an angel who holds Sarah’s redemption in his hands.

Surrounded by warring angels and demons, the greatest threat may come from one of her own. Torn between her Fae lover and the vampire who has always held her heart, Zoey finds that she and Dev are trapped in Daniel’s web of secrets, and it may be Zoey who has to pay the ultimate price.

* * * *

Chapter One

I stretched as I rolled out of bed, trying not to wake the man next to me. I caught sight of Devinshea Quinn and couldn’t help but stare. His tan skin made a stark contrast to the white sheets. His dark hair was mussed from our activities, and though his face was relaxed, there was no way to soften that perfectly shaped jawline. The sheet was around his waist leaving most of his lean, muscular body on display. Everything about Dev Quinn was perfect, from his washboard abs to his cut chest, to those ridiculously sensual lips. I felt a smile cross my face as I sat there and just watched him sleep.

He shifted, rolling over in bed, and I decided it was time to go. As much as I liked to look at him, I really didn’t want the argument that was sure to come when he realized where I was going.

I stood up and was finally able to get out of the Christian Louboutin’s Dev had gifted me with earlier in the evening. I flexed my feet. The shoes were ridiculously gorgeous. My eyes had widened when I opened the box, and my heart had fluttered. It hadn’t taken Dev long before he had me in the shoes and nothing else. Those shoes were exciting and sexy, and just the slightest bit uncomfortable. They were a little like my relationship with Dev. The sex was incredible, and while I was in bed with Dev, I didn’t think about anything but him. The minute I rolled out of bed, I wanted to get out of those shoes and put on a pair of Converse. That was our problem.

Well, that and my husband.

I walked through the grotto, collecting stray clothes along the way. Dev’s apartment was at the top of a building he owned in the middle of downtown Dallas. The bottom of the building housed his club, Ether, the hottest club of its kind. But it wasn’t the kind of club that showed up on the “Best of Dallas” lists since I’m one of the only humans to be permitted entrance.

Ether was the place where the supernaturals of the world went to mix and mingle and do a little business. It was an official place of peace, despite my last year’s best effort to burn it down. I hadn’t meant to, but then I never do. Trouble just follows me. That had been my first date with Dev. At the time, I wasn’t married. It didn’t take me long to remedy that.

I slowed, unable to rush through. Dev’s “condo” took up the whole top floor of the building and was the most decadent space I’d ever seen. The first time Dev had taken me up the private elevator from his office in Ether to his penthouse, the doors had opened and I’d gasped. I called the whole place “the grotto.” It was something like an indoor forest, complete with a brook that ran through the various rooms of the apartment. When the sun was out, the whole place was lit with soft, natural light. In the dead of night, moonbeams streamed through the overhead windows, shining down and making the room seem magical.

It’s odd for a faery to live year round in the city. They don’t like the feeling of being enclosed. It goes against their nature, but Dev was mortal. He was the only one of his mother’s children who had not taken after her, and because of his mortality, he’d chosen to leave the
sithein
and cut off ties to his family. Since the day we’d met, I could remember two conversations we’d had about his family.

This place made me think he missed them.

I walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. The bathroom was bigger than my entire living room. The splendor of Dev’s home put in stark contrast our relative differences. Dev had money and a lot of it. I had recently finished a job that gave me enough money to buy a little fixer-upper in the country, but I was starting to hurt for cash. My account was down to the low four digits, and I didn’t have more money coming in.

I would have given up all the money I had made on my last job if I could have changed the outcome of it. Some jobs aren’t worth the payday.

I tossed my clothes on the sink and stepped under the rainfall of deliciously hot water. The water stroked over my skin, and I stretched again. Sex with Dev was inventive and exciting, and required a certain level of flexibility. I could see yoga classes in my future.

Suddenly two big hands came from behind and cupped my breasts. I sighed for two reasons—one because it felt so good, and two because there would be no getting out of a fight. I let my head fall back against his chest, his body nestling against mine. If we were going to fight, I might as well enjoy the first part.

“Zoey,” Dev breathed in my ear, his voice the sweetest of seductions. “I sincerely apologize. I have treated you poorly.”

I smiled because I knew what was coming next. “I disagree, Dev. I was treated incredibly well. At least three times.”

One hand stayed at my breast, plucking at my nipple, pinching and lighting it up. Another clever hand made its way lower. His fingers slid over my clit, and that was all it took. I was warm and wet again. “If I had done my job properly, you would have passed out. The fact that you can move means I have more work to do. I didn’t even get to the part where I tie you up and we play.”

Dev liked to play. He liked to play with handcuffs and toys. He had a whole closet full of naughty little devices, like an FAO Schwarz for kink. With a low growl, he shifted, turning me toward him. His mouth took mine in a deep, luxurious kiss. This was what Dev and I did best.

He lifted me up, settling me on the ledge of the shower. I was sure the contractors who had built the place thought the wide shelf was to store shampoo and soap, but I knew better. Dev had designed it with sex in mind. He moved between my legs, the ledge placing my pussy at the perfect height for him.

“I can’t get enough of you. I fucking crave you.” He’d come prepared. He slipped a condom on and worked his way in. It wasn’t long before my back was up against the natural rock of the shower and I was screaming out number four.

“Let’s dry off and go back to bed,” he whispered as he held me up because my legs weren’t quite working yet. It wasn’t easy keeping up with a man whose grandfather had been a fertility god. “I’ll tell Albert to send up breakfast for two in the morning.”

I hugged him close to me, hoping that my affection would make the next few minutes easier. “I can’t. I have to go. I have a meeting with a client.”

Dev stopped, his whole face lighting up. I suspected one of the reasons he liked me was my unusual job. I was a thief who specialized in procuring objects of an arcane nature. Stealing from supernaturals made my job one of the riskier fields. It was thrilling when the job ran well, and completely terrifying when anything went wrong. Dev had run one job with me and had been bugging me ever since to let him go again. He’d gotten off on the adrenaline rush.

He winked down at me. “That’s great, sweetheart. I’ll get dressed and go with you. I promise to keep my mouth shut and be good eye candy. Should I take the Ruger or the Glock?”

I pulled away from him because no amount of affection was going to fix this. “Sorry, but I have to go alone.”

His deep green eyes formed suspicious slits. “Alone? You never go alone. That’s your first rule.” He took a step back, his mouth turning down. “So if you’re not going alone, you’re going with Daniel.”

And there it was, the one word that could wreck our day. “He is my partner.”

“He’s your husband.” Dev spat the word out as though it was poison. He stalked out of the shower, leaving me with an incredible view of his preternaturally glorious ass.

I picked up a bottle of something Dev liked the smell of and then put it back down in favor of plain old soap. I told myself it was because I needed to be professional. I didn’t want to go into a client meeting smelling like a woman who had just had sex four times. If I was honest with myself, and I tried not to be, I didn’t want to hurt Daniel.

I finished up in the shower and turned it off, wrapping a warm towel around my body. Dev was sitting on the sink when I went to retrieve my clothes. He’d slipped into silk boxers and looked at me with a sad smile.

“Sorry,” he said. “I know I’m being an ass. I’m just jealous.”

“You have nothing to be jealous of.” It sounded like a reassuring lie even to my ears. “If I could get a divorce, I would.”

I’d come to accept the marriage I had been tricked into. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice. Tricked is a harsh word. Daniel had been trying to protect me at the time. It was his excuse for everything. I didn’t resent the protection. I resented the fact that he’d left me ignorant. I had to find out from a demon that we were married. There’d been no vows of love and devotion, no white dress or fabulous reception. There had been blood and sex and a transfer of ownership between Daniel and myself.

And there was no divorce when you were married to a vampire.

Love and Let Die

Masters and Mercenaries, Book 5

Coming October, 2013!

A Tragic Love Story

Charlotte Dennis’s mission was clear: distract and misdirect CIA operative Ian Taggart by any means necessary. If she failed, she would never see her sister again. With her training, it should have been simple, but after one night in Ian’s arms, she knew that saving her sister would mean losing the man of her dreams.

Ian was tracking a terrorist when he met the beautiful American daughter of a Russian mobster. His instincts told him Charlotte was trouble, but his body craved her like a drug and his heart would not be denied. She took his ring and his collar. For once he was truly happy. But as he closed in on his target, her betrayal cost him his mission while her sacrifice saved his life. As she died in his arms, Ian vowed he would never love again.

A Dangerous Reunion

For six years, Charlotte has thought of nothing but returning to her husband, her Master. Working in the shadows, she has devoted herself to earning a chance to reclaim her place in Ian’s life. But forgiveness isn’t a part of Ian’s vocabulary.

Nothing is more important to Ian Taggart than his new mission. But the information he needs is firmly in the hands of the woman who betrayed him. To catch his most dangerous prey, Ian will have to let Charlotte back into his life. As the hunt takes them to some of the world’s most exotic locations, the danger grows and their passion reignites.

Will Ian forgive his wayward submissive…or lose her again?