Tequila Sunset (Last Call #4.5)
Read Tequila Sunset (Last Call #4.5) Online
Authors: Moira Rogers
Copyright Information
Tequila
Sunset
Copyright © 2009 Moira Rogers
http://www.moirarogers.com
Smashwords
edition.
Originally
published by Changeling Press in 2009. Reissued by the author in
2012.
This is a work
of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and
incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or
used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
All rights
reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or
used in any manner whatsoever without the express written
permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations
in a book review.
Table of Contents
TEQUILA SUNSET
Werewolf looking for a submissive.
Zack gritted his teeth, finished off his
second whiskey, and glared at his companion, barely managing to
feign polite interest. “So then what did you do?”
For a seventeen hundred year old demon, Leo
looked alarmingly whipped. “I introduced her to the damn demon. It
was that, or get kicked out of my own bed.”
At least he wasn’t the only powerful man
around who’d been brought to his knees by a human woman. “You
realize how ridiculous that sounds, don’t you?”
“
Yes.” Leo dragged his
fingers through his blond, disheveled hair and sighed. “Fuck. If
you tell anyone, I’m going to have to kill you.”
Zack wished he had another drink. He wished
he hadn’t run into Leofric. He wished someone would order a damned
Tequila Sunrise already, so he could go upstairs and forget the
fact that he was still sleeping alone.
Instead, he sighed. “So, your sweet little
girlfriend had a vision about some demon’s eternal damnation, and
this was alarming to her? You’ve got her snowed, Leo.”
“
Normally I’d agree, but
Ianthe’s different. She’s…” For a second, Zack thought he saw
regret in Leo’s eyes, but it was gone too fast to tell. “Shit, she
makes me look like the poster boy of evil. I’m talking soup
kitchens and feeding the homeless and who knows what else. If there
were a back door out of the demon gig, she’d have taken it two
hundred years ago.”
Something about the look on Leo’s face made
Zack arch an eyebrow. “You introduced your new flame to an old one?
You’re either brave or stupid, man.”
Leo blinked. “What? Oh,
fuck
no. No, I wouldn’t
have fucked Ianthe for money back when she was the dark Queen of
the Night, and she won’t do
anyone
now that she’s all sweet and good.” That
obnoxious, irrepressible grin returned, the cocky one that had been
tinged with far too much satisfaction since Leo had met Caitlin.
“Trust me. I tried. For like, four decades.”
And he wouldn’t have bothered if she’d just
put out. “Charming. No means no, Leo.”
“
Fuck you, man. I know what
no means.” The cell phone on the table in front of him went off,
the vibrations making it dance across the table. Leo snatched it up
and flipped it open, then grinned. “Cait’s on her way.”
The knot of misery in Zack’s gut
twisted tighter. Leo looked
happy
, and he felt like an ass for wanting to run like
hell before Caitlin’s arrival.
Buck up, Elliott. You’re an ass, and you
deserve to have to watch them make googly eyes at each
other.
He should have remembered that the man
seated next to him could sense the darkest desires of those around
him more easily than breathing. Leo’s green eyes looked almost
sympathetic as he shifted and reached into his back pocket. “It’s
getting bad, isn’t it?”
Self-denial made him grumpy. “Stay out of my
head.”
Leo flipped a credit card onto the table.
“Man, I’m not even in your damn head. Every demon within ten feet
of you knows what you need. And that could get awkward when Cait
shows up with Ianthe, considering her past.”
Zack turned his attention to the bar in the
middle of the room. “You want me gone before they get here.”
“
You want to
be
gone before they get here,” Leo
countered. “Even I can tell that much. But hey, you could stick
around and hit on the reformed demon. Back in the eighteenth
century you would have been just her type.”
“
No, thanks.” Even if a
demon could offer the sort of submission he sought, it would be
tied up in complicated power struggles and manipulation. He reached
over and nudged Leo’s credit card across the table. “I can buy my
own drinks, though. It’ll be worth it not to have to watch you be
schmoopy with your girlfriend.”
Leo flashed him a grin. “Go on, Elliot.
Order your damn drink. I’ll catch you next time you come
through.”
“
Yeah, sure.” Zack rose,
determined to get the hell upstairs before Caitlin showed up with
anyone who might want to hit on him.
Surprisingly, he wasn’t in the mood to play
nice.
Caitlin tugged on Iris’ hand with surprising
strength. “Late. We’re late.”
Arguing was useless. She’d tried a dozen
times over the past week, but Caitlin was young and determined, and
nothing Iris said would dissuade her.
And Leo, damn him, had stood by the entire
time with the smug smile of an infatuated man.
They reached the doors of the
bar, and Iris dug her feet in one last time. “Remember what I said
about the name. Your boyfriend’s probably the only demon in town
who can recognize me on sight, but my name -- my demon name -- it’s
well known. And it will get me in a
lot
of trouble.”
“
What?” Caitlin looked
around distractedly at the people milling around outside the bar,
then stepped around the queue and headed straight for the VIP
entrance. “I’m not going to announce you, Iris. Besides, I’ll know.
Or I should, anyway.”
Iris fought a shiver. “The one who’s going
to save me from my dark path?” The thought was almost laughable.
Any person she would meet tonight was three hundred years too late
to save her from tumbling into darkness. And the one person she
wanted…
No.
Foolish, to think of this night as a
betrayal to the man she would never touch.
Could
never touch. The man who thought the
strength of his needs would destroy her.
The man who, rumor had it, came here to find
someone who could give him what he needed.
Panic shot through her as Caitlin tugged her
past a burly bouncer. “I shouldn’t be here. You don’t know
everything about me.”
“
I know more than you
think.” The psychic’s eyes were dark as she glanced back at Iris.
“Leo told me what happened to you. About the wizard.”
Even in her oversized blue coat,
even in the warmth of the club, Iris felt ice creep through her
veins. She closed her eyes against the sight of Caitlin’s
too-earnest face. “Leofric meddles too much.”
And so does his new
girlfriend.
“
He heard me say your name
during my vision,” Caitlin explained. “Your real one, I mean. We’re
both just trying to help, Iris. Leo’s very fond of you.”
“
I am.” It was Leo’s voice,
low and cheerful, and the older demon appeared at her side looking
as casual and irreverent as usual. If she closed her eyes, she
might see him the way he’d been seventy years ago, the day he’d
leveled a dark wizard’s stronghold and walked through the burning
carnage as if he didn’t see the dozens of men dying at his
feet.