No—this had been going so well. “Oh, it’s definitely worth your time.”
“Yeah, no, lady,” he said, taking a step back. “Good luck with your threesome and all, but two dudes are too many dudes for me.”
“My—” Her mouth dropped open. “That’s not—”
“Nope, not interested, have a good night.” He’d already turned away.
Dejected, she drifted up behind Luke as he finished his pitch.
“—and make your wildest dreams come true.”
“Is this Amway? This sounds like Amway.”
Luke turned to her in confusion and his target fled.
She raked her hands through her hair. “We’ll just… try somewhere else.”
***
“We gotta go right now,” Luke said, grabbing her arm, causing her to slosh her second mostly undrunk drink of the night. “We can try one of the other bars.”
“What happened? That lady seemed to be really interested in your pitch.” She let herself be hurried out.
“She can’t wait to get a commendation for busting the drug ring she’s convinced I’m running,” he said. “Now be quiet and hold really still.”
He pressed them both against the brick wall. Her breathcaught. She could hear the beating of his heart, faster than any human’s. That charcoal-jasmine smell filled her nose. He was holding his breath, she realized. A pair of uniformed cops moved past them purposefully. It wasn’t until they’d passed that Morgan realized that the world had gotten slightly fuzzy from the glamour he’d thrown over them.
She looked up at him, feeling her heart race trying to keep up with his. His lips were slightly parted. What would she do if he looked down at her? What would he taste like? Did demons taste different from humans? She’d had just enough alcohol to make it seem like a good idea. Unless he’d think it was just the alcohol talking? That little bit of alcohol didn’t make her want him, it just made her want to forget the reasons she’d had to try not to want him. That they were from different planes, that his boss wanted her dead and in a lightbulb, that her mother wanted him dead and not in a lightbulb at all… None of it seemed to matter.
His body agreed with her; the evidence pressed against her pleasantly.
But bodies weren’t minds. And he was trapped, trapped on her plane, trapped sleeping on her couch, trapped in this glamour hiding from her people’s police. In all cases, trapped with her desire whether or not it was welcome. She forced herself to think instead about the roughness of the brick against her back. And forced herself not to yearn after him when the cops passed out of sight and he pulled away.
He let her keep her dignity, only asking, “What’s the next bar on the list?”
***
“We can absolutely ensure you get that partnership,” she smiled, doing her best to hide the exhaustion. She knew a rum and coke was not the classiest of beverage choices, but she really needed that caffeine and she’d had to abandon her espresso martini at the previous bar after Luke had gotten slapped. “There’s just the matter of price.”
“What, is it going to cost my soul?” Her mark ran his hand through thinning red hair and smiled at his own joke. His slightly rumpled suit fit the cozy, expensive library vibes of this bar better than Morgan’s too-sexy dress.
“Well,” she started.
His eyes lit up. “Oh my god. I thought this was some kind of corporate espionage thing, but it’s not, is it? I saw you with your friend over there, you keep whispering. You two are totally roleplaying. What is this,Vampire: the Masquerade? Are you pretending to be vampires? I haven’t played this since college. Can I play, too? I want to be a werewolf. Wait, no, a mage. I definitely want to be a mage, maybe one of those blood-based ones. This is so cool. Can I text my friend? He’s next door, he used to be super into this stuff.”
“Yes,” she said, giving up. “It’s a roleplaying game.”
“I knew it!” He pumped his fist. “Hold on, I’ll go get Trevor, we’ll roll up some characters.”
At least Luke was still talking to his chosen target, a Black man wearing a dark red blazer with more personality than the surrounding suits. Luke’s body language was weird, though—all night he’d been alert, a circling shark. Now, he leaned on the bar, one hand propping up his chin, but still listening. He saw her looking and shrugged helplessly.
It didn’t look like a Deal being closed. She wandered over.
“This is my new friend Jamal,” Luke said. It didn’t soundlike the intro to a Deal, either. She raised her eyebrows and he shook his head a fraction. “Jamal was here with some friends and they abandoned him.”
“That sucks,” she said.
“Well, they went off to a club and bottle service isn’t really my thing, you know?” said Jamal. “Nice to meet you.”
