Succubus Revealed Page 0,3

wanted wine," I reminded him.

"I wanted good wine. Please tell me it's not blush."

"Of course it's blush. And you didn't tell me to bring good wine. You said you were worried Carter would drink all your good wine. So I brought this for him instead. Your wine is safe."

At the mention of his name, the only heavenly creature in the room looked up. "Sweet," he said, accepting the box from me. "Santa's little helper delivers." He opened up the box's dispenser and looked at Peter expectantly. "Do you have a straw?"

I sat in an empty seat beside my boss, Jerome, who was contentedly dipping a piece of bread in molten cheddar. He was the archdemon of all of Seattle and chose to walk the earth looking like a circa 1990 John Cusack, which made it easy to forget his true nature sometimes. Fortunately, his brimstone personality always came out the instant he opened his mouth. "You're here less than a minute, Georgie, and already you've made this get-together fifty percent less classy."

"You guys are eating fondue on a Tuesday night," I retorted. "You were well on your way without me."

Peter had settled himself back down and was trying to appear calm. "Fondue is very classy. It's all in the presentation. Hey! Where'd you get that?"

Carter had set the wine box on his lap, dispenser on top, and was now drinking from it with an enormous straw that I suspected had been literally conjured from thin air.

"At least he's not doing that with a bottle of Pinot Noir," I told Peter good-naturedly. I helped myself to a fondue fork and speared a piece of apple. On the other side of Jerome, Hugh busily typed away on his phone's keyboard, reminding me of the family at the mall. "Telling the world about this lowbrow party?" I teased. Hugh was an imp, a type of hellish administrative assistant, so he could have actually been buying or selling souls via his phone for all I knew.

"Of course," said Hugh, not looking up. "I'm updating Facebook. Do you know why Roman won't answer my friend request?"

"No clue," I said. "I've barely spoken to him in days."

"When I talked to him earlier, he said he had to work tonight," Peter explained, "but that we should go ahead and draw for him."

"Draw?" I asked uneasily. "Oh Lord. Tell me it's not Pictionary night too."

Peter sighed wearily. "Draw for Secret Santas. Do you even read the e-mails I send?"

"Secret Santas? Seems like we just did that," I said.

"Yeah, a year ago," said Peter. "Just like we do every Christmas."

I glanced over at Carter who was quietly drinking his wine. "Did you lose my hat? You look like you could use one." The angel's chin-length, blond hair was even more unkempt than usual.

"Tell us what you really think, Georgina," he replied. He ran a hand over his hair, but it somehow only made things worse. "I'm saving it for a special occasion."

"If I get your name again, I'll buy you two hats so you don't have to ration yourself."

"I wouldn't want you to go to the trouble."

"No trouble at all. I get a discount at the mall."

Jerome sighed and set down his fork. "Are you still doing that, Georgie? Don't I suffer enough without having to endure the humiliation of a succubus who moonlights as a Christmas elf?"

"You always said I should quit the bookstore and find something else to do," I reminded him.

"Yes, but that was because I thought you'd go on to do something respectable. Like become a stripper or the mayor's mistress."

"This is just temporary." I handed Carter the elegant crystal wineglass that had been sitting by my plate. He filled it with wine from the box and gave it back. Peter groaned and muttered something about despoiling Tiffany's.

"Georgina doesn't need material things anymore," teased Cody. "She's paid in love now."

Jerome fixed the young vampire with a cold stare. "Do not ever say anything that saccharine again."

"You're one to talk," I said to Cody, unable to hide my smile. "I'm surprised you could drag yourself away from Gabrielle tonight." His face immediately grew dreamy at the mention of his ladylove.

"That makes two of us," observed Peter. He shook his head bitterly. "You guys and your perfect love lives."

"Hardly perfect," I said at the same time Cody said, "It is perfect."

All eyes fell on me. Hugh even looked up from his phone. "Trouble in paradise?"

"Why do you always assume that? And no, of course not," I scoffed,