Succubs on Top Page 0,1

in line for promotion to the corporate level."

As if giving my soul away wasn't already bad enough. I forced a smile.

"Well. There's still so much to do here."

"Excellent attitude. Most excellent. You've done well with her." He gave Jerome a chummy pat on the back, something my boss did not look happy about at all. He didn't really like friendly pats. Or being touched, period. "Well, if there's nothing more, I should probably - oh, I nearly forgot."

Horatio turned to Kasper. The imp handed over something else to his master.

"These are for you. As a token of our appreciation."

He gave me a gift card for Applebee's, as well as some Blockbuster free-rental coupons. Jerome and I both stared for a moment, dumbstruck.

"Wow," I finally said. The runner-up for this award probably got a gift card for Sizzler. Never doubt that second place really is the first loser.

Horatio and Kasper vanished. Jerome and I stood in silence for a few moments.

"You like riblets, Jerome?"

"Droll, very droll,Georgie." He strolled around my living room, pretending to study my books and artwork. "Nice job with the quota thing. Of course, it's easy to excel when you're starting at zero, huh?"

I shrugged and tossed the certificate on my kitchen counter. "Does it really matter? Still gets you the laurels. I figured you'd like that."

"Of course I do. In fact, I've been rather pleasantly surprised at just how well you've kept your promise."

"I always keep my promises."

"Not all of your promises."

My silence made him smile. "So what now? Going out to celebrate?"

"You know where I'm going. I'm going to Peter's. Aren't you?"

He avoided the question; demons excelled at that. "I thought perhaps other plans had arisen. Plans with a certain mortal. You do seem to be doing that an awful lot lately. "

"It's none of your business what I do."

"All of your business is my business."

Again, I didn't answer. The demon stepped closer, dark eyes boring into me. For inexplicable reasons, he chose to look like John Cusack while walking the human world. That might seem like it would reduce his power to intimidate, but I swear, it only made things worse.

"How long are you going to keep up this farce, Georgie?" His words were a challenge, trying to draw me out. "You can't honestly think you have a future with him. Or that you two can stay chaste forever. For Christ's sake, even if you can keep your hands off him, no human male's going to stay celibate for long. Especially one with a large fan base."

"Did you miss the part where I said it's my business?"

Heat rose to my cheeks. Despite knowing better, I'd recently gotten myself involved with a human. I wasn't even entirely sure how it had happened since I've always gone out of my way to avoid that kind of thing. I guess you could say he sort of snuck up on me. One moment he was simply a warm and comforting presence at my side; the next I realized how intensely he loved me. That love had blindsided me. I hadn't been able to resist it and had decided to see where it might take me.

As a result, Jerome never failed to remind me of the potential disaster I courted daily in this romance. His opinion wasn't entirely unfounded. A small part of this was because I didn't have a good track record with serious relationships. The larger part was that doing much more than hand-holding with a human would inevitably lead to me sucking away some of his life. But hey, all couples have their stumbling blocks, right?

The demon smoothed down the jacket of his perfectly tailored black suit. "Just friendly advice. It makes no difference. I don't mind if you keep playing house with him - denying him a future, a family, a healthy sex life. Whatever. So long as you keep up the good work, it's all the same to me."

"Are you done with the pep talk? I'm late."

"One more thing. I thought you might like to know I just made some arrangements for a pleasant surprise. One you'll like."

"What kind of surprise?" Jerome didn't really do surprises. Not good ones, at least.

"Wouldn't be a surprise if I told you, now would it?"

Typical. I scoffed and turned away. "I don't have time for your games. Either tell me what's going on or leave."

"I think I'll leave. But, before I do, just remember something. " He put his hand on my shoulder and turned me around to face