Which was a novelty for me. I usually didn’t harbor violent thoughts toward others, even when they annoyed the crap out of me. But with this guy, I had the clear vision of putting my hands around his throat and squeezing hard. Of course, given I was puny compared to him, as well as his supernatural ability to not even blink when exposed to pepper spray, all I would accomplish by trying to strangle him would be to dangle off his neck like a grotesque human piece of jewelry.
We’d arrived at the bar, which had a few outside tables clustered around heaters on the sidewalk in front of the entrance. One of them was occupied by three women my age who looked to be deep into their cocktails, judging by their slurred speech and high-pitched giggles.
I turned toward the demon to tell him to let me do the talking. The thought of His Menacing Surliness attempting to persuade three humans to “witness our vows” gave me the heebie jeebies. One look at his broody face, and they’d run for cover.
Before I could even get the words out, he’d stepped past me to the table, one hand in his pants pocket, the other on his heart, and made a small bow. “Good evening, ladies,” he crooned in a voice that made sensual heat slick over my nerve endings, centering between my legs. “Forgive the intrusion, but I was hoping you’d be so kind to help me and my fiancée out.”
All three women stared at him, spellbound.
“This might sound silly,” he continued, his tone soothing and invigorating at the same time. His voice was mesmerizing, making me inch closer. “But we’re getting married tomorrow, rather spontaneously, and we’d love to do a run-through of the ceremony in front of someone else.”
The women had leaned toward him as he spoke, enraptured.
My mouth hung open.
“You see, we eloped.” The demon gave them a smile that made my heart stumble. “And we don’t have any friends or family here to practice with. We’d be ever so grateful if you lovely ladies listened to our impromptu vows.”
The women sighed and giggled, one of them twisting a strand of her hair while giving him the most obvious bedroom eyes I’d ever seen someone sport.
Oh. My. God.
This jerk of a demon could be Prince fucking Charming—when he wanted to. My blood boiled. He’d been an ass to me all night, and here he was being the epitome of a gentleman, with an ease I’d never thought him capable of considering his condescending demeanor toward me.
While I’d been stewing in my renewed irritation about my betrothed, the women had all but fallen over themselves to agree. The demon turned to me, a glint of something I couldn’t quite place in his stormy eyes. His smirk held a distinctive smugness I wanted to erase with acid.
“Shall we?” he asked.
My answering smile may have shown too much teeth.
“Dearly beloved,” the black-haired of the women intoned with all the fine enunciation of someone on their third cocktail.
Her two friends snickered as she went on with a rather garbled medley of an officiant’s speech that was likely pieced together from various movies and TV shows featuring a wedding.
Finally, she arrived at the pertinent part. “I...” She trailed off, gesturing to the demon.
“Azazel,” he supplied, and his name sent a shiver down my spine.
“I, Azazel,” she repeated, with minimal butchering of the syllables, “will take you...”
“Zoe,” I offered.
“Will take you, Zoe, to be my lawfully bedded—”
“Wedded!” her friends shrieked.
“Sorry!” She threw up her hands against her friends’ slapping. “Lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health—”
“—for richer or poorer!” her brunette friend threw in.
“—for better or for worse!” the blonde suggested.
“—come hell or high water,” the black-haired woman added, and her friends oooohed.
“That’s a good one,” the brunette said. “Oh, oh, add this one—to be your loving and faithful husband.”
“—from this day forward,” the blonde chimed in.
“—until death do us part,” the black-haired woman continued, pointing at the demon with her cocktail straw. “This is my vow.”
He raised a brow and faced me. His eyes held a lightning storm, his veneer of charm and primal attractiveness barely concealing the twitch of fury in his features. The women didn’t notice, but I sure did. I’d had the good luck of watching his face contort in anger all evening, and this was a new level of wrath. The air hummed with his restrained power, causing