The Devil You Want is here! Sexy Paranormal Adventure with Astra Q. Phelps

Book five in the Dancin’ With the Devil series.

Astra Q Phelps gave her boyfriend a magic hickey. Usually not a world-changing issue. But in Astra’s case, her boyfriend is king of the Royal Devils. And Royals have always thought that only males could mark their mates. So how did she do it? Even Astra doesn’t know. That’s the first of her problems.

Now somebody’s trying to kill the naturally curious Astra, which is always a problem.

Thirdly, there’s Slayer. He’s shown up on Astra’s turf and wants her to hire him. Given their undeniable sexual chemistry, that’s probably not going to go over well with her boyfriend. Not to mention that he’s got some baggage that’s gonna come back to bite Astra big time.

Add in the nearly constant sexual need caused by her Settling and you have a whole lot of stuff for Astra Q Phelps to handle. But, as you probably know by now, she’s definitely up to the challenge.

 ~~*~~

 

Warning bells were pounding around inside my head, turning my brain to mush. 

I climbed out of the Knight and pulled my power forward, checking the knives in my boots to make sure I could get to them easily. 

I briefly considered calling for help, but knew I’d never live it down if I asked for help against one little old lady. Besides, just because the old woman lived within a few clicks of my other client’s home, that didn’t mean she was a furry, razor claw wielding shape shifter with a taste for my delectable flesh. 

Of course it didn’t mean she wasn’t either. 

In my world you could never trust an old woman with wet, brown eyes. Chances were it wasn’t an old lady at all, but something evil, with big teeth and lethal claws in disguise.  

Or worse, it could just be an old lady who drank tea and tried to iron your clothes when you weren’t looking.

Can you tell I didn’t grow up in a nurturing environment?

I walked around the small house before knocking on the door, throwing out my sensing power to “taste” the area. Nothing obvious jumped out at me. 

Finally, I knocked on the metallic front door with its ridiculous, hanging spray of pink and purple flowers, my gaze sweeping the area around me with suspicion. 

After a moment the door creaked inward, showing me the wrinkled, seemingly harmless countenance of Mx. Diamon, her rheumy gaze filled with welcome. “Hello, dear. Thank you for coming.”

I frowned but kept my big mouth shut. It wasn’t as if I was there for a social call. 

“Come in, come in. I have your room ready.”

And with those few words my world came crashing down around me. Reality smacked me between my beady green eyes. My heart stopped beating and my lungs clenched. 

I was gonna have to stay there, in that gingerbread house, with that scary little old lady. My battered brain immediately pictured a huge furnace filled with scorched bones and a platter of cookies cooling on the top. 

My fingers twitched with the need to pull my power forward. Then I remembered I was supposed to be there to protect the woman. 

When had I made it all about me? Weird. 

I forced myself to step inside the house and immediately recoiled at the abundance of pinks, purples, and swirly type woven things on table surfaces. 

The walls were decorated with kittens and puppies and small, adorable dragons. 

The air smelled of lilacs and cinnamon. 

My eyes started to burn and I was afraid they’d bleed. 

“I’ve made cookies, Mx. Phelps. Follow me.” She marched down a hallway toward the back of the house, her well-padded hips swaying with happy purpose. Glancing back at me with a wispy smile, she added, “I hope you like sugar.”

Shriveling up under saccharine overload, I stumbled after her down the hall, already feeling as if I’d gone twelve rounds with Satan himself. 

In fact, I realized with a start, I’d rather deal with Satan.

Him I understood.

~~*~~

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The Devil You Know - Good vs Evil has never been this much fun!

Good vs Evil has never been this much fun!

Astra Q Phelps is turning twenty-five in a few months and she’s starting to feel the effects of her Settling, the time when a half angel, half devil Tweener decides whether to embrace her dark nature or her light.

The delectable Dialle, king of the Royal devils, really needs Astra’s help in Hell to deal with an insurrection. But Astra’s Settling pretty much has her thinking of only one thing−S.E.X!

Sex with Dialle—sex with her yummy partner, Emo—sex with a molten hot dragon slayer she meets along the way—and sex with assorted other randy Royals cavorting among the fires of Hell. It’s a constant struggle just to keep her mind and body pure so she can concentrate on the business at hand, but Astra Q Phelps is definitely up for the challenge. And Good versus Evil has never been this much fun!

~~*~~

Emo jumped slightly and turned. His handsome, golden face was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and his black eyes swirled with agitation. When he looked at me his lips tightened and then tipped upward in a tortured smile. “Hey, boss.”

“How’d it go?”

He shrugged. I noticed then that he was holding himself very stiffly and worried that he’d been injured. Hurrying forward I reached out and touched the soft knit of his black, torso-snugging sweater.

I gasped as I touched him and he jumped away, scowling. My fingers tingled and felt as if I’d burned them. An impossible amount of heat radiated off his body.

I could feel it from nearly a foot away. “Are you all right?”

Emo laughed. It was a bitter sound. A spot of color caught my eye and I looked down, a pretty, pastel swatch of fabric stuck out of his pocket. I reached for it, pulling it from his jeans. It was a small, lacy scrap of silk. Ladies panties.

Lifting an eyebrow in question, I grinned. “Souvenir?”

Emo’s body softened slightly as some of the tension slid away. He moved around me, taking great care not to touch me as he passed. “Collateral from the assignment. The Troll Queen was trying to fit them on her head and when I told her to give them back she threw them at me. I’m afraid they stuck to my sweater and I didn’t notice until I was back in the Black Knight and heading back here.” He paced slowly back and forth in front his desk, casting me a quick glance and a grin. For just a split second he looked like the old Emo. My friend.

“They look like they’re about your size, Astra…” He cut himself off and flushed visibly, gulping. “You can have them if you want.” He headed toward the office door.

“Wait!” I walked over and stood in front of him, lifting a hand to touch his forehead. He was burning up. “Emo, you’re sick. You need to get to an unplanned injury unit right away.”

He grabbed my wrist and pulled it away. He held on, not releasing me as I watched his eyes darken further and swirls of red and bright yellow enter them. His square, slightly bristled jaw clenched. “Please, don’t touch me.” He ground the words out and trembled.

“Emo, what’s wrong?”

Almost as if he were struggling against some invisible power, he lowered his head and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply and slowly, scenting me.

My body reacted to his nearness and the possessive quality of his behavior. I panicked and tried to yank my wrist from his grip. “No. Emo, the Settling!” My temperature spiked to match his and my senses expanded.

“Exactly.” He murmured. His yummy scent, familiar yet different, with a slight tang that I recognized with a guilty start as lust, rose around me, exploding my senses and closing off all rational thought.

He lifted my arm above our heads and stepped close, dropping his head to scent my neck. I gasped as our bodies met, heat merged with heat.

“Emo!”

His lips found my throat. I moaned.

My daemon hickey sparked and spat, sending warnings into the musk saturated air around us.

Emo lifted a finger and covered my hickey, silencing it. His tongue swept the sensitized skin of my throat. My nipples hardened into desperate peaks beneath my leather coat.

His hands slid under my coat…hot skin and cool air slipped across my body…

His eyes shot toward my face. “You’re naked!”

I opened my mouth to explain but no words formed in my mind.

Groaning, Emo yanked me up against his body, grinding himself into me. His lips ravaged mine. His hot, sweet tongue plundered my mouth, tangling hungrily with mine until I could barely breathe, hardly think. Everything was sensation. Heat. Musk. The brush of hungry skin against starving flesh.

Somewhere in the center of my lust-drenched brain reason called to me. I squelched it ruthlessly, allowing my Settling to pull me, limp and compliant, into disgrace and debauchery. My body wrapped around his, my leg twined around the backs of his hard, muscular thighs, and my mouth consumed his.

I was lost.

Gone.

Plowed under by lust.

There was no way I was going to pull back from it. Emo was no help at all. He wasn’t even trying to fight the pull of my Settling.

Wait a minute.

This was my Settling, not his. He couldn’t be under its influence.

I gasped and jerked away from him, swiping a shaking hand over my mouth as I backpedaled, putting much needed space between us.

Emo growled and tried to grab me back. His eyes were no longer even slightly human. They swirled with frantic color and throbbed in a rhythm that matched the surge of blood between my thighs. He panted desperately, beyond reason, and his jeans bulged with clear evidence of his need.

“You and I are about the same age!”

Emo turned away, reason finally sliding in to dull the edge of his raging hunger. “Yes.” His voice sounded strangled, husky from an internal struggle I recognized all too well.

~~*~~

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