Read NocC 000 - Michele Hauf - This Witchery 1 - This Glamorous Evil - Harlequin 2011-09 for Free Online

else?”
    She twirled a fingertip in my hair and wrapped her legs about my hips, snuggling her warm, naked body to mine. “Like lovers?”
    “Can that work for a familiar? Can you do this without…?” Bringing demons to this realm.
    “I just did.”
    “You were a virgin. Star, I don’t know what to say.”
    “You are the first man I’ve trusted. Don’t be mad at me for not telling you.”
    “I could never be mad at you. Surprised, certainly. Do you remember from your other lives?”
    “Not exactly, but I know I’ve never let a man so close to me. A girl does know her body. Why was it so easy to let you in?”
    “Hell if I know. I put you in a cage.”
    “Yes, and I owe you a clawed bedpost for that one. But you won’t do it again, because you, well, you know.”
    “I know.” I’d fallen in love with her. Men in love did not put their girlfriends in cages, even when in cat shape.
    I kissed her then because I was floating on a crazy, lucid, happy bliss, and even though I’d once again foiled my own plans, I couldn’t have been more pleased to be holding Star in my arms—and not to have succeeded.
    She nuzzled her head against my neck and her purrs rumbled against my chest. “I want to help you find your brother.”
    “Summoning the demon is only the beginning. If it has the key, I have to get it from him, and then, well, then I’ve to actually go to Daemonia to find my brother.”
    Daemonia was the place of all demons. Mortals might call it Hell, but it was different than that. It was an actual place, in another realm, locked to keep the baddest of bad demons from escaping.
    “Let’s do it,” she said. “On one condition.”
    “You are the one in control, Star. Name your condition.”
    “I get to be your girlfriend.”
    “Deal.”

Six

    For Thoroughly to accept me as his girlfriend required him to let go of some control. I could see how he’d ordered his life to the minutest detail, and how some part of his wanting to cut out the middleman had been an innate need to control every aspect of his life.
    I had gained some control. And I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
    I am the one who arrives, lies on the bed and serves as a conduit. I do as I’m told. I leave. I’ve never been in a position, especially during sex, where I could expect more—such as kindness and intimacy and a man who wanted to give as much as he wished to take.
    I liked it when Thoroughly took from me. Because he always gave back.
    I glided along the length of his naked body. We lay in his big, comfy bed cluttered with pillows and soft, kneadable blankets. T.J. had a notebook open on his lap and was writing down things he’d explained he knew about Daemonia and his brother’s last-known words and actions.
    “Certainly is the historian for the Council,” he explained. “He told me he had accessed some sacred demonic scripts and wanted to learn more, even after the Council warned him not to do so.”
    “Demonic magic is evil,” I commented, trailing a finger along the fine black hairs queuing his belly and lower, to tickle about the base of his semi-hard penis. I liked exploring that part of him; it was ever-changing and frankly, fun to play with.
    “It is glamorous evil,” he said reverently.
    I lifted my head to study his face; he was intent on his scribblings. “It’s something you desire,” I guessed.
    “No.”
    “You claimed it glamorous as if it was a jewel you hoped to possess. Do you practice dark magic, T.J.?”
    “What do you think?”
    “Demon-summoning is as dark as it gets.”
    “Then you answered your own question. As I’ve said, evil is necessary to balance the world.”
    I nodded. It was true. Without evil there could be no good, and vice versa. Most did not understand the value of opposites, and I was no one to protest, demon-conducting familiar that I am.
    “Glamorous, eh?”
    Nodding, he hooked the pen on the notebook cover. He pushed his fingers through my hair and stroked me behind the