Read NocC 014 - Elle James - Hot Demon Nights - Harlequin 2012-05 for Free Online

the woman’s apartment. What he was looking for was beyond me. The woman had been attacked outside, not in the apartment. “Mrs. Felding, has this apartment been vandalized?” Blaise asked.
    “Why no. No, it hasn’t.” She tore at the lace handkerchief, plucking at the ends. “Why do you ask?”
    He shrugged in that way I’d begun to suspect was his way of appearing casual. “Is it always such a mess?”
    For the first time I glanced around, from the stark white seating and black lacquer end tables to the bookshelves lining one entire wall. Gleaming silver, gold and red in all its antique glory was an ornamental Samurai sword hanging over the leather couch. Amid the opulent furniture, the books and knickknacks lay in disarray, some of them dropped to the floor carelessly.
    Ivana wiped her eyes. “I’ve been so drowned in grief, I haven’t had the cleaning service by in over a week. I just wanted to be left alone.”
    Blaise seemed to accept that response. I wasn’t sure what he was getting at and didn’t pursue it.
    As we left the building, I stopped at the security desk. “Any video footage available of the front of the building?”
    The guard sitting there had a glazed expression on his face. “The police who got here first confiscated it.”
    I frowned. “We need that footage.”
    “Sorry, lady, you’ll have to ask your buddies on the force.” The guard shook his head, staring at his hands. “Hell, they don’t pay me enough for this job.”
    Outside, I lifted my face to a cool spring breeze, letting the air clear my head and senses of Mrs. Felding’s cloying perfume, and allowing Blaise to guide me to the curb, where he hailed a taxi.
    “Where to?” the taxi driver asked as I slid across the back seat.
    I leaned forward. “The Fifth Precinct building.”
    “Strike that,” Blaise said as he climbed in and faced me. “You have a computer at your apartment?”
    “Yeah. Why?” I was anxious to get to the video and see what it might reveal. And maybe I was a little uneasy about taking Blaise back to my place. I refused to let myself regret what we’d done in Marcus’s apartment, but just because I’d enjoyed it didn’t mean I wanted it to happen again. Even if I was ready for a relationship—which I wasn’t—getting tangled up with my partner could be a disaster.
    “It’s closer.” Blaise gave the driver my address. “And I have a hunch.”
    Not liking that look in his eye, I had to ask, “One that involves my computer? I have a hunch we might learn something from that video.”
    “I need to check some things first.” He sat beside me in silence for the short ride to my tiny apartment.
    We arrived and hurried up the stairwell to my third-floor apartment. Once inside, I powered up my computer, entered my password and stepped back, letting him handle the keyboard.
    Blaise filled my little living room, not only with his body, but with his overpowering presence.
    No matter where I went, I could sense him, see him and feel his energy pinging off the walls like loose electrical arcs.
    “Are all demons as…” I fought for the right word to describe how I felt about him.
    “Sexy, handsome, lust-inspiring?”
    I snorted. “Try annoyingly sure of themselves, overly confident and in-your-face arrogant.”
    Using the hunt-and-peck style of typing with his two index fingers, Blaise clicked the keyboard faster than I could using all ten of my fingers, and he chuckled as he brought up a search engine and entered the name of the woman we’d just interviewed. “We tend to be confident for a reason.”
    “What reason?” Curious about what he was looking up, I leaned over his shoulder, trying to ignore the fact that he smelled good enough to eat, like brown sugar and cayenne pepper, a hot, sweet combination.
    “Most of us are attractive and…well equipped.” He turned, bringing his lips within inches of my cheek. “Comes with the species.” That voice, low and dangerous, sent shivers