Blood Engines
Page 30
“I would never suggest such a thing,” he said, quirking an amused smile. The look didn’t even piss her off, and her failure to get angry made her angry. That whole emotional tangle only served to fluster her further.
She gritted her teeth for a moment, then spoke. “You’re charming. Unusually so. People like you, everybody likes you, even I like you and I don’t like anybody. I’ve been told that I can be a little abrasive, and I don’t have a lot of patience for bullshit. My job sometimes requires a lot of diplomacy, and frankly, I don’t have the skills for it. You do, and your skills could be very useful to me.”
“I’m sure.” He looked into her eyes. Marla wanted to pour wine down his chest and lick it off. “But I have to ask…why should I work for you when I can get anything I want just by asking for it?”
“Because if you’re not bored with that kind of life already, you will be soon. I think you’re too smart to enjoy drifting through life, getting everything handed to you on a silver platter. You came here to meet with me because it seemed like it could be interesting, right? I can promise you interesting times, Joshua.”
He chewed thoughtfully on his thumbnail, a gesture Marla found unspeakably endearing. “I’m intrigued,” he said. “All this is new to me, understand, sorcerers, mysterious societies, underworlds within underworlds…I used to think I was just very lucky, and likable. I believed no more in magic than anyone does. Your associate, Mr. Hamil, has shown me things I can’t explain, and so I have no choice but to believe there is a whole secret side to the world I never imagined before. He tells me you are the most able guide to that world I am likely to encounter.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“Yes,” Joshua said. “I think this could all be very interesting.”
“Great,” Marla said. She wanted to take him in her arms and welcome him into her family. “Come to the nightclub tomorrow morning, ten o’clock sharp, and we’ll talk about your compensation, that sort of thing. Hamil will give you directions.”
He rose and extended his hand. Marla hesitated. Could she take his hand without dropping to her knees and sucking his fingers? Fuck, yes she could. She’d once kicked a hound from the underworld across a room. She’d killed Somerset, one of the most infamous sorcerers of all time. She’d apprehended the Belly Killer, and outsmarted both Roger Vaughs. She could control herself around a pretty boy.
Marla shook his hand, firmly. “Remember, ten o’clock. And don’t be late, or the deal’s off the table. You’re not the only beautiful boy in the world.” She came around the desk and left the room without giving him another glance.
Hamil sat reading in his chair, and looked up when she emerged. “That was quick,” he said. “Did you charm him?”
“He’s in,” she said. “Tell him how to get to the club.”
BLOOD ENGINES
A Bantam Spectra Book/October 2007
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2007 by T. A. Pratt
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Bantam Books, the rooster colophon, Spectra, and the portrayal of a boxed “s” are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
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eISBN: 978-0-553-90417-8
www.bantamdell.com
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