Tequila Sunset (Last Call #4.5)

by Rogers, Moira

  Copyright Information

  Tequila Sunset

  Copyright © 2009 Moira Rogers

  http://www.moirarogers.com

  Smashwords edition.

  Originally published by Changeling Press in 2009. Reissued by the author in 2012.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Information

  Tequila Sunset

  Sneak Peek

  The Last Call Series

  About the Author

  TEQUILA SUNSET

  Werewolf looking for a submissive.

  Zack gritted his teeth, finished off his second whiskey, and glared at his companion, barely managing to feign polite interest. “So then what did you do?”

  For a seventeen hundred year old demon, Leo looked alarmingly whipped. “I introduced her to the damn demon. It was that, or get kicked out of my own bed.”

  At least he wasn’t the only powerful man around who’d been brought to his knees by a human woman. “You realize how ridiculous that sounds, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Leo dragged his fingers through his blond, disheveled hair and sighed. “Fuck. If you tell anyone, I’m going to have to kill you.”

  Zack wished he had another drink. He wished he hadn’t run into Leofric. He wished someone would order a damned Tequila Sunrise already, so he could go upstairs and forget the fact that he was still sleeping alone.

  Instead, he sighed. “So, your sweet little girlfriend had a vision about some demon’s eternal damnation, and this was alarming to her? You’ve got her snowed, Leo.”

  “Normally I’d agree, but Ianthe’s different. She’s…” For a second, Zack thought he saw regret in Leo’s eyes, but it was gone too fast to tell. “Shit, she makes me look like the poster boy of evil. I’m talking soup kitchens and feeding the homeless and who knows what else. If there were a back door out of the demon gig, she’d have taken it two hundred years ago.”

  Something about the look on Leo’s face made Zack arch an eyebrow. “You introduced your new flame to an old one? You’re either brave or stupid, man.”

  Leo blinked. “What? Oh, fuck no. No, I wouldn’t have fucked Ianthe for money back when she was the dark Queen of the Night, and she won’t do anyone now that she’s all sweet and good.” That obnoxious, irrepressible grin returned, the cocky one that had been tinged with far too much satisfaction since Leo had met Caitlin. “Trust me. I tried. For like, four decades.”

  And he wouldn’t have bothered if she’d just put out. “Charming. No means no, Leo.”

  “Fuck you, man. I know what no means.” The cell phone on the table in front of him went off, the vibrations making it dance across the table. Leo snatched it up and flipped it open, then grinned. “Cait’s on her way.”

  The knot of misery in Zack’s gut twisted tighter. Leo looked happy, and he felt like an ass for wanting to run like hell before Caitlin’s arrival. Buck up, Elliott. You’re an ass, and you deserve to have to watch them make googly eyes at each other.

  He should have remembered that the man seated next to him could sense the darkest desires of those around him more easily than breathing. Leo’s green eyes looked almost sympathetic as he shifted and reached into his back pocket. “It’s getting bad, isn’t it?”

  Self-denial made him grumpy. “Stay out of my head.”

  Leo flipped a credit card onto the table. “Man, I’m not even in your damn head. Every demon within ten feet of you knows what you need. And that could get awkward when Cait shows up with Ianthe, considering her past.”

  Zack turned his attention to the bar in the middle of the room. “You want me gone before they get here.”

  “You want to be gone before they get here,” Leo countered. “Even I can tell that much. But hey, you could stick around and hit on the reformed demon. Back in the eighteenth century you would have been just her type.”

  “No, thanks.” Even if a demon could offer the sort of submission he sought, it would be tied up in complicated power struggles and manipulation. He reached over and nudged Leo’s credit card across the table. “I can buy my own drinks, though. It’ll be worth it not to have to watch you be schmoopy with your girlfriend.”

  Leo flashed him a grin. “Go on, Elliot. Order your damn drink. I’ll catch you next time you come through.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Zack rose, determined to get the hell upstairs before Caitlin showed up with anyone who might want to hit on him.

  Surprisingly, he wasn’t in the mood to play nice.

  Caitlin tugged on Iris’ hand with surprising strength. “Late. We’re late.”

  Arguing was useless. She’d tried a dozen times over the past week, but Caitlin was young and determined, and nothing Iris said would dissuade her.

  And Leo, damn him, had stood by the entire time with the smug smile of an infatuated man.

  They reached the doors of the bar, and Iris dug her feet in one last time. “Remember what I said about the name. Your boyfriend’s probably the only demon in town who can recognize me on sight, but my name -- my demon name -- it’s well known. And it will get me in a lot of trouble.”

  “What?” Caitlin looked around distractedly at the people milling around outside the bar, then stepped around the queue and headed straight for the VIP entrance. “I’m not going to announce you, Iris. Besides, I’ll know. Or I should, anyway.”

  Iris fought a shiver. “The one who’s going to save me from my dark path?” The thought was almost laughable. Any person she would meet tonight was three hundred years too late to save her from tumbling into darkness. And the one person she wanted…

  No. Foolish, to think of this night as a betrayal to the man she would never touch. Could never touch. The man who thought the strength of his needs would destroy her.

  The man who, rumor had it, came here to find someone who could give him what he needed.

  Panic shot through her as Caitlin tugged her past a burly bouncer. “I shouldn’t be here. You don’t know everything about me.”

  “I know more than you think.” The psychic’s eyes were dark as she glanced back at Iris. “Leo told me what happened to you. About the wizard.”

  Even in her oversized blue coat, even in the warmth of the club, Iris felt ice creep through her veins. She closed her eyes against the sight of Caitlin’s too-earnest face. “Leofric meddles too much.” And so does his new girlfriend.

  “He heard me say your name during my vision,” Caitlin explained. “Your real one, I mean. We’re both just trying to help, Iris. Leo’s very fond of you.”

  “I am.” It was Leo’s voice, low and cheerful, and the older demon appeared at her side looking as casual and irreverent as usual. If she closed her eyes, she might see him the way he’d been seventy years ago, the day he’d leveled a dark wizard’s stronghold and walked through the burning carnage as if he didn’t see the dozens of men dying at his feet.

  Caitlin had no idea who she went to bed with every night. Iris met Leo’s eyes, and fought the urge to say to him the same thing she told herself every night. We don’t belong with them. We don’t deserve them.

  Leo nodded his head, whether in greeting or silent acknowledgement, she didn’t know. Then he turned his attention to Caitlin. “You know what she’s supposed to do here yet?”<
br />
  “No, I…” She fell silent as the music did, her head lolling back a little. “Wait. Now.”

  The speakers overhead crackled a little, and the bartender’s voice announced, “Last call for the gentleman here. Tequila Sunset, coming up.”

  “Submission,” Caitlin whispered. “That’s him, Iris. The one you need.”

  She barely heard Leo’s muttered curse. The patrons of the bar turned their attention to the low platform in the middle of the room, and her eyes followed even as she fought it, suddenly sure she knew what she’d find.

  And she did. A hundred nights of yearning dreams had branded those broad shoulders in her mind forever. She let her gaze follow the line of his arm down to the large, capable hands, the hands that she’d stared at just the week before as he’d fixed her broken cable box.

  Zack sat at the bar, tense and wary, and she had to get out of there before he saw her. Before he discovered that she was no more human than he was, and destroyed the delicate balance of their already strained friendship.

  It couldn’t be coincidence. She jerked around and glared up at Leo. “How did you find out? Did you -- is this a joke?”

  But it was too late, because the next time she hazarded a glance at the bar, Zack was staring straight at her.

  The chill from before vanished under the heat of his gaze. But then, it always did. Zack made her feel all of the things she’d turned away from the day Leo had dragged her from the burning rubble of the trap her own pride had set for her.

  “You’re the one,” Leo whispered. “You’re his untouchable human. He doesn’t know.”

  Even as she watched, realization washed over Zack’s strong features, and the set of his jaw hardened. Iris tightened her fingers around her jacket and fought a shudder. “He does now.”

  Caitlin bit her lip. “You have to go to him.” Her dark eyes clouded a little, and she wrapped a hand around Iris’ arm. “You think I can’t know anything about you or Leo, but you’re wrong. I know, because I listen. Now you have to listen.”

  Zack would be furious. She could already see the tight look in his eyes shifting from shock to anger. If she gave in to the temptation and reached out with her power, she doubted she’d find that his deepest desire involved taking her upstairs to do dirty things to her.

  More likely his darkest desire at the moment involved strangling her.

  Iris shook Caitlin’s hand free and turned her back on the bar. “I’m leaving. Leofric, you’d do well to teach your psychic not to meddle with demons. We’re not all as soft-hearted as you.”

  Annoyance flashed in Leo’s eyes, and he curled a protective hand over Caitlin’s shoulder. “Lie to yourself all you want, Ianthe. But don’t take it out on someone who’s just trying to help.”

  Heat flooded her cheeks when she realized Leo had used his magic to read the darkest desires of her heart. He knew what dreams kept her up at night, kept her panting into her pillow as she fought temptation and the need to tell Zack the truth and give herself to him, body and soul.

  He acknowledged her embarrassment with a cocky little grin, and Iris felt her temper spike. “We don’t belong with them,” she snapped. “You’ll only hurt her in the end. And I’m not taking that chance with him.” And because her words were nothing but bluff held together with the unraveling shreds of her self-control, she shoved past Leo and headed for the door, determined to reach it before Zack recovered enough to follow her and demand an explanation.

  She made it past the bouncer outside before Zack caught up to her, his arms bare in the cold night air. “Who are you really?” His eyes were flinty. “How do you know Leofric?”

  Anger laced his voice, and instinct overrode self-control. The dark magic she’d shunned for decades bubbled to the surface, hungry for Zack and his power. Hungry for his desires.

  Fury arced through her, and that she could have handled. But it was the hint of betrayal, the desperate need to know why she’d lied to him, that held her rooted in place when she should have turned and fled.

  Instead she gave him the truth, half hoping it was enough to drive him away and save him from the darkness inside her. “I’m a demon.”

  He shivered. “And a liar.”

  “And a liar.” In seventy years, nothing had hurt as badly as seeing the pain in his eyes. She shifted her gaze to the wall behind his head and struggled to remember all the reasons she’d deprived herself of the comfort of his touch. “You were better off without me, Zack. I destroy men.”

  He took a step closer, his breath clouding the space between them. “You knew what I was, Iris. You could have let me make that decision.”

  “So only men get to suffer the noble pangs of self-denial?” A tiny spark of temper burned through the pain, and she rose up on her toes. It only put her eyes on level with his chin, but she focused the sleepy tendril of unused power into the strength of her gaze, turning it into a challenge. “Maybe I already know you can’t handle me.”

  He growled and moved again, the hard wall of his chest pushing her back a step. “You don’t know half of what you think you know.” The fire in his eyes faded a little, and he raised a hand. “I’m getting a cab, and I’m taking you home.”

  Her mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me.”

  The sheer arrogance should have infuriated her instead of weakening her knees. But that had always been Zack’s dangerous allure -- the power that radiated from him and promised the sort of dominant strength that she craved.

  And if she gave in now, she’d drag them both into hell.

  She spun and stalked away, toward the alley that led behind Last Call and spilled out on the other side of the block. “Have a nice night, Zack.”

  “Shit. Iris.” He caught her arm, his touch gentle in spite of the leashed strength she knew he possessed. “We don’t need to make a scene, all right?”

  “Zack…” His name came out pleading, and she cursed her weakness. “Don’t make me do this. Don’t make me hurt you more than I already have.”

  His stare softened a little. “You haven’t hurt me.” Then he sighed. “Come on. Let me see you home.”

  Give an alpha werewolf an inch and he’ll take twenty miles and call you lucky. Even with her predilection for dominance games in the bedroom, she’d never toyed with an alpha wolf in the three hundred years she’d walked the Earth. As a demon, she’d always liked to know the power rested squarely in her hands at the end of the day.

  But refusing to go home with him was foolish. He lived in the apartment next door to her own. If she didn’t resolve this now, he’d find a way to force the issue. She had to sever their relationship now, while she still had the self-control to do what was needed to keep him safe.

  A thousand years of living in misery would be better than knowing she’d lured Zack down the seductive path to damnation.

  “Home,” she whispered, the word forming fog in the cold night air. “We… can talk at home.”

  Even a cab ride out to Brooklyn barely gave Zack enough time to calm his riotous instincts. He was a detective, for Christ’s sake. His job entailed gathering facts, making connections, and following those connections until he arrived at the correct conclusion. Still, he couldn’t seem to wrap his brain around the facts that had presented themselves tonight.

  Iris Belrose was a demon. And not just any demon, but a renowned seductress who’d led numerous men to trade their souls for the pleasure of her touch.

  No. Iris Belrose was a social worker. He’d assembled her cheap futon because she didn’t have any tools of her own. He’d almost kissed her once, when the firefighters on the fourth floor threw that Halloween party.

  Iris Belrose, not Ianthe.

  He paid before he climbed out of the cab, and he took Iris’ arm and led her up the steps to the front door. The elevator only worked half the time, so he started up the stairs to the third floor. He said nothing until he stopped in front of her door and took her keys from her hand. “Do you want to ta
lk tonight or in the morning?”

  She didn’t look much like an infamous demon at the moment. Her gaze didn’t quite meet his as she wet her lips nervously. “Tonight.”

  Zack opened the door and waved her in. Something told him she’d be more at ease in her home rather than his. “Whatever you want, Iris.”

  He’d been in her apartment enough times to be familiar with its sparse furnishings and its hand-sewn decorations. Iris was poor as hell and full of stubborn pride, but it hadn’t taken long to figure out ways around her insistence that she didn’t need help. He’d been feeding her under the guise of getting her to cook dinner for him for so long that they’d grown accustomed to sharing their meals together a few nights a week.

  And in all that time she’d never seemed to be anything other than a sweet human woman.

  Iris unbuttoned her thick blue jacket and hung it on the hook he’d installed next to the door for her. Her fingers hesitated next to the spackle that covered a hole in the wall a few inches to the right, and he knew she had to be remembering the day when she’d asked to borrow a screwdriver. She hadn’t known how to hang the hook, or even what wall studs were, and he’d ended up stifling helpless laughter at her frustrated swearing.

  Belatedly, he realized he’d left his own jacket at the bar. He cleared his throat and sat on the edge of the futon. “I guess we have a lot to talk about.”

  She turned, and he could almost see her gathering her determination around her like a shield. “I owe you an explanation, and I’ll give you one. But I’m not going to change my mind. You’re a good man, and you need a good woman.”

  He chose his words carefully. “And you think that’s not you?”

  “I’m a demon, Zack.” Gentle words, spoken as if she wasn’t sure he understood -- or believed. “I’ve played human for seventy years, but it doesn’t change what I am.”

  “So I’ve heard.” He rose again, just to keep from fidgeting like a kid on his first date. “Guess that means you think Leo’s making a mistake with his new girl, too.”