“Well, uh, I don’t know if that would be possible, but I could send you another one if you want to, um, give me your address.” I had no intention of stopping by, but I would send her a signed copy. What the hell. No pun intended.

“I hope you don’t think I’m being too forward,” Roxanne said, placing her hands on the table and leaning down closer to me. “I just found the idea, intriguing. I’ve never done anything like that myself … before. I like your perfume, by the way.”

“Thanks,” I said with a nervous smile.

It wasn’t having a woman hit on me that was freaking me out, it was having a woman hit on me while her Mafioso boyfriend stood two feet away looking oblivious. I wondered if he would see me as a rival and I didn’t want to wind up floating in the Delaware. For the first time all evening, motor mouth beside me actually sat there silently. He was no dummy. Thankfully, Tony grabbed Roxanne’s arm and led her off and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I think you really do make Roxanne hot,” Adam said with a smile when they left.

“Don’t be jealous. I won’t be doing any research with her.”

All of my fans were very sweet and lovely people, who complimented me kindly, making me all warm and fuzzy. As is typical with society in general, though, there were a few odd birds in the nest.

“Hi, I’m Margie Peterman and I’m your biggest fan,” said the intense-looking young woman with a picture of me on her T-shirt. Where in the hell did she get that? Seeing me looking, she offered up the information. “I had it made from your author picture on Goodreads. Do you like it?” she asked, sounding like she would throw herself into traffic if I said ‘no.’

“Um, yeah. It’s very nice,” I said reassuringly.

“I can quote every line of dialogue from every one of your books,” Margie said excitedly.

“That’s really cool,” I said with a smile. “I’m happy you liked them so much.”

“I’ve read each one of them sixty-three times.”

“Really? Wow.”

“I sleep with them under my pillow.”

“I see.”

“Can I touch you?”

Margie did eventually move on. Apparently, she was also a huge fan of Sebastian Romano. I wondered if she had a picture of him on her underwear. As Margie left, a small smiling man stepped up to my table.

“I am Pavel. I saw your picture on Facebook and I fell in love with you instantly.”

“I’m sorry Pavel, but she’s already spoken for,” Adam said, putting an arm around me.

“I’m very flattered Pavel,” I broke in, “but I’m afraid I’m not interested.”

“I see. Well, then, if you are in need of a top quality septic tank cleaning, I hope that you will consider giving me a call.” He handed me a card that said ‘Pavel’s Septic Services. Take the stank out of your tank.’ “Will you sign my bookmark?”

“Uh, sure.” I smiled and signed his bookmark, which happened to be for another author’s book, but oh well. Pavel left. “Do you see now why I have a pen name?” I asked Adam. I heard Pavel tell the writer at the next table the exact same thing, incidentally.

A few minutes later, we were all released to the main club area. We were given a special roped off VIP section to sit in, but I had other ideas. I grabbed Adam’s hand and led him off to the dance floor.

We got out under the lights where the Latin beat of the Pitbull song I Know You Want Me was just beginning. What perfect timing. Adam grabbed my h*ps and pulled me tightly against him. I put my arms around his neck and followed his lead. I found that I was able to read his body easily. I could sense how he was going to move the second he began, and I was right there with him. In these shoes I was much closer to his height, and our bodies lined up nicely.

He really did know how to move his hips, and he definitely had rhythm. The heat of the lights, the beat of the music, and the sensation of his h*ps pushing against mine, was intensely sexual. The lyrics of the song captured my naughty mood, and I sang the chorus to him flirtatiously as we danced. I think he liked it. He was looking at me like he wanted to rip my panties off with his teeth. As the song ended and Rihanna started signing, Cockiness, appropriately enough, he leaned down and finally kissed me.

It was sweet and gentle at first, the lightest brush of his lips on mine, and then a little more, like he was waiting to see if I would push him away. Instead though, I completely surrendered, and melted against him. He gave it more ‘oomph’ and I opened my mouth to let him in. He immediately accepted my invitation, and his tongue slid over mine and began to explore languidly. He tasted like warm, wet cinnamon. It began as a slow and sensuous kiss, and built in intensity, as our tongues tangled together and our lips became needier.

I quickly found myself getting highly aroused, my skin hyper-sensitized and a throbbing ache developing between my legs. The feeling was clearly mutual. Believe me, it would have been difficult to miss the fact that Adam was quickly moving toward that embarrassing state he had wanted to avoid. He broke away and began kissing my neck, giving me chills.

“Maybe you should start thinking about baseball soon,” I teased.

“Or maybe we should go back to my place and take care of it another way.”

“I like your idea better,” I answered, and before the final consonant was out of my mouth, we were off the dance floor and headed toward the coat check. “Adam, I just realized that I left my purse back in that other room.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked, but I knew that he was in as much of a hurry to get out of here as I was, so I figured we should split up.

“No, I can get it. You just get our coats.”

“I’ll meet you back just inside those double doors,” he replied, heading off.

I found the Gothic reception room quickly. It was empty now, and the flames and shadows on the walls didn’t add ambiance as much as creepiness. It seemed darker and I had to let my eyes adjust for a second. My purse should be at the table where I’d been sitting. Unfortunately, it was at the other side of the room from the door.

I steadied my nerves and told myself to get on with it already. Just because this place looked like a dungeon in hell, and was owned by a guy in the mob, it didn’t mean there was anything to be nervous about. I walked quickly over to my table, avoiding looking at the paintings on the walls. When I got there, I looked around and saw it lying on a chair. I breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed it, turning to leave, when I heard something off to my left, in the shadow cast by the dragon. It sounded like a wheeze. My heart skipped a beat as I looked for the source of the sound, adrenaline coursing through my body and lighting up my nerves like an electrical shock.

“Hello?” I called out a bit breathlessly, to nobody in particular. I started speed walking toward the door, purposely circling to the right of Puff there, but before I had gone ten steps, a figure stepped out of the shadows in front of me. I gave a startled yelp and jumped back, placing a hand over my racing heart. “I just came for my purse,” I spluttered. “My date is waiting for me in the hall.” I looked more closely then, squinting in the dim light. I knew that face.

“Dan McGuire, 404?” I asked, shocked to see one of my neighbors here. Well, this one anyway. Vixen or Nardo might actually like this place.

“Lily Adler, 401,” he croaked out. Funny, I didn’t remember his voice being so rough. Maybe he was sick. I noticed then that he was holding his side like he was in pain.

“Are you okay?” I asked hesitantly, taking a baby step in his direction.

“Something important. Need to tell you.” He staggered closer to me, and I took a giant step back quickly. I didn’t really know Dan McGuire, 404, very well, and if he was hanging out here, you had to wonder a little. He didn’t look like a romance novel fan to me.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady and not look too freaked out. After all, manners were manners.

“Tell Moretti prosecutor,” Dan muttered. “The Fox is in our building.”

“The fox? Um, Dan, you’ve been drinking, haven’t you?” Great. He was sick because he was drunk off his ass, just what I needed right now.

“Drive,” he said with a cough. “Details on drive.” He looked like he was about to freaking fall over. Why did these bartenders continue to serve people? One thing I did not want to do right now was to listen to the story of why my neighbor was drunk, as Adam and I drove him home and carried him up four flights of stairs.

“Uh huh. Well, actually, someone else drove me here, but we could call you a cab.”

I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of guilt. He really didn’t look good. I wondered if he might have food poisoning, the way he was holding his stomach. His face was very pale and covered in sweat and he was starting to shake. Suddenly, his hand fell away from his side, and I looked down and saw what it had been had been covering, a dark stain that looked to be getting larger. Then I looked at his hand and saw … Jesus Christ! It was covered in blood! That was f**king blood!

“You’re bleeding,” I gasped, like he hadn’t noticed the gaping wound in his side.

Now, some people might have tried to rush to his aid. I wasn’t one of them. He was coming toward me like some kind of B movie zombie and I wasn’t a f**king medic! I tried to scream, but it got stuck in my throat, and all that came out of my open mouth was an asthmatic-sounding wheeze. My eyes were so wide open they probably looked like ping-pong balls. I started backing up, scared shitless.

A series of events took place within seconds, but it felt like time was moving in slow motion. A shadow with horns and a tail appeared on the wall in front of me. My heart tried to leave my body through my throat. I spun around to the door where I saw a figure dressed in one of the costumes the waiters had been wearing. In the next moment, everything went black.

Adam sat beside me, holding me in his arms, and rubbing my shoulder as I shook, on the verge of hyperventilating. I had woken up and found him leaning over me, saying my name and rubbing my wrists. I realized, then, that I must have passed out. He wanted to call EMTs but I insisted that I was fine.

Angie, the author event coordinator was there, as were Tony and Roxanne. Everyone seemed very worried and they kept asking me what had happened. Instinct, however, told me that it wouldn’t be a great choice to tell a mobster I had seen a bleeding guy in his club, so I just told them that someone had jumped out, startling me so badly that I had fainted.

Finally, I managed to convince them that I really was fine, and I was just over-tired. Tony, Roxanne and Angie escorted us out of the building, and I remained silent about what had really happened until we got to the car. As soon as we were strapped into our seats, I grabbed Adam’s arm and told him everything, in a huge word vomit of information. He stopped me several times to get more detail, or tell me to take a deep breath before going on.

“We have to tell the U.S. Attorney’s office,” I concluded finally.

“Tell them what? Your bleeding neighbor wanted them to know there’s a fox in your building but the devil showed up and he left?”

“If it helps, I know the guy who’s the prosecutor on Moretti. We used to date back in law school.”

“Sachs?! You dated Sachs? The guy’s so arrogant, and he’s a player.”

“No! Really?! Arrogant and a player?”

“Not even I am that arrogant, and past tense, Lily. I was a player. I’ve been going out less and less since this summer.”

“Well, when we were dating, he was only sleeping with me.”

“Oh fuck! Sachs has banged you and I haven’t. I think I really am going to cry.”

“Adam, it was years ago.”

“What could you possibly have seen in him?”

“Adam.” I rolled my eyes.

“I mean, other than the fact that chicks seem to think he’s good-looking?”

“Adam! If you must know, he reminded me of you!” I admitted irritably.

“That’s why you were attracted to him? Because he reminded you of me?”

“Don’t let it go to your head. Your ego is big enough already.”

“So, you did find me attractive before this summer.”

“Adam! I promise that we can fully explore our tempestuous history together another night. Right now, though, my bleeding neighbor may have been kidnapped by the devil, and I want to go report it, so we can go home and fuck!”

That seemed to work; within minutes, Adam had called his own office to discuss what had happened. We were going in to file an incident report with the Philadelphia police. They would turn it over to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the morning.

Chapter Thirteen

An hour later, we had filled out all the appropriate paperwork and we were back in the car as Adam turned the key and the engine came to life. He paused and looked over at me.

“Well, this has been an interesting date.”

“Is it over?” I asked quietly, and in an instant, the sexual tension was back. We stared at each other for one highly charged moment, during which my heart pounded like a jackhammer and all I could think of was one word - “please.” Then with one fluid motion, we met in the middle of the car and our mouths crashed together as we threw ourselves into a fiery, all-consuming kiss.

It was an act, not just of passion, but of desperation. He held me tightly against him, hands traveling up and down my back deliciously. I buried my hands in his hair, holding his head firmly, trying to reach every inch of his mouth with my tongue. This was more than a kiss; we were devouring each other ravenously like starving animals. All of our pent-up frustration and need came flowing out like a geyser. I could feel Adam’s heart beating against me. My spine was tingling, my ni**les felt tight and I had the sensation of hot lava flowing from my belly down between my legs. Suddenly, he pulled back, leaving me panting.