Hotter Than Hell by Kim Harrison, Martin H. Greenberg Page A

his quarters. The constellations were so different in his realm than in Ericka’s.
    Ericka.
    Just the thought of her hardened his cock so that it tented his toga. His skin felt tight beneath the material, as if he were being stretched from his bedchamber to Ericka’s bedroom in the Earth Otherworld.
    He took a deep breath before he lowered his gaze from the glittering sky to several pools of exotic fish he had collected from places he had visited over the centuries. His mother Belisma found it amusing that he, an Incubus, had a sort of hobby. He had to admit she was probably right.
    Demons didn’t have hobbies. Demons had missions.
    And I have friggin’ fish
.
    He sighed.
    The swimming blurs of the colorful fish were likely proof that his mind—and demonic mission—was slowly unraveling.
    His chamber was carved from rock and in one corner a waterfall rushed over stones into a bathing pond. Moisture dampened the walls, moss growing on the surfaces, and the floor was soft grass—his own private paradise. Every Incubae or Succubae had a different type of chamber, depending on whether they were of fire, earth, air, or water.
    A water Incubus, Aedan was the offspring of the water goddess herself.
    Which probably explained his fascination with fish.
    Sort of.
    His bed commanded the center of the chamber and had a mattress of soft leaves in a carved-out stone shell. He wondered what Ericka would think of his world, never mind the fish. What it would be like to bring her here. To take her in his bed.
    He pressed his fingertips to his forehead.
    First the fish, and now dangerous thoughts. Way past dangerous. Why after centuries of fulfilling women’s desires, was he thinking of such abominations?
    That was never done—bringing the human through the veil. Only souls could travel with the Incubae or Succubae to where the souls were stored until the human’s shell died. Soul after soul he’d collected without a second thought.
    But Ericka…Over the past month he had watched her as he prepared to go to her and work toward winning her soul. He had witnessed her strength, her beauty, her commitment to family and friends, her sense of fairness, her intelligence, as well as her love of writing. Which, ironically enough, involved researching his kind. Something he found both amusing and intriguing.
    For some reason she made him feel more real, alive. Made him want things he had never wanted before. Made him look at who and what he was, and long for something different than he had always known.
    Like wishing he was human so he could spend his life with her.
    Aedan scowled. An idiotic thought. Why was the woman affecting him like this?
    When a Succubus or an Incubus was sent to a human, the person had projected a powerful desire. Perhaps a wish for the fulfillment of a fantasy, or a longing that included the phrase, “I’d give anything for…” The human usually exchanged his or her soul in payment, often unaware of the magnitude of what they’d done.
    And that was the key.
    Unaware.
    I will take her soul, and she might not even realize what she has surrendered—if I don’t tell her
.
    He pictured Ericka’s beautiful body as he prepared to take everything from her. He imagined the way she would look at him when he finally thrust into her core. She was already wild in his arms when he went to her—the way she whimpered and moaned, trying to seek the completion he denied her.
    It was his job to drive her insane with need nightly until she reached the point she would tell him anything, anything he wanted to hear—including giving up her soul.
    But…
damnation
. Something about Ericka made him feel as if he were a part of her and she a part of him. An irrational thought that had him grinding his teeth. The idea of taking Ericka’s soul tore at him like a piranha eating his gut.
    Piranha.
    Hmmm.
    Maybe I should get a piranha for my collection
.
    Godsdamn, I’m losing my mind
.
    Centuries of fucking women, yet this one drove