A Devil Named Desire (23 page)

“Ah, yes,” Sammy said, leaning back in his chair. “Your sister. Hope, isn’t it?”

Her brown eyes widened in surprise.

“Gabriel thinks very highly of her, you know.”

A genuine smile came to Charity’s face, revealing white, even teeth, like pearls on a strand. “You know Gabriel?”

“We’re like brothers,” Sammy said, inordinately proud to finally be able to admit the truth. “We’ve known each other a very long time.”

A very,
very
long time.

“He seems like a great guy.”

“He is.”

Charity shot him another look beneath her lashes, smoothing the pleats of Pandora’s gown over her knees.

“This may sound a bit forward,” Sammy said, fighting an urge to smooth those pleats himself, “but maybe the four of us could go out sometime . . . you know, like a double date.” The devil inside him chuckled, laughing as the Great and Mighty Satan waited on her answer, heart in his throat.

Charity’s eyes became shuttered. She looked away, her voice strained. “I—I’m not sure that’s such a great idea.”

“Why not?” He lifted a hand, palm up, as if the rejection meant nothing. “Just dinner, maybe a movie. Don’t you like to eat?”

She smiled, just a little, at his persistence.

“Italian? Chinese? What kind of food do you like?”

“I’m a vegetarian.”

Sammy grinned ruefully, more at himself than at her. “Ah,” he said with a sigh. “I should’ve known. Tell me, what’s your favorite fruit?”

The look she gave him was no longer quite as wary. She smiled again, this time revealing a tiny dimple in her right cheek.

“Apples,” she replied, and Sammy began to laugh.

Acknowledgments

I
t’s impossible to tell a story about angels and demons without touching on some spiritual issues, but this book—at its heart—is a love story. Whatever belief systems the characters have, and whatever actions they take, came straight from the slightly skewed depths of my imagination, and are not an attempt to convert
or
corrupt.

Like any storyteller, I’m just out to tell a good story.

Thanks, as always, to the people who keep me grounded while I reach for the stars: my family, my friends, my editor, and my agent. Most special thanks to those who read my books; I couldn’t do it without you.

About the Author

A Southern girl with an overactive imagination, RITA® and PRISM Award winner TERRI GAREY lives in Florida, where anything weird is considered normal. A former computer analyst, she left the dry world of logic behind in order to write novels filled with fantasy, romance, and happily-ever-afters. Terri loves to hear from readers, and can be reached via her website at
www.tgarey.com.

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Romances by Terri Garey

A Devil Named Desire

Devil Without a Cause

Silent Night, Haunted Night

You’re the One That I Haunt

A Match Made in Hell

Dead Girls Are Easy

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A DEVIL NAMED DESIRE
. Copyright © 2012 by Terri Garey. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2012 ISBN: 9780062096289

Print Edition ISBN: 9780061986406

FIRST EDITION

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