"I thought you said she was closing," I hissed to Doug.

He didn't notice the upset tone in my voice and read it as surprise. "I thought so. Maybe she got Janice to do it. I know she's been giving her more and more responsibility. Makes me wonder about my own job security."

The bookstore gang greeted the newcomers with cheering. Kayla broke from her guides and, to my astonishment, ran over to me. "Georgina!"

I scooped her up, and that dark, angry serpent within me settled down a little. Not only had Kayla sought me out, she'd also spoken-a rarity. I hugged her to me, and with her in my arms, it suddenly seemed as though all had to be right in the world.

"You've got a fan, Kincaid," laughed Doug. He winked at her. She gave him a shy smile in return and then turned back to me and rested her head on my shoulder.

"She spoke," said Maddie in wonder. Maddie knew I'd been friends with the Mortensens and thought nothing of me knowing the girls.

"An entire soliloquy," I laughed.

"We're watching her while the others are at a school play," explained Seth.

"This party's unreal," said Maddie, gazing around at all the fanfare. "Does anyone know why she dual-majored in Latvian?"

"Blow-off major?" suggested Beth.

"Anthropology and Women's Studies are blow-off majors," said Doug. "Not Latvian."

"Hey!" said Maddie, elbowing her brother. She often wrote freelance articles for feminist magazines.

"Hey, don't take it out on me. I'll never forget you taking that class called Evolution of the Dress."

"It was harder than you think!"

The rest of us watched the Sato siblings with amusement, and to my dismay, so did Seth. I guess I'd kind of hoped he'd be shooting furtive, longing glances at me. Instead, he watched Maddie almost…fondly. Like he found her smart and funny-which she was, of course. He was watching her the way any guy would watch his girlfriend.

"Hey," I said to Doug. "Why don't you stop annoying your sister and go get us a refill?"

"You're a bad role model for the kid," he warned. But he took my cup anyway and headed for the bar.

If anything, it seemed me holding Kayla gave Seth and Maddie a chance to be more affectionate. They held hands. So, I paid more attention to Kayla, snagging novel appetizers as they went by and explaining to her what quiche and brie were. Once Doug returned with my drink, I took it down pretty rapidly, still conscious of the fact that I held a child. When I'd finished my third, I knew enough to hand her off. Maddie took her by the hand and led her to look at a koi pond on the far side of the yard.

This left me alone with the others, and whether it was alcohol or succubus charisma or just a desire to show up Maddie, I found myself coming to life. I joked and talked to everyone, making sure each person was included in the conversation. I saw them all light up, caught up in the aura of comfort and good cheer I created. Maybe I had ulterior motives, but despite that, I actually enjoyed myself. It had been awhile since I'd been able to just have a fun, effortless social encounter.

When Maddie returned, however, I decided it was time for my fourth drink. I headed across the yard, graceful in spite of the alcohol. While waiting in line, the guy behind me struck up conversation.

"I've seen you somewhere."

I glanced up at him. He was tall, late thirties, and had bronzed hair. I gave him a winning smile. "That's a very bad pick-up line."

"No, I'm serious." He frowned. "In the paper…were you in some sort of date auction?"

"Oh my God. You do recognize me." Through Hugh's machinations, I'd participated in a charity date auction last December. I'd ended up going for an obscene amount of money and had made the paper.

"If I remember, you did a lot for that charity."

"What can I say? I love kids."

Our turns came, and we each got new drinks. Stepping off to the side, we continued our conversation. "I don't suppose," he said, "that I'd have to pay that much for a date?"

"You're asking me out?"

"Seeing you in person? Yeah. I kind of understand the price now."

"Wow, you don't waste time on formalities."

He shrugged. "I don't have time to. Too busy with work."

Ah. One of those guys. I didn't have Hugh's ability to see souls, but something told me I wouldn't get an enormous energy fix from this guy. Of course, just then, it didn't matter. I was drunk and distressed and a sleazy guy seemed just like what I needed right then, no matter how inappropriate the setting. In fact, the inappropriateness kind of added to it.

"No, not that much. Though to tell you the truth, I'm kind of busy myself. I don't like to waste time on something that's going to fizzle out. I'm sort of a try-before-you-buy girl."

He studied me very carefully, face serious. "What exactly do you have in mind?"

I inclined my head toward the house. "They must have a bathroom in there."

As expected, he didn't take much coaxing. The house was wide open to anyone who needed to get in there, and we passed wait staff moving in and out as we sought one of the house's many bathrooms. We finally ended up at a small one on the second floor that was adjacent to a guest room. It didn't look like it saw much use, and as soon as we shut the door, we were all over each other.

He'd told me along the way that his name was Wes and that he had some sort of corporate position in a bank downtown. I'm not sure why he was trying to impress me, seeing as I'd made this painfully easy for him, but I appreciated the weak effort anyway. My biggest concern was his relationship to the family, but it turned out he was a friend of a friend of a business associate, so I had little worry about this getting back to Casey.

My skirt came off almost immediately, followed by a rapid unbuttoning of my blouse that pulled off a button. It skittered across the floor, lost forever. He left the blouse itself on, simply hanging open, and ran his hands over my body, taking in the black lace bra and matching panties.

"Good God," he breathed. "You might be worth more than that auction price."

"I'm not a call girl," I snapped, irritated for some reason I couldn't entirely understand. "And make this fast. My friends are going to be waiting for me."

Wes seemed a little surprised that I wasn't fawning all over him, but he didn't argue. His pants and briefs came off next, and he grabbed a hold of my hips, tilting me so that I sat on the edge of the counter, with my body at an angle and my head and shoulders against the mirror. The counter and his height lined up perfectly, and a moment later, he was in me, neither rough nor gentle, just somewhere in the middle. It was a little boring, actually, like he couldn't quite make up his mind and take a stand.

But as he gripped my ankles and held my legs up, the pace steadily increased, and I saw sweat break out along his brow. The life energy seeping into me was moderate, just like everything else about this tryst, but compared to Dante, it was fairly significant. That energy made up for the rest of it, and when he came with a primal sort of grunt, that burst of life coursed into me in its entirety. Like fine tendrils of light, it raced through my body, reinvigorating me and making me strong.

He staggered back, and I hopped down off the counter to quickly put my clothes back on. "Wow," he gasped. "That was-"

"Do not say worth the money," I warned. "Particularly since you didn't pay."

He shut up, and I smiled. With a quick kiss on the cheek, I moved over to the door. "Thanks," I said. "It was fun."

He fumbled for his underwear. "You want to go out sometime?"

"Nope."

I left him to get dressed, discreetly closing the door behind me and remembering to take my drink with me. No one was upstairs, so our encounter had gone unnoticed-or so I thought. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I nearly walked right into Seth.