Hot Summer Bites: A Castle of Dark Dreams Novella (A Penguin Special from Berkley Sensation) by Nina Bangs Page B

step in to save the day. The thought cheered her right up.
    Deimos abandoned his head to lean casually against the candy counter. He was trying hard to look calm and in control, but Sparkle recognized the trapped-rabbit look in the way his gaze skittered around the store.
    Sparkle smiled. Good. If Kristin and Taurin had already had sex, Deimos wouldn’t be nervous. As soon as he got up the courage to tell her he’d screwed everything up, she’d graciously offer to take over the operation. He’d be childishly grateful to her. Life would be good again.
    Deimos finally met her gaze, and she didn’t like what she saw there. He looked almost defiant. She scowled.
    “Everything’s under control. I’m working it. See, I remembered what you said about sexual tension.”
    Amazing. Something she’d said had actually sunk in. “Uh-huh. And you’re using that info how?”
    “The beach party’s tonight. Kristin and Taurin have done a fantasy every night this past week. But each time they’ve gotten close to making love, Saffron or Banan has interrupted them. Once they tried to hole up in her room, but Banan pulled the fire alarm. Nothing like a fire alarm to get a vamp out of the mood.” He grinned at the memory. “They’re so hot for each other I can smell the fire.” Deimos waved his arms to give her a leaping flames visual.
    “And?” Sparkle was intrigued in spite of herself.
    “Well, tonight will be the night they finally do it. I mean, this will be one sexy beach party. They have so much pent-up sexual energy that it’ll just explode.”
    “Interesting.” Sparkle thought about how she could impact the party’s sexual energy in her own small way. “Oh, and get over the ‘making love’ thing. They’re having sex. Love doesn’t have anything to do with it.”
    Deimos looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, I think you’re wrong. They really like each other. Oh, Kristin still thinks she’s mad at him because of what he did to her career, and he still thinks she’s all about the story, but I almost think they’re in love. Go figure.”
    “Hmm.” Surprise, surprise. It took a lot of guts to tell Sparkle Stardust she was wrong. He might make a worthy cosmic troublemaker after all. “How have Kristin and Taurin reacted to all those interruptions?”
    Deimos frowned for the first time. “Taurin said he’d tear out someone’s throat if either Saffron or Banan showed up again. Kristin said she suspected a mastermind behind this whole thing, because it seemed orchestrated to her. She threatened to use her investigative skills to ferret out the one in control.”
    “Not good.” Sparkle tapped one perfect nail on the glass top of her counter. “But they’ll be too busy thinking about each other tonight to worry about anything else. Just out of curiosity, how’d you convince Saffron and Banan to play your game?”
    Deimos fixed his gaze on a spot somewhere above her head. “I promised them a date with you.”
    “Excellent. I like it when you show initiative because . . .” She stopped tapping her nail. “You
what
?”
    He rushed into his explanation. Deimos knew when death was a hair’s breadth away. “They both think you’re hot, and really really admire your . . . mind. All they want is one date so they can explore . . .” Deimos’s creative lying powers finally deserted him.
    “I
know
what they want to explore.” She studied him with narrow-eyed intensity.
    Sparkle didn’t like the idea of being the prize in this particular game, but she had to admit that Deimos had shown a certain amount of flair and ingenuity. And courage. Lots of courage. Because he knew exactly what could happen if he pissed her off.
    “A date, huh? Banan is a sexy guy, so I won’t mind exploring possibilities with him. Saffron’s a cat of a different color though. I don’t have a clue what he looks like in human form. I do know he’s got this thing about men being the dominant sex.” She knew her smile