Girl Crazy

By Red L. Jameson

Lia Hamasaki is smugly happy as a top editor at the world’s most prestigious publishing house. She’s been passing for human for more than twenty years—her angel wings carefully protected from sight. Those darn wings are her biggest secret. When she hears news that the Cupid Dating agency has found her match and she has to—by law, she has to!—meet a demon, she’s obviously disturbed. Her secret has been carefully kept for decades through a façade of sophisticated elegance and outright lies, and nothing and no one will reveal her secret.
Saphie is free—free from Lucifer’s dungeon where she’d been head writer for thousands of years, and she’s free from Lucifer’s torture. Not only that, but the ever-romantic demon has just been matched with an angel—be still her punk-rock, poetess heart. But as she meets the angel who could be the girl of her dreams, she realizes she won’t fit into the angel’s elegant world. Further, heartbreakingly, the angel doesn’t seem to want her in the first place.
But the law is the law, and the two opposites have to stay glued to each other for the next forty-eight hours where they have a snowball’s chance in hell to fall in heavenly love. But sometimes, especially when the Devil is in the details, those chances are worth the risk.
Girl Crazy is a lesbian romance novella

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red L. Jameson
• Release date: Sep 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781370721757

Red L. Jameson

Red L. Jameson lives in the wilds of Montana with her family. While working on a military history master’s degree, she doodled a story that became her bestselling, award-winning romance, Enemy of Mine, part of the Glimpse Time Travel Series. After earning her gigantic master’s—the diploma is just huge, she couldn’t stop doodling stories, more Glimpse stories—because she couldn’t get enough of hunky Highlanders and buttoned-down Brits—and other stories, a paranormal romance series and a contemporary series, which grew into the pen name R. L. Jameson, under which she writes cerebral and spicy erotic romance. While working on yet another master’s degree—nowhere near as giant as the first, she wrote her first women’s fiction novels. But no matter which genre she writes, her novels always end with a happily ever after.She loves her readers, so please feel free to contact her at http://www.redljameson.com

Book preview

1

M essages? Lia Hamasaki asked, knowing her tone was curt—the way she liked it, as she arched a brow and looked down her nose at her newest scared-stiff secretary.

Irene, however, didn’t avert her eyes. And when she handed over a stack of messages, her hand barely trembled. In fact, Irene looked like she was trying not to smile as she said, Ye-yes, Ms. Hamasaki. There’s a message from the Cupid Dating Agency. Actually, they called twice this morning. Seems important.

The Cupid Dating Agency? Lia almost cringed, but she’d never let Irene see so much emotion. Oh god, it was happening. The dating agency had finally found a match for her. Since the end of the war between angels and demons, when angels and demons started to live among the humans, the Cupid Dating Agency had been setting up angels and demons in the hopes of a peaceful future, because their past was anything but. Lia imagined that her match would more than likely be some Neanderthal demon who supposedly held a similar frequency to her angelic one.

Lia tore the papers from Irene, giving her secretary the fiercest glare she could muster. Don’t you have anything to do, Irene? Rather than watch me read my messages? Am I paying you to watch me?

Irene finally did avert her eyes, pink growing in her cheeks, her blonde brows puckering. Defiant. Maybe embarrassed too, Lia thought. But Irene only said, No, Ms. Hamasaki. The secretary then skimmed her fingers over a manuscript she’d marked with a Read This!! sticky note.

Two exclamation points. How juvenile. Lia wanted to roll her eyes. But she waited to see if Irene had enough courage to suggest that she should, in fact, read the novel.

That was Lia’s enviable job: head editor of the literary genre at Warbler Books, the largest publisher in the world. Lia had had to hide her angel wings and pass for human for more than twenty years to get this job, but it had been worth it. She’d published more than fifty books that she’d worshipped, sure humanity would be the better for reading the novels. Unfortunately, the majority of humans didn’t seem to get literary books and the literary section never made any money, which her boss, Victoria Schmidt, kept reminding her.

At least ten seconds whirled by, and Lia smiled down at Irene, knowing her secretary was too timid to make any further suggestions for the day or to smile ever again and especially when she got messages from the oh-so-idiotic Cupid Dating Agency. This could potentially ruin Lia’s life, this match. The humans working for her might find out she was an angel. She wouldn’t be taken seriously then. Humans thought angels were do-gooders who couldn’t swear and had one-track altruistic minds focused on saving humanity from itself now that the lofty Lucifer was gone. Humans thought angels were caricatures, cartoon characters come to life. Humans thought angels were humanoid My Little Ponies.

True, Lia wanted to save humanity. If they just read the right kind of books, then they would be a much happier people. She knew she was. The war between angels and demons had seemed to go on for eons when she’d happened upon the 1853 edition of Twelve Years a Slave, right as it was being published, no less. She’d been a changed angel after reading it, changed for the better. And from thence forward, she was sure that books were what would change the world for the better.

But humans misunderstood the philanthropic need of angels and thought them simpletons; usually they thought them glittering simpletons at that. Lia knew this because she’d tried for decades to get into the publishing world on her own credentials with no success whatsoever. But the day she’d given herself a last name and a human backstory had been the day she’d gotten her foot in the door. The more she passed for human, the more she scaled upward in the publishing landscape. And that was all Lia wanted.

She walked into her Manhattan high-rise office, the view incredible of Central Park and a few other skyscrapers, while fuming about the Cupid Dating Agency. She couldn’t let anyone know she was an angel. All her publishing power would vanish and probably even timid Irene would repeatedly ask to see her wings. She’d lose her job.

No. She couldn’t let anyone know.

But the Cupid Dating Agency was notorious for basically kidnapping demon, angel, and human alike to force their matches together. It was part of the new law, for crying out loud.

What to do? What to do?

She decided to call the agency while she thought.

Immediately, a cheerful woman answered the phone. When Lia gave her name, she was instantly transferred to another woman, this one much more serious-sounding.

Lia? This is Psyche, but you can call me Sy.

Lia inhaled, wondering how she’d gotten the wife of Cupid herself to answer the call. Yes, thank you, Sy. Being on a first name basis with the immortal didn’t come naturally to Lia, but she tried. I have messages from the Cupid Dating Agency. I’m returning the calls.

Wonderful. Thank you, Lia. Sy was beyond professional, and Lia was grateful considering the stakes couldn’t be higher for her. We found your demon match, Sy said.

Lia inhaled again. Maybe a tad sharply. Maybe it had actually been a gasp. Oh?

Look, Sy said, "I know who you are. I loved The Divorce by Sarah Yang. I swear I read that fifty times last year and never got bored. Portraying love like that…so heartbreakingly real and yet the book was filled with hope too. Gods, I loved that book. I was so obsessed I didn’t just stop at internet stalking Ms. Yang, but looked you up too. I know you pass for human. That’s why I’ve taken over this case, instead of my fumbling, but lovable husband, who brutally forces couples together. Can you come to my office? We can talk about the arrangement. Because of the law, this has to happen, but let me help you figure out how to make this…manageable for you."

Lia sighed, realizing her shoulders had been somewhere close to her temples. Stress was no stranger to her. She loved the daily panic and anxiety of the publishing world, making sure a book was finished on time, ensuring the cover art was perfect, that the formatting was perfect, that the words, the glorious storified words were—what else?—perfect.

Publishing was her life. She couldn’t have a demon making a mess of her perfectly choreographed life. And it sounded like Sy understood that.

Lia nodded to herself. Of course. I have time now. I can come down right away.

Oh, good, Sy sounded giddy. I just hope I don’t embarrass myself when I meet you. Seriously, I just loved that Yang book. Any chance she’s about to publish anything soon? The woman actually giggled, stopped, cleared her throat, then said more professionally, Sorry. You don’t have to answer. We’ll talk about this match and figure things out.

Lia said goodbye to Sy and for a moment, she wondered about her match, this demon who had the potential to ruin her life as she knew it. What if, just what if the demon was…perfect for her? That’s the claim—that the demon and angel would be the perfect complement to each other when they were matched. What if the demon were clever, intelligent, serious? Someone elegant. Sophisticated. Well-read. Lia pictured a female James Bond.

Oh, she liked that image. She could go out to book-launch parties on the arm of the demon who would wear Marchesa like a silky second skin. And under, the demon would wear La Perla, of course. A pretty periwinkle blue La Perla bra and panty set on a model-like woman who would kiss her with cold fire. She saw the elegant demon, felt phantom hands on her body, exploring, pulling her closer to warmth, to another body, a body she ached to touch in return. For some strange reason, she saw the graceful demon with fresh-cut flowers. Roses. No, too cliché. Tulips. Yes. God, nothing like tacky carnations. But agile, supple tulips surrounding an agile, supple, feminine body.

Yes.

Oh god, yes.

Lia swallowed. She hadn’t had an erotic daydream in…oh gods, eons. Granted, from time to time she’d hook up with some, usually pushy, human Wall Street type. Lia needed intimacy just as much as any human. But she needed her job more, so she’d ensure the liaison never lasted.

And now she had a match. Dare she hope for the La Perla-wearing demon? Throughout her long life, Lia had learned not to hope. Hope for her, an angel, was a dreaded emotion that