See You in Hell (Mel Goes to Hell #2)
Author: Demelza Carlton
Genre: Paranormal romance/ Office Satire
Publish Date: 30th April 2014
Publisher: Lost Plot Press
Event organized by: Literati Author Services, Inc.
~ Book Synopsis ~
Hate your job? Try working in HELL!
Melody Angel takes a job as a temp at the HELL Corporation. Surrounded by eternal bureaucracy gone mad, demons who love making life miserable, and dying for a decent coffee, it may take a miracle for Mel's mission to succeed. She must find out what evil plans the Lord of Lies has up his sleeve and stop him, using any means necessary. Lucifer and his minions are out to take over the world, but there's more than money at stake when the Devil drives.
Adding trouble and temptation to Mel's job is Luce Iblis, the damnably hot CEO, who has set his smouldering eyes on the new office angel and is determined to claim her, body and soul.
Can ultimate evil and angelic perfection escape a limbo of desire and find a paradise of their own?
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Excerpt
"Great, we'll see you in Hell at nine on Monday morning!"
How can an angel survive in a corporate Hell?
Mel accepted a job in the Health, Environment, Life and Lands Corporation - otherwise known as HELL.
Dying for a decent coffee, surrounded by bureaucracy gone mad and demons who just love making life difficult, Mel must find out what Lucifer and his minions are really up to – before his Corporation goes global. Mel's no ordinary angel, but she's never dealt with demons before.
Could the seductive CEO really be Lucifer himself? Are Luce's lusty looks all they seem, or is he after more than Mel's body? Does he have a hope in Hell with her, anyway?
He's about to find out that this sweet angel's soul is not for sale.
A tiny taste of what's in store:
"Do you know how long you've made me wait?" Luce lifted his chin. "Close the door."
Mel turned and kicked the door shut with the sole of one shoe. The click of it closing coincided with her eyes meeting Luce's once more.
"Now strip and get your arse on the desk," Luce instructed.
Mel stared at him. He couldn't be serious, could he?
"Every other girl in this building knows how to do as she's told. Do you know how many girls I've had on this desk? You should consider yourself lucky. The last one I had in here was so quick getting undressed that I managed to give her a full fifteen minutes of my time. At this rate, you'll be lucky to have five."
Mel became transfixed by the timber desktop. "Did you wipe it clean afterwards?"
"What?" Luce's face reddened.
"Did you wipe it clean afterwards?" Mel repeated patiently. "I mean, you work on it every day. Imagine how many diseases and strange germs each of your, er, accommodating staff members were carrying when they placed their bare behinds on your desk."
The shock on Luce's face was priceless. He edged his chair away from the suddenly suspicious surface.
Excerpt2
Mel carefully blew on her coffee as she returned to the lunchroom turned training room.
Luce reclined against the tiny bar in the corner, resting his arms on it so his hips were pushed into greater prominence.
Mel recognised his stance as one meant to draw attention to the bulge in his pants. The implied message was clear: the pants could be unzipped for the right girl or boy, if someone played their cards right. Mel had far more experience with such a stance than Luce probably realised – for she remembered a time in Russia when it had merely meant the man was rich enough to own a spare pair of socks to stuff in his pants against the frostbiting cold. Ah, Napoleon had been stubborn and arrogant, too, she recalled, but he'd been good for intelligent conversation. He'd also owned an ample supply of socks.
No one seemed game to speak to the CEO, so Mel took pity on him. Resting her elbow on the end of the bar, she asked, "Do you get bored, delivering the same orientation presentation every month?""Of course not," came the easy answer. "Every time I tell new staff about the achievements of the HELL Corporation, I see their pride in being part of my company, knowing the next team of new staff will be hearing about the achievements that they personally helped happen."
Mel laughed heartily. "That sounds like a rehearsed response if ever I heard one. Do you ever answer a question honestly?"
"Of course," Luce replied. Mel barely knew the man, yet she knew he was lying.
She pressed her lips together and gave a little smile in response, before turning her attention to her instant coffee. Attention it didn't deserve, but the muddy brew was an improvement to listening to the demon's rehearsed rhetoric.
Luce seemed to realise that he'd hit a wrong note. "It's Mel, right?"
"Yes," she acquiesced gracefully. "From the Helpful Angels Agency." A careful sip of coffee kept her eyes from meeting his as the cup hid her smile. She waited for the implied warning to sink in: far from being one of his demons, she played most emphatically for the other team.
"Ah. Ah, yes. I remember now. You're the new girl who's working under Lili, right?"
"I'm in the office beside her and I report to her, yes," Mel corrected. "I'm looking forward to seeing precisely which projects she has in mind for me. I understand the company's interests are quite diverse, so I expect the work to be different to anything I've done before, if nothing else."
"So what were you doing before deciding to be my angel?"
Mel gave him her serene smile, knowing Hell would freeze over before she'd ever be his angel. He evidently didn't know that yet, so she replied, "Other temporary assignments, as required. I go where I'm needed, that's all." She took a larger mouthful of her cooling coffee, trying not to grimace at the taste.
"I'm sure I'll need you for something. Lili does a lot of work for me. She may even delegate some of her more delicate tasks to you, if you're lucky. We could be working very closely together on some of my pet projects." Luce grinned. "You'll want to make sure you wear a skirt." He stared at her pants-clad legs hungrily.
Mel wondered what he'd say if she admitted the closest he'd get to her was precisely where he was now – just out of arm's reach. She chose to say nothing. Instead, she smiled and nodded, then excused herself so she could wash the sludge out of the bottom of her coffee mug. She wanted to wash her whole body – the sleazy CEO made her skin crawl – but she hardly had time before the next orientation session resumed.
She slipped back into the training room, relieved to see that Luce had left. Somehow, she suspected she'd be seeing him again soon, though she hoped the opposite. Slimy snake of a CEO…
Excerpt3
When Mel returned from lunch, a small sheaf of papers covered her keyboard. The words, 'NOT complimentary!' were scrawled across the front page in red ink.
She eyed it for a moment and decided that the red pen scrawl over the front of the memo she’d sent was definitely not complimentary, to the point where she considered it quite rude. She took a closer look at the pages.
On the second page, the red ink surfaced again, carving a ring around the word 'complimentary'. She took a deep breath as she decided that the red-pen wielder didn’t like the word. Perhaps they’d prefer something insulting instead?
"…this initiative will be complimentary to our efforts to rehabilitate car thieves and graffiti artists…" she read.
What’s wrong with saying nice things about their efforts at rehabilitation? Mel wondered. It wasn't her line – someone up the chain of command had tainted her text with bigger words and, apparently, mistakes, too.
She decided to ask Lili.
Lili laughed when she read the papers. "Ah, the Luce red pen of doom. It’s your turn this week."
Mel was confused. "My turn? This isn't even my mistake!"
"Like an impotent man’s used condom, our CEO's ego needs reinflating from time to time, usually at least once a week. Last month, before you started, Luce sent out a rant about how many people confused compliments with complements. Something about the first one saying something nice and the second one 'completing me' or some shit like that. You’re the first one to make the mistake after his rant, so you get to apologise." Lili didn't look sympathetic.
Mel’s confusion deepened. "Apologise? For not getting his email before I started working here and fixing someone else's mistake after this left my desk? Shouldn't the person who made the mistake be doing this, as they did get the email?"
"You're forgetting that whoever did make that mistake is higher in the company hierarchy than you are, and we'll all delegate the letter to you anyway, whether it was your mistake or not." Lili shrugged. "Hey, it’s better than getting his email, ignoring it and having to explain why. At least you have an excuse. Just write up another memo apologising for the mistake and he’ll forget about it as soon as he feels his ego is swollen enough again."
"I have to write a formal apology?" Mel was mortified. "Can’t I just pull the original memo, fix the mistake and resubmit it?"
Lili smiled. "Sure you can, but that puts your memo at the bottom of the pile, which means it’ll be delayed by at least another week or two. Then you’ll have to write a memo apologising for the delays to your project instead." She shrugged. "Think of it as one of those, 'Other duties as required,' on your job description. You do what you’re told and you get paid for it. At least he’s not asking for you to do it on your own time, or when you had leave booked!"
Nor was he asking her to personally deliver her apology to his office, where she'd have to dodge his sleazy advances, Mel consoled herself.She sighed and returned to her desk. The CEO of HELL threw tantrums that would embarrass a two-year-old because he didn’t like someone's choice of words and he had an ego the size of a hot air balloon, which deflated rapidly in the chilly corporate atmosphere. So it was no different working in HELL than anywhere else. She took a deep breath and started wasting her afternoon on stroking the CEO’s ego. At least that was all she was expected to stroke.
Purchase Links
Amazon | iTunes | Kobo | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords : AppleAbout the Author
Demelza Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found she was afraid of fish.
She has since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea cucumbers and stood on spray drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below.
Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.
The Ocean's Gift series is her first foray into fiction, followed by her suspense thriller Nightmares trilogy. She swears the Mel Goes to Hell series ambushed her on a crowded train and wouldn't leave her alone.
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Giveaway
Two copies each ofNightmares of Caitlin LockyerOcean’s Gift; and Water and Fire.
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