Deal With the Devil

  Never in a million years did Nate expect Marie to tell him everything she had. He was floored. He sat there trying to think of what he should say back to her. No wonder she had been keeping her thoughts from him. She didn’t want him to know she was in love with him. All this time she had wanted to be with him and he had no idea. He had wasted so much time when they could have been together. And then he had gone and told her he was with so many other women. She was right, he had hurt her.

  “Marie, I had no idea you felt this way…and you’re right about what I said that night in the bar. If I hurt you I’m sorry. I never meant to,” he told her. He held out his empty hand and a folded piece of paper appeared in it. “This is the contract we both signed,” he told her. He crumbled it up into a ball in the palm of his hand. “Consider yourself free from our contract,” Nate told her. As he said the words the paper disintegrated in the palm of his hand. The contract was gone, vanished.

  Marie didn’t feel the way she thought she would once she was free. Instead of feeling relief and happiness she felt sad. Now she was never going to see Nate again after tonight since they had nothing connecting them anymore. Her heart hurt even more than before. Getting over Nate was going to be the hardest thing in her life.

  “Thank you, Nate,” Marie whispered as she tucked some of her hair behind one of her ears.

  “No problem, darlin',” Nate told her. “But before I go, would it be all right if I told you why I came here tonight? There really is something I wanted to talk to you about,” Nate told her.

  Marie had no idea what Nate wanted to talk to her about, but she was very curious. He seemed almost nervous to her which was totally out of character for him. She couldn’t think of any reason he would be nervous in front of her.

  “Yeah, sure, of course Nate. What is it?” Marie asked him.

  “Well yesterday when I told you about how many women I have contracts with I could tell you were upset. You were able to hide your thoughts from me when I tried to look into your mind, but I was able to see your jealousy. It’s a sin I’m quite familiar with you know,” he explained and he saw Marie blush. “But the truth is I’ve had more lovers than I can count. And I’m not telling you this to upset you, I just want you to understand that I’ve never wanted to be with just one woman before…Sex was always just sex and no commitment. But everything changed when I met you.”

  Marie couldn’t believe what Nate was telling her. She had no idea he felt that way about her.

  “But what about all the other women? I mean, what about yesterday? You said you had more women to see last night, that’s why you had to leave,” Marie said accusingly. If she meant so much to him why was he still going with other women?

  “Yeah, that probably didn’t sound too good yesterday,” Nate admitted. “I’ve actually been visiting all the other women I have contracts with to let them know I was letting them free of their obligations to me. I’ve been voiding contracts for a while now,” he told her. “The more I see you, the more I don’t want to see anyone else.”

  Marie sat on her sofa amazed with Nate’s confession. She had been so jealous of him going with other women and here he was letting them go.

  “So you’ve been letting all the other women go?” Marie asked him. She wanted to make sure she understood what he was telling her. Her heart raced as he moved over on the sofa to sit closer to her. He reached up and touched her face stroking her cheek. She trembled and sighed at the gentleness of his touch on her skin.

  “I’ve been letting them all go because I only want one woman,” he told her. He reached down and took her hands in his. “I only want you Marie. I only want you because I love you,” he said. His voice was low and soft and full of emotion.

  Marie didn’t say anything back to him, she couldn’t. It was like a dream hearing him say the words out loud that she heard him say only in her dreams. A slow steady stream of tears started falling from her eyes. All she could do was sit and stare at her hands in his.

  “No, no, don’t cry again,” Nate told her. “It breaks my heart seeing you cry.”

  Marie laughed and wiped her cheeks. She thought it was so sweet he didn’t want to see her cry.

  “It’s okay Nate, I’m just surprised is all. I had no idea you felt this way about me,” Marie told him. “I mean, even though you told me from the beginning you didn’t want a relationship I still hoped… And when you talked about other women, I just couldn’t handle it. I just can’t help myself when it comes to you,” Marie told him.

  Marie leaned over to him and touched his cheek. She could feel the stubble under her fingers. Nate reached over and scooped her up, sitting her sideways on his lap. Marie put her arm around his neck, her hand playing with his hair.

  “I can’t believe how lucky I am that you even want anything to do with me…especially since you know who I am. A lot of women are scared to death of me,” he told her.

  “Well, you’ve made me feel a lot of things, but I’ve never felt scared… Well maybe you did scare me a little that first night in the bar,” she confessed, “But it doesn’t matter to me who you are; I want you to know that. I don’t care. All I know is I love you,” Marie said to him.

  Marie stared into Nate’s bottomless brown eyes that looked at her with a love she had never seen before. Nate slowly moved closer to her until his lips gently touched hers. They opened their mouths to each other and their tongues lightly brushed each other. Nate wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her closer to him so their chests touched.

  Marie broke their kisses and pulled away from Nate. She thought about something he just told her that she didn’t understand. Nate looked at her obviously confused why she stopped kissing him. She gently brushed his lips with her fingertips.

  “Hey, I just thought of something. I know you said you broke all the other contracts, but what about mine? You broke mine, too. You still want to be with me, right?” she asked. Now that they didn’t have the contract binding them together she wanted to know what happens next.

  “Oh darlin’, there’s nothing more I want than to be with you. I just didn’t want to have that contract with you anymore making you be with me. I want you to be with me, to make love to me because you want to, not because you have to,” Nate explained to her as he stroked her hair. “I love you so much Marie. I’ve never loved anyone before,” Nate told her, his voice shaking. “I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to do or say next. All I know is all I want is for you to be with me, by my side for the rest of my existence.”

  Everything that Nate said to her was even better than anything she had dreamt up in her mind. He wanted her, just her forever. She would give him all of herself to him. Her body. Her soul. Her heart.

  “Nate, I think the next thing you need to do is kiss me,” Marie told him.

  Nate grinned at her suggestion. He took her face gently in his hands while moving his face closer to hers. Before his lips touched hers Marie spoke again.

  “Tell me your mine,” Marie said in a breathless voice. Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for his answer.

  “I’m yours Marie. For as long as you’ll have me,” Nate responded back to her.

  Marie smiled and they kissed with even more passion than their kisses in the past. Marie playfully nipped at Nate’s lower lip before she pulled back from him again.

  She got up off his lap and reached out her hand to him.

  “Come on, let’s go to my room,” she said as she tugged him off the sofa. Nate got up and placed both of his hands on hers briefly, then let go and wrapped an arm around her waist as they walked to her room.

  When they got to the foot of her bed, Marie placed her hands on Nate’s chest.

  “Do me a favor, Nate. No clothes disappearing tonight. This time let me,” she told him as she started unbuttoning his shirt. He looked down as she unbuttoned her way down to the waist of his black jeans. She pulled his shirt loose from his pants, then pulled his shirt open exposing his smooth chest. Her palms ran
over his nipples before sliding his shirt off over his shoulders letting it fall to the floor.

  Marie unbuttoned the waist of his pants then unzipped the zipper. She could see he wore a pair of white briefs under his pants. She slid her hand in his open pants to touch him over his briefs. He hardened instantly with her touch.

  “I think I like your way better,” Nate said with a devilish grin.

  “Yeah, maybe,” Marie answered with a smile as wickedly devilish. She started to pull his jeans down and knelt down in front of him.

  “Yeah, I definitely like your way better,” he said looking down at Marie on her knees in front of him.

  ****

  Marie woke up to bright sunshine streaming through her bedroom windows. She squinted in the sunlight and brushed some stray hair from her eyes. An arm came from behind her to wrap around her waist. She quickly turned her head to see Nate lying next to her.

  “Morning darlin’,” he said and nuzzled his face into her neck.

  “You’re still here,” she said amazed. He had spent the entire night with her.

  “If you don’t want me here I can go,” Nate told her as he slid his arm off her waist and started to sit up.

  “Don’t you dare,” she told him as he grabbed his arm and put it back around her waist, pulling him back down next to her. “You’re not going anywhere,” Marie told him. Now that Nate finally spent the night she didn’t plan on letting him leave.

  “Okay, I’ll stay, but you’re going to have to go,” Nate told her back.

  Marie turned to look at him confused. She didn’t have any plans on leaving and had no idea what he was talking about.

  “What? Where am I going?” she asked him.

  “Today’s Monday. I think you have to go to work today…unless you decided that maybe you didn’t feel well enough to go today,” he suggested.

  “Ohhh…” Marie groaned as she brought her hand up to her forehead. Damn, she had totally forgotten it was Monday morning. “Hold on a sec,” she told Nate.

  Marie rolled over away from Nate and picked up her cordless phone from her nightstand. She dialed the number she knew by heart and waited for the beep before she started to speak.

  “Hey Ken, its Marie. I wanted to let you know I won’t be making it in today,” she said trying to keep her voice low. “I’m not feeling well so I’ll be staying home today. In fact I can tell you now, I’m not going to be able to make it in tomorrow either. Thanks for understanding Ken and I’ll talk to you soon,” Marie finished and hung up the phone. She reached over and put the phone back on the charger and turned back to Nate.

  “I can’t believe you just called work and lied that you were sick,” Nate said while laughing. “What’s gotten in to you, Marie? I didn’t think you were like that,” he said teasing her.

  “You’re right, I’m not,” she told him as she climbed over him, straddling him at the waist. “Besides, it was your idea.”

  Marie leaned down and kissed him squarely on the lips then rubbed herself against him feeling him grow hard under her.

  “Oh, so it’s my fault that you lied?” he asked her as he raised his hips up to meet hers.

  “I’m not saying it’s your fault Nate, but let’s just say…the devil made me do it,” Marie said.

  Nate groaned at her joke and then decided he would show her what else the devil could do…and he knew they’d both enjoy all of it.

  About the Author

  Annmarie Ortega resides in Chicago with her husband, two young sons and one slightly insane male Doberman. She is seriously outnumbered in her male dominated household, but at least there’s never a dull moment! Annmarie is a part time student currently pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree in Fiction Writing. She is a member of the RWA, along with their Chicago North, ESPAN, and Passionate Ink chapters as well.

  Also available from Annmarie Ortega and Venus Press…

  Possessing Poseidon, Sons of Zeus

  What a Knight!