Panic flashed through me, but I reminded myself that Marshal Freeman was at the gym and when I’d left Darcy’s front stoop, she’d been singing in the shower.
“I enjoyed her company very much. She’s lovely.”
Paris laughed and looked me over. “Well, she attracted you, didn’t she?” She sighed when I didn’t respond. “She told me you’re a demon, that everything that asshole Shawn told us is at least partially real.”
“Yes, I am a demon. But you don’t have to be from Hel to notice a woman like Ms. O’Shay.”
She giggled and tucked her hand over my arm. “I love how you call her Ms. O’Shay, like an old-fashioned gentleman. It’s nice. A little formal, but nice.”
“I like her, Ms. Caldwell. A lot. Enough that I want to make sure you and Orson are okay with me…being around her.”
“Wow.” She breathed out slowly. “If she isn’t smart enough to snag you, I might have to take you on, myself.”
It was my turn to laugh. Paris was less conservative than her bet friend, and more outspoken, but I felt no attraction from her at all. She was a woman in love, and an incubus is powerless against true love.
“Orson would beat my face in, and I know he could, so why risk it? Besides, you don’t want me. You want the man who beats in your heart so loudly I could hear it from the top of the stairs last night while you prowled the parking lot.”
Her body heated next to me, a happy flush rising to her face. “Damn. You really are different, from what she’s had before, you know that?”
“I should hope so.” Paris giggled again at the tone of my voice. “Okay, I’ve got to ask. Why doesn’t M/s O’Shay laugh much?”
My companion became serious. “She used to, all the time. She has this belly laugh that makes you laugh even if your mom just died.”
“And this is a good thing?”
She gave me a wan smile. “It’s very good, and not at all common, Mr. DeVries.”
“Do you think I could make her laugh like that?” I only paused for a beat before answering my own question. “I mean, if I got rid of Marshal Freeman somehow, could I make it happen?”
At his name, I felt all the joy in her body freeze in the cold rage he induced in her. “If you ever want to make that happen, you should talk to Orson. He knows more about Shawn’s misdeeds than I do. Darcy never talks shit about people behind their backs, even ex-boyfriends. But Orson’s the only family she has out here. He’s the keeper of the secrets.”
I bought her coffee and a muffin for breakfast, and she let me know that Orson was already at the bar, checking in on the morning prep and trying out new recipes so he could test them on his crew.
Luckily, Darcy’s new schedule change up meant she wouldn’t be in to work on the books until after the lunch crowd. I had time to kill in there with her favorite cousin and thanks to the desires woman in love had unintentionally shared, a head start on what would please him.
I stopped at a couple of boutique food shops for high end olive oil, vinegars, and a couple bottles of wine. By the time I arrived, the bar was a beehive of activity, delivery vehicles vying for space in the narrow parking lot as cases of beer and alcohol were carted in on dollies.
With all the other guys coming in and out it was easy to slip in the back door and make myself at home in the office while I waited for Orson to have a free moment. I spent the time figuring out how to keep someone else like me, or a certain paranormal marshal, from sneaking in the same way.
Finally, when I started to wonder if the bar was always busier when closed than it was open, Orson happened to walk by the open doorway. I watched him pass, then back up and peer inside at me.
“Darcy’s going to be late today.” His bulk filled the doorway. “Who let you in?”
“I wanted to come by and talk to you, and I let myself in.” I pushed the burlap shopping bag toward him. “I can tell you are upset, but no more than I am. What if I was Freeman? What if she showed up and he was right here in this chair, waiting for her?”
Orson stepped in and shut the door behind him. “So you were testing us?”
I held up my hands in surrender and moved out from behind the desk. “I came to see you, and the front door was locked, but the back door was open. I wasn’t trying to get past anyone, but when I realized not one person had noticed me, I was concerned.”
He rolled his shoulders, the tension leaking from his body. “Yeah, I can see that.” He left out a long breath. “I don’t know how she holds up under the strain of never knowing when he’s going to just show up again. The worst part is, she can’t get an order of protection. She’s literally safer here than anywhere, because the business has more rights than she does.”
I grabbed the sack by the handles and handed it to him. “I’ll stay out of the way if you need to get back to the kitchen, but maybe we can figure something out.” His eyebrows arched and he opened his mouth to argue. “Look. I’m not going to be around forever, but I like your cousin. A lot. I don’t want to see her afraid any more than you do.”
He took the bag and scanned its contents, the corners of his mouth tugging up in spite of himself. “Shit. You must have won Paris over. Darcy would never give up my weaknesses.”
I nodded. “Guilty as charged. I like her too, by the way, and how Darcy gets…bubbly, when she talks about you two.”
Orson cleared his throat and tried to quash the grin spreading across his face. “God. I must look like an idiot.”
“Even if you did, do you know anyone brave enough to tell you to your face?”
He laughed aloud, a booming sound that made me blink, and somewhere in the kitchen there was a clatter of dishes, probably from someone else he’d surprised. “How do you feel about hot wings?”
I pointed to my chest. “Former resident of Hel. I can handle anything you’ve got.” My confidence instantly faltered as his grin turned predatory. “Why are you looking at me like I’m about to eat a dozen ghost peppers to prove myself?”
He shrugged and sniffed. “No, no, I’m sure you’ll be fine. In fact, it sounds like you’re the perfect person to test out my new recipe for hot wings. They’re a big seller on game nights.” He led the way to the kitchen, where the staff all watched me with thinly veiled glee, a couple of them still red-faced and sweating.
Within minutes, I joined them, my mouth aflame, my chest constricting around my heart like I was dying. Silently, I reminded myself that I was in fact, still immortal, and no combination of peppers and spices could actually kill me.
“How are these so good, and yet still so painful?” I asked as I snagged my fifth one from the pile. “I want to eat them all day, and my face feels like it’s going to fall off.”
A gasp from behind me made me spin around. Darcy was staring at me, her mouth hanging open. “For the love of God, Orson, get the man some milk.”
Feeling guilty, but not sure why, I waved lamely at her as behind me, Orson laughed his booming, room shaking laugh and the kitchen staff all joined in.
Back in her office, she watched me, hiding a smile behind her hand. “What on earth possessed you to let him do that to you?”
I scrubbed at my fingers with another moist towelette, four empty foil packages crumpled on her desk. “In all fairness, he only asked me to taste one. The rest were all my idea, because they really are that good.”
“Uh huh. So it wasn’t machismo that made you do it?
I cleared my throat painfully. “Uh, no, not at all.”
It was the first time I’d seen her laugh light up her eyes, but laugh she did, a raspy cackle that made my body tight and my chest feel full. “Oh, DeVries. The look on your face when I walked in and caught you, fingers sticky and glazed in that caustic mess, sweat beading on your forehead… I had no idea someone like you could be so physically uncomfortable. It was…”
“It was worth it, to see your smile light you up like that. Should I go get a couple more?”
She gasped and reached out for me, only inten
sifying the strange flood of emotions I felt. “Please, no. I’m sure Orson will give me plenty of chances to see you squirm, if you stick around.”
I saw it then, the vibration in her energy that told me she wanted me to stay but would never ask it. Her need for safety, her desire, things that I could easily twist to create the psychic wounds I needed to steal her soul away. And in myself, one emotion that rose to the top of the roiling mess.
No one would ever touch that perfect, shining thing that I could see lighting her up from within. Not even me. If that meant hurting her now to save her from torture later, so be it. But not until I’d seen her melt under my touch, the only aspect of love I could ever give her.
Chapter 11
Darcy
Ranger left almost as soon as I arrived, his mood changing so quickly I was left wondering what I’d done to offend him. But he promised to return once he could feel the inside of his mouth and his fingers stopped tingling, so I pushed my worry away and focused on my work.
And when Jose walked past my office more in an hour than I usually saw in a month, I chose not to notice. Security had never been a worry for us. We deposited our money nightly, locked our doors when we closed, and had never had a whiff of trouble. Shawn was trouble, a heaping dose of it, and I didn’t mind that everyone was on the lookout for him.
Thinking of him turned my thoughts back to Ranger, though. I wanted him, but he’d admitted that he harmed people for a living. I wondered what would’ve happened if I’d been dating a regular cop and then started seeing a loan shark. I glanced up from the books I’d been staring blindly at for fifteen minutes as Jose made another pass by my door.
“Joe, come in here, please?”
He jumped and rushed to the desk. “Miss Darcy, I…”
“You’re doing what Orson asked you to, right?”
He swallowed hard and shook his head. “Mr. DeVries gave me an extra job to do, but Orson said I could. He said he could tell I was observant, and to check out all the doors and windows every so often.”
I folded my hands on my desk and took a breath. “I agree that we need to think more about safety around here, Jose, but not at the detriment of our other work, right? Maybe cut those patrols in half, so Orson doesn’t go crazy back there. You know he depends on you.”
And he’ll work himself to death rather than take away my protection detail.
“Yes, Ma’am.” He turned toward the door, but hesitated. “Ma’am?”
“Yes?”
He flashed me a wan smile and ducked his head. “That new guy? I like him. He just… he just feels like a good guy. I wasn’t sure at first, but something about him is…”
“Righteous?”
He nodded, “Yeah. He’s like a knight from Kin Arthur or some shit.” He gasped and stumbled over his words, “or something like that.”
But he’s a demon, and demons can’t be good guys, he even said so. I nodded without saying anything, and a grateful Jose scurried back to the kitchen. As always, my logical voice opposed my heart. You’re wrong a lot. It would be nice if this was one of those times.
I tidied up my hair and added a little color to my lips, hoping Ranger did come back. I told myself it was just for fun, and that I wouldn’t let myself get too into him, but that niggling voice in my head reminded me that lying was never my best thing, even to myself.
“There’s that whole soul he was telling me about, I guess,” I muttered at the mirror. But what did that mean for us? I wanted him, and since he kept showing up uninvited, I could admit to myself, at least, that he seemed to want me.
But he’d left me weak-kneed and frazzled at my door when I’d invited him to stay…again. Not the actions of a man with no conscience. I was torn between what my eyes showed me and the horror stories Shawn had, back when I thought he was a hero and the moon hung in those glacial eyes of his.
I’d seen my boyfriend come home looking haunted and forlorn after a hunt, at least in the beginning. Then he’d come to revel in them, sparing no gory detail of how he and his boys took down the ‘foul creatures’ as he called them.
Ranger was funny, cool under fire, and from what I’d seen, fiercely protective. I simply couldn’t reconcile the man I saw, with the stories I’d been told.
“Maybe, like men, demons aren’t a monolith,” I said aloud, sitting down to attempt to pay the bills. I huffed out a breath and dropped my forehead on the pile of mail. “Or maybe I’m just trying to explain away inconvenient truths.”
A chuckle from the doorway made me jump. “I like the first option better.” There stood DeVries, casually leaning against the doorframe.
“Damn it.”
He chuckled and slipped into the room like it was my boudoir instead of an old, wood paneled office that smelled like yesterday’s cooking. “We are not a monolith, it’s true. I know people’s desires. I don’t feel the need to torture them, I don’t physically harm them. I just collect debts. There are some who are capable of acts so horrific I would never describe them to you.”
“But not you?”
He sat on the edge of the desk and simply looked at me without saying a word. After a few moments, my face began to burn as though he had read all the doubts in my head and was judging me.
“I don’t want to think ill of you, DeVries. It’s hard to change everything I’ve always believed or thought I’ve known.”
He took my hand, electrical impulses racing up my arm and warming me even more. “I genuinely enjoy the company of humans, women especially. I used to be a human myself, you remember? I don’t want to hurt you, and if I need to leave to avoid that, I will. But I’d like to make sure you’re safe first.”
“Come home with me tonight. I’ve called an all-hands, working everyone full shifts so I can change up my hours a bunch. I’m leaving early, and I’d like you to come with me.”
“From the amount of bodies rushing around out there, we should probably leave now.” He pulled me into him again, lifting me out of my chair like I weighed nothing. His mouth brushed mine, setting off sparks that tingled and rushed to my head.
“Again,” I breathed when he released me.
His mouth brushed mine, then he kissed me again, harder. I opened my mouth to him, and his tongue flicked between my lips, making my breath hitch and my legs collapse beneath me. I clung to his shoulders and he devoured my mouth, lifting me onto the desk and pulling my ass to him as I wrapped my legs around his waist.
Finally, he pulled away, his breathing ragged. “We should go now, before one of your attentive employees comes in. Because all I can think about is getting you naked.”
I squeezed my legs tighter, then released him. “I don’t know how we’ll survive the drive back to my place. Maybe you should drive.”
A sexy sneer slid across his mouth. “I’ll get you there. Just don’t plan on being able to leave again once I do.”
Chapter 12
Ranger
I barely made it up the stairs without tearing off her clothing, but when she unlocked the door I forced my hands into my pockets and ordered her to stay put as I checked the apartment for any sign of a break-in.
The strange bottle with its hypnotic contents was back, placed on a shelf next to photos of Paris and Darcy together. Without realizing it, I reached out for it, and from across the room Darcy chuckled, making me jump.
“It has that effect on me, too. I don’t know why.”
I stuck my hands back in my pockets. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. Paris brought it back from a business trip. She said it’s supposed to be voodoo magic or something.” Her voice hitched and I knew she’d kept something back. I glanced over at her, blushing furiously.
“Will it put me under your spell? If I open it, will I be your slave?”
She giggled nervously and joined me, pushing me toward the bedroom. “With any luck, I won’t need a potion to make you do my bidding.” She was breathless, the hand on my arm trembling. “Or maybe I’m supposed to do
yours.” She led me to the bed and sat down, looking up at me with wide eyes.
I sat next to her, suddenly feeling self-conscious. My too-human emotions churned in my belly and made me fear I would lose control and hurt her if I wasn’t careful.
She stroked my face and I pulled her onto my lap so she straddled me. “I’m going to take my time with you. I hope you didn’t have any plans tonight,” I growled. I flipped her over, grinning at her squeal of surprise.
My own need to feel her flesh in my hands was overwhelming. I tugged her pants down and pushed her t-shirt up, circling her waist with my hands, stroking the soft skin and reveling in the fine trembling that went through her body.
I followed my fingers with my mouth, kissing and licking down her belly without touching her anywhere else. She began to whimper as the trembling increased, and I took my attention lower, to the top band of her simple, white cotton panties.
“God, DeVries, I thought you said you didn’t believe in torture?” she gasped, her fingers tangling in my hair.
I hid my grin in the soft curve between her hips and slid my tongue under the panties, sucking a small mound of skin into my mouth and biting down until I left a mark. “I don’t believe in harming women. I should have been clearer.”
She pushed up against me. “Don’t stop, I wasn’t really complaining.”
With her hips raised, I slipped the jeans down off her hips, slowly dragging them down her legs and dropping them on the floor. “Take off your shirt, I want to watch you.”
She sat up and met my gaze, her eyes on my face as she gathered up the thin fabric and pulled it over her head. I pointed to her bra and she unclasped it, letting it fall down her arms, barely covering her breasts.
I slid one hand between the shell and the mound of flesh beneath it, her warmth filling my palm and sending electricity straight to my cock, already hard and straining against the zipper of my pants.
Her head fell back as I played with her nipple, drawing it to a tight point between my thumb and finger. I slipped the bra the rest of the way off and discarded it with her jeans. I pushed her gently back to the bed and lowered my mouth over her breasts, one after the other, nipping and sucking until her gasps turned to whimpers, then moans.
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