else?
“It’s a crime against her God to sleep with the devil’s henchman,” Lucifer
elaborated, then stuck out his claws to study them, giving Brand time to digest the
information.
Brand knew that Lucifer had been nothing short of enraged when Gage and Jadyn
had miraculously escaped some decades ago. He carried that rage like an Olympic
torch, nurturing the smoldering embers until fiery flames seeped from his every pore.
Lucifer fed off the volatile energy, using it and manipulating it as he waited for the
opportune moment to exact his revenge. And now, it seems, the time had come.
“So you want me to seduce her, then?”
Lucifer gave a slow side-to-side shake of his disfigured horned head. “My, but you
are a quick one.” Then his voice dropped, and took on a serious edge. He leaned
forward, close enough that Brand could smel hot garbage on his breath. He snarled,
and said, “I want her. And with the way your so-cal ed friends had treated you, I’d
hazard a guess that you’re just the man to bring her to me.” Amber eyes narrowed and
stared down at Brand. “You must accomplish this mission in forty-eight hours. It’s al
the time you’l have. Beyond that my powers to keep you in human form fade, then
your body wil weaken and you’l materialize back here.” A short pause and then, “So
what do you say, Brand, a little tit for tat?” He nodded his head, gesturing to the
guarded portal embedded in the blackened stone wal —a portal that carried souls
from one realm to the other.
Brand studied the long, jagged opening in the rock before turning back to face his
Lucifer. A sardonic grin curled up his lips as he echoed, “A little tit for tat, Master.”
Then under his breath, he added, “Payback is such a bitch.”
Chapter Two
“Okay, I’m going to sleep with the next man who walks through that door,” Kaylea
West announced as she and her best friend Nicole James ate lunch at Halo, her
parents’ curbside cafe.
Nicole gave her a sceptical glance and took a sip of her steaming latte. She rol ed
one shoulder, relaxed back into her plush seat and said, “I’l believe it when I see it.”
“Then prepare for me to make a believer out of you,” Kaylea said, holding her chin
—and her coffee mug—high in salute, even though her insides were a ridiculous
mess of nerves just from thinking about seducing a stranger.
Nicole chuckled and smoothed down her midnight, poker-straight hair. Kaylea
mimicked the action, and swatted at her flyaway blond frizz. Why was it that Nicole’s
hair remained cool and put together, despite the summer humidity, and Kaylea’s short
blond locks resembled dandelion fluff? Perhaps that’s why Nicole had a date every
other night and Kaylea was left home to live vicariously through one of her romance
novels. Thank God they had air-conditioning at the library where they both worked.
Otherwise the unruly bal of fluff that she passed off as hair would scare the patrons
away. She made a mental note to tel her parents to instal another cooling appliance,
because the one they had was doing little to combat the sultry Chicago heat.
“Oh, I’m prepared, Kaylea. The question is, are you?”
Hel yeah, she was prepared.
She was a twenty-five-year-old virgin for Christ’s sake. And sure she was ready to
take a walk on the wild side, despite knowing who and what she was. Her parents,
Gage and Jadyn, might have escaped Hel and given birth to a daughter who was
born of purity and touched my “him,” but Kaylea wasn’t careless enough to make any
mistakes that were classified as “sins.” As a rare, pure soul—enlightened to this
reality during her christening—landing in Hel wouldn’t be a wise move.
Sleeping with a guy, however, real y didn’t qualify as a sin. But going twenty-five
years and not sleeping with a guy sure as hel did.
Kaylea glimpsed the tal gorgeous man coming from the counter, a steaming mug
of coffee in his hand.
“It’s a crime against her God to sleep with the devil’s henchman,” Lucifer
elaborated, then stuck out his claws to study them, giving Brand time to digest the
information.
Brand knew that Lucifer had been nothing short of enraged when Gage and Jadyn
had miraculously escaped some decades ago. He carried that rage like an Olympic
torch, nurturing the smoldering embers until fiery flames seeped from his every pore.
Lucifer fed off the volatile energy, using it and manipulating it as he waited for the
opportune moment to exact his revenge. And now, it seems, the time had come.
“So you want me to seduce her, then?”
Lucifer gave a slow side-to-side shake of his disfigured horned head. “My, but you
are a quick one.” Then his voice dropped, and took on a serious edge. He leaned
forward, close enough that Brand could smel hot garbage on his breath. He snarled,
and said, “I want her. And with the way your so-cal ed friends had treated you, I’d
hazard a guess that you’re just the man to bring her to me.” Amber eyes narrowed and
stared down at Brand. “You must accomplish this mission in forty-eight hours. It’s al
the time you’l have. Beyond that my powers to keep you in human form fade, then
your body wil weaken and you’l materialize back here.” A short pause and then, “So
what do you say, Brand, a little tit for tat?” He nodded his head, gesturing to the
guarded portal embedded in the blackened stone wal —a portal that carried souls
from one realm to the other.
Brand studied the long, jagged opening in the rock before turning back to face his
Lucifer. A sardonic grin curled up his lips as he echoed, “A little tit for tat, Master.”
Then under his breath, he added, “Payback is such a bitch.”
Chapter Two
“Okay, I’m going to sleep with the next man who walks through that door,” Kaylea
West announced as she and her best friend Nicole James ate lunch at Halo, her
parents’ curbside cafe.
Nicole gave her a sceptical glance and took a sip of her steaming latte. She rol ed
one shoulder, relaxed back into her plush seat and said, “I’l believe it when I see it.”
“Then prepare for me to make a believer out of you,” Kaylea said, holding her chin
—and her coffee mug—high in salute, even though her insides were a ridiculous
mess of nerves just from thinking about seducing a stranger.
Nicole chuckled and smoothed down her midnight, poker-straight hair. Kaylea
mimicked the action, and swatted at her flyaway blond frizz. Why was it that Nicole’s
hair remained cool and put together, despite the summer humidity, and Kaylea’s short
blond locks resembled dandelion fluff? Perhaps that’s why Nicole had a date every
other night and Kaylea was left home to live vicariously through one of her romance
novels. Thank God they had air-conditioning at the library where they both worked.
Otherwise the unruly bal of fluff that she passed off as hair would scare the patrons
away. She made a mental note to tel her parents to instal another cooling appliance,
because the one they had was doing little to combat the sultry Chicago heat.
“Oh, I’m prepared, Kaylea. The question is, are you?”
Hel yeah, she was prepared.
She was a twenty-five-year-old virgin for Christ’s sake. And sure she was ready to
take a walk on the wild side, despite knowing who and what she was. Her parents,
Gage and Jadyn, might have escaped Hel and given birth to a daughter who was
born of purity and touched my “him,” but Kaylea wasn’t careless enough to make any
mistakes that were classified as “sins.” As a rare, pure soul—enlightened to this
reality during her christening—landing in Hel wouldn’t be a wise move.
Sleeping with a guy, however, real y didn’t qualify as a sin. But going twenty-five
years and not sleeping with a guy sure as hel did.
Kaylea glimpsed the tal gorgeous man coming from the counter, a steaming mug
of coffee in his hand.
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