One Handsome Devil (7 page)

On impulse she glanced out the window before shrugging on her jacket she used to protect herself from the school's over-aggressive air conditioning. Derrick sat still in his car, watching the trailer.

Weird. She definitely needed to talk to Sara.

Katra shrugged her shoulders. At least Derrick checking her our rather than other women.

She waved at him as she left the trailer and headed for her Beretta. Its engine sounded loud and angry when she started, but after Derrick's Jaguar, just about anything would.

Halfway to the school where she worked, her car sputtered to a halt, a loud backfire announcing the engine giving up the ghost.

"Great delivery on my wishes,” she muttered. A faint memory stirred. She'd wished it would run more than ten miles without breaking down. Just guessing, she figured she'd gone about eleven. If Sara still had the demon, Katra figured they could study the spell book some more and come up with an appropriate punishment. She fumbled around in her purse and dug out her cell phone.

Sara ouched as she stepped from the bed. Their all-night sex marathon had uncovered muscles she hadn't used in a long time. Those and a few she'd never discovered before. “So great sex isn't just in novels,” she murmured. Of course, finding your fantasy man was a demon instead of a human did make the whole experience a little strange.

"Hum?” The demon in question half sat up, stretching to the limits of his wards.

Sara gasped, then felt her face redden. “I thought you were sleeping."

"Demons don't sleep."

"Really?” For just a few minutes after their third bout of lovemaking, his face had taken on a peaceful look that made him appear angelic rather than tortured and dangerous. “Silly me. And here I was fooled by those soft snoring noises coming from your side of the bed."

"I don't have a side of the bed. I'm tied in the middle."

"Trust me, it looks good on you.” Repartee. She'd never been able to achieve that with a normal guy. She hadn't been able to achieve multiple orgasm with a normal guy either. Jack had opened a world of new experiences for her.

His eyes darkened. “Maybe we'll have to switch places some time."

The idea of lying helpless while Jack worked his sexual magic on her pooled instant heat in her womb. If Jack hadn't warned her what happens when an unconstrained demon has sex, she might just have let him try her out. But he had warned her—and she'd seen the burning need in his eyes when they'd been making love. He could have hurt her. Hell, he could still hurt her. Unfortunately, physical pain just might be the least of her worries.

The phone rang in time to save her from saying, or doing, anything really stupid.

"Don't answer it,” Jack urged.

She yanked back from the phone as if it was burning, then grabbed it again. “Hello."

Katra's voice sounded desperate. “Is that low-lived sneaky lying bastard still there?"

"I didn't have parents. I can't be a bastard,” Jack whispered from his place on the bed.

"I'm guessing you mean Jack."

"Jack the Jackass would be right. I'm here on the side of the road with my Beretta smoking like it has a five-pack-a-day habit."

"Call the auto club.” Sara didn't want to sound unsympathetic, but she had more interesting plans for her morning than rescuing a girlfriend.

"They canceled me because I used them more than four times this year. Besides, that lying S.O.B. didn't deliver on his wishes."

"She told me she didn't want to break down in the next ten miles,” Jack reminded Sara. “It was at least eleven."

Sara only halfway remembered Katra's wishes. She did remember Jack telling her that Katra wouldn't be happy with them. “What's wrong with her car?” she asked Jack.

His narrowed eyes got a far-away look for a moment. “Threw a rod. That'll cost some money."

"I heard that,” Katra protested from the other end of the phone line. “I don't have any money."

"I gave her what she wished for."

This had to be how demons had gotten a bad rap, Sara realized. All she wanted to do was spend another couple of hours having passionate sex with him and instead she was going to have to drive all over town to rescue her friend.

"And now you're going to make it right."

"Are you compelling me?” Jack leaned forward against the wards that still held him to the bed. His face looked hungry but a tinge of disappointment crossed his eyes.

"I'm not playing your silly demon games,” Sara told him. “You're going to fix her car because it's the right thing to do."

"I can't do that, Sara."

"You aren't HAL. You can do anything."

"You can't imagine how wrong you are about that."

"I don't care. You can fix Katra's car."

"You'd better get him here in a hurry,” Katra urged. “School starts in forty-five minutes."

"Where are you?"

Katra gave Sara an address about three miles from Sara's apartment.

"We'll be there in a couple of minutes,” Sara promised.

She hung up the phone and turned to face Jack. “You weren't very nice to Katra."

"A demon isn't supposed to be nice."

Sara wondered if she was imagining the faint edge of guilt in Jack's voice. Then she shook her head. After last night, she would naturally be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. After what he'd done to Katra, he didn't deserve it.

"Until you convince me you have changed your ways, you're going to stay on the leash."

"You don't look like the kind of woman who has to keep a man chained to her bed to get sex."

She had to hand it to Jack. He had more than one way of hitting below the belt. “Don't make this into something it isn't. You wanted what we did last night as much as I did.” Or else she would just curl up and give up on men altogether. “Tonight, if you don't want to have sex, I'll chain you to the couch. One way or the other, you're not getting out of here until I think you're ready."

"If you're trying to change a demon, you can count on a long wait."

"Waiting doesn't bother me.” Especially not if she was with Jack.

Jack frowned. “You know you're taking some major risks here, don't you?"

Jack watched as Sara consulted the leather-bound book she'd used to cast his wards. If she made a single mistake, Jack would be able to destroy her and achieve his freedom. He wouldn't let himself even consider any regrets that freedom would bring him. Last night might have been the highlight of the past few thousand years for him. That didn't mean anything could come of it.

"I can do this either of two ways,” Sara told him. “I can cast the wards directly on you. They'll kick in if you try to hurt me or someone else."

He must have grimaced.

Sara put up a hand to hold off any reaction. “Your other choice is that I'll just extend the bonds that are holding you to the bed and warp them to me."

"I'll take the second choice.” Once he destroyed her, the wards would vanish. Once he was free he'd have ample time to fantasize about what could have been different. Demons always had plenty of time to regret their mistakes, even when they'd had no choice.

He must have agreed too quickly. She looked at him suspiciously.

"Of course I'll need your promise."

"What promise?” Any demon worth his patch of Hell could find a hundred loopholes in any promise.

"You won't hurt anyone."

She would never feel that happened. “Agreed."

"And we're using my definition of hurt."

"But—"

"I'm not going to back down on this one. You don't think I'm stupid enough to fall for the old
it was so quick there was no pain
gag, do you?"

Jack had thought exactly that. Sara moved up another notch in his mental catalog. Not only was she sexy and endowed with powerful magical abilities, she was smarter than he'd given her credit for.

Of course he was a demon. He had more loopholes. “Agreed."

"You agreed too quickly. Tell me what gotcha's you saw.” Sara glared at him. “All of them."

That wasn't playing fair at all. Still, he wouldn't get out of here by sulking. If only he could lie.

"I could just let something hurt you. I could start something, then do nothing when it hurt you. I could set up a situation where I'd have to hurt one person to save another from being hurt."

"None of those are allowed."

"It isn't fair asking me this kind of question, you know."

A tear rolled down Sara's cheek. “I don't want to, either. I really want you to just be a good person."

She wanted the one thing he knew was impossible. “Trust me, I've spent most of the past ten billion years wishing for the same thing. I'd give up if I were you."

She swiped away the tear with the back of her hand. “Well I won't give up. So the deal is this. You get to come if you agree to act properly, hurting no one, allowing on one to be hurt, and not putting anyone in situations where they might be hurt. And you agree that if you spot another loophole, whether you notice it now or only later, you'll tell me before you act on it and agree to close it. Otherwise, you get to stay right here for the rest of the day."

"Oh, I agree.” It would be interesting to spend a day being a person, unable to use his powers for harm. Perhaps it would even be amusing. To think that just a few days, or maybe centuries, ago he'd been bemoaning his repetitive experiences.

"Then let's go.” Sara waved her hands in exactly the right motion, and chanted a few words in perfect, accent-free Sumerian.

"How did you do that?"

"Hum? Oh, it's just this magic book from my mother. It seems to be working. When I said those words just now, all the hairs on my head stood on end."

"It's working all right.” He was compelled by his promise, but the spell had put the compulsion into the bonds that held him. “I was wondering where you learned Sumerian."

"Huh?"

"What you just said. Your chant."

"Those were nonsense words from the book. I think it's the rhythm that gives it the power, not the words.” Sara blushed.

He almost wished she knew what she was up to, or at least the dangers she faced by doing it. The previous night notwithstanding, yanking Jack in hadn't exactly been a stroke of luck for Sara. Sooner or later, she was bound to make a mistake. When she did, it would be over. “Luck isn't the word I would use. But the words aren't nonsense, they're Sumerian."

She shrugged, uninterested. “What do you know? Should have taken that rather than Spanish, I guess. Anyway, let's go."

He extended his wings. “I just might be a little obvious walking around."

Sara looked at him and giggled. “If you can magic your pants back together, I'll find something for you to wear."

Two minutes later, she handed him an oversized t-shirt and a Texas Rangers baseball cap whose bill just covered his horns. He could pass if nobody really looked.

"I guess I'm ready."

"Good. Katra will by spitting nails."

She led him out the door of her apartment. The invisible bands that held him to her stretched out about ten feet. In a weird sort of way, he wished they were shorter. What was it about Sara? Or was Jack running out of aether the way he'd heard some demons did?

He'd never really studied the way the human female moved before and was surprised to find his body responding to Sara again. Although she strode purposefully enough, her hips had a little wiggle that didn't seem related to her forward progress. It was a miracle that human males ever got anything done with that kind of distraction walking around.

Sara unlocked the door to her car, then pushed back the convertible top. “You don't mind the sun, do you?"

"I'm not a vampire."

A slight intake of breath. “Are there such things?"

"I've never met one.” If classic vampires did exist, they would be smart enough to stay well away from demons. Evil creatures had a tendency toward mutual destruction.

"Oh. Another girlish fantasy ruined."

Jack ignored the slight discomfort he felt hearing about Sara's fantasies. No rational woman would have fantasies about a demon. At least vampires had been human once.

Time to change the subject “Where are we going?"

"First we're going to pick up Katra. Then you're going to fix her car. After that, we're heading up to Oklahoma where I'm supposed to check out a new mineral lease. I guess you can just do whatever demons do when they're bored.” She shifted the gear, one slender breast outlined against the silk of her blouse. “Of course you'll have to do it without hurting anyone."

"Then I can't do what demons do when we get bored."

She pushed an errant lock of hair back from her forehead and shifted her weight in the seat. The muscles in her arms tensed, then relaxed. Her frown was half quizzical and all sexy.

The shear sensuality of her movement almost brought Jack to completion there in the car. He wouldn't be bored as long as he was with Sara.

For maybe the hundredth time, Jack read into Sara, trying to see what made her tick. Each time he looked, he expected to see that she was manipulating him, using his physical responses to control him. Each time, he found he'd deluded himself. She was who she was, wholly natural. Sensuality clung to her like a natural perfume that affected everyone around her without her even noticing.

Yet how could anyone be so pure in motive, so sensual in delivery? Sara's every gesture spoke of sex, yet her mind showed she was completely unconscious of the impact she had on him. She walked the way she walked, moved the way she moved, because that was how she was made. In fact, she seemed unable to accept the reality that she truly was a beautiful and intriguing woman. Jack didn't need his demonic insights to realize why Sara had problems finding a man. Most men would be frightened by the intense aura of female power she projected.

Frightened? Hell, Jack was scared stiff.

"We're here,” Sara called as she pulled up next to Katra's piece of junk.

"What are you still doing with that creep?” Katra demanded as soon as they got within range of her voice.

"He's going to fix your car,” Sara explained.

"I never said I was going to—"