But then Lilly looked at him. Her deep green eyes pierced him, making him feel stripped bare to his very bones. And he knew exactly why he’d made the offer.
“Would you really do that?”
“As long as I get to keep my soul after you’ve helped me, then, yep, I’ll release you when we’re done.”
“Would you be willing to help me instead?”
That took him aback. Why would any demon need his help? They were mutual enemies, good vs. evil.
“Depends.”
She tipped her head slightly to the side. “What if it involved getting back at an even more powerful demon than me?”
Hell yeah. That, he was all for. “I might consider it. Who’s the demon?”
“Rathe. Know him?”
Colt didn’t trust himself to speak. Yeah. He and Rathe were going to lock horns pretty soon, one way or another. Better to have an ally in demon form than go up against the Lord High archdemon alone. “I’ll help you.”
“Then kiss me.”
Colt had held back as long as he could. He leaned in toward the barrier and was surprised to find it melted around him, warming his skin like a ray of sunshine as he passed through it into the circle he’d cast. Inside the circle her allure was even more powerful. Colt’s head swam and his palms grew damp. It was as if someone or something had reached into his head and pulled out his most intimate fantasies, making them real.
Miss Arliss waited for him, her oval face tipped up at him, her eyes shining with expectation. His skin tightened. Damn, was it stifling hot inside this circle? He suddenly remembered this same sensation the first time he’d approached one of the neighbor girls before the stranger had come and changed the course of his life. She’d been a sweet thing. An innocent, creamy-sweet girl who looked like she was spun out of sugar and dreams. But Miss Arliss was far more suited to his grown interests. She wasn’t innocent, but neither was she jaded and used up. She was the perfect blend of enticement and allure bathed in moonlight.
He couldn’t resist the temptation to touch her and see for himself if her skin was as soft as it looked. He grazed his fingers across her cheek, his thumb brushing the edge of her jaw. Her skin was smoother than heated silk.
He moved in closer, her mouth a breath away from his. The warm feminine scent of her hit him full force as he inhaled. The fragrance of her desire made his own need escalate. Colt’s reserve snapped. He crushed his mouth down on hers and found it soft, warm, and willing. His desire to feel her, skin to bare skin, to sink into the warmth she offered, raged inside him.
The kiss was far more than he anticipated, drawing out not just a full range of hunger and desire, but drilling even deeper into his soul, pulling out of him the desire to tuck her against him, protect her. An image flashed in his mind of him kissing her on a wide front porch as she wrapped her arms around him, welcoming him home.
But that was impossible. A total fantasy. As long as he was a Hunter he’d never have a proper home. He’d never have a wife or any kind of family of his own, because he wouldn’t risk them.
He looked down into the shimmering depths of her eyes, fighting off the urge to lose himself there. Through the sensual haze filling his mind, his training pushed forward, bringing him back to sanity. Reminding him that part of a succubus’s power was the ability to make a man’s deepest fantasies seem so real he could hold them.
She was a demon. A powerful one, and he couldn’t afford to forget it, no matter how desirable she seemed. He pulled back, breathing hard, a hostile mix of yearning and wariness swirling in his gut. “I’m warning you.” He was disgusted to hear how thick and lust-filled his voice sounded. “I don’t care how good you are. If you cross me, I’ll send you back to Hell in a heartbeat.”
Chapter 5
The dark velvet of the night closed in around the shifting yellow circle of firelight. “Threatening your partner is hardly the way to start a productive relationship,” Lilly said.
She stared deep into those determined blue eyes and tamped down the urge to rip him to shreds right then and there. While it might be satisfactory for a moment, in the long run it would ruin her chance to get the damn piece of the Book of Legend Rathe had demanded. She’d pictured meeting Colt Jackson so many times in her mind, and none of those images had matched what was happening between them now. The smell of him, virile male mixed with desert sun and leather, still swirled in the limited air supply of the circle he’d cast.
“Just want to make sure you know whose side I’m on.”
“Oh, I never doubted that,
Hunter
.” She forced her breathing to even out by sheer will. There wasn’t much she could do about her racing heartbeat or the stream of totally unwelcome sensual thoughts cascading through her brain.
She
was the damn succubus. He was supposed to desire her, definitely not the other way around.
It made her angry that his kiss had elicited such shockingly strong feelings and unwanted emotions, making her breasts ache and skin crave his touch. It made her angry that he’d threatened her the second their kiss had ended. It made her angry that she’d shared something personal with him that she’d shared with none of her other victims.
And why on earth had she felt compelled to share her name with him, or the fact that she’d been human once before? Had it been because she’d already felt she’d known him? Ha. That was laughable. Being in the flesh against him was totally different than reading about his exploits in the pages of a book. He was bigger and bolder, and far more charming than she’d thought he’d be.
“So that’s it?” he asked, eyeing her with suspicion.
“And look, you’re still alive.” Her tone was mocking, but she couldn’t hide the bitter edge of anger there. In all her twenty-five years as a demon, never once had she been affected by the men she seduced. She’d rarely even looked at their faces. All she’d pictured was the look on her father’s face when he’d met his match in Rathe as she took their proffered souls.
“Having second thoughts about our bargain?” Colt drawled as he looked deeply into her eyes.
Lilly steeled her spine and deliberately softened her face so he wouldn’t guess at her inner turmoil. How was she to have known he’d have this kind of effect on her? “Are you? Just how many bargains have you struck with demons?”
“None. But there’s always a first time for everything, isn’t there?”
The words lashed at her like a bullwhip, the sting of them making her wince. A first and a last time. The truth was she’d been introduced to Hell long before Rathe came along. From the minute she could toddle, her father had exploited her keen mind and unusual looks. She’d been part of nearly every con he played and, thanks to her efforts, they’d managed a dishonest living.
“True. But it doesn’t mean it always turns out the way you expect,” she said, tipping her chin up a notch.
She’d grown tired of the charade her mortal life had become, the constant running and the lies. She’d wanted a normal life for her and her sister, maybe even a husband and a family of her own. But the minute she’d suggested that to her father, any ounce of kindness had vanished. He’d threatened her. If she left, he’d turn her younger sister Amelia into a means for profit any way he could. And while Amelia was a delicate beauty in her own right, she didn’t possess half of Lilly’s fire, determination, and cunning. She’d never be able to pull off the cons her father favored, which meant her future was bleak.
Lilly couldn’t let that happen. She’d kept up the cons until she could find a way out for both herself and her sister. It had tainted her soul and shredded every ounce of decency within her, but she’d done it, by God. And she’d hated her father more by the minute. But it had taught her something valuable—there was always a way out,
if
you were able to accept the cost.
The Hunter’s glacier blue gaze bored into her. “If you want me to stick to our bargain, you’d better not double back on your word, demon.”
She stiffened. “I never forget a promise.”
Lilly had promised herself that her little sister Amelia would never know the touch of a man until she invited it herself. There’d been only one way Lilly could think to stop her father’s plans. She’d summoned Rathe, and in exchange for the fiend killing her father and sending him to Hell where the bastard belonged, something she couldn’t do herself, the demon had taken her soul.
It seemed a small price to pay to protect her sister. And until now it had been relatively easy. No emotion. No true impulse. Just doing what she’d always had to do and harvesting their nearly worthless souls in the process for Rathe.
But Colt Ambrose Jackson had just done the unexpected. He’d made her
want
to kiss him. He’d made her
desire
him. Damn him.
Lilly grabbed hold of the spark of anger bristling beneath her breastbone and nourished it. This Hunter was dangerous to something far more valuable than her soul. There was no time for fleeting fantasy or idealized versions of Legend lore. Colt was a Hunter. She was a demon. The two would never mix, so why did she suddenly yearn for it to happen?
He held her at arm’s distance, his hands hot against her bare skin, both of them still inside the close quarters of the protective circle in the vast darkness of the night. He didn’t look like a dangerous demon slayer. His sinful good looks, set off by a strong jaw, jet dark hair that curled along his collar, and tempting mouth, were more akin to a gambler—full of promise, but too good to be true.
His broad shoulders took up most of the room inside the circle, crowding her against the invisible barrier. The smell of his skin, a mix of potent male and the wild outdoors, made her dizzy with longing, and while she couldn’t retreat physically in the confines of the circle, Lilly did her utmost to withdraw emotionally. She refused to give her lust for this mortal the weight to affect who and what she was.
She glared at his hand on her shoulder. “Touching me wasn’t part of our bargain.”
He quickly moved his hand and she backed as far away from him as she could. “Release the circle so we can go open this door of yours. Where is it?”
He pulled at the rim of his Stetson, settling it more firmly on his head. “Dark Rim Mine.”
Lilly stiffened. The Dark Rim Mine had earned its name. It ran parallel to the rim of one of the gates of Hell. Not that the mortals knew that, but it was a favorite hunting ground for the Darkin, the children of the night. Either Colt was an incredibly skilled Hunter or he was an absolute fool.
Standing face-to-face with him, her lips still tingling from the kiss he’d given her, Lilly bet he was the former rather than the latter.
“You have a problem with that?” Colt leaned in close to her again, closing the gap she’d created until there was a mere breath of space between his broad chest and her silk-clad breasts. They tightened and ached, peaking forward, waiting for the graze of his touch. The low and gravelly quality of his voice, a man ultimately aware of a woman, picked out goose bumps over her exposed arms and legs.
Lilly bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth. “Problem with the Darkin? No.”
Problem being with you? Hell yes.
With his face half in shifting shadow from the firelight, his eyes looked a darker midnight blue. He assessed her every movement with his penetrating gaze, making her aware of just how close they were to one another. Her heart beat faster, picking up speed like a locomotive. She needed to concentrate on gaining his trust and forget about all the odd sensations he was setting off in her.
“You do realize what’s down there, don’t you, Hunter?”
His gaze flicked downward for an instant to the juncture of her thighs outlined in the black silk. Down deep inside her everything pulsed and tightened. When he looked back up, his sexy mouth tipped up in the corner in a wicked grin. “I think I have a pretty good idea.” He ran a finger along her jaw, a touch that set off sparks all along her skin. “And the name’s Colt. You might as well get used to sayin’ it, sweetheart.”
He was right, of course. They’d bypassed any whisper of proper social introduction and gone straight to being on quite intimate terms. Using proper names at this point was moot. Her heart did a double bump deep in her chest. Had he just called her sweetheart? Worse, with only a whisper of space between them, had he felt her reaction to the word? He was far more dangerous than she’d ever imagined. He was going to get her sent to Hell with no reprieve, to be tormented by Rathe for eternity.
Lilly marshaled whatever resistance she could gather, steeling herself against the seductive sensations he played across her easier than a bar man at a saloon piano.
“There’s only a thin barrier between the worlds down there. Any one of the Darkin could attack you. We’re not talking just demons. There’s vampires down there that’ll suck you dry to the bone. Creatures made of rock and fire that could crush then crisp you in the blink of an eye, that your bullets won’t even touch. Shape-shifters that’ll get inside your skin and paralyze you, using your body like a suit so you can only see the mayhem you’re creating, but you’ll be unable to stop it as they flay your loved ones alive with your hands and eat the meat in front of your eyes. Are you sure you’re prepared for that?”
Challenge glinted in his eyes. A raw, primal power radiated off him, which made her question her powers of seduction when matched up against his. His grin lifted just a touch more, as if he’d just read her intimate thoughts. “Nothin’ I can’t handle. Trust me.”
Lilly turned away, unable to look into his face any longer.
Trust. Not likely.
She’d never trust another soul as long as she existed, and certainly not a Hunter out to send her back to a tormented eternity. And yet, if he could help her escape Rathe, she had to take the chance.
“Are you going to let us out of this circle, or are we going to stand here talking all night about what’s waiting for us?” Rathe had given her three weeks. There was no time to waste. She had to gain his confidence, yet she found herself reluctant to get too close to him. He stirred unwelcome sensations in her, sensations that would land her in a heap of trouble. The tip of his nose brushed along her cheek and beneath her ear—a skimming touch that shot straight to her toes and made a warm sensation unfurl deep inside her.
“You sure don’t smell like sulfur.”
“Yes, you already mentioned that,” she bit out, irritation lacing her tone.
Colt suppressed the urge to grin.
Good. Let the little demon get a taste of her own medicine.
It had only taken him a few minutes to realize the only way to fight fire was with fire. If she wanted to turn on the charm, then so could he, in spades. Hell, he might even be able to consider it a secret weapon in this case. After all, her lips clung to his when they’d kissed. No matter how prickly she seemed, she was attracted to him.
He stepped back from the radiant silken heat of her curves, his foot crossing the edge of the circle. The invisible barrier slid around him like the warm caress of a sunbeam. Outside the circle, the chill silence of the night was punctuated by calls of coyotes on the hunt and scented with the dirty machine-oil smell of creosote bushes mixed with wood smoke. All that remained of the fire were the blackened husks of the logs and their red glowing hearts.
Well, he wanted a demon. Now he had one, and she was willing to open the door without taking his soul in payment. That had to count as a point in his favor, didn’t it?
Through the shimmer of the circle’s barrier she looked damn enticing. Things could have been worse. Way worse. He could have ended up with some ugly sonofabitch with horns, a damned forked tongue, and matching tail. Then again, maybe that would have been a hell of a lot safer than a succubus that looked like every man’s fantasy sheathed in black silk.
The demon cocked the curve of her hip to one side and crossed her bare arms over her chest, which made her breasts press together in a way that made him hard and damn uncomfortable. “We have an accord. You can’t keep me in here forever if you want me to open that door for you.”
Colt said a silent prayer that the demon he was about to unleash on the world would go the hell back to where she’d come from willingly so he didn’t have to shoot her when they were done.
“Here goes nothin’,” he muttered as he glanced at the directions in the book that lay open in the dirt and worked the circle backward, blowing out the candles as he went in the opposite order he’d lit them to open the circle he’d cast. Unfortunately, that brought him pretty damn close to the sweet curve of her derrière pressed against the barrier. He tried his level best to ignore the view as he completed his trek around the circle’s perimeter.
The shimmering barrier dissipated into nothingness, and Colt put his hand on the smooth wood butt of his revolver. No use taking chances. Not with a demon anyhow. He stepped back and eyed her. “You might want to put on somethin’ decent before we head into Bodie. No use in calling attention to ourselves.”