Demons Don't Always Tell The Truth (Kate Storm Series Book 3) (13 page)

As much as I so desperately wanted to kick him out - as far away as I could - I realized I'd actually be safer if I kept him in my sites. Learned as much about his plans as I could so I could foil them.

And keep myself - and possibly - my secretary safe from any harm he intended.

"She should be back soon." I smiled widely at him as I lied.

Désirée Norma-Sue was a champion shopper. I didn't expect to see her until closing time. More than likely the next morning.

"Ah. Shall we finish my questionnaire?"

I'd made up an excuse and shooed him on his way when Adam had stopped in the first time.

I'd been convinced I could somehow dissuade him from wanting to use my services.

His new seduction attempt completely squashed that plan.

It wasn't a simple spell that would target any witch. It had been specifically designed for me. Tempted long ago memories and wooed my broken heart.

Adam Night had done his research.

I didn't know how he'd found out about Ash, but he'd clearly plotted accordingly for our meeting.

"Why don't you come into my office? I have your file there." I straightened from the doorway, determined to bluff my way through our little cat and mouse game.

I didn't worry that Adam Night would attack me while he played out his little charade. He was quite smug and confident in his sneaky, cowardly techniques. Cowards always attack from behind.

I'd keep him at the front of my desk and my wand close at hand.

I pulled out his file. The one I'd hoped to toss in the recycling bin. We'd managed to get through about half of it during his last visit.

I picked up a pen, clicked it and smiled widely, "Let's finish this, shall we?"

Something dark and evil flashed behind his eyes. I held my breath, wondering if I'd totally misjudged the situation. My witchy instincts had failed me over and over again recently. Something I hadn't considered in my decision to learn as much as I could.

I gripped the wand I'd placed in my lap.

Adam blinked lazily, the evil disappeared and the dangerous seducer emerged, as if one and the same. He smiled, flashed both dimples and said, "Yes. Let's get this done."

I held my breathe a moment longer, but when he made no move to attack, I began reading off the questions and dutifully writing down his answers.

Adam Night had very specific taste in women.

Most of my clients do. They have hair and eye and body shape preferences. Certain personality traits like humor and an easy going attitude were usually popular. As was good money management and a passion for sports games or shopping.

Most clients had certain things they could live with and things they absolutely despised.

And most wanted a little bit of a challenge. Not a perfect Ken and Barbie match. Just a little something to add in some spice.

Adam Night wanted none of that.

Not that I had any plans to actually match him with someone, but it still gave me the willies. He wasn't lying about his preferences. I don't think my questionnaire mattered to him at all.

He was simply going through the routine until he got what he wanted. Whatever his end game was. And since the questions didn't matter, he didn't bother lying.

He preferred tiny blondes with perfect features, a perfect body and a non-personality. He didn't want anyone with a sense of humor or a positive outlook on life. Or anyone who liked sports or didn't like sports. Or anyone with hobbies or interests of any kind.

He wanted a perfect doll he could do with as he liked.

He was twisted and evil in ways I'd never thought of.

I wrote the answer to the last question down, dropped my pen and folded my hands to disguise their trembling.

"Well, I have everything I need. I'll go through my files and call you."

I wanted him out of my office. I wasn't sure I could maintain the pretense a minute longer.

Adam Night stood and reached out his hand.

I shrank back in my chair. I couldn't shake his hand. I just couldn't.

But he wasn't reaching for me. He leaned over my desk, picked up my pen, set it in my pen holder and straightened the loose questionnaire papers scattered over the surface. He placed the entire file neatly and precisely an inch from the edge of my desk.

"I'll look forward to your call." His dimples winked and then he left.

I didn't understand the purpose of his visit, unless it had been to spook me and see if his new seduction spell would work. It hadn't, but it had been close.

But at least now I knew who had broken into my office.

20. Progress.

Adam Night's visit scared me in more ways than one.

1. I hadn't picked up any clues as to what he was up to. And while my common sense told me playing his game was the way to go until I knew what he wanted, since I hadn't discovered anything during his visit, I could have booted him out and saved myself a lot of stress.

2. My brief debate about keeping him on as a client or letting him go had highlighted the importance of my business.
Love Required
wasn't just my dream, the baby I had nurtured and fed and filled with all my love, it was now the livelihood not only for me, but for Désirée Norma-Sue as well now.

I had someone depending on me.

I couldn't allow Adam Night to hurt me or damage my business.

Love Required
was the only positive in my life at the moment.

Of course, I had Aunt Tabs and Morgan and Drake and Désirée Norma-Sue and Phil. Good friends I could count on. But for the day-to-day, the sense of meaning and purpose, the love I needed, I was down to Al and my matchmaking business.

Not that I planned to share that slightly depressing thought with my Chihuahua. He'd take it and run with it.

Well, shit.

If I couldn't make any progress with any of my problems then I could at least clean. Do something physical, find my zen with lemony furniture polish and forget about bad magic and lying demons.

As if he heard my plan and was determined to smash it to smithereens, Ash walked through the front door before I reached my storage closet.

His big body immediately took up more than its fair share of space. Muscles bunched and tightened as if anticipating a fight. His horns were covered with a chocolate knit cap. Broad chest exposed in a dark brown leather vest. Thick thighs encased in black jeans. Topped off with heavy biker's boots.

Big, bad-assed King of Demons.

Destroyer of dreams.

My heart stopped, clenched with a sudden jab of pain and then sped up.

No matter what, my body always reacted to him. Went on high alert, caught fire and
yearned
. Damn it. For him.

I wondered if this was part of his power as well. Was it his sin that made me feel these things? Had every single thing been a lie?

"What are you doing here?"

I couldn't get my legs to move. They were locked in place. While my heart raced.

I knew what this was - flight or fight. My body reacting instinctively to danger. Poised at the brink, trying to decide whether it could win the battle or if it was better to cut ties and run like hell.

My mind wanted to jump in, cast its vote, but I couldn't think clearly. I was torn physically and emotionally.

"I want to talk." Ash stopped about five feet from me. He watched me closely, as if afraid I might break and flee.

Smart demon.

Damn him. Why did he have to keep battering away at me? Why couldn't he give me some time? Space so I could sort things out in my own fashion?

"I want you to leave." My hands began to shake. I stuffed them in the pockets of my jeans.

Ash narrowed his eyes. He took one step toward me. His movement calculated and determined.

I stepped backward, maintaining the same distance between us. I was just as determined. And so very, very confused.

"You look afraid. Do you think I'd hurt you?" Ash sounded appalled at the thought.

I knew he wouldn't hurt me physically. Ash was a massive demon. He'd learned the strength of his size when he was younger. And how to control that power.

He'd always known how he touched me, whether gentle or a deliberately more forceful touch. Maybe that was a product of his sin too.

I'd never been afraid of him physically.

"I know you won't attack me."

I hated that my feelings were so exposed, but there were other ways to hurt someone. And that's what I was afraid of.

Ash stalked forward another step. I edged backward.

"I should hope so. I'd never do anything to hurt you, Kate."

"What do you call your lies?" I couldn't believe his gall.

"I told you, I never lied to you. I didn't tell you the entire truth, but I never lied," he gritted the words through clenched teeth.

My heart didn't make the same distinction. It just ached.

"You can't avoid this, Kate. We need to talk this through."

I didn't want to talk. I was doing fine. Just fine. Give me a little more time - a few centuries - and I could come to terms with his deception.

Right now, it was too raw. Too new. Too devastating.

"Just leave." His presence alone was breaking down my defenses. I could feel his body heat. Breathe his earthy smell. My fingers itched to touch his skin.

Even his sin, tattooed in plain sight over his shoulder and arm, beckoned me. His horrible, deceptive sin. A part of him. The cause of my heartache.

It always responded to my touch. Wrapping itself around my hands as if to bind me to it. As if it wanted me.

His sin didn't just twist a person's desires, turn them against themselves. It attacked their hidden vulnerabilities.

It made an outcast witch feel wanted.

A curse capable of overcoming.

A half bred feel whole.

His bit off snarl was the only warning I received. In seconds I was shoved up against the wall. Strong arms wrapped around my thighs and pulled me up, spread my hips. Ash pressed his hips in between mine. Pinning me to the wall.

He moved one hand under my ass and tilted me so we were groin to groin. His hard heat pressing right up against me.

He slid his other hand into my hair and pulled my head back. Then he kissed me.

Hard.

He didn't try to cajole or seduce his way in. No. He took what he wanted. He bit my lower lip and thrust his tongue in when I gasped.

Fierce. Dominant. And desperate.

I could feel it under my hands, in his tightly knotted muscles. In the way he gripped my hair.

He stroked and explored my mouth, leaving nothing untouched, demanding things I wasn't ready to give.

His hand on my ass squeezed and I moaned. I felt his body relax slightly at the sound.

I shoved at his chest. Ash lifted his head, pulling my lower lip into his mouth before he moved away.

"Don't fight me, Kate." He pressed a kiss into my temple. "I never meant to hurt you. I've wanted you from the moment I saw you."

Don't fight him? He hadn't meant to hurt me? He wanted me?

He was killing me.

He'd said this before. I'd pushed him away and told everyone I was fine. I could deal.

I wasn't fine. I was the complete opposite of fine.

Ash had broken my heart. Ripped it apart and played me for the fool.

Everything I'd been pushing down, welled up. All the hurt, the pain, the insecurities, the fears, the denials and finally the tears. The stupid, wishy-washy and healing tears.

My entire body shook with the force of the sobs.

I cried as if my heart had just been broken all over again.

I lost track of time. Lost awareness of where I was. Didn't know where Ash was. Didn't care. I cried because I needed to. Because I was afraid and hurt. Because I finally could.

I didn't remember the sobs ending. The tears stopping. Didn't know how long I cried.

I heard a strong heart beating under my ear. Steady and unrelenting. I felt strong, powerful arms holding me to a large, hard chest. My legs propped over one of his, my entire body held and supported by his.

And heat. Warm, inviting, comforting heat.

He'd held me like this before. I'd been attacked and beaten all to hell and Ash had held me to him, like I was something precious he didn't want to lose.

It wasn't his sin. His sin acted on my desires, not his. Ash had wanted to hold me. He'd wanted to comfort me, help heal me in any way he could. And when I'd healed myself, he had simply held me.

Without agenda, without making a move, without anything, but his desire to keep me close.

Just like now.

I didn't know how to fight this. Wasn't sure I wanted to.

He'd confessed. Admitted his sin, his bargain with my scary aunt and his true past. I'd pushed him away ever since. Unwilling to listen, to open myself back up to him. Afraid.

And he kept coming back. He had lost his bargaining chip in me. Ash held me now because he wanted to. Because he'd hurt me and that hurt him.

Ash might be a demon,
the
King of Demons, but he wasn't bad. He wasn't cruel or evil. It had changed him when his father killed his mother. She'd loved him. More than likely the only being ever to do so given the structure of the demon realm.

His father had taken that away.

And Ash had found a way to leave the demon realm permanently.

I could understand that.

I'd been in search of love and my own happily-ever-after for as long as I could remember. There wasn't much I wouldn't do to find that happiness. If offered a chance to achieve my dream, would I have turned it down?

It didn't excuse him, or his not-quite-full truths. I still hurt. I wasn't ready to forgive him.

But I could understand.

It was a start.

Ash's arms tightened around me. Pulled me in as close as he could. His chin dropped to rest on the top of my head.

"Be mad at me. Hate me. But don't leave me, Kate. I know I should have told you the truth." His chest swelled under me. "I was afraid. And then when I realized why Morgause wanted to find you, I was even more afraid." He squeezed me so tightly I could barely breathe. "I've never been afraid before. All I wanted was to find a way to keep you safe. I'd do anything to keep you safe."

It hit me suddenly that he had. I'd been so caught up in my own heartache, I hadn't seen it.

I wedged my hands between us and pushed. Ash loosened his hold cautiously, as if afraid I might try to escape.

I looked up at him. "You said you made a bargain with Morgause?" Ash nodded. "What happens if you don't keep that bargain?"

Ash stiffened. "It's forfeited."

"You mean, you have to stay in hell."

"Yes."

Well, shit.

I might have been making some progress in healing and understanding, but if Ash couldn't leave hell, we were still doomed as a couple.