One Handsome Devil (10 page)

He looked up to see Sara staring at him.

"What?"

She giggled. “You're eating that thing like you're afraid someone will take it away from you."

"Did you come from a big family?"

She wrinkled her forehead, trying to follow his train of thought. “After my parents died, it was just me and my grandmother."

"Imagine living in a family of millions, where there are only a few bites to go around.” That was a pale picture of Hell but he couldn't explain it in words. He very much feared that if she stayed with him much longer, she would have plenty of opportunity to see it herself. “It doesn't encourage leisurely meals."

"Oh.” Sara frowned for a moment, then brightened. “Well I won't steal your burger. Relax and enjoy it."

Relaxing and enjoying were two things demons had a hard time doing. Jack resolved to give it a good try. When he was back in Hell, he'd have thousands of years to remember the sensations.

Sara leaned against the side of her car. A bead of sweat collected on her cheek, then rolled down to her neck where she dabbed it off with a paper napkin. She took a bite of her own burger, then closed her eyes in the sensual enjoyment of its taste.

Her thin top clung to her body like a second skin highlighting her slender curves. “I'm a complete mess,” she complained.

Never before had torture been so sweet. Sara's teasing a few minutes before had already inflamed his desire. Now his arousal created a steady ache that impelled him. “I don't find you so."

"Oh? You like women who drip with sweat?"

He could hardly have avoided hearing the sarcasm. It didn't matter. “Apparently. Perhaps because I am used to, shall we say, warmer climes.” He reached out and ran a hard finger up the outside of her thigh. “I wonder if you would like to continue our explorations of last night?"

"You want to do it here, in the middle of everywhere?” Sara made an expansive gesture that took in the surrounding countryside. A countryside that, with the exception of a scrawny goat, looked completely deserted.

Jack didn't understand human shame over their bodies, but he was aware of it. “Would it be easier for you if we stepped a hundred yards away from the road? We could be safer from prying eyes."

Sara's eyes rested on the bulge in his jeans. “The idea does have a certain animal appeal."

With demons, the appeal was ethereal, not animal but the appeal was stronger than he had ever felt. “Well then.” Jack scooped Sara up and started toward a line of trees that hid a small, nearly dried, creek.

"Stop.” Sara commanded.

What he wanted wouldn't hurt her. Far from it. He ignored her demand.

"You can't just do this,” she pleaded.

He risked a look into her soul. She might be protesting, but her protest didn't go deep. Good. He could continue.

It amazed him that, even after sending a day with this woman, he wanted her—wanted her more than ever. More, even, than the previous night when he'd been so long without sex. In Hell, sex was fraught with too many perils to be even considered. With Sara, it was different, strange. It just wasn't demonic to desire a human so badly.

"Jack.” The word fell somewhere between a protest and a plea that he continue.

He looked into her again to ensure he wasn't misreading the situation. A strange doubt circled in her mind, entwined with her desire. He'd have to dispel her doubts or stop. Jack didn't want to stop.

Perhaps, if Sara felt his need, his desire for her, her doubts would be alleviated. Perhaps, of course, they would be heightened. Either way, he could deal with it. He pressed his lips to hers.

She froze for an instant and he wondered if he had misjudged the situation again. Sara could change so quickly, so unpredictably, that reading her didn't always provide much guidance. Perhaps it was this undemonlike quality that he found compelling. A demon, of course, was utterly predictable. He reacted to need and advantage. To Jack, Sara was an alien but irresistible treat.

He held his position, his lips still touching hers, brushing rather than pressing for more than she wanted to give. Jack breathed deeply, waiting. The earthly plane could be a tactile overload even without the satiny touch of a woman's lips, the softness over muscle of her legs against his arm. The touch of air against his body, both lacking in Hell, accentuated the power of the moment.

For one heartbeat, then two, Sara lay still in his arms. Slowly, he broke contact moving his lips from hers. He had after all pressed too hard, misjudged the moment, broken his promise. Well, demons are used to judging wrong.

Severing their touch seemed to undo a spell. Sara came to life, glared at him with wide-pupiled eyes, then tightened her arms around his neck. She crushed her lips against his. Her tongue met his lips, pressed for an opening, then probed into his mouth.

Perhaps he hadn't misjudged so badly after all. Jack stumbled, so caught in the moment that he had retracted his senses and hadn't even noticed the rock that blocked his path. Although he regained his balance quickly, the lurch had tugged Sara's lips from his.

"This is insane,” she breathed.

He nodded. She was right.
He
needed to flee, to confuse the path that warding angels would trace to haul him back to the confines of Hell.
Sara
needed anything but a demon. Still, even if he had been free of his promise, he couldn't have left Sara now. Not when she looked at him with such desire—such trust in her eyes.

Gently he set her down on the soft sand beside a stream that had been hidden behind the row of trees.

He lost all sense of time in the kiss, the delightful torture of needing Sara so badly his wings trembled. Finally she pulled away. Her breath came fast rising and lowering her breasts under the thin silk of her blouse.

"I have to ask you something.” she said.

"You know I can't lie."

"Then tell me why you are doing this."

"Because I want to. Because it will give both of us pleasure.” He smiled bitterly. “A demon has few enough opportunities for pleasure, darling."

She shuddered at his endearment and he wondered where it had come from. “Tell me this is for me, not just to relieve your sexual frustrations."

He examined his thoughts and realized that he'd pushed all memories of the waitress out of his mind. His feelings for Sara were different—not unsexual, but more than that. Probably because she wanted him as much as he wanted her. “With you, I feel joy from shared pleasure,” he answered carefully. “It is very strange."

Sara laughed, a sound that bubbled with the brook to gladden the spot that should have held his soul. “Is it strange? That's how I feel too."

"It's impossible, of course. I must be lying to myself somehow.” The admission cost him because he knew she could pull away. Why couldn't he settle for a partial truth, the way he so often did?

"I don't believe you.” She reached an arm behind his head and pulled him toward her. “Kiss me again. Make love to me before I change my mind."

He shuddered at her use of the ‘L’ word. Luckily he'd already set her down or he might have dropped her.

"What?"

"I can't hear that word."

"You mean L—"

He put his fingers to her lips. “It is one name for the powerful one. Please."

Sara looked concerned, then winked. “How about, sex me up?"

"Now that, I can stand."

The previous night, Sara's wards had held him, prevented him from using his powers. Now her ward only kept Jack close to her. His promise bound him more tightly than the wards had, but it gave him latitude. Latitude to lead. To take what he wanted. To take pleasure from giving it rather than passively accept what Sara chose to give him.

He ran his hands down Sara's sides burning away the silk fabric of her blouse and the denim of her jeans in a quick burst of white-hot flame. As he'd planned, the clothing was consumed before the heat could reach her. The flame left Sara, abruptly, dressed only in the thin pink bra and panty set she'd worn.

All in all, Sara made a picture any demon could appreciate. The satin fabric of her panties accentuated rather than detracting from the smooth muscles of her bottom and the narrowness of her waist. Any demon would appreciate it. Jack didn't plan to share.

"What did you do to my clothes?"

"This.” He let himself blaze for the smallest fraction of an instant and his own clothing fell from him in ashes.

"We can't buy new clothes every time we have sex."

He barely contained the burning heat that started. “I can afford new clothes every few thousand years."

"Will it be that rare?” Her eyes filled with pain, with concern for him. Damn.

"Demons learn to appreciate the joys of the moment. Can we do that here?"

She sighed, then pulled him closer. “All right, but next time, ask first. That was my favorite top."

"Maybe we can have you win the lottery. You can buy more."

Sara drew her eyebrows together in a quick frown. “Don't joke about this, Jack."

He nodded silently. The word
sorry
had been on the tip of his tongue. A demon never apologized.

"Kiss me again, please.” Her whisper urged him to follow his own desires.

Yesterday she had held him in bondage, helpless to resist while she had her will with him. Today it was Jack's turn. His promise, together with the hard core of Sara's wards, would prevent him from damaging her. Beyond that narrow limit, he could do so much. He intended to do it all.

He bent his lips to Sara. With one of his wings, he traced her skin from the lacy panties up her hard stomach to her breasts. He let the temperature build up in the tip of his wing until it reached her breasts, the heat penetrating the thin weave of her bra.

Her nipples hardened to his touch.

"You like this better than when I held you down, don't you?” Sara breathed the words so softly he could never have heard them without a demon's sensitized hearing.

He shrugged. “Pleasure is pleasure. A demon takes it where he can."

"I don't believe you."

"It was only partially true, I guess. All demons prefer to be in control.” Another true statement.

"Not all demons care about their mate's pleasure. You told me so yourself. And don't try to tell me you don't care.” She brushed a knuckle against the back of his wing where it lay molten on her breast. “Could it be that you aren't like other demons?"

A terrible guilt washed over him. Sara wanted, so desperately, to believe the best of him. That belief could destroy her more totally than anything he could do. Yet he couldn't deny what he had admitted to himself only a moment before. Sara was different. Or at least, he was different in how he reacted to her.

"I have heard that a woman gives more pleasure to her mate if she finds pleasure in his touch. I am willing to experiment."

"Is that what demons say? Or are you just repeating something you've read?"

He shook his head. “I haven't heard a demon say that. Perhaps it is a knowledge I will take back to them when we have finished."

Sara's face twisted for an instant, the flash of emotion coming so fast he couldn't read it before it had vanished. Then she laughed. “I'm supposed to make love with you so you can brag about it to the other demons in Hell's locker room?"

That word tore through him like a white-hot spike through his heart. Humans could use words so casually, little knowing the power they held. Sara had meant
have sex
, yet she had used that fatal word
love
. Even the memory of that beautiful word hurt.

"What?” Concern crossed Sara's beautiful face.

"You said it again.” He made himself smile. “Don't worry about it. It's a demon thing, you wouldn't understand."

Sara laughed again. “That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Kiss me so I don't have to listen to any more of it."

Jack lowered his lips to hers.

Sara's body purred in Jack's embrace. Her tongue met his, battled, lost as he thrust into her mouth, then pursued when he retreated. Last night, she had been the aggressor, taking what she wanted. Minutes ago, it had seemed that Jack had turned the tables. Now, she felt as if each could do what they wished, that neither dominated. Each sought both to give and to take pleasure in the other's arms.

She reached a hand between his legs and grasped his hard erection, stroking it and glorying at its reaction to her touch. For an instant, its heat flared, almost burning her hand.

Jack must have noticed her flinch. “Sorry,” he muttered. “You humans are so fragile."

"I'm not as fragile as all that.” She hadn't broken when she'd drawn him into her. She didn't plan on breaking when he entered her again. And again.

His lips traced a fiery path from her lips to her chin, the hollow of her neck, to the dip between her breasts. Then he caught one of her nipples between his teeth biting down lightly as his tongue played with its hardened point.

She squeezed more tightly on his erection, her body responding both to his touch and to what she held, her womb opening up, calling for Jack's entry, aching to be joined with him, filled with him.

She slid her free hand down his ribs, then lightly grasped his scrotum squeezing it just enough to feel its movement.

Jack gasped.

"Does it hurt to hold in your heat?” She asked.

Against her breast she felt his lips shift into a smile. He pulled away for a moment, then murmured in her ear. “It is like delaying an orgasm. There is a certain frustration, but the reward makes it worthwhile.

"You're assuming there will be a reward."

"I can read your thoughts. It makes it easy for me to please you. It also makes it silly to play these games."

She had been playing a game, Sara realized. Maybe that was why none of her previous relationships had lasted. She had been afraid to let any man see the real Sara, choosing instead to joke around. Jack could see into her, read the truths she had always hidden—even hidden from herself. He could please her because he knew her deepest secrets. Please her more because, even knowing them, he wanted her.