The Holiday From Hell (2 page)

"Here, let me take that." Luce lifted Mel's suitcase out of the car and wheeled it along behind him, holding out his free hand for Mel's. Just the warmth of her fingers laced through his was a taste of Heaven. He tightened his grip on her, not wanting to let go.

The trip up to his penthouse seemed interminable, but Luce endured it until he could kick the door shut behind them. Alone at last.

"Where would you like to relax? The bed, the sofa…up against the front door? Your wish is my command." Luce grinned, loosening his tie.

Mel laughed merrily. "Why your mind goes straight to sex, I will never understand. I was thinking about swans." She slipped off her shoes. "I'd like to take a leisurely walk to go feed the swans. I stopped in at the bakery downstairs from your office, so I have the dark, seedy rolls they like, and, now I have you all afternoon, I want to take you with me."

Sighing inwardly, Luce adjusted himself. Maybe she'd be up for sex later. An idea sparked and he said, "How about we head down to the foreshore where we had the Christmas party last year? That swan you kissed is probably pining away for you."

Mel sank onto the tiles, fishing through her suitcase for what turned out to be a pair of sneakers and some socks. "Or he's bragged to every swan he knows about the tasty CEO he sampled and he's hanging out for more." She laughed at the look on his face. "Don't worry, Luce, I'll protect you. I think Matilda Bay is a wonderful idea. You might want to get changed into something a little more casual, though."

Luce hurried to do just that, finishing with lacing up his black sneakers before he said, "Let's go feed my fingers to the swans."

Mel laughed as she took his hand and they headed downstairs together. The light breeze pulled wisps of hair from Mel's braid and the spring sunlight turned the loose strands into a glowing halo. Even the weather wanted to caress his perfect angel.

The café was closing as they reached it, but Mel didn't seem to mind. She led the way to the same bench they'd used at the office Christmas party and Luce wasn't surprised when she tucked her skirt beneath her to sit in precisely the same spot where he'd found her feeding the swans then. A drift of swans by the river's edge turned their heads to stare at her, but only one ambled over.

Mel shredded a roll to beak-sized pieces in her lap and fed them one by one to the black bird. Luce couldn't keep his eyes off her joyful smile. Hell, how he'd missed her. He stretched his arm along the table behind her, then curled it around her shoulders. Mel was too enraptured by the swan to notice.

Luce sighed. "Are you going to kiss him again, too, to make me insanely jealous?" The swan tipped its beak up to swallow the last chunk of roll.

Mel's fingers caressed Luce's cheek and he looked into her eyes, startled, before she sealed his lips with a kiss, her lips parting to welcome his tongue. She sighed happily. "No, my love. I'm only going to kiss you today, to make us both happy."

Luce pulled her close, as eager as Mel for more heartfelt kisses. "My sweet, sweet Melody," he murmured, cupping her face in his hands. "There's no Heaven without you – only Hell."

He felt her discomfort before she pulled away. "You're making me sound more than I am, Luce. I'm not..."

He seized her hands. "You are. To me, you're Heaven. You're my bright, shining hope – since the first time we sat here together. You said dark wings don't make a demon. You saw through the illusions to my soul, Mel. You held me, healed me, looked deep inside me…and instead of turning and running away like anyone else would, you held my hands and looked deeper still until you cried for me. You said there was still light in my soul – you saw it! – and you gave me hope. Hope that life could be more than Hell because for the first time, I didn't want to see an angel fall. I wanted to see you rise."

Tears flowed silently down her cheeks, but they couldn't dampen her loving smile. "Luce…"

"I wanted to take you home with me, so I could be alone with you. Not…not just for sex…okay, maybe a bit. But I wanted…I wanted you as an angel. I didn't want you to fall because I wanted something to aspire to. I didn’t know it then, but you’re my salvation." He closed his eyes. "The reason I came to the party here was to seduce you. With a few words and your gentle hands, instead it was you who laid me bare – in front of demons, humans and an archangel who'd destroy me if she had the chance. You could have given me up to them, but you didn't. I still don't know why."

Mel pressed her hand to his chest, over his heart. "I took a fancy to your soul, my love, and I wanted it all to myself." Her eyes danced with laughter.

He stared at her. “Careful – you sound like me, or like I used to. If you’re not careful, you’ll be bargaining for souls just like a demon – and you’ll put your own in danger. More than ever, I don’t want to see you fall, Mel.”

She let out a peal of laughter. “Luce, angels collect souls as readily as any demon. The difference is we don’t bargain. We only take those souls that are given freely. The reward...ah, that comes after.” She winked.

He didn’t hesitate. “Mine’s already yours – has been since the day we first sat here together. I need no reward – your friendship – companionship – whatever it is we have, is more than enough. More than I could have hoped for. I’m still deep in your debt – anything you ask for, I’ll give you.” His eyes bored into hers, desperate for her to accept everything he had to offer. Not to reject him – even after all the mistakes he'd made.

Her laughter died as her expression took on a more serious cast. “Thank you, Luce. You offer me...an amazing gift, and I fully appreciate your worth. I hope never to ask for more than you’re willing to give.” She took his hands and kissed them ceremoniously.

He held her hands for a long moment, wanting to savour the connection between them, before he said, “Can I ask you something personal?”

“Of course,” she replied warmly.

He hesitated for a moment, but ploughed on with, “It’s something Patrick, your...friend...in London, mentioned that I’ve been wondering about.” A slight wariness crept into her expression, but she nodded, as if encouraging him to continue. “He said that here – this city – is where you come to rest between your more difficult diplomatic interventions. Where you don’t spend all your time saving the world from...well, from me and Hell’s other denizens.”

“I work with humans, trying to save them from themselves,” Mel corrected. “I’d never really spent much time working with or against demons until my first day at the HELL Corporation. When I last saw Patrick, I’d been working in HELL for a very short time and I was feeling a little overwhelmed. And then there was you – the puzzling demon who wasn’t a demon, with your fascinating soul that I couldn’t stop thinking about.”

Luce perked up. “You were thinking about me while you were on holiday with him?”

He'd missed her laughter so much, so it was a joy to hear it bubble up in her throat again before she said, “Not like that. Honestly, Luce...I was worried about you. Not the same thing at all.”

Dismissing her denial, Luce continued, “You said that HELL could wait a bit for you to set it to rights. I’m wondering how long you’d be willing to delay. A couple of weeks or maybe even a month? I want to make sure you’ve had a chance to rest before you delve into the deep-seated problems of a demonic corporation.” He gripped her hands tighter when it felt like she'd pull away from him. "You're home early because you need rest, aren't you? Please say you'll let work wait."

“It could wait a month, if it had to,” Mel began cautiously, “but just the thought of you enduring thirty days like today without me helping you...Luce, I couldn’t be so selfish as to stay home when I know you’re stressed and hurting.”

“I won’t,” he replied eagerly. “I’ll take the time off with you because I know you need it. I want to take you on a holiday. Just the two of us. No demons, no angels, no work – for a whole month. I rely on you more and more for sorting out the corporation’s problems when I should let you rest. I don’t want you to avoid coming here because there’s more work for you to do. I miss you when you’re away and I want to give you the kind of respite you need right here. You won’t have to worry about anything – I’ll take care of every detail. What do you say – do you trust me to give you the most relaxing holiday you’ve ever had?”

The wistful look in her eyes told him he had her convinced. For a moment, Luce felt her exhaustion as she sagged in his arms. She needed this – but she never considered her own needs.

“It sounds wonderful, Luce. But four weeks seems like too much – more than I need. One week is plenty, surely...”

His hands tightened around hers. “Humans get four weeks of holidays a year in this city and you work harder than any of them. I need this break as much as you do. Please, Mel. I’ll make some calls this afternoon and you can leave the next month up to me.”

She closed her eyes. “All right. On one condition.”

“Name it, Melody. I’d do anything for you – you know that.”

Mel’s wicked smile sent his heart racing. “You make your calls and arrangements tomorrow, not today. Today, I was hoping you’d join me for dinner in a restaurant that does oysters just the way you like them. For tonight, you’re going to need them.”

Luce grinned. His angel had been thinking about sex – or maybe just reading his mind. “I’ll call ahead and have dinner delivered to our apartment. After that...your wish is my command and it'll be a pleasure indeed.”

The steamy shower screen blurred her body's silhouette, leaving him aching for Mel in more places than he felt should be capable of feeling anything. Without thinking, Luce stripped swiftly and opened the shower door. "May I join you?" he asked, eyeing the water cascading down her hair.

Mel lifted her eyes. "I was just finishing up, but if you want…"

Luce didn't wait. He stepped in behind her, clicked the door shut, and pulled her body tight against his.

She seemed to sense his inner turmoil as she laid a sympathetic hand on his arm. "What's wrong, my love?"

"I need you. I need to feel you close to me. I've missed you so much while you've been away, it's been a constant ache in my heart. What's this bond we have for, except leaving me bereft when you're not here?" He hated the lost sound of his voice.

"I've missed you, too, you know, but through the bond between us, I could reach out and sense your feelings if I needed to feel close to you. Can't you sense mine at all?" Mel squirmed in his arms until she could look into his eyes. "Luce, tell me you can feel how much I love you."

He tried. God, he tried. He didn't dare tell her how badly he'd failed, but the anguish in his eyes must have told her anyway.

Mel's fierce kiss brought with it the wave of sensation he'd sought. Now her love washed over him, enveloping him in welcoming warmth that brought tears to his eyes. "Melody…"

Her warmth vanished the moment his lips left hers, leaving him horribly alone, even with her in his arms.

"Hold on, Luce. Tell me what it felt like."

He struggled to find the right words. "Heaven. It felt like my first dawn in Heaven, where the first rays of world-warming sunlight touched me, followed by the full blaze of the sun accepting me as her own and a part of her. And then gone, plunged into icy cold rock that…" Luce's voice died, but it was too late. He'd already summoned the memory of his first fall into Hell.

Mel's voice was deep and calm. "Focus on the first part. Not your fall, my love. Dawn, the sun, the warmth…I hold it all in my heart for you. All you need to do is reach out to claim it and it will always be yours."

He reached – God, he reached – but it was like trying to grasp the slippery bar of soap. No, harder than that. Like trying to catch a squirt of Mel's shower gel in just his fingers. He clutched her closer. "I'm sorry, Mel, I can't. I can't…"

"It's all right, I'll help you, my love," she murmured between kisses. Each sweet touch of her lips brought him a breath of the warmth he remembered, buoying his spirits a little. "We need…Sptlk!"

The imp appeared, perched on top of the towel rail. An ideal vantage point to see both them and their reflections in the bathroom mirror, Luce realised, wondering if Sptlk had been watching them. The imp flashed his teeth in a wicked grin as he glanced at Luce, before giving Mel his full attention. "Respect, Lady. Respond to summons." He lifted a towel from the rail and bowed as he offered it to Mel.

Luce wrenched at the taps to turn the water off and grabbed a towel to dry himself. It was one thing for the imp to watch him giving pleasure to Mel, but it was another entirely to see him at his most vulnerable. He hoped Mel knew what she was doing, bringing the imp leader into their private business. Sptlk enjoyed causing trouble far too much for Luce's liking.

Mel wrapped her towel around her torso, tucking a corner in so that it hugged her like a strapless dress. "Sptlk, I want you to let Luce see through illusions like I can."

"But Lady…"

The imp hadn't mentioned payment, Luce realised. "Mel, he didn't say what he expects in return. They never do favours for free."

"Unthinkable disrespect, asking Lady for payment. Honoured to serve. Lord offers Lady deep disrespect. Must pay!" The imp's soul-voice sounded like a snarl in Luce's head – the first time he'd ever heard one of them angry.

"I have plenty of respect for Mel," Luce protested. "You never do anything for me without payment, so I thought…"

"Lord far beneath Lady. Never be her equal." The imp flooded Luce's mind with intimate images of himself and Mel, in sexual situations Luce wouldn't have dared to ask her about. "Has Lord repaid Lady for disrespect in Hell?"

Luce wished he could lie. Instead, he stomped out of the bathroom. He glanced over his shoulder as he reached the couch and was incensed to find that both Mel and the imp had followed him. The explicit images the imp projected grew even more imaginative.

Mel's gentle laughter surprised them both. "Oh, that's sweet! You asked Sptlk to do something that contradicted my order and the payment he asked for the service was in very personal services to me? Luce, you should have said. And I thought all the offers of sex were just your rampant libido…"

Sptlk sniggered as Luce forced his mind to go blank.

"Sptlk, I need him to be able to see with no illusions at all. Remove them, please," Mel finished.

"As Lady wishes." The imp bowed and Mel's body dissolved into dust, leaving just a glittering cloud where Mel had been standing, only a moment before.

"Mel!" Luce choked out. His legs felt heavy and he fell to his knees, bowing so low his forehead touched the floorboards.