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MILLS & BOON
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Chapter One
Ribbons of acrid, sulfur residue curled through Lucifer’s lair and wafted before Brand’s face—the fiery black cinder a perfect match for his mood. With his arms folded behind his back, Brand faced his Master and inhaled the all too familiar smells, drawing them into his lungs and savoring them like a powerful aphrodisiac. The pungent aroma fed the anger in his soul, a continual reminder that many decades ago his best friend had escaped purgatory, leaving Brand behind to rot in Hell. Literally.
Flames raced up the stone wall as blistering heat played over his scarred and mutilated flesh, but Brand had learned long ago to distance himself from the discomfort and concentrate only on the raw anger whipping through his veins. It was that anger that kept him going, and gave him purpose as he awaited Gage’s return.
Sure he and Gage had been best friends, relying solely on one another to make it through each gruelling day in Hell, and sure Brand had thought Gage would come back for him, but the passing of time, decades to be precise, had fleeced him of his last vestige of hope. Gage had been gone for nearly thirty years, but it might as well have been a millennium since one day in Hell felt like an eternity.
Brand hadn’t wanted to believe that Gage and his newly found soul mate, Jadyn, had purposely left him behind, but years of torture and abuse at the hands of Lucifer had a way of changing one’s perspective. Not to mention the sinister methods his Master had of drilling the venomous fact home, again and again.
Yeah, Hell really had a way of changing a guy, Brand mused.
Lucifer’s cold amber eyes met his unflinchingly. Without softening his words to lessen the impact, he announced sharply, “Gage and Jadyn have a daughter. Her name is Kaylea.”
Brand fisted both hands as rage ate at his insides like a thousand hungry rats. Gage and Jadyn had a child. The image of big blue eyes, round ruby cheeks and bubbling laughter erupted in his brain, eliciting a disconcerting mixture of sadness, joy, pain and elation.
Lucifer’s voice pulled him back, anchoring him in this reality—a cold, harsh reality without love, companionship or…loyalty. “Like her name says, she’s a pure soul. Born of goodness and touched by…” Lucifer paused, gave a slight shiver and glanced upward before saying, “Him.” He then proceeded to tap sharpened black claws on his stone throne as he gave Brand a moment to digest and assimilate the information. His long, talonlike nails hammered in synch with Brand’s accelerated heart beat. After a short respite, Lucifer added, “I want you to mark herfor me.”
Incredulous, Brand’s head came up with a start, shocked at his Master’s request. “If she’s so pure, how am I supposed to mark her for Hell? She has to commit a crime, and since one born of purity rarely commits—”
Lucifer cut him off and swiped his hand though the heavy air, carrot flames dancing on his fingertips. He scowled. “Have you learned nothing from your time here, Brand,” he boomed out. After a long-suffering sigh, Lucifer countered, “Then perhaps you’re not the man for the job.” He let his glance race over the four warriors flanking his side, as though assessing their abilities for this very important mission.
“I am the man for the job.” The eerie, calm in Brand’s voice brought Lucifer’s attention back around to him and left little doubt that he was the man for the job, capable of fulfilling any task Lucifer cared to saddle him with. Brand narrowed his eyes to mere slits, his nostrils flared. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
Brand didn’t miss the slight, victorious grin on Lucifer’s face. A grin that enlightened Brand to the fact that not only did Lucifer want him for the job, but he also needed him for it. Was it because he—a man who had a vested interest in the case—was the only man who could get the job done. Or was it something else?
“It’s a crime against her God to sleep with the devil’s henchman,” Lucifer elaborated, then stuck out his claws to study them, giving Brand time to digestthe information.
Brand knew that Lucifer had been nothing short of enraged when Gage and Jadyn had miraculously escaped some decades ago. He carried that rage like an Olympic torch, nurturing the smoldering embers until fiery flames seeped from his every pore. Lucifer fed off the volatile energy, using it and manipulating it as he waited for the opportune moment to exact his revenge. And now, it seems, the time had come.
“So you want me to seduce her, then?”
Lucifer gave a slow side-to-side shake of his disfigured horned head. “My, but you are a quick one.” Then his voice dropped, and took on a serious edge. He leaned forward, close enough that Brand could smell hot garbage on his breath. He snarled, and said, “I want her. And with the way your so-called friends had treated you, I’d hazard a guess that you’re just the man to bring her to me.” Amber eyes narrowed and stared down at Brand. “You must accomplish this mission in forty-eight hours. It’s all the time you’ll have. Beyond that my powers to keep you in human form fade, then your body will weaken and you’ll materialize back here.” A short pause and then, “So what do you say, Brand, a little tit for tat?” He nodded his head, gesturing to the guarded portal embedded in the blackened stone wall—a portal that carried souls from one realm to the other.
Brand studied the long, jagged opening in the rock before turning back to face his Lucifer. A sardonic grin curled up his lips as he echoed, “A little tit for tat,Master.” Then under his breath, he added, “Payback is such a bitch.”
Chapter Two
“Okay, I’m going to sleep with the next man who walks through that door,” Kaylea West announced as she and her best friend Nicole James ate lunch at Halo, her parents’ curbside café.
Nicole gave her a sceptical glance and took a sip of her steaming latte. She rolled one shoulder, relaxed back into her plush seat and said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Then prepare for me to make a believer out of you,” Kaylea said, holding her chin—and her coffee mug—high in salute, even though her insides were a ridiculous mess of nerves just from thinking about seducing a stranger.
Nicole chuckled and smoothed down her midnight, poker-straight hair. Kaylea mimicked the action, and swatted at her flyaway blond frizz. Why was it that Nicole’s hair remained cool and put together, despite the summer humidity, and Kaylea’s short blond locks resembled dandelion fluff? Perhaps that’s why Nicole had a date every other night and Kaylea was left home to live vicariously through one of her romance novels. Thank God they had air-conditioning at the library where they both worked. Otherwise the unruly ball of fluff that she passed off as hair would scare the patronsaway. She made a mental note to tell her parents to install another cooling appliance, because the one they had was doing little to combat the sultry Chicago heat.
“Oh, I’m prepared, Kaylea. The question is, are you?”
Hell yeah, she was prepared.
She was a twenty-five-year-old virgin for Christ’s sake. And sure she was ready to take a walk on the wild side, despite knowing who and what she was. Her parents, Gage and Jadyn, might have escaped Hell and given birth to a daughter who was born of purity and touched my “him,” but Kaylea wasn’t careless enough to make any mistakes that were classified as “sins.” As a rare, pure soul—enlightened to this reality during her christening—landing in Hell wouldn’t be a wise move.
Sleeping with a guy, however, really didn’t qualify as a sin. But going twenty-five years and not sleeping with a guy sure as hell did.
Kaylea glimpsed the tall gorgeous man coming from the counter, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand. After a long perusal, she planted her elbows on the table and buried her face in her palms. “Why the heck can’t I get laid?”
Nicole rolled a casual shoulder and stated, “Because you’re too fussy.”
Kaylea dropped her arms in time to see Mr. Leather Pants grab a seat in the corner. His long legs stretched out in front of him as Kaylea did a slow, leisurely scan of his scrumptious, athletic body.
Yummy…
He had to be a tourist, she mused, because she’d yet to see a man that hot on her beloved streets of Chicago. Her gaze briefly met his, then suddenly, catching her off guard, her pulse jumped and heat pooled between her legs in a way it had never pooled before. Good Lord, what was it about him that held her attention and, quite frankly, aroused her? Kaylea gulped air and casually said, “I’m not fussy. I’m selective.”
“Selective?” Nicole arched a manicured eyebrow over deep green eyes. Amusement laced her voice as she added, “You dumped the last guy you went out with because he used too much tongue when he kissed you. And the guy before that didn’t use enough.”
Kaylea crinkled her nose. “Okay, okay, but there was no chemistry,” she admitted, and stole another glance at Mr. Leather Pants, who’d just slunk down lower in his seat.
Talk about chemistry…
She’d just bet that he’d use the right amount of tongue, and with one touch from him she’d likely go off like a round of C-4.
Her sideways glance hadn’t gone unnoticed by Nicole. Her friend twisted around to see where Kaylea’s gaze had wandered to, then turned back and said, “I know you’re waiting for Mr. Right, ‘someone to complete you.’” Nicole paused to do air quotes around those four words. “But in the meantime you really need to get laid and loosen up.” Nicole nodded toward the guy Kaylea had been checking out. “Helooks like a guy who could help you work out the kinks.”
Speaking of kink…
Her mind took her in an erotic direction, one involving leather, lace and metal restraint. Not to mention a smokin’ hot guy with nothing on but a broken-in pair of biker chaps.
Oh, hell!
Kaylea groaned from sexual frustration then mocked herself. “Cripes, I really do fit the typical librarian persona, don’t I?”
“Maybe, or maybe it has something to do with your name.”
“My name?”
“Yeah, Kaylea means ‘keeper of the key—pure,’” she elaborated, a testament that they’d both harvested an enormous amount of useless information as librarians.
“If that key has anything to do with my chastity belt then I sure as hell wish someone would tell me where it’s hidden so I could unlock it.”
With that both girls laughed out loud, the sound drawing attention from those around them. Still chuckling, Kaylea put her finger to her lips to hush her friend. The last thing she wanted was for everyone in the place to know she was a damn virgin who was completely clueless in the area of seduction.
“Then again, maybe it’s your aura,” Nicole suggested.
“How so?” Kaylea asked.
Nicole palmed the air. “You have this purity about you that probably scares men off.”
Kaylea chewed on her bottom lip and considered her friend’s astuteness. Naturally Nicole had no idea just how bang on she was with that observation, since Kaylea was careful to keep her family’s secrets, well, a secret.
Her thoughts faded to the background as the heavy oak door slowly creaked open. The two women turned and stared at the entrance, waiting to glimpse the man who was about to be gifted with Kaylea’s virginity, but Kaylea couldn’t seem to keep her focus, not when the man sitting in the corner of the coffee shop, with his head tilted downward, low enough to veil his identity, kept drawing her attention.
Yeah, he was good-looking. Damn good-looking, but she never was one to swoon over a man’s good looks before. So she either really had a thing for guys in leather biker chaps, or this particular bad boy had the ability to play some mysterious alchemy with her libido.
When Kaylea’s mother and father walked in, Kaylea let out a breath of relief and Nicole laughed. “Look at you. You look like you’re about to faint. That’s one hell of a way to make a believer out of me.”
Without bothering to deny it, Kaylea grinned, then turned her attention to her parents as they stepped up to their table. They exchanged pleasantries before Gage and Jadyn disappeared into the back room to prepare for their shift. A moment later one of the waitresses came with their sandwiches.
As Kaylea examined her lunch, her lips tingled and her mouth salivated, but it certainly wasn’t for the egg salad in front of her. She inconspicuously watched the man in the corner, as he in turn watched her parents pull on their aprons, relieve the counter staff and step up to serve the lineup of patrons.
Kaylea noted that her stranger seemed a little dark, a little brooding and a whole lot dangerous. As a shiver moved through her, something flashed in his eyes and gained her full focus. Something soft, kind and compassionate. Something that completely intrigued her.
Tempted her.
Shortly after her perusal, he pushed his chair back, the metal legs squealing across the floor like a broken fan belt. He vaulted to his feet and stalked out the front door, letting it slam behind him.
Biting into the sandwich, Kaylea contemplated his hasty exit. But before she even had time to swallow, the door swung back open, and Mr. Leather Pants stood here, darkening the archway. Intense brown eyes locked on hers and in that instant sexual energy leapt between them, bombarding her body with primal hunger.
Desire moved through her, sending heat all the way to the tips of her toes, stopping to warm every erogenous zone on the way. Kaylea gulped down her food, slid her fingers through her hair and nearly choked as a barrage of emotions overcame her. Everything from excitement and anticipation, to doubt and apprehension, whipped through her blood.
Mr. Leather Pants pulled his gaze away and catalogued the room, his glance settling on her parents as they shared an intimate moment at the counter.
From her peripheral vision, Kaylea caught the salacious grin on Nicole’s face. Knowing exactly what her friend was thinking, Kaylea shifted restlessly in her chair and sucked in air, barely able to inflate her lungs. Her body fairly trembled as lust prowled through her and settled low in her stomach.
Kaylea wagged a finger in his direction, both excited and terrified by the prospect, she asked, “Uh, does he qualify?” Dammit, her voice came out squeakier than she would have liked.
Nicole cocked her head and assessed Mr. Leather Pants. Her mouth curved, a look of approval spreading over her face. “Why yes, Kaylea. I believe he does.”
With her raging libido urging her on, demanding she answer her body’s desires once and for all, she gathered her bravado, braced her palms on the wooden tabletop and forced herself upward, praying like hell her knees would cooperate.
Nicole licked her lips. “I’ll cover for you at the library for the rest of the day, and since we both have tomorrow off you can take your good old time with Mr. Hot Pants. Oh, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Nicole suggested.
Kaylea shot her a wry grin. “Well, in that case, I guess the sky’s the limit.”
Nicole laughed, dropped two condoms into Kaylea’s handbag and pointed toward the door. “Don’t you have a man to seduce?”
Yeah, she did. Now if only she wasn’t so innocent in the ways of seduction…
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