“Why can’t you just answer a question without making me force you to?”
He glared at her.
She crossed her arms. Her face had become incredibly hot and it wasn’t just because of the bright Miami-like sun in the sky. “Fine. Be that way. I want to know what this means to you.
Why you haven’t tried harder to get away from me. Why you’ve sort of stopped trying to tempt me at every given opportunity. Why you’re helping me to get the key back. And what you meant when you said you burn for me. I command you to tell—”
Nathaniel pushed her up against the palm tree and covered her mouth with his hand. His eyes were full of flames, but he didn’t look angry anymore. He looked scared. “Don’t say anything else, Valerie. Just don’t. Trust me when I tell you that this is not the time or the place to get into this discussion. There’s too much at stake for both of us. He shook her a little harder than necessary and frowned. “Do you understand?”
His expression began to soften as he stared into her eyes. She nodded and he removed his hand.
He held her in his deep, bottomless gaze and the rest of the world fell away. There were only the two of them. She felt things for him that she shouldn’t have been feeling. He was a demon assigned to tempt her. She couldn’t let herself forget that. It was wrong for her to be near him, close to him, feeling this way. Big-time wrong.
But she sensed his loneliness, his pain, his desperation. Was everything Lloyd told her true?
Was Nathaniel tortured daily by his horrible duties as a demon, without even the hope of freedom, without ever being with someone he burned for?
Her heart swelled, which, considering the size of her glamourized breasts, was no small feat.
“Just try to trust me if you can, my angel,” he murmured and leaned closer to her, until their lips were nearly touching.
“Val!”
She heard the shriek and turned to look over by the pool.
Reggie had wedged himself under a lounge chair and there was a large leopard-spotted cat crouched next to him reaching out a paw in an attempt to grab him.
Val pushed Nathaniel away and ran over to the pool. The cat hissed and swiped at her as she moved between it and Reggie. She knelt down and offered a hand to her bespelled friend. He climbed up, quivering with fear.
“My life flashed before my eyes again,” he said with chattering teeth. “It was the extended, unrated DVD version this time. Not good. Not good at all.”
“Sorry to hear that. But it’s okay now. You’re safe. Well, as safe as we’re going to get around here.”
Val glared at the cat and followed the thin gold-chained leash up a pair of long, long . . . looonnnggg tanned legs.
“Your familiar talks,” the legs said in a low, sexy, accented voice. Val looked up even higher.
The speaker was actually the gorgeous woman attached to them.
She had waist-length black hair, golden skin, and amber-colored eyes. She wore a leopard print bikini to match her cat that could have fit in a small, overnight delivery envelope. The bikini, not the cat.
“Yes, he can,” Val replied. “He’s like that singing and dancing frog in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.” She placed Reggie on her left shoulder where he found a chunk of red hair to hide behind. “I don’t appreciate your cat almost having him for lunch.”
She smiled. “Perhaps you should keep a better eye on the things you cherish.” Then she all but dismissed Val as Nathaniel approached. “Nathaniel. I was told you were here. I’m so pleased.”
“Yasmeen,” he said evenly.
And then she walked right up along the edge of the swimming pool to Nathaniel and kissed him on the mouth. Val blinked. French-kissed. With tongue and everything. “Have you missed me, darling?” It sounded more like dah-link. Like Zsa Zsa Gabor, Val decided. Only more evil.
Nathaniel glanced at Val then back to her. “Very much.”
“Yasmeen has missed you, too. Yasmeen is worried about you, dah-link. She hopes you will follow through on your latest assignment as soon as possible. She may be able to help you get a promotion, if you do.”
“Excuse me,” Val said.
Her amber eyes tracked to Val as if she’d just noticed a fruit fly buzzing nearby. “Who are you?”
“I’m Nathaniel’s evil witch girlfriend. Got it?”
Her thinly arched eyebrows slid up. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, it’s so.”
A bemused smile twisted on her full red lips. “And what did you wish to ask Yasmeen?”
“Do you always talk about yourself that way?”
“What way?”
“In the third person. It’s rather distracting. Well, that and sticking your tongue down
Nathaniel’s throat a moment ago. Don’t do that.”
Yasmeen cocked her head to the side and studied her for a moment, her gaze raking down
Val’s glamourized body, taking in every inch.
“You are human.” She turned to the demon. “Nathaniel, dah-link, I knew things were dire, but
I had no idea you’d gotten so desperate. You should have contacted me and I could have taken care of you much better than any human can. As you well know.”
“After Lucifer promoted you, you’ve been at the head office for so long, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again.”
She smiled. “Yet here I am. I always am looking for new challenges, new excitement.”
“New risks?” Nathaniel said, and his gaze flicked to Val.
“Most certainly. Existence is boring without a certain level of unpredictability and risk.”
“I absolutely agree.”
Val frowned at him, but was ignored.
“We will spend much time together being . . . spontaneous.” Then she eyed Val. “He is mine, human. Always has been. And as soon as he once and for all accepts what he is without reserve, and the power that I can bring him, he always will be.”
“Bitch!” That was from Reggie.