3 Straight by the Rules Read online

  She was a liar, but a good one. I sensed there were flaws in her arguments, but I was too overwhelmed by her order to get pregnant to refute them.

  “Now, I’ll give you some time to decide how you want to proceed with your insemination. But if you continue to stall, we’ll do things my way.”

  In the short time I’d known her, Helen Spry had threatened my family, stolen my daughter, and nearly killed me. She’d spent the last nine months terrifying me, and as a result, I’d caved in to her demands over and over again. But like I’d promised Patrick Clerk, I was done being Helen’s toy. I’d won a reprieve for my daughter. I’d win this battle, too.

  Feeling far less brave than I sounded, I lifted my chin and said, “I will not get pregnant for you. Helen.”

  I’d never before used her first name to her face, and she blinked. “So it’s Helen now is it?”

  “Yes.”

  She smiled nastily. “Feeling powerful are we?”

  It’s a good thing I was sitting down because I’d started to shake. I gripped the arms of the chair with sweating hands.

  She came around to my side of the desk and sat on it. “Before you do something you’ll regret, let me give you some advice. I’ve seen seven generations of your ancestors pass through my office. At one time or another, each of them tried to grow a spine and defy me. When that happened, do you know what I told them?”

  My mouth was too dry for me to speak, so I shook my head.

  “I reminded them that I owned them body and soul.” As Helen became more and more angry, the 40’s era glamour disappeared. Her demon took over, and her eyes grew hot. “I can do with you whatever I want. I can hurt you in ways you could never imagine. I can drag you to levels of Hell so terrible that a rational woman would go insane simply hearing about them.”

  I began to sweat at my hairline. A trickle of moisture ran from my temple.

  “I know more tortures than any other creature in the human universe, and I show no mercy. Try to cross me, and I will instantly have you cursing your own name.” Her neck stretched, becoming long and sinewy like a snake, and she put her face very near to mine. “Do you understand?”

  It was all I could do to look at her terrible face. “Perfectly. Helen.” I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself, trying to prepare for whatever she sent at me.

  She laughed. “Oh, Lilith. You do amuse me, you poor, pathetic creature.”

  I opened one eye, and when I saw that she no longer appeared monstrous, I opened the other one as well. She put the brochures back into her desk drawer. “I’ll give you some time to make a decision,” she said. “But don’t take too long.”

  I hadn’t bested Helen – I certainly hadn’t expected to – but I’d held a measure of ground against her. That tiny victory had to count for something.

  When I left Helen’s office, I found William Darcy sitting on the corner of Delilah’s desk.

  William, my incubus counterpart, was as seductive as only a demon could be. Dark hair, dark eyes, strong chin, broad shoulders – these were only a few of his alluring features. Most of his charms had to do with his incubus. Because of his demon, William could play to every fantasy. Over the time I’d known him, I’d seen him act strong and silent; dark and brooding; humble and helpless. The man had literally seduced angels out of Heaven.

  Seeing my ashen complexion, William said, “It looks like someone was taken to the woodshed.” His tone was jocular, but his eyes expressed concern. “Are you alright?”

  “Helen and I had a little disagreement, that’s all.” I forced myself to smile.

  William quirked his eyebrow at my use of Miss Spry’s first name, but said nothing.

  Deciding the drama was over, Delilah turned her attention back to William and said, “Don’t you have somewhere to be right now?”

  Over the past few weeks, William had been using all of his charms on Helen’s new assistant, hoping to melt her layer of ice. Every day, he sent her bouquets of flowers along with boxes of candy and other treats. He chatted with her, complimented her, and asked questions about her life before death. Delilah, however, must have had an entire glacier surrounding her because she barely gave him a smile.

  “I’m free for lunch,” he told her. “Care to join me?”

  She glowered. “Get your damn butt off my desk.”

  William stood up. “Most women love my damn butt. Isn’t that right, Lil?” He winked at me.

  “Don’t kid yourself, William.”

  He stopped smiling. “You are a cold-hearted she-demon.”

  “It’s better than being an egotistical, condescending know it all,” I retorted.

  “Stop it!” Delilah glared at both of us. “If you two are going to start fussing at each other again, then get out of my office!”

  William, sulky, left without saying goodbye. I waited exactly five seconds before following him.

  He was standing around the first bend in the hallway. When I caught up to him, he said, “ ‘Egotistical know it all’? That’s harsh, Lil. Very harsh.”

  “What about ‘cold-hearted she-demon’?”

  We began walking. “Technically, you are a she-demon,” he said. “Whereas I am not a know it all.”

  “Says you.”

  We entered yet another, much longer, corridor. This one was lined with dozens of doors. In front of one lay a small backpack, the kind a day hiker might use on an outing. William stopped and picked it up. “Did you get my note?”

  “I did.”

  He was trying very hard not to smile. “And are you wearing comfortable shoes this time?”

  The last time I’d ignored his advice, I’d ended up playing eighteen holes of golf in high-heeled wedges. “Of course.” I lifted the bottoms of my jeans to show off a pair hiking boots. I’d bought them the previous year when I’d chaperoned my daughter and niece’s Girl Scout outing.

  “Good!” He put the backpack over his shoulders and opened the door. “Ordinarily, I’d say ladies first, but this one could be tricky.” He stepped through, then took my hand and helped me cross from Hell into a very earthly spot.

  Chapter Two

  The corridor had disappeared, and we now stood on a footpath in the middle of a woods. The air was bracing and fresh, a welcome relief from the stale hallways of Hell. The trees, mostly spruces, were randomly dotted with quarter-sized balls of brilliant colors – gold and tangerine, and even a few shimmering turquoises. To my surprise, the balls were actually slugs. The creature’s sliminess gave them a strange luminescence too beautiful to be disgusting.

  William took my hand. “Are you sure Helen didn’t hurt you? You seemed upset when you came out of her office.”

  I couldn’t discuss the terrible thing she wanted me to do; the pain of it was too fresh. Instead, I said, “I’m fine.”

  “Good.” He smiled. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”

  I had too. In fact, William’s invitation meant more to me than I cared to admit. Since he’d come to my rescue a few weeks before, I’d been falling for him. Hard. Not that I dared let it show. If Helen knew the two of us were seeing each other, we’d both be in trouble since ‘keeping company’ together violated our contracts.

  William’s eyes twinkled as he led me up the trail. “You’re going to love this, but you’ll have to work hard to earn your reward.”

  “Bring it on,” I told him.

  His smile widened.

  The narrow path made it impossible to walk side-by-side, so he went on ahead while I followed as best I could. It wasn’t easy. The rutted trail climbed steeply. Even with the added benefit of my demon’s strength, I was winded. When we reached the third switchback, I had to stop and rest. Sweat soaked my t-shirt, and my leg muscles burned. “I don’t think I can make it,” I confessed.

  “What’s wrong, Lil?” William teased. “Do we have to work on your endurance?”

  I glared at him. I hated when his arrogant demon came to the forefront. I started up the trail again, determined to
go the distance.

  I almost lost my resolve when we scrambled up several, immense boulders. The sheer drop made me worry about plunging over the edge. Seeing my uncertainty, William grabbed my hand and helped me up. “Don’t worry. We’re almost there.”

  Sure enough, we soon climbed above the tree line and crested the mountain. The level spot was as naked and alien as the face of the moon, but the view was magnificent. The swells of distant mountains stretched away for miles. A gray ribbon of highway lay far below. “It’s beautiful,” I breathed.

  He put his arm around me. “I had hoped you would like it.”

  “I feel like we’re on top of the world!” He was right; it had been worth the climb.

  We sat on one of the rocks, and William handed me a bottle of water and a granola bar from the backpack. Clouds rolled in, and a clammy mist settled over us. Seeing me shiver, he took off his fleece jacket and put it over my shoulders. I buried my nose in the fabric, drinking in his smell.

  I hadn’t been this besotted with a man since meeting my ex-husband. But because Ted had turned out to be a cheating bastard, I worried about getting my heart broken all over again. Still, it was growing harder and harder to resist my attraction to William. He had woken a part of me that had been asleep for a very long time. Now, that part bubbled up like a spring, filling me with so much joy that it scared me. Placing my heart in the hands of a demon was worrisome. Especially since demons were not allowed to love.

  We sat in silence until he touched my cheek. “You seem pensive.”

  “I miss Grace.” My ex-husband had taken my daughter to France for ten days, and there were seven more until she returned. At times, my heart felt like a stone in my chest. If I hadn’t been able to use the otherworld doorways to peek in on her, I don’t know what I would have done.

  “She was fine this morning,” William said. “I think they’re going to the Louvre today.”

  “You checked on her?” I asked, shocked.

  He shrugged, embarrassed. “After you told me about your cad of an ex-husband, I wanted to make sure your daughter was all right.”

  The William I’d first met couldn’t be bothered to remember that I had a daughter, much less check on her wellbeing. But ever since he’d rescued Grace from a berserker demon, he’d been paying more attention to my family.

  Since he was showing me his softer side, I decided it was time to have the talk I’d been rehearsing in the mirror every morning for the past week.

  I took a deep breath. “William, I have a request…”

  “Slip out of those clothes, and I’ll do anything you want.”

  Okay, so maybe he hadn’t changed as much as I’d hoped. “Be serious,” I said sourly.

  “I am serious.” He smiled seductively and caressed the back of my neck, sending pleasant shivers down my spine. “We have the mountain to ourselves.”

  I pulled away. “If you’re not going to be a gentleman, then I’m ending this conversation.”

  He sighed. “I’ve been a gentleman for weeks.”

  “A few weeks is a tiny span when you’re over a hundred years old,” I reminded him. “Now, are you going to listen to me or not?”

  He nodded and looked adorably contrite.

  “Would you come to dinner tomorrow night?”

  He blinked. “At your place?” When I nodded, he said, “Are you introducing me to your family?”

  I did want William to meet my family, but not yet. I needed him to understand that I wanted a connection with the real, human William, not a lust-ridden one night stand with his incubus. If he wanted me as badly as he claimed, he could wait a little longer. “No, it will only be the two of us.”

  He frowned. “What about that convalescent who lives with you?”

  William meant Tommy Lefevre, my – well, since there isn’t a single word in the English language to describe our complicated relationship, I’ll go with friend. William never hid the fact that he didn’t like Tommy. Not only did Tommy’s spiritual inclinations disgust him, he also hated that the two of us had once been intimate. “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll make sure he’s out of the house, too.”

  William’s impish smile returned. “So the two of us all alone and un-chaperoned? Why, Ms. Straight, what are you proposing?”

  “Chicken Florentine.”

  “Are you certain that’s all?” His eyes sparkled. “In my experience, when a woman tells a man she’s cooking for him, she’s planning on sharing a very sweet dessert.”

  “Well, be prepared to have a new experience because the bedroom door will be staying shut.”

  He sighed, resigned. “Okay, dinner it is.” He put his arm around me. “Patrick always said you were a good cook.”

  I was about to tell him what time to come, but the sound of footsteps cut me off. A young man wearing a sweatshirt, shorts, and a pair of wraparound sunglasses climbed up the trail. He was in his early twenties and was clearly a veteran hiker. His boots were good quality, but well worn, and his shorts showed off his muscular calves. He carried his bulging backpack like it was filled with feathers.

  A moment later, another hiker followed him. She, too, appeared experienced. Her tank top was soaked with sweat, and her face was red with exertion, but she smiled widely as she crested the mountain. She pushed her bangs out of her face and touched the young man’s arm. “This view is amazing!”

  Her companion nodded and walked back to where the trail disappeared. “Jenny! You coming?” he shouted.

  The young woman frowned. “Jenny’s holding us back,” she said. “We’re going to have a hard time making the shelter before dark if she doesn’t get it in gear.”

  The man shrugged. “It’s her first time. She needs to find her rhythm, that’s all.” He cocked his head, listening. “You hear her yet?”

  “No.”

  My succubus pricked up her ears at the hint of jealousy blowing in from the young woman. Dark emotions always interested my inner demon. Settle down, I told her. This doesn’t concern us.

  A few minutes passed, and still the missing hiker didn’t appear. “Why don’t you go on ahead,” the woman said. “I’ll wait for Jenny.”

  The young man rubbed his chin, thinking. “Maybe I should wait, too.”

  The woman shook her head. “No. If you get to the shelter first, you can start the fire.” Once more she touched his arm. “You’re the expert fire maker, after all.”

  Finally, he smiled at her. “Okay.”

  For a human, the girl was a darn good seductress.

  Once the man had disappeared, William glanced at his wristwatch. “Show time,” he told me and stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

  He approached the woman. “Gorgeous view, isn’t it? My companion and I have been enjoying it very much.”

  At first, the woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but when William fired up his incubus demon, she began blushing and smiling.

  The realization that William was on assignment took the shine off my afternoon. A few minutes before, the mountaintop had felt special, almost holy, but suddenly, Helen had me back under her thumb.

  I folded my arms over my chest as I watched William work. He acted as if the hiker was the only woman on the planet who interested him. When he said something, she threw her head back and laughed, making me want to strangle her with her own sweat-stained bandanna.

  William never looked in my direction, but he knew I was watching. When his victim moved closer to him, he stepped away, mindful to maintain a proper distance between them. When she touched his arm, he gently removed it. He was on his best behavior, but it didn’t stop the incubus from doing its dirty work.

  The woman offered William a small bag of trail mix. He accepted it, quickly ate the contents, then threw the wrapper on the ground. The hiker stared at the litter. All the goodwill drained from her face. Seeing this, William went into full tempter mode. What had happened before was a build-up. This was the main event.

  I had stopped listening in on them, b
ut now I used my demon’s heightened sense of hearing to eavesdrop. “…want to do something naughty once in a while?” William asked. His eyes were alight with the devilish fire I’d come to know so well.

  The hiker glanced at the foil wrapper on the ground.

  William revved up his charm a little more. “Don’t get me wrong. I tread lightly on Mother Earth. My carbon footprints are almost nonexistent. But…” he sighed as if he couldn’t bear the weight of so much responsibility, “…I’m only human. I mean, I can’t be expected to carry every bit of trash for the entire length of the Appalachian Trail.”

  I’d seduced plenty of people over the past year, and I’d even been at the mercy of William’s incubus a few times, but I’d never before watched a tempter in action. It was both fascinating and horrible. I could feel William’s demon assess the victim and search for weak spots to exploit. William’s incubus made him seductive and charming, but deadly as well. If the hiker knew how poisonous William’s demon was, she would have run away screaming. However, he’d trapped her with his otherworldly allure, and instead of fleeing, she was moving closer.

  The hiker’s eyes fixed on William. “I know exactly what you mean,” she finally admitted. “I’ve been wanting to burn our trash at night, but Austen won’t let me.”

  William beamed at her. “Exactly! Sometimes, we have to cheat. Just a little.” He nudged her. “Your pack is probably heavy enough as it is.”

  When I saw the flicker in her eyes telling me William’s devilish mission was nearly completed, my paralysis broke. I couldn’t remain silent while this poor woman did Helen’s bidding.

  Unfortunately, I’d waited too long. Before I could stop her, the young woman grinned evilly and threw her wrapper on the ground. Then she went the extra distance by taking a few other wrappers from her pack and tossed those as well.

  Seeing that the damage was already done, my protest died in my mouth. Littering was a very small sin, of course, but those little acts opened pathways to larger and larger transgressions. Patrick Clerk once told me he’d watched saints turn into monsters all because they’d refused to answer a cry for help. Now that the woman had fallen for William’s temptation, who knew where she’d end up.