The Road To Hell Part 6

"Replacement?" Before I'd run away from h.e.l.l, I'd lost my job in a burst of demonic outsourcing. "You're here with a f.u.c.king angel?"

"Yep."

"Who?"

"The flaxen sweetness dancing with your flesh puppet."

That stopped me cold. The blond b.i.t.c.h who'd b.u.mped me out of the way was an angel? Holy f.u.c.k in Heaven. I tried to find her and Paul on the dance floor, but it was too crowded... and Daun was holding me too closely. He smelled of silk and sweat and s.e.x.

"Since the King replaced all female Seducers with her breed, it's all been a huge buzzkill," he said with a dramatic sigh. "Sure, they look good enough to eat. But just try touching them. I'd get more action sucking on an iceberg. That'd be warmer, and at least it'd eventually melt. But not those holy s.n.a.t.c.hes."

I wasn't exactly sympathetic-one of those holy s.n.a.t.c.hes was making moves on my man. "Life's a b.i.t.c.h."

"And then you die, and go to h.e.l.l. And then the party starts." He looked at me, his eyes bright. "Babes, don't you miss my touch?"

"Lots," I admitted. "But I love Paul."

He snorted. "Who cares about love? We need more good old-fas.h.i.+oned l.u.s.t. s.e.x with no strings. Naked desire, blatant action. That's what I'm talking about."

"Get yourself a blow-up doll."

"I prefer the real thing."

"Can't help you there."

"You can." He cupped my chin, and I felt power pulsing beneath his flesh, knocking against the human sh.e.l.l that hid his horns, his goat's legs, his tail. "There've been so many changes since you left. h.e.l.l's boring, babes. Without the real succubi, there's no s.e.x any more. Just these frigid b.i.t.c.hes with their holier-than-thou att.i.tude and cold stares."

His hands encircled my waist as his power rippled down my body, slowly, wave after sensual wave. Nipples, down girls! Don't you dare burst through my bra!

"Come back to h.e.l.l." His breath puffed on my cheek, sweet and full of Sin. "Think of all the s.e.x we'll have."

Now his power was stretching farther down my body, filling my belly, my groin, my thighs. Straining to control my body's reaction, I bit my lip, hard. "Daun, I can't."

"Jezebel," he purred, "you can."

"I'm not Jezebel any more."

"Sure you are. You just have a soul now." He trailed a finger down my jaw. "I wonder how it tastes."

Through clenched teeth, I said, "You'll never know."

Invisible fingers stroked my t.i.ts until I groaned. He said, "I love a challenge."

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"Flatterer." The ghostly fingers moved down my body until they brushed against my inner thighs. Wetness gushed against my panties, and I s.h.i.+vered in Daun's arms. My mouth opened wide as I gasped with pleasure, and Daun crushed his lips against mine.

No, pull away, pull away, pull- His tongue found mine, and for an unknown amount of time, I was lost in his kiss. Then someone tore me away from him.

My head spun for a moment as I stumbled-my body wanted more now! but my brain was sending out desperate stop this s.h.i.+t! signals. Then I regained my footing and turned to find Paul standing in front of me, one hand possessively on my arm, the other balled into a fist. I didn't have to see his face to sense his rage.

Looking up at him, Daun, throwing his hands up in a universal gesture of My Bad, So Sorry.

"Back off," Paul growled. "She's with me."

"Hey, Shoulders, you're the one who left her alone."

"She's not alone anymore."

"Yeah, I see that. Got tired of the blonde, came back for brunette, didn't you? Got to say, I don't blame you. Jezebel here's a fine dancer. Especially when she takes off her clothes." His false blue eyes sparkled with mirth. "Good kisser too. Wonder if she's a good lay. What do you think, Shoulders? Does she f.u.c.k better than she dances?"

Paul's hand left my arm as he started forward, murder in his eyes.

My heart pounding, I pulled him back. There were only a few times that a demon could attack a mortal, and self-defense was at the top of the list. Daun could rip out Paul's soul before Paul landed a single punch. "Come on, love," I said, my voice a high-pitched squeak, "let's just go."

"Later, babes," Daun said to me, doffing an imaginary cap before he launched himself into the thick of the dancers.

Paul took a step after him.

"Paul," I said, trying to keep my desperation in check, "come on. You were right, this was a bad idea."

He whirled to face me. "A bad idea? Holy s.h.i.+t, Jesse-some girl cuts in on us, so that gives you the green light to kiss some a.s.shole?"

"I'm sorry," I said, knowing it wasn't close to good enough, but what else could I say?

"What is he, one of your regulars at Spice? Or back at Belles? You kiss him a lot there too?"

This was so not the time for Paul to go all boyfriendish on me. "Love, please, I've never seen him before." Not in that form, anyway.

"Yeah, I could tell."

"Please," I said again, hating how easy it was for me to beg, "we can talk about this more, all night if you want. But please, let's just leave now."

Frustration and anger warred in his eyes, but he nodded curtly before leading me off the dance floor. Before we escaped, another guy reached out, grabbed my arm. I bit back a scream, then let out a ragged breath. Holy f.u.c.k in Heaven, my nerves were completely shot.

"It is you!" The kid was pimply faced and eager; if he really was twenty-one, I'd eat my boots. "I remember you from Belles! Jezebel, right?"

"Yeah," I said, casting a helpless look at Paul, whose face started to purple.

"Man, I loved you," the kid said, oblivious to the raging bull holding onto my hand. "I heard that place closed down. Where you dancing now?"

"She's not," Paul spat. "She just retired."

Chapter 5.

New York City (II) Two blocks away from Paul's apartment, I finally broke the strained silence. "So I'm not dancing anymore, huh?"

Next to me, Paul said nothing, but his frown spoke volumes.

"Funny," I said. "And all along I thought that was my decision, not yours."

"It is your decision. Just like kissing strangers is your decision."

I blew out a frustrated sigh. "Look, that was a mistake, okay? I got lost in the moment."

"Uh huh."

"Hey, it's not like you were the walking wounded. Last I saw, you were all too happy to have the peroxide queen throwing herself all over you."

At least he had the decency to blush. That did little to offset the storms building in his eyes. "That was harmless, and you know it."

"Oh, so it's okay for some stranger to dry hump you on the dance floor, but an innocent kiss is off limits?"

That got him to halt in his tracks. "From where I was standing, there wasn't anything innocent about it. His tongue was halfway down your throat."

"Yeah, and her hands were on your a.s.s. Why was that okay?"

"It wasn't. And that's why I pushed her away. Just in time to watch you kiss that guy."

"For the record," I said, "he kissed me. But that doesn't change the fact that you left me stranded while the blonde gobbled you with her hands."

"Jesus, this isn't about me!" His glare should have left me bleeding. "How'm I supposed to feel, knowing that my girlfriend is okay with kissing any schmuck off the street?"

"Bless me, it wasn't like that!"

"Oh, that's right. You know him from Spice, don't you?"

My anger froze. "No."

"Come off it, Jesse. He said he saw you with your clothes off. What was he, your Friday night special? Or maybe you knew him from your stint at Belles."

His words choked my breath. My hand fluttered to my throat, pulled at my collar as if that would give me the air I needed. "I couldn't help it."

"Right," Paul said. "You were totally helpless. He forced you to dance with him, to kiss him so deeply you were playing tonsil hockey."

"You don't understand! He wasn't just some a.s.shole! He was-"

I clamped my mouth shut and turned away. I'd said too much, and nowhere near enough. Worrying my lip with my teeth, I started marching in the direction of Paul's building. Just a block away. Maybe we could just go upstairs, have angry s.e.x, and forget all about what happened tonight with Daun.

Yes, forget about Daun and his promises, Alecto and her threats. And Meg, of course-forget about whatever torture she was undergoing, even now as I swore to myself that I didn't care.

That's the difference between humans and demons, I heard Meg laugh in my mind. Demons don't lie to themselves.

Paul matched my pace. "You know him." Something soft broke through his rage, blunting the edge from his voice. "Not from Spice. Not from Belles. From before."

"There was no 'before' Belles. I never danced before then."

"Before I met you. When you ran away."

I tried to imagine the conversation turning around-Paul would understand that what I did hadn't been my fault, and he would hug me and take me upstairs and love me. He wouldn't ask for explanations. He would leave my past where it belonged.

"You still haven't told me the truth about who you were," he said, "about why you ran."

Oh, no. Please no. I'm not ready for this.

"Jess. Talk to me."

"What's to tell?" I walked faster, pulling ahead of him. I couldn't bear to see his face, to watch his eyes judge me. "I used to f.u.c.k a lot of guys, I decided I needed a change, so I became an exotic dancer. The end."

I thought that would hurt him, get him to stop pressing me, but Paul was in full White Knight mode. He snaked his arm through mine, brought my desperate pace to a halt. "When you first started at Belles, you told me you were running from your family. You never told me who your pimp was, what he made you do with your Johns. Because it wasn't just about f.u.c.king them, Jess. You did tell me that much."

I said nothing as I wished I could either disappear or drop dead on the spot.

"Was he your pimp?"

"No."

"But he's connected somehow. He part of your family?"

"I'm not going there, Paul. Drop it."

"No."

"Drop it!"

"Jess, I love you. And you say you love me."

His words. .h.i.t me like blows. "I do love you."

"And I want to believe you. But we won't be anything more than lovers until you can be honest with me about who you were."

"I don't want to talk about this! Why can't you just leave it alone?"

"Because unless you trust me, we don't have a future together."

I bit my lip, frantic, not knowing what to say. Too many emotions to count tore through me, and I turned away.

"Jess, don't you trust me?"

"Yes," I whispered. "But it's not that simple."

"Yes it is, hon." He took my hand, held it tight. "It's complicated only if you make it that way."