Straight By The Rules. Michelle Scott
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wedges. “Of course.” I lifted the bottoms of my jeans to show off a pair of hiking boots.
“Good!” He put the backpack over his shoulders and opened the door. “Ordinarily, I’d say ladies first, but this one could be tricky. Be careful.” He stepped through, then took my hand and helped me cross from Hell into a magical place on Earth.
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 creatures’ sliminess gave them a strange luminescence too beautiful to be disgusting.
William took my hand and gently kissed it. “Are you sure Helen didn’t hurt you? You seemed upset when you came out of her office.”
William’s concern touched me, but I couldn’t discuss the terrible thing Helen wanted me to do. The pain of it was too fresh. Instead, I said, “I’m fine.”
“Good.” He flashed his brilliant smile, the one that always made me weak in the knees. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”
I had too. In fact, it was all I had thought about for the past two days. Since he’d come to my rescue a few weeks before, I’d been falling for him. Hard. Barely a moment passed that I wasn’t thinking about him. I wanted him so badly, yet I was afraid to show it. It wasn’t only because of Miss Spry; it had to do with William as well. He was an incubus, a master of seduction. As much as I wanted to trust him, I worried that he was intending to make me another of his conquests.
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 leaned against him. “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.
“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.”
As much as the invitation tempted me, 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. As could I. “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 spirituality 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 unchaperoned? 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