Wicked Pleasure (9 page)

Brynn studied the piece and where it was. Then he looked down at Fo. It took him a few minutes to find the piece spread among the others on the table, but when he did, he put it back into Fo according to what he'd seen.

Once that piece was in place, he glanced at his watch. Uh-oh. This was going to take longer than fifteen minutes. He pulled a few dollars from his wallet. “Would you do me a favor and get me some coffee? Black. Helps me concentrate.” Once Kim was out of the room, he was safe until she returned. And then the countdown for the next hour would begin. He didn't think it would take longer than that to get Fo's innards back in place.

Kim waved off his money. “Hey, you're trying to fix Fo. I'll be back.”

She left, and he went back to painstakingly accessing Fo's memory to find where each piece belonged. Somewhere along the way Kim returned because a Styrofoam container of coffee appeared on the table close to where he was working, and he felt Kim ease down beside him. But he was too focused on what he was doing to stop long enough to even look at his watch.

He'd just completed all the things he'd seen in the instructions, replaced the back of Fo's case, and was considering going down to his room for some tape to make sure the crack didn't get worse, when he felt it. The warm flow of desire he hated, couldn't control. The lengthening and thickening of his cock—automatic, attached to no emotion, only ravenous physical hunger. Unstoppable.

Brynn didn't need to look at his watch. He was too late to stop what was about to happen. He closed his eyes for a moment of deep regret. His budding friendship with Kim was over. She'd either accept his body and what it could offer her, or she'd turn from him in disgust. Either way, he lost.

He carefully closed Fo, pushed her away from him, and then stood.

The compulsion washed over him.

Kim was reaching for Fo when Brynn got up and strode away from the couch. Was Fo okay now? Kim was almost afraid to look. Would she see huge purple eyes or a blank screen?

And then she forgot about Fo. Suddenly, everything in the room seemed to shift. Not physically. The couch was still in place, but it was as if the room swirled with energy, an energy that warmed the air around her and changed the reality of what had been just a few seconds ago. Did that make any sense? Uh, no.

What the . . . ? Kim looked up and automatically sought Brynn. But Brynn had evidently left the building, because the man standing in the middle of the room was
not
Brynn. Oh, he had Brynn's size and shape, his features, but his
essence
had become something else, something totally . . . No, that didn't make sense. She blinked, and then blinked again. Nothing changed. She drew in a deep breath, trying to balance her disbelief with what was standing right in front of her. He'd become a totally sexual creature right in front of her it-ain't-happening eyes.

His hair.
The lamplight, the pale daylight streaming through the arrow slits, all faded, leaving only the glory of Brynn's hair framing his face. Not blond. It was hot summer sunlight, the kind that made her sweat as she tried to pull her clinging clothes away from her damp body. The kind that made her want to run naked in it, letting the air flow over her and the warmth sink into every inch of exposed skin. The kind that tempted her to lie in the cool grass, open her legs, and let the heat touch her
there
. Kim's body clenched around the imagined sensation.

Heavy-lidded, he watched her from eyes that shone knowing and wicked, that promised he could slide his fingers across her bared body, touch her with his mouth in ways that would make her cry out with need. She allowed her senses a silent scream at the awesome possibilities.

She couldn't hold his gaze, so she lowered her attention to his mouth. Deliberately, he gripped his bottom lip between his teeth and then released it. He smiled, a slow erotic suggestion, daring her to accept his sensual invitation, to cover his mouth with hers, to smooth her tongue over the soft sheen of that lip.

Kim tried to turn away from his in-your-face seduction. She couldn't. What did that say about her? And where had this whole scene come from? No sexy buildup, no conversational foreplay, just wham. It didn't make sense.

“Uh, well, thanks for putting Fo back together again. Um, I guess I'll see you later.” From the deepening glow in his spectacular eyes, Kim guessed that she'd be seeing a lot more of him now than later. God, what to say? This was out of her realm of experience. Hey, demon destroying was easy compared to this.

“Let yourself go, Kim. Live the moment.” He pulled his white T-shirt over his head in one smooth motion, exposing a wide expanse of muscular chest. “My hands, my mouth, my
body,
can bring you physical pleasure you've never dreamed you could experience.”

“Sure. Lots of pleasure. Got it.”
This is wrong. He's a sleaze. Next he'll probably hand you his business card listing his hourly rates. Throw him out
. Kim's brain was issuing orders with machine gun rapidity, but her body wasn't paying much attention. It was otherwise engaged. Her eyes had dropped to where his fingers were unbuttoning his jeans and sliding them, along with his briefs, down powerful thighs and legs. Somewhere along the way he'd rid himself of his shoes. Her mouth was hanging open, and commands to her jaw were being ignored. The rest of her body? All remaining body parts thought he was totally ripped and wanted to get on with the physical pleasure thing.

Ignoring her wide-eyed and slack-jawed response, he strode to her bed and lay down. With his hands clasped behind his head, he studied her. “Come to me. Enjoy my body. Use me in any way you wish. There's nothing I won't do to please you.”

Nothing? Absolutely nothing? She'd always wanted to . . . Kim mentally slapped herself upside her head.
Stay focused.

In a moment of lucidity, she noted that his voice had changed. It had deepened to a husky murmur, a sexual temptation to join him on her bed and explore his muscular expanse of smooth flesh and hard body. His speech pattern seemed from an older time, but it only made him more sensual.

Kim swallowed with an audible gulp. She was torn between making a cowardly dash for the door and flinging herself onto the bed for a shot at living
la vida loca
. This was beyond bizarre. But while she was contemplating the weirdness of the whole thing, she slid her gaze over his broad chest and wondered what he would taste like if she touched one tempting male nipple with her tongue.

Resisting arousal—or not—she watched his body sheen with a thin layer of sweat. And as her gaze moved lower, his erection swelled, demanding her attention. She fought the good fight—weak and pitifully ineffective though it was—against the mental picture forming. A visual of his sex buried deep inside her burst triumphantly onto the scene. Against her brain's express orders, she edged closer to the bed.

Did he know what she was thinking? Kim hoped not. She had to get out of here. His overwhelming sexuality was messing with her mind. Yeah, she was going to run from her own room. But if she opened her mouth to order him out, they'd both know she didn't mean it.

And then he spread his legs, a primitive and erotic call to everything female in her. But that's not what tore a startled gasp from her.

High on his inner thigh was the tattoo of a cat's head. Even while she reeled from the shock, Kim dispassionately noted the details—a black cat with strange amber eyes. Even though it was only a tattoo, she could swear the eyes watched her with a wicked gleam. She shook her head to get rid of the impression. Then she backed away from him.

A cat. One of the preferred symbolic animals for a demon. Cats had at one time or other in past ages been worshipped as gods and condemned as familiars.

Brynn was a demon.
For once, Fo had called it right. A demon. That explained the erotic spell he seemed to be casting over her. She understood her instant horror but not her soul-deep disappointment. She took a step toward Fo.

He watched her move away from him, his gaze still dark with sexual hunger. If he could read her mind—and demons had no difficulty worming their way into human thoughts—he must know she realized what he was. The knowledge didn't seem to effect his single-minded drive for the almighty orgasm.

“Do you want my body, Kim?” His eyes said he already knew the answer to that.

“You're a demon. I'm a demon hunter. So what're we going to do about that, hmm?” There. She'd said it. The Vaughn family book of demon-hunting rules stated that a destroyer should never let the demon know she'd made him. But Brynn had saved Fo, so Kim sort of owed him. Kim clung to that bit of logic and pushed away her conscience's command to zap him.

Now he'd leap from her bed and flee, thereby saving his beautiful butt from . . . From what? Could she coldly walk over to Fo, pick her up, and push the red button? Duty to her family said she had to, but her emotional reaction to the visual of Brynn reduced to nothing more than a pile of hot ash made her queasy. In the short time she'd known him, she'd grown to like him. Good grief, she'd watched him buy a bag of blow pops. How could she hate a demon that got pleasure from sucking on a blow pop? She couldn't. She was such a wuss.
Bad, bad demon hunter.

“Do you want my body, Kim?” There was an urgency to his question that hadn't been there before.

“No.”
Well, maybe a little.
“No, definitely not.” Self-denial. It was one of her special talents. She moved closer to Fo, still fighting the battle between duty and emotion.

Kim wasn't prepared for what happened the moment she told him she didn't want his body. Gone was the sensual animal luring her to perform unspeakable sexual acts on his magnificent body. A primal part of her mind mourned lost opportunities.

With a few lithe movements that showcased the flow of supple skin over hard muscle, he rose from the bed and reached Fo before Kim could make a grab for her. He picked Fo up and flipped her open.

Kim didn't know what worried her more, being in the same room with a very bare demon or waiting to see if Fo was back. She exhaled a breath she hadn't known she was holding as Fo's big purple eyes appeared on the screen. Other than looking a little confused, they were vintage Fo.

“Give Fo to me.” She spoke quietly with the same fake calmness she'd use if she were locked in a cage with a hungry tiger.

“I don't think so. Not just yet.” Brynn smiled at her, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. “Hand my clothes to me. Naked demons roaming the castle are bad for business.” He glanced down at Fo. “Feeling okay?”

“I think so. But I don't have any memory of the events during my near-death experience. Who did this to me?” Fo still looked unfocused.

Near-death experience? Fo's continuing referral to herself in human terms couldn't be good for her long-term emotional health. But Kim hadn't a clue how to handle the problem. “Wade, the man across the hall from us, accidentally knocked you out of my hands and then stepped on you.”

“I do remember something.” Fo blinked up at Brynn. “You saved me.” Fo's gaze was clear now, and Kim swore she saw hero worship shining in those purple eyes.

Uh-oh. “Fo, Brynn is a demon. So that isn't a good place for you to be.” What did she expect Fo to do?

Fo's eyes didn't lose any of their shine, but they did roll to the bottom of her screen. “Woohoo! A hot hunky demon, all bare and gorgeous. Tip me down a little so I can see everything. It's important for me to view and record images of demons in all their forms. I've never seen a naked one before.”

Damn. Kim didn't know who she was more aggravated with, Fo or herself. Angrily, she kicked his clothes toward Brynn. She should've reacted faster, made a dash for Fo the second she saw the cat.

Her shoulders slumped. Time for some self-honesty. It didn't matter. She still wouldn't have destroyed Brynn. Kim wasn't like some of the more dedicated members of her family who zapped first and asked questions later. She'd need indisputable proof of Brynn's demonic nature, like seeing him in his true, disgusting form, or witnessing him mooning her right before he tried to rip out her throat.

Okay, okay, so she'd have to see him doing something really evil that proved he deserved to be destroyed. Getting naked and then offering his body wasn't threatening enough, except to her sexual self. In fact, her sexual self was pretty ticked off that she'd passed up a chance at some sizzling heat between the sheets.

Brynn continued to watch Fo. “What do you think, Fo? Should Kim use you to destroy me?” He didn't sound too worried.

Kim narrowed her gaze. He should be very worried, unless . . . “Are you in my mind?”

He raised his gaze from Fo long enough to smile at Kim. “You bet. And I'm insulted. Offering you my body was supposed to be very threatening. Guess I'm a demonic failure. Won't be moving up the demon corporate ladder anytime soon.” His smile remained fixed in place as he set Fo gently on the table.

But his eyes . . . For just a moment, Kim thought she saw something close to despair in his gaze. She blinked. Demons didn't feel despair. At least according to the Vaughn family records of demonic behavior. But then she remembered the emotions rolling off him last night. Maybe the Vaughn family records were wrong.

Maybe he wasn't a demon. He'd claimed he was human before. Was this just his idea of black humor? Her surge of hope surprised her. Sure, she didn't want him to be a demon. That was her normal response when facing a possible malevolent spirit. But usually her emotions were all about
her
. How would
she
feel, what would
she
do? This time? It was all about Brynn. Faced with destruction, how would he feel?