A Demon in Waiting (Crimson Romance) (5 page)

“’Cause if you’re not satisfied … ”

“Are you offering to top me off?”

He grinned wide and chuckled. “Now, now. If we do that now, you won’t keep me around. I’ve gotta earn my way east somehow.”

She chuckled. “That sounds shockingly similar to prostitution.”

“And you don’t sound disgusted enough, so how much do you actually care?”

She rolled over onto her other side and didn’t answer, but scooted back to nestle her butt against his crotch. “Shut up and spoon me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He gave her hair a little flick and leaned backward to pluck a pillow from the head of the bed. He nestled it under her head and reached back again to grab a second, followed by the remote. He threw one leg over her and turned on the television.

Okay, so maybe it was a little like prostitution, but she didn’t care. No one had to know. Even if he did make it all the way to North Carolina with her, which she doubted he had the stamina for, who would be there on the other end to criticize it? No one. She’d drop him off somewhere and send him on his way long before she made it to the coast.

“Your hair smells nice,” he said, nuzzling his face against the back of her head.

“Cheap shampoo chock full of pathogens and harsh surfactants,” she quipped.

“I’m sure it’s heaps better than the homemade stuff I used to use and probably less drying.”

“Sounds like a lot of folks back at the compound had really useful life skills. I bet if Doomsday ever happens in our lifetime, they’d be able to sustain themselves without assistance from the larger infrastructure.”

“Doomsday?”

She sat up and squirmed under his grip to roll over and look at him. “You serious? Doomsday prepping is big business. People build these huge stockpiles of food and guns to last months or years until they think it’s safe to come out again. Wait, it’s Wednesday, right? There’s probably a documentary about it on. Give me the remote.”

He handed it over. She flipped through the basic cable selection and finally landed on an educational channel.

“Ah. Here we go.”

He nudged her back down to spoon. “With all the variety in programming available, I’m surprised this is the kind of stuff people watch.”

She shrugged. “It’s interesting learning about lifestyles that are vastly different from your own.”

“I’m finding that out.”

“Yeah, you are.” She giggled. “So, do you have any special skills that would be useful if you got stranded on a deserted island or had to go underground in a zombie apocalypse?”

His turn to laugh. “Special skills? Hmm.” He pulled his left hand from her body and when she looked back to see why, found him scratching his palm.

She relaxed again when he returned it.

“Not really. I grew up doing the same hard chores all the other boys did. Did a lot of repair work and construction, though. I guess I’m good at putting things together. I get a sort of satisfaction from putting the last piece in place on something I’ve been working on for a while and having the damned thing actually work.”

“What’s the most complicated thing you’ve ever put together?”

“Hmm.”

The deep rumble of his voice made his chest vibrate against her back, and she was again struck by his proximity there — his absolute manliness.. Maybe it was his hold on her waist or his earthy scent, or perhaps just something in his aura that emanated
provider and protector — stay close
that made her swoon. She’d never felt that way with her ex. She hadn’t known she was supposed to.

Was
she supposed to?

“My mother had a little wood clock she got from her mother,” he said, his voice bringing her out of the depths of her thoughts. “Throughout my entire childhood, the thing never worked. When I was around sixteen, I snuck it out of her room and took it apart.”

“And?”

“And it turned out the reason it didn’t work was because some of the internal gears had broken. I ended up scavenging replacements from other things and making some others, where I could.”

“You
made
gears?”

He shifted behind her, and she imagined it was a shrug.

“I figured, what did I have to lose? If it didn’t work, it wouldn’t be any worse off, right?”

“I see your point.”

“I got it working again and gave it back to her on Mother’s Day. I think I was her favorite child for a few weeks after that.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

That shifting again.

“That’s … hard to answer.”

She opened her mouth to follow up but decided that perhaps that was one of those things that fell squarely in the realm of
none of your business.

They watched television in silence for a while, with Hitch occasionally chuckling at the absurdity of the television programming. Every now and then he gave her a little squeeze and kissed the top of her head as if she were a teddy bear he’d forgotten he was holding.

She didn’t mind. After about half an hour of that, she fell asleep.

• • •

Ariel woke with a start and not where she’d fallen asleep. She was under the covers at the head of the bed, and Hitch was missing. She sat up and scanned the room, pulse racing and feeling an emptiness in her chest until she honed in on the sound of water drumming against the tub floor and Hitch singing softly to himself.

“God.” She flopped against her pillow and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. When did she become so needy? So desperate for someone’s company — their
touch
? She hadn’t thought she was until that particular moment. She’d worked so hard at fulfilling herself in other parts of her life, but had neglected one of her most basic needs: companionship.

The water stopped, and minutes later, Hitch stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and a second in his hands he used to scrub his hair dry. He grinned upon noticing her awake. “Good morning.”

She let her eyes trail down his wet, muscular chest to that damned knot holding the towel together at his waist. With her eyes narrowed at it, she willed it to loosen. It didn’t.

Damn it.
She forced herself to meet his gaze and returned his smile. “’Mornin’ yourself.”

“I’ll be out of your hair in a few minutes. I did leave you a couple of dry towels, by the way.”

“What do you mean, out of my hair?”

He draped the hair towel around his neck and bent over his knapsack, rummaging through it. “I think I’ve preyed on your hospitality too much already. I’ll let you get on your way and I’ll head out to the bus station.”

Her jaw dropped, but before he could stand with the clothes from his bag, she had her face fixed. She pushed the covers down and swiveled her body to put her feet on the floor.
You’re not desperate. No begging.

She walked with as much forced nonchalance as she could manage to her open suitcase and rummaged through the contents for fresh clothes.

Hitch had his back turned to her and dropped his towel to give her a brief glimpse of his perfect ass as he stepped into his underwear. She made a little whinnying noise in the back of her throat but squashed it as he turned to face her.

She cleared her throat and clutched her clothes closer to her chest. When she spoke, there was more surety in her voice than she actually felt. “You don’t need to be in a hurry. Really, Hitch, you did me a big favor yesterday by riding with me. It’s hard to stay focused on the road when you’re in a car alone for days at a time.”

“I’m glad I could help a little,” he said as he stepped into his recycled jeans.

She eased around him to the bathroom and dumped her clothes on the countertop. “If it suits you, you can tag along with me today. I hear oil country is awfully boring to drive through. I might not even have cellular service.”

She peeked around the doorframe to find him casting a concerned look in her direction. “What?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I guess it just dawned on me that you really are making this drive by yourself, huh? What would happen if you broke down on the side of a road somewhere in a place where you can’t even make a phone call?”

That fear had crossed her mind numerous times. In fact, one of her former co-workers at the agency back in Los Angeles recounted a harrowing tale of how she’d run out of gas somewhere in Texas Hill Country, and the closest gas station was twenty minutes away. She’d caught a ride with a trucker and sat on the edge of the seat the entire time, terrified he’d do away with her.

“Trust me, I’ve given it some thought,” she said. If her gas tank got anywhere
near
the quarter-full mark, she was stopping at the first available gas station, no matter what was coming up.

“Jeez, Ariel. I’d feel a lot better if I tagged along.”

She crooked up a brow. “Really? You’d
feel
better? Why, do I look like the kind of woman who needs constant rescuing?”

He let his smile be his answer.

After she showered, blow-dried, and dressed, she was glad to see he’d stuck around. He was actually sitting on the bed, grinning like a fool at the television. She giggled as she packed her things into her suitcase. “You made the bed?”

“Shouldn’t I have?”

“No. The hotel maids strip the sheets between guests, so it doesn’t make a difference to them.”

“Oh … ” He tipped himself off the bed and set about rolling down the bedspread and pulling off the sheets.

“Aren’t
you
conscientious?”

He shrugged and mounded the white linens into a neat pile along with the used towels. “It must be a crummy job is all.”

“I’d guess it’s pretty backbreaking. My grandmother used to be a janitress and lunch lady in an elementary school. Before she retired, I mean.”

“Hard to imagine someone as glamorous as you had such humble origins.”

She scoffed and tipped her suitcase onto its wheels.

After switching off the television, he walked over and took the handle from her. “Let me.”

“Okay, but I don’t see where you’re getting glamorous.”

“How about sophisticated?” he asked as she gave the bathroom one last check for personal items before shutting off the light.

She shook her head and wanted to kiss him for that curious expression he wore. He was being dead serious. If he thought
she
was sophisticated, he’d really be shocked when they made it to the East Coast. She cleaned up okay, but didn’t consider herself to be particularly elegant.

“At best I’m a little preppy, but I’m a country girl at heart. I’m in my element when I’m barefooted with grass between my toes and my hair is unbrushed.”

“I think I like you, Ariel,” he said as they trekked down the hall toward the elevator.

“That’s good to hear.” She stabbed the
Down
button.
You might be the only one.

When Ariel walked into the gas station somewhere in North Texas to get snacks, Gulielmus materialized behind the gas pump John was using. His expression was grim.

“What’s going on?” he asked, crossing his arms over his barrel chest and setting the full intensity of his blue gaze on his son.

John looked through the store windows and couldn’t see Ariel’s head, so he turned to answer. He figured eventually his father would show up, so he already had a lie prepared. “I didn’t know what to do. Logistically, I mean. How does one taint a soul? Is it just an instantaneous thing, or … ”

Actually he knew damn well what he should have done. That was apparent the previous night when they were wrestling each other’s tongues. All he had to do was make a psychic
grab
of what she was offering and it would have been so easy because she was so trusting, but … he hadn’t wanted to. He was having too much fun getting to know this unusual woman, and she thought
he
was amusing. If she was going to be the first he escorted down the brimstone-lined path, he wanted it to be memorable.

Gulielmus sighed. “Why don’t you just move on to the next one? It’s all right to fail the first time. You haven’t had any practice. Maybe if you feel what it is that’s the same from one encounter to the next, you’ll understand what it is you’re supposed to be aiming for.”

John released the pump handle and extracted it from the tank. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never been a quitter. Don’t want to start now. What’s the hurry?”

Gulielmus gave him a look of abject incredulity. “Do you know how many women there are on this Earth compared to how many demons and half-demons? I may be more fertile than most of my ilk, but there’s only so big an army I can manage. You kids have a lot of work to do.”

John stuffed the nozzle into the pump’s receptacle and snatched the receipt as it ejected. “Perhaps you should explain to me why the goal is to taint every soul on the planet. Doesn’t seem very efficient.”

“You wouldn’t feel that way once you took one.” Gulielmus walked around the pump and placed his hands on John’s shoulders, giving him a little
wake-up
shake. “It’s
amazing
the power, son.” His eyes rolled up into his head as he said it. “You’ll get hooked from the first taste.”

“I see.” John ducked out from under his grip and leaned against the front passenger door. “So, I get something. Team Hell gets something. You get props from your boss, I’m guessing. And Ariel gets eternity in a dark pit.”

Gulielmus rolled his eyes. “It’s not a
pit
, remember? It’s just … ennui. Your personalized version of it. And you’ve memorized her name?” He blew out a scoff. “Don’t worry, you’ll break that habit soon enough.”

John ground his teeth. He didn’t
want
to break the habit. He wanted to know everything about her. First name, middle, last. What her birth date was. Whether she had any phobias. What kind of cake was her favorite. Whether she’d been a good student.

He just nodded. “Good to know.”

Gulielmus flicked through some screens on his smartphone and let out a feral-sounding growl. “Got a meeting in Bucharest. I’ll check in with you later.”

“Don’t you have other children to check in on?”

Gulielmus disappeared without answering. Just as well, because the bells installed over the convenience store’s door jingled as Ariel pushed the door open and stepped outside with a large paper sack. As she approached, John handed her the gas receipt and he took the bag. “What’d you get?”