One Handsome Devil (12 page)

"We had a rather strange report."

Sara felt her face redden. Jack's wings wafted a breeze of cool air across it. “Strange in what way?” she made herself ask.

The cop looked everywhere but directly at the two of them. “Have you been here all afternoon?"

"Pretty much,” she answered. “I'm a petroleum geologist and was sent to investigate this lease.” And I'm as naked as a jaybird. Were the cops both blind?

The other cop slammed down the radio and emerged from his car. He looked positively angry. Time for the good-cop, bad-cop routine, Sara guessed.

"This is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of,” he growled. “I think it's time for us to lock Ol’ Lady Witkins in the loony bin."

"Are we in any danger, officer?” Jack asked, concern lacing his voice.

"Only if you believe in naked UFOs,” the cop snarled. “Mrs. Witkins, who owns this land, was about to start blasting away at something. Probably just a crow."

Well naturally someone had seen them. Unlike the cops who seemed completely blind.

"We've got a lot to get done before we leave,” Jack said. “Unless there's anything we can help you with, we'd better get back to work."

In Sara's experience, no cop likes being told what to do and this one didn't appear to be an exception.

"Yeah? Well, you aren't UFOs, but you are on Mrs. Witkin's land.” The cop turned to his partner. “Think we'd better run them in."

"We have a valid mineral lease,” Sara said. “It gives us access rights.” She wasn't used to flying around naked but she was used to rural police trying to keep her off of the land.

"So you say. I haven't seen any paperwork."

"I've got a copy of the lease agreement in my car,” Sara answered quickly before Jack could say anything. Not that she was especially well endowed, but still, she couldn't understand how the two cops could miss seeing what was in plain sight. Evidently Jack was working some magic on them. Since the magic seemed to consist of their never quite making eye contact, Sara didn't have much confidence in it. How hard would it be for them to catch something out of the corner of their eyes? The sooner the cops left, the more likely it was that she and Jack could survive the experience.

"I'd better take a look, then.” The cop shambled in the direction of Sara's car, accidentally brushing against her naked back as he passed.

"Hey?” The cop looked startled.

"What's the problem?” his partner demanded.

"I though—” the first cop scratched his head. “Guess I've been too long without a woman."

"Tell me about it."

"It's in the glove compartment,” Sara explained. “That's where I keep all of my documents when I travel. You know, in a convertible, things blow out otherwise.” Sara knew she was babbling, but she hadn't fully recovered from her panic.

"I'd sure like a job I could take a cutie along with me,” the cop with the shotgun observed to Jack before Sara got out of earshot. “Earl's all right, but man, I wish he'd cut down on those beans."

"My job has its compensations,” Jack admitted. “The only problem is I spend a lot of time in really hot places."

"Me too,” the cop observed. ‘Course that's what living in Oklahoma is all about."

"It's sort of like Oklahoma,” Jack observed.

Sara bit back a snicker. Jack wasn't being very nice. Of course a nice demon just might be an oxymoron.

"All right, what was that all about?” Sara demanded as the cops finally drove out of sight.

"Hum?” Jack stared at the dirt. Something deep underground looked different.

"Did you put clothes on us magically?"

He shook his head. “I just made them look the other way."

"You mean they could have seen me naked?” Sara's blush proclaimed the innocence he found frightening and yet incredibly appealing. Part of the demon's curse is perfect memory. Jack could remember the pure sensation of innocence despite the thousands of years that had passed since he'd left that state.

"They couldn't see you naked because they couldn't quite look at you. Not at your body anyway. They meant to, they thought they had, but they couldn't."

"So what do they remember me wearing?"

He shook his head. “I have no idea. I guess if you pushed them, they'd make something up. That's why I wanted you to act normally. Lucky for us, they were both men. If they'd been women, they would probably talk it over afterwards and notice neither had seen quite the same thing. I don't think Earl and Wayne are likely to talk about much other than hunting season and buying guns."

Sara gritted her teeth. “I don't care about them. What am I going to do now. We're a hundred miles from home and I don't have anything to wear in the car."

"If you don't want to make a spectacle of yourself, I suggest we put up the top. It would be too much work to keep an entire freeway full of people from checking out a beautiful naked woman in a convertible."

"Great. I wasted an entire day, lost one of my most comfortable outfits, and have to drive home with the top up, the air conditioning broken, and a demonic space heater sitting next to me."

Jack's muscles tightened at the words
wasted an entire day
. Sex with Sara had seemed like anything but a waste. If she didn't feel the same way, it was probably just the reminder he needed of where he stood. A demon can be a sex toy and a space heater rather than someone a human woman will take seriously.

That was the way it should be, he sternly reminded himself. Demons and humans don't have
relationships
.

"I'm not that sympathetic,” he told her.

"Yeah, well you're used to the heat."

He shook his head. “The rules don't let us get used to it. That would be too easy."

Sara started to reply, then got a far-away look in her eyes.

"What?"

"Oh, I was just thinking about work."

"What about it?"

"I hadn't noticed before, but look at the way that hill over their bends. It could mean gas underneath."

"I meant to ask you about that."

"What do you mean?"

"It looks sort of funny down there."

"Hum,” Sara stood a little straighter. “Tell me what it looks like to you."

She probed, questioning his answers, using her hands to describe the possibilities. She looked, Jack thought, like Eve in her naked innocence.

For the next sixty minutes, she ran around, oblivious to her nudity, setting up small explosive devices, feeding data into her computer, and keeping Jack running at the same pace. If he didn't have wings, he would never have been able to keep up.

Finally she snapped her computer closed. “All right, let's go."

He followed Sara into her car. “No luck?"

She shifted into gear and pulled out onto the bumpy dirt trail that had brought them to the lease. “Oh, it's gas all right. I think it's got commercial potential."

"Congratulations."

She looked at him, an excitement born of something other than pure sexual pleasure burning in her eyes. “Between me knowing what to look for and you being able to see it, we could make quite a team. I mean, maybe this is why my spell brought you. Together, we could build the business I've always dreamed about. Do the words millions of dollars mean anything to you?"

"Not a lot. Demons don't get out much."

"Well, trust me, it would mean a lot."

He shrugged. “Where I come from, money doesn't buy much."

"Hum. Well, partner, in that case, maybe you'd better stick around here."

Jack's skin raised goose-bumps at Sara's words. Not her excitement about her profession. He knew Sara well enough to know that she would throw all of herself into whatever she was doing, whether she was making l—having sex, or wildcatting natural gas. What surprised him was that she would think of the two of them as a partnership. Every demon-human relationship in history had involved one entity in control, the other a slave. Generally, of course the human started as master and ended as slave. Sara was too good to want a relationship of exploited and exploiter.

When he returned to Hell, Jack would have a lot to contemplate—in the long millennia alone.

"What do you mean,
partner
?” He might be reading too much into her simple word choice.

"We'll form a legal partnership. Slocum and, uh,” she blushed. “I don't even know your last name. You must think I'm the cheapest woman you've ever met."

He thought she was the most generous. “I have too many names. How about Daemon? If it isn't too obvious."

"Like the movie star?"

He shrugged. He read and was aware of music, but Hell isn't big on movie screens or television. “Like Demon but pronounced different so it won't be quite as obvious."

"I don't think the name is what we need to worry about.” Sara coasted to a stop where the dirt trail ended and the two lane paved highway began. She stared at him for a moment. “Do you think, I mean, I don't want you to give up anything you think is really important, but people wouldn't really understand if, well, you know."

"You want me to wear clothes when we go looking for work?"

Sara burst out laughing. “I didn't figure I'd have to warn you about clothes. I'm talking about your wings. You can cover your horns with a hat, but the wings stand out under a shirt, even folded up."

Jack thought about that. “With the right tailoring, I should be able to handle it."

"Or maybe you could just magic everyone, the way you did those cops."

He shook his head. “It takes too much energy and I can't do it if I don't know who is watching."

"I wanted to ask you about that. How come I could see you, if you were doing that thing with the cops?"

If he wasn't a demon, he would have blushed. “I wanted you to see me. And I wanted to see you."

Sara's face burned. She had hardly been able to keep her gaze away from Jack's body the entire time they'd been talking about the geologic formations under the earth. He was so beautiful she wanted to throw herself on him and demand that he satisfy her again, even though her body still sang from satisfaction at their recent lovemaking.

She gave her Miata a little more gas, pressing the speed limit despite the highway's need for road repair and the twists that kept her wheels squealing. “I'll write up the report tonight. What I'd like to do is see if they'll let us put it into a risk pool.” If they got in early enough, there would be time for more.

"What does a risk pool mean?"

"We'll only get paid half as much up front, but we'll get a percentage when the well actually comes in. It's a nice reward for calling things right. From now on, I intend to call things right a lot more often than anyone else in the business. In a few years, we'll have enough to go out on our own."

"Really? Exactly how long were you planning on keeping me around?"

A wave of guilt swept over Sara like a sudden twilight. She had forgotten that Jack was there against his will, held captive by magic bonds. Now that she knew him, could she really justify that type of treatment?

"Is there some protocol for dealing with demons? I mean, I don't want to set you free and have you eat me or something.” She felt the heat rise in her cheeks again. “Maybe that was a poor word choice. I mean—"

"I know what you meant."

"Are you going to destroy me if I set you free?"

"Not now."

Talk about an ambiguous answer. “I'll bite, when exactly would you destroy me?"

"I already told you. I lose control during l—sex."

"So if I just put the bonds on you if we were, uh, making love—"

Jack's face contorted at her use of the ‘L’ word.

"Having sex,” she corrected quickly, “then we'd be safe."

"A demon is never safe."

"You just aren't going to answer my questions, are you?"

He shook his head. “I'm not good at telling the whole truth. That isn't really it, though. You have to know that just being with me will surely destroy you. A demon isn't safe to keep."

Jack hesitated a moment and Sara though he had finished. She opened her mouth to reply, but he held up a hand. “It isn't safe for me, either."

"Someone could destroy you?"

He shrugged. “It's been done. Angels generally just herd us back into the pit when they catch one of us escaping. Other demons are worse. They try to absorb each other's substance. Humans can be the most deadly. It takes a special person, but we're immortal, not indestructible."

Sara looked down at the speedometer and saw that they were going eighty miles an hour. She jammed the brake pedal, slowing to a safer speed. Could she let Jack go? Should she send him back to Hell after all he'd told her? She was only certain of one thing. Holding him against his will was terribly unfair. He might have been lying to her the entire time, but she didn't believe he would hurt her. If she was right, she had no moral choice other than setting him free. Yet, what would he do if she released the bonds? He could consume her in a fireball and run wild through the civilized world. But she didn't think he would. It was crazy, but she actually trusted a demon.

She pulled over to the side of the road.

"What?” He looked puzzled, as if he knew what was going on but also knew it was impossible.

"I have to do this.” Her hand trembled as she traced the bonds that held Jack to her, protected her from his power. Some primal instinct at the base of her lizard brain screamed out in terror. Her sex drive cursed her for being an idiot and not insisting that he make love with her again before she set him free. Still, she untied the knots.

"Finished."

Jack stretched, looking as if he had been physically unbound. For the second time, Sara found she could see his emotions directly rather than merely reading them in his eyes and his body.

"Thank you,” he said.

"It was wrong of me not to do it a long time ago."

"I told you I would destroy you. You did it to protect yourself."

"People can always come up with reasons to do what they want to do.” And she had wanted to. She'd wanted to keep this perfect male close to her, available to satisfy her needs and desires at a moment's notice.