Page 50 of Midnight with the Devil

She cleared her throat and stepped away before she did something foolish like getting into the shower with him.

“Shower and I’ll order pizza.”

He turned on the taps and stepped into the shower, and she headed into the kitchen. She ordered a pizza and lay on the couch, her eyes glued to the TV so she wouldn’t think about a naked Lucien in her shower. He stayed in there a good half hour, and she got to the point where she was worrying about her water bill.

When the doorbell rang, she answered it and paid the teenage boy holding a large sausage pizza. Then she opened a bottle of red wine and poured two glasses and prepared two plates. She was carrying them over to the couch when Lucien emerged from the shower dripping wet, a towel wrapped low around his hips.

Oh. My. God.His dark hair was wet, and the ends curled up a bit. He grinned as he caught her staring.

“Uh…pizza’s here.” She pointed at the coffee table. He started to reach for his towel as though to remove it. She spun away, facing the wall.

“You can look now,” he teased.

She slowly looked over her shoulder and saw he was dressed now in jeans and a white T-shirt.

“How—”

He wiggled the tips of his fingers, which reminded her a bit of Samantha from the showBewitched.

“Oh…right.” She held out the plate of pizza, and he accepted it. She quickly sat on one end of the couch, and he did the same.

“You want to watch a movie or something?” Diana offered.

“Sure.” Lucien bit into a slice and sighed, but the sound was one of relief rather than worry. Diana perused her DVDs and chose a classic movie—An Affair to Remember, starring Cary Grant.

When the credits began, Lucien leaned back against the couch and watched with mild curiosity. Diana half expected him to protest her choice and put on a horror movie or a violent action film instead. But he didn’t. He ate his pizza, drank the wine she offered, and watched an old romance movie…like a real boyfriend.

I should not go there. I can’t think of him like that. He’ll never be… We will never be…

She was surprised by how much that realization stung. She hadn’t wanted to like him or the way he made her feel, but so much had changed between them since that first night she’d come to him. The cold, unfeeling dark devil was changing into a lighthearted human man. Right now she could almost forget what he really was.

Maybe that was all she would ever have, a night like tonight where she could pretend he was human, that he was hers.

Lucien watchedthe credits roll on the television screen, and for a long moment he was lost in the story of the lives of the characters. Such loss, such love, such tragedy and redemption. It was a movie of hope and despair in equal parts. The ache in his chest, the one that reminded him he missed heaven, seemed stronger than it had been in many years. He glanced down at Diana, who slept in his arms. At some point they’d stretched out on the couch lengthwise, and she’d fallen asleep.

Lucien had never met anyone so trusting of him. She never ceased to amaze him. A human who trusted the devil.Really trusted him. He didn’t even really know her, this woman who was changing him from the inside out.

But I want to know her, want to know everything…

He vowed he would ask her a thousand questions when he had the chance.

He closed his eyes and brushed a lock of her hair back from her face as he opened his mind to the past, to the life he’d had in the realm of heaven before he’d fallen. He wanted to give Diana that glimpse and share what the light felt like. She carried so much of his darkness, but this one gift he could give her.

Gleaming spires, music played by divine hands, the glittering of white wings in the sunlight, the endless, vast everything. There was no limit, no end, not there. It was a beginning, a continuation, a journey, a destination. It was home.

Lucien’s eyes burned, and when he opened them thick tears escaped. He wiped at them, staring at the wetness on his hands in confusion.

Angels did not cry. The devil definitely did not cry.

Yet here was proof, the salty sheen upon his fingertips. Proof that he was…what?

Getting weaker? Perhaps. After fighting with all those crouchers, it seemed possible. Andras would counsel him to be careful, to make sure that he didn’t get attached to a human. Andras would be right. He needed to keep his distance. The king of hell could not afford to grow soft simply because a human woman made him want to feel, to remember. The scars on his back burned with the memory of losing his wings.

I paid my price. Now I’m free, free from caring, free from bowing down, free from obeying.

He looked down at Diana again, studying the way her dark lashes fanned out on her cheeks and the hint of a smile on her lips as though she was dreaming. He bent his head and feathered his lips over hers, and with a faint kiss he whispered to her, “Dream of me, darling. Dream of midnights past and midnights to come. Dream of heaven in my arms.” Then he closed his eyes and vanished.

Jimiel watchedthrough the window as Lucien spoke softly to Diana as she slept. Kindness…that was the expression on Lucien’s face, but how was that possible? Lucien shouldn’t be able to be kind, if that was what Jimiel was seeing. Suddenly there was a flutter of invisible wings beside him, and he spotted Andras next to him on the balcony of Diana’s apartment. For a second Jimiel thought he would have to battle his former brother, but Andras raised his hands in the universal sign of peace.

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