Page 31 of Brimstone and Broomsticks
“You just got angry,” Bronwyn finished for him. “Hell, you and Cassie are a match made in heaven. Did you know she set her ex’s pants on fire in the middle of the courtroom? Hey, can you do fire as well? Without a spell, I suppose. I mean, it’s probably a natural God-given talent. Or Satan-given talent. Sorry.”
He continued to stare at me. “I can’t do fire inside the town wards. I tried. Evidently Icanmanifest my wings, though. Cassie?”
“Why wouldn’t I want to see your true form?” I asked him, feeling myself drawn in by the fire in his eyes.
He grimaced. “It’s big. And black.”
Bronwyn snorted. “That’s whatshesaid.”
“Wynnie,” I warned.
“I’m not as sexy to humans in my demon form,” he finished.
I took a breath. “Lucien, I live in a town with minotaur, trolls, cyclops, a medusa… Do you know why Alberta chose to live here in Accident? Trolls have glamour. She could live under any bridge and assume a beautiful form when she wanted to get laid, but here she can be herself. Here no one bats an eye about her appearance. Here someone would fall in love with her as she is—inside and out.”
I waited. The wings vanished, leaving me looking at a gorgeous, muscular man with a tattered shirt, one that looked human.
I sighed. Oh well. Wasn’t like I’d bared my soul to him either. “So you didn’t leave town? Or try to leave town?”
He shook his head. “No. I drank. I fought. I went in and drank some more. Then I started walking back to town and my hotel.”
“Then why was this on the other side of the break in the wards?” I pulled the coin out of my pocket and tossed it to him. It flipped end over end, brass glinting in the moonlight.
He caught it midair and looked down at it in his palm.
“Where did you find this?”
“Where you dropped it.” I hesitated a moment. “Unless yours is still in your pocket and there’s another demon in town who happened to have lost his Uber coin.”
He scowled down at the token, then reached in his pocket. “Mine’s gone. It must have fell out during one of the fights. That’s never happened before. Of course, this whole town has been full of things that have never happened to me before.”
“We didn’t find it outside the tavern,” Bronwyn told him. “So you wanna tell us what you were doing on out on Beaverton Road, half a mile past the turnoff for Meadowland Lane?”
He blinked at her. “I don’t even know where that is. What exactly are you both accusing me of? I went to a bar with a cyclops and a troll, had a few drinks, got in a few fights, and eventually started walking back to town. If I dropped the coin, it probably was during one of the fights. So if you didn’t find it in the parking lot of the tavern, then obviously someone picked it up only to drop it somewhere else later.”
It was a whole lot of coincidence, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that he was right here before me, and the only reason he’d have to break the wards would be to leave town. Why break them and stay? It didn’t make sense.
“Well, come on then your infernal majesty. We’ll give you a lift back to the hotel.” Bronwyn gestured toward her truck. “Can’t have you walking around with your shirt torn up. Half-naked demon that looks like you would probably drive half the town crazy.”
We went back to the truck and I realized our dilemma. Bronwyn’s vehicle had only the front bench-style seat. I couldn’t exactly ask him to ride in the back of the bed. First, it would be dangerous. Secondly, it would be illegal. I doubt the first would be much of an issue since I was assuming demons weren’t as susceptible to injuries from being tossed out of a moving vehicle as humans were. And normally the second one wouldn’t have bothered me, but I figured Lucien had done enough breaking of the law in the last twenty-four hours. No sense in pushing our luck further. Although with my luck, it would probably be Bronwyn and me with the tickets and not him.
Deciding I’d rather be in the middle to safeguard my sister in case this demon got any crazy evil ideas, I climbed in first and scooted over. This way if he did anything horrible, I could kick him out the door. Or set his pants on fire. Either one.
Lucien climbed in, making the truck extra cozy. His leg pressed against mine. His shoulder likewise. And he basically had a choice of putting his arm along the side of my boob with his hand on top of my thigh, or wrap it around my shoulders.
He chose the latter.
It had been a long time since a hot guy had his arm around me. He was warm. He smelled good. And being pressed against him like this was making me imagine how nice it would be to press other parts of my body against his. Naked. In bed.
By the time Bronwyn pulled up to the hotel, I was more than a little hot and bothered. Lucien took his time in the process of exiting the car, doing everything but feeling me up as he shifted around, finally managing to open the passenger side door.
He got out. I got out, intending to escort him to his room, then leave.
Leave. Not stay and have sex with him on that lumpy mattress. Not take him back to my house. Leave.
“Think you should lock him in?” my sister asked me from the truck.
“Huh?” I was too busy wondering how I could get away with sleeping with a client. Was he technically still a client? Marcus did say he intended to drop the charges. Even though the paperwork wasn’t done, I might be able to rationalize it all as a done deal.
