One Handsome Devil (9 page)

She should have been tired after her late night, but she still hadn't come down from the sight of Jack shoving his arms into her Corsica's engine. That and the look in Sara's eyes. A look that went beyond amazement.

When the bell finally rang for her mid-morning break, she dismissed her students and headed for the staff lounge.

She hadn't been expecting wild parties during school hours, but she had thought there would be a little something going on. It wasn't every day they won the lottery. In fact, the most they'd ever won before had been twelve dollars.

"Do I get anything extra because it was my ticket?” she asked.

"What are you talking about?” Big-mouth Lena Bovade snapped the question like she'd snapped towels during P.E. back when they'd been in high school together.

"Are you kidding? Nobody happened to notice we won the lottery?” Katra looked around the lounge. Fred and Lester were arguing about some geometry proof and Tina was working with her hair. All the usual suspects. “I'm surprised nobody called in rich."

"Oh, yeah. I'm trying to decide how to spend the big bucks now,” Lena griped. “I'm torn between a new bra and getting the Oprah book this month."

"Twenty million dollars,” Katra sang. “With your share, you can buy everything in Victoria's Secrets and a years subscription to Oprah's books. Maybe she'll even come visit you."

"Uh-oh. Nobody told her.” Lena looked around the room as if trying to find a missing suspect. “Isn't somebody going to help me with this?"

"Gotta get back to class,” Fred muttered. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the coffee table and headed out the door.

Katra's heart started pounding. “Don't kid me. I checked the number."

Lena shook her head. “Well, we saw the amount going up and so we thought we'd increase our chances."

Katra's bad feeling turned into a sick feeling. “Talk."

"We went in with the maintenance crew."

Relief. She tried to do the arithmetic. “Not bad. Their eight, plus ten in maintenance. Eighteen. Still over a million each. Not the same as two and a half, but not bad either.

"Try five hundred in maintenance. They do it with the Union so it's across the entire Mesquite School District."

For once, Katra was almost grateful for her math block. “Twenty million divided by five hundred and eight. That doesn't sound like much."

"Uh, we took cash option."

"Oh, dear."

"And there were five winners with the same number. We each get less than five thousand."

"Well, that explains why nobody staying home celebrating."

"Yeah,” Lena agreed. “At least it'll pay my air conditioner bill this summer."

It wasn't supposed to work this way. Katra tried to remember exactly what she'd asked Jack for. She sure hadn't had five thousand dollars in mind.

"I guess that means I'm driving the Corsica for another couple of years,” she observed.

"If you would just tell your mother and sister to go out and get jobs of their own, you wouldn't be in this crunch all the time,” Lena told her.

Katra collapsed on one of the overstuffed chairs that decorated the lounge and still smelled vaguely of cigarette smoke although the lounge had been off-limits to tobacco at least as long as she had been teaching. She knew it would be better for everyone if her mother and Mona got jobs. She also knew that there was no way in the world that she could threaten them, let alone follow through on it. And the only way Mona would ever get off her butt was if she had to. Dang.

"A cup of coffee will make you feel better,” Lena suggested.

"A shot of vodka would make me start to feel better. Two might actually get me a little cheerful. Coffee will only make me feel more awake. Right now I wish I was still asleep dreaming of being rich."

Or maybe this whole thing was a nightmare. She pinched herself. “Ouch."

"I already tried that.” Lena laughed. “Five grand is better than a poke in the eye, anyway."

"Yeah.” So much for her wishes. At least Derrick had turned out all right. She suppressed the sudden queasy feeling. Of course Derrick was all right.

Katra ignored her own advice and took a sip of the hot sweet coffee Lena had put together for her. “Thanks."

The bell rang just before she could take a second sip. Katra looked at her watch. “Since I'm not rich, I'd better get back to class."

As she turned the corner to her classroom, her peripheral vision caught sight of something moving—something that looked like Derrick. By the time she turned her head, it was gone.

She must have Derrick on the brain, Katra decided. There was no way he would be wandering around Maude E. Smithson Elementary School.

"After last night, I can't believe you were seriously interested in that little tramp.” Sara heard her voice climb a full octave between when she'd started the sentence and when she finished, but she didn't have enough self-control to stop. In fact, she didn't want that much self-control.

She jammed down on the accelerator but her Miata slowed, then coasted to a stop. “Oh, great. Now
my
car is broken."

"It's all right. I just stopped it."

"Why? Getting a little too hot for you? Or did you want to go back to little miss blondie?"

Jack shook his head. “I'm used to the heat. And I don't understand your big issue with Amber. I told you we could work it so she wouldn't get hurt."

"I wasn't worried about
her
getting hurt.” Sara switched off the engine, then turned it back on. She could hear the engine running but it didn't seem to be sending any power through the transmission. “How did you destroy my car?"

"You always ask two things at once. I wonder if you really want an answer."

Jack had a point. Sara didn't want an answer. She wanted to hear him admit that he'd made a terrible mistake even looking at another woman and that he'd never do it again. She also wanted to mash down on her accelerator and see how fast she could get her car moving—preferably with Jack on the side of the road somewhere. Or maybe under the tires. Also, he had a nasty ability to avoid answering any questions at all. Like he was right then.

"All right, first questions first. Tell me what's wrong with my car."

"My stupid promise came into effect again. You were going to run that light and crash. You could have been hurt and I couldn't let that happen."

"I wouldn't have run any light."

He nodded glumly. “You were so mad you didn't even see it."

That wasn't the only signal she'd missed. Steering clear of the local bad boys was something she'd painfully learned in school. So why had she fallen for one again? And why, even after seeing Jack eye little Amber or whatever her name was, did Sara still want him?

She had to put the whole thing behind her. “Well let up on the brakes. We've got a lease to check out.” When they got back to Dallas, she'd figure out how to send Jack back to Hell where he belonged.

"Are you going to answer my question?” Jack demanded.

"I forgot you had one."

"Yeah. I asked why you were so pissed."

As if he couldn't figure it out. “You can't go around scratching the itch of every oversexed teenaged girl."

Jack gave her the look she'd come to recognize as his reading her thoughts. His normally serious expressing changed to a grin. “You're jealous. I forgot about the human exclusivity myth and you're jealous.” He made it sound like a wonderful discovery.

"I'm not jealous.” The idea was silly.

As she watched him in her rear view mirror, Sara saw a transformation cross Jack's face. He looked saddened, even concerned, to her surprise.

"Please Sara, don't lie. Not even to yourself. It's important. I think you can take it from me that it isn't a good idea."

Some day, Sara would have to put Jack on the spot and find out about this angel and demon thing. The poor thing seemed full of contradictions. He couldn't lie and it pained him when others did. Yet he flinched when anyone spoke of God. He kept his promises even when breaking them would have been easy. Yet he seemed completely unconcerned with others’ feelings.

"Maybe I was a little jealous,” she admitted. “A woman can't really enjoy sex without making herself believe there is something special there. A relationship."

Jack's smile faded. “I'd heard of the exclusivity myth but I never experienced it first hand. All of the scientific evidence proves that humans are not naturally monogamous."

Sara took a calming breath and counted to five. Neither helped. “You are such a typical man. Just because you can't keep your prick under control, you think everyone is like that. Think again."

Jack nodded. “Nobody has ever cared enough about me to be jealous before. It's sweet."

"I'm over it now. I'm over you now. Completely cured."

"You're not. But you should be. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, you'll end up hurt."

"I can take care of myself.” Sara had always taken care of herself before.

"You've spelled yourself into a bigger problem than you've ever had before."

"I've known plenty of men who have to sleep with anything in a skirt. Just because you can't control yourself, what makes you think you're so special?"

Jack lowered the window and made a gesture. A fork of lightning blasted the traffic light turning it instantly green. “Little things."

Sara stared at the crooked bolt through the air sustained by nothing and supported by nothing. “Oh."

"But you're wrong about one thing."

"What's that?"

"I may not have the universe's greatest control, but I certainly don't have any need to sleep with anything in a skirt. Now that I know it bothers you, I won't."

"Really?” Sara had heard plenty of men promise that they would never go wrong again. Of course all Jack had really done was to check out the blonde bimbo. Just about any guy she knew would have done that—it's just that they would have lied about it.

"Really,” he answered. “Or at least for a few thousand years.

Sara told herself she should tell him to go ahead and do what he wanted, for him not to worry about her. Only she couldn't make herself do it. Even thinking about Jack with another woman hurt more than she would have guessed possible.

She glanced at the traffic light, which had switched between red and green about six times since Jack had stalled her car but had stayed green since Jack had blasted it. Just as Jack had promised, she powered through without any problem.

They drove a few minutes in silence as Sara worked through what had just happened. “I guess that's the end of our problem, then,” she finally concluded.

Jack gave her a half smile. “I don't think you grasp how big a problem this is."

Maybe it was just relief, or maybe it was the look in little Miss Amber's eyes when she'd mentally attacked Jack, but all of a sudden, Sara's libido had switched into overtime. “Why don't you whip it out and let's see whether we can take care of the, ah, problem, right here."

"Very funny.” He paused for a moment. The expression that crossed his face could have been pain, but it could also have been desire. Then he shook his head and all his expression vanished. “Since I promised I would never hurt you, you put me in a bit of a paradox here."

"Speaking of here, we're at the lease. What do you think?"

Jack looked around at the desolate country. “Boring. Looks sort of like Hell only cooler."

"It's got to be a hundred and twenty."

"A lot cooler."

Sara looked at him with pity. “Oh. So that's why you aren't in a hurry to go back."

He started to nod, then stopped. It had been the reason, of course. Anything was an improvement after Hell. Now, even though he'd only spent a day with Sara, his reasons were more complex. He had managed to have sex without damaging anyone. He hadn't done any particularly great evil—although he wasn't sure Katra would agree when she got to know Derrick better—and he hadn't been hounded by Angels or other demons. Not yet.

He decided to temporize. “That's part of it."

Sara flushed. Obviously he hadn't been indirect enough. Still, she was the one who had been propositioning him only seconds before.

She pulled off the paved road and bumped for a couple of miles on a rough dirt trail then parked under a tree. “All right, we're here. Time to earn our keep. Do you see any natural gas down there."

"It isn't that easy. I can look straight down at any point, but I only see what's directly beneath. I can't scan hundreds of acres at a time."

He matched his action to his words, peering through the soil and into the rock structure that underlay everything.

"Well, looking straight down, do you see gas?"

He stared harder, picking up the heated pressure that buckled up against the rock dome. “Yeah. Some. Maybe."

"Good.” Sara grinned.

"I thought you wanted me to give you a definite answer."

Her smile broadened. “I did. But then I realized something. If you could do it all, what possible use would I be? I spent five years in college getting my degree. I sort of like the idea that I didn't throw away my time."

She seemed content with her answer, but Jack wasn't. “You're in charge. You just tell me what to do and I do it. You'll get the credit and the money regardless of whether you did anything to help."

She shook her head. “For someone who can look into a person's soul, you don't get it, do you? Do you really think I want to be some sort of parasite living off of you? When my parents went bankrupt, I promised them I'd build a petroleum business for them. I intend to do the building, not just sit back and watch the money come in from what you do."

"I guess I understand."

"All right, here's what we do. I'll look at the rock formations and set off a few test explosions. With any luck, I'll be able to locate a few prime spots. Then you can work your magic."

"Uh, can I finish my burger first?” To his surprise, he'd actually gotten used to the thing. Besides, eating was a cheap way to add a little more substance to the illusion he created.

Sara blushed. “Uh, sure. I'm sorry I dumped the fries."

They walked to the other side of the tree and sat and Jack let his taste buds experiment with food. It was fascinating.