What a Demon Wants (4 page)

He turned the knob and slowly pushed it open. It indeed led to her bedroom. The first thing to greet him was a huge, four-poster bed, covered in a fluffy pink comforter like a billow of cotton candy.

She sure did like pastel colors. He wandered to a window on the far wall and fingered the sheer mint green panel that covered the panes.

The room was surprisingly large, and given the smallness of the rest of her place, clearly an addition. It looked newer than the rest of the building, with its modern windows and highly polished hardwood floors.

Another window stood on the same wall, also covered by mint green sheers. The curtains would be opaque enough to stop anyone from seeing clearly inside, but they wouldn’t hide Ellina’s silhouette as she moved around the room, especially at night.

Jude parted the curtain. Her room backed up to a small rectangular courtyard surrounded by a six-foot privacy fence twined with oleander and jasmine. An easy fence to scale. A small café table and chairs sat to one side of the flagstone patio. A lounge chair was off to the side. He recalled the door to enter the courtyard was in Ellina’s office.

That would have to be locked at all times. He made a mental note to tell her.

He turned back to her cotton-candy room. On the other side of her bed, beside the door that led back to her bathroom, was another door. A closet, he suspected.

He hesitated, debating whether he should open the door, then grimaced. This was part of his job. He had to know the layout of a place. The potential hazards, the pitfalls, the places that Ellina needed to be aware about too.

He crossed the room and jerked the door open, the old hinges making a squeaky protest. A warning should anyone hide in there.

The closet wasn’t a full walk-in, but it was big enough for someone to hide.

Searching for a light, he discovered a piece of blue yarn hanging down from an exposed bulb on the ceiling. He tugged, and the metal chain at the base of the socket scraped against the old porcelain fixture as the closet flooded with light.

The closet must be part of the original structure, he noted.

Jude shifted some of the neatly hung clothes aside, again noting that the hangers scraped on the metal rod. Another warning should someone try to sneak out of there.

The back of the closet was deeper than he first thought. Definitely room for a full-grown man—or preternatural—to hide, unseen behind the clothing.

He started to drop his hand away from Ellina’s garments, when his fingers brushed against something smooth. Soft, silky.

Against his better judgment, he pushed the other clothes back to inspect the scrap of satiny cloth. And scrap was exact. It was a small nightgown, black, smattered with tiny white polka dots. The thin straps clung to the hanger, revealing a neckline that plunged low and was trimmed in black lace.

“Is going through a person’s closet how you usually protect your clients?”

Chapter 4

Jude dropped the nightgown, shutting the door with more force than necessary. He turned to find Ellina standing in the center of her bedroom, her jeans and vintage-looking Beatles T-shirt at odds with the frilly room. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, then tilted her head, waiting.

He wasn’t sure if she had seen exactly what he was doing, but she knew he’d been doing something.

“Your closet is a potential vulnerability,” he stated, trying to sound as stern and unshaken as he could.

“Why? Are you tempted to cross-dress?”

He ignored her comment, trying to get control of the situation, and to forget that tiny little nightgown, and how it would look clinging to her tall, gently curved body. Job. She’s a job.

“You do realize someone could hide in your closet.”

Her lip curled up at one corner as if she was suppressing laughter—and she was losing.

“You know, I never really thought about it. But I’m pleased you did. Are you planning to guard the closet now?” This time she smiled fully, pleased with her ribbing.

He gritted his teeth, not knowing how to deal with this woman. Demon. Demon woman. So far she seemed either to be irritated with him or amused by him.

He could handle the first one much better. Smiling really did very distracting things to her mouth.

“I’m here to protect you.”

Ellina sighed, tightening her arms across her chest. “Right. And I’m sure with you here, I’ll be perfectly safe.”

That was the theory. But sometimes that wasn’t the case.

“So what is the other job?”

Her question caught him so off guard, he didn’t respond.

“You know,” she prompted, “the one that’s a better fit.”

“Weren’t you supposed to be working?” he said, realizing his words sounded terse, rude. But he did not want to talk about this.

She surprised him again by smiling wider.

“Yes. Definitely. I just wanted to tell you to help yourself to whatever you can find in the kitchen. I don’t have much, but anything you want is yours.”

Anything you want is yours.

An image of her in that wisp of silk flashed in his mind. He gritted his teeth for a moment, forcing the tantalizing picture away.

“Thanks,” Jude managed, though his voice sounded rough, guttural.

She didn’t seem to notice.

“So that job?” she asked again.

God, she was tenacious.

“That’s not really something I can discuss.” Since there was no other job.

She nodded, but clearly was not dissuaded from topic. “Is that because of client confidentiality, or just because you don’t like to explain anything?”

He had to give it to her, she was tenacious, and she didn’t beat around the bush.

“It’s a matter of client confidentiality,” he said. That sounded plausible.

She nodded again, but he could tell that answer didn’t satisfy her. He hadn’t known her long, but he was already detecting a pattern. Nodding, in her case, didn’t mean acceptance.

“I don’t just do bodyguard work,” he found himself saying in an attempt to beat her to the punch.

“Really?” Her eyes sparked with curiosity, and he regretted his effort. Great, here come more questions.

“What else do you do? Besides closet inspections?” She smiled, yet again pleased with her joke.

His eyes fastened on those full, pink lips.

“I do a lot of things,” he said, forcing his eyes back to hers. “Basically if you need someone paranormal to deal with something paranormal, then I’m the one for the job.”

She tilted her head, considering that. “And this other job, it’s not working as a bodyguard?”

“No.” He’d leave it at that.

His gaze returned to her lips. They didn’t look any less appealing in a contemplative frown.

“So what kind of job is it? I mean, give me a vague idea. You know, without going into specifics. After all, I wouldn’t want to overstep the client’s privacy.”

Like a dog with a bone. He shook his head, his emotions somewhere between annoyance and amusement.

“Somehow I don’t think you’re that concerned with my client’s privacy,” he said.

Ellina widened her eyes as if she was offended, then she shrugged. “You’re right.

I’m not.”

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, the sensation almost foreign to him.

Her pale eyes locked on his mouth, homing in on that slight smile.

Then she stepped back from him, as if she suddenly needed to put more space between them. And again her line of conversation switched abruptly, which seemed to be commonplace for her.

“You probably should go with the other job. Really. I have friends I can call should anything happen. And I know how to dial 911.”

He didn’t answer, and she didn’t wait for him to do so.

“I’ve got to go write.” With that, she left the room.

Jude had to give it to her—Ellina’s departures were as abrupt as her questions and subject changes.

She was right. He should just go, but he couldn’t, even though he knew this job was dangerous. And probably not worth any amount of money.

Breathe. Breathe.

This was so bad. Bad, bad, bad.

She hurried into her office. Ignoring her promise to Jude, Ellina shut her French doors, then leaned against them.

Damn it. She was finding her reluctant bodyguard attractive. Extremely attractive.

Like heart-racing, skin-tingling, parts of her body growing moist attractive.

Which would be fine, if her physical reaction stopped with the heart-racing, skin-tingling parts of her body growing moist part. But her reaction didn’t.

She carefully lifted her shirt, peering down at her bared stomach. Then she jammed the shirt back down and groaned loudly, letting her head fall back against the door. She waited a moment, eyes squeezed shut, then lifted her shirt again.

Red scales replaced the pale skin that usually covered her stomach.

She groaned again.

Men got erections. Some women’s nipples hardened. When she became aroused, she got scales, horns, and glowing eyes.

She made a frustrated growl low in her throat and walked over to the window that looked out at her small, enclosed courtyard. She rested her forehead on the cool glass, breathing slowly, willing away her reaction to him. When that didn’t work, she opened the French doors that led outside, letting the winter air waft over her, breathing it deep into her lungs, willing the chill to drive away the heat in her body.

Gradually the low burn faded, taking the scales away with it.

She studied her garden. Her hanging flowers had gone by, the coolness of the winter months withering the colorful blossoms to shriveled brown. But much of the foliage clung to the hints of sunlight, remaining green.

She knew it was not strange or abnormal to find a man attractive. In fact it was very normal. But given what she was, and how her demon side had chosen to manifest itself, crushes, love, and sex had never been a realistic option for her.

Just like the green vines and bushes in her garden clinging to the sunlight, even in winter, Ellina’d once longed for a real relationship. She’d had a seed of hope. But now she thought she’d honestly given up on that idea, especially since she’d never found preternatural creatures attractive. And they were the only ones she could expect to understand and accept her little oddity.

Oh, she could easily see that demons and vampires, even werewolves, were stunning creatures, but it was exactly their physical perfection that turned her off. It wasn’t real. It was an illusion, a creation of their supernatural nature.

She much preferred human men. Human men with imperfections. Real smiles with the occasional crooked tooth. Glasses. A few gray hairs. Realistically handsome.

She wasn’t perfect—being half demon/half human wasn’t even close to perfect, so she didn’t feel like she could ever be comfortable with perfection. She wanted normal, average.

But therein lied the trick; she wasn’t normal. At all. And she couldn’t have a human man. It would take a pretty extraordinary guy to understand what she was.

Sure, her brother had found a human partner, but he didn’t have Ellina’s little—issue.

Okay, big, big issue.

So she’d accepted that a relationship wasn’t going to happen for her. Most men quickly lost interest when they learned sex was off the table. And who could blame them?

She lifted her shirt, and her pale smooth skin had returned. She let out a breath, then closed the doors, blocking out the cold air, turning her back on the bits of garden that clung to the hope of warmth and summer sun.

So why this guy? A man she didn’t even want in her house. And she was using the term “man” very loosely, because she didn’t even know what he was. But he wasn’t human.

Maybe her reaction was due to cutting herself off from everyone. For several years now, she’d kept herself closed off, in the safety of her home, because here she could control her demon side.

Maybe she would be attracted to any man…male…whatever.

But Jude? Really? First of all, he wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy. He clearly didn’t have a great affinity to her. And he was really too uptight.

But it was that smile of his. It had just briefly and very unnervingly hinted at a more human side to the huge, rigid, humorless bodyguard.

Human side. Hmm, that was probably exactly what appealed to her. Aroused her.

All she had to do was remember he wasn’t human. He wasn’t normal. And she did not need any more unusual in her life.

Feeling calmer, she moved around her desk to her computer. With a self-control she had managed to groom over the years, she returned to her book. What was the word for how she had dealt all these years? Sublimation.

She was a pro at sublimating—and she’d deal with this strange little reaction the same way. Redirect her desire into her writing.

So he was attractive. So what?

Jude finished his evaluation of the house, avoiding Ellina’s office. He wasn’t ready for another run-in with his interesting client. Then he headed back to her lavender and gold living room. Easing down on one of the chairs, he let his tense muscles relax as much as he could.

He wasn’t going to be able to do this. If he was smart, and he liked to believe he was, he’d try to find someone else for this job.

But still Jude didn’t rise to leave.

Really, how could he? He didn’t know anyone to contact, and he wasn’t the type to trust someone else to do the job right. And what if something happened…

He was stuck.

He leaned back in the chair, resting his hands on either arm. The brocade material was oddly rough and satiny all at once under his fingers, the cushions firm, but comfortable. A weird paradox like the house itself. Like its owner.

He sat still, silent. Just listening. Just taking in the feel of the house.

He could hear Ellina moving. The faint creak as she shifted her chair. The tap of her fingers over her keyboard. Noises that reached him across a distance as if he were drifting off to sleep and they might be real or they might be a dream.

He wondered how he could still recall that somnolent state, that place between reality and slumber, considering he hadn’t slept in hundreds of years. Funny the memories that never faded. Even over centuries.

He listened to Ellina’s steady rhythm for—well, he didn’t really know how long.

Suddenly the even, lulling tempo stopped, but before he could barely register the break, a small, sharp cry broke the sudden silence. Definitely real.

Jude leapt to his feet and was down the hall in one fluid, instantaneous motion. When he reached the office doorway, he saw two men standing in center of the room, their tall frames blocking Ellina from his view.

Both men turned when they heard him at the door, and Jude was struck by the strangeness of their looks. They were identical, except they seemed to be negative exposures of each other. One had black hair, a true black with no hint of any other color in the locks, and the darkest eyes—like bottomless caverns—Jude had ever seen. Both his hair and eyes seemed to eat the light, absorbing it like a black hole.

The other had white hair, pure white like newly fallen snow, and the palest eyes, his irises only a shade or two darker than the whites of his eyes.

Both men had ivory skin and dark red lips the color of deoxygenated blood.

Clearly not human. And the vibe in the room was not one of affability.

That was all Jude needed to register before bracing himself and inventorying his best plan of attack. The dark one was closest to him, and if Jude went low, he could possibly knock him off center and into the lighter one. That was, of course, if he could still get the element of surprise.

He suspected that aspect was gone.

Judging from their sizes, he’d be okay on sheer strength, even with two of them, but that was assuming they didn’t blindside him with some supernatural ability.

Not the best scenario. He wished he had his Benelli. A few large pumpkin-ball slugs with rock salt added for even more pain would slow them down enough for Jude to get the upper hand. But his shotgun was still in his van. He’d been stupid not to bring in his weapons as soon as he’d decided to take the job.

Was he decided then?

Jude frowned.

Not the time to continue that debate, buddy.

From the looks of the strange guys in front of him, he was in the midst of the job. He remained coiled, trying to read their slightest movements, their expressions, and also trying not to be distracted by the strangeness of their looks.

Two he could definitely handle, but not if his attention was being drawn back and forth between them. Damn, their appearances were disconcerting.

But neither man, or rather creature, seemed inclined to move toward him. Instead, in unison, they turned back toward Ellina, who Jude managed to catch a glimpse of between their broad shoulders.

Jude couldn’t tell from his position which one of the weird twins spoke, but he heard the words clearly.

“Who’s the dude, sis?”