You are unlike any woman I have met before. You are strong, and courageous, and you do not suffer fools. Not to mention the fact that your breasts drive me to distraction.'
I sucked in an inordinate amount of air as one of his hands suddenly cupped my aching breast, gently teasing my nipple until I thought I would spontaneously combust. 'You have way too many clothes on,' I finally managed to say, my hands shaking with excitement as I struggled with the buttons on his shirt.
'Yes, yes I do. Feel free to remove them.'
I all but ripped his shirt off, ignoring the sound of a couple of buttons as they pinged on the floor, my eyes feasting on his bare chest for a moment before he pulled me back into an embrace.
'I highly approve of your chest. It's masculine without being overly hairy,' I said as his mouth descended upon mine, the last coherent words I spoke while he kissed the breath right out of my lungs. He tasted faintly of wine, and something that was wholly Theo, an elusive masculine taste that thrilled me. His hands were everywhere, touching, stroking, teasing me in so many different places that all I could think of was how much I wanted him.
'You look as if you're hot,' he said a few minutes later, when we came up for air. The desire and admiration in his eyes bathed me in a glow that raised my temperature another notch.
'Sweltering,' I said, panting slightly. 'Teddies are notoriously hot.'
His gaze slipped down to my chest. 'In so many ways. But it would be ungentlemanly of me to allow you to be uncomfortable. Would you like me to remove the cause of your discomfort?'
'You may,' I said, chafing a bit at the leisurely way he drew a finger along my collarbone to the thin strap of the teddy. He paused for a moment, passion flaring deep in his eyes.
'Would this be the sort of garment that closes at the crotch?'
Warmth burst out in the pit of my stomach, quickly spreading to surrounding areas. Deeply personal parts of my body were tingling in celebration. I swallowed hard again, trying to keep my voice steady. 'How do you know about that sort of thing?'
He grinned. 'Just because I'm immortal doesn't mean I don't live in the here and now.'
'That's a little more up to date than I imagined. But as you ask, yes, it is that sort of teddy. You're going to have to undo the snaps in order to get it off.'
'I am only too happy to oblige,' he murmured, his hands caressing my belly for a moment before they slid lower.
I clutched his shoulders, my eyes closed as I braced myself for the touch of his fingers on my most intimate parts.
That touch never came.
'I'm sorry if I'm a bit…anticipatory,' I whispered, my eyes still closed. 'I can't seem to help it.'
Beneath my hands, his shoulders tightened. I opened my eyes to find him staring past me, his brows pulled down in a frown as he looked around the room.
'Is something wrong?' I asked, looking around as well. No one else was there.
'Don't you feel it?' He let go of me, taking a step forward, looking around us in a puzzled manner.
'I don't feel anything out of the ordinary, given the fact that I was about to jump your bones.'
His back stiffened. He grabbed his shirt, pulling it on quickly. 'Do you have a dressing gown?'
'Bathrobe? Yes, I do. It's on the chair behind you.'
He tossed my robe to me. 'Theo, is this some sort of odd English foreplay that I've never heard of?'
'Put it on. We're about to have a visitor.' He stalked over to where I stood in the corner of the room, waiting for me to comply.
'All right, but this really will make me hot. It's crushed velvet and not the lightest thing in the world.' He watched silently as I donned the bathrobe. Dressing gown was actually a more appropriate term—it was one of my private pleasures to have a tailor custom make the long, full-skirted robe that closely resembled a Victorian lady's dressing gown. It had a square-necked front, heavily embroidered with gold thread, which set off the crimson velvet nicely.
I had just done up the buttons in the front when Theo spun around and looked to the opposite corner of the room. To my astonishment, the wall next to the bed rippled, then tore, a horrible rending sound filling the air. A short, dark man stepped out and snarled something I didn't understand. The lightbulb in the bedside lamp exploded, followed by tiny tinkling sounds as the glass rained down onto the floor.
'You are summoned,' the short man growled, grabbing for me.
Theo wrapped his arm around me, pulling me protectively to his side, putting his body between us. 'Not without me.'
The man smirked. It was such an oily, evil smile; I felt soiled by exposure to it. I didn't have long to fret about that, though. The man simply grabbed Theo by the free arm, and yanked him—and me—through the tear in the wall.
We were falling, sinking, spinning, our insides churning outward in a soul-rending process that sank us deep into a horrible miasma of pain and nausea. Just when I thought I was going to pass out or die (I wasn't sure which, and at that point, didn't really care), the horror ended and I dropped to a yielding, warm surface.
'Ow!' grunted the surface.
I pushed myself off, apologizing under my breath to Theo. 'Sorry about that. Did I hurt you? What just happened? Who is that horrible man? How did he come through the wall? And just where the blistering inferno are we?'
'Ah. There you are. You may leave, Digan.'
I was insanely glad that Theo made me put my bathrobe on. The man who had spoken strolled into view as we got to our feet. My jaw just about hit my feet at the sight of him—he was one of the most beautiful men who'd ever walked the earth. Theo was handsome—almost too handsome, with his dark, brooding looks that seemed to do odd things to my stomach—but this man was astoundingly, breathtakingly beautiful. Dark blond, curly hair framed a face that was almost feminine, with high cheekbones, sculpted honey blond eyebrows, startlingly blue eyes, and full lips that quirked as I gawked.
'You like this form?' the man asked, doing a little twirl for me. The rest of him was just as impressive as his face, but as he came closer, my skin crawled. His hair suddenly turned dark, straightened, and grew about a foot. His brow broadened, his eyes narrowed slightly, and his jaw became more pronounced as his entire face morphed into that of another equally beautiful man. 'Or perhaps you like this one better?'
Theo's arm slid around my waist. I leaned into him, pulling comfort from the contact. I didn't know who the morphing man in front of us was, but I didn't like him.
'No? You prefer redheads?'
He changed again, this time into a freckled, red-haired man with an angular jaw and glittering grey eyes.
Theo's arm tightened around me. 'You are Bael, I presume?'
My eyes widened. This beautiful man was a demon lord, the first prince of Abaddon?
'I have that honor.' The man bowed politely at Theo, then turned to me and laughed at what was probably a horrified expression on my face. 'Since you have no preference, my dear, I shall go back to my normal Tuesday form.'
He shifted back to the blond Adonis with no visible effort, turning to a large desk that sat behind him. I looked quickly around us. 'This is hell?' I asked Theo in a whisper. 'I expected something along the lines of pits of fire and a hail of brimstone.'
'I detest the smell of brimstone,' Bael said, pulling a sheet of paper from his desk and glancing over it. 'And pits of fire make the fax machine act up. Ah, yes, the matter of the demon Nefere.'
We appeared to be in the office of an affluent businessman, the standard desk with computer, phone, and assorted office-type items behind the demon lord. A comfy suede couch sat on one side of the room, while on the other a glass table held a magnificent floral bouquet. It was everything one did not expect to find as the
