Page 82 of Hell Raising and Other Pastimes (Grave Concerns 2)

Chapter Twenty

Lucifer’s room was empty when I entered, but the guard left me in it anyway.

I supposed that made sense. What was I going to do to Lucifer? Even unattended in his room?

After a few minutes, Lucifer appeared, walking into the room. He was as put-together as ever, a glass with dark amber liquid in it, a white collared shirt on with a vest that matched his slacks. The cuffs of his shirt were undone, and he’d rolled them up to his forearms as if the day had been too much.

When his gaze landed on me, he stilled for one long moment. “You are an enigma, Ms. Harlin.” He didn’t say it with any affection, as if it charmed him at all.

Still, I pulled the edges of my robe as if it were the finest of suits.

Lucifer came closer, eyebrow lifted as he peered down. “Do you have penises on your clothing?”

“Yep.”

“And you think this offers you some sort of protection?”

“In my experience, penises tend to make all problems worse.”

“So why wear them?”

“Because they’re as absurd as the rest of my life.”

He looked me up and down again, before shaking his head, as if he’d realized that no answer I could give would make any sense.

“You know you cheated.”

“If anyone doesn’t cheat, they don’t care enough about the game.”

“And you don’t care at all that you didn’t win fair and square?”

“What story have you heard about me that makes you think I care about being fair?”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came to mind. I hated when someone made a good point.

“So what now?” I tucked my hands into the pockets of my robe. “I’d like to get through whatever it is you’ve got planned as quickly as possible.”

“Are you not worried about what it is I want from you?”

“I just figure whatever it is, worrying about it won’t help. I made my bed, now I have to lie in it. I just hope to fuck you aren’t in it also.” The joke came out thin, the first time I admitted to just how worried I was about that particular concern.

Ireallydidn’t want to have to have sex with him. He hadn’t implied he wanted that at all—in fact, he’d treated me like a child he had to put up with more than anything else—but I still didn’t trust him. All the horror movies I’d seen where women stupidly sleep with the devil and ended up birthing some demon spawn came back to me. I wasn’t ready to raise the antichrist…

Lucifer caught my chin in a grip that was nothing like when Kase did it to me. It was rough and none-too-kind. He forced my eyes to his red ones. “Let me be clear. I have no interest in you physically. I will not now, nor in the future, compel you to have sex with me.” Even the way he said it made it clear the idea was not in the least appealing, especially when he tacked on “ever” to the end of his statement.

Which should have pleased me—and it did, somewhat. Still, being so soundly rejected made me wonder exactly what his type was.

Not mouthy humans in penis robes, clearly.

Stop worrying about the devil finding you attractive, damn it.

“So what do you want? If you planned this all, it has to be important.”

“Indeed, it is. It has been a long while since I’ve had to do this much work to get my hands on a mortal. Then again, we both know there is more to you than meets the eye.”

“You use a lot of words to say nothing.”

“And you have a death wish with the way you speak to those who could kill you.”

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