Bound By Lucifer by Aiden Pierce

Chapter Eleven

Jess

Why me?

That was the golden question, wasn’t it?

Why was one of the richest men in the world, the devil of all people, interested in me?

I swallowed hard, my gaze dropping to the crisp, white tablecloth. “So, why me then? Are you going to tell me so we can be done with magical food charades?”

He chewed his lip, obviously anxious as if he was holding back something burning on the tip of his tongue. “Let’s skip the rest of the courses and go straight to the last one, dessert. Taste it, then I’ll tell you.”

“What’s so important about the dessert that it has to come before the conversation you owe me about wanting to own my fucking heart, Lucifer? What is all this?”

“Just humor me, Jessica. Please?”

My chest ached from the way he said “please.” It was tender, beseeching. It was the first time he asked for anything while sparing me the suave, arrogant, I-always-get-what-I-want, rich asshole act.

“Fine. Then you have to tell me what’s going on.”

He signaled to Cerberus, who’d been peering through the round window in the kitchen door, waiting for his master’s beckon. The man scrambled forward, the door swinging open with an energy rivaling the chef’s gusto, sporting a tray with two delectable-looking tarts. I barely paid attention to him as he set them in front of us. My gaze was glued to the other man who’d appeared from the kitchen, the behemoth of a demon shifter, Abaddon. He leaned against the door, with his arms crossed over the great expanse of his muscular chest, watching me as carefully as Lucifer. Seeing him standing there made my skin prickle with an inexplicable sense of foreboding.

“Jessica?” My name on the devil king’s tongue tugged my attention away from Abaddon.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“This is a plum and mascarpone tart, inspired by the Ninth Layer of Hell,” Cerberus repeated.

“Sounds delicious,” I said with an edge of sarcasm, even though the confection looked and smelled absolutely amazing. The baked treat was round, with thick slices of plum on top, caramelized to perfection. My mouth watered just looking at it.

Abaddon, Cerberus, and Lucifer all watched me with varying degrees of anticipation. I speared myself a perfect piece with equal proportions of plum, crust, and cream and slipped it into my mouth.

The second I tasted the intoxicating morsel, I didn’t care who was watching me. I was somewhere else. The flavors summoned a memory, a fuzzy one that I couldn’t quite seem to grasp the details of. Even though I couldn’t recall what the memory was, I knew how it made me feel.

I had just met someone for the first time. Someone important to me. Someone I loved.

Someone I’d lost.

My heart throbbed, aching in the sudden grip of grief’s cruel fist. Which didn’t make any damn sense. I’d never lost anyone in my life. My dad’s death was lurking just around the corner, so I was well acquainted with that suffocating dread, but nothing could prepare me for the sudden grief that slammed into me like a freight train.

It wasn’t until Lucifer’s arms were wrapped around me, pulling me up and out of my chair, into his chest, that I realized I was sobbing.

If this was a normal date with a “normal” hot as sin, playboy billionaire, I would be horrified to be ugly crying all over his Armani suit that probably cost more than my life.

Maybe I should have anticipated the literal devil to bring me to tears. In a way, maybe I had expected it. But I thought that at best, the tears I would spill for him would be tears of ecstasy because selling my heart probably meant I was selling my body. At worst, I’d expected tears of anger because a girl had to regret selling herself to the devil, no matter how many lives it saved.

But I hadn’t anticipated tears of anguish, of loss for something I couldn’t even remember losing.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I whispered against his tear-stained tie.

He stroked my hair with tender, revenant fingers. The gentle gesture was confusing.

“What is it that I’m doing to you, Jessica?” he murmured in my ear.

“Dude, really?” I jerked my head away to blink at him with irritated exasperation. “There’s some kind of magic in the food or–or something. I came here with my mind pretty much already made up about giving you my heart to save my dad. Whatever that means. You could have gone without the gourmet physiological mind games.”

“Jessica. There is no magic in the food. And I wouldn’t dream of playing games with you unless it’s the bedroom variety.”

“If there’s no magic, why am I recalling memories that aren’t mine?”

“What if I said that we can forget the contract if you just kissed me? You don’t need to sign anything. Just kiss me.”

He was deflecting, but I took the bait. No creepy contracts? Deal. I’d kissed a lot less attractive guys before, and I didn’t get anything out of those regrettable frat-party make-out sessions except the need to take a shower the next morning.

His eyes darkened, his perfect lips slowly spreading into the most lickable smirk. “Kiss me.”

“What about my heart? What about the job?”

His fingers wrapped my chin in a grip that was as demanding as it was gentle. “Dearest Jessica. My sweet Jessica. This was never about a job. This is about your heart. Your father’s health, money, a position at any of my companies, you can have whatever you desire.” His voice dropped to a whisper, charged with something that sent a rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins. “All you have to do is give me your heart, and it starts with a single kiss.”

Abaddon tensed in my periphery, reminding me that we weren’t alone. For whatever reason, I felt even more uneasy around Lucifer’s demonic henchmen and as weird as it was to blame it on a single meal, I was pretty sure the food had something to do with it. Every time I looked at that demon, I got a sour taste in my mouth.

Gleaning my unease through my thoughts, Lucifer ordered the chef and his henchman away.

Cerberus scrambled off to the kitchen, and Abaddon’s eyes narrowed. He almost looked like he wasn’t going to leave for a moment until he turned back into the kitchen with a gruff “hmph.”

Lucifer’s hand cupped my cheek and guided my gaze back to his.

His golden eyes were warm, swirling with emotion. It was the look of a man in love.

It was utterly stupid. He didn’t even know me.

“One kiss? And you’ll save my dad?”

His lips pursed into a smile that seemed too warm for the devil. “The deal is for your heart. I’m just not making you sign any contracts. A kiss will suffice in cementing our deal.”

The moment we met at the bar, it felt like something out of our control was fusing us together. If I believed in things like reincarnation, I might think we’d met in a past life. With how this “date” was going, Lucifer was acting like we had known each other for a lifetime.

By his gentle touch, his soft words, the glimmer in his eyes, he wasn’t regarding me like he was planning on having my heart for dessert. He was looking at me like he wanted my heart right where it was, so long as he could call it his.

But that was stupid.

Satan wasn’t a romantic. Right?

My mind was a tangle of a million questions.

How was he going to help my dad?

Could the devil really cure cancer?

Why was he so interested in me, of all people?

But instead of asking any of them, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his in a ruinous kiss to seal the deal.

His lips tasted like nothing I could have ever imagined. The tart had been literally out of this world delicious, but his mouth was the real decadent delicacy. His kiss was a heady cocktail of the most wicked ingredients; a dash of damnation and a whole fuck-ton of sin.

Yet somehow pressed up against the impeccable body of this forsaken angel, sharing the most unholy of kisses, I found a dark paradise that almost felt like…

I couldn’t even finish the thought.

It scared me.

Because how could the devil feel like—

“You feel like home, Jessica,” Lucifer breathed against my lips, finishing the thought I was too afraid to think, let alone say.

Home. What a dangerous notion around a man like him. If he could even be called that. He was all hot-blooded male, taut muscles, and soul-stealing eyes. He was the son of God and not the good one.

If any other man had said that I felt like “home,” on a date, I’d be running for the hills. But Lucifer wasn’t any other man, and this wasn’t exactly what I’d call a date.

It felt like a reunion.

Which was impossible.

But regardless of what the logical part of my brain told me, he’s a stranger and a dangerous one. I should be against making any kind of deal with him, especially a deal that involved body parts. But in his hands, my body was putty, and oh God, did it feel right. Maybe it was the wine from Limbo talking here, but it felt almost…familiar.

I sank into him with a sigh, melting against the hard heat of his muscular chest. His lips moved slow and languid against mine, savoring each second of the connection. I didn’t want it to end. I wasn’t just enjoying my kiss with the prince of darkness. I was reveling in it.

His gentle touches turned greedy. He nipped at my bottom lip and growled in pleasure as he consumed my breathy gasp of surprise. His hands slid from my cheeks to hold the back of my head, fingers knotting possessively in my hair.

It quickly turned from a sweet kiss to ravenous consumption. His tongue forced its way into my mouth, swirling, tasting, staking claim over the cavity in its conquest to consume and conquer.

I moaned into him, my cheeks burning red in a heady mix of embarrassment and desire.

At this rate, the kiss was heading in a very dangerous direction.

Reckless Jessica was all on board, and at that precise moment, she seemed to have the reins over my pussy because my thighs were soaking. From just a kiss.

No, it was more than that.

Tonight I might have damned my soul, but in Lucifer’s arms, it felt like I had found salvation.