His Final Seduction Read online

  There was so much more she wanted to tell him, like how she thought she was falling in love with him, but she didn’t want to scare him away. She settled for kissing him again, but his lips resisted hers.

  Then he pulled away altogether.

  He sat up and flung his legs over the side of the bed. His head dropped forward into his palms. Sydney sat too. Her first instinct was to apologize, to say she wasn’t trying to push him into a commitment, but Damien spoke first, his uncanny ability to sense her thoughts lifting its head again.

  “You have no need to apologize to me.” His voice was soft, hesitant. “None whatsoever.”

  “Then what’s with the black-cloud mood change?”

  For a long, torturous moment, he was silent. Thousands of questions filtered through her mind, drawing horrid pictures of her leaving the island without him, taking away the life-altering memories with her.

  “Do you remember the debt I told you about earlier?”

  “Yes.” How could she forget? Leaning forward, she pressed her lips to his shoulder, glad he was finally opening up. “What about it?”

  “A year ago, I met a beautiful woman here at the club, and in my usual bravado, I tried to seduce her.”

  Sydney pushed back the flashes of jealousy and anger his words fired up in her gut. She couldn’t get upset about women he’d seduced a year before they’d ever met. “And did you?”

  “Not exactly.” He stood, pulling his black robe together on his way to the bar. “This woman was easy to seduce, too easy when I think back on it. It should have been a red flag, but I guess I wanted to believe I was that good.” He poured a glass of coconut rum and knocked it back in one long gulp. “I took her to Carnal Cravings because it’s my preferred method for seducing women. They feel safe inside the restaurant because it has rules. By the time dinner’s over, most are so ready to have me finish what I started that the rest is easy.”

  Just like her…

  Sydney sat back, tucking the sheets around her body. He might as well be describing how he’d seduced her, only she preferred to see what happened between them as more than a simple seduction. If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t be telling her this stuff now, would he?

  She listened with a fast-beating heart as he continued. “But that night, everything got so screwed up in my mind that by the time our food arrived, I didn’t know what I was doing anymore. The power had shifted to her. One of the last things I remember is eating the bad blowfish and being rushed to the hospital. I was delirious from the pain, and there wasn’t anything the doctors could do to help me. I was about to die. But then someone came to me with a proposition and a cure for my illness.”

  “How?” Sydney asked, already dreading his answer.

  “By signing the contract she presented, she would give me an antidote.” He refilled his glass, took another long pull. “And I signed it. All I wanted to do was make the pain stop, and I was more than willing to pay whatever she asked. But I found out too late just how high the price was.”

  She finally stood from the bed, the sheet still tucked around her. In their earlier conversation, he’d mentioned that the debt was too high to pay and that it might end his life. Another facet of the conversation popped into her mind. “Earlier, you said something about the fine print of that contract. Would you care to elaborate on that? Or better yet, let me see the contract. I might be able to help you.”

  “You can’t help me with this, Syd. I wish you could.”

  “You’d be surprised what all I’ve managed to void on behalf of my clients.” She pressed her palm against his cheek and gave him the most confident smile she could muster given the circumstance. “I was—am—very good at my job.”

  His almost-black eyes burrowed into hers, telling her how much trouble he was in and how scared he was, even if he’d never admit it. He was too proud to ask for help, but she wished he would. They were in this together now.

  “Come on, Damien,” she pleaded. “What do you have to lose by showing me the contract?”

  He closed his eyes, swallowed hard, and when he spoke again, his voice was strained with regret. “You.”

  “Me?” Her mind slammed into overdrive. How could a contract he made a year ago possibly affect how she saw him today? “What are you talking about, Damien?”

  He paused for a long moment before answering, giving the anxiety in her stomach time to twist her intestines into knots. “The contract I signed that night wasn’t with a person, Sydney. It was with a demon.”

  “Excuse me?” Her brow arched and she took a step back. Okay, she’d better have heard that wrong. “A demon?”

  “Yes. Her—its—name is Giselle St. Clair. She’s part of a sect of sex demons, a succubus. She’s the female of the breed.”

  Sydney stood speechless, staring at the man before her, a war waging between her heart and her mind. Between fact and fantasy. “I—”

  “Look, I know how it sounds, but just listen for a minute. The debt I owe her is in the form of seductions. Not money. For the past year, I’ve been forced to seduce women, steal a portion of their energy, then give it to Giselle.”

  A demon who lived on energy?

  She pressed her palms against her temples. Part of her wanted to laugh; the other half wanted to run. All of her hoped he was lying.

  Searching his face, she tried to reconcile everything he’d just said. “Please. Tell me you’re joking.”

  “I wish I could, Sydney.” Turning away, he flattened his palms against the bar and hung his head. “The contract gave me one year to seduce one hundred women. If I didn’t, I’d be forced to spend the rest of eternity as Giselle’s minion. I’ve also been cursed with the seductive powers of the incubi, and I used this ability on the women I targeted.”

  The women he targeted…

  Anger flashed behind her eyes. If all the shit he was spewing was the God’s honest truth, did that mean he’d used her too?

  “And you used these…these powers on me?” She didn’t even try to keep the rage from her voice. “To seduce me and help fulfill your contract?”

  “Yes. No. I mean…” He thrust his fingers through his hair, agony on his face, but she was too pissed to care. “I was supposed to, Sydney, and I admit I may have used them in the beginning to loosen you up, but I didn’t force you to have sex with me. I’ve never done that, even though I could have. Everything I used on you was simply getting you to go to dinner with me, then to stay once you got there. The rest happened naturally, without any of my manipulations. I swear.”

  “And I’m just supposed to believe you now?” If she’d had something in her hands, she would have thrown it at him. “Everything that’s happened between us has been built on a lie, Damien.”

  “I know, and you have every right to hate me, but—”

  “You’re damn right I have every reason to hate you! I trusted you. Gave you my body and my heart, but all this time, you were just using me.”

  He took a step toward her then must have thought better of it. “It started out that way, yes, but I’m telling you the truth now because I love you—”

  “Love?” A forced laugh escaped her lips. “You call what you did to me love?” She shook her head violently, gathering her scattered bikini pieces along with the remainder of her dignity. She had to get out of here, get away from him. She needed time to think, to process the crazy crap he’d told her.

  “Sydney, please,” he pleaded. “There’s still more I’ve got to tell you.”

  She whirled on him, and the broken, worn-down expression saturating his handsome face was devastating, but she wasn’t about to bare her soul to him again. “Well, you can save it. I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say to me.”

  “Giselle is coming for me at sunrise to collect her final payment. I don’t have anything to give her because—”

  His voice hitched. He was desperately trying to fight an onslaught of violent emotions. His face looked a thousand years old, and the agony in his eyes
almost stole her resolve. Almost.

  “Because what, Damien?”

  “I was supposed to kill you, Sydney.”

  Her blood froze solid in her veins, like an Alaskan river in the clutches of Old Man Winter. Everything they had cracked under the strain of those two words and obliterated her trust. “Kill me?”

  “But I couldn’t do it, Sydney. Not to you.” Damien rushed to her and dropped to his knees, his arms banding her middle. “You were supposed to be my final seduction, the means for me to finally be free of that damn contract, but I fell in love with you. Totally and completely, without any regrets.”

  Her body remained rigid, tears filling her eyes. She stared at the crown of Damien’s head and lifted a hand to comfort him but stopped. “I have to go.” Her voice was so soft she wasn’t sure he heard her, but his arms tightened around her.

  “Sydney, please…”

  “I need to think,” she whispered, extricating herself from his arms, tears sliding down her face, but his voice made her pause.

  “I don’t have much time, Sydney, but I want you to know something before you leave.” He cupped her cheeks between big hands and tilted her head until their eyes met. “I regret nothing. Not even for involving you in this mess—otherwise, I never would have met you. In all the ways that matter, you’ve saved me, novia.”

  Tears ran unchecked down her face. Demons. Siphoning energy. Seducing women. Damien killing her, now falling in love with her…

  Reality took a backseat and nightmares drove her mind down a twisty road of make-believe. She had to get out of here, away from his lies, away from him. She pushed free from his embrace, stumbling for the exit.

  “I love you, Sydney.” His voice hitched. “And I always will.”

  Hand on the door, she turned back to him, held his gaze for three heartbreaking seconds. “You don’t know what love is.”

  And before he could say another word, she walked out of the door and out of his life.

  Chapter Nine

  Damien didn’t bother to stand as Giselle walked up beside him. He kept his gaze steady on the rolling ocean. The hurricane everyone had been worrying about was falling apart—sort of like his life. He was about to become the closest thing to dead any man could be, but the only thing he cared about was the fact that he’d run off the only woman he’d ever loved. At least she was safe. He could take some solace in that.

  Giselle stopped in front of him, her long legs framing his view of the ocean. Still, he didn’t look up.

  “I see you’ve come empty-handed, Damien.”

  “So it would appear.”

  “You disappoint me.” She knelt, then with one long fingernail eased his face toward her. “To come this far only to fail now. It’s rather pathetic.”

  “I can’t kill her.” He met her sinister eyes with determination. He was doing the right thing. “I won’t kill her.”

  “You stupid, stupid man.” She cupped her hand around the back of his neck and wiggled her perfect body until she straddled his thighs. “You want to know the first thing I’m going to make you do when I take your soul?”

  Panic seized his heart and he shook his head. He tried to get up, but his limbs wouldn’t work. “No.”

  Giselle smiled that wicked smile he’d come to hate, the one that had helped lure him into this nightmare. “I’m going to make you fuck your precious Sydney James, just like I’m about to fuck you. Only instead of stealing her soul, you’re going to steal her life.”

  Sure hands reached inside his shorts and found his cock. He sucked in a deep breath, determined to fight her as long as he could, but his powers were no match for hers.

  “I won’t…hurt her.”

  “You won’t have a choice.” She stroked up and down his shaft until he was hard in her hands.

  “Always. Have. Choice.” In a few moments, he’d be lost in Giselle’s Neverland. “Never. Hurt. Sydney. Love. Her.”

  “Love?” She snorted, her motions becoming punishing. “You don’t know what love is.”

  She echoed the angry words Sydney had spoken as she’d walked out of his life. You don’t know what love is…

  Two days ago, they’d both have been right. But that was before Sydney, before he’d looked into her eyes and glimpsed the future he’d long ago given up on.

  A burst of energy sprang to his numb lips. “Love! Her!”

  Giselle screamed in pain and yanked her hand away from his erection.

  hhh

  Sydney sat alone on the beach. She hadn’t gotten very far after rushing out of Damien’s house. Her legs, mind, and soul had rebelled, and she’d simply collapsed onto the sand somewhere between the club and the man she’d left. The man she still loved.

  She tried to get her mind around everything he’d told her. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be true. Demons didn’t exist. Maybe in Hollywood but not in the real world.

  Right?

  Her encounter with the old fortuneteller returned to her mind. She still didn’t know what to make of the ordeal or his prediction. Dozens of potential theories surfaced…sun-induced hallucination, bad shellfish, a roofie in her drink.

  Demons…

  What kind of game was Damien playing at? Was everyone in on it?

  Okay, think. Breathe. There had to be a logical explanation. Demons lived in nightmares, not on remote Caribbean islands. The thought was ludicrous. To believe in such a lie would be suspending all reason.

  But the old man’s words echoed in her mind. He’d spoken of a choice that would need to be made, a choice that would cost someone their life. Didn’t Damien say he was supposed to kill her?

  A sick feeling scratched to the surface of her heart. He’d said he couldn’t though. He’d let her live.

  Demons…

  Sydney covered her mouth. What if it was all true? There were things in the world that couldn’t be explained. What if the old man was right? What if Damien had been telling her the truth?

  As the sun rose from the peaceful Caribbean waters, the dots connected in her brain. Damien was in trouble. She had to find him before it was too late. Later, she could decipher the details, but right now he needed her.

  She just prayed she wasn’t too late.

  Demons…

  She tried to stand but her legs refused to move. A fierce tingling started in her toes and snaked its way up her body with speed and ferocity. Her arms went numb and her torso became a dead weight.

  She collapsed against the warm sand, able to blink but nothing else. The world spun her into another time, another place. The beach, the island, flickered on and off like a television with a bad signal.

  In the darkness—between the flashes—strange images formed in her mind. An office with a desk. Shelves with lots of books. Papers strewn everywhere.

  And a woman in a pink bikini…

  hhh

  Sydney cleared some of the clutter from her desk—papers, legal books, case files. Her next appointment would be here any second, and the last thing she wanted was a potential client to think the attorney they were about to hire was a total slob.

  A knock sounded at the door. Standing and running quick hands through her hair, she called, “Come in.”

  The door pushed open slowly and a hesitant woman walked in. Sydney did a double take and tried like hell not to balk at the woman’s attire…or lack thereof. The slender blond wore nothing more than a hot pink bikini.

  A strange sense of déjà vu darted between concrete memories. This woman…Sydney had seen her before—she just couldn’t remember where.

  “Ms. James?” the woman asked, wringing her hands together.

  Shaking off the sensation, Sydney walked around the desk to shake the woman’s hand. “Ms. Lily, I presume?”

  “Yes.” The blond woman nodded. “But please. Call me Margaret.”

  “Okay, Margaret, what can I help you with today?”

  She handed Sydney a piece of paper. “I signed this contract while I was in labor, but I didn�
�t really know what I was signing at the time. I was in so much pain, and I was nearly delirious from the twenty-three-hour labor. Anyway, I was wondering if there’s some way I can get out of it?”

  “Well.” Sydney glanced over the standard contract. “There are certain gray areas regarding a person’s state of mind when they enter into any legal agreement. Why don’t you have a seat, Margaret, and tell me what happened…”

  hhh

  What the hell?

  Damien stared in confusion as Giselle shook her hand, blew on it like she’d burned it. Something had hurt her. And badly. He didn’t even know demons could be injured, but whatever or whoever hurt her affected her powers. He still couldn’t move, but his mind wasn’t on complete lockdown. If he could just figure out how to—

  “Well, that was certainly unexpected.” Air puffed from Giselle’s tense mouth, and she popped her neck, a slow roll from left to right. Determination returned to her eyes. “I guess this’ll be harder than I’d anticipated, but I’m always up for a challenge. You know how much it turns me on.”

  She placed one hand against the back of his neck and the other seized his cock again. His body tingled where she touched him. Strange sensations spidered up his neck and settled in his brain, making it harder and harder to think. To resist. She pulled him back under the current, the rolling awareness that would bring physical release, and it was only a matter of time before he drowned.

  “Don’t fight me, Damien.”

  Her fist pumped a consistent rhythm around his cock. His climax was near, the first tendrils of pleasure already unfurling inside his body. Giselle covered his mouth with hers.

  Closing his eyes, Damien pictured Sydney’s face. He wanted to hold on to her as long as possible, take a part of her with him into…wherever it was he’d be going. Giselle could take his body, take his soul, but by God, she couldn’t take his love for Sydney, his memories.

  Feelings and emotions coursed through him with soothing radiance, filling him until even the darkest crevices of his soul were overflowing with love’s blinding light.