Deal With the Devil Read online

  “Sleep, beloved,” he murmured in my ear. And almost immediately, I did.

  When I woke up it was the middle of the afternoon and Jude was gone. He’d left me a note, though, letting me know he was in his daytime resting place and would be up later, as soon as it started to get dark. I couldn’t wait. When I thought over everything that we’d done and said the night before I felt both impatient and a little embarrassed to see him. Part of me couldn’t believe the way I’d acted or the way I had explored and ridden him to the most delicious orgasm of my life. And part of me couldn’t wait to try it again.

  Getting out of bed, I wondered if sex would still be difficult now that I’d finally gotten the first time out of the way. I didn’t know if we’d need the handcuffs again but I was sure Jude would wear them if I asked. Of course, it might just be enough for me to be on top instead of under him—it was being covered by a large male body that really freaked me out. I supposed my sexual claustrophobia was due to my past abuse though maybe in time I would be able to get over that too. But whatever happened, I knew Jude would be willing to take things slowly and do whatever I felt comfortable with.

  I took a long, hot, refreshing shower that was considerably better than the one I’d had the night before—mainly because I was in a much happier frame of mind. I’d taken care of my problem by losing my virginity and gained a lover at the same time. Having never dated any man long enough to have a relationship, I wasn’t sure where we went from here. But I had a feeling we would find out together which was fine with me.

  I got out of the shower and found that someone had washed and dried my baggy jeans and T-shirt and left them folded neatly on the bed. The sound of tuneful humming outside the door let me know that Rosie, Jude’s maid, was my benefactor.

  I pulled on the jeans but decided to wear Jude’s dark red T-shirt instead of my own. It still had his scent on it and I wanted to feel he was near me, even when I couldn’t see him. Actually, I realized as I put on the shirt, I had his scent on me too. My sensitive were nose could detect the subtle but definite change in my body chemistry from the sex we’d shared. I was no longer a virgin and any other were who had known my scent before would instantly know that. Well, good—that was what I wanted. I would wear Jude’s scent with pride.

  I wondered idly as I twisted my hair into a loose bun if he was completely out of commission during the day or if he just went somewhere light-tight and twiddled his thumbs. If it was the latter, I hoped we might spend some of that time together since otherwise, I was going to have to become a permanent night person.

  Whistling to myself, I left the bedroom and went in search of the kitchen. After the stress of the night before I was famished and I hoped there would be some actual food somewhere in the house since I knew vamps subsisted mostly on blood. If I was going to stay here, maybe I should do some grocery shopping. Of course, now that I wasn’t a virgin anymore it ought to be safe to go back to my crappy apartment but why should I? Jude seemed happy to have me here and the house was huge enough that we wouldn’t get in each other’s way if we wanted time apart. Although at the minute I couldn’t imagine wanting to spend a second away from him. I was already counting the hours until sundown and anticipating out third blood exchange.

  I’d been a little worried about finding my way around Jude’s huge house but it wasn’t hard to locate the kitchen after all—I just followed my nose. Someone was cooking something that smelled delicious and when I rounded the corner I saw that it was Rosie, standing there smiling at me with a spatula in her hand.

  “Well, well, just look at you, Miss Luz.” She gave me a big smile. “Bacon and eggs’ll be ready in a minute. Just make yourself at home.”

  “Hello, Rosie,” I said, returning her smile. “Bacon and eggs are my favorite. I was hoping there was some food in the house.”

  “Food, child? Lands’ sakes—there’s enough for ten hungry girls your size. Mr. Jude left me a note and a shopping list. Said you’ll be staying with us awhile—that true?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I’ve been having a little trouble. Uh, pack politics—you know how it is.”

  Rosie nodded grimly. “Oh, don’t I just. You must have crossed your pack master somehow and now he’s out to get you.”

  “That’s exactly it,” I said. “So Jude said I could stay here for a while—to be safe.”

  “Oh, you’ll be safe enough here all right. There’s not a pack master in the world who can stand against Mr. Jude when he gets upset.”

  It seemed a little odd to me that she took pride in her employer—a vampire—over her own kind but what did I know? I was currently dating the enemy myself and loving every minute of it. As before, I had the realization that it was nice to be around someone else who knew the real Jude—not the scary boogieman everyone else had made him out to be.

  “Do you mind if I get something to drink?” I asked, since Rosie was still cooking on a flattop stove that looked like it cost more than my car.

  “Help yourself, child. Mr. Jude had me stock all your favorites.”

  “Really?” I frowned as I pulled open the fridge. How could he have known my favorites? We’d talked about a lot of things but never food—it just hadn’t come up, maybe because it wasn’t something he needed.

  But sure enough, the inside of the fridge looked like someone who knew me had stocked it. There was no-pulp orange juice with extra calcium, the aforementioned bacon and eggs, my favorite brand of low-fat yogurt in all my favorite flavors. And down on the bottom shelf the crowning piece—a key lime pie from Writes Gourmet Dairy House. Even though I was about to have breakfast, my mouth watered at the sight. Real key lime pie isn’t bright green and covered in that awful gummy meringue people who don’t know how to make it always pile on top. It’s a pale yellow color with little swirls of real whipped cream dabbed at intervals along the perimeter of the crust. It’s tart and sweet and rich all at the same time. But though I was dying to carve myself a fat slice and go to town, there was something about the pie that bothered me.

  “How did Mr., uh, Jude know I liked these things?” I asked, gesturing to the open fridge. “I mean, I never told him what my favorite foods were. How did he know to ask you to get these things?”

  “Oh don’t worry about that. Mr. Jude—he knows things about people sometimes.”

  “I guess,” I said doubtfully, remembering that all he’d admitted to was very limited telepathy. Maybe I’d been hungry when we were talking and he’d picked the things I liked to eat out of the top of my mind. But I didn’t remember compiling a list of favorite foods at any given time when we were together—had Jude seen deeper into me than he’d let on? If so, we needed to have a little chat. It was troubling to think of having a lover you couldn’t keep secrets from—very troubling indeed. Not that I wanted to hide my innermost thoughts and feelings from Jude—just that I would prefer to share them in my own time.

  Rosie was sliding two sunny-side-up eggs and four strips of bacon onto a plate. “Better get it while it’s hot,” she called. “Come sit down and I’ll pour you some juice.”

  Reluctantly, I left the well-stocked fridge and sat down to eat. It was actually somewhere around three in the afternoon but since I had just woken up, I wasn’t quibbling with the idea of having breakfast. Especially since it smelled absolutely heavenly.

  “Mmm, these are amazing,” I told Rosie as I tore into the eggs. “Thank you so much for cooking for me and doing my laundry. But I honestly don’t expect you to keep on doing that. I can pick up after myself and I promise not to leave a mess in the kitchen.”

  She sat down across from me. “It’s no trouble, Miss Luz. I kind of like having someone else to look after. Mr. Jude is always so quiet—half the time I can’t even tell if he’s home or not.”

  “You might miss having the house to yourself during the day,” I pointed out.

  “Not at all, I’ll be glad to have some company. And I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of each other now that you and Mr. Jude are bo