Fire & Brimstone

by R. L. Mathewson

  “Where are we going?” she asked even as she allowed him to lead her towards the back.

  “Shopping,” he said, deciding that she was clearly in over her head and needed expert help.

  She snorted at that. “Good luck.”

  He didn’t need luck, not when it came to food.

  When it came to avoiding his relatives…

  That was another issue, he thought with a glare when he spotted the two most annoying assholes on the planet waiting for him outside.

  This really wasn’t his fucking day, he thought as he shoved the door open and dragged the small woman behind him.

  “Fragile!” she yelled. “Handle with care! Handle with care, damn it!”

  Deciding that he didn’t have time for this, he stopped just long enough to throw her over his shoulder. “Better?” he snapped.

  “Much better. Thanks,” she said with a haughty little sniffle that had him shaking his head in disgust.

  She really was a pain in the ass.

  Chapter 16

  “Christ, what do you want now?” Lucifer asked, sighing heavily as he set her down on her feet between him and the two large, handsome men eying her curiously.

  “To see our dear sweet cousin that we missed so much,” the smaller of the two, and that really wasn’t saying much, said with an innocent expression that she one day hoped to master.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Lucifer ground out, obviously knowing where her thoughts had gone.

  Damn it.

  “Didn’t you miss us, Lucifer?” the other one asked, but he was watching her with a curious expression on his face.

  “No,” Lucifer said flatly as she stepped back and glanced from Lucifer to the two men that were obviously related to him.

  While they were handsome enough they just didn’t do anything for her. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to kill a little time by screwing with their heads. She did a quick glance, noting the wedding bands that they proudly wore on their ring fingers, the “Bradford Construction,” shirt the larger of the two wore, the pristinely ironed shirt and tie the other one wore and the knowing looks in their eyes that told her that they both knew just how good looking they were and didn’t care.

  Unless it got them what they wanted.

  Unfortunately for them, it was something that she could, and would, use against them if she got bored. For now though, she would just sit back and watch the show.

  “Aren’t you wondering why we’re here?” the larger one asked, and she really needed to find out their names, because it would make it easier for her to keep track of who was who in her head.

  “No, not really,” Lucifer said, sounding bored, but she knew him well enough to know that he’d reached level one in his complicated, yet entertaining, highly devised system that he’d developed over the years to properly display the various levels that made up his temper which would one day lead him to his very own episode of Cops.

  The shorter one chuckled as he gestured towards her with a tilt of his head. “Who’s this?”

  She was about to answer when Lucifer said, “No one.”

  No one? she mused inwardly as she digested what he’d said. She could honestly say that she hadn’t expected that. Pain in the ass, annoying waitress, the devil were all things that she’d expected to hear, but no one?

  “No one, huh?” the tall one asked, shifting his attention between the two of them. “Then why were you carrying her?”

  “Why do you care?” Lucifer asked in that same bored tone that she really didn’t much care for at the moment.

  “Because I’m curious by nature,” he said as she waited for Lucifer to rectify his answer so that she wouldn’t be forced to do something that they’d both regret, but she’d do it if it meant screwing him over and teaching him a lesson.

  She’d worked too damn hard over the past five years to be a “no one,” to him. She’d earned her place as the annoying pain in the ass and no one, not even him, was going to take that away from her. That’s why she was pissed and not because hearing him call her no one had actually disappointed her.

  “So,” the smaller of the two drawled as she stood there telling herself that she should just walk away before she did something incredibly stupid, but since when did she listen to reason? “Where are you and ‘no one’ going?”

  Lucifer just stared at him in that unnerving way of his as she stood there, deciding that the least that she could do after everything that he’d done for him was to give him an opportunity to see the error in his ways. When he continued to stand there, glaring at the two men who were watching her as though they knew that she was about to do something incredibly stupid, she’d decided that she’d waited long enough.

  She turned around, grabbed him by his shoulders and yanked him down so that she could wrap her arms around him and kiss his stunned lips before he had a chance to react. She brushed her lips seductively against his, once, twice and then one more time because she couldn’t help herself. His lips were surprisingly soft for a man that spent most days frowning that she just couldn’t help herself when she brushed her lips against his one last time before reluctantly pulled away and-

  Found her lips back on his, parting along with his so that they could deepen the kiss. At some point she’d threaded her fingers through his short hair, cupping the back of his head as she moved closer, desperate for more. She felt his arms wrap around her and his hands pulling her closer until their bodies were pressed together as he did his best to devour her mouth.

  This was the kind of kiss that most women fantasized about and here she was nearly groaning in frustration because it wasn’t enough. She wanted more, she wanted him and she’d do anything to have him. She’d-

  “I hate to interrupt this incredibly awkward moment, but we came here to discuss something with you,” one of the men said, sounding amused while she stood there, holding onto Lucifer as her world spun out of control.

  As Lucifer slowly pulled away from her and looked down at her as though he was just now seeing her, she realized that for the first time since she’d met him that she was in way over her head.

  “Excuse me,” she mumbled, feeling a little lightheaded as she stepped away from him and started walking back towards the restaurant, deciding that it might be time to take another look at those want ads.

  *-*-*-*

  “Aw, what’s the matter, big guy?” Jason, the annoying bastard that his parents swore was related to them, asked mockingly while Lucifer forced himself to stay where he was, terrified of what he would do if he moved so much as an inch from this spot.

  Christ, what the hell had she been thinking kissing him like that and why was Trevor watching him with that knowing look on his face?

  Fuck, he just needed to stop thinking about how good it felt to hold Rebecca in his arms.

  “Rejection hurts, huh, big guy?” Jason said with an exaggerated sigh that was going to get him killed.

  “First kiss?” Trevor guessed with an anticipatory gleam in his eye that Lucifer really didn’t care for, not now when he felt like he was about to lose control.

  “Fuck off,” he said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face as he tried to forget that fucking kiss.

  “Sorry,” Jason said, not sounding sorry at all, “we can’t do that.”

  “You really can,” he said, struggling to figure out how this just happened.

  One minute he’d been dragging Rebecca to a grocery store to help her and the next he’d been seconds away from reaching down, cupping her ass and forcing her legs to wrap around him so that he could push her up against his truck and find out just how hard he had to fuck her to make her scream his name. God, this was bad. This was really fucking bad, because she’d actually ran away triggering something in him that he couldn’t explain and making him want to go after her.

  He was definitely going after her, he decided, licking his lips as anticipation like nothing that he’d ever experienced before coursed through his veins, ma
king him feel really alive for the first time in his life. He couldn’t explain it, but he knew that if she’d stayed here and shrugged their kiss off like it was nothing that he wouldn’t be feeling this way.

  “She’s your neighbor, right? The one that Aidan had a look at?” Trevor asked as he leaned back against the truck that Lucifer couldn’t stop picturing Rebecca bent over.

  “What do you want?” he bit out, knowing exactly where Trevor was going with this line of bullshit.

  “Came to remind you about the barbeque this weekend,” Jason said while Trevor continued to watch him.

  “You could have called,” he pointed out absently as he thought about just how good it was going to feel when he finally caught her.

  He was in so much fucking trouble here, because as much as he wanted to believe that he couldn’t end up with a woman like Rebecca, he couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to hear her moan his name in his ear as he slid deep inside her.

  “We figured that in person was so much better. That way you could invite us in for a bite to eat as a thank you,” Jason, the devious bastard, said, but instead of fucking with his cousin’s head as he usually did when one of the intrusive bastards tried to get inside the Fire & Brimstone, he simply shoved the bastard aside and headed for his restaurant and the little demon that had triggered something deep inside him.

  “That was unnecessary, you asshole!”

  Yeah, it was, but at least it had managed to help him forget about the pain in the ass for a few seconds. He had absolutely no idea what he was going to do with her now, but he knew that he couldn’t keep pretending that there wasn’t something seriously fucked up going on between them.

  Until he figured it out, he was going to have a little fun, because for the first time since they’d started playing this game, he was going to be the one calling all the shots.

  Chapter 17

  “Oh, God, Oh, God, oh, shit!” she whispered frantically as she struggled to punch her code in with fingers that refused to stop trembling.

  The high-pitched beep when she hit the wrong numbers wasn’t helping. She tried to focus, tried to stop thinking about what just happened, but she couldn’t and so here she was, punching random numbers into the keypad like a madwoman, trying desperately to put a little space between her and the man that had looked at her as though she was the next best thing to lunch.

  Since she’d seen exactly how much he loved to devour his lunch, she knew that was not a good thing.

  She was an idiot for screwing with him like that. She should have known better. Hell, she had known better, but she’d stupidly let her pride talk her into crossing a line that she should never have been crossed.

  God, that had been such an amazing kiss, she thought with something close to panic, because she really wanted to go back out there and kiss him again and there was no way that she was kissing him again.

  This ended now.

  She was going upstairs, double-locking the door, getting Mojo to lay in front of the door and start packing. She’d always heard that England was nice this time of year. The fact that she was broke, didn’t have a passport or a job didn’t matter. All that mattered was putting some space between her and Lucifer before she did something incredibly stupid like tackle him and rip all his clothes off.

  It’s not that she didn’t do relationships, because she did. Badly, but she did try to make them work. No, the reason that Lucifer wasn’t a possibility was very simple, because she…well, he…

  Okay, it wasn’t simple.

  Why the hell wasn’t this door unlocking?

  “Here,” the man that she was willing to flee the country from, said softly as he reached past her, making sure that his lips tickled the back of neck, and typed his code in for her.

  As soon as the alarm beeped and she heard the door lock release with a click, she threw the door open and ran as fast as her short legs would carry her. In record time, she was in her apartment with the door slammed shut, the bolt slid into place and her back against the door to add extra security while she struggled to catch her breath.

  “What’s wrong?” Melanie asked, looking up from her computer with a frown as she took in Rebecca desperately clinging to the door.

  “I…,” she started to say only to stop when she thought she heard something out in the hallway.

  “Rebecca?” Melanie said, sounding understandably worried since Rebecca had her ear pressed against the door and was holding her breath as she waited for the knock that she wasn’t ready for to come.

  When it never came, she breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back against the door. “Pack your bags. We’re leaving the country in the morning,” she said, hoping that would be enough for Melanie to move her ass, because she wasn’t sure that she had enough energy to explain what just happened and pack her things.

  “Is there a reason why we’re fleeing the country?” Melanie asked instead of being the supportive friend that she needed and packed without question.

  “Yes!” she snapped, pushing away from the door on wobbly legs.

  “Are you going to share that reason with the rest of the class?” Melanie asked, picking up her bottle of water and took a sip.

  “No!” Rebecca snapped, heading for her bedroom only to end up groaning pathetically a few seconds later when Mojo walked in front of her, dropped to the ground and promptly fell asleep without warning, causing her to stumble over him and trip over her feet.

  As she lay there on the floor, she couldn’t help regretting that time when she’d vetoed Melanie’s decision to buy an area rug for the hallway. When Mojo rolled over a few seconds later and landed on top of her, she couldn’t help but regret deciding against signing him up for obedience class and when she heard that first knock at their door, she regretted pretty much everything she’d ever done to Lucifer, because now it seemed as though she was about to pay for it.

  *-*-*-*

  “Stop kicking me out of my own apartment!” Melanie yelled after he deposited her in the hallway.

  When she continued to yell, he decided that it would be for the best if he closed the door on her since all that yelling would only annoy him. She still yelled, but thankfully the solid wood door was able to muffle most of it out. When he spotted his prey lying on the floor with that horse they liked to call a dog laying on top of her legs, pinning her to the floor, he couldn’t help but smile.

  “Melanie?” she said, sounding hopeful as she tried to look over her shoulder to see what was going on, but thanks to the position that Mojo had her pinned in, it was impossible.

  “Guess again,” he said, noting the way that her entire upper body went still at the sound of his voice.

  “Ummm, this really isn’t a good time. Maybe you could come back later?” she said as she tried to pull her legs free, probably hoping that he wouldn’t notice the move.

  “Am I interrupting something?” he drawled lazily as he helped himself to an ice cold Coke from her fridge.

  “Yes,” she said, clearing her throat as she planted her arms on the floor and tried her best to pull her legs free, but that damn dog wouldn’t budge, “Yes, you are.”

  That was a damn shame, he thought with a sigh as he popped his soda can open and took a sip. He walked over to the wiggling woman and leaned down to pet the dog that had earned a steak. Other than grunting his approval, Mojo didn’t bother opening his eyes as he settled in for a nap.

  Secure in the knowledge that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, he stepped over her squirming body and sat down with his back to the wall in front of her. While she glared up at him, he took another long, satisfying sip of his ice cold drink as he thought back on all the bullshit that she’d put him through over the last five years and sighed.

  She really did have this coming, he thought as the bitter woman gave up trying to escape and stole his drink. He allowed it simply because he was in a generous mood. As soon as she was done, she glared up at him, slammed the empty can on the floor and grabbed o
nto his legs, obviously deciding that her only chance of escape was to pull herself free from the dog currently sleeping on top of her.

  “So, what exactly do you want?” she asked as she used his legs to pull herself free.

  “To talk,” he said as he allowed his gaze to run down her back to that generous ass that he’d stupidly ignored for all these years.

  Christ, he couldn’t wait to squeeze her ass as he slid inside her…

  “Are you staring at my ass?” she asked after a slight pause.

  “Yup,” he said, seeing absolutely no reason to lie about it.

  “Well, stop!” she snapped, pausing in her escape attempt long enough to lightly slap his leg to make him stop doing what he was clearly put on this earth to do.

  That ass deserved to be admired.