He wondered if she was unattached. No ring on her finger, and he didn’t smell any male who had laid a claim on her recently. Which was a good thing. Jean-Luc was itching to discover if the body underneath her clothes was as lovely as her face.
Madame Chabert led them up the stairs and onto the second floor of the establishment. They walked through a long corridor before they arrived in the private wing, reserved for the patrons who wished to spend a night in Maison Plaisir. Jean-Luc never utilised his stay to sate his carnal needs. He liked the rooms because they reminded him of his home a long time ago.
They arrived at a small lounge marked as ‘private’. Madame Chabert opened one of the doors. “Would this be acceptable?” she asked him.
Chabert gave him his favourite room whenever he had a chance to visit Maison Plaisir. “Perfect.”
“Splendid. I will send the tea right away. Will you be needing anything else?”
Jean-Luc turned to Maddie. She was still busy gawking at the décor. “Are you hungry?”
Maddie quickly shook her head.
“Have you eaten dinner yet?”
“No, but—”
“We’ll order dinner,” Jean-Luc firmly decided.
Madame Chabert inclined her head. “I’ll notify the chef right away. Enjoy your stay.”
“Merci, Roxanne.”
“The pleasure is mine, as well.”
Jean-Luc closed the door and motioned to Maddie to relax. The room Chabert had given him had a small living area, a dining table, a bathroom and a large four-poster bed perched in the middle.
Maddie found her way into a nearby chair and sank in. “What is this place?”
“Maison Plaisir, a pleasure house for the spirits and otherworldly beings, where all pleasures are to be explored and all taboos are meant to be broken.”
Her eyes rounded incredulously. “This is a brothel?”
“You make it sound dirty. I prefer to call it a fun house.”
Maddie jumped from her seat. “If you’re thinking—”
“Relax. I just want you to clean up and rest before I take you home. Let me take a look at your cut.” Jean-Luc took off his coat and piled it on the coffee table. He unholstered his guns and knives.
She watched him warily. “What did you say you were again?”
“Hmm?” Jean-Luc lifted an eyebrow. “You’re asking what I do for a living?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m an agent for the Pit.”
“What is that?”
“A bounty hunter. I track down bad guys and haul their asses back to the Pit.”
“What is the Pit?”
“The Pit of Hell.” Jean-Luc motioned her to lose her blazer. “Let me see your boo-boo.”
“Why?”
“I’ll make it better.”
“You can heal people?”
“Only if they’re nice. Come on. The smell of your blood is starting to bug me.”
She blinked. “How come?”
“’Cause I’m a Hellhound, that’s why.”
Maddie shrugged off her blazer. She wore a thin, short-sleeved white blouse underneath it. And a white cotton bra beneath her shirt. Nice. He made a cursory calculation. C cup, perhaps? Breasts that size would fit perfectly in the palm of his hands. Not too small. Not too big. Just right. Jean-Luc felt his mouth begin to water.
Damn, temptation.
He took her right arm and examined her cut. There was a narrow gash just above her elbow line. It wasn’t as bad as he had thought and it hadn’t bled much. Her blouse and jacket were blood stained. She looked dismayed when she realised this.
“Man. These are new,” she complained.
“If you run them under hot water, you might get the stain out.”
“I’ll do that when I get home.”
“You can do it here,” Jean-Luc ventured. “Take a bath and I’ll have someone launder your clothes.”
Maddie cringed. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
It appeared she didn’t trust him. “Wait here.” He went to the bathroom to get a fresh washcloth. He cleaned her cut and placed his palm on it. He summoned his power and healed her. She gawked at him when she saw the cut was gone.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“You’re welcome.”
Somebody knocked on the door. A man brought a cart filled with their order. Jean-Luc gave him a tip and sent him out. He found the steaming tea and carried a cup to her.
Maddie looked happy with the tea. She sipped it with delight. The brew seemed to soothe her fraying nerves. “Thank you, again.”
“How did you end up wrestling with those zacrahs?” Jean-Luc was curious.
“Zacrahs?”
“Poltergeists. We call the lesser spirits zacrahs.”
“Is that so?” She sipped her tea some more. “I went for a job interview. But as soon as I got off in Dan Ryan, they followed me and ruined everything.”
“I take that you didn’t get the job?”
“What do you think? I hope the doc didn’t get hurt, though. Those poltergeists dropped a frame on his head.”
Jean-Luc cringed. “A doctor?”
“Dermatologist. I’d applied for a receptionist position.”
He studied her closely. She would be more than qualified as eye candy for an expensive physician’s private practice. “And you would have gotten the job had they not ruined it for you?”
“That was a bummer. Usually, things don’t get out of hand like this. They’ve never attacked me before.”
“Have you always got harassed?”
Maddie sighed. “Lately. Since I’ve lived on my own.”
“Oh? And before?”
“I lived with my aunt. My parents got divorced when I was five and I ended up with Aunt Liv for some reason. My aunt was rather eccentric. She knew how to ward bad spirits. But she passed away last summer and I discovered I’m not that good at making amulets.”
“I see.” Jean-Luc sat at the end of the sofa. “I might have a solution to your problem.”
She perked up. “Oh?”
“Make a pact with me. Be mine and I’ll protect you from every soul that bodes ill wishes against you.”
Her face coloured in an instant. “You mean—”
“Your body in exchange for my protection. It’s a fair trade.”
Maddie jumped from her seat. “I—I need to go.”
“Did I offend you? Don’t tell me you’re a virgin and such a proposition is too outrageous for your delicate ears.”
Her lips thinned into a grim line. “You aren’t human.”
“I was one, a long time ago.”
“My aunt always told me to never make a deal with people like you.”
“Well, your aunt isn’t here to protect you anymore. I strongly suggest you consider my offer.”
Maddie gave him a wary look.
“Are you attached?” Jean-Luc had to ask. “Got a boyfriend? Husband?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“If you’re unattached, I don’t see a reason why you should turn down my offer. Think about it. Live without constant fear from those zacrahs and all I ask in exchange is your intimate companionship.”
“I need to go. Good bye Mr Jean-Luc.”
“Berthier. Jean-Luc Berthier. You need my name when you change your mind. Say it upon your lips and I’ll be there.”
“I’m sure I won’t need it.”
Jean-Luc felt his grin lurking around his mouth, but he tucked it away. “You can’t leave yet. You still owe me a payment.”
“Payment?”
“For saving you. A simple kiss would suffice.”
“I don’t think so,” she retorted hotly.
“Maddie, Maddie, Maddie. You know our kin never dispense free services, right?”
A scowl plastered over her pretty face. “Fine. If I kiss you, you’ll leave me alone?”
Jean-Luc purred. “On second thoughts, I’ll collect that at my leisure. I don’t want
to kiss an angry woman. When I kiss you, I want your complete surrender. With you under my body, where I’ll take my sweet time exploring and quenching my thirst on your sexy lips.”
Her face turned magenta. “Pervert.”
He couldn’t help laughing. “Has anybody told you, you look so cute when you’re angry?”
Chapter Two
Maddie had felt jumpy ever since she’d come home from her botched interview. She half expected Jean-Luc to barge into her apartment when she least expected it.
He didn’t scare her.
No, not at all.
She dreaded the fact that that she owed him something. She’d never kissed a bounty hunter from Hell and it unnerved her.
She wasn’t a prude or anything. She’d dated a few times in the past, when Aunt Liv had still been around—back when her life had been normal. Ghosts and spirits hadn’t dared to bug her like they did now. Aunt Liv was crafty at making wards and amulets to keep the Unseen at bay. Maddie’s main stupidity had been in assuming Aunt Liv was going to be around forever. Maddie was too lazy to learn the ways to protect herself. One day, when she’d found Aunt Liv on the bathroom floor, unconscious from the stroke she had suffered, she knew her life had taken a downhill turn.
Maddie turned off the stove and checked her baked mashed potatoes in the oven. They had turned out nicely. The crispy cheese topping bubbled. She lifted the foil on the pork chops. They seemed almost ready as well. Maddie closed the oven and checked on the chicken noodle soup. She yanked the ladle out and drew a long breath, feeling frustrated.
She was at the end of her rope. When she’d verified her bank account today, she only had twenty-eight dollars and seventy cents. Wasn’t nearly enough to buy groceries next week, let alone to pay off her rent. Her last paycheque from the hotel had dried up. She hoped she could borrow some money from her mom when she came over for dinner tonight. Or perhaps she would be allowed to move under her roof until her money problem was solved. Problem was, her mom was afraid of her because of her uncanny gift. The very reason she’d gone to live with Aunt Liv after her parents’ divorce.
Maddie shut the oven off and sank on a kitchen chair. She glanced at her gloomy studio apartment that she could no longer afford. Six months after Aunt Liv’s passing, she’d been reduced from promising yuppie to almost homeless. She’d had a nice job at an insurance agency and had been seeing a nice guy. A month after her Aunt’s death, she’d got fired from work for allegedly splashing hot coffee on her boss, which wasn’t really her doing. A ghost of an opera singer had done that because the diva was angry Maddie had ignored her. And Thomas, the nice guy she was seeing, had simply run away after he’d realised he was cuddling a skeleton. Maddie had been in the bathroom when that had happened. Thomas had become allergic to her afterwards. She couldn’t really blame him. Any man would freak out if they had been in his shoes. Her ex-boyfriend had been traumatised when he’d found out he was making out with a ghost.
She covered her face with her hands, wondering what she had done wrong.
But if she took Jean-Luc’s offer…
Maddie pushed the thoughts away. Aunt Liv had religiously drilled a credo into her head when she’d been growing up. Never make a pact with the Unseen beings. Never trust them. Never let herself become indebted to them, no matter what. The Unseen were self-serving beings. Devious. Wicked. Their way of thinking was totally different to that of humans. That was because of their code of honours. They always had ulterior motives. One would be wise not to get involved with their kind.
Her aunt was a medium. When Aunt Liv was young, she had got into a sticky situation and made a pact with an ancient djinn. The powerful spirit had sexually enslaved her for thirty long years, and physically abused her. And when she had finally been able to trick the djinn into releasing her from their pact, Aunt Liv had sworn no descendent of hers would suffer the way she had done.
Maddie’s mind drifted to Jean-Luc, thinking about his offer. Her body in exchange for his protection. He wanted her as his sexual slave. Just like Aunt Liv’s djinn. Her aunt had made a pact to save Grandma from terminal cancer. The spirit had taken the cancer away, but Grandma still died from renal failure a year later. Had it really been worth it? Aunt Liv said at the time it was, but Maddie knew she regretted her decision. The djinn might be one of the most beautiful creatures, but he was very cruel. And sadistic. Aunt Liv had been very open with her ordeal and the stories Maddie had heard scared the hell out of her. Really, she didn’t want to take that chance. She didn’t know what kind of man, or Hellhound, Jean-Luc was.
Even though he was straightforward about what he wanted, Jean-Luc hadn’t tried any hanky panky after she flat-out rejected his proposition. They had had dinner and when they were done, like he’d promised, Jean-Luc had escorted her home safe and sound. But just before he was leaving, he’d told her he was a patient man. He said he felt confident she’d come around. With the way shit rolled down the hill, Maddie had a bad feeling she’d end up crawling to Jean-Luc for help.
Maybe, if he wasn’t a Hellhound, things would be different.
One thing was for sure, he was cute. Okay, he was sexy as hell—the type of man a woman wouldn’t hesitate for a second to jump bones with. He met all the requirements of that tall, dark, and handsome stranger cliché, and so much more. But he was a dead man walking, an agent for the Pit, and those facts alone took away all of his brownie points as an eligible bachelor. Maddie had hoped to have a normal life, and perhaps a family in the future. And being Jean-Luc’s plaything didn’t offer her any of those possibilities. And if Jean-Luc turned out to be as wicked as Aunt Liv’s djinn…
No. She couldn’t make a pact with him.
God forbid…
The doorbell rang.
Maddie jumped from her seat and padded across the living room. It must be her mom and her stepfather. If this went well, she might not need to ask Jean-Luc help.
She hoped.
* * * *
“Any problem with your last gig?” Paolo Basso, his boss, drew a long puff from his cigar and exhaled luxuriously.
Jean-Luc wrinkled his nose, trying to avoid the cloud of smoke, but the nauseating stench found its way to his nostrils. Basso seemed to be fond of a certain cheap cigar he used to smoke when he’d been human. His boss had been a capo for a mob family that had ruled the Bronx in the forties, until he’d got capped, execution style, while consorting with his mistress. After his death, Basso made a deal with a head honcho of the Pit, who’d turned him into a Hellhound. At the rate Hell was filling up, the Management was starting to find there was a lack of resources and manpower in order to keep ruling.
Jean-Luc himself had been Pit resident, once. He’d been sent to Hell after he was sentenced to death for exacting his revenge on the man who had raped and murdered his wife. After his death, he’d managed to find that bastard in the Pit. And did he make that man wish he’d never been born. His plight had generated attention from the Upper Management and one thing led to another and he was contracted as a Hellhound.
It had happened almost a century ago. When the roads hadn’t been filled with cars and their lung-suffocating fumes, and women’s skirts hadn’t been so short.
Jean-Luc moved slightly in his chair to avoid the constant smoke his boss puffed out. He had abhorred smoking when he was alive and he still abhorred it now. Sometimes he wondered if his aversion to smoking was caused by his hatred of his wife’s killer. Elliot Perrault, the rapist and murderer, had been a heavy smoker. Elliot also happened to be his first cousin and his business partner.
“Sieg pulled out the usual stunt, but there was nothing I couldn’t handle.” Jean-Luc grabbed his drink and slowly downed it until it was empty. The whisky burnt his mouth and throat. Just the way he liked it. Maison Plaisir’s own vintage brew. Sharp. Strong like rocket fuel. One might shit fire afterwards.
Basso tapped the end of his cigar and drew another long puff. “It’s not Sieg I’m worried about.”
Jean
-Luc arched an eyebrow, inquiring.
“It’s Sieg’s patron. I’m sure you know who she was.”
Jean-Luc snorted. He was more than aware. Siegfried Chacon, his last hunt, had been a gigolo in his mortal life. From his reputation, he appeared to be one of the rare few who knew how to use his cock. Siegfried went to Hell because he schemed to have his far older wife murdered for her inheritance. In the Pit, his legendary skill had attracted the attention of Lilith, the demoness who had self-proclaimed herself as the queen of Hell. Lilith had taken Sieg as her consort. The bastard should’ve been content. But no, Siegfried decided to sneak out of the Pit and run off.
Balam, the Duke of Hell, wasn’t happy with it and had assigned Jean-Luc to retrieve Siegfried. Jean-Luc had hauled the gigolo’s ass back into the Pit’s holding facility after three weeks’ pursuit. He’d heard Balam wanted to stick Siegfried into the dreg as his punishment. Lilith wanted the crafty gigolo back in her bed. And when two powerful demons bickered among themselves, things could get ugly really, really fast.
“I’m aware. But I take no part in their politics. I caught the guy as I was told. I processed and locked him. He’s not my headache anymore.”
“Right. But until Sieg is given his formal sentence, he’s still officially your charge.”
“And your point is?”
“Lilith wants her boytoy back. And what Lilith wants, Lilith gets. If Lilith gets Sieg before Lucifer awards his formal sentencing, you’re going to look very bad in the eyes of the Upper Management. Capiche?”
“It only takes a couple of days for formal sentencing. I processed Sieg yesterday. Today should be his sentencing time.”
Basso shook his head. “Lucifer’s on vacation. It’ll take a couple of weeks for his return. At least.”
Chain of Lust Page 2
