by Milly Taiden
STRIPE-TEASE
FUR-OCIOUS LUST SHORTS (TIGERS)
BOOK 4
NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
MILLY TAIDEN
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Finding the perfect match can be hell, unless you're already there.
Curvy and prudish Laura Nieves knows she belongs in the pit. But living in hell didn’t mean she had to act like a depraved soul. So when her boss sends her off to lead a matchmaking program, Laura knows shit just got real to the fiery degree.
Damien Wrath isn’t interested in being hooked up. He and his wolf like their life simple. But the mistress of hell doesn’t care what he wants. It took being in hell for him to find out his mate was a buttoned up, curvaceous beauty with a hot temper.
Taking a quiet woman from one era and tossing her together with a hot as hell warrior from another is sure to create sparks. Their basic urges will take over or they’ll kill each other. This is hell, who said living in the pit was going to be easy?
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published By
Latin Goddess Press
New York, NY 10456
http://millytaiden.com
Match Made in Hell
Copyright © 2015 by Milly Taiden
Cover by Willsin Rowe
Edited by Melinda Fulton
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Property of Milly Taiden
February 2015
ONE
Davianne Blackfeather, also known as Davi or mistress of the Seventh level of the underworld, sighed loudly. She crossed her arms over the plunging neckline of her crimson suit while she glared at the streets. Like her sisters, she was big, bold and curvy. But unlike her sisters, she had little patience for annoying competitions. Business went on as usual in the Seventh level or Seventh as most called it, even if things weren’t looking so good for their mistress. Watching her guards carry the damned to their place of torture, she clenched her teeth. Dammit.
Leonia, her twin and biggest opponent, and her other sisters were growing their minions by leaps and bounds. Davi, not one to stay behind, had snooped on her sisters and found that they’d done it by matchmaking between their minions. The horror. Yet she knew if she wanted to increase her own numbers, which had been the highest before her sisters had started beating at her heels, she’d need to join in the matchmaking.
Soft knocks had her turning on her four-inch red patent leather Jimmy Choos. Just because she lived in hell didn’t mean she had to lose all sense of style. Not to mention her mother would kill her. As the queen of the underworld, Riyanna took pride in her gorgeous red and black suits and sexy spike heels. Her mother wouldn’t let one of her own live it down if she caught them dressed in anything but sexual perfection.
“Come in,” she growled, patience all but snapping.
Laura Nieves. Her assistant smiled demurely, showing off her perfect white teeth. She headed toward Davi, kitten heels clicking on the red stone floor. She held some papers in her hands. Davi made a growl of distaste at the old maid outfit her assistant wore. Like Davi, Laura was big with generous curves. She should have been showing them off instead of hiding them.
“How many times do I have to tell you to update your wardrobe?” She took the papers Laura handed her. New souls had been brought to Davi’s level of hell.
Hell wasn’t just a giant pit, like most mortals thought. It was divided into levels. A soul was sent to a level based on how evil they’d been in their mortal life. Davi’s level boasted of those souls that lived a life of gluttony. Too much of everything and not enough appreciation had brought them to her. In the Seventh, they learned to do without. In some cases, they were tortured by seeing others have more than them. Unless they were one of her guards or staff, souls lived with the minimum of basics. Whenever they tried to get more, they ended up with less. Such was their torture.
“And I’ve told you each of those times that I am not dressing to catch any male attention. I dress for comfort,” she lied. Davi knew she lied, but refused to call her on it. It was expected of her underlings. They were in hell. No way she wanted honesty around her. “I won’t dress like a whore because you say so.”
“You’re my minion,” Davi groaned. “You need to look the part. Sensuality isn’t a crime, though you act like showing a little skin will kill you. Again.”
“I’m your assistant,” she countered with a grin. “One of them, anyway. You know the deal. I do whatever you ask as long as it is related to the Seventh. My clothes don’t impact your business.”
“You look like a grandmother.” Davi shook her head.
Laura raised her brows. “And you look like a high priced hooker.”
“Thank you,” she grinned, glancing down at her boobs, “but that’s not the point.”
“Of course it is,” Laura chuckled. “I don’t have the body that you have and I’d never feel comfortable dressed like that.”
“Oh, don’t give me that crap. I know a lot about your time. You wore those plunging necklines and satin dresses that drove men wild.” Davi pouted. “As for the body, we have the same body.” She slapped Laura’s wide hip on the side, running her hand up to her shoulder, barely bypassing her heavily covered breasts. “You have big legs, big hips, big arms, and generous breasts.” She tugged at the fabric of Laura’s outfit. “You have a great body that should be seen.”
“I don’t like showing my body off,” Laura said with pursed lips, shifting from foot to foot. She always looked uncomfortable when they spoke about her clothes.
Davi licked her lips, biting back a giggle. She adored getting on her beautiful assistant’s nerves. “Look at your skin. It’s got an eternal golden glow. Half the souls living in the pit don’t have your beautiful complexion.”
Laura rolled her eyes. “My heritage, Davi. My family was Spanish. Of course I have darker skin.”
“And you also lived in the era of dresses that showed your boobs. Why not show them again?” Davi tskd. “Your time alive was of men falling over themselves for women who wore long dresses that accentuated their bodies. Now you want to be dressed like a nun!” she spat.
“Yes, I might have dressed a little showier while alive, though nothing that actually showed my boobs, but I never did it to attract a man. It was the fashion.”
“And this is the fashion now. So get yourself new clothes, or I will disappear the clothes you have in your stale-of-sexiness closet, and replace them with my own brand of sexy.”
Laura groaned. “I’ll think about it.”
“You know you’re my favorite.”
“I should think so. I do enough work around here.” She folded her arms over her chest. “But I won’t be changing my clothes to make you happy, though I had planned on buying some new things.”
Fine. If that’s how she wanted to play it, Davi would accommodate her. She never gave up the chance to mess with her tight-bunned assistant. She ran her gaze over Laura’s button up blouse and black trousers again. Not really so bad, but for her position, Davi expected Laura to play the part. Considering she’d been her assistant for a few hundred years now, she should have already gotten the gist of how things worked there. Riyanna’s daughters embraced sensuality. As Davi’s right-hand pe
rson, she expected a better sense of style from Laura.
“I have a job for you.”
Laura’s brown eyes went wide, giving her the deer caught in the headlights look Davi always got a kick out of.
“What kind of job?” Suspicion sounded in her voice.
“My sisters are growing their minions a lot faster than I am. And since it seems it’s all due to love.” She rolled her eyes, “I think we need to start doing the same.”
Laura visibly gulped.
Good. Discomfort was a great way to keep her assistant on her toes. Plus, it was something Davi loved in her underlings. That and lies made her so very happy.
“What did you have in mind?” Laura tapped her chin, showing signs of her nerves with the shaking of her fingers.
Davi smiled, showing her amusement over Laura’s discomfort. “The new dating site we’ve been putting together.”
“Hellmatch.com?” Laura’s eyes widened before she glanced away.
“That’s the one.” Davi did a slow circle around Laura, taking in her short curvy assistant from every angle. Yep. She’d be perfect for what Davi had in mind. “You’re going to run it.”
Laura’s stiff frame held immobile. She jerked her gaze back to Davi. “Are you out of your mind?”
“Yes, but that’s beside the point. Are you saying you won’t do my bidding?” Davi caressed the back of Laura’s bun, yanking the stupid knot and letting the long dark curls flow free. Finally. She hated the damn bun with a passion and every time Laura walked into her office, Davi tore the long strands loose, only to have her assistant return with her hair tied even tighter the next time.
“No, but come on,” Laura snorted. “You have a team of people handling that thing. It’s going to be your biggest project after the new torture dome.”
True. But she wanted to grow her minions now. Right now! Laura had never let her down. Not once since she’d joined the ranks of the damned in hell. Her case had been special and Riyanna had sent her to Davi with the condition that she keep her close. Or Laura’s personality could show itself. Though Davi had yet to see her personality and it sparked her curiosity on a daily basis what it was her assistant hid.
Davi was tired of the all-accepting employee. Doing her bidding like it was fun. She wanted fire, spark. Hell, she wanted someone to debate with. Most of all, she wanted to see what lay beneath Laura’s calm façade. And screw it all to the high heavens she hated knowing her sisters could beat her at being her mother’s favorite. She’d worked damn hard to be the best. A union between Laura and her head warrior would bring lots and lots of little minions to help keep Davi number one in her mother’s book.
“I want the first match to be a success. So I am putting it in your hands.”
“I run reports on new souls entering your level. I don’t match people,” she choked out.
“You don’t have to. The system will do it. All you have to do is input the information and voila! A match made in hell.”
If Laura’s shoulders became any stiffer, Davi swore they’d break in pieces.
“After what happened in the last episode of Days of Our Hell, things need some lightening up. That ending sucked.” Laura took a step away from her. “Everyone’s excited over your work with Hellmatch.com, but you should keep it with the people who set it up.”
“No. You’re gonna ensure it’s a success. I have enough female underlings that you can find a match of the first warrior guard.”
“A warrior?” Laura groaned. “I know nothing about those guys. How would I know who to match him with?”
“You’ll get to meet him.”
“But—”
“It is your responsibility that he find true love, or some such nonsense, and mate.” Davi’s body heated, dropping the sexy exterior and showing the demon behind to her assistant. “Or you will be responsible for the consequences.”
Laura’s nose flared. Anger lit her brown eyes. Davi saw it then, the beast inside Laura. Rage. There wasn’t fear at seeing her master’s other self, only fury. Excitement lit Davi’s insides. Oh, she’d be letting that animal loose soon or she wasn’t the queen of the underworld’s daughter. It was time Laura let her true self show. And Davi knew just who to use to drive that wildness out.
“Go. I’ll tell you where to find him when the time is right.”
Laura pursed her lips and turned, stomping to the large cherry door.
Davi grinned. She summoned her favorite guard. Damien Wrath. Her body heated just thinking of the big, bad bastard. Too bad he refused to give in to temptation and sleep with her. Of course, if he did, he’d end up dead just like all her other lovers. Once she tired of them, she sent them into the pit. Davi hated commitment, and for some reason every time she got a new boy toy, they went and fell in love. Idiots. Damien was much more valuable to her alive than dead.
Damien glared at the buxom beauty before him and almost gave in to the urge to strangle her himself. Had she not been his boss, or the daughter of the queen of the underworld, or a hell of a lot stronger than him, he might have given in to temptation.
“No!”
Davi sighed. Her magnificence and that of her sisters was unmatched by any other being out there. With her long raven hair and crimson eyes, she was the picture of dark ethereal beauty. Unfortunately for him, that meant he had to smack the new guards under his command into the present whenever she showed up at the training fields. Her presence tended to bring out the idiot in all the young guards. Not him though. Damien had cared and lost one woman in his lifetime and nobody would ever replace her.
“I’m not asking for your opinion, Wrath. I am giving you a direct order,” she said in that soft, husky voice that turned his guards into drooling morons.
“And I said no.” What’s the worst that could happen? He was already in hell. Granted, it wasn’t the worst level of hell, but he’d never actually lived as an evil person. His wife had never made it there to join him. She must have died an innocent soul. He knew all kinds of torture from being alone for so many centuries without the one person he wished to be with. The one person he’d died for.
Davi jumped to her feet, her skin glimmered red under the office lights. She was pissed. If her flushed face wasn’t indication enough, there was the bright red eyes, the light smoke leaving her ears and of course, her growling. He stood his ground, sensing her anger at being disobeyed. She wanted to be angry? If she got beside herself his wolf would show itself.
Her hips swayed in her black leather skirt and red leather corset as she closed the distance between them. “You will do as I say.”
“Or?”
He knew he’d pushed his luck when her voice turned into a deathly growl. “I will see to it that you’re removed from the guards. You’ll be left with nothing to do all day but think of what you once had and how you lost it. Is that your wish?”
A knife to his heart would have had the same effect. “No!”
As it was, he had a hell of a time not drowning in the sorrow of how he’d died for his wife.
Davi turned her red lips into a sexy smile. That did nothing for him. Clearly having died had also killed his libido. He’d not had a single woman since he’d joined the guard ranks in the Seventh. Now he was going to get matched up whether he liked it or not.
“Fine. I’ll go through with this, but,” he growled. “If I can’t match with anyone, you’ll leave me the hell alone. That’s the deal.”
Davi’s predatory smile should have worried him, but he knew how to be the worst kind of male. After all, he’d been the best gladiator in his time and knew what women liked and what they didn’t. He never said he’d play the part of the perfect man for anyone.
“Of course. If you don’t find the one you want, we’ll leave it at that and you may go back to your life as usual.”
He squinted at his mistress. “Four is my limit. I will meet four and if none work, I am free.”
She nodded. “Very well. But keep in mind that you may end up asking m
e for one of them. When that happens, warrior….” She crowded his space, running a long red nail down his naked chest. “You’ll owe me.”
He snorted. The woman might be gorgeous but she was definitely missing more than common sense. “If you can find someone that’s a right match for me, I’ll stand guard at your front door in my former gladiator outfit.” He saw her eyes brighten. “The same one you’ve been trying to make me wear for centuries.”
“Deal.”
Hearing that word from her made his stomach tighten a little. What had he agreed to?
TWO
Laura stood several yards away from the practice fields. Burgundy trees and grass covered the surrounding area in a sea of red. It was like being in the forest back in the mortal world, but instead of green, everything was red. Boy had that been weird when she’d first arrived. Once she got used to it, she hadn’t minded the change in color. It still reminded her of home.
Her gaze wandered down to the men training. Davi’s guards. All of them wore black skintight pants, showing off their bulges—because her mistress just loved to have something to look at when one of them came near her. Bronzed skin and muscles galore, covered each warrior. Big, strong men with a background in fighting made up the guard. Not that there was a single ugly one in the lot.
Laura licked her lips, watching one of them swing a large battle ax over his head and decapitate a large Hellhound. The animal reared back, swiping angry claws at the man in front of him, only to have those cut down to bits as well.
“Great. Who the hell am I supposed to match one of these barbarians with?” she muttered. Gaze firmly glued on the giant wielding the ax, she tried to walk toward the training quarters without tripping as her heels dug into the soft grass.
The giant moved with an agility she’d never seen before. His shaggy dark hair and glistening skin drew her closer to the fighting area. Pure curiosity. That’s all it was. It wasn’t like she thought him interesting with those way too large muscles and that bronzed to perfection skin or those powerful legs flexing under the shorts he wore. Nope. Not. At. All.
