Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,30

her apartment where she would have to deal with a fridge full of food that she couldn’t eat.

Instead of entering her security code, she somehow found herself walking towards Lucifer’s office, hoping that he wasn’t there so that she could lie down and feel bad for herself for a little while until he kicked her out. When she arrived at his office and found it locked, she breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that at least one thing was going her way today.

Knowing that he could have locked the door for privacy, she knocked on the door and waited for him to tell her to get her ass back to work, the greeting that he normally used when someone bothered him. She waited a few seconds before she grabbed her keys, let herself in and headed for the couch. She tossed the bag holding the only two things that she would ever be able to eat again and dropped down on the couch with a miserable moan.

This sucked, she concluded with a scowl as she curled up on her side, wondering why Lucifer couldn’t have been considerate and left a blanket and pillow on the couch so that she could be bitchy in comfort. Then again, she mused a few seconds later when Lucifer walked into his office with an incredibly beautiful woman by his side, perhaps she should have been more concerned with pushing him too far, again.

Of course, if he killed her then she wouldn’t have to worry about how she was going to survive on carrots and chocolate for the rest of her life and just like that, she’d found the upside to Lucifer’s homicidal tendencies.

Chapter 15

“Use the envelope opener,” the woman who was going to be responsible for his conviction to a federal prison said, sounding helpful as she gestured towards the vicinity of his desk.

“What the hell are you doing in my office?” he snapped even though this wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary for the little pain in the ass.

She was always where she wasn’t supposed to be, finding new ways to push his buttons just to see what it would take to drive him over the edge. He swore that sometimes he could see her holding back a little smirk of satisfaction, confirming his suspicions that she was the devil and not just one of his minions.

But, she wasn’t biting back a smile now.

Right now she looked like she was seconds away from screaming or crying. Hadn’t he fixed her, he wondered with a frown, because he was pretty sure that he’d just fixed her. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t help but wonder why she wasn’t cooking him a home cooked dinner or quitting and promising never to bother him again as a thank you. Some groveling and worshiping him as her personal savior wouldn’t go amiss either.

“Get out!” he snapped as he tossed the application that he was holding on his desk, barely aware that he’d startled the woman that he was supposed to be interviewing and not really caring. After he’d almost seriously fucked up everything the other night, the last thing that he wanted to do was to see her vulnerable like this.

“Fine,” Rebecca said, sighing heavily as she reluctantly sat up, grabbed a badly abused grocery bag and headed for the door, all without arguing with him or trying to screw with his head.

He should just let her walk out the door and go pout somewhere else. He should, but something about the way that she’d given in so easily didn’t sit well with him. Calling himself a fucking idiot, he reached out and placed his hand on her arm to stop her.

“What’s going on?” he asked more softly as he forced himself to ignore how good it felt to run his fingertips over her baby soft skin.

“Nothing. It’s fine,” she said, giving him a forced smile that told him everything that he needed to know.

His normally chipper and annoying tenant/employee was anything but fine, because she was usually better at bullshiting him than this. Keeping his eyes on her, he reached back and threw the door closed.

“Hey! Wait!” someone cried as the door slammed shut.

Rebecca’s fake smile shifted to a frown. “Umm, who was that?” she asked, gesturing towards the door.

“Who was who?” he said, wondering what she was talking about.

This time when she smiled, it was real, beautiful and made him feel like an idiot, because he had absolutely no idea what she was