Pure & Sinful (Pure Souls) - By Killian McRae Page 0,4

share something so good.”

“You did think I was good.”

It didn’t come out as a question, more of an affirmation of what was undoubtedly true. In fact, his attitude gutted her, and Riona worked hard to keep her mounting anger from making her irrational.

“Oh, shut up,” she snipped back, her nails digging into her palms as her fists balled up way too tightly. “You know you’re good. You’re a demon. Sexual gratification is part of your damned repertoire. Next to the deflowering of virgins and stealing socks out of dryers, it’s just the thing you do.”

“I never should have shown you my collection,” he scowled. “Oh, you are the single most frustrating, fucking witch I ever… Argh! You think I do that for everyone?” he barked back as his body responded to the insult. His jittery pace could have burned a hole in the floor. “Hell, no! You were special, Riona. Yeah, I may get around because of my work and all, but I don’t always care what the other person gets out of it. For you, I tried to make it worthwhile.”

Visibly, she seemed to melt. “Aw, Jerry,” she cooed, “that is so sweet.” Then, her mock smile soured. “If only you hadn’t locked me in a meat locker with a half-cocked crazy who thought he was Attila the Hun, it just might have worked out between us.”

He tilted his head. “Holding a grudge over that still?”

“What can I say?” she returned, her arms spread out in a questioning posture. “Setting me up in a kill-or-be-killed situation? Kind of a deal breaker. Worse than leaving the toilet seat up, in my book.”

If demon teeth could withstand the level of gnash Jerry was applying, Riona thought black boxes on airplanes should be built from them.

“Come on, baby.” His voice and features took on a more relaxed tone as he stood and gazed at her tenderly. “Deep down, you know I’d never put you up on the chopping block like that. I knew you could take him. It was sort of the whole point, getting you to kill so you’d start down a path to evil. Don’t you get it, Riona? It was a set-up to get you to fall before you could be recruited by Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Marc back there. It’s not just about your power. Yeah, Lucifer wants that hella lot, and who could blame him? But me? I just wanted you.”

Green, bumpy skin gave way to smooth, olive delicateness as Jerry managed in the midst of this declaration to pull his glamour back over himself. The swirl of scales atop his head showered into a beautiful cascade of wild, untamed, ebony grace. Thin lips concealing a forked tongue softened to kissable, tender tildes. But the eyes, they stayed the same: blue as summer skies over Rio. Eyes truly were the windows to the soul, she’d learned, and a soul carried its signature color no matter which body it inhabited.

“But, Jerry, now you’ve got me trapped, and as of two minutes ago, seemed quite intent on killing me,” she reminded him with a confused shrug. “You seem to be a demon who doesn’t know what he desires.”

“As much as I love every inch and every taste of your glorious human body, killing you wouldn’t take you away from me. It would give us the gift of forever when your soul sank into the underworld and Lucifer remade you into demon flesh.”

Hellfire blazed in his eyes, making her feel warm in all the parts she knew to high heaven should be icy cold right now.

He licked his lips seductively before adding, “I know exactly what, and whom, I desire.”

His hands were on her hips with blinding speed.

“You.”

He pulled her close and reclaimed her lips, the heat of Hell funneling his need. Despite herself, Riona gave into her momentary lack of judgment, and ability to stand, and let him take from her what he wanted. It would be a lie to say it was unpleasant. As his tongue found hers, she even thought for a moment that she felt that old flicker of warmth for him. But it couldn’t be… Things were different now. Riona knew who she was, and who she wasn’t. And who she wasn’t was any two-bit demon’s welcome mat, ready to be used whenever he decided to breeze into her good graces.

She was a Pure Soul, and a cosmically powerful, ass-kicking Keystone witch, at that.

The blasting hex took only a moment to leave her lips, sending