His damnable grin told her how much he wanted more.
A woman walked up and she dropped his hands from her mouth.
"Hiya, honey." The net dress-wearing secretary interrupted. A cigarette dangled from her lip. "You wanna little more action?"
He laughed, but Sarah didn't see anything funny about the situation. "Get the hell out of here."
The woman staggered away, her sagging butt jiggling as the tight strings of her costume cut into her ample flesh.
"I'm leaving." Sarah pushed away from him. "I came here because I had to, but I don't have to stay. These people are morons. If you want, you can come with me." She started to walk away.
"No. Wait. I want to show you something first." He turned her towards the fireplace. The heat of the flame warmed her skin. "Do you trust me?"
"I just met you. You won't tell me your name. Do you think I should really trust you?"
The moment the words escaped her lips, she realized they were just a game. She did trust him. There was just something about the way he touched her, like he had known her for years, which made her feel secure.
He smirked. "I know you should."
She sighed as she let him slip his fingers between her's.
He looked around at the crowd. Nobody was watching as he pushed his foot into the flames.
She gasped as his leather pants sizzled under the licking tongues of the fire.
"Don't be frightened."
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Trust me." He stepped in with his other foot. "Follow me."
"No," she whispered, trying to avoid the crowd's attention. She didn't need the police showing up and her on the front page of tomorrow's news.
He tugged her and she fell forward into the flames. She could feel the heat and a slight burn as she reached out to stop herself from falling. He grabbed her wings and caught her as she plunged. He lifted her up, and as his hands connected with her skin, the sweltering heat of the fire subsided. Scooping her up into his arms, he moved deeper into the rising flames.
"I'm sorry I had to do that. I just needed you to hurry."
She didn't know how to respond, but his apology didn't seem equal to the amount of fear she was feeling. The light of the flames was blinding and she shut her eyes.
"Are you okay?" The Devil rubbed his thumb against her thigh.
She nodded, but refused to open her eyes.
The Devil chuckled. "It's okay. We are out of the flames. You can open your eyes now."
Squinting, she peeked out from under her eyelashes. The room was dark. Sniffing, she could make out the distinct odor of ashes and faint sulfur. She opened her eyes as a groan escaped the darkness. Scanning the void, she couldn't find the sound's source and she looked up at the Devil. "Who was that?"
"Don't worry about the condemned." His voice had a sharp edge that told her she shouldn't ask any more questions.
He sat her back down and her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could see they were standing in the center of a vast ravine. Faint blue flames licked up the steep, soot-covered walls that surrounded them. Black smoke writhed above the sharp edges of the cliffs. Even in her nightmares, she had never imagined a place as terrifying, or remarkable.
She had trusted the Devil. Talk about having a problem with falling for bad boys.
She thought back to the long list of losers she'd dated. There had been Brett, the man who had stolen her underwear, David, who she had walked in on screwing another woman in her bed, and most recently, Bill, who had a habit of using her money to pay for strippers.
At least if I'm going to have a problem, I've fallen for the crème-de-la-crème.
Sarah studied the man at her side. Could he really be called a man? His black horns reflected the ghostly blue light of the surrounding flames. He looked like a man, the way his muscles rippled over the cuff of his white linen shirt and the way he smiled with his entire face.
A thought caught her off-guard. "Since I am here in Hell, does that mean I'm dead?"
She thought back on all the things from her past, the dirty looks from co-workers and the snide remarks from her so-called friends. As for her family, only her mother was left, and she rarely saw her. If she were dead, what was there to miss?
He gently caressed her cheek with his fingers, and she could smell her scent on him.
"Usually that is the rule for this game, but for you, my angel, I could make an exception."
"What kind of exception?"
"After I show you what I have to offer, if you still want to go back to your regular, mundane human life selling sex toys, I will send you back. However, if you choose to stay with me, you will have to give up your life and promise yourself to me for eternity."
Fuck. What man is worth eternity?
She jerked as somewhere in the distance a man screamed.
"You get used to the noises. I promise." He reached up and pushed her tilting halo back into its upright position.
"I'm not one for pain."
He looked down at her with a twinkle in his black eyes. "That's fine. I only want to bring you pleasure."
Her cheeks warmed, but it could have been the heat.
"How about I show you what I have to offer?"
"I hope you mean here," she said, motioning down the ravine.
"I suppose we can start there," he said with a chuckle. "Hell does offer more possibilities than you would think; especially since you came as my lover and not one of the damned."
The word ‘lover' struck a chord in her heart. She looked forward to being in his arms, feeling all he had to offer, but she couldn't ignore the nagging feeling the one person she would miss if she stayed-Mike.
She scoffed at her stupidity. Mike knew nothing of her feelings and probably didn't even know her last name. Instead of thinking what could have been, she reminded herself to live in the moment and appreciate the strong, handsome, intrinsically dangerous, but sexy man at her side.
As though he could read her mind, the Devil grasped her chin and pulled his lips to hers. He tasted like vodka and smoke and as he pulled back, she tried to follow-the kiss was too short.
He smiled as she tried to recover her composure. "There's much to see, but I will show you what I can."
He led her down the ravine and into a small valley lined with rows and rows of cells. Each cell was barred, a prison for the person inside.
"Help me!" a man yelled.
She couldn't stop herself; she moved towards the sound.
"Stop, Sarah, you don't want to see … " The Devil broke off.
She let go of his hand as she kept moving. "If I'm going to live here forever, I need to know what I'm in for."
The man screamed in agony and fear. The cry sounded like it was coming from somewhere nearby. Looking ahead into the darkness, she saw a small, flickering fire. Stepping closer, she grabbed the bars and pressed her face against them as she tried to see into the dimly lit cell.
Above the flame, the man swung upside down. His back was to her, but she could see glistening metal hooks piercing the skin of his inner thighs and scrotum. The skin was stretched tight and looked inflamed and swollen. Slowly, the suspended man began to turn. As he moved, his motion fanned the flames and they billowed up towards him.
She gasped as she saw the seared skin of his face; it was blackened, all except his eyes, which were red, glassy, and filled with tears.
He looked towards her. "Help me, my angel."
A hand grasped her shoulder and she turned. The Devil looked at her, his eyes filled with sympathy.
"I'm sorry. I told you there were things here you would not want to see," he said in a low, soft voice. He gently kissed the skin of her cheek as he led her away from the tortured man.
"You fucking whore!" the man screamed after her.
"How can that not affect you?" she asked, ignoring the man's provocation.
"After some time, you become immune. You must think of the things they have done to belong here."
She stared at the Devil. How can he be so cold? Pain is pain. Torture is torture. How can he turn a blind eye to such horror?
"What could he have done to deserve that sort of treatment?"
The Devil hesitated for a moment. "I suppose you have already seen the punishment … you should know the crime."
She needed to know. She needed to be relieved of the guilt engendered by leaving the screaming man behind to suffer his torments alone.
"Before he came here, he was a serial rapist. He would take women as they were getting into their cars, or as they came out of clubs, whenever they were alone. He saw them as potential prey. He would threaten them and if they didn't succumb to him, he would kill them and leave their bodies-some of which were never identified. He was never caught. Died of a heart attack. Then he came to this place."
"You knew everything he had done?"
"Yes, and I sentenced him for his misdeeds."
"You chose to torture him?"
"Don't you think this punishment was deserved?"