Kinky Boots(13)

Before she could even laugh at the absurdity of Finn’s statement, the voice inside her head said, ‘Honestly, Finn, why do you always insist on using that word “demon” when you know what it makes people in this day and age think? You make me sound like some sort of head-spinning, eye-bulging, pea-soup-vomiting monster or something, and I’m not like that at all, Jill. In fact, there was a time when the word “demon” meant something much nicer. It used to mean deity, divine power, lesser god, guiding spirit, take your pick, no head-spinning, no pea-soup-vomiting. That’s just disgusting.’

Jill slapped her hand over her mouth, but it was too late. The words had indeed come out of her throat as quickly as they had come into her head. And they definitely weren’t her thoughts. Her views on demons had always been pretty much bog-standard Exorcist stuff. Her views on demons! Hell, she didn’t even have any views on demons. ‘Oh, Jesus! Oh, God! Oh, fuck! You’re joking, right?’

‘Damn it, Eleanor, stop trying to help,’ Finn said. And it was so bloody confusing because he was looking at Jill, addressing her, and yet the part that daintily gave him the finger was most definitely not her.

‘Look, Jill,’ Finn was now saying. ‘It’s not all that bad. Eleanor’s right, she’s not a demon like you think of in the Exorcist sense of the word. She’s not anything like that. As far as demons go, well, Eleanor’s not that bad. Really she’s not.’

‘Not that bad? Not that bad!’ Jill was nearing hysterics. ‘How can a demon be not that bad?’

‘Well, it’s like this …’ Finn laughed nervously. ‘You see, there are lots of different kinds of demons and they aren’t just evil or good, nothing that simple. It’s a sort of continuum, if you know what I mean.’

‘No, I don’t know what you mean.’ Jill pulled the blanket tighter around her and glared at him.

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake! Spit it out, Finn,’ Jill found herself saying. ‘I’m a lust demon.’

And bloody hell, the second she’d said it Jill’s nipples were as hard as pebbles and she felt as though raw heat was scorching the crotch out of her knickers. She noticed immediately that Finn’s cock was standing at full attention in his jeans.

And just like that, without giving it a second thought, Jill slapped him. She slapped him hard enough that she was sure it hurt her hand at least as badly as it hurt his cheek. ‘You shagged me because of her, you bastard!’

It pissed her off that she heard Eleanor chuckle inside her head. It wasn’t funny. She was really angry.

Finn recoiled from the impact, sucked a harsh breath, then sat rubbing his rosy pink cheek, eyes watering. ‘I didn’t! I wouldn’t! I swear to you, when we were together last night I had no idea Eleanor was on the loose, and it was totally you that I wanted.’

‘And today?’

He shifted nervously on the sofa.

‘It was still you I wanted. It was just that …’

‘Just that if I were in residence and he did you, he’d know for sure I was there,’ Eleanor said.

Jill slapped him again.

This time he recoiled with a curse. ‘Goddamn it, Eleanor, stop trying to help.’

‘So if she wasn’t in me at our gropefest last night, then when?’ Jill asked.

‘The boots,’ they both said at the same time.

‘She came into me when I put on the boots,’ Jill added, and in her mind’s eye Eleanor nodded confirmation.

‘How could this happen?’ Jill said. ‘I mean, all I did was come into Kinky Boots. I never even planned to buy anything. And really, me a suitable home for a lust demon? I mean come on. I can’t even dress myself without Vivie’s fashion advice.’

Inside her head, Eleanor practically doubled over laughing, and Finn wasn’t much better. ‘Are you kidding?’ he said. ‘Jesus, woman, you’re sex on heels. In those boots, in Vivie’s fuck-me shoes, hell, even barefoot, it was all I could do to keep from sucking your sexy bare toes and licking my way up from there.’

Inside her head, Eleanor positively purred.

‘I’m possessed by a lust demon,’ Jill said. ‘This is hardly funny.’

‘Look, I’m not laughing about that, Jill,’ Finn said, forcing a serious face. ‘Believe me, I know this is serious, but I agree with Eleanor. You’re an obvious choice.’

‘You knew about her?’ Jill asked.

‘Yes, I knew about her. In a way I suppose you could say she’s my ward,’ Finn said.

The voice in her mind offered a disparaging grunt along with a couple of choice invectives, spoken in quiet ladylike tones, of course.