She didn’t bother telling him the incubi couldn’t suck all the essence out of her because of her smattering of succubi blood. Instead, she kicked out at the men as they started dragging her toward the stairwell. She’d be damned if she’d let Neville do this to her.
Opening her mouth, she yelled at the top of her voice, dodging the hand of one who tried to cut her off. She twisted. Squirmed. Fought against the hands holding her. The breath rasped in her throat. Her heart raced. Her muscles grew taut as tension gripped her body.
It was a no-win situation. The men were too strong for her. They moved her closer and closer to the door to the stairs. Then she heard the sound of running feet and a yell that echoed down the corridor. The incubi hesitated and that gave the imps rushing toward them, Brel-ez at their head, enough time to launch a rescue.
The imps might have been small, but when their dander was up, they were vicious. Kicking, biting, going for the genitals, they attacked the incubi. In the resultant chaos, Brel-ez pushed Mina away. She landed on her butt on the carpeted corridor, her mouth open in shock.
The men took flight, racing for the stairwell. Neville screamed for them to hold fast but they ignored him. When the last one disappeared, Neville made a bid for freedom too. The imps weren’t about to let him get away. At least a dozen of them launched themselves at Neville, bringing him down. He hit the floor front-first with a loud grunt. The tiny demons clamored all over his back, their collective weight keeping him from moving.
At that moment, the door to Jedd’s apartment burst open. Jedd stood in the entrance in nothing but a pair of satin boxers.
“What the hell…?” He stared around. He caught sight of Mina and dropped down beside her. “What happened?”
He dragged her into his arms, pressing her head to his chest. Mina heard his heart pounding under her ear, hard and fast, as if he’d just completed a three-minute mile. His hand trembled slightly as he tilted her face up.
“Are you all right?”
Mina nodded and returned his hug. “I am now, thanks to Brel-ez and his mates.”
She pushed herself to her feet with Jedd’s assistance. Then she moved closer to the puppy pile of imps perched on Neville’s back. “Jedd, meet my cousin, Neville. He brought his incubi with him to suck me dry. Figured he’d get to take over if he did away with me.”
Jedd bared his teeth in a growl, the sound rumbling up from his chest. He grabbed Neville by his hair and dragged his head up so he could see his face. “You lousy bastard. I’m going to knock your block off.”
He curled one hand into a tight fist and pulled his arm back, ready to let fly. Before he could do so, Mina grabbed hold of his fist. “What—”
“No, leave him for Aunt Luce to deal with. I assure you, his punishment will be far worse than anything we can hand out.”
“Yay, Mistress, let Her Evilness handle him,” Brel-ez yelled out then burst into maniacal laughter.
Jedd reached down and held a hand out to Brel-ez, who immediately grasped it and pumped it up and down. “Thanks, Brel-ez. I owe you.”
“Enough to let us hang out in your apartment?”
Mina burst out laughing. “He’s got you there, Jedd.”
She turned back to the imp. “How come you guys turned up here so early this morning?”
Brel-ez grinned. “We just wanted to hang out.”
Jedd lowered his head into his palm and groaned. Then he frowned at the group of imps, focusing on the one sitting directly over Neville’s butt.
Brel-ez turned to see what he was looking at and let out a snort. “Claude, stop trying to hump the hell outta Neville’s ass.”
Claude glared at him. “Hey, leave me alone. Can I help it if I bat for the other team?”
Mina looked at Jedd, her mouth twitching. “Did he just say he was…?”
Jedd nodded, his mouth stretching in a grin.
“I guess it’s a case of like attracted to like. Neville did say he preferred his boys to women.” She convulsed with laughter again, leaning against Jedd for support. When she finally had herself under control, she turned to Brel-ez. “You guys want to take that scum back to Lord Lucifer for me? Tell her Jedd and I will be there very shortly. Then will you come back and get us?”
Brel-ez waved one hand above his head. A blinding flash of light exploded, the area filled with smoke and the smell of brimstone, and Neville and his entourage disappeared.
“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Mina said, wrinkling her nose at the stench.
Jedd slung one arm over her shoulder. “You sure you’re okay?”
She nodded and he dropped a quick kiss on the top of her head. “Give me a few minutes to throw some clothes on and we can go talk to Lucifer about Neville.”
She propped herself up against the kitchen bench while she waited for Jedd, her mind full of Aunt Luce and the nefarious plan she’d concocted. So Lucifer wanted to turn her into a woman, did she?
Mina grinned. The lady just might have gotten more than she bargained for. With that in mind, Mina zapped off to the bathroom, waving at Jedd as she passed through. “Just have to make a few minor repairs.”
Parking herself in front to the mirror, she upended her evening bag on the vanity top and grabbed the kohl pencil. Then she outlined her eyes, adding a few sweeps of mascara to darken her lashes. No blush, but that wasn’t a problem. Instead, she used a minute amount of lipstick to highlight her cheekbones. A further sweep of the lipstick left her lips a deep luscious red.
Leaning over, she finger-combed her hair forward and stood upright, flicking her hair back over her shoulders. With a grin, she turned to Jedd, who stood hovering in the bathroom doorway.
“Maybe a good thing I didn’t get time to go home and change. You think I look womanly enough?” She struck a pose, hands balanced on her hips.
“Lady, you look good enough to eat.”
“Yeah, baby! Sexy mama.” Brel-ez stuck his head around Jedd’s legs and leered at Mina.
Jedd swatted him on the head. “Enough out of you, you horny little devil.”
“Let’s go visit Lord Lucifer,” Mina said, stepping out of the bathroom and offering Brel-ez her hand.
The imp grabbed hold of it and fisted a handful of Jedd’s jeans with his other hand. The inevitable blast of sound and light preceded the rapid vibration of the molecules in her body and Mina lost her sense of self for a few precious moments. Then the world righted itself and she landed in Lord Lucifer’s throne room.
In front of her, perched on a throne made from gold and decorated with the thighbones of humans, was her aunt. Aunt Luce stared at her for a moment, eyes opened wide and jaw dropped. Then she snapped her mouth closed and waved Brel-ez away. “Take off, little man. I wish to speak to my niece.”
Brel-ez bowed over Mina’s hand, gave her a lascivious wink and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Mina moved closer to Jedd and slipped her arm through his before resting her head against him. “Did Brel-ez tell you what Neville was up to?” she asked her aunt.
Lucifer scowled. “I told you he was an evil bastard. Well, he won’t worry us any longer. I’ve consigned him to the innermost circle of hell. He might get out in…oh…maybe a hundred years.”
She stepped down from the dais where the throne sat. With eyebrows raised, she walked a circle around both Mina and Jedd, her heels tapping out a staccato beat. When she paused in front of them again, she narrowed her gaze and stared at Mina. “What have you done to yourself, girl? You look so…different.”
Mina worked hard to contain her grin. “Oh, isn’t it marvelous, Aunt Luce?” she gushed, even managing to produce a girlish giggle. “Jedd has been so good for me, and here I thought I was there to help him.”
Lucifer planted her hands on her hips, narrowing her gaze again, only this time she aimed it at Jedd. “And just what did Jedd do?”
“He’s shown me there’s so much more to life than work. I’ve been clubbing. Me, the fuddy-duddy tax auditor, has been clubbing.
And
he’s taught me to be more of a woman.” She hugged Jedd’s arm close to her chest and simpered up at him. Without letting go of Jedd, she focused on her aunt again. “And don’t you just love the new me?”
She ran a hand down over her dress, from the shoestring straps, across her bust and down to the bottom of the abbreviated hemline. “Even Brel-ez said I looked sexy.”
Lucifer frowned. “You wearing a bra with that, Araminta?”
Mina laughed. “Of course not, silly. That would spoil things.” She waggled her eyebrows. “So much easier without a bra, isn’t it, Jedd?”
Jedd gave her a fatuous smile. “You said it, baby. A lot less hassle, anyway.”
Lucifer moved her attention onto Jedd, a frown creasing her forehead and her mouth tight. “Just what did you get up to, Jedd?”
He shrugged. “I just helped Mina realize her potential. She’s a vibrant woman and needs to know that.”
“Oh, it worked sooo well and now Jedd and I have decided we were meant to be together. Isn’t that wonderful? And to think…we have you to thank for it.”
“Oh?”
Aunt Luce’s voice was definitely annoyed. She clenched her hands at her sides and held her shoulders and back tight as if on parade. It was all Mina could do not to burst out laughing. Lord Lucifer was definitely not amused.
“And where do you get the idea that I’m responsible?”
“Well,
you
sent me to help Jedd out with meeting women,” Mina said, keeping her face as innocent as possible. “But I didn’t know you’d also asked Jedd to help me learn to relax a bit because you were worried I was too stressed. Oh, and I do like his way of relaxing.”
She bumped her hip against Jedd’s and gave another asinine giggle, pleased when he not only kept the pretense going but reciprocated in kind.
With a glare at Jedd, Lucifer turned and marched like a drill sergeant toward the door set on one side of the throne room. She paused when she got there, hands braced either side of her on the door frame.
Now Mina couldn’t help herself. She flicked a glance at Jedd to see him biting his lip as if to contain his laughter. A chuckle bubbled up and Mina couldn’t suppress it, although she slammed her hand over her mouth in an effort to smother it.
Worried, she looked back at her aunt to see a satisfied grin on her face.
Uh-ohh, what’s going on here?
Aunt Luce turned and rested her back against the doorframe, crossing her arms over her chest. A congratulatory smirk curved her lips. “You two thought to double cross Lord Lucifer, supreme ruler of Hell? Well, how about a triple cross? Gotcha, kids!”
Huh
? Mina looked at Jedd, who seemed just as puzzled as she felt, then glanced back at her aunt. Oh, she so did not like the smirk her aunt wore. What devious thing had she gotten up to this time?
“You forget, I
am
Lord of everything here and I know all that happens in my domain. I knew you had a thing for Jedd. In fact, I’m well aware of what went on when you were seventeen. And Jedd? You think I’m a silly old woman?”
She laughed, the sound rolling through the room. “I knew all I had to do was get the two of you together and sparks would fly. It didn’t take much imagination to work out the two of you would soon get it together.”
Mina’s mouth dropped open in shock. For so long she’d thought she’d kept her feelings for Jedd a secret, but her aunt had known all the time? Frickin’ hell, she really
was
the devil.
“And Jedd?” Now Lucifer beamed, obviously pleased with the success of her project. “I’ve always had a theory that if you tell a man he can’t do something—or have something—he immediately figures that’s exactly what he needs and goes after it. You just proved my theory. Now, go away and be happy, kids.”
She gave them a little wave, turned around and disappeared out of the doorway, a chuckle floating after her.
Mina shook her head and stared after Lucifer. “Goddammit, Aunt Luce, you—”
All of a sudden, a rumble filled the air. Lightning flashed across the ceiling of the throne room. Smoke billowed. The smell of brimstone made Mina gag. Hellfire surged, singeing the hairs on her arms.
“I heard that. Don’t swear at me, girl,” intoned her aunt’s disembodied voice.
Mina looked at Jedd then she lost it. The laughter bubbled up and over, convulsing Mina so much she had to lean against Jedd so she wouldn’t fall on the floor. Jedd wrapped his arms about her and buried his face in her shoulder, his chuckles joining hers.
When she finally had herself under control, Mina wiped her eyes and shook her head.
“Lucifer’s balls, she always has to have the last word.”
Also available from Totally Bound Publishing:
Sink or Swim
Alexis Fleming
Excerpt
Chapter One
“What the hell do you thi…?”
Jonah’s thought processes shut down, the words drying up as he stared at the apparition in front of him. Eyes blinking furiously, he stumbled backwards and bumped into the door behind him, smacking his head on the timber surface. His feet went out from under him and he ended up on his ass on the tiled floor.
He closed his eyes a moment, sure he was in the grip of a particularly erotic dream. His cock certainly thought so. As if it had a mind of its own, it reared up, stiffening to attention and pointing its head in the direction it wanted to go. What the fuck, it
did
have a mind of its own, especially where this woman was concerned.
“Hello, Jonah.”
His eyes snapped open and he focused on her, trying to ease the constriction in his jeans. She’d draped her arms over the edge of the bathtub and rested her chin on her hands. At least now he wasn’t distracted by the sight of her slender body covered in nothing but an itty-bitty piece of butt floss and a gold chain about her waist.
Yeah, right!
He had a photographic memory and it had already processed the image of Samie dressed in a black thong and floundering about in a tub of water. And talking of water…
“Turn the flippin’ tap off, woman. You’re drowning my apartment below.”
“Oh crap, I’m so sorry.” She unlinked her arms and started to rise up in the bathtub.