Ruby Shadows (17 page)

“
As to that, my heart is much softer than it should be—but only
towards you,
mon
ange.”
He frowned
at me.

“
I
don’t care what you say—they’re
hungry.”

“
No one disputes that.” His eyes flashed. “Though their
appetites might surprise you.”

“
But—”

“
Do not presume to lecture me on subjects you do not
understand. The
devilkins are not to be trusted any more than Druaga is. For
all their outward appearances are different, inside they are the
same.”

“
I’m so sure,” I muttered. Comparing that sweet-looking little
cherub boy to the grotesque boar-headed demon seemed ridiculous but
Laish was clearly not going to listen to reason.

I fumed silently as
we rode, but Laish still had more to say.

“
Now that Druaga suspects what you are, we must be even more
vigilant,” he said in my ear. “Had you simply remained silent he
would have been too distracted by your beauty to notice you are
more than you seem.”

“
Distracted
by
my
beauty
.” I
looked down at the thin red gown which clung to my breasts,
outlining them suggestively. “Right.”

“
You think I have dre
ssed you as you are only for my own pleasure?” Laish
demanded in a low voice. “It is a kind of camouflage, Gwendolyn. It
distracts the sharp eyes of those who would expose you and put us
in more danger than we are already in.” He stroked my thigh through
the slippery red silk, making me shift uneasily as sparks of
unwilling pleasure raced through my veins. “Not that it does any
good if you are determined to expose yourself,” he said
roughly.

“
I’ll try to remember
to keep my mouth shut in the future,” I snapped as
Laish directed the huge horse down a long, carpeted hallway. “Stay
quiet and look pretty. Great career advice.”

“
It is if you are a concubine,” he remarked, sounding
amused.

“
I
don’t understand though,” I said. “If secrecy is so important, why
tell anyone at all who you are? Why not just go incognito and
pretend you’re another, uh, demon-businessman, like the ones we saw
in the lobby?”

“
You mean the flesh merchants?” He sounded disgusted. “I would
never allow myself to be classed with them. Besides, the upper
floors of the hotel are difficult to get to and not nearly as safe
as the first floor suites.”

“
But this is a respectable establishment, isn’t it?” I asked,
frowning. “How can it not be safe here?”

“
No place in Hell is completely safe,” he said seriously. “You
must remember that,
mon ange.
Ah—here we are.”

We
had finally come to the end of the broad hallway—which reminded me
more than a little of the one in
The Shining—
and found ourselves in front of a single door. A
brass number 4 gleamed at us and there was an old fashioned keyhole
just under the doorknob. No new-fangled key cards for the Hotel
Infernal—apparently here everything was strictly old fashioned and
by-the-book.

Laish dismounted easily and unlocked the door with the
key.
It swung
open, revealing an opulent room carpeted in black and dotted with
white furniture.

“
My lady.” Laish turned to me a
nd offered his hand to help me down from the
horse. This time I took it, though I couldn’t help thinking that I
was getting dangerously used to his touch. Which really wasn’t
surprising considering how closely we were pressed together while
we were riding.

Well, I was
out of the saddle now and it was time to put a little distance
between us. I dropped Laish’s hand as quickly and as casually as I
could once I got off Kurex’s back and went to look inside the
suite.

“
Oh, it’s gorgeous!” I breathed as I stepped inside. Or maybe I
should say, stepped
down
because
it was a sunken room with a deep step just inside the doorway. The
carpet was rich and thick, made of something that almost felt
alive. It caressed my bare feet (I’d taken off the other black
ballet flat) making me feel like I was getting a foot massage as I
walked.

“
Take your time and explore,” Laish said, nodding at the huge
suite. “I must go tend to
Kurex. I do not trust him to any of the handlers
Druaga has on his staff.” He pointed a finger at me. “You are to
stay in the room the entire time I am gone and do
not
open the door to anyone. Furthermore,
do not accept any kind of offer, no matter how small or
inconsequential it may seem.”

“
Yes,
sir.”
I gave
him a sarcastic little mock salute. “And should I put myself to bed
early without supper while I’m at it?”

Laish’s eyes were
suddenly half-lidded, his ruby eyes glowing as he looked at me.

“
As to that,
mon ange,
I
shall return and put you to bed myself. A process I am very much
looking forward to.”

“
What do you mean?” Despite myself, my heart started to pound.
“We…I thought we didn’t have to…to do that unless we were paying
the
Sin Tax to get
into the next level—the third circle of Hell.”

“
The border between Baator and
Minauros, the Great Dessert, is just beyond the sixth exit of
the Hotel Infernal,” he said softly. “Therefore we may pay the Sin
Tax ahead of time and in a much more leisurely fashion than we paid
to get into the second circle.”

“
We can?” I faltered,
hating the tremor in my voice but unable to help it.

“
Most assuredly.” His eyes
were still burning.

“
Remember your promise,
Laish,” I said quickly. “You said you wouldn’t take me…wouldn’t go
too far.”

“
Yes, but we must at least
go further than we did to cross the Styx,” he murmured. “The fee to
travel deeper into the Infernal Realm grows with each
step.”

“
But
still,”
I said. “You told me you
wouldn’t do
that
unless you had to. Until the end.”

His ruby eyes raked over me, making me feel
incredibly naked.

“
Just because I may not
yet make love to you doesn’t mean I don’t anticipate stroking your
beautiful body and making you come tonight,
mon ange.
”

“
I…you…” For once I was at
a loss for words. Grams would have called it a miracle—she says I
always have something to say for myself whether I should say it or
not. But this time I found nothing.

Laish didn’t seem a bit bothered by my
silence. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“
Enjoy yourself while I am
gone, Gwendolyn and remember what I said.”

Then he closed the
door behind him, leaving me alone in the huge suite with a ball of
apprehension like a block of ice melting in my stomach.

Chapter Thirteen

Gwendolyn

I
tried to shake off the worry Laish’s words had caused in me and
decided to just go explore the suite. I hadn’t known what to expect
for accommodations during my journey through Hell but staying a
night in a high-roller suite wasn’t one of them. It was a pleasant
surprise—or so I tried to tell myself. But somehow his words kept
echoing in my head.
“Just because I may
not yet make love to you doesn’t mean I don’t anticipate stroking
your beautiful body and making you come…”

Seriously, what was he
going to do to me? I’d never let any guy I ever dated get beyond
second base—or below the belt, however you wanted to say it.
Earlier when he’d cupped my pussy on the banks of the river Styx,
I’d trembled against him and shamed myself by begging for more and
he was only touching me
outside
my panties. This time I had a feeling he wasn’t
going to stop—the thin barrier of silk and lace would be gone—long
gone. And I was going to have those big, warm hands all over my
body, whether I wanted to or not.

The problem was that deep down I wanted to—a
Hell of a lot, no pun intended.

Stop it,
I reminded myself firmly.
He’s a demon, remember? And a demon of lust at that. No
wonder it’s hard to say no to him but that doesn’t mean you have to
make a fool of yourself. He wants to pay the Sin Tax—fine, there’s
no getting around that. But you can pay it without gasping and
begging like some horny actress in a porno at least. No matter what
happens, just keep control of yourself.

Having given myself a
stern lecture, I felt a little better about the situation at hand.
After all, I had gone into this with my eyes open. There were just
some things that would have to be done in order to achieve my goal.
That didn’t mean I had to
enjoy
them—only that I had to endure them. And in the
meantime, I was going to stop stressing about the whole mess and
just go explore the opulent suite.

The sunken room with its soft black carpet
had a living room area with wide, white leather couches grouped
around a central fire pit. There was also well as a bar stocked
with every imaginable liquor and quite a few I didn’t recognize at
all. And that was saying something considering I’d done a little
bartending in college before I started capitalizing on my witchy
roots to make a living.

The bar area led into another room and the
moment I walked in and saw the vast, king-sized bed I knew what it
was for. A luxurious white fur spread covered its wide surface and
mounds of plump pillows were piled against the headboard.

“
Hmmm…” I ran a hand over
the spread and wasn’t at all surprised to find it was real fur.
Probably baby seal fur or something awful and reprehensible like
that. This was Hell, after all. If they didn’t give a damn about
starving kids right out on the street, they sure weren’t going to
mind clubbing a few dozen seals to make a bedspread.

I pulled my hand away from the luxurious
spread quickly, trying not to think about the possible source of
the fur or the starving children outside the hotel. Poor things! I
wished Laish would let me do something for them—I still didn’t
understand why he was being so hard hearted.

Because he’s a
demon,
I reminded myself firmly.
A demon with no soul. So don’t expect him to act
like anything else and you won’t be disappointed.
Still, he could be so gentle and kind with me. It
seemed wrong that he wouldn’t even consider the plight of those
poor little children…well, maybe I could find a way to give them
something on our way out of the hotel. I sighed and went to explore
some more.

The bedroom led into a large master bathroom
with a black marble tub so huge it looked like you could do laps in
it—a far cry from the cramped shower-tub combo in Grams’ house. I
went to it eagerly and found a selection of bubble baths and
scented oils in fancy bottles lined up on one side. Perfect!

I practically clapped my
hands in delight. I
love
long, luxurious bubble baths—who doesn’t? And I
almost never got to have one since the hot water heater at Grams’
house wasn’t exactly huge.

Back home I’d run half a tub of hot water
before the heat ran out. I could either sit in a half-full tub or
fill the rest with cold and have a tepid bath which was no fun.
Here, it appeared, I could soak to my heart’s content.

“
Well, I know what
I’m
going to be doing
tonight,” I murmured to myself happily. Then the thought of Laish
popped into my head. “Well…part of the night anyway.”

Then I had a thought—why not take a bath
right now? Who knew how long it would take Laish to tend to Kurex?
I was bored and the one thing the gorgeous hotel suite didn’t seem
to have was a TV or any other kind of entertainment. Laish had told
me to stay out of trouble and I couldn’t imagine a better way to do
it. Besides, it would be a lot less embarrassing to be lolling
around in the tub naked when I was here by myself than when he was
there to watch me.

Mind made up, I began filling the tub. I was
just pouring a generous dollop of some sweet, floral scented bubble
bath under the running faucet when I heard a knock at the door. It
was so soft that at first I wasn’t certain I’d heard anything—it
was hard to hear over the rush of the water. Then it came
again—louder this time. Someone was definitely at the door.

I felt a stab of apprehension. Who could it
be? Laish had warned me not to trust anyone or to let anyone in.
Should I even go look or just ignore it?

The knocking sounded again—even louder—and I
decided to at least go to the door. There was a peephole in it,
just under the brass number four—I had seen it as we came in. So I
could look and decide if I wanted to open the door.

Quietly, I crept to the door and put my eye
to the peephole. At first I didn’t see anything at all. Then a
small voice said,

“
Hey lady! Down
here.”

Standing on my tiptoes, I tried another
angle and was able to look down. To my surprise, it was the
curly-headed blond boy from outside the hotel. He had something
behind his back and he was looking up at me, his big blue eyes
filled with hope.