KnockingonDemon'sDoor (2 page)

She noted the way the other women in the room stared at him. He didn’t do anything to encourage them. Simply by breathing, he drew the attention of all those around him. As desire continued to prowl through her, Michelle pulled in a clarifying breath of her own.

“Pretty hot, isn’t he?” Tabby asked, catching where Michelle’s glance kept straying.

It wasn’t a good sign when even a self-absorbed airhead like Tabby could pick up on her interest in the bartender.

“Who?”
Michelle asked, faking ignorance as she turned her attention to her brand-new friend and temporary roommate for the duration of this assignment. Her mind raced. If the guy was a demon, how could all these people see him? Demons could only come out at night and could only interact with those few select
who
had the “gift” to see them. She knew, because she’d studied all manner of things that thrived in the dark. That was why she’d become a cop. Someone had to protect other innocent “seers” who didn’t know how to protect themselves.

Tabby pulled the elastic from her long auburn hair and let it tumble around her shoulders, offering Michelle a dazzling white smile that would have made her orthodontist proud. Michelle had only been at the resort for one day and had just met Tabby, but she knew her type all too well. Head cheerleader back in high school, dating none other than the star of the football team, belittling anyone who didn’t fit her standards—flirty, well built, popular, and lacking any real ambition—which made the assignment of fitting into the Bunny Club all the more challenging. Michelle was great at undercover work, but since she had little tolerance for brainless bunnies getting into the role was harder than she anticipated.

“His name is Blake Ashen. We call him Ash. And he’s a total badass,” Tabby purred, making no secret of how she knew and confirming what Michelle had already suspected. Every bunny in the resort had most likely sampled the dangerously handsome man. Tabby wet her painted lips, mischief lingering in her eyes. “As a matter of fact, I think he’s just the guy to initiate you into the Bunny Club.”

From what Michelle could tell the Bunny Club was one big, sex-crazed fraternity where nothing and no one was off limits. She shivered. She had a healthy enough appetite for sex, but she was choosy about her partners. Women like Tabby who thought they had the world by the ass had no idea how badly indiscriminate sex games could really end for them.

Tabby twisted on her stool to afford herself a blatantly sexual appraisal of the charismatic barkeep. “Well, well. It looks like he’s checking you out too, Sunny.” Tabby arched a perfectly manicured brow. “So what are you waiting for? Get on over there and get initiated, girlfriend.”

Encouragement sounded from the other bunnies around the table. “Go on, Sunny.”

She took a moment to mull it over and then as she warmed to the idea, she thought, why not? All they’d done was given her a good excuse to talk to him.

The initiation part she could do without.

Michelle eased herself from the table and made her way to the bar.
As Ash stepped out from behind the counter to bring a patron a drink, her glance raced over his fine athletic body, dark hair and even darker eyes.
His navy work pants hugged his body in all the right places and the crisp white dress shirt, with the sleeves rolled to the elbow, displayed scrumptious corded muscles. His heat reached out to her like a seductive weapon and sent her pulse skyrocketing. Acutely aware of the raw desire searing her insides as well as the hot moisture pooling in her pussy—and suspecting he was aware of it too—she paused for a moment to study the scars on his face and the symbolic Chinese god tattoo on his forearm.
A demon with a god tattoo.
He was either very confused or trying to balance the bad with the good.

If he was going for the balancing act he was wasting his time. Demons had no good in them. She should know. Her mother had been killed by one before Michelle had reached her teens, leaving her with an overbearing, overprotective father to rear her. As a teenager she hadn’t been as sympathetic to that
overprotectiveness
as she should have been, considering he’d lost one woman and was trying his damnedest not to lose another. Instead, she’d spent her days trying to get out from under his thumb and her nights learning all that she could about demons. Other than her mother, who was also a “seer” she’d never told anyone she could “see” them, least of all her angry, disbelieving father who’d eventually given up on trying to shield her, turned to the bottle during her late teens and drank himself to death before her nineteenth birthday.

But just because the majority of the population weren’t tuned into their frequency and couldn’t see them prowling the nights, didn’t mean that demons didn’t exist. She blamed demons for her father’s self-destructive behavior every bit as much as for her mother’s death.

She slid onto the plush stool in front of the bar as Ash made his way back to his station. Her rebel years and her own ink gave her the perfect conversation starter.

“Nice tat,” she cooed, stepping into her Sunny role. Her gaze panned over his rock-hard body, then moved back to his face to linger around his sensual mouth—a mouth that could undoubtedly do the most delicious things to the hungry little spot between her legs and ignite every inch of her naked flesh. Good Lord… Pleasure shot through her and the sexual energy emanating off him had her clit swelling and knocked her off balance. She swallowed and as she reveled in the sensations she worked to find her next words. “Looks like Nathan Wong’s work.”

“Thanks,” he shot back and let his glance leisurely move over her body in return, blatantly taking his time to peruse her every curve, specifically the swell of her breasts. The sudden image of him moving his cock in and out of her cleavage came out of nowhere and hit her like a supernova. She planted her hand on the bar and swallowed hard as she resisted the urge to squirm—right into his arms.

Even though she braced herself for it, a darkly seductive smile nearly dropped her to her knees. “You know Nathan?” he asked. Sultry heat lingered near her bellybutton for a moment, giving her the impression that he was checking out the butterfly tattoo beneath her body-molding sweater. Not
that demons
had the ability to do such a thing. They might have excessive emotions and strength, heightened senses,
be
able to move between worlds at will as they sought out pleasure and charm their way into most “seers” pants, but the one thing they didn’t have was x-ray vision.

“So do you? Do you know Nathan?” he asked again pulling her focus back.

A warm tingle moved through her, and as her nipples ached in a way they’d never ached before she nodded in response to his question.

His eyes left her belly and moved to her face. “I’ve showed you mine, are you going to show me yours?” His wicked grin and the suggestion behind his words had her heart racing and her pussy dripping.

Concentrate, Michelle. Concentrate.

Without answering his question, she clamped her legs together, leaned across the bar and ran her index finger over his markings. When her finger touched his flesh, a soft yellow glow flashed in his eyes. The flash of color disappeared so quickly that, if she wasn’t looking for it, she never would have seen it. She fought the urge to snatch her hand back, forcing herself to keep the intimate contact a bit longer. As her fingers played over his arm, any lingering doubts she had to his identity were instantly gone. Ash was most definitely a demon. The yellow glow in his eyes confirmed it.

He watched her as if he too was gauging her reactions.

“What does the symbol mean?” she asked, even though her studies into mythology had told her it was a Chinese god symbol used to ward off bad spirits.

“It means ‘mother’ in Chinese.”

She supposed it didn’t really matter why he would lie to her about such a little thing. He was a demon, after all. A demon
who
could walk in the day and cause a flash fire in her pussy without even trying. That quick color change in his eyes had verified it. She’d gone up against enough of them to know that when they felt passion—either from anger or arousal—their eyes changed color. For a brief moment she wondered which one he felt when she touched him, then buried the stupid thought in favor of more important ones.

Forcing
herself
to return to professional mode, she took a moment to think things through. She didn’t know how or why he was able to walk during the day. All she knew for certain was that where there was a demon there was danger and every instinct she owned told her to do something about it.

But if she wanted to find out why so many girls were supposedly dying on the slopes and going missing from this resort, she had to play by mortal rules this time. That meant killing him was out of the question. Too many employees would notice he was gone. She had to get close to him and stay there, no matter how much she despised him for what he was.