Sins of the Flesh (Half-Breed Series Book 2) (18 page)

“Lovely.” Her cherry lips were seductively wrapped around the straw as she took another sip. With a wave of her hand, the two men I’d been eyeing vacated their seats and stood like adoring statues beside us.

“Please.” She gestured to one stool then swept onto the other as I sat. “Now that we are finally at a truce, what brings you to Maui? And when are you leaving?”

So much for apologies and our sisterhood. I ignored the less-than-subtle dismissive tone and eyed her. “Are you a local?”

Cleo had always looked like a Hollywood version of the queen, as opposed to a true Egyptian, but now that I got a closer look at her, I could see the south Asian influence, not the Japanese or Korean background I’d seen in many of the natives this past week. No, Cleo almost seemed as if she had some Tahitian or Samoan blood in her veins. Or in whoever veins she was copying at the moment. Sex demons chose their human form with great care, but it was never their true form.

“Yes. I am Hawaii.”

And she clearly didn’t speak English very well, in spite of her excellent accent. “Well, I’m here on vacation with my boyfriend. I’ll be leaving in a few days, so hopefully we can extend our truce until I fly away, never to return.”

Her teeth were amazingly white as she smiled. “I am willing to consider the possibility of a truce, as long as you vow never to return to the islands without my invitation.”

Invitation. Riiiight. Eventually she was going to fuck up and some angel was going to dust her ass or chase her back to Hel. She could pee in the sandbox all she wanted, but, eventually, a bigger dog was going to knock her out. I gave her two months max — long before I ever planned a return trip to the island.

I eyed her over my beer and asked the important question on my mind. “You gonna stop cock blocking me?”

The confusion on her face was comical.

“I mean, will you stop interfering in my pursuit of sexual intercourse with residents of the island?” The men next to us perked up considerably, scooting closer to my stool.

Cleo scowled. “These men are mine. You want all the best ones. I won’t let you take them and leave me with the dregs.”

“That’s what you’ve been doing to me. Come on. There are tons of quality guys on this island. Throw a sister more than a bare bone.”

Instead of protesting, or yanking more of my hair out of my scalp, she recoiled at the word ‘sister’, giving me a wary look. “I would definitely give my sister more than a bare bone. Tell you what, let’s ditch this disgusting watering hole and head to the Four Seasons.”

Holy shit. Four Seasons was where the money-is-no-object people stayed. Not that money equated with the best quality of sexual energy, but it was certainly better hunting grounds than trolling the island street corners.

“How about we reward these two patient men who have been our adoring slaves since we took their seats, and then we’ll head to the land of the rich and famous?”

Cleo swiveled on her seat and eyed the men behind us — the men who had silly grins and hopeful looks on their faces. “Agreed. But I get the married one. I like the married ones.”

Damn. I hadn’t even caught that. I glared at the now red-faced man, looking pointedly at his lack of ring. Cleo might be a bitch of the first rank, but I could learn a lot from a succubus like her. “Deal.”

Thirty minutes later we were sauntering out arm in arm, both glowing from sexual energy and the excellent champagne Cleo had managed to score and haul into the storeroom where we rocked two men’s worlds. I never knew boning a guy with another couple fucking right next to me could be so hot. We left that storeroom a mess — shelves knocked over, champagne spilled everywhere, two exhausted men sprawled naked on the floor.

“Love never felt this good,” I sang, uncharacteristically off-key. Damn, how much champagne
had
I drunk? I should have been more careful. Clearly the sex high I was on didn’t mix well with alcohol, because I was pissed beyond rational thought. “’Cause you dance... and something, something, baby, baby.” The lyrics were completely escaping me. Not that I was sure exactly what song I was singing.

“I’m not walking all the way to the Four Seasons,” Cleo complained. She sounded a lot more sober than I did, but her lurching walk betrayed her.

“I took a taxi here.” The thought made me giggle. Maybe we could hitchhike. I was willing to bet that if either one of us flashed a passing car, we’d get a ride. Actually, we’d probably cause a fatal accident.

“I’m not taking a nasty taxi.” Cleo made a dismissive motion with her hand and nearly punched me in the face. “Why do they always smell like garlic? Why, oh why? I long for the days of a chaise carried on the muscular shoulders of young men, surrounded by fragrant flowers and the scent of sex.”

I snorted, realizing too late that such an unladylike noise would be far beneath my new mentor, my new best friend, my
sister
. Yes, I loved Cleo like a sister. How had I not realized that before? “Chaise. Like
that’s
gonna happen. Can you hotwire a car? Irix can hotwire a car. He steals them all the time, only he
says
it’s borrowing.” I snorted again. I was drunk, really, really drunk. I couldn’t help it. “If it ain’t nailed down, he takes it. Hotwire us a car, and let’s go fuck some rich guys.”

Yeah. The tiny part of my brain that wasn’t drunk let me know I’d need to sober up fast, because no pheromones were going to get me laid when I was
this
sloppy drunk.

“Who is Irix?” Cleo made kissy-lips and wiggled her eyebrows — and almost fell over a crack in the sidewalk.

“My man. My main squeeze.” I sighed. “He’s the hottest guy I’ve ever met in my whole life, my long life of, like, forever. I love him. I want to just spend the rest of eternity locked in a bedroom with him.”

“Really?” Cleo bounced off a tree trunk and paused to curse at it. It withered under her recriminations. “Gorgeous. Awesome sex. Hot-wires cars. Does he give you tributes? Presents worthy of your divinity?”

I healed the tree once she’d staggered a few more steps down the street. Yeah, I should have been conserving my energy for future encounters with the fire elemental, but I couldn’t let this poor palm take the brunt of her drunken wrath.

I wasn’t a flowers and chocolate girl, but Irix had always taken care of me. “He shares his energy, paid for our vacation. He’s kind of bossy sometimes, telling me what I should and shouldn’t do, but I know he’s looking out for my best interrrr... int-er-ests. Yeah, my best interests.”

“I like the older, confident ones,” Cleo announced, linking her arm in mine. “Conquest isn’t as sweet when the men knuckle under too easily.”

I laughed at the thought of Irix knuckling under to anyone. Yeah, he’d shown me glimpses of vulnerability, told me he loved me, but I knew if I turned bitch on him, he’d kick my ass.

“What the fuck are we doing walking to Four Seasons? Let’s just blip there. You know, snap our fingers and blingy-blingy?”

The suggestion sobered me up. Well, slightly. “I can’t do that. The whole teleportation thingie? Nope. I don’t even think Irix can do it. You’re, like, an angel if you can.”

It didn’t even cross my mind that she’d suggest it. Really? Teleportation? The only demon I knew who could do that was Sam, and she was Satan and an Angel of Chaos. If Cleo could do it, what the fuck was her level? Or was she just bullshitting me or probing to discover my level?

“Fine. Whatever.” Cleo stepped in front of a moving Honda and slammed it to a stop. I watched the driver face-plant into the steering wheel and bounce back against the seat. Then Cleo strode to the driver’s side and yanked him out. “Hike it, motherfucker.”

She tossed the man to the side of the road and slid into the driver’s seat. “Not exactly a chaise on the shoulders of attractive muscular men, but it will do.”

No, a twelve-year-old Honda Accord didn’t equate to a parade procession with four Fabio hotties at the helm, but I’d take it. I slid into the passenger seat, shaking my head to try to clear it of at least the alcohol. The world still buzzed around me in a swirl of confusion as Cleo weaved her way down the streets.

Cleo was a terrible driver. I held my breath as we touched the guardrail then swayed back toward the oncoming traffic on my side of the car. The good news was, the adrenaline-fueled car ride was doing a lot toward sobering me up. “Jesus, Cleo. Watch where the fuck you’re going. Do you even have a driver’s license?”

“No. Why would I need for humans to give me permission to operate their conveyances?”

I guess she had a point. A terrifying thirty minutes later we stood in front of the Sheraton, looking out at the dark shadow of an island.

“Where are the boats?” Cleo demanded.

The illustrious Four Seasons that Cleo had wanted to visit was on Lanai, a privately owned island right off Maui. A ferry ran there, but I had no idea where to catch it, or when it ran. I guess Cleo, living up to the name I’d given her, expected one to show up on shore just for little old us.

“There are some boats.” I pointed to three large catamarans and a speedboat, bobbing at anchor about sixty feet out. “Irix would just swim out and steal one if he wanted to go to Lanai.”

She nodded. “I like this Irix man. Resourceful. Determined. Why is he with you?”

Bitch. Although I was getting the feeling it wasn’t personal. Cleo was a total narcissist, the worst egomaniac I’d ever seen. In her eyes, everyone else was a lowly, useless peon.

I decided to ignore her dig. “So, get to swimming, sister. Go steal a boat if you want to go so badly.”

Cleo eyed the water as it rolled gently in on the glistening sand. “You swim out and get it for me. I hate the water. You know that.”

I rolled my eyes, remembering her reluctance to get her cute shoes wet. Of all the places for an aquaphobic succubus to pick to live, this one chose an island. “No way. I’m not going to the Four Seasons looking like a drowned rat.”

“I
command
you.”

Oh, for fuck sake. This was going too far. “Besides the fact that I’m not your bitch and am not swimming out there to steal you a boat, I can’t get it to shore. It’s too shallow here. You’d still need to wade out to get in.”

“Then get me a canoe and take me there.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and gave her my best ‘not-happening’ look. “Let’s forget about the Four Seasons and just go to the Hyatt. They’ve got those cute penguins in the lobby.”

Cleo stomped her foot on the ground. “I want to go to the Four Seasons!” she screamed. “Take me to the Four Seasons!”

My drinking buddy had turned into a toddler. Suddenly Cleo was no fun. “Why don’t you stand here and scream curses at the ocean while I go to the Hyatt and see if there’s any action?”

I turned to go, and her hand closed on my arm. Great. More bruises. The ground rumbled, and I shook my head. “You better dial it down a notch, sister. Keep up with the temper tantrum and we’re going to have an angel show up and take your head off.”

She released me, staring with strange intensity. “Angel?”

“Yeah, you know, big androgynous dudes with wings? The things that would kill you if they got wind that you were prowling around the island.”

“But it’s my island.” Her voice rose in pitch again but wavered with indecision. “Mine. It’s mine.”

She was fucking nuts is what she was. And I was getting scared — more scared than I’d ever been when she’d been beating me up. There was something in the orange glow of her eyes that let me know she was more than a tad unstable, and with the appropriate trigger, her explosion of temper wouldn’t be restrained by fear of any angel.

“Tell you what. Let me check the ferry schedule for the Four Seasons, and we’ll hit it up tomorrow. It’s kind of late, and Irix is expecting me back anyway.”

It was eerie how quickly she settled down. Smoothing her hair back with a graceful hand, she smiled. “Yes, of course. Go on back to your Irix, and I will see you soon.”

I turned, holding back from running down the beach as fast as I could to get away from her. Once I felt I was a safe distance and out of view, I let loose, racing with all of my elf speed to our resort. Breathing hard, I walked through the lobby and made a detour as I saw Irix at the poolside bar, chatting up one of the waiters.

He knocked over his drink as he turned to see me, his golden eyes huge. “Now,
that’s
what I’m talking about. Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are powered up like that?” His gaze swept over me, smoldering as a sexy smile curled his lips. “Damn, I want to take you right up against this bar, with everyone watching.”

The idea did a lot toward restoring my equilibrium. Irix, driving into me from behind while I braced my hands against the oak bar. Ignoring the beer that pooled along the cocktail napkins and menus, I grabbed his shoulders and kissed him, letting the glorious contours of his mouth soothe the uneasiness caused by Cleo’s erratic behavior.

Soothe, but not erase. Irix was far more perceptive than I gave him credit for.

“You okay?” He cupped my face in his hands and eyed me with concern.

I laced my fingers in his, pulling his hands away so I could lean against his arm and rest my head on his shoulder. Should I admit there was another succubus on the island, and that in spite of our weird truce, she scared the fuck out of me?

“Yeah. I had a great afternoon with Kai, but kind of a weird evening.” I hesitated, wanting to tell him to stay out here as long as he liked, but needing him to be with me. Desperately needing him to stay with me.

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and leaned down to kiss me. “Let’s go up. You can tell me all about it, and I can drizzle warm coconut oil all over your body and give you a massage.”

Mmm, that sounded incredible.

“Or pour you a hot bath with rose petals floating on top in the candlelight. I’ll be your humble attendant, servicing your every need.”

That sounded even better. “How about both?” I was rather greedy, after all.

“As the goddess commands.” He pulled my head up for another kiss. He’d somehow managed to wedge me between his thighs as he sat on the barstool, and I noted a very promising bulge against my lower stomach.