What A Demon Wants. Kathy Love

entered through came from the hallway.

      Three doors were good and bad. Easier escape for Ellina, but also easier access for an intruder.

      One of the doors stood ajar; he pushed it farther open to find a small bedroom. A double bed took up most of the space, and the lack of personal items on the nightstand and small chest of drawers made him think this was a guest room. The door on the other side of the bed must lead back to the living room.

      Behind bathroom door number three had to be Ellina’s bedroom.

      He turned the knob and slowly pushed it open. It indeed led to her bedroom. The first thing to greet him was a huge, four-poster bed, covered in a fluffy pink comforter like a billow of cotton candy.

      She sure did like pastel colors. He wandered to a window on the far wall and fingered the sheer mint green panel that covered the panes.

      The room was surprisingly large, and given the smallness of the rest of her place, clearly an addition. It looked newer than the rest of the building, with its modern windows and highly polished hardwood floors.

      Another window stood on the same wall, also covered by mint green sheers. The curtains would be opaque enough to stop anyone from seeing clearly inside, but they wouldn’t hide Ellina’s silhouette as she moved around the room, especially at night.

      Jude parted the curtain. Her room backed up to a small rectangular courtyard surrounded by a six-foot privacy fence twined with oleander and jasmine. An easy fence to scale. A small café table and chairs sat to one side of the flagstone patio. A lounge chair was off to the side. He recalled the door to enter the courtyard was in Ellina’s office.

      That would have to be locked at all times. He made a mental note to tell her.

      He turned back to her cotton-candy room. On the other side of her bed, beside the door that led back to her bathroom, was another door. A closet, he suspected.

      He hesitated, debating whether he should open the door, then grimaced. This was part of his job. He had to know the layout of a place. The potential hazards, the pitfalls, the places that Ellina needed to be aware about too.

      He crossed the room and jerked the door open, the old hinges making a squeaky protest. A warning should anyone hide in there.

      The closet wasn’t a full walk-in, but it was big enough for someone to hide. Searching for a light, he discovered a piece of blue yarn hanging down from an exposed bulb on the ceiling. He tugged, and the metal chain at the base of the socket scraped against the old porcelain fixture as the closet flooded with light.

      The closet must be part of the original structure, he noted.

      Jude shifted some of the neatly hung clothes aside, again noting that the hangers scraped on the metal rod. Another warning should someone try to sneak out of there.

      The back of the closet was deeper than he first thought. Definitely room for a full-grown man—or preternatural—to hide, unseen behind the clothing.

      He started to drop his hand away from Ellina’s garments, when his fingers brushed against something smooth. Soft, silky.

      Against his better judgment, he pushed the other clothes back to inspect the scrap of satiny cloth. And scrap was exact. It was a small nightgown, black, smattered with tiny white polka dots. The thin straps clung to the hanger, revealing a neckline that plunged low and was trimmed in black lace.

      “Is going through a person’s closet how you usually protect your clients?”

      Chapter 4

      Jude dropped the nightgown, shutting the door with more force than necessary. He turned to find Ellina standing in the center of her bedroom, her jeans and vintage-looking Beatles T-shirt at odds with the frilly room. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, then tilted her head, waiting.

      He wasn’t sure if she had seen exactly what he was doing, but she knew he’d been doing something.

      “Your closet is a potential vulnerability,” he stated, trying to sound as stern and unshaken as he could.

      “Why? Are you tempted to cross-dress?”

      He ignored her comment, trying to get control of the situation, and to forget that tiny little nightgown, and how it would look clinging to her tall, gently curved body. Job. She’s a job.

      “You do realize someone could hide in your closet.”

      Her lip curled up at one corner as if she was suppressing laughter—and she was losing.

      “You know, I never really thought about it. But I’m pleased you did. Are you planning to guard the closet now?” This time she smiled fully, pleased with her ribbing.

      He gritted his teeth, not knowing how to deal with this woman. Demon. Demon woman. So far she seemed either to be irritated with him or amused by him.

      He could handle the first one much better. Smiling really did very distracting things to her mouth.

      “I’m here to protect you.”

      Ellina sighed, tightening her arms across her chest. “Right. And I’m sure with you here, I’ll be perfectly safe.”

      That was the theory. But sometimes that wasn’t the case.

      “So what is the other job?”

      Her question caught him so off guard, he didn’t respond.

      “You know,” she prompted, “the one that’s a better fit.”

      “Weren’t you supposed to be working?” he said, realizing his words sounded terse, rude. But he did not want to talk about this.

      She surprised him again by smiling wider.

      “Yes. Definitely. I just wanted to tell you to help yourself to whatever you can find in the kitchen. I don’t have much, but anything you want is yours.”

      Anything you want is yours.

      An image of her in that wisp of silk flashed in his mind. He gritted his teeth for a moment, forcing the tantalizing picture away.

      “Thanks,” Jude managed, though his voice sounded rough, guttural.

      She didn’t seem to notice.

      “So that job?” she asked again.

      God, she was tenacious.

      “That’s not really something I can discuss.” Since there was no other job.

      She nodded, but clearly was not dissuaded from topic. “Is that because of client confidentiality, or just because you don’t like to explain anything?”

      He had to give it to her, she was tenacious, and she didn’t beat around the bush.

      “It’s a matter of client confidentiality,” he said. That sounded plausible.

      She nodded again, but he could tell that answer didn’t satisfy her. He hadn’t known her long, but he was already detecting a pattern. Nodding, in her case, didn’t mean acceptance.

      “I don’t just do bodyguard work,” he found himself saying in an attempt to beat her to the punch.

      “Really?” Her eyes sparked with curiosity, and he regretted his effort. Great, here come more questions.

      “What else do you do? Besides closet inspections?” She smiled, yet again pleased with her joke.

      His eyes fastened on those full, pink lips.

      “I do a lot of things,” he said, forcing his eyes back to hers. “Basically if you need someone paranormal to deal with something paranormal, then I’m the one for the job.”

      She tilted her head, considering that. “And this other job, it’s not working as a bodyguard?”

      “No.” He’d leave it at that.

      His gaze