She can handle lusting after a target, but loving one might bring all of Hell to its knees.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
It’s an order Luxi never saw coming. She is the Sin of Lust, and adultery is her bread and butter. Yet for the first time, Lucifer sends her on assignment under orders to not play the seductress.
Her target? A preacher-turned-politician…who happens to be sex on legs.
Since his wife’s infidelity, Grayson Bailey has avoided opening his heart to anyone. This changes when Luxi, his new intern, walks into his office. The intensity with which his heart and libido react makes for rotten timing. He is not one of those politicians. Yet nothing, not even the increasingly bold death threats in his inbox, can keep his mind—or his hands—off Luxi.
Resisting Grayson is the largest challenge Luxi has faced, and the more Lucifer dodges her questions, the more she wants to break the rules. Luxi knows the devil has an agenda and fears it involves a crazed assassin. With her heart compromised, Luxi is willing to do anything—even take on Hell itself—to save the life of the only man she has ever loved.
Reader Advisory: This book is best read in sequence as part of a series.
Publisher's Note: This book was previously released by another publisher. It has been revised and re-edited for release with Totally Bound Publishing.
General Release Date: 26th September 2014
“I’m sorry… What?”
Lucifer was drafting a memo and didn’t bother looking up at first. “That’s funny. I don’t remember stuttering.”
“I just don’t get it.”
He set his pen beside the parchment, his gaze rising to hers. Two millennia hadn’t eradicated the power behind that stare. He was her boss first and her friend second, and though Luxuria had a talent for diagnosing his moods, she wouldn’t pretend he didn’t freak her shit out. He was still the King of Hell and everything.
“There’s a man on Earth named Grayson Bailey. He is the pastor at Brentwood Christian Church in a town called Glenburnie.”
“Yeah,” Luxi agreed slowly. The dual horns she often saw nestled in his chestnut curls were absent, therefore she had to assume he was serious. He usually sported the traditional devil look when he was pulling someone’s leg. That wasn’t today, apparently. “That much I heard.”
Lucifer looked at her a moment longer, then nodded and refocused on his work, as though everything had been satisfactorily explained. Luxi knew better than to start blabbing. Her boss might be lenient, but he didn’t like being questioned, and it wasn’t hard to see why. As it happened, she’d never had issue with any of her assignments in the past. Lucifer always had a point.
“Grayson Bailey,” Lucifer continued a second later, “is running for state senate.”
Luxi nodded. “Uh huh…”
“I would like you to work with him on his campaign.”
She nodded again and waited. Like last time, Lucifer didn’t elaborate. Perhaps she was supposed to translate his meaning on her own. It wasn’t as though her job had veered much off course over the last few centuries. Go somewhere, seduce someone, return victorious, and all that jazz. Yet Luxi knew it was dangerous assuming what Lucifer’s intentions were, even if they seemed obvious. Therefore, when he neglected to elaborate, she prodded, “And seduce him?”
Lucifer’s brow furrowed. “Did I say seduce him?”
“No.” She frowned. “Is this an old fashioned gig? You want me to infect him with lust so he humps an intern or something?”
“I’m pretty sure if that was my intention, I would have mentioned it.”
“Then what is your intention?” Luxi winced and threw her hands up, prepared for the bemused stare she received. “Sorry, boss, but I’m not seeing it.”
“Clearly.” Lucifer’s lips twitched but he didn’t smile. Instead, he sighed and leaned back, folding his hands behind his head. “I want you to work with him, Luxuria. Very close. Grayson is a socially liberal minister, looking to taking the teachings of the Good Lord to the capital in a way that will benefit the less fortunate.”
Luxi shrugged. “So?”
“So Glenburnie isn’t what I would call a liberal town. They like their bibles and they like their guns, and they like everyone to speak the same language when it comes to their bibles and their guns. A preacher who doesn’t sing their tune and has the balls to run for office—”
“No, I got why he’s a hot ticket.”
Lucifer looked indifferent. “Then I don’t see what the problem is.”
“You don’t want me to seduce him.”
“Correct.”
“You don’t want me to make him pant over some barely legal intern.”
“You’re really on a roll here.”
Luxi sighed, her shoulders dropping. “I don’t get it.”
“I really couldn’t make it any simpler for you,” Lucifer said. “You’re going to Glenburnie, Missouri. You’re going to work for Grayson Bailey’s campaign. That is all.”
“That can’t be all. That’s the where and the what. Where’s the why?”
“Does ‘because I said so’ qualify? This is it.”
“A babysitting gig?” She frowned, her mind churning. “Do you want me to seduce someone from the other side? Who’s running against him?”
“A celebrated Vietnam war hero, not to mention three-time congressman. His name is Walter Church.”
“Right. You want me to seduce him, then.”
“Luxuria, I want to make myself very clear.” Lucifer slowly rose to his feet. “Thou shalt not commit adultery. Under no circumstances are you to seduce or influence anyone involved in either campaign. You’re going there simply to serve as a staff member in Grayson Bailey’s office. Nothing else.”
She wouldn’t have thought it possible to deflate even more, but there she went. It simply didn’t make any sense. A Sin, one of Lucifer’s hand-created children of destruction, sent on a simple, pointless job with no foreseeable objective other than to smile and nod at a human. This wasn’t the sort of task any Sin—or anyone, come to think of it—had been asked to field. It was an inane waste of time but she knew better than to press her luck. Lucifer could be a hoot and a half to work for, but there were definitive times when he wasn’t in the mood to be Mr Fun Guy.
To be honest, the past few weeks hadn’t exactly been Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Luxi felt restless and shuffled, which was pretty much status quo among her siblings, from what she could tell. The whole underworld was still acclimating to Ava’s departure and the hole it had left among those who knew and loved her. Luxi was happy for her—no one deserved happiness more than her much shit-upon little sister—but she couldn’t deny the gap Ava had left behind.
She and Ava had always been close, closer than Luxi was with any of her other siblings. So yes, the transition had been rough. Rougher on her than just about anyone. Still, Luxi couldn’t gripe too much, especially since things could have gone the other way oh so easily. In that instead of being whisked away by the guy she’d been in not-so-secret love with for the past few centuries, Ava could be…well…dead.
Until now, Luxi had been eager to get back to work. Nothing revved her motor like stalking human targets and concocting the best way to execute her orders. With Ava’s spot vacant, she had suspected Lucifer would demand everyone double down for a rough few months until they found a replacement.
Instead, Luxi’s first official assignment was a liberal preacher-turned-candidate, and she had no ostensible motive.
When she didn’t fire another question, Lucifer reached into one of the drawers of his desk and produced a manila folder, the tab reading BAILEY, G with Luxuria scribed next to it in elegant penmanship. It was the same way he catalogued all important assignments, though the fact that this frivolous task had been given the same lofty status as others made her want to laugh.
“I sent Fugie up to fill out an application on a town house,” Lucifer said. “You were approved.”
Luxi twirled a finger in the air in lieu of a response.
“A checking account has likewise been established in your name.” Lucifer handed her a checkbook with the name Luxi Nefas inscribed in the upper left hand corner, then returned to fishing through his papers. “I’ve also taken the liberty of approving you for a hundred thousand dollar credit limit on your new credit card.”
“They approved a hundred thousand dollar limit?”
“I’m the King of Hell. Would you say no to me?”
Luxi’s eyebrows flickered. Fair point. “This is for emergency expenses only?”
“Does it really matter what I say?”
“No, ’cause Mama’s gonna go shopping if I’m gonna be stuck in No Man’s Land.” Luxi waved her checkbook. “My last name is Nefas? Really?”
“Not many people will understand the significance.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t go with Scelus-Sceleris or Hamartia.”
“I can draw lines when I like. And with all the wonderful words there are for sin, I could afford to be choosy.”
“So we think a pastor won’t see the significance?”
“Luxuria,” Lucifer said, his voice taking on a dangerous edge that spoke to her inner child looking to avoid a timeout, “unless you go around blabbing that you’re here on assignment from Hell, I honestly don’t think anyone will notice. And even then, your cover wouldn’t be blown so much as your ass would be thrown into an asylum, and then you’d have to have someone check you out.”
“And that someone wouldn’t be you.”
He smirked. “What do you think?”
“I think I’ll bite the bullet, take the jokes, and do me some retail therapy when it all gets to be too much.” Luxi snagged the credit card from Lucifer’s grasp and tapped it against her fingernails. “What’s footing the bill this time?”
“I’m sure I’ll find something.”
Collecting lost treasures was one of Lucifer’s hobbies. As early as the Great Flood, Lucifer had started sending agents to the surface to seize artifacts that could be reintegrated every few hundred years and sold to the highest bidder. He still had a few prized relics in his personal collection. Luxi wagered he wouldn’t release the Ark of the Covenant unless one of his people burned down the Vatican. It still came up at the occasional staff meeting.
Luxi’s eyes remained on the credit card a minute longer before she looked again to Lucifer. He was pulling out all the stops. While funds were always needed in some small order to support the assignments where the Sins embedded themselves into human culture, checking accounts and credit cards were rarely used together. Hell would have gone broke a long time ago, were that the case. The fact that Lucifer had handed over so much meant something else was in the mix—something he hadn’t divulged and wouldn’t until it suited him.
Even knowing as much, Luxi couldn’t resist prodding one last time. She wouldn’t get a straight answer, of course, but it didn’t hurt to try. “This guy’s important to you, isn’t he?” she murmured. “Grayson Bailey. There’s something going on with him.”
Lucifer didn’t meet her gaze. “Nope, not really.”
She offered a tight grin. That was his way of saying yes but not that he didn’t want to admit it. She slid the card into her pocket and tossed her dark, wavy hair over her shoulder. All in all, the big guy liked his privacy. If he wanted her in Glenburnie, there was a reason. He’d tell her when the time came. “You got it, boss,” Luxi said. “One babysitting gig coming up.”
“Glad to hear it.”
She kept her eyes on him but he never looked back. The meeting was over. She had her assignment—she knew what was expected.
Except it made no sense. Not yet. She trusted it would in the end.
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