Sweet Temptation (The Sweet Trilogy #4)(17)
CHAPTER FIVE
Road Trip with a Nun
“Come and take a walk on the wild side . . .
’Cause you and I, we were born to die.”
—“Born to Die” by Lana Del Rey
After the events of last night, I need to focus on protecting myself and staying alive. Nevertheless, here I am, humoring this girl who refuses to do what’s best for her. Driving her across the country to meet her demon father for the first time.
Yeah, there’s no part of this arrangement that’s smart, is there?
Patti, although she seemed to loathe the idea of Anna meeting Belial, thinks he will somehow be able to help and protect Anna. When Patti adopted Anna, she was told by the orphanage to find Belial and return to speak with a nun named Sister Ruth when Anna got older. There’s more to this story than I can guess, and I’m too damned curious to walk away now. Plus, I feel a foreign sense of obligation for her. I could have offered to fly us—I certainly have the funds—but a road trip will allow me more time to figure her out. Alone.
I turn up the stereo, but my thoughts are louder.
It’s like Anna’s a stray I stumbled upon, and she’ll be crushed by a damn car if I let her out of my sight. I’ve never met anyone so filled with bloody goodness. She practically glows. When I’m with her I feel . . . different. Lighter or some shit.
I glance over at this girl, this naive Neph, void of ego, and I shake my head. We drive with the music blaring. I expected my playlist to be too hard-core for her, but she seems perfectly content, even humming along with some of the songs. When “Sex and Candy” by Marcy Playground comes on I see her listening intently. She meets my eye at the chorus, a splotchy blush running up her neck, before she quickly turns to stare out her window. I look forward again and grin, keeping an eye on the skies for evil whispering spirits.
Although the landscape is boring, she stares out the windows like she’s never seen anything so beautiful. As if she’s on some incredible adventure with me. She’s clueless about the dangers. Even after I’ve told her, straight up, that she can’t f*ck about with the Dukes. They are ruthless, evil bastards and they will kill her. She acts as if she’s safe with me. As if I can protect her from them.
That causes some idiotic thing inside my chest to swell and strengthen.
I think Anna Whitt is bad for my health.
The thing is, as adorable as her innocence might be on the surface, it would be foolish of me to allow her to stay that way. She’s not open to being trained, other than a mention of wanting to learn how to hide her colors. She refuses to see the necessity of losing her virginity, or at least pretending not to be so good. It’s only a matter of time before the Dukes start sniffing around, but she just doesn’t get it. She has no self-preservation instinct. I have to help her out.
But I have to be smooth about it. I have to win her over. For both our sakes, I need to shag her like mad by the end of this road trip.
Anna will be my toughest conquest yet. From what I’ve seen so far, she’s the queen of self-control. A nun in training or some shite.
There’s only one way to get a girl like Anna into bed before marriage, and I’m not looking forward to the amount of work it will require. She’s not the kind of girl who goes for the bad boy, so I must be on my best behavior. But in order for her to appreciate my best behavior, she needs to think she’s causing some positive change in me. I’ll need to make her think I’m letting her into the deep, dark places of myself. Essentially, I have to make Anna fall in love with me and believe I’m in love with her, as well.
A twinge of guilt fills my bowels, but it’s fleeting, gone before my next breath. It must be done. Eventually she’ll thank me.
Day one goes well, I think. And I manage to get her to agree on a single room at the motel instead of separate ones. She’s into me. Drawn against her will. And I gladly take advantage of it.
I get comfortable on my bed, enjoying the way she stares at me when she doesn’t think I’m paying attention, and how easy it is to make her nervous when I play with my blade.
After some uncomfortable chitchat, in which I talk about my childhood and Father’s horrible parenting—all true—I proceed to make her jealous with the texts I’m receiving from other girls, which is adorable. So far she’s playing directly into my hand, but her questions and need for knowledge eventually sidetrack my efforts. She seems fascinated that I’m always using my supernatural abilities. Her hatred of her Neph senses is baffling. She needs to be proud of her heritage, to understand the benefit of her extended senses. I go over and sit next to where she’s lying on her bed, and she gets skittish, trying to scoot away.
“No, stay lying down,” I say, touching her arm. “I want to show you something.”
I want to show her a lot of things, and I daresay she knows this by now. She narrows those little brown eyes at me, and I have to laugh.
“Calm down, luv.” I find that I say “luv” a lot more since I moved to the States. American girls go crazy for it. Not sure it’s working on Anna yet, but it’s worth a try.
“What are you going to do?” Her sweet voice and light Southern accent go straight to my crotch, and I’m glad she’s at an angle where she can’t see.
“Nothing that will compromise your virtue and have Patti hunting me down. Now close your eyes.” I’d promised Patti I’d bring Anna home safely, with her virtue intact. I plan to keep only the first part of that promise, even though I quite like Patti. What neither of them realize is that Anna’s virtue is the very thing that will put her in danger.