Demon in Disguise (Masters of the Incubus - Part One) (2 page)

In sheer dismay, she watched it flutter slowly to the floor some four feet below the raised stage she stood on.
Hell, what am I supposed to do now?
With the auction for Rebecca reaching fever pitch, Lacey hurriedly scanned the semi-darkness beneath her feet.

“Did you lose something, little one? Perhaps I can help.” A deep, assertive voice rumbled through the gloom, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention.

Lacey felt her eyes widen with sexual desire and not a little fear as she stared into the face of just about the most beautiful, yet powerful man she’d ever seen. Surely no man on God’s good earth had a right to be as handsome as this guy? Finger-combed dark brown hair blended perfectly with rugged features, while a body to die for filled out tight leather jeans and a white T-shirt to perfection. Even from her elevated position on the raised stage he looked tall, and she guessed him to be at least six-three, maybe even six-four.

And then he smiled at her—a smile that seemed to scorch the divide that separated them. A smile that sucked the air from her lungs and made her pussy wet with need.
Oh, dear, God, yes.
Whoever this guy was, his face held the smile of a man who knew exactly what he wanted. Clearly he was one of the Doms at Club Incubus who’d slipped away from the main event. In that instant, Lacey realized that her prayers to find her dropped auction card had been answered.

Normally organized and in control of her destiny, she felt anything but in the presence of this total stranger. What had Rebecca told her? Yes, that’s right, a submissive should always refer to any club Dom as “Sir” until they instruct you otherwise. Unable to move, and feeling like a complete idiot for staring at the sexiest guy she’d ever laid eyes on, Lacey found her voice, only for it to come out even huskier than usual.

“Sir, I’m sorry, Sir, but I dropped the card that holds my bidding information.” She pointed to where it lay at his booted feet, noticing that her hand shook ever so slightly. “The rules say that I can’t be auctioned off to the highest bidder without it.”

“Is that so.” He smiled again, this time with amusement, making those compelling blue eyes crinkle slightly at the corners. “In that case, we mustn’t disappoint the good people here at Incubus, must we?”

“No, Sir.”

He hunkered down, picked up her card and began reading the information written on it. “So, Lacey.” A look of pure sexual intent flashed across his face as he raised his gaze to her, which made her feel as though she were in the presence of the devil himself—a demon who wore a beautiful disguise.

“I see this is your first time at an auction.”

“Yes. Um…? Yes, but how did you know?”

He handed the card back, and smiled. “I just know.”

Her fingers barely brushed against his as she took the card from him, but to Lacey it felt as though an intense electrical charge had passed from his body into hers. The feeling continued as she stared helplessly into his eyes, and asked, “Have we…have we met before? I feel that I–I…”

“You feel that you know me, don’t you, Lacey?”

“Yes, but it’s strange, because I know deep down that we’ve never met before, and that I don’t even know your name. Um…I’m not sure why…I just thought that…” Her brows drew together as she tried to make sense of the muddle of information being processed by her brain.

Eventually, she dismissed the idea of them having met before as complete nonsense. “No. Just forget what I said.”

He smiled again, and she instinctively felt that he understood her. “So tell me, why did you come here tonight?”

“Because it’s a charity event, and I like to contribute to good causes whenever I can.” She lied.

He wagged a finger at her, and she felt as though he could read her mind. “Didn’t your mother tell you that naughty girls go to hell if they tell lies to strange men?”

“But I’m not lying.”

“And there you go again. This time lying about not lying.”

“But—”

He took a step forward and pressed his finger to her lips, sending that same electrical charge through her body again. “Shhh. Quit while you’re ahead, little one.”

Lacey wasn’t a natural submissive, and in every one of her relationships with men they’d always been equal partners. However, within minutes of meeting this man for the first time, a man whose name she still didn’t know, Lacey felt like a submissive woman—one who actually enjoyed the dominance and control of a powerful male.

Disturbed by her thoughts, her whole body jolted in surprise when the auctioneer suddenly banged his wooden gavel on the table, and announced, “Rebecca Williams, sold to bidder number ninety-seven for six thousand dollars.”

Right now for some unknown reason, she didn’t give a fig about Rebecca and how much money she’d raised for charity, because her attention was focused solely on the gorgeous, godlike man standing before her. After all, what other man had made her go weak at the knees when he so much as looked at her? None.

“It’s your time, little one. I want you to go out there and shine, just for me.” With those immaculately delivered words he was gone, making her question whether this charismatic man ever really existed other than in her imagination.

She studied the auction card. The very one he’d handed back to her. Was she going crazy? If she was, it was certainly a good feeling.

Chapter Two

As a diversion from the auction of female flesh, which in his opinion had become too pedestrian, Kurt Samuelsson had wandered around to the back of the stage. He’d sensed that something special lay just behind the thick velvet curtain, and he’d been right. In fact, he’d never known his intuition to be wrong in more than two hundred years.

As he’d handed back the auction card to the softly trembling young woman, Kurt had stared into the most gorgeous green eyes imaginable, instinctively knowing that this woman was special. Despite her best efforts to hide it, Kurt had sensed her vulnerability. When he’d heard her soft husky voice for the first time, something irrepressible had immediately stirred within him, charging up his sexual libido to new levels.

Their brief meeting had been electrifying, and he knew Lacey, beautiful beguiling Lacey, shared that connection. She was the promised
one
. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind about that. After endless years of waiting, searching, and hoping, he’d finally found his soul mate. It was their destiny to be together until the end of time.

Completely stunned by this revelation, he eased back into his chair as a new life plan formed in his mind. The centuries of loneliness and desperate solitude he’d endured had seemed never-ending. His loneliness at times so overwhelming that he’d almost given up on ever finding his perfect mate—that special woman who would take away the gnawing emptiness he felt inside. Isolation in its purest and cruelest form had threatened to be his only companion until the very end of time, and that heavy burden made Kurt sad.

Of course, there’d been women in his life, or should that be women in his existence, for that was how it felt to him. There’d been plenty of them too. A never-ending stream of firm female flesh, and although this endless parade of sexy women briefly took away the emptiness he felt, Kurt knew that no ordinary woman could ever fill the void that tortured his very soul. Only the
chosen one
could do that. And her name was Lacey.

Kurt found it hard to believe he’d found her, but he had, and she stood just twenty or thirty feet from him, shielded only by the red velvet curtain. He yearned for her to emerge like a beautiful and brightly colored butterfly before going home with the highest bidder—him.

Yeah, he’d make sure he was the highest bidder. In fact, he’d move heaven and earth and everything in between to win the rest of eternity with this exquisite creature. Kurt steeled himself as he waited for the heavy curtain to swish open. He would not fail in his quest, because it was their destiny to be together.

Feeling a tingle of excitement as anticipation rose within him, Kurt stroked a hand across his jaw, enjoying the way the stubble rasped beneath his fingertips. He’d sensed the confusion in Lacey’s mind, but he knew deep down that she felt the connection too, because she’d asked if they’d met before. At this point in time she didn’t fully understand why her emotions and thoughts were so confused, but with his help and guidance, she soon would.

Kurt looked around the auction room, needing to know what competition he was up against in order to win Lacey. His old friend, Willem Zeegers, eyed him with interest, and then raised his glass before taking a sip of the vintage brandy he’d brought with him all the way from the old country more than two centuries before. “Tell me, Kurt, has something, or more importantly, someone caught your eye tonight?”

“Maybe, but I’m keeping my powder dry for now, Will.” Kurt needed to act as nonchalantly as possible, because he didn’t wish to draw unnecessary attention to Lacey.

As he waited for the auction to begin, Kurt’s thoughts drifted back in time, way back. As a boy of barely eleven summers, he’d set sail with his parents in an ancient galleon named the
Pride of Hades
. Setting out from Hamburg during the cruel winter of 1786, Kurt had initially overflowed with youthful enthusiasm and a sense of adventure. However, that youthful energy had soon waned, because during the eleven-month voyage, the conditions aboard ship became almost unbearable.

More than half of the two hundred and eighty-six souls onboard perished, succumbing to
ship’s fever
, now known as typhus, a disease which was made interminably worse by the lack of drinkable water, and fresh edible food. Disease was rife and brutal in the way it summarily dispatched human life as though it meant nothing. Kurt had been forced to watch his parents suffer long drawn-out deaths, only for their bodies to be thrown overboard by the crew, as though their human existence had been worthless.

Now frightened, lost, and alone, a man called Willem Zeegers—a man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties—befriended him. Willem had protected him from the other passengers as anarchy aboard the
Pride of Hades
escalated. He’d protected him from evil godless men who hadn’t seen, let alone enjoyed a woman for almost eleven months, and saw a vulnerable eleven-year-old boy as a suitable sexual replacement. Those same godless men also tried to steal what little food and water he had, but again, Willem came to his rescue like a knight in shining armor, protecting him from the evils of the world.

Although just a child, Kurt had instinctively known there was something different about Willem, but as a mere boy he’d found it hard to make sense of his feelings. Willem had a presence about him—an aura. It appeared to his young eyes that the man was surrounded by a magical force field. A force field that protected himself and anyone Willem considered to be a friend. Without Willem, Kurt was in no doubt that he would have perished on that trip, just like all the other lost souls, and just like his beloved parents.

Kurt had been overwhelmed with relief when they’d finally dropped anchor at Yerba Buena—the small settlement later renamed San Francisco. After almost a year at sea, he’d stepped like a drunken sailor from the
Pride of Hades
and kissed the ground, vowing never to go to sea again even if he lived to be a hundred years old.

Without a single friend in the world, Kurt was overjoyed when Willem offered his guardianship and a new life. However, there was a catch. In exchange for Willem’s help and his own survival, it was necessary for Kurt to sell his soul to the devil. Without any other options, he’d reluctantly given himself up to Willem’s charge on whatever terms he demanded.

Kurt smiled as he waited for Lacey to appear from behind the red velvet curtain. Since those long ago days, he’d learned a lot about the enigmatic passenger called Willem—the only man who didn’t get sick, not even once, on the long voyage from Hamburg.

Willem had guided his development, teaching him the ways of the Incubus, postponing the day he was converted into a fully-fledged demon until he was a mature adult. By then he was thirty years old and more than ready to be assimilated into the Dominion.

Breaking into his reverie, Willem slapped his thigh and laughed out loud. “Goddamn it. I just know you are fantasizing about that pretty submissive backstage. You have women on your mind at the moment, old friend, and if my intuition is to be believed, one woman in particular.”

Kurt drummed his fingers on the table as he studied his friend intently. In the two centuries since he’d first met Willem, his lifelong mentor hadn’t aged a day, still having the appearance of a mortal man in his mid-thirties. During that time, fashions had come and gone, but Willem with his jet-black hair and piercing eyes had remained exactly the same, just as he had.

Knowing he couldn’t hide anything from his best friend and confidant for long, Kurt eventually said, “I’ve found my soul mate.”

Willem leaned back in his chair, and then folded his arms across his chest, a satisfied look to his face. “What did I tell you, Kurt? I always said that one day she would walk into your life, and that you would know immediately that she was your soul mate. Exactly the same thing happened when I laid eyes on my beautiful Sarah for the very first time. Us demons instinctively know such things, Kurt.”

“And you and Sarah, you’ve been happy ever since?”