Lucas sat on the couch across from me and spread one arm along the back. He rested an ankle on his knee in the perfect picture of poise and calm control. “Now, how can I be of assistance?”
I took a deep breath, trying to channel some of that calm control for myself, even if I only pretended. I was perfectly happy to fake it, even if I would never make it. Not around someone so disarming.
“My best friend is missing,” I blurted out. Way to fake poise. “Her name is Brandy Higgins. She was staying here, in this hotel, for a conference, but she never came home. I tried to find her myself, but I haven’t had any success, and when I went to the police they were dismissive. Especially when I told them she’d been staying here.”
“You must be a very loyal friend. Very few are brave enough to ask me for a favor.” He looked at his drink and shook the ice around in the glass, the sound it made almost musical. “The rest are extremely desperate. I wonder, which one are you?”
I glanced down at my hands, but then forced myself to meet his eyes, trying to channel bravery along with my desperation. “Both. Brandy is more than a friend. She’s like a sister to me, and she has a little kid and a sick mom at home counting on me to find her. I’ve been living with them ever since her divorce to help out, but if she doesn’t return…” The thought was too terrible for me to consider. I straightened my spine and stiffened my shoulders, shoving my anxiety into a tight ball in my chest as I faced Lucas with determination. “I heard you’re called the King of Las Vegas, and that nothing happens here without you knowing about it. I figure if anyone can find Brandy, it’s you.”
I didn’t mention the other rumors I’d heard about him, like the fact that he was basically a mob boss who ran the city, and how people referred to him as the devil in nervous whispers and behind locked doors. Even the police seemed afraid of him.
“You both sound like a proper pair of saints,” Lucas noted, his lips quirking at the corners. “You said she went missing here, in The Celestial?”
“Yes, a few days ago.”
He nodded slowly, like a man in no kind of a hurry, a man with nothing to lose and with the luxury of time on his side. Time I sure as hell didn't have. “You understand there is always a price for my help?”
Panic wrapped an iron band around my chest, and I sucked in a shaky breath. I’d known this was coming, and I had no idea what he’d want in return for his help. “I don’t have any money.”
“Oh, I don’t trade in money.” He laughed, but his face flashed with something villainous. “My currency is dark deeds and dirty secrets.”
I swallowed hard and glanced at the hallway, wondering if it was too late to escape. I had no secrets, none that I remembered anyway, which meant he would want a dark deed of some kind. Would he ask for something illegal? Something dangerous? Something I would regret for the rest of my life? I nearly ran out the door, but then I pictured Brandy’s son looking up at me with barely contained tears as he asked when his mom was coming home, and my resolve hardened. I looked Lucas in the eye and nodded.
He leaned forward, no longer casual. “Are you willing to do whatever it takes?”
“Yes,” I said breathlessly. “What do you want?”
“You.”
My jaw dropped, and my stomach dropped lower. Possibly through the floor. All the floors. “Me?”
He chuckled, the sound a dark melody full of wicked promises. “Six nights with you. Here in my penthouse. Mine to do with as I please.”
I gasped at the sensual pause between each of his last three words. Then I shook my head, certain I’d misheard. Misunderstood perhaps. Yes, that last one. “Excuse me? You expect me to give you carte blanche to do anything to me? For six nights?”
"Would you prefer seven?” A sinful grin crossed his lips as he leaned back against the soft leather of the couch. “I will warn you, I don't rest on the seventh day."
“Seven?” My thoughts scrambled, and all I could do was stare at him. Was he serious?
He nodded. “Yes, let’s make it seven nights. One for each deadly sin. Even better.”
Shit. I really shouldn’t have questioned that six nights thing. I ran the scenarios through my head, my face warming as I saw many of them in glorious detail. Yes, the man was insanely attractive, but he was proposing something six degrees of indecent. Not to mention, he was a total stranger. A very gorgeous, very dangerous stranger. What he was asking of me…it was too much. Maybe there was some other way I could find Brandy. Someone else I could go to for help.
Lucas watched me, waiting for my decision. "Tick-tock. Time is slipping away. The longer you wait, the less likely we’ll find your friend alive."
Fear pulsed through me at the thought, but he was right. She’d already been missing for days. I needed to make a decision quickly, but I had to be sure about what I was getting myself into. I cleared my throat. “Let me get this straight. You want me to stay here with you for seven nights while you…do whatever you want to me. Sexually.”
His gaze darkened to a glower, and I nearly trembled at the intensity of it. “I have never forced myself on a woman, and I never will, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
A breath of relief left my lips. “I had to be sure. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“I promise no harm will come to you by my hand. But as for sex…” He rose to his feet and walked the few steps toward me, making me look up at him. Then he bent forward and rested his hands on the back of the couch on either side of my head, caging me in. “Don’t you know who I am? They call me the devil for a reason. Temptation, lust, sin, all wrapped up in a neat little package. Oh, who am I kidding? A huge package. Trust me, before the week ends you’ll be begging for every single thing I do to you.”
He was entirely too close, his face inches from my own, his green eyes burning like a fire had been lit from within. Desire rushed through me like I’d never felt before, but it was mixed with a heavy dash of fear. My gaze dropped down to his mouth, only a breath apart from mine, and I ached for him to close the space between us, even as I wanted to run from him.
I forced my eyes back up to meet his intense gaze. I couldn’t think of another way to find Brandy. I’d tried everything I could, but nothing had worked. If I didn’t do this, I’d fail completely.
This was my last chance.
“I agree,” I said, with as much courage as I could muster.
"Excellent." He straightened up and walked to the other side of the room casually while my heart raced in my chest. He picked up a pad of paper and a pen, then handed them to me. “Write down everything you know about your friend’s disappearance. Names, dates, and so forth.”
As I scribbled down all the details, apprehension making my handwriting look like someone else’s, he watched me closely. I kept glancing up as the pen scratched along the paper, unable to keep my eyes off him. Why did I feel like I was signing away my soul with our deal?
When I’d written down everything I could think of, I gave him back his notepad and pen. He closed his hands around mine to take them, and heat shot down to pool between my thighs again. Unexpected longing rose in my chest, and I swallowed as I tried to bring order and coherence back to my thoughts.