Her fingers dug into my chest as I took a corner at a breakneck pace. We jetted through the streets of Paris on my motorcycle, the City of Light turning into a vibrant blur. The night was perfect, a cool breeze playing through the streets, and a cloudless sky sparkling overhead. More than that, I enjoyed feeling the curves of her body pressed against me through my leather jacket. She held on for dear life, which was my goal in taking out the ECOSSE bike instead of one of my sports cars.

“Maniac!” Her scream surged over the roar of the engine as we took another curve, leaning into it and shooting smoothly down a side street. Her heart was beating so hard I could feel it reverberating against my back, and I longed to feel it hammering against my chest when we were face-to-face in my bed. I could imagine her raven hair spread out over my pillows and her creamy skin soft and pliant to my fingertips. The thought of her sweet little mouth moaning my name during the height of passion sent a thrill through my body, making me stiffen and the incubus awaken. I forced the demon back down and focused on the road ahead as I took another perilous turn onto a dark rue before finally slowing and parking.

Lilah hopped off and flung her helmet at me, though I caught it with ease. “Are you trying to kill me?” Her eyes flashed like the sea in a tempest.

“We’re immortal, carissima. Unless I somehow managed to behead you while riding my motorcycle, no wreck could kill you.”

“No wreck could kill me, he says.” An edge of rage sliced through her tone. “But it sure as hell could strip all the skin off my body!”

I stowed our helmets. “You were in no danger. I’m an excellent rider.”

“Yeah, you made that perfectly clear last night.” She said it just loud enough for me to hear.

I wished she hadn’t seen me with Corinne and Anne, but she’d made her own assumptions about what happened in that room. I couldn’t deny that her assumption would have been right on any other night. But not that one. Not after I met her. And I was paying the price—some of my power already fading because I hadn’t done what I needed to do to keep the incubus sated. But I didn’t regret it. Not for a second.

I wanted to tell her I was tired of sleeping with random women, making no real connection and having no future. That she was already like a drug to me, making me want more and more from the first moment I saw her. I knew there was something different about her, even as I watched her from a distance in Red-Handed. Something that drew me to her like no other. But I’d already ruined my chance when she’d caught me in the bed with Corinne and Anne. The look on her face was seared into my mind. Utter disgust. I could never please her. She’d never want me to. She saw me for what I was—a womanizer who couldn’t or wouldn’t stop.

Shaking off my gloom, I turned to her. “I realize you’re angry, but you need to get over it. We have to be of one mind for the situation we’re about to get into. You’ll need to trust me.”

She looked at me with those beguiling eyes, no doubt searching my face for some sign of trickery. When she seemed to find none, she asked, “Why? Where are we going?”

I pointed to what looked like a hotel called the Étienne Noir. The sign was hanging haphazardly off the building, and the front windows were completely blacked out. No tourist would dally there, which was undoubtedly the idea. The street had no lights, and no one lounged outside their windows, enjoying the cool Paris night. It was as if the street were under a pall that emanated from the Étienne Noir.

“For the past two hundred years or so, this has been a brothel. Before that, it was alternately a brewery, tannery, and about two thousand years ago it was open ground and home to a village with a makeshift hospital. Beneath it lies a series of catacombs—our destination. We can reach the catacombs only from this entrance…” I trailed off, trying to think of the best way to tell her the rest.

“But?” she said. “I can just tell there’s going to be a big, honkin’ ‘but’ about to come out of your mouth.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Her lilting accent came through stronger than ever. I wanted to kiss her smirking lips but kept my desires in check, barely. I’d need my wits about me if I wanted to make it through Voltaire’s lair.

“But.” I took a breath and gave her a level stare. “The building is now owned by a pleasure demon.”

Lilah’s eyes widened in alarm. And I well understood why—a pleasure demon was like an incubus on steroids with much darker desires, and Voltaire was the king of his kind. Despite the name, they had a penchant for S&M along with some hardcore bondage. All their victims were willing. Still, I could admit some of the brazen acts that went on in that building were beyond the pale for even me—a creature that lived off sexual energy.

“I’d rather get back on the bike.” She backed away. “Without a helmet and with a knife between my teeth.”

“Don’t worry, carissima. I’ll protect you.” I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and steered her toward the door. Satisfaction rushed through me when she didn’t shrug me off.

“We can go back to your house, and you can tell me there. I don’t need to see anything that requires me to go near a pleasure demon. No-thing.” She tried to halt her steps but failed against my strength.

“Trust me.” I tried to give her a reassuring smile.

I needed her to do what was necessary to get past Voltaire. My nerves were almost as frayed as hers. I’d never shared this part of my past with anyone. But for some reason I didn’t understand, I wanted to bare my soul to her, even if it was twisted and ugly. Even if this book project was just a clever ruse toward some other end of hers. I feared her rejection, but I needed her to know me for what I was—the man and the incubus.

She nibbled her lower lip, making me want to taste her. “Why is it so important that we go into the catacombs?”

“Because some things are too powerful for mere words.”

“And it’s going to be worth getting past a pleasure demon?”

“Once again, you have to trust me.”

“I made that mistake once before.” A shadow passed across her face before she turned away from me.

“One day you’ll have to tell me about that.” I lightly grabbed her chin and coaxed her face back to mine.

She had put up her walls again, shutting me out. “I’m here to learn about you, not the other way around.”

We’ll just see about that.