Demon Lover Read Online Free PDF Page B

you."
    Julie blinked. "On me?"
    "On how good an actress you are,
Guerita
."
    "I don’t understand."
    The smuggler leaned back in the booth. Julie again caught a glint of cold steel beneath the heavy lids. Still softly, with a slight smile hovering around his mouth, he said, "You will have to convince everyone that you are sharing my bed. And not only that, but make them believe you are happy about it. Make them believe you are no longer a danger to us. Do you understand?"
    After a moment of shocked silence Julie shifted in her seat and raked unsteady fingers through her close–cropped hair. "No," she whispered hoarsely, giving her head a sharp shake. "No, I don’t understand at all. Why? Do you mean you won’t—"
    He made a short, rude noise. "I’ve never had to resort to rape," he said in disgust. "I don’t intend to start now. Now—any questions?"
    Still reeling from her unexpected reprieve, Julie leaned back and regarded him thoughtfully. What a surprising man this coyote was turning out to be. Intriguing, and unexpectedly challenging. She felt more confident now that she seemed to have been released from the paralyzing threat of physical and/or sexual assault, but she had an idea he might prove much more difficult in other ways than those she had imagined.
    "Of course I have questions," she said dryly. "But I doubt very much that you’d answer most of them.
    "Okay, so I’m supposed to pretend to be your, um… What do I call you? Chain, or
El Demonio Garzo?
Or would you prefer just Demon for short?"
    He gazed at her with distaste. "I assure you this is not a matter for levity. Or sarcasm. If you can’t be convincing with this charade I’ll be forced to make it more realistic. The only reason you’re alive right now, lady agent, is because I have a certain reputation with these men, and they are confident of my ability to…shall we say, control you. I told them you would be of some use to me, something they can understand since they both have their women with them. Don’t make it necessary for me to prove my mastery of you in front of them. Make no mistake,
Guerita
. If they think you constitute a threat, you’re dead—" he snapped his fingers, making her flinch "—like that." He waited, watching her face,  then nodded. "All right. That’s better. In answer to your question, my name is Younger. Chayne Younger. That’s spelled with a y and a silent e. The other women call me
Señor Chayne
, by the way." His lips twitched in the beginnings of a grin. "To my face."
    Julie thought she knew what they called him behind his back. He was a devil, as smooth–spoken and enigmatic as Lucifer, and certainly as confusing.
    "All right," she said hoarsely. "Just one more question: Why? Why are you doing this? Keeping me alive? Why shouldn’t you just let them kill me if I’m so much trouble?"
    For a second or two he glared at her, and then he made that noise of disgust again and looked away, out the window. Julie noticed he’d begun to rub mechanically, unconsciously, at the scar on his belly.
    "I’m not a killer," he muttered.
    Julie couldn’t hold back a snort of derision. "Oh, great. You aren’t a killer or a rapist. This must be my lucky day! I’ve been captured by a pure smuggler! I’ll bet you’re just a softhearted liberal, aren’t you? You think you’re down here helping these poor downtrodden souls to a better life, right? Some kind of Mexican Robin Hood?"
    "Lady," the smuggler murmured, an unmistakably dangerous edge to his voice, "you have no idea how lucky you are."
    Suddenly, completely unexpectedly, like a snake striking, his hand shot out and clamped like a vise on the back of her neck. It was pure steel, that arm—Julie had never encountered anyone so strong. She had time for one shocked gasp before he leaned across the table and kissed her hard, ravishing her mouth briefly but thoroughly. As he pulled away, leaving her lips moist and throbbing, he paused to impale her with those