I shoved myself out ofthathighly distracting line of thought and smiled. “Welcome to Sinsational Sweets, where the food is so delicious, it’s sinful.”
The fuck.
Though it might cost me later, I paused time for a moment and gave myself a good facepalm.What in the awkward hell was that?I’d been taken so off-guard by a living work of art, I’d spewed the entire slogan like some kind of idiot. Lowering my hand, I looked her over.
Fuck, she really was gorgeous. She also didn’t seem the type to go for a one-night stand, regardless of the sort-of goth thing she had going on. I tried to get a read on her soul, the sins of her past, and only got feedback that made myhuman[9]suit’s ears ring. Pushing harder the second time, it felt like railroad spikes being hammered into my brain.
What. The fuck.
I was an archangel—fallen, yes, but my power remained. There had never been a mortal being, and very few immortals, whose sins I couldn’t read like a book. Her aura was visible to me, her moods on full display, but such a large part of her was inaccessible. So what was she? A puzzle. A beautifully intriguing one.
Time resumed and she wrung her hands nervously. Young and inexperienced, then. Not a threat except to my sanity, which was likely in question anyway.
She laughed lightly and it rippled over my nerve endings. “That’s cute.”
“What is?” I asked, leaning against the counter to hide the very human response my meat suit had to her.
“Your slogan. Food so delicious, it’s sinful? Based on the sin of gluttony?” She wrinkled her nose when her smile widened, and I pinched my arm to keep from teleporting her directly to my bed. “I like it. You should start a chain of seven deadly sins cafés.”
A stupid grin started at the body’s toes and moved to my borrowed face. I fought it back. Clearing my throat, I straightened.Be a fucking professional, Lu.
“What can I get for you today?” I slid one of the doors open, prepared to grab a spinach, artichoke, and chicken puff pastry because it was the vibe she gave off. No health trends for this woman, despite her fit figure.
Jason called over her shoulder. “You should try the hand pies. They’re the best!”
“Oh, actually, I came by for a different reason.” She lifted her hands like she was warding off a sales pitch, I assumed. “I’m a student here, and I have some extra time this semester. You know, idle hands make fretful minds and all that. My roommate said you looked like you could use some help, and I love to bake, so…”
I thought for sure she’d been about to make a jab about the devil with her “idle hands” comment. Even though I couldn’t read her, I couldn’t help but like her for it.
The silence stretched for an awkward few seconds before I realized she was waiting on me to reply. Going against every survival instinct, I answered. “Yeah, yeah, sorry. I’m actually closing early tonight due to a mishap with a shipment, so could you maybe come back around five? You could bake something for me as a test while I deal with my truck, and if I like it, you’ve got a job.” Hell's chamber pot, I needed help anyway, didn’t I?
The genuine grin that flashed across her face did strange things to my brain and made me wonder exactly what she was. Some kind of succubus? A succubus assassin? Maybe not. Seemed sloppy for an assassin to throw around that much power in public, and I’d never come across one who wielded that much of it. I’d try to find out more that night after the customers had gone.
“Thank you so much,” she gushed, taking my hand and shaking it. She had a hell of a grip and her presence threatened to overwhelm me on contact. “I’ll see you at five, then.”
She turned and nearly skipped out the door when I called to her. “Hey! I didn’t catch your name.”
Her hair fanned as she spun, turning to flame in the sunlight, and she grinned. “I’m Alexis, but everyone calls me Lexi.”
And then she was gone, and whatever spell she’d been weaving released its grip on my chest. So much power for such a small package, and a damn good actress to boot. Whoever she was,whatevershe was, her plan would fail before it started.
It took me a moment to realize how quiet my storefront had gotten and almost all of my customers were staring at me in shock. “What?”
Jason’s friend Andre spoke, and I clamped down on the urge to remember his entire life story. “Dude, no. Are you seriously thinking about giving her a job here? You can’t, man!”
I frowned, unsure what business it was of theirs who I hired. His genuine fear, however, was both delicious and perplexing. “I don’t see why not if she has what it takes to work here.”
“Do you know who she is?” Jason asked.
My brow lowered further. So she was known on campus? Definitely not an assassin, then, unless she was going for the James Bond thing. “I’ve never seen her before.”
“That was LexiLuckless[10],” Andre clarified. “They say bad luck follows her like a black cloud. One of our friends told me some crazy shit happened in one of their classes a couple years ago.”
“Just sayin’, bruh, I would’ve tapped that myself, but bad stuff happens around her a lot,” Jason added. “I wouldn’t do it if I were you.”
His cavalier tone about tapping her made me long to curl my fingers around his throat. I paused for the briefest moment, wondering if my mortal vessel had been compromised by the spell she’d woven. Then I scoffed internally.
Impossible.
