He’d never experienced an innocent hug. Neither of his parents believed in such.
And it did the strangest things to his breathing. Something that wasn’t helped by the scent of lilac and woman that hit his senses. She smelled like warm sunshine.
Smiling up at him, she pulled back. “Nothing at all. You must have really hated your former partner.”
He had no comment. Not when his body wasn’t currently under his control.
When he could finally speak again, his words came out a lot gruffer than he meant for them to. “Yeah…glad you like it.”
Giggling the way he imagined she must have done when she was a girl, she locked the door, then gave him a becoming pout. “I hate to leave now. I want to sit in there and sip coffee while playing with my new board.”
Those words sent an extremely vivid image through his mind. Inappropriate and very hot. “There’s something else I’d love for you to play with.”
Rolling her eyes, she headed for his garage. “Keep it in your pants, big guy. We have work to do.” She paused to scowl at him. “Do we have an HR agent?”
“Why? You planning to report me?”
“Probably should, but I doubt it’d help. Knowing what little I do about you, you’d probably hire someone to take the class for you.”
Spinning his keys on his finger, he wagged his brows at her. “You’re learning me. Beware. Next thing you know, you’ll be offering me your soul and nowadays I’d have to turn you down.”
“Did you really barter souls?”
“My primary function…aside from lazing about.” He bent down to open the garage. “I would say I regretted it, but I never took the soul of anyone who would miss it. Besides, you’d be amazed at how many people can’t be tempted.”
That was surprising. Most of the people she’d known wouldn’t hesitate to trade their soul for a winning lottery ticket. “Really?”
“Yeah. Those who usually barter with us have dark secrets. Never ceases to shock me the cruelty that lies in the hearts of those who look so harmless. Others look vicious and wouldn’t harm anyone. But the ones we take… You’d never know the depravity in such an innocuous vessel. Sadly, people make the wrong judgment calls all the time. I really feel sorry for your kind. In many ways, this is the real Hell. My home is more of a sauna.”
“Because you weren’t being tortured there.”
“True. But remember the ones who are, deserve it for the people they hurt and the deeds they chose to do of their own free will. Hell’s a maximum-security prison, not a halfway house.”
She paused as he opened the garage door. “You really never feel sorry for them?”
“Hell no. Just desserts. Those on the fence are given chances for redemption. We only get the ones who are vicious and unrepentant. The ones who more than earned punishment.”
He saw the darkness that shadowed her eyes and it actually made him feel bad for her, as he felt that pain inside himself. She was thinking about her sister.
Strange how that finally popped into his mind, and he knew instantly that the two of them were twins.
And how much her sister’s death tormented her.
Luke winced as he felt her grief like it was his own. Like most sets of twins, they’d been unbelievably close. An image of them lying in bed and laughing together went through his head.
One of a thousand memories that tortured Sorcha.
Damn. Empathy wasn’t something he normally struggled with. It’d mostly been a foreign emotion for him. But right now…
“I’m sorry your sister’s not here with you.”
She actually burst into tears.
“Oh wow…what the hell?”
Covering her face with her hands, she drew a ragged breath. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m really not an emotional person. You just have no idea how much I worry about her. Worried that…”
Before he could stop himself, he pulled her in for a hug to comfort her. Something he’d never done before, but he didn’t like seeing his partner in pain. It made his own body ache in response and that stunned him.
