"I won't hurt you." The demon hastened after her. "Do you have a car out here?"

"I need your help," she told him, continuing her I damsel-in-distress act.

"Of course. Do you live near here?" Finally, they I neared the portal's edge.

"Need your help," she said once more, ducking I behind what appeared to be a willow by the water's I edge, but was actually an illusion within the dungeon.

He joined her there-and Sabine sensed the portal g closing. The trap had worked, and he'd never felt a thing. I

"I have to get to the city," he said. "But then I can I come back to help you."

Before she caught herself, her gaze flitted over the deep I scar on his face--the first time she'd seen it this close.

He noticed and seemed to be waiting for her to react.

The scar didn't bother her as much as it clearly did him. She could use that against him.

All in all, he wasn't anything like she imagined. He was .. . better. And if she looked at those intense eyes long enough, she could almost forget what he was. When she arched closer to him, he drew back, suspicion in his expression.

She hastily said, "Help me now." Grasping one of his big hands in hers, she kissed it with smiling lips, then placed it over one of her breasts.

As if he didn't realize what he was doing, he cupped her flesh with a growl.

"This is what I need," she murmured, arching to his rough palm.

"And the gods know that I want to give it to you, right after I've settled-"

"I need it"-she took his other hand and placed it on her inner thigh-"now."

He squeezed her breast and leg too hard, as if he were holding on for dear life. Yet still he seemed on the verge of leaving her. She delved to read his mind, but demons could deflect her probes. She only heard his stray thoughts, and only because they were so strong.