Free Devils Among Us by Mandy M. Roth

Chapter One
    “T he safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” ~ C.S. Lewis
    Hannah opened her eyes slightly, her lids still heavy from sleep. Her bedroom ceiling came into focus, slowly. She stared up at the crown molding, taking a minute to wake from the deep sleep she’d been in. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
    She wasn’t alone, though she should have been. She sensed someone with her in the room. She’d have reached for her weapons, but this wasn’t the first time this had happened with this particular person. She doubted it would be the last. She had a secret admirer. Someone powerful enough to get close to her without her knowledge—until he was well upon her—and powerful enough to protect her without showing himself.
    A constant in her life anymore.
    My protector.
    She didn’t fear him, yet she was cautious. Her lifestyle left little room for anything but. To blindly put her trust in the unknown could very well mean her death. A death she wasn’t ready to meet just yet though she knew it would inevitably come—sooner than most people’s.
    Part of the job description , she reminded herself.
    She glanced down to find her short nightgown lifted high over her hips, showing off her low-cut lace panties. The red material was bright against her pale skin. A single gold coin lay on the swell of her lower stomach. She knew without looking what was engraved upon it.
    The devil on one side and an angelic figure on the other.
    She caressed the coin, her finger skimming over her sensitive skin. His power still emanated from the object, humming against her body. He’d left the coins for her before. Too many times to count. At first they’d baffled her. Anymore they made her feel a connection to him. She wanted him and she’d never even met him.
    Her inner thighs were slick with cream, reaffirming the fact she’d been dreaming of being pleasured by her mystery man. He consumed all her thoughts of late—awake and asleep. She didn’t bother inventing a face for him. She already had a sense he’d be tall, dark and dangerous.
    Everything a girl like her could hope for in a man.
    With a groan, she lay back, drawing the coin up her body slowly. She let out a long, tense breath, staring around the room, positive someone was there, watching her. The mirror above her dresser cast a soft reflection. Had she not known it was her, she would have wondered. The woman staring back at her looked so different than Hannah remembered herself being.
    On edge, yet secure.
    An odd combination.
    The woman also looked alluring, as if she were on the prowl for a man, something Hannah had never really seen herself as being before. As a virgin, she didn’t exactly do much of anything in regards to sex. She simply did her job, never focusing on her baser wants and needs.
    Though no other people were visible, she knew she wasn’t totally alone because the coin had to have manifested from somewhere. It wasn’t as if it had magically appeared.
    Or had it?
    Besides, the scents of bergamot and rosemary clung to the air. The scents accompanied the coin, and an inborn knowledge they belonged to the coin’s owner settled over her.
    Hannah brought the coin to her lips and hid her smile as she stared towards her bedroom window. Was he there? Was he watching? Was he as she imagined him to be? Dark? Dangerous? The embodiment of sex?
    A giggle escaped her and she slid the coin over her lips, down her neck to her upper chest. Energy buzzed in the room and she knew then that she did indeed have an audience. Hannah gave in to the urge to give him a show. She skimmed the coin over her thin nightgown and over the hard pebble-like peaks of her nipples. She kept her gaze on the window, believing her mystery man to be there.
    Her body heated and she carried the show on further, reaching down with her free hand and pulling the nightgown higher,