Holidays Are Hell Esther Egg Hunt Read Online Free Page B

up the torture, grinning at the knowledge of the pain he was causing Luc with every passing moment. The smoke-drenched rodent had been a sadistic monster during his time on Earth. He’d finally been executed after torturing and killing dozens of young women in a small, college town. It had been the deciding factor on his resume for assembly clerk. He still dished out lots of torture, but these days it came in the form of unending paperwork, rife with small print, and targeting PDs for corrective measures when things went badly.
    Luc finally gave up trying to sleep and opened his eyes. To get his mind off the pain, he focused his attention on the woman sleeping across his legs. She was currently whimpering softly in her sleep, her slim body twitching under a bad dream. Luc’s heart twisted at the sight. Nobody should have to endure what she had.
    Dying a horrible, excruciating death once was more than enough punishment. But reliving it year after year was unconscionable. Especially for a person as kind and loving as Esther Mooring. And the months of isolation and worry in between were an added burden that Esther didn’t deserve.
    He’d been sick about the whole thing since the second year, when he’d been told about her resurrection and subsequent re-death, and had been ordered to bring her back again. Luc hadn’t been able to believe the assembly would subject her to that. He realized it was because, unlike most of Hell’s inhabitants, Esther wasn’t really evil. She’d made one big mistake, and it had cost her a soul.
    The assembly couldn’t abide goodness. So they’d made an example of her. The unfortunate timing of her death was just a happy coincidence for them. It gave them an excuse to torture her.
    Luc had gritted his teeth as long as he could, trying to ignore the assault to his conscience every time he saw her, but he couldn’t do it anymore. If the assembly was going to treat her badly in death, then he’d make sure she stayed alive. At least until he could use his connections with the celestial set to bargain for her soul. With the new quotas in place, Luc was pretty sure they’d take her into the light.
    Then her suffering would be over.
    That was the plan, anyway. But even as he went over it again in his mind, Luc found himself stroking her short, sexy cap of black hair and reveling in its softness against his fingers. Her small hand resting on one of his thighs was burning a brand into his skin. And his cock was in danger of being cut in half from the restrictive denim of his borrowed jeans. He didn’t think he’d ever been as hard as he was at that moment.
    The hand stroking her curls slipped down her arm, finding her creamy, brown skin every bit as soft as her hair, and skimmed over her hip. He smiled at the pants she wore. She’d pulled on camo pants with pockets all down the sides and had jammed something into every one of the pockets. The woman seemed fragile and helpless, but he knew she’d spent her life doing things others would cringe at doing. She was fearless and capable and, if he hadn’t caught her when he had, he had little doubt she’d have made her escape.
    Though he doubted she’d have lasted out the day. Death was a greedy bitch. She didn’t release her victims easily.
    The truck’s brakes squealed, and Luc’s head came up. A rest area sign whipped past as they took the ramp to exit the highway. Luc hoped the driver didn’t come around back to check his load as he had at the last stop. Just in case, he needed to wake Esther up.
    He wanted to go inside, anyway. Maybe a few bags of salty snacks would help dull the ache in his arm.
    When he woke her, Esther gave him a sleepy smile and stretched slender arms over her head. The action tightened her sexy little T-shirt over a nicely rounded set of perfect breasts, and his cock jerked with interest. Luc realized in that moment that he had more than one ache to cure. And the antidote for the second one wasn’t quite so