Soul Crossed Read Online Free Page B

shirt and starts kissing me. She tastes like cinnamon gum, spicy hot but good, and I push her back against the wall with fervor. My hands run through her hair, which is soft and fine, then trail down her arms to her hips, where they linger.
    She pushes me away with surprising strength, and I’m confused but totally turned on. She’s smiling at me, her lip curling up in the corner like a snake. I grin back and move forward again, intending to continue what she started, but she shakes a finger at me in warning. The grin slips from my face, and I feel my eyes start to burn.
    But before I can look away, I see her own coffee-colored eyes flash red and understanding rushes in.
    “You’re a Demon,” I say in a whisper, looking around to be sure no one’s seen.
    “Well, aren’t you a clever boy?” she purrs, stalking toward me like a lioness hunting her prey. She runs a hand down my chest, but I don’t move. I know she’s dangerous. Which also somehow makes her more attractive.
    “Not bad,” she says after walking around me, full-circle. “Nice ass.” She smacks me there. I clear my throat.
    “I’m Josh,” I say.
    “I know.”
    “And you are?”
    “Keira. I’m your mentor. That means whatever you do reflects on me.” She pauses, and her gaze turns to ice. “So don’t screw up.”
    “Lucifer said you’d be watching me, not teaching me,” I say. I don’t like her superior attitude, no matter how hot or dangerous she is.
    “Let’s get something straight. I’m in charge, and you do
not
question me. Ever.
Comprendez vous
? Now, don’t give me that look, hot stuff. If you’re good, there will be rewards.” She presses her body up against mine and hooks her hands behind my neck. “I know what boys want. I like the same things.”
    My mind returns to my earlier thought of whether being a Demon would give me superior powers in the bedroom. As though she can feel my excitement mount, Keira’s hands coil through my hair, and she’s kissing me. Her tongue probes my mouth, and I respond in kind. I can’t help it. This time she is the one pushing me into the wall. She braces my wrists above my head and her hands are like an iron vice. I can barely stand it as she makes her way down my neck with her mouth. Then she is suddenly off me again, straightening her shirt. I’m left against the wall, shaking with desire.
    “Are you going to tease me like that all the time?” I croak.
    “Only if you’re good.” She winks and disappears in a puff of black smoke. She must have damned a few souls to earn that kind of power.

Chapter 10
Grace
    “What about your family?” I ask. I’m finding it difficult to get information out of Camden. I do notice that the more we talk, the less he stutters and take that as a good sign.
    “My mom’s a nurse at Providence,” he says, averting his eyes.
    “And your dad?”
    “He left.”
    “Oh. I’m sorry,” I say, and I mean it. That has to be hard.
    “Don’t be.” He smiles at me, playing with the pencil in his hand.
    “Brothers or sisters?” I ask. He looks down again, his fingers tightening around the pencil until the tips are white.
    “I had a sister. She died when she was two.”
    “Sorry,” I say. It seems I’m doomed to apologize every few seconds. Camden’s had a tortured life.
    “You?” he asks. He looks up, and for the first time I see something hard in his eyes that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
    “I’ve lost them all,” I say. It’s hard to say that out loud, even after nearly three months in Heaven. “I live with my Aunt Irma.”
Irma Alvarez
, I heard Mr. Griffith call her during one of his visits.
    He softens, and I see the Camden I’ve been getting to know. Slowly, he lowers the pencil and slides his hand over, hesitating inches from where my own rests on the table.
    “I had a little brother,” I say. “You remind me of him.”
    He withdraws his hand.
    Josh returns from behind the bookshelves and looks a bit red to