Hi friends! I realized my original posting of this chapter violated the terms for the site, so I am editing and re-uploading for M audiences. The full scene is posted on Ao3 under the same story title but a different username. As always, friendly comments and constructive criticism are welcome.
Without further ado...
She kissed me.
She kissed the devil.
Only a beautiful soul like hers would
Kiss the damned.
-Daniel Saint
Traffic.
If Chloe didn't have the Devil himself sitting next to her, she might have claimed it was the bane of her existence, but alas, his presence took the cake. The man in question sat in her passenger seat tapping his fingers to an imaginary tune staring out the window.
That was the only sound in the car, outside of the distant horns.
She drummed her thumb against the steering wheel to match the beat of his song as all of the taillights in her sight turned red in waves. The ebb and flow of the red lights mesmerized her as they stopped and went, lulling her into a daze in the afternoon heat.
"Is this what hell is like?"
Lucifer's head turned, all tapping ceased. "For some, I'm sure."
Chloe stepped on her brakes for the umpteenth time, slowing to an agonizing three miles per hour.
"What do you mean?"
He turned back toward his window. "Hell is designed around the individual. Everyone's experience is unique to them, targeted at their guilt and their fears. Consider it a first-class service."
"Oh." She hit the brakes again, this time slowing to a complete stop. "How do you determine who goes to hell and who doesn't?"
"I don't." His voice became thicker. "You all do."
The cars ahead of her began to move again. Chloe slowly accelerated, finally seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. The frequency of red lights became less and less, pulling her from her hypnotized state, and away from the conversation.
'You all do', Chloe ruminated on his last words as the city passed by at increasing speeds. I am separate from him.
This was not new information to Chloe, yet a spear drove itself through her heart all the same. Lucifer was a powerful being older than time, something she often chose to forget. How could they ever have had a chance? Who was she to someone like him? We are not the same.
The ache remained as reliably steady as the beating of her heart. And yet she drove on.
Before they knew it, Lux loomed ahead. Chloe sighed in relief at the anticipation of ending the car ride, not that it would mean a break from Lucifer. No, they had the whole night ahead of them, and who knew how much longer.
Chloe quickly found her designated parking spot, as deemed so by the immortal being sitting next to her, and turned off her engine. The sounds outside were dampened, made even more so by the blankness of the concrete around them. She turned toward her partner, the shuffling of her clothes broke the dead quiet.
He was smiling. She thought so at least, it was hard to tell with the shadow of the concrete beam concealing half his features.
She eyed him sideways. "What?"
"You."
Me. "What about me?" Her ponytail slid across her collarbone as she tilted her head.
His eyes darkened as they followed the movement of her hair. "Incredible," he whispered.
The pulsing pain in her chest evaporated as quickly as it had arrived. The giddiness she hadn't felt since before Dan fluttered within, butterflies threatening to come out. He was all she could see. How could he have such an effect on her? Grace, beauty, carnal desire. Even under the shadows, he was light. Under the layers of cool extravagance, he was warmth, and under the facades, he was truth in essence.
His eyes traveled over her form slowly, leaving her as if she was laid bare before him. If only she could hear his thoughts. She rarely had to guess, but this time she desperately wanted - no, needed - to know.
A car door slammed just several feet away.
Chloe jerked her head toward the sound, interrupting the edgy silence and, to her relief, eliminating any risk of her exposing wanton thoughts. Lucifer didn't seem to care, as his gaze remained resolute.
"Well," she muttered, "we'd better go."
He walked beside her with his hands in his pockets, the direct and clear-eyed gaze was passionately attentive, scratching away at the thin wall she haphazardly erected after leaving the car.
The heat of the dim elevator lights bore down upon her almost as intense as Lucifer's scrutiny. Chloe glanced over her shoulder in the hopes that his covetous eyes found another subject, yet his chocolate eyes became hot and predatorial. Her breath caught in her throat. He was still, a single hand resting in his pants pocket, his free hand tapping a rhythm against the champagne wall of the elevator rising through the shaft (not quickly enough, to Chloe's chagrin). She stiffened at his unabashed stare and returned his look with her own steadfast gaze across her shoulder.
The 'ding' of the elevator was the final interruption needed to break Lucifer of his reverie. "Shall we?" he gestured outward, eyes never leaving hers.
She cleared her throat and headed toward the bar, elevator doors closing behind her and the presence of Lucifer so ever-constantly flittering behind.
"Drink?" He offered, pulling off his suit coat and depositing it across the length of the bar.
Oh fuck, yes. "Sure," she responded with a forced casualness.
Chloe made her way over as she watched his deft hands pour a glass of whiskey most likely priced higher than the cost of her apartment. The quick brush of his hands as he rested the drink within her palms elicited a traitorous gasp from her lips, and a tingling steadily coursing southward.
Goddammit, Chloe, she admonished herself. You are here to protect him.
She swallowed.
"So." She sipped.
"So." He did as well.
Lucifer's eyes met hers, but she couldn't reciprocate anymore, no matter how desperately she desired to.
When she'd first made her escape from the loft, she had only one goal in mind: to keep her and her daughter safe from the Devil himself. Through the frenzy, she never gave him the benefit of the doubt. She never considered refuting the slander against him. And here she was in his home, acting as if it never happened.
The bitterness of the drink scoured her system, and she continued to drink and drink and drink as if the liquid could purge her of the guilt and self-hatred eating away at her gut. How could she stand in the home of someone she had once loved and betrayed? How had he accepted her despite the fact? She grimaced at the bitter aftertaste, deserving of every bit of misery it dealt.
Chloe slammed her empty glass onto the bar. Fresh air. That's what she needed. She gracelessly moved her way toward the balcony, but she didn't get very far.
"Detective?"
She could see the clear blue sky and the start of the sun's descent, its rays beaming a kaleidoscope of colors through the wall of glass. Despite the direction of her gaze, she was all too aware of Lucifer's presence looming closer, the soft touch of his hand against her wrist lightly drawing a line to her fingertips, uprooting her from her destination.
Her eyes met his, furrowed brows reflecting his unsaid question. Hope and trust exuded from him. Is this the look he gave his father before God himself ordered his expulsion from his home? Is this what Michael saw before shoving his brother off the heavenly plane, past the mortal coil and into the lake of fire? Shame and contempt blazed through her, burning at the very touch of his fingers never leaving hers.
But she didn't let go.
Chloe drew her eyes downward and lingered on his lips, her own parting as warmth flowed through her body. She sucked in a breath. Now matter how many times he was beaten, broken, betrayed, or whatever horrors he tried to hide behind his bravado, he could still love. And he loved her.
They moved into each other at the same time.
Lucifer's face fell into her neck, muttering a mix of languages she would never understand in between breaths. Collapsing next to her, he looked to her as if she were his lifeline in turbulent waters, reaching up to curl his hand in hers.
The only sounds in the room were their ragged breaths heaving under the shadow of his towering wing.
"Lucifer."
"Hmm?" he greeted, pressing soft kisses into her shoulder.
"I love you," she breathed, eyes closing.
He stilled his caresses as she drifted off in his arms. "And I you, detective."
The setting sun cast a soft glow through the black curtains. Like a cocoon, he swept his wing over her in warmth as they allowed sleep to take them together.