Chapter 4: It's not you, It's me...

Alex and Lorelei pulled into the underground garage of his condo complex, finding the area devoid of people. Having come to a stop, Lorelei gracefully dismounted and stood behind Alex, who got off the bike somewhat slower and more nervously. He had never brought a girl home... let alone a woman like this.

Standing next to the bike, Alex pulled off his helmet and looked at her, and found the breath knocked right out of him. On the ride home, her bruises vanished and the scarring from the removal of her horns faded completely. Her hair still hung alluringly over her otherwise bare, full breasts. He had just enough presence of mind to not look lower. There was still blood, soot and other marks upon her, but her face had regained its original shape -- again, minus the horns -- and that shape was so beautiful as to leave him speechless.

"I seem able to heal, at least," Lorelei said, noting his very obvious reaction. "It is... good that you are pleased, master."

After a moment more, Alex got hold of himself, and looked around to see if anyone saw him being so awkward and nervous. "We are alone. Were we not, we would still be undetected unless you wished it, master," Lorelei said.

"Does it bother you at all," Alex asked hesitantly, "calling me master?"

"Not especially. Does it trouble you?"

"A little. I mean I don't want it going to my head." She gave him that incredulous look again, but he ignored it. "Maybe you should just call me by my name?"

"Very well, Alex. Shall I remain unnoticed when we go inside? Do you have family? A lover?"

"No, nobody, I'm single. I mean yeah. I've got family. I live with my mother. I mean I just turned nineteen, I wanna move out soon, but just yet, I... I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"Yes, Alex," she said, smiling just a bit coyly. "You need not apologize. Your material circumstances are irrelevant to me unless you wish to make them my business."

"Okay, well, Mom's probably sleeping by now, so we should just be quiet and head for my room. Can you make sure neither of us wakes her?"

"Done."

"Okay. I mean don't wake her tonight," he blurted suddenly, her smirk making him nervous and making him fear the demoness might twist his words. "Just tonight. Like let her sleep normally. Don't like put her to sleep for a hundred years or something!"

Lorelei looked at him evenly. "Alex," she said with a bit of a smile, "You can relax. I am not a genie seeking to shape a carelessly-worded wish into your doom. I will not seek to betray you simply because I am a demon. My first role is -- was -- to ruin and punish the wicked. I was not born to lead the virtuous astray. And no angel, no matter how careless, would have left you in the presence of one such as me if you or others were in danger because of it."

"You're being a lot nicer all of a sudden," Alex said warily.

Her smile broadened a bit. "We're not in the presence of one of the snots of the heavenly hosts," she nodded. "I have had time to recover. You have been kind and considerate. As I said before, I have always had one master or another. To serve is not unusual. And I am more deeply in your debt than I can say. There's no reason to be unpleasant."

Alex didn't know what to say for a long moment. He just stared, and she smiled back. Her voice alone was entrancing, and just standing there talking with her was giving him the stiffest hard-on of his life -- and he wasn't even looking below her smudged-up face.

She looked pleased with this reaction. "How may I serve, master? I'm sorry," she corrected, "Alex?" "Let's just... uh... go inside." Alex tried to be subtle in adjusting his pants as he walked.

He failed. Lorelei saw, and was unsurprised, but pleased.

Inside, the living room light had been left on for Alex, but thankfully the condo was quiet and his mother was almost certainly asleep. Alex led Lorelei up the stairs, which she ascended with a slight curiosity on her face as she looked around. Alex's mother had done relatively well for herself in the corporate world, but the realities of single-parenting had made them a more or less middle class family.

Alex quietly led her into his bedroom and stealthily shut the door.

"You need not be so careful," Lorelei said casually. "As you wished, I am covering our sounds. All I need do is look in your mother's bedroom and she will sleep soundly through the night. You can relax."

Alex sighed, dropping his backpack and helmet on his relatively bare desk. "Thank you. I'm pretty tired, I guess. I just need a shower."

"As do I," she responded. A more experienced man would have recognized the invitation immediately. Overwhelmed as he was, Alex didn't recognize it as any different from every other smoldering hot word coming out of her mouth, and thus the significance shot right past him.

"Okay. Well, there are two showers; I suppose you could use mine. I can keep it quick so you don't run out of hot water. I guess I'm gonna have to get you some clothes?"

Lorelei cocked her head to one side curiously. It had the effect of raising the hair that dangled over her right breast, revealing more of the curve and giving Alex's already thumping heart an extra beat -- but, as if taunting and teasing just happened on autopilot for Lorelei, it didn't quite go far enough. "Certainly. Or, if you wish me to be seen in public, I can create the illusion of whatever clothes you like for others," she said, "or for yourself as well, if my state makes you uncomfortable?"

A dozen replies tried to come out of Alex's mouth at once, but jammed up until all he got out was, "Whatever's comfortable for you. Are you hungry? Do you actually eat?"

Lorelei shrugged a bit, realizing she'd have to dispense with the minutiae of mortal life. "I do not need food to sustain myself, though I can eat if the mood takes me. Were I not so worn down by tonight's troubles I wouldn't need something so mundane as a shower. I know how to use modern technology and can function perfectly well just as any adult you know. I normally need much less sleep than you would, though after tonight I am very weary and would very much appreciate laying in a bed," she said, indicating Alex's twin-sized bed. "I am many centuries old, Alex, and despite tonight's ill turns, my abilities to take care of myself remain potent. Your concern for my comfort is very kind, but unnecessary," she said, her blue eyes twinkling.

It gave Alex his fourteenth heart attack of the night. "Okay. Cool. I'll just go grab something in the kitchen. I'm beat, really." With that, he grabbed some clothes and stepped out.

Lorelei looked on in awe. As she said, she wasn't fixated on corrupting people of sincere virtue. She had seen shyness before, certainly, and social ignorance. Clearly Alex was missing signals. But there was more to it than that. The erection held in check by his jeans showed that he had a perfectly masculine response to her presence. But while he was understandably nervous about her demonic nature, it was obvious that the notion of her not being a threat to him was settling in.

She briefly looked into the other bedroom, ensuring with a small enchantment that his mother would remain asleep. Lorelei then wandered into the shower, wondering why it was that she was going in alone.

She took her time in cleaning up. By the time she came out of the shower, it was clear that Alex truly was exhausted. He lay on his bed, his short black hair wet and his filthy clothes exchanged for simple blue sweatpants and a t-shirt. A small, half-eaten sandwich on a plate rested on his stomach, and his eyes were closed.

Completely nude now, Lorelei entered the room brushing her hair and looking down at her new master. She felt very strangely about this indeed; nothing like this had ever happened to her before, but she knew in the back of her mind that she should be scheming for an eventual escape. There was time for that later, though; for now she was indeed diminished, and needed to recover. And, as admitted already, she was under Alex's direct power.

There was no reason she couldn't have plenty of fun with that.

Lorelei reached forward and slipped the plate away from him, laying it casually on the desk, and then grinning down at him as she saw his eyes flutter open. He gasped openly at the sight of her fully nude for the first time. That face would never need make-up. Her hair was back over her shoulders this time to reveal her magnificent chest, which would certainly never need a bra. Her figure was shapely and perfectly curved, her skin flawless, and her body naturally had not a single hair beyond that on her head and exquisite pussy.

"Do you like what you see, Alex?" she smiled seductively, placing one knee between his legs and leaning over him.

"Yes," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Of course. You're so beautiful."

"I am glad. I am glad you find me beautiful... and I am yours, Alex. Nothing on earth can change it." She kept moving in closer, her breasts hanging alluringly close to his mouth. "Take me as you like."

"You... Lorelei, you don't have to do this," Alex blinked.

"Don't have to?" she asked, turning her head curiously. What was it with him?!

"I don't want you to feel like you have to have sex with me because I'm your..." his voice trailed off, as if reluctant to give voice to it himself.

It was Lorelei's turn to be shocked. This had never happened. Ever. Oh, she had been cast out by the occasional near-saint yelling, "Get behind me, Satan!" over the centuries, but this was unprecedented. "Were I reluctant to lay with you I would avoid it until you commanded it."

That made sense in Alex's racing mind. He couldn't keep control of his heart pounding, or the heavy feeling in his breath and in his stomach, but at the same time, he was afraid to move. The most gorgeous woman he'd ever met was practically throwing herself on him and he was afraid to move, because he was afraid of what could happen next.

"I do want you," Alex admitted. "I'd be crazy not to. But I'm just... even if you're not going to hurt me, you're a demon. How do I know I won't turn into some crazy perverted loon humping everything with a hole in it and then wind up in Hell?"

Lorelei erupted with laughter. It was not entirely kind, but not entirely mocking, either. "I cannot tell you much about how the Divine judge all things," she said, "but I have seen Hell, and I promise you no one is condemned there for mere fornication, no matter how frequent or how lewd. You poor mortals have been given a very skewed understanding of this."

"Okay, fine, but people don't really just meet and jump into bed with each other. Not in real life. Not without... I dunno... alcohol, anyway!"

"Of course they do!"

Alex paused. "Okay, well it's never happened to me, anyway. That's just something my friends all lie about happening to them."

Lorelei's eyebrows went up. "Well, here I am. I guarantee you in all your life no friend of yours will have anything this good."

"Still. I don't know if we should just... fuck," Alex confessed.

Lorelei paused, and sat upright, giving him yet another view of her beauty in all its glory while she looked at him thoughtfully. "You fear your own lust," she said softly.

"Maybe," he shrugged. "Maybe I'm afraid I'll... think too much of it. Fall in love. Get my heart broken." Her lips twisted into a smirk. "You're afraid you'll fall in love with me after one night of sex?"

"I could fall in love with you just looking at you."

She fell quiet for a moment, and asked softly, "Then why don't you?"

He shook his head, ignoring the question. "It's more than that. It could go the other way. Fact is you're here because you have to be, not because you choose to be. If I took advantage of it, how's that make me any better than that priest? How's it any better for you? What if you end up hating me?"

Lorelei thought about it for a heartbeat and then shrugged. "Could be fun that way. Kinky." "Oh my god!" Alex blurted. "Are you serious? I couldn't do that to you!"

"Oh, this is funny," Lorelei sighed, looking around herself briefly. "How old are you? Nineteen? And no girlfriend. A virgin, I take it, yes?"

Alex scowled a bit, but answered defensively, "Yeah. I haven't exactly been lucky with my dating life. I mean I've dated, but—"

"You have a naked, supernaturally sexual woman offering herself to you, bound to you for eternity, and you won't touch me because you're afraid I'll think you see me as just some slut. And you're also afraid that I'll fuck you all the way into Hell itself and you'll burn for all eternity with a broken heart. Is that about right?"

"I guess?"

"That's a lot of hang-ups. At least you're not worried about measuring up as a lover," she mused aloud. The look that crossed Alex's face told her otherwise, and she rolled her eyes. "Put it out of your head. I'm not a normal woman. It doesn't work that way with me. You'll have me panting and begging you for more the moment you start enjoying yourself. Succubus, remember? Hell, half the men I've fucked just laid there until they died, but you wouldn't see me buffing my nails in the middle of it."

Silence...

"Wow, that makes me feel so much better, Lorelei," Alex said finally.

"That's not -- that's not you and I," she said, softening her tone and tracing a finger down his chest, which alone had him inhaling sharply. "I cannot mislead you, Alex. No one is a masterful lover their first time. But you're doing fine for natural endowment," she said, her finger tracing further down past the waistband of his sweats and giving him a genuine rush. "And you have the best teacher you could possibly ask for."

The conflict on his face was unresolved. Finally she sighed.

"Bound, Alex. Permanently. All the security anyone could dream of. And don't worry about making me feel like I'm some slut. That's very much what I am." Her look became much more direct and meaningful. "Only now I'm your slut."

Another heart attack. He'd dreamt of girls saying something like that before. But that didn't change the fact that this was no ordinary girl. He'd seen her breathe fire all over someone tonight. "Maybe we could just... take it slow?"

She shook her head, looking away a moment and trying not to laugh. "As you wish, of course. The angel herself said you had nothing to fear from me. May I lie next to you? I promise not to molest you in your sleep."

"Sure," Alex said, and with that, Lorelei pulled up the sheets over them both and curled up in the bed beside him.

"Lust itself is not a real sin, Alex," Lorelei told him softly. "Your churches have had that part wrong all these years and the angels never bothered to straighten it out. The sin comes from causing harm in pursuit of lust. I was naked and in your power, and your first thought was to offer me the shirt off your back... and even now, you are concerned with showing me respect. I don't think you need to fear your own lust."

"Maybe I'm just too inexperienced to understand it," Alex whispered, "but with all this? It doesn't sit right. I can't explain it. I don't want to do something I'll regret."

"I could explain your lust to you, if you wanted. I could learn it and explain it in ways you would not articulate for yourself."

"You could? How?"

"It's simple. I merely have to drink it," she smiled, delicately brushing a suggestive hand across his groin as she reached over and turned out the light. "Goodnight, Alex."

That had Alex lying awake for hours.