Let Me Win You (Seven Horny Sins #2)

Chapter 1

1

Invi

F rom around the corner of the building, I watched the crowd gathering in front of the dance hall… Um, no, they called it “a night club” or just “a club” nowadays. I had to remember that.

I shook my head, both annoyed and frustrated. Humans modified their language more frequently than they changed their clothes. It was hard to keep up, especially if one came to this world as infrequently as I did.

My brother Avar, the Sin of Greed, kept locked up both the transcendence potion needed to travel to the human world and the moonstone ring that gave one a mortal body to blend in with humans. Through careful planning and a little luck, I’d managed to acquire both and came here to find her , the woman who’d love me the way Madison loved Avar.

From what I’d learned about modern humans from watching them through the Pandora’s Box back in Purgatory, one of the ways to meet a woman was to “go out” to a place where single people could mingle unchaperoned. The club was the latest “it spot” in the city, and every eligible bachelor and bachelorette seemed to strive to get in tonight. The crowd at the front door formed a long line that curved from the main street into an alley.

The cold wind blew between the tall concrete buildings, biting my fragile human skin like a blade. I pulled up the collar of my jacket that had cost quite a bit by human standards. Sadly, despite its high price, the jacket provided no protection from the weather. The freezing air made its way under the leather, chilling me to the bone.

A car pulled over from the busy street, and a couple exited. Pulling his female companion by her hand, the man confidently strolled to the door.

“I’m Sabine’s friend,” he said to the guard at the entrance.

Without slowing down, the man then sauntered through the door, leading his woman along.

“Do you have an invitation?” the guard yelled after the couple.

But the pulsing lights and the music from the inside had already swallowed them both.

I could walk all the way to the end of the line and wait in the cold to get in. Time was of no essence to me, but my human body might not survive such an ordeal. Besides, from what I’d learned during my research, women appreciated confidence. Here, in this unfamiliar world with its strange scents and sounds, feeling confident wasn’t easy. But I had mastered the art of imitation better than anyone.

Rolling back my shoulders, I smoothed a hand over my hair that the barber had spent a considerable amount of time to trim and style into a deliberately messy knot on the back of my head, assuring me that was the most dashing way to wear long hair nowadays.

Bracing the cold, I unzipped my tailored leather jacket, like the man who’d just entered the club wore his. The dark shirt I had underneath and the black pants were rather plain for my tastes, but I chose the clothes after carefully studying the current fashion trends. All pieces came from famous fashion houses and cost me a small fortune in gems and gold that I’d traded for the modern paper money for shopping. Humans valued their appearances, and first impressions were important.

Heaving a breath, I stepped out from the shadows and into the lights of the electric lanterns on the street.

The guard at the door was talking to the young woman who was first in line, and I walked past them like the other man had, as if I had every right to bypass the line.

“Um, sir?” the guard made a move my way.

“I’m a friend of Sabine’s.” I waved him off with an indulging smile, graciously forgiving him for his mistake of trying to stop me.

“Are you on the list?” His words almost drowned in the noise and music blasting from the inside.

I nodded, not slowing down my pace. The guard, the line, and the street were already behind me. The foul air of the night club engulfed me, rich with body odor, perfume, alcohol, and a trace of rodent droppings.

In front of me lay a room filled with humans, and one of them was destined to become what Madison was for my brother Avar.

Madison was supposed to be mine. I saw her first. But the greedy asshole that he was, Avar grabbed her before I got a chance. For a while, I’d plotted to take her from him. I’d fantasized that she'd see me as her rescuer and favor me over him.

Sadly, Madison fell in love with Avar. Who knew it’d take her such a short time to form a deep affection for my grumpy, anti-social, void of any charisma brother? But she did, and I was too late. I had missed my chance. If I took her away from him now, she’d despise me.

“Hey.” A man from a group next to me elbowed his buddy. “Wanna hear a joke?” He didn’t wait for his friend’s reply to continue. “So, two chicks die and get to the purgatory, and the ground there is solidly covered with ducks.”

Ducks?

That got my attention.

Why ducks?

It made no sense. There aren’t that many ducks in Purgatory. Some live in my swamp, but there aren’t enough of them to cover the entire ground.

I paused to hear more.

My world had been created through humans’ beliefs. If a large enough number of people believed in this duck nonsense, we risked this story becoming our reality. I winced. As much as I liked my ducks, I was not looking forward to them invading my house and our entire town.

Taking a swig of his beer, the man kept talking, barely containing his excitement, “An angel tells the girls not to step on a duck or they’ll be punished. One of them accidentally steps on a duck anyway, and a butt-ugly dude appears, chained to her arm for the rest of eternity as her punishment. The other girl is super careful and doesn’t step on any ducks for a year. Then one day… Poof! A hot guy is chained to her wrist?—”

His buddies snickered before he even reached the end of the joke, and the man was practically choking on laughter and beer as he finally delivered the punchline.

I pondered the joke. Was it supposed to be funny? Humor was a peculiar thing, just as unique to a person as their hair or eye color.

Sweeping the room with my gaze, I realized I was searching for a dark-haired woman. Madison had long, dark-brown hair, almost black.

I realized it wasn’t exactly Madison that I was the most envious of my brother about. More than anything, I wanted what she and Avar had between them. That said, this was the city where she lived. The club was just around the corner from the restaurant that she owned. Somehow, it all felt like a good point to start searching for that special human woman of my own.

As the music dipped with one song ending and before the other one began, a burst of laughter broke through. It was loud, musical, and filled with the happiness that I longed for.

I pivoted toward the sound as did almost everyone else in the place, all of us staring at a young woman at the table in a corner. Faced with the attention, her laughter tapered to a most adorable giggle. She threw her hand over her mouth, the humor now bouncing only in her eyes.

Before I even realized what I was doing, I headed toward her.

“Good evening, fair ladies,” I greeted the woman and her female companion who was sharing the table with her.

The object of my attention peered at me, her hazel-green eyes narrowing in suspicion. Then a new spark of humor burst in them as she lowered her hand from her face and gave me a cordial smile.

“Good evening to you, too, mighty knight,” she matched my tone. “What brings you to our neck of the woods this fine evening?”

She clearly was mocking me, but I couldn’t muster any offense in response, wishing to hear her laugh again, even if at my expense.

“I heard you laughing,” I replied sincerely.

She blinked, gentle blush spreading on her round cheeks.

“It was rather loud, wasn’t it?” She bit her lip.

“Nicole loves to laugh,” her companion, a blonde young woman with delicate facial features, stated. “It can’t be helped.”

“I like it.” I ran a hand over my hair and confessed, “I’d love to hear you laugh again.”

Humor shone brighter in her eyes. They weren’t dark like Madison’s, I noted. In fact, Nicole looked nothing like Madison. Her auburn-red hair was considerably lighter too. Her body was plumper with far more curves. It was hard to accurately gauge her height while she was sitting, but she seemed shorter than Madison too. None of it mattered, however. I said I wished to hear her laugh again, and I wholeheartedly meant it.

“Make me laugh then,” she challenged. “Say something funny.”

Her companion rested her chin in her hand, her elbow propped on the table. “Tell us a joke, stranger.”

“A joke?”

My mind drew blank. It was hard to muster words when they both stared at me expectantly. The stakes of making a good impression rose exponentially the longer I gazed into Nicole’s green-brown eyes with golden flecks.

“Yes.” She nodded. “Do you know any?”

After millennia of existence, all I could remember at that moment was one single joke. It floated on the surface of my mind like a fucking duck.

“Two women died and went to Purgatory…” It was a mistake. The joke was stupid. It’d ruin any chance I might’ve had with Nicole. But she expected me to speak, so I pulled a chair from the table and sat down to get closer and make myself heard over the music that started playing again. “Let me assure you, there aren’t that many ducks in Purgatory. Animal spirits travel freely between worlds, taking whatever shape they wish. But in this particular version of the afterlife, apparently, the ground is covered with ducks?—”

Nicole laughed, and I stopped, mesmerized by the sound and the sight of dimples gracing her cheeks.

“Shh.” Her companion tapped on Nicole’s hand. “Let him finish, Nic.”

“Go on.” Nicole graciously gestured for me to continue. She pressed her lips together, trying to contain her laughter, and I took it as a challenge, longing to set it free again.

“One woman accidentally steps on a duck, and she’s immediately chained to a man of a hideous appearance as a punishment. The other woman managed to avoid such a misfortune for a year. After which a handsome man appears, chained to her wrist. ‘Are you my reward for me being careful all this time?’ the woman asks him. He looks at her in bewilderment and replies, ‘I’ve just stepped on a duck.’”

A terrifying silence descended upon us. A moment later, peals of laughter tore it to shreds, and I heaved a breath of relief.

“It’s a terrible joke,” Nicole punted between the bouts of laughter. “So, so bad.”

I agreed. For one, what did it matter how anyone in the story looked like? Especially, since they all were dead already and out of their mortal bodies? So much in the human world hinged on a person’s appearance, but it meant so little where I came from.

“Yet you’re laughing.” I grinned with satisfaction.

“There is just something in the way you speak that’s kind of…sweet.” She paused her gaze on me.

The bubble of relief grew bigger in my chest.

Her eyes flicked between mine.

“What’s your name?”

“Invi,” I said. “It’s short for Invidia.”

“Invidia? What an unusual name. Where is it from?”

“Latin,” I said, making her laugh again.

I could stay like this forever, trapped in the bubble of her laughter and the warm feeling that was spreading through my chest. The rest of the world seemed to have fallen away completely. The club with its noise and stench was gone.

Sadly, the sound of a glass placed on the table snapped me out of the sweet revery. Nicole’s companion set her glass down, and I remembered I’d paid no attention to her all this time. I didn’t even know her name, which was extremely rude of me.

“My apologies,” I addressed her with a polite bow. “We haven’t been introduced yet.”

The blonde woman gave me a tight smile.

“There is no need for introductions. Now, if you excuse me…” She got up from the table abruptly and headed toward the corridor with the sign Washrooms over it.

I didn’t mourn her departure, eager to spend some time alone with Nicole. Yet when I turned back to her again, the smile had left her face.

She leaned across the table to me.

“I hate to break it to you, Invi. But you don’t have a chance here.”