You know why I believe the Devil exists?
It's because I have his luck.
That doesn't mean I haven't had to work hard. Tricks, traps, blackmail, coercion, I've used them all to get my way with women. But sometimes, when I least deserve it, the Devil grants me another generous slice of good fortune and I hardly have to do a thing.
I'd been at a big trade show at Vegas selling security systems that the company I own makes and we'd shifted over ten millions' worth. Pretty pleased with myself, I decided to hire the biggest and most fuck-off Merc saloon I could find and drive it out into the desert.
When you come from a green and pleasant land like the UK, the harsh majesty of the desert is a real treat.
That beast of a car could do 180mph and still be as smooth and quiet as a hunting panther but, this being the States, speed limits were set at a snail's pace.
And that was just as well because otherwise I might have rocketed by and never noticed her.
She was standing where a dirt track met the highway. Blond, lean built and wearing a light blue summer dress, she was sticking her thumb out and waving it wildly to get my attention.
I pulled over beside her and she immediately grabbed the door handle. She struggled with it until I pushed the unlocking button.
"Please, Mister, you gotta get me out of here!"
I'd opened my mouth to say 'Sure', but already she'd stuck a shapely tanned leg into the passenger side and hauled herself in.
"Quick, please!"
I hit the accelerator and the car took off.
"What's the matter,?" I asked, glancing across at her. I know a lot of Americans are from Scandinavian stock, but I thought they were to be found mainly in the northern states. I hadn't expected to come across such a fine example here in the boondocks of Nevada. High cheekbones tapered down to a dainty chin. Her shoulder length dark blond hair was thick and windswept.
Her sundress was the old fashioned sort that buttoned all the way up the front. It wasn't snug fitting but it still couldn't hide the tempting swell of her breasts.
She sighed. "I gotta get away. I'm heading for Memphis to join my fiancée."
I'm not one for geography but that sounded a long way away.
"OK, but why's it so urgent?"
She sighed again and looked out at the desert. "My daddy don't approve. He's very strict, religious, you know".
Maybe she caught a whiff of the expensive leather because she suddenly looked around in surprise. "Wow, this is some car! It's like a palace on wheels.
I noticed that the dress was frayed at the collar. "What does your daddy do out here?"
"Owns a ranch, well more a farm really."
It was my turn to look around in wonder. How the fuck could anyone farm anything in this arid sun-baked land? There couldn't be much money in it, which would explain the worn dress.
"So, where do you want me to drop you off?"
"Just as far up this road as you're heading. Hey, you've got a funny accent! Where you from?"
"Australia," I lied, already making plans for this beautiful windfall.
She was quite talkative and without prompting told me her name was Katy and she was eighteen. She hadn't been much good at school and now worked on her Daddy's farm. She was deeply in love with some guy who'd been a fill-in pastor at her local church after the last one had died of drink.
However, the post had eventually been permanently filled and lover boy had returned to Tennessee.
Reading between the lines I got the impression she came from some sort of strict religious community. The sort that isolated themselves out in the desert so as not to be contaminated by the outside world.
She'd clearly left in a big hurry because, apart from a worn, old-fashioned handbag, all she'd brought with her was a mobile phone. However, unlike other young people, she wasn't obsessively checking it. In fact, she never checked it at all.
It was a battered looking thing and probably someone else's cast-off. My guess was that Daddy didn't even know she had it.
After a while, she sighed and laid it and her handbag on the console between our seats.
Suddenly she squirmed her bottom on the leather, making my cock pulse. "This is the most comfortable thing I've ever sat in," she said wonderingly.
I turned on some soothing music and stopped talking. Soon that car and its magic carpet ride was making her eyes heavy. A few miles later she'd been lulled into sleep.
The road was almost empty so I could take my time looking her over without crashing and burning.
The short dress had ridden up over her toned thighs and revealed just a glimpse of her faded white panties. The skin of her upper thighs was pale compared to the rest of her tanned legs. Working on the farm she must wear shorts all day.
On closer inspection her shoulder length hair wasn't so much windswept as poorly cut. Whoever had done it needed glasses.
But beneath the old clothes and badly cut hair she could have been the kind of ice-cool Nordic beauty found decorating the arm of a zillionaire in a five star hotel in Oslo.
Even if he hadn't been a religious nut, I could see why Daddy had kept a tight rein on her. All the tomcats for a hundred miles around must have wanted to come calling.
I guessed the phone had been smuggled to her by her fiancée so they could communicate without Daddy knowing.
That was sweet but it had no place in my plans. Working in security has made me paranoid so I don't like being tracked. I routinely used one of our jammers to null out the tracker on any hire car.
I gently picked up her phone. It was so old and cheap, the back was almost falling off. It was easy to slip out the battery and sim card. I put them and the phone in my jacket pocket.
I got out a hundred dollars and poked through her handbag. It was nearly empty save for a couple of changes of underwear, some coins and several screwed up old dollar bills.
My bills were new, their numbers sequential with others still in my wallet.
I felt around in the handbag until I found a flap and secreted my bills in the pocket it hid.
I checked the satnav for nearby backroads and plotted out my route. When the time came, I eased the speed right down so, when the side road came up, I could turn into it with only the gentlest of rocking motions.
It wasn't much of a road but the Merc's suspension coped admirably. Soon, there wasn't really a road at all.
This was too much even for the overengineered German suspension. The car began to rock and her blue eyes flickered open.
"Hey, where are we?"
"The middle of nowhere."
"What are we doing here?" she sounded more puzzled than alarmed.
"Having fun, Katy," I said, pulling to a stop and undoing my seat belt.
Her eyes widened in alarm and she scrabbled to undo hers but I reached across and covered the buckle with my hand. Close to, I could smell her skin. She wasn't wearing perfume but she still smelled pretty good.
I went to kiss her but she shoved my head away.
"Not so fast, Mister. Get me back to the road!"
I grabbed both her wrists and pulled them back over her head. I'm a big man so I managed to encompass both her wrists in one hand. With the other, I grasped her narrow chin and forced it round.
