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She nodded.

  “Okay, then.” He stepped forward, took her chin in his hand, and dropped a quick kiss on her mouth. “Whatever this is all about—this emotional storm—it will pass. You’re gonna be okay, Kylie. I promise.” Then he turned and headed for the door.

  The spiked hair with the gel in it that she’d thought was too Miami-stud yesterday suddenly looked right on him. His shoulders filled out the black tuxedo jacket to perfection, and the posture that she’d dismissed as cocky…well, who’d have known that it disguised real empathy?

  “Dev?” she asked tentatively.

  He stopped. “Yeah.”

  “How would you like to share that bottle of wine with me?”

  He turned to face her, one eyebrow raised.

  “Please?” she added.

  He hesitated.

  Perhaps it was underhanded, but she really didn’t want to be alone. So she fixed him with one of those you’re-the-only-man-who-can-save-me-from-certain-disaster looks.

  “Hmm,” he said. Not yes.

  “I swear not to hit you with anything.”

  He grinned at that and seemed to relent. “Will you promise not to yell?”

  She swallowed and pushed her hair out of her face, then struck a mock-sexy pose. “No. But I’ll save it for when you get to…you know…the good parts.”

  7

  DEV CLOSED THE door behind him and leaned against it, shoving his hands into his pockets. “The good parts, huh. And what might those be?”

  Kylie was, truth to tell, a woeful sight. Her nose was pink and shiny, her eyes red and ringed with black. But her mouth was still sexy, even under the smeared lipstick. And her vulnerability, especially after the whole ice-princess routine, did something funny to the male protective streak in him.

  A smart man would have been so outta there, leaving not so much as a skid mark behind. But Dev had always been known more for his wick than his wit.

  “You, of all people, Dev, know what the good parts are,” she said.

  “Show me.”

  She hesitated, but then reached back and unzipped the blue dress she wore, shrugging her shoulders out of the short sleeves and letting the bodice fall around her waist while Dev took in the smooth perfection of her unblemished skin and the bra that hid her breasts from him.

  “Show me more,” he suggested, his voice a little hoarse.

  Kylie reached behind her again and unhooked the pale pink confection, letting him look his fill as she slid the straps down her arms and let the bra drop to the floor.

  D cups. Perfectly formed. Not store-bought. His mouth went dry and the pal in his pants saluted her small, budlike pink nipples—exactly the same color as the bra.

  “How about the really good parts?” he asked, feeling a little light-headed. “Er, not that I’m complaining about these. They’re…spectacular.”

  Kylie smiled and shifted her hips infinitesimally, so the dress dropped to the floor. She now wore very small pink panties, high-heeled silver sandals and…nothing else.

  He had a very primitive, filthy urge to tear her panties in two and take her right against the wall. But he doubted that was what the lady wanted or needed right now.

  What she required at the moment was care and finesse and seduction, so he told his inner gorilla to back the hell off and not even think about it.

  Dev slipped out of his jacket and tossed it over a convenient chair. Then he unbuttoned his cuffs.

  Kylie stood watching him, as if she were unsure what to do next.

  “Take off those panties, honey,” he drawled. “Will you do that for me?”

  She nodded.

  “Will you slide them down your thighs real slow?”

  She hooked her thumbs under the lacy edges and shimmied out of them, her gorgeous breasts falling forward. He could see between them down to the line of her flat stomach, and as she straightened a little, all the way to the blond patch between her legs—a glimpse of heaven.

  He sucked in a breath at the sight of the pink folds there, almost but not quite hidden. As Kylie brought the panties to her knees and raised one leg to step out of them, the view got even more erotic. He couldn’t look away from the dark, forbidden crevices and the generous curve of her bottom.

  Dev fumbled with the buttons on his shirt and ripped it off. Then he walked toward her, toeing off his shoes while he did. He removed his socks and then stood looking at those unbelievable breasts for a moment before he took them into his hands. Her soft inhalation of pleasure encouraged him, and he bent to kiss her.

  Her mouth was hot, inviting and lush. Dev stayed there for a while, exploring the taste of her, enjoying her response. But he wanted to head south and taste something more taboo. He eased her into a sitting position at the edge of the bed, loving the sight of her in nothing but the silver heels.

  “Spread your legs for me, sweetheart,” he said. “Yeah…just…like…that.”

  She opened for him, quivering with tension, all pink and pretty. Dev sank to his knees and ran his hands up and down her thighs, loving her clear desire to be touched between them, but not indulging her yet.

  When he did, it was with the very tip of his tongue. The delicate flesh there jumped, her pelvis jerked and she made a little noise in her throat.

  He chuckled and touched her again while she gasped. Then he took a long lick, from low down to up high—and she let out a soft, strangled scream, her hips moving involuntarily.

  He teased her mercilessly for a little longer before he went to work in earnest, but it didn’t take long before she came utterly apart, crying out and thrashing and clutching at his head. He loved every second of it…bringing this beautiful, high-strung girl with the secrets in her eyes to passion and release.

  When she opened her eyes, he unbuckled his belt, unzipped and slid out of his pants and then right into her, sheathing himself fully and groaning with the pleasure of it.

  “Dev,” she said. “That was incredible… Oh, Dev…”

  He was a slave to his own pleasure, lost inside her body.

  “Condom,” she said. “We need a condom.”

  Noooooooooo. His cock protested. He didn’t want to leave the hot friction of her body. But he knew he was being selfish. “Sorry. Damn it, I’m sorry.” He had no right to take the risks with her health that he had taken with his own.

  He pulled out and rolled off the bed to find his pants, his wallet. It seemed to take an eternity to locate the packet, open it, pull out the condom.

  “Give it to me,” Kylie said.

  So he did. She crouched on the bed, leaning forward with her back arched and her breasts almost touching his cock while she rolled it on. He almost came in her hands at the sight.

  He pushed her back down onto the bed, bringing one silver clad foot up and onto his shoulder. And then he slid back into her tight, hot body and gave her everything he had left.

  KYLIE HADN’T THOUGHT it was possible for her to come again, but when Dev grasped her other ankle in his big warm hand and put it over his shoulder, too; when he pulsed in and out of her like some kind of human oiled piston; when he caught his bottom lip between his teeth and drove home with his hair falling into those sultry dark eyes and an expression of male exultation—well, she didn’t have a choice.

  The orgasm started low and tightly coiled in her belly. It stole all perception or thought from her and trampled them underfoot as tension built within her, spawning heat. Almost unbearable heat. Her consciousness spiraled into it and all focus went to sensation and friction in one spot—not the eager tip of her he’d teased and licked before, but some erogenous zone inside that exploded without warning and left her convulsing around Dev.

  But he didn’t stop stroking into her, and so the zone expanded and convulsed again. She heard a soft scream come from her own throat as a third minor explosion tore through her and sheer pleasure shook loose everything in her body.

  Dev pounded into her once more and then turned his head and bit her calf as he climaxed himself, stran
gling the male groan in his throat. Her silver sandals still framed his face between her legs, his mussed hair, his fierce but exultant expression. He looked like some renegade sexual warrior. If only she could take a picture.

  She must have smiled involuntarily, because he grinned at her. “I like the sandals, by the way.”

  “They complement your eyes.”

  “Don’t make me blush.”

  She disengaged her ankles from his shoulders and lay like an exhausted starfish, still sprawled under him. “I think I should probably be the one to blush, considering the circumstances.”

  He chuckled and pulled out carefully, rolling to the side of the bed. He got up and went to dispose of the condom. When he returned, he stood looking at her, his fists on his naked hips. “I want you to promise me that you’ll always wear high heels when we have sex. It’s hot.”

  Her answering smile froze in place, and she closed her legs, pulling the covers up over them. Always? Always implied some kind of permanence.

  “What’s the matter? Is this where you tell me that you have corns or bunions or hammertoes and this is the only time I’ll ever see you in heels?” His face conveyed mock-distress.

  “No, no. Nothing like that. Come back to bed.” She patted the mattress.

  “Don’t we have a wedding reception to attend?”

  “How badly do you really want to do the electric slide?”

  Dev rubbed his chin. “Good point.” He rolled into bed with her. “Now, where were we?”

  “I think we were just at the point where we were going to give each other naked massages,” she suggested.

  “How could I have forgotten?” Dev agreed. “I’ll start with these.” He took her breasts into his hands and rubbed his thumbs gently over her nipples, which came to attention immediately…along with every pleasure-attuned nerve in her body. She closed her eyes in bliss.

  “These are incredible, you know. How did you come by them?”

  She opened her eyes. “They’re real,” she said acerbically.

  “I know they’re real. I’m teasing you. You must have made a deal with the devil to get these from nature.”

  Kylie was a hundred-percent sure that Jack had first sought her out for her breasts, so she wasn’t overly flattered. “Yeah,” she said, rolling over and exposing her back to him instead. “I made a deal with the devil, all right. But not for those.”

  “Is he still in your life?” Dev asked, smoothing his hands down her back.

  “Who? The devil I made the deal with?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Dev began to work the muscles in her neck.

  “No.” Oh, his hands felt so good....

  “What kind of deal did you make with him?”

  “An engagement kind of deal,” she said, as his magic fingers went to work on her shoulders.

  “But you broke it off?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I ask why?”

  “I wouldn’t answer any of these questions if you weren’t giving me the best free massage of my life,” she said.

  He chuckled. “Yep. I know. But I am, so…?”

  “I broke it off because he preferred pills and porn to me.”

  “You’re kidding. He preferred porn to this?” Dev had worked his way down her back and now had his hands splayed across her ass.

  She nodded as best she could while he squeezed and massaged. Impossible, but she was getting turned on all over again. “Yeah. I guess I was too much work for him.”

  “Too much work,” Dev repeated incredulously. His thumbs dipped between her cheeks as his hands slid lower. And then he stroked her where she was slick.

  She moaned and let her face sink into the mattress as her back arched.

  “He thought this was work?” Dev asked, as he put an arm under her stomach and lifted her to prop a pillow beneath her hips. She felt incredibly exposed, but forgot to be embarrassed when those clever fingers of his delved down again.

  She muttered an unintelligible sound.

  “What an unbelievable idiot,” Dev murmured, and he bit her left cheek gently as he teased and rubbed her while her legs began to shake and the delicious tension he’d released before built again.

  “Oh,” Kylie said, as he slid a thumb inside her and yet stroked the little pink nub at her core with the pads of his fingers. “Ohhhhhhhh!”

  “So we agree that he’s a moron, right?”

  “Yes!”

  Dev was clearly some kind of contortionist, because he’d managed to get a condom over himself during all of this and now, with her wildly ready for him, he eased his cock into her from behind and wrapped his arms around her, taking her breasts into his hands.

  The pleasure was indescribable and she could no longer formulate words as he rocked inside her and rubbed her nipples at the same time.

  She didn’t last more than five seconds and he laughed softly as she shattered around him. He seemed to get harder inside her and drove faster and faster until, with a last thrust that she could practically feel in her throat, he came with a guttural, heartfelt curse and collapsed on top of her, pressing her into the mattress.

  Kylie was barely conscious, her pulse crashing in her ears.

  “I’m so glad,” Dev panted, “that you were engaged to a brain-dead Neanderthal. Because otherwise you’d probably be married, and I wouldn’t have gotten this freaking lucky.”

  And for the first time, Kylie laughed about her broken engagement. She laughed until she couldn’t breathe. She laughed until Dev had to give her some more mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

  8

  DEV PULLED THE blankets over both of them and tucked Kylie against him, spooning in the aftermath of sex. Lovemaking? It sounded so formal and odd. But sex seemed too casual for what he felt.

  He stroked Kylie’s hair back from her face. “Honey, you don’t seem like the type of girl who propositions a random guy and gets it on in a supply closet during a rehearsal dinner. Or during a wedding reception.”

  “Um, thank you.”

  “So would you care to explain?”

  She sighed. “Isn’t it obvious, after what I just told you about my engagement? I’m hoping that a little sex with someone else will flush my system, so to speak, of Jack.”

  “And is it working?”

  “Mmm. Very nicely, thank you.” She gave him a cat-with-cream smile over her shoulder.

  He took her earlobe possessively between his teeth and nibbled. “So you weren’t thinking of this Jack-ass while my face was between your legs and my tongue was inside you?”

  “Definitely not. He didn’t like that much.”

  “Which only confirms my opinion of him as a complete numbskull. Did you think about him when my hands were on your ass and my cock was in you?”

  “Not once.”

  “How about when you had that triple orgasm?”

  “Dev, are you asking me for an evaluation of your sexual performance?”

  He shrugged, trying to hide a smirk.

  “You were the best I’ve ever had. You’re every girl’s fantasy.”

  Music to a guy’s ears, even one as jaded as Dev was. He lost the battle with the smirk. He preened a little. But then he frowned and lightly bit her shoulder.

  “So you picked me to wash Jack-ass out of your hair,” he said. “That was your hidden agenda.”

  Kylie shifted her legs. “Agenda sounds pretty cold.”

  “But that’s exactly what it was.”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Just out of curiosity,” Dev persisted, “why me?”

  She sighed. “I don’t know. You had the look, I guess.”

  “The look?”

  “The hair, the gold chain, the leather pants, the reputation… Come on, Dev. You know what I’m talking about.”

  “Not really,” he lied, somehow wanting to deny it all.

  “Yes, you do. You look like a nightclub guy. The kind who goes out trolling bars for drunk, easy women in short, tight skirts. A one-night-wonder
type.”

  “Are you calling me a slut?”

  Kylie rolled to face him. “You’re not getting offended, are you?” She touched his cheek with a manicured index finger.

  “Yes. Yes, I think I am getting offended.” He lightly bit the finger, now.

  She pulled it back. “Please don’t be. You asked why I chose you—and I’m telling you, that’s all. You seemed like a guy who’d jump at the chance for uncomplicated sex with a stranger. And you did—so I read you correctly.”

  The more she talked, the more pissed off Dev became, probably because she was right. “Don’t you think it’s possible that you’ve misjudged me?”

  She traced circles in his chest hair. “It’s possible. You’re much nicer than I thought you’d be. Much more understanding. But I’m a pretty good judge of character, Devon McKee. And I don’t think my first impression of you was all that far off the mark.”

  Stung, he said, “What if I told you that yes, I’ve been that guy…but I don’t want to be him any longer?” Dev stopped, amazed that those words had come out of his mouth, yet also dead certain that they were, strangely enough, true.

  “Meaning what, exactly?”

  Good question. “Meaning I want a real relationship. Complicated sex. A girlfriend. Someone to share my life with.”

  Aw, Jesus. Really? Where is this coming from?

  The disturbing words were surfacing through the tide of self-loathing that ebbed and flowed within him. At low tide, he could stand himself, but at high tide? At high tide, he often ended up drunk and doing something that he regretted later.

  “Why?” Kylie asked.

  Why did he want to share his life? Hmm. Another good question. One that he wasn’t prepared to answer, since it involved confessing his loneliness. “What kind of a question is that?”

  “Okay, why now?”

  Dev stared at her beautiful face, at the tiny lines radiating from her intelligent eyes, the determination under the soft contours of her lips. “Because now feels right.”

  “And why didn’t it feel right before?”

  She was a beautiful, blond Spanish Inquisition. Should he confess his sins? “I was too busy being a hotshot to focus on anyone else, okay? It was all about me.”