The Sizzle Saga

by Sarah O'Rourke

  Flicking her perfectly manicured hand in the air in Armando’s general direction, the newcomer hissed, “Go away, little man. Just as I told you, I am here for my date with Devil.” Turning to meet Devil’s eyes, she added, her voice sultry and low, “Lover, now is the time you tell your little lapdog that you are all mine for the weekend, don’t you think? There’s a Jacuzzi and a bottle of champagne waiting for us at the W.”

  “Amanda?” Devil questioned blankly, staring at the Australian model that he’d socially seen on and off for years. Why in the hell was that woman suddenly standing in his office?

  “You have a date?” Molly asked, her eyes widening as they moved from Devil to the beautiful, willowy woman standing in the middle of the room with one hand perched on her hip. “A date? In a five-star hotel. For this weekend with a Jacuzzi and champagne,” she bit out almost monotonously, every word condemning him.

  “Molly, it’s not what you think,” Devil said quickly. Fuck, he wasn’t sure what this was himself, he thought taking another quick look at the foreign woman pouting at him across the room. He could see that Molly had already drawn her own faulty conclusions, and Amanda Morgan certainly wasn’t helping matters. “I don’t even know what she’s talking about,” he growled, sweeping a hand toward the other woman.

  “Which is exactly why you should let me bounce this brittle bitch out the door,” Armando interjected behind Molly.

  “Devil, are you going to let him speak to me like that?” Amanda snapped, her golden brown eyes flashing as she shot Armando a haughty look. “We’re going to be late for the Autism Speaks benefit, damn it. I’m not a woman that likes to be kept waiting, darling. For anything. I’ve been dreaming of licking that sexy tattoo of yours the entire flight here, love,” she added with a wink as she licked her lips seductively.

  “Oh, my God,” Molly breathed, her eyes widening in horror as she stared up at Devil.

  Devil’s face flushed guiltily as he watched Molly pale. What the fuck was happening?!

  Memory flashed as Devil gripped Molly’s arm when she would have turned and fled. The fucking benefit! He’d refused those plans with Amanda months ago when she’d called him out of the blue. He’d forgotten all about it. Leave it to the black-haired witch staring at him to think she was irresistible. Ignoring the preening woman entirely, he focused his attention on the only person in the room that mattered. Holding Molly’s trembling arm, he could see she was barely hanging on to her control. “It’s not what you think, Molly,” he said in a low, urgent voice. “Just hear me out.”

  Jerking her arm from his grip, Molly’s eyes narrowed. “Go play Down Under, Devil. I’ve got a wedding to cancel!” she threw furiously over her shoulder as she stomped toward the door.

  “Molly, wait, damn it!” Devil shouted, starting after her as Amanda stepped in his path.

  “Let the pathetic little girl go, Devil. Some women just aren’t as good at sharing you as I am.”

  Armando stared at Devil with pure malice in his over bright eyes. “You know, I’m outta here. I’ll wait tables before I work for a philandering dick like you. I’ve known Molly for like fifteen seconds and I can already tell you’re nowhere near good enough for somebody like her! I think I’m gonna enjoy watching Sami rip off your tiny polla and roast it over an open flame. I’ll help her by sharpening the knife myself, pendejo,” he shouted, his accent growing thicker by the second. “Me rindo! I quit!” He then stormed out the door behind Molly.

  “Motherfucker!” Devil cursed, pushing Amanda away from him and glaring at her. “Do you have any idea what the fuck you’ve done, you vacuous bitch?”

  Fluttering her eyes, Amanda smiled. “Cleared your calendar for much more stimulating company?” she asked coyly.

  “Get out, Amanda,” Devil snarled, stomping toward his desk and snatching his keys into his hand. “Get out before I forget that gentlemen do not hit women no matter how much of a callous bitch they are.”

  “Is that any way to talk to a lover, darling?” she huffed, tossing her silky hair over one rounded shoulder.

  “We had a one-night fling three fucking years ago. We weren’t lovers. We were fuck buddies for a goddamn night! Why? Why the fuck would you do this?” he asked angrily, closing his fist around his keys so tightly that the metal cut into his skin. “You can’t tell me that you haven’t read the papers! I’m news – even in the fucking Outback! You knew I was getting married this weekend, didn’t you? Christ, Amanda! I thought we were friends!”

  “Yes, we are, Devil. You made a date with me months ago. One which you evidently forgot to mention to little Miss Nobody. How is that my fault?”

  “You know what you walked in here and let her believe. I told you no, Amanda,” Devil retorted, lowering his voice as an icy calm descended on him. He knew how to deal with leeches like Amanda. You squashed them. Narrowing his gaze as he walked toward her, he smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile; it was cold… ruthless.

  “I was hurt. Maybe a little jealous, and I thought I could change your mind,” Amanda admitted with a delicate shrug of her shoulders.

  “You were hurt?” Devil laughed without humor. “Not yet, Amanda. You haven’t begun to hurt yet. But if I lose the best thing that ever happened because you decided to exact a little feminine vengeance on me, you will feel pain in a way that you’ve never experienced before in your life. I’ll make sure of it. You just signed a new deal with Revlon here in the States, didn’t you?”

  “Y-yes,” she replied, her former poise flagging as his eyes glittered ominously at her.

  “If I lose Molly, you won’t have that deal long, Amanda. I guarantee it. I know the president of the company. I bought one of his lesser holdings just last year. I gave him a good deal on it. He owes me a favor. You hurt me, and I promise that I’ll hurt you worse,” he threatened.

  Swallowing hard, Amanda’s chin wobbled. “Dev, love, I missed you. I thought that if I surprised you and you saw me again…”

  “You were trying to get even because I gave you the brush off months ago,” Devil interrupted harshly. “Save the fake tears, Mandy. We both know you have ice running through your veins.”

  Inhaling sharply, Amanda’s eyes hardened. “Fine,” she snapped. “What do you want me to do? Go to your weepy little fiancée and set the story straight?”

  Devil smirked, his eyes narrowing darkly. “Go near Molly and there’s a better chance she’ll scratch your eyes out than cry, Amanda. Unlike you, she’s not afraid to break a nail.”

  “Then, what?” Amanda snapped waspishly.

  “Stay away from me. Get out of Atlanta and stay off my radar, Amanda. If we cross paths again, I won’t be as gentlemanly,” he warned, reaching down to snag the model’s coat off the floor and shove it at her. “Leave,” he ordered, snatching her couture satchel from the chair and tossing it at her, “Or, would you rather I have security escort you from the building?”

  Tightening her fingers around the expensive coat and bag, the woman lifted her chin. “You’re missing a really good thing, Devil.”

  “I have a really good thing. You were – what would I call it? A very ill-advised miscalculation I made several years ago. Plus, you were boring in bed, love,” he sneered as he wondered how someone so pretty on the outside could be so truly ugly where it counted. “Disappear, Amanda. Now.”

  Devil waited until Amanda swept out of his office, leaving a trail of her expensive perfume in her wake. Rubbing his hand vigorously over his face, he shook his head as he heard the elevator close behind the bitch that had ruined his day. Of all the things that could have happened, having Molly come face to face with a former bad choice in one night stands was the worst. The fact that she now assumed that it had been an ongoing affair that he’d intended to continue at the very hotel where their wedding reception was to be held… that took things from bad to damn near catastrophic.

  In order to avert his personal Apocalypse, he first needed to find Molly and find a way to make her listen to him. Thanks to
Amanda’s unforeseen intrusion, he knew she’d validated every fear about him Molly possessed, putting his young fiancée’s heart on high alert.

  It was definitely an obstacle he hadn’t suspected he’d need to overcome again. Fortunately for him, he was accustomed to deals often heading South at the eleventh hour.

  His upcoming marriage wouldn’t be the first merger he’d ever pulled out of the fire, but it was definitely the most important he’d ever saved.

  Sizzle: Chapter Fifty-Three

  “You know, I’ve seen families come together in times of joy and sorrow, but I’ve never actually seen them form a posse,” Armando Savage noted from his position against the kitchen counter. Scooping another spoonful of Rocky Road ice cream between his lips, he watched as another woman walked through Molly’s front door. “I need to find a way into this familia, Sami,” he told his mutual friend of the jilted fiancée. “Are you sure there’s not a gay brother hiding in a closet around here somewhere?” he asked hopefully.

  “Not to my knowledge,” Sami replied, watching as Molly shoveled another piece of cheesecake between her lips, “but, you’ve already been adopted by this family, Mannie. You made sure you got her home safely even though you barely know her. That kind of loyalty counts for a lot in this family. You did good, sweetie.” She patted his arm.

  “I wasn’t gonna let the chica drive in her condition, Samantha. By the time she got to her car, her hands were shaking so badly that she couldn’t even get the door open. And the tears…” he muttered, shuddering as he remembered how those big, fat tears had slid down her cheeks. She hadn’t made a sound which had made it even worse. Molly’s pain had been completely silent and bone deep. It was horrible. “I’m a lover, not a fighter, but I wished I had pounded on Delancy’s face a little. I grew up in the ‘hood. I could have done some damage to that perfect, handsome face of his.”

  “And ruined a perfectly good manicure?” Sami teased, nodding to the other model’s elegant fingers. “I don’t think so. Besides, the torture that this group of women will inflict? It’ll be much more fitting,” she remarked with a nod toward the filling room. So far, Molly’s mother and sister-in-law had arrived with a cheesecake, Vivian had followed bearing a nice bottle of wine, and she herself had made it here from her photo shoot in record time armed with a nice selection of calming pharmaceuticals.

  “Where are the men in Molly’s family?” Armando asked curiously, looking around the room.

  “Nobody’s told them yet,” Sami answered, sipping from her wine glass as she watched Molly reach for another tissue from the box her mother had slid in front of her plate. “If we did, Devil would die too quickly. We wouldn’t want that,” she said with a ruthless smile.

  “I know that look, chica. The last time I saw it, you put a photographer in traction after he copped a lingering feel to those glorious ta-tas.” Mannie gestured at Sami’s pert breasts. “You’re planning a long, torturous death, aren’t you?”

  Smiling tightly, the woman nodded. “Let’s just say that what I have in mind will make the Salem Witch Trials look like a day in kindergarten.”

  Walking into the kitchen just in time to hear her best friend’s response, Viv plopped onto a nearby bar stool as she added, “Oh, I’m all for burning his sorry carcass on a stake, sunshine. Devil Delancy ain’t getting out of this alive, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get in a few licks before the bastard burns in a fiery, pain-filled death.”

  Quickly reaching for an empty wineglass, Sami frowned as she filled it and pushed it toward the other woman. “How is she now, Viv?”

  “She finished the cheesecake and just moved to the bedroom. She’s curled up in the fetal position on her bed with an icepack on her eyes to keep them from swelling any more than they already are,” Viv reported, her forehead furrowing as she took a fortifying sip.

  “Is her mom still with her?” Sami asked, glancing down the hallway toward the bedroom.

  “For now. Molly’s alternating between rounds of rampant cursing and violent tears. At this rate, she’s gonna strain her vocal chords and dehydrate at the same time.” Smiling grimly, Viv leaned forward as she added, “Although, I’d say that the shit is about to hit the fan in ways Devil has never imagined. Momma Ramsey’s about to pull out the big guns.”

  Mannie’s eyes widened, and he took a hurried gulp of his wine as he pressed his free hand to his heart. “She’s not gonna bring in Molly’s papi, is she? Sami says that would bring a quick end to the festivities.”

  “Oh, Momma’s got something even better up her sleeve.” Pausing as she drained the last sip from her wineglass, Viv dropped the empty glass onto the bar. “She was calling Nana when I left the bedroom. And when Devil’s grandmother finds out what her dumbass of a grandson has done to the woman that she loves like a granddaughter, that man will be wishing he was six feet under and fertilizer for her prize roses.”

  Lifting her eyebrows, Sami raised a glass in silent toast. “Compared to Nana, my methods will look like child’s play.”

  “Word.” Vivian tipped her glass to clink it to Samantha’s.

  Looking between the two women, Armando sighed. “Seriously, what about a gay cousin? Anything?”

  ~~***~~

  Viciously cursing Atlanta traffic, construction and fate in general, Devil groaned as he pulled into the cul-de-sac where Molly’s condo was located. Cars littered every available space, and he recognized instinctively that he was about to march into an army of estrogen.

  “Fuck,” he swore succinctly, pulling his Mercedes behind Molly’s mother’s Buick and eyeing it warily. Alone, Molly would be a force to be reckoned with. Armed with her momma, this battle was going to be a bloodbath. Sighing heavily, he shoved open the car door and climbed from behind the wheel.

  It didn’t matter. He’d face Hell, itself, if it meant getting Molly back.

  “William Delancy, you soddin’ waste of maternal work, you stop right there, lad!”

  Freezing, Devil’s eyes widened as that familiar Irish brogue sent a shiver through his veins. Turning, he blinked. “Nana?” he yelled as his grandmother hung out the window of Grant Ramsey’s SUV and glared at him. “What are you doing here?” he asked as Grant pulled his vehicle behind the Mercedes. “You should be home, resting,” he worried out loud as he hurried to open the door for her.

  He immediately realized that was a tactical error when she lifted her arm to slap the back of a wooden spoon against his head. “Ouch! Nana!” he hissed, grabbing his stinging temple as she landed another blow against the back of his head. “A little help wouldn’t be remiss, Grant!” he yelled as the wooden instrument of torture continued to land against his skull.

  Pointing his phone at his best friend, Grant shook his head. “Can’t help you, asshole,” he growled, continuing to film the beat down the elderly woman was delivering. “This is going straight to YouTube. I’m calling it, ‘Senior Citizen Hands Ass to Billionaire Grandson!’”

  “Of all the idiotic, foolhardy, completely unacceptable things ye’ve ever done, lad, this takes the cake!” Nana railed, hopping out of the vehicle with the agility of a woman half her age. Rage fueled her movements as she backed her grandson down the sidewalk. “How could you? After I spent just this afternoon assurin’ that bonny lass how much she meant to you? You’ve shamed me, Willy! You’ve shamed the family!” she admonished, shaking her spoon underneath his nose.

  “I didn’t do anything! And how did you find out, anyway?” Devil asked, shaking his aching head as he looked toward Grant. “Don’t tell me that you bothered Nana with this crap?” he barked sharply toward his so-called best friend.

  “I’d be careful about what you term crap, man,” Grant warned, his eyes narrowing as he took a step forward. “Seeing as how you’ve made my sister cry, I’m not inclined to be kind. And it wasn’t me who called your Nana.”

  “His momma was the one who told me about your tomfoolery, Willy,” Nana proclaimed, her smile grim as she heard his grunt when her spoon mad
e perfect contact with his elbow.

  “Nana, quit beating me to death with that spoon!” Devil declared, taking a step backward.

  Nana shook her head as she hitched her oversized purse higher on her arm. “Death is too good for you, my boy. But if’n the Lord be inclined to see your days ended, I wanna be the vessel he chooses to take you out over this foolishness.”

  “It was all a mistake, Nana!” Devil insisted, rubbing his hand over his jaw as he glanced over his shoulder. If he could just get in there to Molly and explain all of this, then he could get his relationship back on its matrimonial track. Couldn’t he?

  Obviously, Nana was in tune with his thoughts. “I know what’s running through your noggin,” she said imperiously, drawing herself up to her full five feet. “And your silver tongue and quick talkin’ won’t be in your favor, boy. That girl is too good for you. I canna believe I spent the noon hour swaying her to believe you were offerin’ true love.”

  “Nana, I need to see Molly. You’ve got to help me get in there,” he urged, thrusting his arm toward the door. “I’ve got to make this right.”

  “Do you know how many people are in there waiting to spill your blood, man?” Grant asked, shaking his head. “The best thing you could do is get in your car and go home.”

  “That’s not happening, Grant.” Devil stared at his best friend. “I admit this was a fucked up afternoon, but I didn’t cheat on your sister. I’d never disrespect her like that, and I think you already know it or you would have already laid me out.”

  “I might yet,” Grant snapped, his irritation growing. “Karen called me and said that Molly was sobbing. Sobbing, you asshole. My baby sister rarely cries, and she never sobs. What the hell did you do?”