Sizzle

by Sarah O'Rourke

  Molly squirmed under the scrutiny of that stare. Could that demon really read her mind? “Hell!”

  “That’s what I thought,” Devil said with a satisfied smirk.

  “There’s got to be a way out of this, Dev. We’ll tell Nana that we had a falling out. You can even tell her it was my fault,” she added magnanimously, nodding rapidly as she tried to convince herself of the little plan.

  “And ruin Nana’s dying wish that I be happily married?” Devil asked. “Molly, I never thought you were a cruel woman,” he chided, pursing his lips as she he shook his head at her again.

  “I’m not! Just listen. After a few days, you can introduce one of the troop of tramps you have on standby to her. I’ll even help you pick one out. God knows, you have a diverse selection. What about Carolyn? I liked her!”

  “I am not marrying Carolyn,” Devil replied impatiently, rolling his eyes as he reached for another doughnut. “She’s clingy and she whines a lot.”

  “Fine! She doesn’t deserve to be saddled with an ass like you anyway,” Molly huffed, drumming her fingers on the table as she flipped through the mental dossier of Devil’s trollops in her mind. “What about the Cleopatra wannabe? Now that’s a woman that deserves being married to Satan incarnate,” she declared with a firm nod.

  “No,” Devil denied harshly, his tone implacable.

  “Well, I know why I don’t like her, but what do you find so repugnant about her?” Molly asked, frowning at the man across from her.

  “She insulted you,” Devil replied simply, devouring his breakfast in three bites. “Nobody does that.”

  “Nobody other than you, you mean,” Molly muttered, absently tugging at the neckline of her tshirt.

  “Excuse me? When have I ever insulted you?” he asked sharply, dropping the paper he held and leaning forward in his chair.

  “How about when you assumed that I’d settle for a mockery of a marriage. I mean, I know that I might not be a model, but I think I can do better than settling for a loveless union, don’t you?”

  Devil’s jaw dropped as he stared at Molly, his eyes flashing with something she couldn’t define. Regret. Guilt. She wasn’t sure.

  “You know how much I care about you,” he said softly, reaching across the table.

  Drawing her hand back quickly and closing her eyes, Molly took a deep breath. “Caring about someone isn’t the same as being in love with them, Dev. You care about your business. You love your wife. At least, I think you’re supposed to. Maybe I’m romanticizing things, but I think there should be more than just affection between two people before you slide a gold ring on somebody’s finger.”

  “Molly…” Devil hesitated and grimaced. He looked like he’d swallowed a hot poker.

  Looking over at him, Molly suddenly felt a twinge of guilt for putting him on the spot. “I know why you did what you did, Devil,” she said quietly, letting out a deep sigh. “I wish you’d picked somebody other than the person that was standing closest to you, but I do understand wanting to give your grandmother some piece of mind. Maybe we could drag out this faux engagement of ours.”

  “No,” Devil denied, narrowing his eyes as he grasped for any way to keep this beautiful woman in his grasp. “She wants to see us married. Me and you – a girl she watched grow up. Not some stranger that she doesn’t know anything about. You. I’m sorry for forcing your hand, Mols. I really am, but I need to give her what she wants. I owe Nana everything. All I have…everything I’ve done… it’s because she never gave up on me. When my Momma and Daddy died, she took me in. She and Granddaddy could barely support themselves, but they found a way to take care of me, too. And she never asked for a thing in return. I promised myself when I grew up that I’d find a way to give them anything they wanted. The thing was, they didn’t want anything money could buy. They wanted me happy. Married. With children. That’s what they wanted. It’s what I have to do.”

  Molly’s face fell at his impassioned speech. Damn. There was no way she could disappoint him and his grandmother. Why did she have this unnatural desire to make him happy when all she really wanted to do was bury him where his body would never be found? “Why does it have to be me, Devil?”

  “I trust you, Molly. I don’t trust many people. I especially do not trust many women. But, I trust you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I trust you, Molly. I don’t trust many people. I especially do not trust many women. But, I trust you.”

  That much was completely true, he silently consoled himself. There wasn’t a woman on Earth he trusted more than Molly Ramsey. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the way she was raised, or if it was just the innate purity she held in her soul, but the woman she’d become didn’t know how to lie. Not convincingly.

  Oh, he’d seen her try to tell some half-hearted whoppers over the years, but they’d always fallen flat. His Molly simply didn’t have the poker face it took to pull off prevarication.

  Unlike him.

  He had made an art form of deceit and dishonesty. In his business, it was a requirement. He’d never broken the law, but he wasn’t above projecting one image to somebody while clandestinely aiming for an entirely different goal. He played the game and he played it well.

  For him, the end justified the means.

  It’s what had made him so successful. Hell, he’d gotten rich by wheeling and dealing. Unfortunately, it also might be the one aspect of his personality that guaranteed him to fail with Molly.

  Being completely honest with her now, however, would be a mistake. If she knew just how deeply he felt for her, she’d either assume he was lying and cut him off at the knees – or separate him from something much more important that he was fairly certain he could not live without. Or, and this was the part he worried about the most, the truth would send her screaming for the hills.

  Either way, she’d never agree to become his wife.

  And that was not an option he was willing to contemplate.

  So, for now, he wouldn’t outright lie to her, but instead simply tell her the partial truths she needed to know in order to make her peace with marrying him. After that, he’d have more time to make sure he could get the future he truly wanted.

  “You trust me,” she echoed, lifting startled eyes to his.

  “That surprises you?” he asked with a hint of a smile. Pleased, he realized that he’d said something that had given her a moment’s pause.

  “I never really thought about it before,” she admitted with a small frown.

  “Molly, do you know why ninety percent of the women I date want to be with me?” he asked, propping his chin on his hand as he stared into her confused eyes.

  “Oh, I’ve got a pretty good idea,” she mumbled, blushing as she reached for her coffee and gulped.

  Snorting, Devil shook his head. “No, honey, you really don’t.” His future bride was truly convinced that he was a horndog that fucked any woman that twitched her tail in his direction. He wasn’t sure how to overcome that misconception. Especially since he was the idiot that had cultivated his reputation.

  He only knew he had to try and make her understand that what she’d believed for so long wasn’t entirely accurate. He just needed to be careful about the methods he used to do it. Waiting until she’d put her mug back on the table, he remarked, “Molly, I’m very rich.”

  “So what?” Molly shrugged and rolled her eyes.

  “Exactly. That’s one of the many reason that you’re the only woman for me,” he said with a wide smile. He adored the fact that Molly didn’t give a damn about what he could offer her materially. Oh, he’d give her anything she wanted. There was no doubt in his mind about that. But, like his Nana, the promise of monetary compensation wasn’t what guided her decisions. It hadn’t ever crossed his intended’s mind that she could milk him for every penny he had. It wasn’t her style.

  “Huh?” Molly grunted, cocking her head as she looked at him like he’d lost his mind.

  “You don’t care,�
� he commented with a satisfied nod.

  “Devil, I’m not following a word you’re saying. How hard did I hit you last night? You got a concussion?” Molly worried aloud, peering at his forehead with concern.

  Chuckling, Devil sighed. “My head is fine. What I’m trying to say is that most of those women I’ve dated were only interested in one thing. My money, Mols. They wanted what they could get from me. With you, I’d never have to worry about that. You couldn’t give a damn how much wealth I’ve accumulated.”

  “Meaning I won’t rob you blind when we inevitably divorce,” Molly surmised, leaning back in her chair as she grabbed her half-eaten doughnut and took another bite. “Okay, you’ve got a point there.”

  “Thank you, but that’s not exactly what I meant,” he murmured uncomfortably. The words “inevitably” and “divorce” sent a chill down his spine. He hadn’t even married her, and she already had one eye focused on a divorce. He knew he shouldn’t blame her. As far as she was concerned, this was a farce...but it still stung.

  Rubbing her temples, Molly groaned and peered into her now empty coffee cup. “I need more coffee if I’m gonna continue this conversation,” she muttered.

  “I’ll get it,” he offered, grabbing her mug before she could rise. “You know, you’ve made a lot of assumptions about me, Molly Brown. Some of them aren’t correct, you know,” he informed her over his shoulder as he poured her a second cup of coffee. “Some of them could even be considered downright slanderous to my good name,” he stated pointedly, carrying her cup back to the table and sliding it in front of her. “Did you know character assassination is a crime in most courts of law?” he asked, just to goad her. A man had to have his hobbies, after all.

  At that remark, Molly strangled on her sip of coffee, spewing the brew across the table. Reaching for a napkin, she blotted the mess as she continued to cough. “Are you serious?” she managed to choke through her gasps for air. “Your good name? Character assassination?” she croaked, blinking back the tears that had formed in her eyes. “Devil, you may be the biggest jackass Atlanta has ever produced!”

  “See what I mean?” he asked with a smirk, delighting in the flush that slowly crept up her neck as he calmly reached for a napkin and blotted the coffee droplets clinging to his face. “Character assassination.”

  He ducked as the first donut went sailing through the air.

  He might be the ass she accused him of being, but luckily for him, he also had lightning fast reflexes.

  Chapter Twenty

  Launching the last donut at Devil Delancy’s insufferable head, Molly decided that she should have used knives rather than pastries as her missiles of choice. Perhaps that would have dimmed the cad’s booming laughter. And she had just sacrificed a half-dozen of the finest doughnuts known to mankind, too.

  “You done yet?” Devil asked, peeking around the arm he’d thrown over his face to see if she was still locked and loaded.

  “For the record,” Molly said with as much dignity as she could muster after resorting to throwing food to get her point across, “I hate you.” She didn’t, not really, but it sounded good. Blowing an agitated stream of air through her nose, she glared at him as he brushed doughnut glaze off his shirt onto the floor.

  “That’s unfortunate. It’ll make being married to me a real bitch, babe.”

  “Devil,” Molly moaned, lifting a hand to shove her hair out of her face, “Will you please sing a different song? Today, I was only throwing breakfast pastries. Has it occurred to you that tomorrow I might be firing bullets?”

  “Given the fact that you can’t aim worth a damn,” he said with a wandering look to where an innocent doughnut sat perched on the microwave, “I’m not real worried.”

  Shoulders sagging, Molly sank back into her kitchen chair. “Let’s get back to our original conversation. You accused me of character assassination. I take offense at that. I’ve never said a thing about you that wasn’t true, Devil, and you know it.”

  “No, you assumed everything you said was true, but you don’t know it for a fact.”

  “What are you talking about?” Molly asked irritably.

  “Have any of the women that I’ve dated in the past year told you that I slept with them, Mols?”

  Blinking, Molly stared at him. Now that was an unexpected thought, wasn’t it? “Well, no,” she replied slowly, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she felt his gaze on her face. Why the hell was she squirming? She hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d looked at the facts and drawn predictable conclusions. It wasn’t rocket science, for heaven’s sake!

  “No?” Devil echoed with a smug grin, his eyes glittering with dark mischief.

  “No! Some of the siren squad might have insinuated as much, but none of them ever actually came out and said the words. What did you want them to do? Wear around t-shirts saying ‘Did the Deed with Devil Delancy’? That’d just be tacky. You say those poor women were only after your money, Devil, but you were only after one thing, too. And I seriously doubt it was stimulating conversation,” she added with a sniff of disdain.

  Molly watched as Devil pressed his lips together and a muscle flexed in his jaw. “What?” she asked, exasperated. “Why are you getting your nose out of joint, Dev? It’s not exactly been a well-kept secret that you’ve got the sex drive of a superhero on speed.”

  She paused and did a double take as Devil’s face turned an alarming shade of red when the words left her mouth. He looked positively explosive, and she briefly wondered if, perhaps, she’d pushed a little too far with that remark. Tact had never exactly been her strong suit. Sighing, she gathered her energy to try to reason with the stubborn fool again. “Devil, listen…”

  “Molly, stop talking. Stop talking now,” she heard Devil order in a lethally soft voice as he leveled her with a stare that sent a chill down her spine. His eyes were bright with anger, and the muscle in his jaw clenched and unclenched with startling regularity. Biting her lip, she swallowed and wondered if she’d meandered across some invisible line in the sand with him. It wasn’t as if she’d been trying to make him mad. It just seemed to be a talent at which she excelled.

  “Why?” she couldn’t resist asking in a tiny voice. Speaking probably wasn’t her wisest move, but she couldn’t resist. She always had liked to tempt fate. And she was pretty sure Devil wouldn’t actually hurt her. At least not physically.

  “Because if you say one more single asinine thing to me, I’m afraid I’ll start shaking you. And if I start shaking you, I might not be able to stop. That would be unfortunate because then Nana would be disappointed that I didn’t have enough self-control to keep from killing my fiancé and thus, ruining her visions of a dream wedding, and then Grant would kill me for putting a less-than-gentlemanly hand on his sister.”

  Molly stared him with a kind of horrified fascination that she couldn’t fake. “It’s official. You’re nuts. And nothing I’ve said is asinine!”

  “Yes, I agree. You’ve finally managed to drive me crazy,” he retorted sharply. “Conversely, I categorically disagree with you on your statement. It is, indeed, asinine since I haven’t been to bed with a woman since you stumbled into my office looking for a job,” he roared, coming to his feet.

  This time, it was Molly’s turn to laugh.

  And she did. Loudly. At length.

  Until tears streamed down her face and she was bent over double. She was fairly certain her cackles could be heard on the moon.

  Because if she knew anything at all, it was that there was no way on Earth that Devil Delancy had lived like a monk for the past twelve months. Pigs would be taking flight over at the Delta runway at Hartsfield Airport before that ever happened!

  “Would you stop laughing like a damn hyena?” Devil snapped when her chortles hadn’t slowed a full three minutes later. “I’m telling the truth, damn it,” he declared indignantly, crossing his arms over his broad chest as he loomed over her beside her chair.

  “Uh huh,” Molly gasped, nod
ding furiously as she pressed a hand to her now-aching belly. She could only laugh harder as she glanced up into his livid face. “I bet next you’re gonna t-tell me you’re a born again virgin, t-too!” Molly giggled hysterically, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. Oh, she could not wait to share this whopper with Sami and Viv. They’d be in stitches for days.

  “Damn it, Margaret,” he growled.

  Jerking her head up at the use of her Christian name, Molly’s laughter suddenly disappeared as she stared into his livid face. Jumping as Devil slammed his cell phone on the table in front of her, he bit out a demand. “Start calling them.”

  “Calling who?” she asked faintly, shifting her eyes from his face to the phone and back again. Something was wrong here. Seriously wrong. The man was serious.

  “My former flames,” he replied with a barely contained rage that vibrated with every word he uttered. “Ask them if I’m lying.” Bending so that he was nose to nose with her, he smiled coldly. “I. Dare. You.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Satisfied to see that he’d at least managed to stun the indomitable woman he wanted to marry into silence, Devil enjoyed the heavenly quiet while it lasted. If he knew Molly, it wouldn’t be a long wait. Better to simply bask in the moment when it presented itself.

  After a few more moments of prolonged stillness, he watched as realization donned in her intelligent eyes, her gaze losing some of its stupefied shock. Finally! Maybe now they could get down to the business of discussing their upcoming nuptials.

  “You’re gay,” she finally said simply as if it was the most logical conclusion in the world.

  Whoa! Back the truck up! Devil’s jaw fell open at her quiet words and he shook his head in automatic denial.

  “It’s okay if you’re gay!” Molly said quickly, lifting a hand to pat his arm consolingly as she smiled supportively at him. “I don’t mind at all. You don’t need to deny it to me. Am I the first person you’ve managed to come out to or did all your lady friends know that they were part of your cover story? Do you have a boyfriend?” she asked excitedly, grabbing her coffee mug and rising from her chair.