Yes, I thought to myself. Coming to Vegas was a brilliant idea.
Apparently I hadn’t learned my lesson the first time around.
I turned to the men who sprawled on the king-sized bed in front of me. “Thanks to YC, looks like I’m going to attend Suzanne’s party tomorrow night after all.”
From the look Caz and Dev shared, I knew that I was about to be thrown into a snake pit, but there was no backing out of it now. Like Oliver said, this was business.
When I told them that Darcy would send over a dress for me to wear, Devlin surprised me by rising from the bed. “Let me handle that,” he said. “Darcy’s got her hands full enough with Suzanne these days.”
I nodded. “Tell her I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to add to her stress.”
He nodded. “She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it.”
I knew he spoke the solid gold truth.
The minute he left, I turned back to Caz, fully expecting to fend him off, but he had already hopped off the bed. “If I’m going to a party tomorrow, I guess we’re going to have to go shopping.” He paused as he reached me. “Unless you’re going with Dev.”
There was a question in those amber eyes. I took a deep breath and shook my head. “I’m not going with Dev, Caz.”
He smiled. “Good. Give me ten minutes to shower.” He planted a kiss on top of my head before he disappeared into the bathroom.
I landed on the empty bed with a thud. It was going to be one hell of a weekend.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It was a rather unique experience shopping with Caz Bixby. The man had exquisite tastes, and spent more time picking out his outfit than I had ever spent picking out any one of mine, which was saying something. He also set up some spa treatment for the following day, where he would get equally primped and preened like I would. Only his full-service package included a new haircut, a massage and facial treatment, as well as a beard trim and a manicure.
“You missed your calling as a chick,” I told him as we left yet another store laden with more clothes, since he had an entire wardrobe to build for our weekend stay in Vegas.
He chuckled as he wrapped an arm around me. “I just want to look pretty for you, pussycat.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just stay sober. That’s all I need from you.”
He looked dutifully chagrined. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
I sent him a sympathetic glance. “I get it, okay? You don’t have to apologize. It just doesn’t help anything.”
“I know,” he conceded with a nod. “But you know what it’s like. Something hurts; you just need to numb it.”
I nodded myself. I totally understood. It was one of the things that had nearly resulted in my first ménage a trois. “Why do we always seem to self-destruct in response to pain?”
He chuckled. “Slippery slope, baby. Once you’re pointed down, it’s easier just to keep going.”
I nodded. It was a lesson I had learned well in the last year.
“So let’s live large while we can,” he suggested as he guided me into a jewelry store. He didn’t need to know what I was wearing to outfit me properly with the right amount of bling. He opted for diamonds, with a necklace that fit close around the neck, but featured cascading strands that dripped from that choker just like rain, and sparkled just like stars over my enormous boobs.
“This is too much,” I denied at first.
“Fuck that,” he murmured as he stared down at the way the expensive necklace enhanced my full cleavage. “Who says there only has to be one queen?”
I was taken aback by the power in his eyes. It was that hint of an alpha he had shown me months before.
He had purchased the choker, himself, before I had any second thoughts.
He also sprang for lunch, some sushi at a popular restaurant in our hotel. He toasted me with sake, which I tried to decline, but Caz had fully recuperated from his nasty bender and was ready for round two.
He had his arm around me and was singing to me as we made our way back up to our rooms.
“Go take a nap,” I told him when he tried to take me into his arms for a dance right at his door.
“Come with me,” he said as he held my hips with his hands, brushing against me so I could feel the promise of his bulge.
“Caz,” I started. “Behave.”
He grinned. “I don’t know the meaning of the word.”
“True story,” I gritted between clenched teeth. “Seriously. I just want to go relax in my room. I need to recharge if I’m going to have to play nice with Suzanne tomorrow.”
His knowing eyes never left my face. “Or maybe what you really want is for Devlin to recharge those batteries.”
I glared at him. “This isn’t about that.”
“Isn’t it?” he challenged. “Come on, pussycat. I can make you forget all about him.”
“I know you’re pissed at him, Caz. But you can’t use me to get even.”
For the first time–ever–I thought that maybe I had offended him. “Is that what you think this is about?”
“You tell me.”
Before I knew what was happening, his mouth crushed on mine as he stole a kiss, his tongue darting in between my lips the second I gasped in surprise, conquering my mouth with the expertise of a true professional. He pressed me up against the door of his hotel suite, and I could feel every hard inch of him press against me. To ensure as much, his hand slid down the curve of my back over the swell of my hip, pressing me into him with a masterful grab of my ass. He wore a smug grin when he lifted away. “Go take your nap, pussycat. But if you’re honest, you’ll admit there’s been another man in your dreams for a long time now.”
Before I could argue, he unlocked his door with a swipe of his key card. He reached around me to open it, keeping me in the circle of his arms a second longer before he stepped around me and entered his room, closing the door with a definitive click between us.
I practically growled in frustration as I walked the few feet away to my own door. I juggled several of the bags I carried to fish my key card out of my purse, before I unlocked it and pushed inside the darkened room. I fumbled with the light, trying to remember if I had closed the blackout drapes before I left that morning.
When I rounded the bathroom entrance toward my bed, I realized that a beautiful formal dress now splayed across the covers. It was white, with a rhinestone studded band around the middle and a sexy halter top that plunged almost to the waistline. I gasped as I stared at it, knowing immediately it had come from Darcy, which meant Devlin had been in my room.
Scratch that. I knew in an instant that Devlin was still in my room. Despite the large bouquets of white and coral roses that sat on either side of the bed, I could still smell his cologne, which meant he must be nearby.
Exciting things always seemed to happen whenever Devlin was nearby…
I turned around, right into the massive wall of his chest. He towered over me, using one arm to brace against the wall separating the bathroom and the bedroom. His insufferable smirk proved once again how much he liked taking me by surprise.
“Why do you always have to break in, uninvited and unannounced?”
He trailed one finger along my arm. “Would you let me in otherwise?”
“What does that tell you?” I said as I stepped quickly away from him to deposit my bags on the table near the window.
“It tells me you’re afraid to be alone with me,” he replied as he closed the gap between us. “I guess now I know why.”
He referred to Caz’s drunken blunder, admitting to Devlin that our whole relationship had been a sham. “Look… Dev…,” I started but he didn’t let me finish as he took me into his arms.
The minute he touched me I was toast. With everything that was going on with Caz, and the stress of facing off with Suzanne, and the whole idea of playing nice for some bullshit party, I just didn’t have the strength to keep fighting him.
“I want you to stay with me tonight, Coralie,”
he murmured as he kept me locked in that powerful gaze. “And I want you to go to that party with me tomorrow.”
“No and double no,” I said with a definitive shake of my head as I pulled away.
“Why?” he wanted to know. “I told you everything you wanted to know. You’re not dicking around with Caz. We can be together. There’s nothing stopping us.”
I turned to face him. “Except that you have been fucking another woman almost from the day that we met.”
He practically snarled as he turned away. “Jesus, Coralie.”
“You think Suzanne is just going to let you go? Or let me win? What happens the next time she comes after one of your nevers, Dev? Admit it. I’m always going to come second to her.”
“I’m here with you now,” he said. “And if you give me a little time, I can break my ties with her.”
“Can you?” I challenged.
He sighed. “I’m doing my best. Can’t you see that? She’s not my forever, Coralie. You are.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Dev. Whenever you kiss her. Or touch her. Or fuck her. You tell yourself that you love me if that makes you feel any better. Because it sure as hell doesn’t work that way for me.”
We stared each other down for long minutes as that sinister Scorpio mind of his worked. “Maybe you should fuck someone else, then,” he finally decided with a scowl. “Only then will you know the damned difference.”
“Goddammit, Dev! Is that your answer for everything?”
“It’s my answer for you!” he bellowed. “Can’t you see I can’t take a goddamned breath without you, girl? You’re under my skin, like an infection that won’t heal. That’s why I can’t let you go. And it’s why you can’t let me go, either. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here with you right now.”
I sighed. I knew he was absolutely correct. “We have time to sort it all out, Dev. I just don’t want to rush into another mistake.”
His eyes were hard as he glared at me. “Is that what you think marrying me was?”
“Wasn’t that the plan?” I shot back, which only dug the wound even deeper.
“No,” he answered quietly. “The feelings were always real. When I took those vows I meant them. Didn’t you?” I didn’t answer for a long time. Finally he asked, “Is this about Caz?”
“No, Dev. It’s about me. I matter.”
He crossed the distance between us to take my hands in his. “Of course you matter. You’re everything. I want to give you my world. I want to marry you again, in a church, in front of your family and friends. I want to have a baby with you. A lot of babies with you. I want to live in that big old house in Brentwood with you, until we’re old and gray, with dozens of grandchildren to chase after. There is no happily ever after for me if you’re not in it, Coralie. Tell me you know that.”
I nodded. “That sounds like a wonderful fairy tale ending, Devlin. I can’t wait to read it. You just have to wrench yourself out of this scandalous, cable-TV bullshit soap opera you’re living first.”
“Why do you think I want you to go with me to the party tomorrow night? I want us to make a stand.”
“Oh, I’m going to make my stand,” I assured him. “On my terms this time around.”
His eyes narrowed. “And just what are you planning to do?”
“There’s no telling,” I shot back. “I guess you’re just going to have to trust me for once.”
His mouth thinned in a line as he studied me. Finally he nodded. “Fine.” He turned on his heel for the door. “I’ll pick you up for dinner at seven. I’ve already arranged for us to see a show at nine.”
He had slammed out of my room before I could decline. So I did the next best thing.
I invited Caz.
He was, after all, the ‘boyfriend’ of record.
If Devlin was put out by our third wheel, he didn’t let it show. He accepted it all with a squint of his eyes as that beautiful mind computed how he could use these new events to his advantage.
Surprisingly, his strategy included being nice to Caz, which made him as nervous as it made me.
And of course neither of us expected the press to be waiting just outside our hotel, to pounce him the minute Devlin dared show his face in public. His video released that day and there was a lot of excitement surrounding it, considering it had been blazing up the charts. When word spread that Devlin Masters was in town, the local photographers for the gossip news site PING descended like locusts upon us the second we exited the hotel.
Like they were waiting.
Like they knew.
I glared at Devlin once we were safely ensconced in the limo. “You always have a plan of attack, don’t you?”
He shrugged. “You make your stand your way, ‘pussycat.’ I make it mine.” Without wrenching his eyes from my face, he commanded, “Pour us some champagne, Caz. I feel like celebrating.”
When we got to the restaurant, the staff was waiting to scuttle us in past horde of PING vultures, which only made them more crazed to talk to us. It also drew a crowd of interested looky-loos who wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Caz and Dev flanked me from either side, shielding me from a lot of the attention as we rushed toward the exclusive restaurant.
We were seated in our own private booth, where again Dev and Caz sat on either side. The owner of the place recognized Dev from his video debut, so he sent over a bottle of his best champagne, on the house, to congratulate him on his impressive debut.
I sensed a theme for our evening, and it scared the shit out of me. It wasn’t that long ago when a night of excess had thrust me between these two sexy, confusing, exciting, frustrating men, and I wasn’t sure how long I could keep my defenses up, especially when these two men actually played nice with one another.
They laughed. They talked. They found things to say other than trading barbs and insults. I hated Suzanne every passing minute for turning these two men into enemies, when they should have been the best of friends.
In fact they only had one argument the entire duration of dinner, when Devlin and Caz clashed over what I might eat.
Dev was the first to suggest the jambalaya, filled with chicken and, of course, Andouille sausage. Caz walked it back to a vegetarian meal that wasn’t filled with white rice and fatty, processed meat. Devlin’s eyes never left my face when he said, “But Coralie has a passion for sausage.”
I gulped back another swig of champagne before I ordered something else entirely.
Then, after the meal, Devlin wanted to spoil me with a decadent dessert full of sugar and berries and cream, but Caz wanted to keep it more moderate, with a light sorbet and fresh fruit. “How do you think I keep my pussycat in fighting shape?” Caz asked Dev.
Dev studied me with that penetrating gaze, which landed on my ample chest. “She has a little wiggle room.”
Caz’s gaze was drawn there as well. “I keep telling her she can have her breasts reduced for a more symmetrical figure,” Caz grinned. “But she won’t go for it.”
“Good girl,” Dev praised. “Altering those breasts would be like slapping God right in the face.”
Caz took a second look. “You might be right about that, old man.”
I instantly wanted to cross both my arms so they wouldn’t shamelessly focus on my tits. “Can we talk about something else?” I asked before I ordered an even more decadent dessert that amounted to about five different layers of chocolate. I gained about a pound and a half just looking at it.
“You should feed her a bite, Caz.”
Both Caz and I looked at Devlin, who watched us with those hooded green eyes. “Why?” I finally asked, even though I wasn’t sure if he was going to answer me.
Devlin’s eyebrow arched. “Because every good girl deserves a treat.” He leaned forward to spoon a bite himself. “And bad girls deserve two.”
I knew Caz could feel the shudder that ran through my body, just from the look in his eyes. Once again he submitted to Dev’s demands, digging the spoon into the ric
h dessert and bringing it up to my lips. I felt fragile as glass as I took the bite, with both of them staring at my mouth like I was the one on the menu. With the next bite, because apparently I was a bad girl now and deserved more than one, Devlin ate his bite at the same time I did, savoring it as I did, swallowing it as I did, mirroring every single movement as if we were one person.
Thankfully Caz pushed the plate away after that, but Devlin wasn’t done. Not by a long shot. We ran the gauntlet of the press to our private box suite at the same show that we had seen the year before with Lucy and Gus. I turned to Dev. “Didn’t we already see this show?”
He stretched on his seat with a cocky grin on his face. “Funny I don’t remember much about it. I must have been distracted.”
Caz poured more champagne. Every alarm in my head sounded. This was a dangerous game to play, particularly when the lights went down and I found myself sandwiched once again between them. Caz played with my hair, like he was known to do, while Dev just sat close enough for me to feel the heat rise from his body. Though the show was as remarkable as I remembered, I couldn’t concentrate.
Just like the year before, Dev used the privacy of our box seating to turn up the heat. And this time around, he was working in tandem with another master of seduction. He didn’t even have to say anything to Caz when he wound my dark hair around one fist and bared my neck for him. Caz instantly dove in, his mouth against my neck and both of their hands slid slowly up my leg, from my bare knee up under my skirt.
I leaned forward to pour myself another glass, just to have something else to do. That both of them chuckled did not help matters at all. I was definitely on their hook and they knew it. I was afraid to get into the limo with them to go back to the hotel, but Devlin finally showed mercy on me by hanging behind. A local news crew wanted to interview him in conjunction with the release of A Journey to Remember, and his cover track from the movie. He sent us on our way with a happy, nay victorious, smile. I practically drank a whole bottle of booze on the way back to our hotel. Caz ultimately pulled it away, warning me that I couldn’t show up Suzanne if I was hung over.
Masters Forever (Masters #3) Page 13