Vivian Arend - High Passion

An hour.

An hour to get home, find a dress that would cover the very vivid marks of her and Devon’s thorough sexing, not to mention putting on enough makeup to cover the ravages from her recent sleepless nights.

The bathroom door opened, and Devon glanced in cautiously. “Is it safe?”

She held the top of the towel with one hand and shrugged. “Come in. Sorry. No time for a lengthy ‘you scrub my back and I’ll scrub yours.’ I have to go.”

Devon nodded, leaning his shoulder on the door frame. “Hot date?”

He repeated his words from the previous day. They were as annoying now as they’d been before.

“No,” she snapped, frustration making her response sharper than she’d intended. Devon didn’t move. Didn’t ask any more questions, he only looked plenty. She sighed and joined him, catching the waist of his sweats and leaning in close. “Vincent works with my father. His family and mine are old friends, and I can’t just blow him off.”

Devon tucked his fingers under her chin, lightly stroking his thumb over her cheek. “You don’t need to explain, but you don’t seem too thrilled.”

“I’m not.” For so, so many reasons. “But in the interest of keeping the peace, I should go.”

He stared for a moment, then nodded. “Feel free to grab a shower here if you want.”

He left the room, and all the oxygen seemed to suck out after him.

Shit.

She followed him into the bedroom, but he was gone. Tugging on her clothes, finding her socks—all of it strange and far more awkward than she’d expected. She pulled her backpack over her shoulder and fisted her keys, bracing herself to say good-bye.

He was in the kitchen, barefoot and bare chested. She wavered for a moment, almost ready to toss the plans with Vincent out the window, but . . . she couldn’t. “Hey, I’ll call you tomorrow. Dream up crazy things for me to do, okay?”

He looked up, dropping the Tupperware container in his hand to the counter and striding to her side. “I’ll be good and assume you didn’t mean that in a sexual way.”

She grinned before she realized he was still staring at her with an unreadable expression.

Devon nodded. “I’ll do some research tonight. See what I can find.”

“Thanks.”

Awkward. Teenage-crush awkward. With the tension between them now it was hard to believe he’d fucked her against the wall only hours earlier.

Devon snarled in frustration. “What the hell.”

He grabbed her and laid another kiss on her, his body tight to hers, their lips crushed together. Every second that passed meant she’d have to rush more later, but she couldn’t break away. Couldn’t let go of where she’d caught him, her fingers fisted in his hair.

Devon was the one who jerked them apart, his grin firmly in place. “I hope you have a lovely dinner.”

Her body buzzed from the kiss. From all the things he’d done to her bounding through her memory like the Energizer bunny on aphrodisiacs. “I expect the food to be wonderful and the company to suck, thank you.”

He turned her to the door and let her out, patting her ass as she walked past. “You need anything, call, okay?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Call,” he repeated. “Tomorrow, tonight, I don’t give a damn when. If you need me, let me know.”

When she glanced up from the wheel, he was standing in the entrance of his house, watching her. She forced herself to wave before directing her car into the lane and heading for home.

The sight of Alisha driving away drew a frustrated sigh from him. In one massive swoop, all his admittedly dirty plans for the evening were wiped away. Hanging out by himself at home wasn’t high on the agenda. Devon slammed the fridge door hard enough that everything in the kitchen rattled.

It wasn’t as if he had expected her to instantly start living in his pocket. But after seeing no guys in her life for so long, now someone showed up? Now there was some rich friend of the family who appeared out of nowhere to take her to one of the most expensive places in town?

Fuck that.

He took some time to research possible scenarios to put her through. Only there wasn’t much he could find online, and he wasn’t about to go asking questions in real life because with the climbing community, anything he said would be common knowledge within twenty-four hours, and speculation would begin.

He wondered how long it would be until everyone knew he and Alisha had finally hooked up.

A snort of derision escaped him. Well, no one would suspect anything tonight, not with her gallivanting around town with Vincent.

Bloody hell, he was sitting and pouting like some hard-done-by virgin. There was no need for it. He could go out and grouch instead of staying in and being miserable. May as well spread the joy to his friends. He sent off a text, then headed to change. Distraction was the best solution, and he had plenty of people who could help him in the distraction department.

The familiar noise of the Rose and Crown crowd greeted his ears like a cheerful hello. Devon raced up the stairs, waving at a few people without stopping as he sauntered past the restaurant tables. He headed all the way to the back where his buddy Luke already held sway over a pool table. A group of women had gathered around the small, standing-only table to the right, and his name was shouted quickly enough to soothe his bruised ego.

“You on call tonight?” Kyle asked. Luke’s twin brother raised a glass and the pitcher of stout in a question.

Even if he were, he could have one drink. But tonight? “Fill it and keep it full.”

Kyle dipped his head and went to work, passing over a glass with a fine head of foam. “We weren’t sure you’d surfaced yet. Saw in the paper you had another successful rescue the other day.”

Devon took a good long drink before wiping his mouth and putting his glass aside. “That’s not a secret, but why exactly are you talking so loud?”

Kyle twisted his back and pointed slyly toward the ladies. “New to town. You can have your pick, but I get the redhead,” he whispered.

“You know what?” Devon slapped Kyle on the shoulder. “You’re a dick. You can have the redhead and all the rest. I’m not interested.”

Kyle gave him the eye. “You running a fever or something?”

He shook his head and grabbed a pool cue. “Nope. Just want a few games, is all.”

“Well, me, too,” Kyle protested.

“Not those types of games.” His buddy flashed a smirk, and Devon forced a laugh. It wasn’t as amusing as usual. He didn’t enjoy fawning women, but he disliked even more that he was being used by his supposed friends. “Fine, trade on my good name if you can’t get pussy any other way, but I’m good for tonight.”

His friend saluted, then strolled over to the table with a greeting for the ladies. Devon hid his annoyance and paced over to talk to Luke instead.

“The mighty hero has decided to grace us with his presence.” Luke tilted the mouth of his bottle at Devon. “I almost didn’t recognize you without your superhero suit.”

“Fuck you, too,” Devon said blandly. “What are we playing tonight?”

“Nothing serious. Had a hell of a day, so it was nice to hear you could join us.”

They racked up the balls and fell into an easy camaraderie. It was damn annoying how often he reached to check his phone to make sure it was still on. In case Alisha decided to call him.

Pathetic.

Kyle soon had the ladies smiling, joining in around the table and generally getting in the way. Luke took his shots with one arm around the woman who’d picked him out. Devon had to work like a maniac to avoid the clutches of the brunette who insisted he should teach her to play .