Page 278 of Handsome Devil
“Got it. You’re a good man, Lex.”
“Still fucking stupid, though?”
“Stupid as shit. How’s Laurinda?”
“She’ll survive. I hear she and Rolf are in Seattle. Probably working on some new scam—”
He stopped talking as Devi appeared.
“Lex,” she greeted him, and gave him a hug.
“Devi. Thanks for inviting me.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t have,” she teased. “But Dane insisted on it.” I knew she was teasing, because Devi had grown pretty fond of my brother. He had a better sense of humor than I ever did, for one thing. Plus, there was that mysterious streak of his, the one chicks had always been into.
My wife had recently informed me that my brother was “stealth sexy,” which I did not need to hear. Apparently, that meant a certain kind of low-key sexy that snuck up on a girl. Which sounded far too sexy for my liking.
“What are you guys talking about?” she asked us, leaving her arm draped around my brother. “I sense something heavy in the air.”
“Laurinda,” I said, because I didn’t keep secrets from my wife anymore.
“Are you worried about her?” she asked Lex, genuinely concerned.
Devi was the one who’d actually helped me to forgive Laurinda for trying to destroy my life, in the end. She’d been more angry about the whole thing than I even was, in the beginning. But she came around.
If someone took my baby from me, no matter what the circumstances or what I agreed to, I’d probably go crazy, too,was how she put it.
“No. Mom has a way of surviving,” Lex said. “She’ll probably go crawling back to my dad like she always does, looking for him to sort out her problems.”
“I thought she wasn’t with him anymore…” Devi looked at me. And maybe she noticed me looking lonely over here, because she drifted over and put her arm around my waist.
“She’s not,” Lex said. “But… it’s complicated.”
And there was that word again.Complicated.
I slipped my arm around my wife, glad that our relationship was pretty fucking simple. When we were pissed at each other, we fought until we fucked and moved on.
And every time, by the end of it all, the fighting and the fucking, we were even closer than we’d been before.
That was how I knew we were always headed in the right direction. Together.
“Is this bad news?” Devi asked, looking up at me. “Is Joey back in the picture or something?” She narrowed her eyes at Lex. “I thought none of you had a relationship with him.”
Lex sipped his beer. “It’s better that we don’t have this conversation. So let’s not. That’s a nice dress, by the way.”
Devi rolled her eyes a little. “Thank you.”
I offered her my champagne. She took it and sipped, her dark eyes holding mine. She looked incredible, in a glittery, pink-gold dress with a deep V neckline and no bra.
“Take care of our guests and stuff,” I told my brother abruptly. I shot him a look.
Lex arched an eyebrow. “Sure thing, brother.” Then he touched his tongue to his silver canine, as I slipped my hand into my wife’s and dragged her away.
“I just… I can’t wait.”
I pushed Devi up against the counter. We were in the ladies’ room, the same one we had our strange little negotiation in, at the gala. The one where I got her to agree to make me look good in front of my mother, and she called me the devil.
There was something very kinky and full-circle about this moment as I pulled up her dress.
