Page 116 of Handsome Devil
“You like him. You said you didn’t.”
“I do not like him.”
“Bullshit. You would not put up with this shit if you didn’t.”
“That is not exactly true.” I sighed. “I mean, okay. I can force myself to stomach him enough to go through with this farce. He’s not repulsive or anything. I haven’t yet seen him kick a wounded puppy or shove an old person into traffic.”
My best friend was still giving me that suspicious look. She darted a glance at Wiley, who was still barking at someone about the color orange, and then at Lex, who was still deep in his car magazine with his earbuds in. She lifted her glass in front of her mouth and whispered, “Have you had sex with him?”
“Katie. No.”
“Okay. Just asking.” She sipped her champagne.
I didn’t blame her for questioning this. She was trying to make sense of this whole ridiculous farce. I would, too, if I were her.
I mean, if our roles were reversed, I’d definitely be trying to protect her from a guy like Dane Davenport. But I was not her and she was not me.
I was not my sweet best friend.
I was tough as nails, when I needed to be.
“Look,” I told her, “there’s no big mystery here to unravel. I’m not secretly in love with him, okay? Yes, I know he’s incredible to look at, and his ass is made of solid, chiseled granite, and he’s got broad shoulders and manly arms that seem incredibly capable of whisking a girl off her feet, carrying her over a threshold and sweeping her away, but he’s not that kind of guy.”
“What, a romantic?”
“Right. Romance requires human emotion, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have any.”
“He proposed to you,” Katie pointed out. “He could’ve married you in Vancouver and gotten pretty pictures. Instead, he’s whisking you off to the Caribbean to marry you on a beach. Sounds kinda romantic, Devi.”
“It wasnota proposal,” I told her, for like the dozenth time. “You think ‘proposal,’ you think Jesse Mayes getting down on one knee. This was a business deal.”
“Are you sure that’s what it was?” she asked me. “That’sallit was, from his side of it, too?”
“Trust me. I’ve had more passionate conversations with Chaz over who gets to pick the show on HBO.”
Although… I’d never mentally undressed Chaz or wondered what his dick looked like after we had one of those conversations.
When we pulled up to the resort and got out, I couldn’t hold back a little “Whoa” that slipped out. Neither could Katie, apparently.
Darkness had completely descended over us, but the resort was lit up with twinkly lights and lanterns all along the path. It had a private villa vibe, with stone walls surrounded by lush greenery. The single path wound between the main house and the other huts, to the beach beyond. I could hear, smell andfeelthe ocean.
A man greeted us with a smile and a handful of lanterns. He handed one to each of us and showed us the way up the stone path.
Dane had told me that his concierge had found us a “small” resort that would be available exclusively to us, and given the short notice, I hadn’t set my expectations very high. But apparently this concierge guy knew what he was doing. And he must’ve had connections, because this place was absolute five-star luxury. I could already tell. The main house was gorgeous, all stone, with tiered gardens and a winding staircase leading up to the second floor.
We stopped on the path near the staircase, about to part ways. Girls on one side, guys on the other. Dane gave me a serious look I couldn’t quite read, and said, “I’ll be in my hut if you need anything.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said, sliding my arm through Katie’s.
He nodded a goodnight, and he and the other guys headed down the path between the huts.
Katie and I were shown up the winding exterior stairs to the sprawling patio off the master suite—in this case, the honeymoon suite—and inside, where a four-poster king-sized bed with a gauzy canopy dominated the room.
I tried not to look at the bed. Or think about what it was for.
Sleeping. It’s for getting a fabulous night’s sleep, with that ocean air pouring in through the open windows.
Katie and I spent the rest of the evening together. We got massages and got mildly drunk on rum cocktails in the private hot tub on the master patio, which had panoramic views of the ocean.
