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My eyes grew wide and I pushed through the door, breaking left, away from the large crowd that was no doubt about to go crazy at his appearance.

  “Wait one minute,” his voice said, lowly, growling at the end. “Victoria.”

  I kept walking. Faster.

  “Victoria, I’m talking to you.”

  Footsteps pounded behind me and I closed my eyes as a hand slid around my arm and spun me around.

  “Open your eyes and look at me. I’m not going to disappear. You’re wasting your time if you think I’m going to suddenly vanish because you can’t actually see me.”

  When I lifted my lids, I was faced with two men. One smiling, and the one I cared about, appearing slightly angry.

  “What are you doing here?” His eyes were accusatory as he stared down at me. Almost as if I had come to spy on him. I stepped back, feeling my guard go up.

  “I’m meeting Daniel for coffee, of course. He works right there,” I said, pointing across the street. “Not like I have to explain myself.” My voice had weakened at the end. I hated how he could do that to me.

  “The father?” More anger. The father? Did he know about Ava? My heart raced until I realized he was referencing Daniel’s children.

  “Yes. The man from the diner.”

  Devlin’s eyes traveled across the street. “He’s a lawyer? Of course he is,” he rushed in.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I snapped.

  The other man, Branson, if I had heard him right, waved his hand. “I’m going to get things set up. Take your time. You have until three.”

  Devlin barely took his eyes from me as he acknowledged him with a wave of his hand.

  “Come, we’ll get you some coffee and talk like we should have done the last time we, or I should say, I, ran into you.”

  He was already leading me to the café before I could argue. I kept walking. It was too late to flee now. “Answer, what did you mean by the lawyer remark?”

  “You’re smart, therefore you’re likely to match with someone just as smart.”

  “His job or status has nothing to do with why I started seeing him. He’s a nice man. An amazing full-time father. I respect his values. Besides, I thought you and I were done talking. Didn’t we cover everything in our last conversation?”

  “No.” He held the door open and I walked to the line, taking my place. As I waited for my turn, we stood in an uncomfortable silence. We were practically strangers, yet we were arguing with each other as if we’d know one another all our lives.

  “Hello,” I stepped up to the counter, ordering. Devlin pulled out his wallet but replaced it when I shot him a look. The moment I had my coffee in hand, I led us outside to the tables shaded with red and white umbrellas. The chair was pulled closer as he moved in and I tried to stop from shifting in my own.

  “Victoria, about the restroom incident.” He looked down at his coffee. “I apologize for the way I acted. For even following you in there at all. It was imperative I talk with you. Seeing you after all that time I searched…” He glanced over. “I should have had more control over my actions. I’m not sure what I was think—”

  “Wait.” I nearly laughed. “I know what you were thinking. You thought I’d fall into your arms and we’d pick up where we left off. That maybe you’d get some before you hurried off to whatever party you planned on attending so you could pick up your next one-night stand. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be any part of that.”

  The way his jaw tightened only showed how much my words hit home.

  “I told you, I’m not like that anymore. Besides, what do you know about me, anyway? We haven’t seen each other in years. Did you read all of this off the internet?”

  I did laugh then, rolling my eyes. “I’ve never once read anything about you on the internet. You may have not seen me around, but I’ve come across you plenty of times since we were together.”

  “When?” His eyebrows drew in as he shook his head.

  “Well.” I took a sip of my coffee. “The first time was at the coffee house close to the hospital that I work at. It was a little after six in the morning and you and some red head came stumbling in all over each other. If I can remember correctly, I’d say it was about four months after we met. I think the one that sticks out the most, though, was probably about a year later. I was on the bus and it was late at night. I had to go in to work for a nurse whose husband had a heart attack. You pulled up next to us at the light. Directly below my window, ironically enough. I wouldn’t have known it was you had you not had the top down on your convertible while getting your cock sucked as you waited.

  His hand came to settle over his mouth as I continued.

  “There were a few more times, but the last was back at the same coffee shop a few weeks ago. I was actually going to say hello when a brunette cut me off to make it to you first. And that was it, until you mauled me over while you were jogging.”

  Devlin placed the cup on the table and leaned back. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I…truly am. No wonder. Jesus, I don’t even know what to say.”

  “There is nothing to say. You mentioned change and I pray you’re right. I wish you the best happiness with your…endeavors.” I stood and he reached forward, grabbing my wrist.

  “I have changed. Please. Stay. Let me explain.”

  What was there to explain? Did I even want to know? Ava.

  I lowered, easing my hand away from him.

  “Thank you. You have to know, until I met you, I was already heading down a bad road. But you were different. You gave me a glimpse of something I didn’t even know existed. Then, you left. Never called, to my knowledge, and were impossible to find. I searched and searched to no avail. I lost it. Victoria, please. You know I don’t beg, but I’m almost positive that there was something between—”

  “Oh my God! Are you Devlin Black?”

  Three girls stopped inside of door, coming over as their eyes grew.

  “You are,” a brunette, no older than twenty, squealed.

  As if the floodgates to a goldigger’s dream opened, women seemed to turn from all directions. I stood from the chair, scooting back as what looked like some scene from a movie played out in front of me. Women by the dozens started rushing toward us. The madness that surrounded Devlin quickly became unbelievable.

  “Victoria!” I heard my name called out and I could see him tower over the growing crowd of women. More were running from the line that had taken place in front of sign-ups and I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.

  My head shook as he called out to me again. There was no way I could do this.

  “Please,” he mouthed.

  God, what was I doing? Thoughts wouldn’t even come as I shook my head at him again. If I had worried about the women before, now it was a million times worse. Whether he’d use them like the others was up for debate, but I wouldn’t be sticking around to find out.

  Chapter 7

  Devlin

  “Next.”

  Nine hours of watching videos, seven days of interviews, and I wasn’t even a quarter of the way through. Woman had come, true to the ad. All shapes and sizes. All races. Every hair color imaginable. And not one compared to the person I ached to see the most.

  “I liked her,” Branson piped in.

  “I didn’t,” Jill groaned. “Too fake and I’m not just talking about her personality.” She popped another piece of popcorn into her mouth and held out the bowl to me. I shook my head, shifting to the other side of my numb ass. How could these two sleep in such a hard bed?

  Branson reached over, grabbing a handful while hitting the fast-forward button. He stopped it on an attractive brunette. She wasn’t skinny, but she wasn’t overweight either. Curves. I liked that, but I was betting they didn’t affect me like Victoria’s had.

  “Jessica. That’s sweet,” Jill said, nudging me.

  I sighed. “Next.”

  “Oh, come one,” Branson said, sitting forward. “There’s nothing wrong with her. She’s o
nly said her name. How do you know she’s not the one?”

  “Because, I just know. I’m done for the night.” I stood. “We’ll contact the four we picked out tomorrow and…set something up.” Not that I wanted to. Jill had picked three. Branson one. Me, none.

  “Sounds good.” He paused the video and climbed off the bed. I leaned over, kissing Jill on the cheek.

  “You both take care. I’ll be around.” I put up my hand as Branson began to follow. “I know my way out,” I said, grinning. “Stay with your wife. I’ll lock the front door behind me.”

  He nodded and I took the stairs at a fast pace. The moment I had the house secured, I headed to my new car at a fast pace. The itch to go out was nearly killing me. Weeks…months? How long had it been since I’d had a drink. Or a woman?

  I climbed in the car, letting it purr beneath me. One night. One slip up could ruin all my hard work. I couldn’t let it happen, no matter how bad I wanted to. Which was bad enough to the point where my hands were shaking. I put the shifter in reverse and drove, blasting down the mountain road and back to the city.

  Victoria Marie Farris. I knew her name, had found out where she worked, lived, and it drove me crazy that I’d gone even that far. Why couldn’t I let this go? I should have been able to walk away from a stranger. But I just couldn’t.

  I hit the button on my steering wheel. “Call Victoria.” The shaking grew worse and I focused on the road. If she knew I’d conned the number from one of her coworkers, she’d never talk to me again. Though, she’d probably hang up the second she discovered it was me.

  “Hello?” Noise sounded in the background and I strained to hear. “Hello?” She breathed out heavily when it was drowned out by a baby crying. The phone went dead and I tried to wrap my brain around it. Had she been at work? That didn’t sound like a newborn. Young, yes, but…

  “Call Victoria.”

  Ringing filled the interior again and she answered almost immediately. “Hello?”

  More crying.

  “Shh,” she said, soothingly. “Hello?”

  “Don’t hang up.” I swallowed hard, trying to slow my pulse.

  “Who is this?” Although she asked, I knew she’d figured it out.

  “We need to talk.” I added the tiniest amount of anger into my words, gaging how she’d react.

  Movement and then mumbling sounded as though her hand was placed over the receiver. Then, a few seconds of silence.

  “How did you get my number?” Breathlessness laced her tone and I heard a door shut. I gripped to the steering wheel tighter, trying to keep calm. Plans used to be something I could hatch at the drop of a dime. Now, not much of anything came.

  “I have sources. Listen, I’m…” The wrong things kept coming and I could have easily manipulated her, but I didn’t want to. “I’m in trouble. I need your help. Even if it is to just talk.”

  “What?” Surprise laced her tone. “You mean, you’re calling me to ask for help? At almost eleven o’clock at night? Devlin, some of us have to get up early and go to work in the morning. We can’t all party it up until the wee hours of night.”

  I stopped at a red light and froze. “You’re at home?” I knew she probably was, but to know for sure…

  “Ah…well, yes.” Her voice was stuttering all over the place.

  “Victoria.” Her name came out in a growl as I fought a truth so big, I couldn’t breathe past it. “Do you have something to tell me?”

  Silence.

  “Whose kid was that in the background? Was that mine?”

  Even as I asked, the conflicting emotions elicited by the possible answer left me in a stage of rage, yet…hope.

  “Devlin.” There it was again, like in the bathroom when I asked her the same question. I slammed my foot against the gas and cut over three lanes as I headed in the direction of her home.

  “You bring that baby outside when I pull up. I want to see for myself. No more fucking bullshitting me, Victoria. If you’ve lied to me…” I swallowed past the fear, the anger. I’d made it more than clear the night we met how I felt about liars.

  A long breath broke over the line. “The neighbors are over. You want me to bring their daughter out in the damp night so you can look at her? Are you kidding me? Devlin, I don’t have time for this.”

  “If it’s so late, why are your neighbors over, with their baby, no less? Shouldn’t she be in bed, in her own home?”

  “Why did you really call?”

  Was I really arguing with her about a neighbor’s baby? Fuck, I was desperate. I did have some valid points, though.

  I slowed, stopping at another damn light. “The urge. It’s really strong tonight. I thought maybe if I talked about it, it might help me.”

  “From going out and doing something you might regret?”

  “Yes,” I breathed out. “I haven’t had a drink or been with a woman in a while. I’ve been okay until the last hour, but now....”

  There was a moment of silence before she cleared her throat. “You’re lonely. What about friends?”

  “I just left Branson’s. It’s not the same.”

  “A late movie?”

  I smiled. “You going?”

  “Of course not,” she laughed. “I told you, I have to work in the morning.”

  The smile fell and I pulled over into the parking lot of a shopping center a few blocks from her home. “If you didn’t have to work, would you go with me?”

  “Devlin.”

  “Victoria,” I countered. “Come on, if you won’t date me, at least be my friend. All I want to do is be around you.” I squinted my eyes. How pathetic had that sounded?

  “What about your dates? You have to have someone to hang out with.” She paused. “We both know friends isn’t going to work between us. Not with our past. Not with the diner incident.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Only because you want me, too. Yet, you’re fighting it. Why?”

  “You have to ask that? I told you why at the café.”

  “No, you had the same issue the night you left my house. Before the condom broke.”

  A crunching sound, like gravel under one’s feet sounded, and I listened closely, trying to imagine her surroundings. How she looked.

  “I was engaged in college. We were together for four years. Richard wasn’t who I thought he was. His life was politics. He had such big plans. I was a part of them, but not in the way I’d always dreamed. I was nothing more than a cover to his secret. I loved him, but he was in love with his best friend, Charles. I caught them together.” What sounded like more rocks crunched. “It messed me up. Trust is something I have an issue with. You were the only person aside from him.”

  My lips parted. “Only person… aside from your college fiancé? Ever?”

  She laughed. “Yes. Like I said, trust issues. I don’t let myself get involved with men. I like it that way. Alone is good.”

  And here I was, calling her from a few weeks off of depraved sex and booze.

  “I don’t like alone, if you can’t tell.”

  She sighed. “The wife hunt. The key to forever happiness. How’s that going by the way?”

  I leaned the seat back. “A nightmare. Branson and his wife have picked out four women. All of who I’m not looking forward to meeting. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with them, per se, I just don’t feel any chemistry. Not like what we had.”

  “But you haven’t even seen them. Who’s to say when you meet them in person that doesn’t change? You might be so swept away, you won’t even remember who I am.”

  Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen. “Maybe, but I highly doubt it.”

  “Devlin,” she said, lowly. “You don’t know that.”

  “Do you ever think about the night we shared together? I mean, before the whole condom incident.”

  A groan came over the phone. “Let’s not do this.”

  “It’s a simple question. One I want you to answer.”

  “And if I don’t?”


  I smiled. “I know where you live. I could stop by and ask you in person.”

  “No,” she said, drawing it out. “Fine. Yes, of course I do.”

  “Do you miss the way you felt, being Dommed by me?”

  She paused. “Yes.”

  My cock hardened instantly. I missed having her under my control. Watching her writhe as I made her come all over my fingers and cock. Fuck, I tortured her for hours, making her hold off. I craved to see her look up at me with want. Need. “Let me Dom you, again. One more time.”

  “Absolutely not.” The matter of fact tone she used had me frowning.

  “Fine. I’m headed over.”

  A mass of mumbled words that sounded like a string of curses had me laughing. “Was that a yes? I couldn’t understand you.” I revved the engine, smiling wider at her increasing panic.

  “No, oh God, please. Don’t do this. You just…stay away. The phone I can do. In person…that just complicates things.”

  I pulled up the seat and put the car in first gear. “I liked complicated. I’m coming over. I’m like five minutes away. You’re outside, anyway. You can come sit in my car and we’ll talk.”

  “How did you find out where I lived? Really. Who told you?”

  Anger was taking over her words and I knew I was pushing it, but I didn’t care. I needed her. If I had her in my presence, then I wouldn’t be out getting drunk and on the prowl.

  “It doesn’t matter.” I hit the road, making my first right into a nice little subdivision. So different than the setting and location of my penthouse. “How do you like living here? Does it make you happy? Or do you prefer the downtown area? Like where I live?”

  She huffed under her breath. “You mean if I could afford it?”

  “That’s not what I meant. I’m merely asking you your preferences.”

  “I love it here. It’s a very good community. The people are friendly.”

  Nice landscaping. Toys in the yards. Basketball hoops. I twisted my mouth. “Looks very centered around families. Why are you living here?”

  She got quiet. “My mom lives with me. It’s one of the reasons I don’t want you to come over.”

  “Can I meet her?” The words came out before I could stop them. My parents had been dead since I was a teen. It would be interesting to see the woman who raised Victoria.