Rocked (The Everyday Heroes World) - Julia Wolf Page 0,41
cared or felt self-conscious since it was broad daylight and he could see everything, but I didn’t. I wasn’t here to impress him. I didn’t want him to fall for me, since I had no plans of falling for him.
“Jesus, that’s a sight, Kat.”
I peered over my shoulder to see Devon taking off the condom, his eyes raking over every inch of me in appreciation. Something in my chest and cheeks went warm from the feel of his perusal.
“I’d be putting my shorts on, but I can’t seem to make myself move,” I murmured against my arm.
He chuckled, a deep rumbly sound that had me clenching worn-out muscles, then his arms looped around my middle, hauling me against him. He half-carried, half-walked me into the living room and flopped down on the couch with me on top of him. Air rushed out of my lungs when my back hit the solid surface of Devon’s chest, and he groaned. I tried to roll off him so I wouldn’t crush him, but he kept his arms locked around me.
“Nope. You’re not moving.”
I turned my head to the side, colliding with his jaw. “It sounded like I hurt you.”
“You did. Your pretty ass crushed my dick for a second, but I’m good now. I like you here. Indulge me.” His breath was hot beside my neck, and when his tongue touched my skin, it was all I could do not to writhe all over him.
“Is this snuggling?” I whispered.
His chest vibrated with laughter. “Nah. You just feel good.” His palm glided down my belly, splaying wide right below my navel. “Like you on top of me like this. You don’t like it?”
“I don’t mind it,” I admitted. “Just don’t snuggle me.”
His teeth sunk into my shoulder, but I could feel his smile. “I’d never. Gross.”
Even though it went against everything I wanted from him, when he shifted onto his side, I allowed him to curl around my back and drape his arm around my middle. And though I had a million things to do before Ellie came home tomorrow, when Devon stroked my hair and hummed against my skin, I let my eyes drift closed.
Letting Devon Chambers hold me meant absolutely nothing.
Fourteen
Devon
I’d stumbled out of Kat’s house around midnight Saturday night drunk on her and drained of every fluid in my body. The stars winked at me as I crashed into my cottage, almost blind from the amount of sex I’d indulged in.
That woman really was going to kill me. I was far too old to have sex five times in a twenty-four-hour period. Too bad Kat had proven that wrong.
We’d woken from our nap on the couch, bodies ready as soon as we were conscious. I’d taken her again in the shower, and a final time on the dinner table after we shared a pizza. Each time had been harder and rougher than the last. She refused to go slow, wouldn’t do soft and easy. Any time I did something tender, she volleyed back something dirty.
And I got it. She was drawing the line, telling me this was purely physical. If I went soft with her, held her hand or stroked her face, it might end up meaning something different. Something more.
I fucking liked her. I could’ve kicked myself for it, ’cause there was nothin’ doing. We were two people who’d been pushed together by circumstance, two trains on parallel tracks. We could ride along for a while together as we passed, do a little stargazing, but it would be fleeting. We’d keep on chugging, our tracks pulling us in opposite directions.
It was for the best. Music was my life. My world had been chiseled and whittled down to the core, and inside that was record contracts, album tours, press kits, photoshoots…
That was my life. It was what I’d destroyed my marriage for. What I’d lost my best friend over. If I couldn’t keep it going, couldn’t keep grabbing it with both hands, then what was the point of all the pain I’d wrought, both on myself and the people I once loved? There had to be a point. There had to.
This was it. Sunnyville was temporary, as was Kat and Ellie and Leroy and the Swift City Fire Boys. It’d be fun while it lasted, but it wasn’t going to last.
The knock on my door Wednesday evening had my stomach flipping. I shouldn’t have been surprised which neighbor stood on the other side, and I wasn’t. Slightly disappointed, but not surprised.