by Tiffany Sala
Then he knelt alongside the couch, and started turning up the end of my skirt.
Before his face disappeared behind the bunched-up fabric, he fixed his wide-eyed stare on me. “You are not going to try to push for what you want, Julia. If you intend to steer the course of this relationship, for whatever it is, then you are going to need to come up with some more nuanced tactics.”
I had ended up sitting on my hands once I tipped backwards, and it was already becoming uncomfortable… but there was no way I was going to do anything to stop this.
Devin’s hands moved up my legs first, startling me into tucking my knees up—but he grabbed them in a bruising grip and pushed them back down. His fingers slid along my hips, making me squirm, until he found the waistband of my panties, and then he started drawing them back towards him. Suddenly I couldn’t even feel my hands. What I could feel was the air over the skin that was now exposed to him, my body becoming eager for his next touch.
He pulled my panties off completely, moved my leg nearest to him so that my foot was resting on the floor, and then his head moved forward so that I couldn’t see his face… and the next thing I felt was his tongue sliding through the most intimate parts of my body.
I shrieked, which made him dig his fingernails into my legs. I guessed he wanted me to be quiet.
He was completely quiet from my perspective; I couldn’t even hear him breathing. I had no idea if he was into this… but he was fucking good at it. Not that I had anything to compare with, because most guys wouldn’t do it for a girl, and I knew better than to trust the ones who would.
I should have known better than to trust him. He was too good… the sensations from what he was doing to me radiated out from between my legs through my limbs, sweeping my thoughts from me. His mouth felt like it was pressing against every inch of my skin—except where his hand slid flat against my belly, up to curve over my breasts and squeeze, harder and harder. And then my ability to focus on that sensation, on any individual part of my body, was snatched away from me by a new wave of pleasure from his efforts down below.
I didn’t come back to myself until I was arching my back, biting my lip, as a release I couldn’t control twisted me first one way and then the other.
I hadn’t realised I’d closed my eyes, but when I opened them, feeling a very unpleasant tingling in my hands. Devin was already kneeling by my side, separated from me. He helped me to sit up and get my arms unhooked from my clothes, as if he knew exactly how I would be feeling at the moment. This was definitely not the first time he’d played out a scene like that.
He was unmoved apparently; he didn’t even look like he had any mark on his mouth to give away what he’d just been doing.
I tried to get close enough to kiss him, but he recoiled. I thought I knew why, too: he didn’t want me to taste myself on him. Didn’t want to have to acknowledge the way he’d just touched me, even implicitly.
Between the heavy meal and this ‘dessert’, I was in no position to fight him. I failed to stifle a yawn.
“We’re going to get you into bed,” said Devin, and I let him scoop me off the couch, even though I was pretty sure his hands were going all sorts of places they shouldn’t with me in my scantily-clothed state. That was exactly what I’d wanted, wasn’t it… although I’d hoped I would actually be conscious enough to take it all in. Right now I was feeling his hands on me as more of a general impression than exact sensations.
He carried me into the bedroom, which I had only briefly visited so far to drop off my bag (and unpack, on his insistence). He slid a nightgown over my head before he helped me remove my skirt and bra, so no salacious naked flesh was exposed to his eyes. A bit absurd when the man had basically had his nose up my vagina earlier.
I could see where the scam in this was, and I struggled to get myself upright and escape it as he pulled a sheet over me and backed away. “Come to bed with me?”
“I don’t need to sleep yet.” He turned down the light.
“Well I don’t need it either, you’ve just knocked out my brain with… with whatever you’d like to call that spectacular little display.” I tried to adopt a seductive posture, one shoulder and my chest thrust aggressively forward. I was pretty sure it wasn’t working but I persisted anyway. “Just give me a moment, and I’m sure we can come up with some other enjoyable game to play.”
“You need some rest,” Devin told me, and walked away.
“I bet you don’t even take your pants off to have sex,” I shouted after him, and then immediately sank back into the softness of my pillow so I couldn’t tell if that noise was a laugh I’d forced out of Devin, or annoyance. I was definitely right, though. If not for witnessing him changing his shirt that one time I might have easily believed there was a robot under his clothes, and that really bothered me, because I was starting to really want to peel those layers away and find a warm heart underneath.
Chapter Twelve
I sat up with a gasp.
It was just like the morning before, when I had woken to unexpected voices. But this time I was in a strange bed again, and at least one of those voices didn’t seem familiar at all.
I’d learned my lesson from the day before. I couldn’t get myself into the single bathroom in the apartment, but I pulled on a proper outfit, brushed out my hair, and cleaned my face thoroughly with some wipes. I didn’t dare put on makeup withut a full mirror, but I was young and fresh enough that I could probably get away without it.
Once I was decent, I made a quick and quiet tidy of my room and then stepped up to the door for a bit of strategic eavesdropping before I joined the action.
A childish female voice was doing most of the talking. “She’ll need someone to guide her through the process.”
Devin’s voice sounded both amused and exasperated. “Someone who has never been even close to getting married before?”
“You know exactly what Caroline means.” The third person out there was Devin’s mother, Angel. My face felt like it was going to get stuck in a permanant wince that would keep me from being able to come out at all. “When you get yourself into a situation like this for purposes of revenge, it is too easy to go down a bad path if you allow yourself to have complete control over the project. You need our involvement.”
“I will need your involvement when I ask for your involvement,” Devin responded, not quite petulant yet but close enough to really amuse me. “Julia has a say in this too, for the record.”
“She doesn’t know enough to have a meaningful opinion,” said Angel. “You need to use whatever influence you have obtained over her to guide her in the right direction.”
I was pretty sure I was still grimacing, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I opened my door and strode into the fray, slowing and looking around once I was in the middle of the living space like I hadn’t expected to see Angel and the pretty woman with long dark hair who must be Caroline.
Then I ruined the act by blurting out what I couldn’t keep contained. “Well hello, and shouldn’t I have the chance to be personally involved in any attempts to indoctrinate me?”
Devin shot me a smile broader than any he’d offered to date. Maybe this was the sort of thing he had in mind for our partnership. Unfortunately being made to focus on his mouth just reminded me where it had been several hours before, which had me squirming and blushing in a way that wasn’t going to help me hold my own. Especially when I was wary about what Angel might think of Devin already being here when she arrived, not to mention frustrated that he probably wasn’t thinking about what had happened between us at all. Yeah, we needed to be a team against these two women… but I didn’t feel like being on his team at all right now.
“Julia.” Angel smiled at me like she hadn’t just been going on about how ignorant I was. “I know Devin hasn’t made it a priority to introduce you to any other members of the family you will be joining, so I brought my niece Caroline. My sister’s daughter. She is closest to your age of all the young people in the
family.”
“Actually, Jellie is even closer to—”
Angel cut Devin off. “The members of the Torro family are none of my business.”
I found myself shaking Caroline’s hand. She had the same big, innocent eyes as Devin and exuded similar style in her pleated lilac skirt and white blouse. She definitely didn’t look like she was on her way to a job interview.
“Welcome to the family, Julia—well, I suppose you haven’t officially joined yet, but on that note, I’m very eager to help you out by taking you around to start shopping for your dress.”
I thought about what Devin might say: don’t be stupid, Julia, except he would say it in a much more eloquent and therefore more insulting way. This was definitely something Angel had put her up to: her way of worming in on proceedings. Yes, I really had underestimated Devin’s mother.
“I appreciate the offer,” I told Caroline, “but it’s not something that’s on my radar yet, never mind needing help on it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry if I’ve gotten the wrong impression.” Caroline’s eyes were so wide I might have been fooled into feeling bad if I hadn’t been spending so much time around Devin. She was almost certainly playing for effect. She definitely knew what was going on. “I thought the plan was to have the wedding out of the way as soon as possible. There isn’t a moment to waste when you’ve got a deadline like that. I may not have been married myself, as my beloved cousin was just reminding me, but both my sisters have been through it. It can take some time to get the right dress and have it adjusted properly. You wouldn’t want to be stuck with some awful sack that you look terrible in, would you…”
I was picturing the O’Hare and Torro families only coming together in their agreement that Devin was marrying a literal sack of potatoes, plus whatever other mafia extended family we invited along enjoying the drama. Getting into that situation was definitely something Angel would never forgive me for—with rights.
“Well I promise I’ll think of you when I’m ready to make a decision, but I’ll probably go out by myself a few times first, figure out what I might like.”
Caroline gave me a polite smile. “Of course, whatever works best for you… but are you going to be able to try on those dresses without assistance? It’s just, I hear you don’t have much of a support network right now.”
Angel didn’t even hold back that much. “You’re going to need someone to drive you around for this, Julia. The best shops… aren’t exactly on the bus route.” She curled her lip in a suggestion of her feelings surrounding those who took advantage of the bus route. “Devin isn’t supposed to be a part of this side of things, he can’t do it… and I doubt you’re in a position to ask your mother for assistance. Caroline is an ideal choice.”
I didn’t like it, but she was right. I couldn’t go about this the wrong way if I ever wanted to be on Devin’s good side. I didn’t want to go about it the wrong way. And while I was surrounded by Devin’s family I needed to make connections unless I wanted to be treated the same way I was in my own. Caroline seemed like the safest option there so far.
“If you’re sure I won’t be inconveniencing you,” I told Caroline. “I could use the help. I don’t have much experience with the whole wedding business, that much is for sure.”
Caroline broke out in a little golf clap of delight. There might actually be some benefit in spending time around her to try to absorb as much as I could of her elegance. “I’m so pleased to help. Now, I was thinking, I have the whole of tomorrow afternoon off work, so that would be a great opportunity to catch lunch together, around twelve-thirty maybe, and then go shopping. I can help keep you honest about not eating too much before you go in for a preliminary fitting.”
“Oh, I—” This was not at all how I intended to spend an entire afternoon when I was still struggling to get my bearings with Devin. “I, um…”
“That sounds like a perfect arrangement.” Angel got in ahead of me. “I’ll make sure I don’t bother either of you tomorrow for coffee, let you have a chance to bond.”
Since when had I been on Angel O’Hare’s coffee list? How did she even have my number?
“Well.” Angel clapped her hands together properly, making both Caroline and I jump. “That’s all I needed to sort out here, I’ll get out of your hair. Let’s go, Caroline.” She grabbed Devin’s forearm on the way to the door and squeezed it hard enough that he couldn’t stifle his wince. “I’d better leave the two of you to get more accustomed to one another, hadn’t I?”
Oh, she definitely hadn’t missed the fact that we’d spent the night together in the apartment… she probably just had an idea of the situation that was closer to my disappointed expectations.
Once she’d shut the door after herself and Caroline, I turned on Devin. “Is she just going to invite herself in whenever she feels like it?”
“It is her property,” said Devin. The way he spoke made me think he was paraphrasing what Angel would have said if I’d tried to call her out.
“That shouldn’t make a difference!”
“You’re right,” Devin replied, “but what are you going to do about it?”
“Am I really going to have to go out with your cousin tomorrow?” I was actually whining, and I hated it, but if I was going to (possibly) marry this man, I wasn’t going to start by pretending I was something I could never be. With people I was comfortable with, bitching was part of my process.
“Well I’m not going to make you,” said Devin.
I squinted at him and followed as he made his way over to the table—meticulously cleaned—where he seated himself in an excessively pulled-out chair and started going through his phone. “I get the feeling you don’t want to be having this conversation at all.”
“I don’t understand why I need to be having this conversation. And in case you’re thinking to accuse me of not understanding women, I’ve had a relationship with my mother all my life and she never expected me to engage with questions of how she should conduct her personal life.”
“That is the first reassuring thing I’ve learned about your situation with your mother today. I wouldn’t expect you to have a husband-and-wife dynamic with her, but I’ve started to question everything now that she can apparently just walk into a place you—or your future wife—occupy on a whim.”
“You’re going to have to work out a way of dealing with her by yourself, Julia,” Devin said without even bothering to look back at me.
“And you are going to have to work out how to deal with having an adult relationship with a woman who isn’t your mother.”
“I’m starting to regret extending this offer to you in the first place,” Devin told his phone.
I felt my back stiffen. “So are you going to go back on the offer now?”
Devin’s posture changed too. “No.” He got to his feet, caught me around the back of the head as I stepped back, and kissed me so hard I was reeling and gasping when he pushed me away. I couldn’t even get my head around how I felt about it, which probably said it all.
“I’ve decided you are going to go out with Caroline tomorrow,” Devin told me. “It’ll give me a chance to get something important organised without needing to worry about keeping you entertained.”
“I don’t need to be—you know what, actually I’m not going to fight you on that.” Maybe this would be my chance to get Caroline on my side against whatever Angel had planned. It had to really bug her that Angel ordered her around like a dog, but she probably wouldn’t admit it until she got to trust me. Until she could see I was the sort of ally she should take a risk to get… and I hadn’t been doing so well at being someone worth taking risks on, so far. “I guess I’ll be getting to know Caroline tomorrow. What will you be doing that’s more important than your future wife, anyway?”
“A secret,” Devin returned. I scowled at him, and he somehow managed to smirk without it ever looking close to a smile. “You have your things to do that I’m not allowed to be a part of… well, I have
mine.”
And considering the sorts of things I already knew he’d been involved in, that was my cue to stop asking questions.
I was shuffling by the time I made it back into the apartment after five the following afternoon. Caroline had an enthusiasm for beautiful clothes even I couldn’t really match—or maybe it was just an enthusiasm for having someone to enjoy beautiful clothes with.
“It’s hard to find lasting friends if you happen to be born into this extended family,” she’d admitted just before saying goodbye to me outside the apartment building. “Either your parents have a falling-out with their parents and you’re expected to cut off contact, or they end up with some reason to think spending time with you might be dangerous… and given who we all are, they’re probably right. Even when it gets worked out in the end, it sucks for long-term relationships.”
It had to be even harder to find someone you could enter into the sort of long-term relationship most people were especially keen on with. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised Devin had jumped at the chance to get me on board as a future wife.
And speaking of my future husband, I had half-expected he wouldn’t be there when I returned. Then when I saw him sitting on the couch in front of the TV where he’d been when I ran out to get in Caroline’s car—where he’d probably slept for all I knew, he’d gone out the night before and hadn’t been back before I admitted defeat and crawled to bed—I half-expected to spot Angel somewhere in the room in the next moment. Apparently she didn’t have anything further to add to her roster of manipulations for the moment: we were alone.
“What was your day like?” asked Devin without looking at me. I let my bag slip by degrees from my fingers, frozen in place by the psychological whiplash. How had he gone from being my kidnapper to sitting in my place of residence acting all domestic? He couldn’t have come up with anything more perfectly designed to wig me out, although I supposed I was wigging myself out just fine having the hots for him.
