Blair showers and comes into my bedroom, where I wait for her. She’s wearing one of my henley shirts. The gray shirt is loose on her, the top button open, the sleeves bunched up, and the neckline hanging precariously from one shoulder. It hits her mid-thigh and the top of her bra peeks out.
It takes an absurd amount of willpower to keep my hands to myself when all I ache to do is wrap Blair up and tuck her back in my heart, where she belongs.
Dragging in a breath, I erase the distance between us. “Feel better?”
“So much.” Her mouth pulls into a lopsided smile. “Now that I’m out of the slammer, I’m like a new woman. I’m thinking about writing a memoir on the lessons prison taught me.”
I chuckle, cupping her shoulders to bring her closer. It feels right to have her back in my room. I need to keep her this time. I’ll do everything to be worthy enough to deserve her.
A loud growl sounds. Blair scrunches her nose, bunching the freckles scattered across the bridge. She covers her stomach with one hand. “How do you feel about ordering something? I didn’t eat dinner.”
An amused sound huffs out of me. “I’ll go order and pick it up.” I drop a soft kiss on her temple. “I’ll be back soon. I have a couple of things to take care of.”
Before I make it far, Blair tugs on my shirt with a vulnerable sound. “Wait.”
There’s a need in her eyes. It answers the matching one in my chest. Without words, we come together, both of us pulling until our lips connect in a tender kiss.
The world rights itself. Kissing Blair fills the empty cavern in my chest. Both of us release desperate sounds as we clutch each other. I want nothing more than to deepen the kiss, lay her down in my bed, and make her feel good. First, there’s something I have to do.
“Wait for me. I’ll be back soon.”
* * *
On my way back from the clinic, I dial Dad’s number. He better pick up. I haven’t called or texted him since Thanksgiving, uninterested in trying to pretend we have a father-son relationship worth recovering.
At the clinic, the receptionist stared at me with wide eyes as she copied my information to Macy’s file from my license. “Murphy as in…” Her features stretched with her silent question.
“Yes.” I signed the form for electronic payment authorization to pay the outstanding balance to keep Macy at New Horizons.
Dad actually answers the phone with a clipped, “Hello?”
“Dad. It’s Devlin.” He grumbles on the line. Prick. “A new patient checked in at your clinic tonight. Autoimmune disease.”
“Oh?” I hate the interest that perks in his voice. Medicine trumps human fucking decency. “How do you know this?”
“She’s my girlfriend’s mom.”
“Your girlfriend?”
“Yeah, Dad,” I grit as I pull through the gate and park in the circular drive. “I tried to introduce you before, remember? That’s one of the things you’d know about me if you cared to talk to your son about more than your career expectations for me. You know, like a real father.”
“I am your real father.”
“Are you?” Pent up rage I’ve smothered for years billows in my chest. I slam my hand on the wheel. “Bullshit, old man. Uncle Ed and Aunt Lottie have been better parents to me than you and Mom.”
The truth of it burns my lungs. I’ve had parents my whole life, they just weren’t my biological parents.
“Now listen here, Devlin!”
“No, Dad!” I stab a finger against the leather of the wheel. “For once, you listen! You’re so obsessed with your career that you can’t even see you missed out on my entire life. I’ve asked you for nothing, even though you both abandoned me.”
“You’re wrong. Your mother and I have given you the opportunity to continue our work and—”
A hollow laugh tears from me. “Are you kidding? Do you hear what you’re saying?” I pull my fingers through my hair. “You left me to the nannies and Mom’s sister. The only time you pay attention to me is to course correct if I veer from the med school expectations you cram down my throat. Why did you even have a kid if you wanted to work so badly?”
My raw yell echoes in the car.
Dad is quiet on the line for a minute. “Your mother, she…”
“Don’t bother. It’s not like I couldn’t fucking guess.” Blowing out a ragged breath, I sever any remaining vestiges of hope my parents care about me. It’s freeing in a way, to let go of the broken threads I’ve been clinging to. I don’t need them. I have a family—Blair, my aunt and uncle, Lucas, Gemma, and Bishop. I don’t need anyone else. “You wanted me to be a man so bad, to grow up and be independent, well this is me doing that.”
“Yelling at me like a child?” The distaste in Dad’s voice is laughable.
Christ, who let him procreate? The detached, clinical way he approached fatherhood is wrong. Every one of my psychology books on the subject rings true on the importance during key developmental stages.
“No.” My voice is cold and commanding. “Macy Davis. She’s the patient. I want you to take the case or recommend a specialist.”
“What gives you the right to give me orders or make medical decisions on behalf of someone else?”
I grind my teeth. “The entirety of my existence. I deserve retribution, but instead this is all I’m asking for. Take this woman’s case and help her.”
“Why do you care about this?”
A dull pain throbs behind my eye. “Because her daughter is my girlfriend and her mom is her whole fucking world—something you’d never understand! This is the girl I love. She’s my family. My universe. I’ll do everything to protect and care for her. If you don’t do it, I’ll come for you, old man. Do we have a deal?”
Dad is quiet for a long stretch. I contemplate threatening something more drastic to make him comply.
“Very well.”
I blink out of my day dream about digging up blackmail to bury his career with. “Good.”
“What are your plans regarding your future?”
I bring the phone in front of my face to growl my point. “Anything I fucking want, because it’s my life, not yours.”
I hang up before he can curdle my blood. It felt good to finally stand up to him. I don’t need either of them. I haven’t for a while. Between my investments and financial manager, I have no use for their monthly expense account anymore.
What I wanted from them was never money. It was just the last lingering wishes of a lonely little boy missing the love of his parents, hoping they’d notice or care. I have the only family that matters to me and it no longer includes them.
With that issue seen to, I can finally go to Blair.
Forty-Five
Blair
While Devlin is out, the sense of comfort hits me hard as I stand in the middle of his—our—bedroom. I go to his side of the bed, running my fingers over his pillow. The stack of psychology texts are present, and another book, one that makes my heart stutter.
Stardust sits next to Devlin’s books, rescued from wherever I had left it before storming from the house when we fought.
It makes me want to apologize to him with more than words, to make up for fighting with him, and thank him for coming to save me when I needed him.
I used to think Devlin was nothing more than an evil, emotionless, manipulative asshole.
But he’s not that. He’s selective about the people he allows to see the real him, keeping those who don’t matter at a distance with cruel words.
Devlin is someone aching for the magic of stars because a little girl gave him hope when he needed it. Underneath the jagged pain he’s wrapped himself in, Devlin is a man that loves fiercely with his whole heart.
I love him, all of him.
From his sharp edges to his hidden charms.
His heart is my home. I never want to leave it again.
The supplies I bought weeks ago for a special room makeover pop into my head. “Yes!”
Hurrying i
nto my old room, I dig through the closet, where I’d shoved the string lights and plastic stars away. They’re tucked in the back, behind a stack of extra blankets. A tender warmth fills my chest as I get started.
I gave Devlin my stars once. It’s time I gave them to him again.
In the bedroom, I hang the strand of tiny star-shaped lights over the bed. It casts a golden glow on the pillows. I stick the plastic glow in the dark stars to the wall, focusing them over the headboard and spreading the galaxy of my own making along the wall. They’re different shapes, some large and some small.
I’m stretching to my limit, standing on the bed to reach the ceiling to put the finishing touches on my surprise.
A quiet laugh sounds behind me, followed by a sardonic voice. “Back home for five minutes and you’re redecorating already?”
I jump, spinning around to find Devlin leaning against the doorway, watching.
“How long have you been there?”
“A few minutes. I was enjoying the view.” His gaze skates down my body. “What’s all this?”
I gesture to the stars. “Do you like it? I planned this a while ago, actually. These glow in the dark.”
Devlin hums, taking in the new decor. “Yeah. You brought the stars inside.”
“I did.” A flutter tickles my stomach from the inside. “I wanted you to always have the stars overhead so you can whisper your wishes to them.”
The corners of Devlin’s eyes crinkle and his dimples appear with his surprised smile. “You…”
He crosses the room and grasps my waist. With a gentle tug, he guides me to my knees so we’re closer in height. Our foreheads touch.
“I love you,” I whisper.
Devlin wraps his arms around me and captures my mouth in a sweet, deep kiss that steals my breath. We kiss long and slow, with no purpose other than feeling. When we part, Devlin meets my eyes.
“I need to tell you.”
He said he’d been out looking for me tonight because he had things to say.
“Tell me.”
Devlin traces the freckles spread across my nose. His brow wrinkles and I reach up to smooth it.
“It hurt when you left.” I open my mouth, but he shakes his head. “It hurts anytime someone leaves. I think it first started when my parents pretty much gave me up in favor of their work. People kept leaving, so I built up a shield. I stopped letting people in, stopped caring about them, so when they inevitably left, it wouldn’t bother me. But deep down, it did. It doesn’t stay buried forever.”
A small sound escapes me. Devlin’s mouth twitches into a quick grimace. He sits down on the bed and pulls me into his lap, holding me close as he continues.
“I’ve been this way for so long, when you dug your way into my heart, it scared me. I was too greedy. I just—I wanted too much because I stopped myself from feeling those things. I was drunk on you.”
I lay my head on his shoulder, kissing his neck. Devlin rumbles, sliding his fingers beneath the hem of the henley shirt to trace my hip.
“I’m sorry for the things I did to hurt you.” He licks his lips. “All I want to do is be worthy of your heart.”
Devlin rustles in the pockets of his jeans, pulling out a folded paper. He hands it to me. My eyes go wide as I skim the words. It’s long-term admittance paperwork for my mom at the clinic, paid in full and outlining a specialized program for patients with illnesses like Mom’s.
I sit up. “You—Devlin, you did this?”
“I told you, it’s my parents’ clinic. I called my dad. They'll take good care of her. She’ll have the best treatment.”
My heart thuds as a wave of emotion wells from deep within me. I throw my arms around his neck. “Thank you.”
Devlin rests his forehead against my shoulder. “You’re my shooting star. My wishes come true when I’m with you.” He turns his face, grazing his mouth over my neck. “My heart belongs to you.”
My lips part and I kiss him again, losing myself in the way we intertwine. He makes a quiet sound and I move to straddle him, feeling him harden between my legs as we move. My fingers slide into his hair and our kiss deepens. He explores languidly, dragging his palms over my bare thighs, over my backside, and up my spine underneath his shirt.
“Please,” I murmur. “I want you. I need to feel you right now.”
“Yes.” Devlin doesn’t break the kiss as his arms lock around me, tugging me further onto the mattress as he lays back.
His shoes thump to the floor as I pull on his clothes. He slides his hands up my sides, peeling his henley shirt from my body, and undoes my bra with a skilled move. As soon as it falls, he groans, bending to suck one of my nipples into his mouth. His tongue flicks, making me shake in his arms. My head falls back as he moves to the neglected side, pinching the first one.
The flick of his tongue makes me buck, grinding down on his stiff length. We’re only in underwear, and I need there to be no barriers between us.
“Dev, please. I want to feel you inside.”
He releases my nipple to kiss me. “Patience, angel. I’m going to take my time, fuck you long and slow until we’ve touched every inch of each other.”
An amused breath leaves me as I grind on him. “I’ve only been gone, like, a week.”
“Felt more like a lifetime,” Devlin grumbles against the sensitive skin of my neck. His fingers dip into the back of my underwear, squeezing my ass. The tip of his middle finger teases between the cheeks.
“Uh, Dev?” My voice is throaty when he bucks beneath me, pressing his cock into my throbbing clit. At the same time, he rubs his finger over my puckered hole. I drop my head back, lips parted on a gasp. “When you say every inch…?”
With a gravelly laugh, Devlin flips us so I’m on my back. He straddles my hips and traps my wrists overhead as his teeth nip down the column of my throat. I arch up to meet him, my body thrumming from his touch.
“I mean every inch. It’s going to be a long night.”
“Yeah, I want that, too.” I bite my lip as he moves lower, peeling my underwear down while he settles between my spread legs.
“Keep those hands where I left them.” Devlin peeks up. It shouldn’t look sexy as hell, but it does. The wicked curve of his mouth, the gleam in his eyes, and the hint of mischief in his deep tone as he whispers, hovering his mouth over my pussy, all have me trembling in pleasure before his mouth descends where I need him. “I’m going to make you feel so good.”
At the first swipe of Devlin’s tongue on my pulsing clit, I cry out, fisting my hands in the sheets. He growls, licking and sucking my pussy. He drives me to orgasm so fast, I go lightheaded.
“Mm, that’s it, baby. Are you ready? It’s going to be like that all night. I’m not stopping until I make you collapse from coming so much.”
“Ah!” I moan as Devlin’s fingers tease my entrance before sinking inside. He curls them, stroking me and fucking me on his fingers. “Yes!”
I whimper as Devlin lifts his mouth off my clit when I’m close to another orgasm, but then it’s back, working me perfectly.
His slick thumb massages my ass, circling with gentle pressure. It feels so good as I relax back into the bed. His thumb slides past the tight muscles, working into my ass as he thrusts his fingers in my vagina. My body hums with pleasure from Devlin’s tongue and fingers. Devlin pumps his fingers and thumb in a torturous, sedate pace as he licks my clit, the euphoric sensations building.
Devlin fills me, my pussy and my ass clenching on his fingers.
“Please, more! I’m close, I just need—” Devlin hums against my pussy, pressing his tongue harder while he thrusts his fingers into the sweet spot deep in my core that pushes me over the edge. My back bows as I cry out. “Ah, god, yes!”
“Only me, baby,” Devlin murmurs while he works his fingers perfectly, knowing how to touch me to keep my orgasm going. “Only me.”
“Only you,” I repeat in a ragged whisper.
Devlin pulls his fingers free and shif
ts up the bed to kiss me. I moan into his mouth when his cock glides against my slick folds. It takes monumental effort to keep my hands pinned to the bed when all I want is to touch him. Devlin ends the kiss to lean over, retrieving a condom from the nightstand.
“Please.” I flex my fingers, glancing up.
A fond smile steals across Devlin’s face. “Touch me, baby.”
I grin as I sit up, skating my palms over the hard muscles and smooth skin, paying special attention to the cluster of shooting stars inked beneath Devlin’s heart. My short nails drag lightly down his chest. I savor the way his eyes hood and his head tips back slightly. I take the condom from Devlin and stroke his cock, meeting his intense gaze. Parting my lips, I take him into my mouth, sucking down the shaft and bobbing back up.
“Fuck,” Devlin groans, his hand cupping the back of my head. He threads his fingers into my hair, massaging gently. “So good. You’re perfect.”
I pull off and open the condom, rolling it onto his cock. He tips my chin up and kisses me. I fall back to the sheets and Devlin follows, entering me in a smooth glide.
“Mm, so perfect,” he whispers against my lips, bracing on his forearm and cupping my jaw.
As he moves, my body opens, welcoming the fullness and connection.
My attention snags on the twinkling stars on the strand of lights and the homemade galaxy we’re making love under. It fills me with a bright joy, feeling like I’m right where I should be.
Devlin moves in the same slow pace, rolling his hips in a way that drives my pleasure more intensely. A well of emotion bubbles in my chest, twining with the heat coiling in my core. With a soft, needy sound, I snake my arms around Devlin’s neck, holding on tight as he brings me to the edge over and over.
“Come here.” Devlin picks me up from the bed and sits back on his heels with my legs wrapped around him. He rocks into my pussy, hitting my sweet spot and filling me deeper. A rough sound leaves Devlin as he cradles me close, stroking the star tattoo between my shoulder blades. “You feel that?”
Tempting Devil: Sinners and Saints Book 2 Page 29
