Catching the deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression blanketing Nicholas’ face, Devil sighed heavily. “You’re scaring the boy, Grant. Knock it off. The kid’s got enough problems right now without hearing how his sex life will eventually become as mythical as the existence of unicorns.”
“Better he hears the truth from a friend,” Grant counseled wisely.
“Ignore him,” Devil ordered, rolling his eyes at Grant’s Tony worthy theatrical performance. “He’s just bitter because his wife currently enjoys the company of E.L. James’ and Sylvia Day’s books more than his own. As long as you and Mannie keep things fresh between the sheets, you won’t have a problem,” he counseled easily.
“Well, fuck,” Grant cursed. “How the fuck is a normal guy supposed to keep up with these fictional fuckin’ heroes that the girls are reading about lately? It’s like these romance authors are trying to raise the bar for husbands everywhere!” Zoning his keen gaze back on Nick, he pointed an accusing finger. “And don’t think you’re off the hook just because you sail your boat in another ocean. Nuh uh. Apparently gay erotica is on the rise as well with the ladies and gents. Karen left her kindle on the table the other day and before I realized what I was reading, I was learning how two men can get it on in the shower! And damn it, I was jealous of them,” he whined morosely.
Even as his lips twitched at Nick’s horrified expression, Devil slammed his hand down against the table, the gold of his wedding ring flashing in the dim light. “Dammit, guys, we’re here because my sex life is in the shitter. First, I’m dealing with Molly’s insane insecurities about her body. Which, did I mention is completely fucking bonkers! I mean, honestly, how could she ever doubt how much I love her? She gave me a freaking child! What kind of ungrateful shmuck would I be if I got bent out of shape over a little cellulite and a few stretch marks?”
“Please, God, tell me you didn’t say that to her,” Nick begged, his wide dark eyes widening as he turned toward his boss. “I’m homosexual as hell, but even I’m astute enough to realize you should never say that shit to a woman that’s just given birth. The hormones running through her body could take down an elephant, man!”
“This is actually true,” Grant agreed with a bob of his head. “Medically speaking, she’s probably about as dangerous as Charles Manson circa 1972 at this post-pregnancy stage. Sleep lightly, my friend,” he advised blandly.
“Hey, I’d finally gotten her past the point of wanting to do me harm and interested in doing something a whole lot more enjoyable than fighting last night. Like I said, clothes were off. Then, Mannie the Mood Killer arrived,” Devil grumbled with a heated look toward Nick. “Now, if I ever wanna see my wife naked again, I’ve gotta somehow fix your relationship, Santino. Now, how do you propose we do that?”
“Hold up. I’m still a little unclear on why the hell you haven’t told your parents about your intended,” Grant interrupted with a frown. “You’re a successful, influential guy in your field. I mean, Devil, here… he only hires the best of the best. And you’re what? Twenty-eight? Thirty? Don’t you think it’s past time to step out of the closet? Aren’t you getting claustrophobic in there yet? And how in the hell can you be closeted when you’re engaged to somebody as openly flamboyant as Mannie?”
Running a hand down his handsome face, Nick sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“Then you should really work on simplifying it before you talk to Armando,” Devil warned evenly. “The one thing I know about that Latin lover of yours is that he hates being played for a fool, my man. And right now, he feels like the biggest sucker on the street. So, practice on us…pretend we’re Armando and talk this out.”
“Oooohhh, role play. This’ll be fun,” Grant grunted, waving his empty glass in the air.
“My parents are known to be a bit….difficult,” Nick began slowly as his fingers nervously toyed with the frayed edge of the paper napkin underneath his glass.
Devil couldn’t help his dry laugh. Hearing Nick’s description of the uptight, judgmental people he’d met ten years ago at a charity benefit was enough to have him shaking his head in disgust. Those people weren’t difficult. Nick’s parental units (because calling them parents was too kind in his mind) were assholes, plain and simple. He still remembered how they’d looked down their noses at him. His biggest sin had been that he was a self-made man rather than a member of the old money set they preferred their son to associate with. The fact that he’d also been the proud grandson of poor Irish immigrants had only provided the icing on their judgy cake. While he and Nick had hit it off and began a lasting friendship, Nick’s parents had made him feel like an unwelcome interloper among their Country Club cronies. Devil would be lying if he said that he hadn’t taken extreme delight in hiring their talented son years later and relocating him hundreds of miles away from their Boston home. “I think difficult puts it a bit too mildly, bud,” Devil grunted, shaking his head as he frowned at the man he’d hired almost five years ago. “I met those folks that claim you as a son for thirty minutes over a decade ago and even I can call it like it is. Your parents are a pair of the biggest blue-blooded bigots on the Eastern Seaboard.”
“Jesus, Dev! That’s a little harsh,” Grant winced, shooting a shocked look toward his friend.
“No,” Nick denied. “Devil pretty much nailed it. They’re that horrible. That’s one of the biggest reasons I had for avoiding them the last several years. I mean, I knew I was gay back in college, but I never met someone that I could imagine a future with until I met Armando. Finding him was like finding the missing piece of myself, you know?”
“Okay,” Devil muttered, “I do know, but you’re flirting perilously close to a chick conversation now…let’s dial it back a bit.”
Nick glared at his boss. “God forbid we have a sensitive, meaningful conversation about our feelings.”
“Amen to that,” Devil grunted as their waitress returned to their table with another round of drinks. Barely offering her a dismissive nod when she smiled flirtatiously at all of them before sashaying away, he growled, “Continue.”
“I guess after Armando and I got serious I never wanted to inflict my uptight family on him. He’s already been through so much with his own relatives. I mean, my God, they disowned him when he came out to them. I’ve seen his face when he speaks about that time in his life. I didn’t want to put him through it with me. For God’s sake, my parents remember they have a son exactly twice a year: when they send me a card with a check at Christmas and when my mother makes her obligatory phone call the week of my birthday. I don’t know why the hell she’s calling early this year. My birthday is still a little over two weeks away. It was just bad luck that Mannie ever picked up that phone with her on the other end.”
“Or, maybe it was fate all along,” Grant suggested.
“How so?” Nick questioned sharply.
“Christ, Nick, did you think you could hide your parents from Mannie forever or vice versa? How the fuck did you plan to keep a 6’2” Latin man that favors the colors of fuchsia and turquoise in his wardrobe choices under wraps indefinitely? ” Devil asked drolly. “This was bound to happen. Christ, I’m not sure how it didn’t happen sooner. Bottom line: Armando assumes you were ashamed of him. The idea that you were ashamed of your own family hasn’t crossed his mind.”
“No,” Nick denied, automatically shaking his head. “I could never be ashamed of a man whose soul is as beautiful as Armando’s. Not ever.”
“Those are pretty words, Nick, but I think you’re gonna need to back ‘em up with some fairly strong actions,” Devil retorted, focusing his icy blue eyes on his employee and friend. “You didn’t see your fiancé last night, kid. Mannie was crushed. You weren’t in the house when I almost lost my Molly before our own wedding, but I gotta say, in ways it felt like déjà vu to me. That look of agony. The tears. Your guy was convinced that it was him that you were embarrassed by. He believes that you think he’s defective in some way and that’s why you hid him
from your folks,” he added quietly, hating the look of intense pain that crossed Nick’s face. He hated to see good people get crapped on. And Nick and Mannie might be a pain in his ass, but they were good people, too.
“Fuck, man. I knew it was bad, but this shit is fucking tragic,” Grant whispered, averting his gaze from Nick and lowering it to stare at the scarred tabletop.
“What am I going to do? Oh, God, how the hell am I going to fix this?” Nick whispered forlornly, his voice faint, but shaky as he stared into space. “I can’t lose Armando. No one has ever understood me the way he does. Nobody has ever even tried. He’s my lover, yeah, but that’s the least of what he is. He’s also my best friend and biggest fan. I can’t not have him in my life. It would be like trying to live without my heart. A person can’t exist without a heart, Devil.”
“Listen, I know it’s tough, but I sort of know what you’re going through here. When I almost lost Molly just before we were married to a stupid, fucked up misunderstanding, I felt like all the oxygen had been sucked off the planet. The scope of my world narrowed to one singular objective. To get her back…. And that meant doing whatever I had to do to get her back in my arms where her ass belonged. Everything that I thought ever meant anything at all to me lost all meaning. Everything else in my world paled in comparison to what she meant to me. There was no time to lose whimpering about how much I’d fucked up. I knew how much I’d fucked up. Crying about it was a waste of my valuable time. No, the only thing I could focus on was doing whatever I had to do to get Molly back.”
“And…” Nick prompted, listening attentively to Devil’s words of wisdom.
“And he fuckin’ did,” Grant recalled. “He took on those two angry women that are currently flanking your man. He braved Armando’s temper, his Nana’s remarkable combative skills with a mixing spoon, our mom’s wrath, and my not inconsiderable skill with my fists. It was a bad day for the Devil,” he continued to reminisce. “But, at the end of it, he’d battled his way back to my sister’s side and refused to leave her until she forgave him.”
Holding out his arms, Devil grinned. “And I’m still here. Sexually frustrated, but present and fucking accounted for, my man. You’re gonna get through this, too.”
“I wish I knew how,” Nick muttered, fiddling with his phone. “Armando still won’t take my calls or respond to a single text begging him to just talk to me.”
“Then maybe it’s time to take the fight to him. It’s not like we don’t know where he is,” Grant offered conversationally. “We could always lock ‘em in the pool house together,” he suggested, looking toward Devil for approval.
“Not a good idea without a referee. I’ve seen Mannie nearly eviscerate both the FedEx and UPS guys when they’re late with a package. I don’t wanna think about what he’d do to Nick in a situation like this,” Devil returned. “No, I’ve got a different idea. And I hope you aren’t pissed, but I’ve kinda taken a few liberties on your behalf,” he informed Nick slowly. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan.”
“What did you do, Devil?” Nick asked nervously, his eyes anxious as they stared at his boss. “Please, please, please, tell me that this so-called plan you’ve concocted is Molly approved.”
“I have every faith that she’d have approved if I’d shared it with her,” Devil returned easily. Jeez, he’d managed to make Nick a fairly wealthy man in the past few years by doling out his advice to the younger man. You’d think the bastard would be more trusting now. Shrugging it off, Devil continued, “Sadly, I didn’t have an opportunity to consult with her. All her time was consumed by your fiancé last night.”
“Oh, crap,” Nick whined, rubbing his temples. “Does it look like I’m getting grey hair?” he asked Grant worriedly. “It feels like it’s greying as we speak,” he confided, toying with the still dark hair at his temples.
“Now, don’t panic just yet,” Grant soothed calmly. “I’ve known Devil almost my whole life and if I’m completely honest with you, his plans only go to shit about half the time,” he consoled, patting Nick on the back.
Eyes wide with alarm, Nick jerked in his seat. “Tell me you’re joking,” he pleaded with Grant only to be met with amused laughter. “He is joking, right?” he questioned Devil hastily.
“Nick, you’ve worked with me for several years. You know I take calculated risks, but how many times have you seen one of those risks not pay off in the long run?”
Nick stared at the man responsible for bringing him into the business world and mentoring him. “Never,” he answered softly. “I’ve never seen you take a risk that didn’t ultimately reward the investor.”
“Well, I’m sure as hell not gonna start taking asinine chances now when I’ve got two of my friends’ happiness on the line. Believe me, I know how high the stakes are. If I make an error, I may never get Armando out of my house, man. That’s clearly enough of a threat to make me assess the components of this deal very fuckin’ carefully.” Devil assured him. Relieved when he noted Nick slowly relaxing, Devil leaned forward and braced his elbows against the table. “You ready to hear the strategy I’ve developed for dealing with this clusterfuck?”
Taking a deep breath, Nick nodded. “Okay. You’re right. I know you’d never do anything to make this worse. I want Armando back and whatever it takes, I’m gonna make it happen. What’s your plan? Where do we start?”
“Oh, this plan is already in motion, my friend. It’s been rolling since you stepped off our company jet this morning,” Devil explained, rubbing his hands together gleefully. He was rather proud of himself. He’d examined Nick’s plight from every angle and decided that there was only one route to take.
Startled and beyond confused, Nick’s eyebrows furrowed as he leaned toward Devil. “What do you mean? Are you planning on hijacking Mannie and myself to a desert island until he listens to me?”
“You wish,” Grant grunted, rolling his eyes.
“Better,” Devil declared with a sly smirk. “I’m flying your parents here so that Mannie can see, firsthand, why you tried to shield him from your dumbass family. Once he sees what you were forced to live with, there’s no way in Hell that man stays angry. Hell, you’ll be getting a sympathy bang before the clock strikes midnight!”
“Oh, my God,” Nick gasped, clutching his chest as he began to hyperventilate. “You didn’t!” he wheezed as Grant shoved his head between his knees and demanded him to breathe.
“I most certainly did. The plane from Boston will land at approximately seven this evening and the limo will deliver them to a very nice hotel. In the morning, we’ll all meet and you can work this shit out. That still gives us a firm six days to fix this shit,” Devil declared, unfazed by the quasi coronary his vice-president of mergers and acquisitions appeared to be having. “By God, enough is enough. Desperate times and desperate measures and all that other poetic bullshit. The end justifies the means, dammit. C’mon, Nick. Think of this as a business maneuver. What’s the first rule I taught you in a hostile takeover, son?”
“A-always use the home field advantage if you can get it,” Nick rasped as Grant fanned him with a menu.
Snapping his fingers, Devil grinned and nodded. “That’s right. You’re gonna take on those two idiots that claim to be your parents with the family you’ve made surrounding you, supporting you. You’re gonna tell ‘em that you’re a young, successful gay man in love with the man of your dreams and you’re gonna marry him with or without their fuckin’ approval. Stand up to them, Nick, and let Armando watch you do it. Believe me, he might not wanna listen to you now, but he’ll for damn sure listen to THAT.”
“Besides, if those assholes you’re unfortunately related to continue to make a fuss, we’re gonna turn Samantha and my Nana loose on their sorry asses. Those women have crapped bigger nuisances than your parents,” Devil noted with a careless shrug. “Face it, Nick. You’ve got people in your life now that love you. Unconditionally. You just have to let us do it.”
Wiping his sweating fo
rehead with the back of his hand, Nick lifted his pale face to look at Devil. “I don’t want their poison infecting the people in my life that matter. You’ve met them, Dev. They’re bullies. They’ll bulldoze right over…”
Holding up a hand, Nick shook his head. “You know how you stop a bully, Nick?” Seeing the other man shake his head, Devil grinned. “You find a bigger bully to take them on.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Dev leaned back in his chair. “Lucky for you, you’ve got one in your corner that happens to be severely pissed. Seriously, I will kill these people before I let them ruin this wedding. Do you know how much the flowers alone cost?” he asked with a shudder. “It’s obscene. But, it’s what Molly wants to give you. And I always try to give my Molly what she wants when she wants it. Happy wife, happy life and all that crap. These idiots are not gonna rob my wife – who has put her heart and soul into this ceremony - of your perfect day.”
Grant chuckled as Nick merely nodded solemnly.
Still laughing Grant shook his head. “Awww, Devil, if people only knew what a big ole softie you were….”
“….I’d have to hire a hit man to get rid of them,” Devil growled, glaring at the two men sitting at the table. “Now,” he said, peeling his credit card from his wallet and waving it in the air for the waitress to collect, “we’re gonna pay the tab and take you back to my place to see your intended, Nick. I’ve got six days to restore peace, love and harmony to my universe and by all I hold holy, I’m gonna do it if it’s the last thing I ever accomplish!”
Scorched: Chapter Seven
Molly
“Oh, my sweet Lord in Heaven! WHAT have you done, Devil Delancy?”
Standing in the open doorway to their en suite master bathroom, Molly gaped at her half naked husband. Swallowing hard as she watched round droplets of water slowly slide down his chiseled chest, she tried her best to ignore the way her core tightened every time he moved. He’d said he was going to take a shower while she put the baby down for the night, but it had been a long time since she’d returned from the nursery quickly enough to see him all damp and mouthwateringly fresh from the shower. Thank God their little angel had given up easily tonight and simply gone to sleep without complaint. She supposed she had Devil to thank for that, too. He’d played their little girl out for her.
The Sizzle Saga Page 50
