by Mary May
Devon stood under the pulsating hot water, letting it massage the stiffness and the soreness from his back and shoulders. He braced his hands against the tile wall and let his head hang down between them, slowly turning his head from one side to the other, loosening up the tight knotted up muscles. What, in the name of all that is holy, did I just see? He wondered. The giant was so clear in the mirror. He could describe him right down to the angry glint in his deep green eyes, wearing a maroon tunic with a bronze breastplate, and black-as-night wings spread out to cover at least ten feet of wall space behind him. He had hair as black as his wings that was just starting to reach his collar, and his face was brutally masculine and looked like he had seen some battles. He appeared to be an angel, but he didn’t look like any of the angels he had ever heard about in Sunday school. This guy looked like he ate the white winged pretty boy angels for breakfast! Devon wasn’t exactly a slouch in the size department himself; he had to look up to very few, but this guy made him feel very vulnerable, and that was something that he never felt before. He finally sighed, shaking his head hard like a dog, and decided the pain or more likely Edgar’s crap in a jar was making him see things that obviously were not there.
Sabrina was in the den with Charlie watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It was always one of her favorites when she was little, so she was enjoying it as much as Charlie was, or she would be if she wasn’t still fuming over her run-in with Devon. What kind of man grabs people like that for no reason, or very little reason, for Pete’s sake? She looked down at her wrist where she could plainly see his finger marks circling it. She saw the regret in his eyes the moment he realized it was her, but still. What if little Charlie had gone in there? He would have seriously hurt her. She was starting to have grave misgivings about letting Devon stay there unless he came off of some of his secrets.
“You did what?” Edgar asked Gideon for the third time.
“Oh, for crying out loud! I didn’t hurt the man. I just let him THINK that maybe he saw something. It will do him some good. I know it did me some good,” he chuckled.
Edgar didn’t look convinced. “You are going to end up in serious trouble, Gideon, serious trouble. Mark my words.”
Gideon couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. “Okay, okay, consider them marked, but tell the truth now, look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn’t have loved to see the look on his face when he saw me in all my fiercesome glory in the fogged up mirror, the truth, old man!”
Edgar looked down at the floor of his bedroom and when he looked up his eyes twinkled and the old butler slapped his knee. “I can’t think of too much I wouldn’t give to have seen that!” Then old butler and the warrior laughed until neither one could quite catch their breath.
A week later Devon was showing signs of improvement. His ribs still hurt like the devil, but everything else was starting to mend. He still hadn’t been able to catch Sabrina alone to apologize to her again for manhandling her. She had stayed away from his bedroom, sending in Cleo or Edgar to check on him. When he was able to finally leave his room and stretch out on the sofa in the den, she avoided that room like the plague. He sighed and wondered how in world he was supposed to make amends when she wouldn’t even get within ten feet of him. He thought about it for most of the afternoon when an idea finally hit.
Sabrina was elbow-deep in hot soapy water when the doorbell rang. She waited, thinking that Edgar or Cleo would answer it. When it chimed a second time and then a third, she reached for a towel and dried off her hands, hurrying to the door. She was just reaching for the handle when it chimed a fourth time and she swung the door open. “Miss Sabrina Blakely?” A man dressed in a suit and holding a large bouquet of gorgeous yellow roses was looking at her expectantly.
Sabrina nodded. “Yes, I’m Sabrina Blakely. Can I help you?”
The man smiled then handed the roses to her. “These come from a Mr. Devon Lane. He said he wanted me to tell you that he is really, really sorry, and if you would give him five minutes, he would like to try to explain what happened.”
Sabrina narrowed her eyes at the man. “Did he now?” she asked.
She reached into her pocket to find a tip for the man, but he shook his head. “No tip is needed, Miss Blakely. You have a good evening.” With that he nodded his head, turned and walked quickly back down the steps.
Sabrina closed the door then buried her nose in the roses. Oh, they smelled divine! She walked slowly to the den and stood there looking at Devon while he channel surfed. From this side she could see that the bruising on his face was getting lighter, but she knew it would be a few more weeks before his ribs would fully heal. She cleared her throat to get his attention. He turned and looked her direction. She saw the uncertainty in his eyes and that did more to break the ice than the roses. “They are really beautiful; thank you.”
He nodded. “You’re welcome; did they work?”
She smiled then shrugged and walked on into the den and sat down. “I guess they did; I’m in here.”
He clicked off the flat screen then gave her his lopsided grin. “Should have done this a week ago, and then I wouldn’t have had to whine so much hoping you would come tend to me.”
Sabrina looked at him with suspicion. “Did you fake your pain trying to lure me into your room, Mr. Lane?”
Devon chuckled lightly. “Well, not all of it, but yes, some. You wouldn’t feel sorry for me, not even a little bit, kept sending in old Edgar or Miss Cleo!” His eyes twinkled at Sabrina, and then they grew somber. “Seriously though, I did want another chance to talk to you, when I had a clear head. Sabrina, I would never knowingly hurt you. I wasn’t raised that way at all. You just caught me off guard and I was extra jumpy especially right after getting…” He trailed off.
Sabrina arched her brow at him. “Right after what, Devon? Getting in a fight, an accident? Did you fall off a cliff trying to save a kitten? What? You are going to have to come clean with me about a few things, Devon.”
Devon held her gaze and nodded. “I’m aware of that, Sabrina. You deserve answers. I can’t promise that I can answer all of your questions but I’ll answer what I can.”
Sabrina flung her arms out in frustration, tossing the roses on the coffee table. “See, that’s what I’m talking about right there! What is with all the cloak and dagger stuff? I haven’t even asked a single question yet and you are already dodging!”
Devon pressed his lips together. “Sabrina, it’s not that I won’t answer your questions; some of them I can’t answer.”
She looked at him. “Can’t answer as in you don’t know the answer, or can’t answer as in ninjas will come busting in and kill me if you do?”
Devon’s lips twitched. “Ninjas, really, Sabrina?”
Sabrina didn’t back down. “Yes, Devon, ninjas! For all I know, you’re Spiderman or something, you have so many secrets.”
Devon’s twitching lips broke into a full-fledged smile and he held his ribs as he tried not to laugh. “Nothing as heroic as all of that, I promise.”
She got up and sat on the coffee table, leaning forward to look in his face. “Then what, Devon? What is it that you feel like you can’t tell me?”
Gideon stood in his corner of the den and waited to hear Devon’s answer. He had seen the bruises on Sabrina’s wrist and had gone into Devon’s room to do…something! Luckily for Devon, Edgar was in there removing his stitches and kept Gideon from throttling the man senseless.
Chapter 6
Devon took a moment and tried to find a starting place. “Remember when I told you that I wasn’t a good man, and that I had trouble following me?” After she nodded, he continued. “That was partly the truth. In my youth I was rebellious and ran with a really messed up gang. I was into drugs, both using and selling. I did whatever I had to do to get my next hit. By the time I was seventeen, I had a rap sheet as long as men twice my age. It was something I was actually proud of.” He searched her face and so far she didn’t seem fazed…yet.
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br /> “The night that me and a couple of my buddies decided to steal an armored truck ended life as I knew it. We got caught and I turned state’s evidence in order to get a lighter sentence. That put me back on the right path with the law but pretty much sentenced me to death row with the gang I was in. I did a little time at a military camp for my offences and kicked the drugs for good. While I was there, I decided the life suited me, so I asked to go into the military. The judge over my case must have seen something worth saving in me because he sealed my records, allowing me to join the Marines. I excelled at whatever task they set before me. I wasn’t scared to try anything or anyone. The biggest problem they had was teaching me that not every problem needed to be solved with my fists. That I had a decent head on my shoulders, and I needed to learn how to use it.”
Gideon nodded his head; he knew it! He could pick a military man out of a crowd within sixty seconds and he had known from the very first night that Devon showed up, that he was definitely military. There was something in the way they stood a little taller and carried themselves with a confidence that spoke of being able to handle themselves in whatever came their way.
“Just being a Marine wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to be the bad dog on the yard out there, and so I joined the Navy Seals, and from there became Special Forces. I specialized in the narcotics field because of my past, and with my connections I could go where others couldn’t. But the gang I had ratted out did not believe in forgive and forget, so I was numero uno on their kill list.”
Sabrina nodded. “So that’s why you’re so edgy and jumpy and… so full of secrets?” She added deadly to her list but didn’t speak that aloud. “Are they still after you, the gang?”
Devon sighed. “A couple of them I took out, but, yes, I am still on the kill list. That’s why I stay gone for so long and I don’t tell you where I’ve been. Honestly, Sabrina, that’s really all I can tell you. I have probably told you too much as it is.” He reached out and took her wrist, gently rubbing his thumb across the bruises. “I would give anything to take these back, Sabrina. I am truly sorry for hurting you.” He brought her arm up to his mouth and placed tender kisses all around her wrist.
Sabrina couldn’t look away from watching Devon kiss his way around her wrist. The tingles that raced up her arm and through her entire body felt like she had stuck her finger in a light socket. When he kissed the sensitive center of her palm, she gasped and pulled her arm away. “Tthank yyou for telling me, Devon,” she stammered. “I better go check on Charlie!” She quickly picked up the roses and all but ran from the room.
Devon sat back on the sofa and grinned. Sabrina could run if she wanted, but he had felt her pulse kick up when he kissed her palm, so she wasn’t unaffected. He knew he should leave her alone. He had never felt whatever it was that he was feeling for anyone else. She made him want to be the kind of man she needed or wanted him to be. It went beyond physical attraction, although he was definitely attracted. Sabrina was a beautiful woman, no doubt about it, but her true beauty, the part that he couldn’t resist, the part that drew him helplessly like a month to a flame, was that inner spark, that zest for life that just made her so… Sabrina.
Sabrina ran out of the den like the hounds of hell were after her. She didn’t stop until she reached the safety of her bedroom, slamming the door shut then twisting the lock into place. She stared at the door like it was going to come flying open, even though she knew Devon didn’t and wasn’t going to come after her. She slowly backed up until the back of her calves hit her mattress; then she sank onto the bed. She held out her hands, which were trembling, and when she couldn’t get them to stop, she slid them under her thighs and sat on them.
She knew she was in deep, deep trouble with Devon. Even after he explained why he behaved the way he did, she still wasn’t sure he should continue to live there. What if the gang he ran with found out he was there? What about Charlie or Edgar or Cleo? She had to put their safety first.
Then there was the other matter as well. Sabrina was done trying to tell herself she didn’t have feelings for Devon. The way she responded to his lips on her wrist pretty much threw the idea that she was attracted to him only because of his sister right out the window. She didn’t know what to do with these feelings; she still loved Luke very deeply and felt that caring for another man was being unfaithful. But she also knew that Luke would not want her to be alone for the rest of her life. She was only twenty-six. But would he approve of Devon? She laughed out loud at that thought. She knew the answer to that question. No way would Luke want her with someone as secretive as Devon. He would choose someone straightforward and honest, a church-goer and a man of God.
Devon was the exact opposite of what she needed, so why did her foolish heart race whenever she heard the rumble of his Harley; why did she blush so uncontrollably whenever he gave her that lazy smile? Was it just physical attraction? Goodness knows, the man was drool-worthy, but she had seen attractive men before and didn’t behave like a high school freshman, had been hit on plenty of times but not once did her heart want to jump out of her chest! She closed her eyes and prayed for guidance and wisdom in both matters, and then she fell back on her bed and studied her ceiling like the answers she sought could be found there.
Gideon now understood what fathers went through when their daughters started dating for the first time. When he saw Devon kissing Sabrina’s wrist and palm, giving her that smoldering look that he was so good at, Gideon saw red. Seeing the confused look on Sabrina’s face didn’t help matters either. She was supposed to have been appalled, jumped up and decked him one. Instead she sat there and stared like a deer caught in the headlights, letting him drool all over her arm. Then she snatched it away and scooted out of there like her feet were on fire. Gideon may not have hormones himself (thank God!) but he understood the general idea. He understood about attraction and he knew without being told that Devon and Sabrina were throwing off enough sparks on that sofa to light a fire in the massive fireplace. He actually would like to see Sabrina find love again, but not with I-can’t- answer-a-single-question Devon Lane. Even though he had answered some questions today, it wasn’t nearly enough, and Gideon had a feeling he had barely scratched the surface of the truth with Sabrina. He told her just enough to get her off his back. “Well, Mr. Smoldering Eyes, you can’t use your charms on me. I will get to the bottom of the barrel you are trying so hard to keep a lid on…count on it!”
“Yes, mother, I think that will work out just fine. We don’t have to do a big dinner; let’s just fix everyone’s favorites.” Sabrina nodded her head and uh huh’ed a few more times with her mother before hanging up. Thanksgiving was this Thursday and the yard was all decorated with the big Tom turkey front and center that Charlie loved so much.
Sabrina thought back to the first time she saw what Sherrilyn had nicknamed “The Shed,” the warehouse-sized building in the back that could double for a commercial shopping center for decorations. Charlie was old enough now to help pick out what she wanted to put out in the yard and around the house. Sabrina had a hard time explaining that Thanksgiving wasn’t the right time to put up Easter bunnies or Christmas trees, but next month she could put up a tree anyway. The bunny would have to wait a little longer. Catherine had asked about everyone, including Cleo, whom they had not met. When her mother asked about Devon, Sabrina kept it as vague as she could, answering only the questions that she was asked and not offering any added information. She felt bad about not speaking to her mother about what she had learned about Devon, but she knew, without his actually telling her, that he gave her this information in confidence. So, she would keep his secrets…for now.
Devon sat at the kitchen table coloring with Charlie in a Barbie coloring book. The little girl could charm the stars from the sky, so when she had asked him to color with her and turned the power of her smile on him, he knew he was a goner and didn’t even try to fight it. He soon discovered that Charlie didn’t actually want him to color his own picture
by himself; she would pick the color and tell him where to put it. For a three year old she was pretty good. Her colors went outside the line a little, but she would concentrate by sticking her tongue out and holding it between her teeth while she carefully tried to keep everything where it was supposed to go. Devon colored his picture sloppy on purpose to make Charlie feel better about hers. Charlie sighed dramatically and brushed her curly blonde bangs off her forehead. “Devon, you’re supposed to stay in here!” She pointed her little finger to the area inside the lines.
Devon smiled at her. “I’m sorry, little lady. I’m just not as good as you are at this. Maybe you had better show me again.” She slid off her chair and without any hesitation slid right onto his lap so she could reach his page better. Poking her tongue back out, she showed him again how it was done.
Sabrina walked in the kitchen and was surprised at the scene she saw before her. Charlie was sitting on Devon’s lap and they had their heads close together coloring. Sabrina noticed for the first time that their hair was very similar in color, but Charlie’s had more of a strawberry color when the light hit it and Devon’s was a white blonde. Devon smiled and chuckled at something Charlie said, and then Charlie giggled at Devon’s obvious mistakes. The two looked very comfortable together. Devon had a natural way with kids, or maybe it was just with the ladies that he excelled??
Chapter 7
Cleo and Sabrina were on their way to the supermarket to pick up some needed items for the Thanksgiving meal the next day. They chatted about little things at the house or something silly that Charlie had done. When Cleo brought up how good Devon was with her, Sabrina suddenly got quiet.
