Devoted to Wicked
A Wicked Lovers/Devoted Lovers Crossover Novella
Shayla Black
Devoted to Wicked
A Wicked Lovers/Devoted Lovers
Crossover Novella, Book 0.5
Written by Shayla Black
This book is an original publication by Shayla Black.
Copyright 2017 Shelley Bradley LLC
Cover Design by: Rachel Connolly
Edited by: Amy Knupp of Blue Otter
Excerpt from More Than Want You © 2017 by Shelley Bradley LLC
Excerpt from More Than Need You © 2017 by Shelley Bradley LLC
Excerpt from Wicked Ties © 2007 by Shelley Bradley LLC
ISBN: 978-1-936596-48-5
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by an electronic or mechanical means—except for brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews—without express written permission.
eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared, or given away, as it is illegal and an infringement on the copyright of this work.
All rights reserved.
Contents
Devoted to Wicked
Devoted to Pleasure Coming Soon!
More Than Want You Excerpt
More Than Need You Excerpt
More Than Love You
Misadventures of a Backup Bride Excerpt
About Shayla Black
Other Books By Shayla Black
Devoted to Wicked
Karis Weston paced the cold tile floor of her hotel room, not really seeing the oceanfront paradise that had lured her to Cancún. It had been twelve hours—a whole night—since she’d sent out a cry for help. She hadn’t slept a wink, hadn’t stopped shaking, hadn’t stopped wondering why someone had targeted her.
The phone on the nightstand jangled loudly. She started and gasped, then lunged for the receiver and pressed it to her ear. “Hello?”
“Karis?”
“Yeah.” She breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar voice. “Cutter? Thank god. Did Jolie pass you my message? What’s going on? I didn’t hear from her. Are she and the baby—”
“They’re fine. Take a deep breath. Your sister got your message and called me because she and Heath have gone to the hospital to—”
“The hospital?” Alarm pealed through Karis. “So they’re not fine? I told Jolie that all those long hours at the office, even if Betti’s expansion is going well, was bad for her pregnancy and—”
“Hold up. She’s not having a miscarriage. Your mother dropped in unexpectedly after she and Wayne the Pain broke up.”
The sarcasm in Cutter’s voice mirrored Karis’s own opinion. Her mom should never have started dating her soon-to-be ex-husband’s brother.
“Is my mom okay?” Other than not being smart about her love life…
“Apparently Wayne drove to Dallas early this morning so he could tell Diana face to face that he never had any intention of leaving his wife. Your mom got mad and um…swung a garden hoe at him—don’t ask—but caught herself in the leg instead. She’s having an x-ray and stitches now.” He huffed. “Things are handled here, but Jolie can’t come to Mexico, and Heath needs to stay behind to make sure she doesn’t overdo it. That’s why they called me. Tell me what happened with you, little gypsy.”
Karis softened at his nickname for her. Despite getting off to an awkward start, she and Cutter had become fast friends when he’d done his best to bodyguard her through a threat to Jolie and her women’s apparel company, Betti. Too bad she couldn’t have mustered an iota of chemistry with him. He was a great guy.
Unlike his older brother, Cage, who was a raving jackass.
She knew that…and yet, just like her mother, Karis had let her terrible taste in men tell her hormones that it was a fabulous idea to fall for the older Bryant. In fact, she’d taken one look at him, flashed hot all over, and instantly wondered if he could be her soul mate. After too much tequila and an amazing one-night stand, proof of his assholery had soon cured her of that notion.
If she saw him on her deathbed, it would still be too soon.
“You there?” Cutter prodded. “Did you hear me?”
Focus. “Yeah. Just trying to collect my thoughts. I’m rattled. I haven’t slept. I don’t feel safe and—”
“You’ve been through a lot. I’m tied up here in Dallas but don’t worry. I sent the cavalry. He should arrive any moment. You’re going to be all right.”
She froze. “Who did you send?”
A pounding on the door interrupted the conversation, startling Karis. She pressed a hand to her chest.
“That’s him now,” Cutter said. “You two can call me later.”
Oh, he better not have done what she suspected, not if he wanted to keep his balls. “Who did you freaking send?”
Cutter didn’t answer right away. “Relax. You’re in good hands. I’ll hold down the fort here. I’m sure your sister will update you about your mom when she has news. See you when you get home, little gypsy. Take care.”
“Don’t you even think—”
But Cutter did more than think about hanging up. She’d only finished half her sentence when he actually did. Damn it. Grumbling, she slammed the phone down.
Maybe she was wrong. Maybe Cage wasn’t on the other side of the door, waiting to needle and poke and irritate her with his disreputable good looks and signature tomcat smile. But when she stomped across the room and wrenched the door open, all her wishful thinking went out the window.
“Hi, cupcake.” He gave her a wink and a teasing smile.
She knew exactly what sort of man he was and yet he still made her belly flutter. What is wrong with me?
The muss of his golden hair hung low on his forehead, flirting with his eyes. He clearly hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and the stubble dusting his jaw made it look even sharper. He’d abandoned his winter coat and draped it over the duffel dangling from his right hand in favor of a faded blue tank top that read Tequila and Tacos.
Karis gritted her teeth and did her best to ignore the broad, bulging muscles of his shoulders, now filling her doorframe. She didn’t like Cage here because she didn’t like him, period. She didn’t want to feel anything for him. Been there, done that. She’d burned the T-shirt. He was the kind of man who would never be faithful. After a lifetime of watching her mother fall for that kind of guy repeatedly only to wind up brokenhearted every time, she refused to follow suit.
Sure, she could slam the door in his face or play dumb and ask why he’d come. But her sister and brother-in-law couldn’t help her out of this scrape. Neither could Cutter. She’d already tried to solve her problem alone, to no avail. If she wanted to go home, she had to rely on Cage. Spend time with him. Talk to him. No doubt she would have to resist him, too.
She sighed. “Come in.”
Cage strolled inside her hotel room, his tall, rangy body crowding her against the doorway. He peered at her with dark, hungry eyes as he dropped his bag. “You look good.”
She glanced down at herself. Her entire vacation wardrobe had consisted of bikinis, cover-ups, an occasional pair of short-shorts, and high-heeled sandals. This morning after tossing and turning sleeplessly, she’d rushed through a shower, wondering if whoever had scared the hell out of her intended to come back and finish the job. Absently, she’d tossed on an off-white, almost-too-small bikini with a rose-and-swirl
pattern over her breasts. The contraption was held together by thin, sunny yellow straps. Cage’s stare walked all over her top before straying to the lone flower barely covering her down there. Sure, she’d tossed on a lacy cover-up but it was entirely transparent, there for decoration more than actual protection from the sun or prying eyes.
If she’d known she was going to have to deal with Cage, she would have brought turtlenecks and mom jeans or a nun’s habit—something to ensure he’d never look at her twice.
Refusing to let his perusal fluster her more, Karis shut the door behind him with a soft snick. This wasn’t about them or the night they’d spent together, just about ending this ill-advised vacation and getting home.
“You mean I look good for a girl who’s had everything important stolen from her hotel room and currently has no way of getting home? Don’t bother with the compliment. I don’t need it.”
Her reply came out bitchier than she intended. It had been a rough night, and she was always grouchy when she hadn’t slept. Coupled with all the uncertainty, the hint of danger, and the feeling that she’d been violated, Karis wasn’t at her best.
“You need help.” Cage’s face softened. “I understand and I’ll help you. But just saying…you always look good to me.”
The unexpected compliment came out both sincere and serious—two things she would never have imagined Cage was capable of. She tried not to let his words make her feel marshmallowy inside.
“Thanks.” She gave a halfhearted shrug. “I’m sorry your brother sent you to ‘rescue’ me. I know you have better things to do.”
“I don’t.”
She frowned. “This is awkward.”
“Not for me.”
Of course not. Everything seemed to roll off his back, even the feelings she’d shared with him that breathtaking night. Whatever. It wasn’t as if she cared. Okay, she did…a little. But he didn’t need to know that. The best way to convey ambivalence was to simply pretend that he didn’t affect her one way or another.
“Great. I appreciate you coming here to help me out. Did your brother have you bring my passport photo so I can get home?”
“Yeah.” He made no move to hand it over. “But you still haven’t told me what happened.”
She sighed. For whatever reason, he wasn’t going to just hand over the picture. Did he think that after what happened a few weeks ago she’d be amenable to falling into bed with him once more?
Think again, buster.
“I’ve been on this vacation with Jolie’s receptionist and my friend, Wisteria. She just broke up with her boyfriend.” Again, but this time most likely for good. “I came back to the room after dinner and a couple of drinks at the pool bar. The door was wide open. Someone had picked the lock on my suitcase and taken everything—cash, what little jewelry I have, credit card, and my passport. I told Wisteria to go home on the flight we’d originally booked this morning. No sense in her losing a plane ticket and missing work when she couldn’t help me. Then I called my sister, who called Cutter, who apparently called you. That’s it.”
He nodded. “Anybody following you while you’ve been here?”
Now he was slipping into cop mode. It was his job, and she was glad he had skills, but it probably wasn’t going to help this far from Dallas. “Not that I’m aware of.”
He scowled. “Anybody been flirting with you?”
Karis refused to answer that question. She’d come here in part to escape the sudden cold that had enveloped the North Texas area as January came to a close…and in part to forget Cage. They’d spent one hell of a New Year’s Eve together, and with every kiss and touch, she’d believed they had something special. What she’d discovered the following week had blown that foolish hope to hell.
She lifted her shoulder in an offhanded shrug. “It’s not as if I came here to be alone.”
Karis hadn’t planned to be…but she had somehow ended up by herself. On their first night here, Wisteria had met a hunk from the Hill Country, located a couple of hours south of Dallas. The two of them had hit it off instantly. Hayden seemed completely different from her previous douche of a boyfriend, and they had been inseparable for the seven days and six nights they’d vacationed in Cancún. In truth, she’d barely seen Wisteria after the woman had met him. And as luck would have it, he’d been able to change his flight to travel home with her. She was probably landing in Dallas now and finding something way more interesting to do than dealing with the former lover she wished she’d never taken.
Cage’s jaw clenched. “Who have you been spending time with while you’ve been here?”
He sounded a little bit jealous.
“I’m sure it hardly matters, especially to you.”
“Is that what you think?” He cocked his head and sent her a challenging stare. “Enlighten me why.”
She had this fantasy of telling him she’d figured out he was a cheater and a liar, but what would it solve? She refused to give him the satisfaction or to care what he did anymore. And if she kept her attitude nonchalant, he would back off sooner or later.
She shrugged. “Well, the night we spent together was pretty meaningless, so—”
“Is that how you’d categorize it?”
Now he sounded downright pissed, so she switched tactics. “Can we talk about that later? Right now, I’d really like to focus on getting my paperwork in order so I can go home. Isn’t that the reason you’re here?”
He didn’t look pleased, and Karis wondered why he wasn’t breathing a sigh of relief that she’d let him off the proverbial hook.
“All right,” he said finally. “Have you talked to resort security? The policía?”
“Yeah. Apparently, there are no security cameras in the hallways, so they can only see people coming off and getting on the elevators, but I was gone during a three-hour window and a lot of people were milling around my floor during that time. So I don’t expect anything will come from the police report. I spent part of last night printing out the forms on the State Department’s website so I can get a new passport. Thankfully, I still had my driver’s license in my pocket, so all I needed was the passport picture. Thanks for bringing it to me. FedEx would have worked, too. But I can take it from here.”
“Look at you go, Miss Independent,” he quipped, shaking his head. “But that’s not how this works. I’ll be staying with you until you fly home.”
She gaped at him. “It will probably be a couple of days.”
“All right.”
A terrible thought occurred to her. “Where do you think you’re sleeping?”
With a glance around, he took in the room—the unforgiving tile floors, the sofa that was way too short to accommodate his six-three frame, and the king-size bed. He nodded at the mattress. “Next to you. It’s not as if we haven’t slept together before.”
Karis stepped back. It was one thing to resist him for a couple of hours, but he looked good enough to nibble, eat, slurp, suck, and lick. How would she outlast him for a couple of days? Her willpower wasn’t that strong, especially because she remembered how mind-blowing he was in the sack.
“No. Absolutely not.” She shook her head.
“Your sister made me promise I’d stay with you, get to the bottom of this, and escort you safely to your plane. I’m a man who keeps his word.”
She almost snorted at that, but he hadn’t actually made her any promises when they’d rung in the new year together buzzed and naked and orgasmic.
With a sigh, she slung her fist on her hip. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him what the hell he was up to, but she refused to get into this now. She simply wanted to go home.
“Can’t you get another room?”
“If this thief broke in once, what’s to say he couldn’t do it again?” Cage glanced back at the door. “I don’t see any sign of forced entry. And since they don’t have electronic key cards, I’m guessing he picked the lock with a little finesse. What’s to stop him from coming back for seconds?”
<
br /> Nothing. Which was why Karis hadn’t slept a wink last night. “Fine. You can sleep here. Keep your hands and any other roving parts of your body to yourself.”
He shrugged and flipped her the kind of annoying half smile that made her want to scream and climb his body all at once. “We’ll see, cupcake.”
* * *
After dicking around at the US Embassy for most of the day and getting Karis’s paperwork in order, Cage helped her into a taxi and they headed back to the resort. The officials said they would do their best to process her passport in two business days. He was hopeful that would happen, but he wasn’t holding his breath.
Once they’d reached the upscale land of palm trees, umbrella drinks, and crystal water, Cage all but carried Karis up to her room. By the time they got through the door, she looked ready to fall over.
“Take a nap. I’ll order us some room service.”
She shook her head. “I’m going to find a lounger by the pool and some food. You can stay and nap if you want.”
A biting quip streaked through his brain, but he swallowed it back. Not for the first time, he wondered what was up her ass. Their New Year’s fling had been everything. Ground-shaking. Life-altering. Heart-bending. The next morning, he’d gotten tied up in an unforeseeable situation that had taken a long, sad week to extricate himself from. He’d called Karis the moment he could. She’d wanted absolutely nothing to do with him then—or now. Even repeated calls to his brother hadn’t shed any light.
“Wherever you go, I’m going, too.”
She looked exasperated but too exhausted to argue. “Suit yourself.”
He almost told her that he always did—then she started peeling off her T-shirt and shimmying out of her shorts to reveal the tiny bikini beneath. Yeah, he’d seen it through the short, lacy getup she’d been wearing earlier, but now there was absolutely nothing to disrupt his view of her lean, sun-kissed body. The top barely contained her lush breasts. He didn’t mind seeing her cleavage and healthy swells at all…but he didn’t want some other guy looking at them.
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