Devereaux Billionaires Complete Series: Books 1-4

by Mallory Crowe

  But that didn’t make the eighty-five miles an hour he was going legal. Or less terrifying. “You do know I carry a gun, right?” she asked as he passed a driver going the perfectly normal speed limit.

  “I have a lot of things to get done today.”

  “And you will get them done a lot faster if you’re alive,” she pointed out.

  He glared at her from over his sunglasses but lifted his foot off the gas just a bit.

  “There you go. Happy?”

  “I’m happy I’m not dead. Besides, there are eggs in the back. Please don’t ruin my chance of having a pancake breakfast,” she said. They’d stopped at a grocery store outside of the city to pick up supplies to stock the mostly empty cabinets of his Hamptons home. She looked back to her empty notebook. There was nothing she could do without her laptop at the moment, but it made her feel better to have something in front of her.

  “You won’t have to deal with my driving much longer.”

  “Good.” Evelyn let out a deep sigh and looked out the window. Just a short drive until she and Luke were trapped together alone in his cozy little cottage. Of course, cozy for Luke was probably over four thousand square feet.

  But she couldn’t pretend she didn’t know what was going to happen there. The kiss at her apartment. The affectionate way he’d said goodnight. The touching in his kitchen that morning. No. When they got to the Hamptons, Luke wasn’t going to stop with a chaste kiss, and Evelyn didn’t think she would try to stop him.

  One last hurrah before going back to Texas. Or maybe multiple hurrahs before going back to Texas. The whole thing seemed so...certain. But wholly inconvenient.

  She’d had a one-night stand before. An agent in from out of town for a week. They’d hit it off, gone back to his place, and after a good time, she’d slipped out at three in the morning and never spoken of it again. Neat and over. She had a feeling whatever she was getting into with Luke would be messy and definitely last longer than one night.

  “Did you tell Cali where we were going? I would hate for all this to mess with you running the company.”

  “Not yet. She was off on her romantic weekend, so I’m trying to not mess things up for her. But Monday morning she’ll have the wonderful surprise of rearranging my whole schedule.”

  “Give her the weekend and screw her over Monday? Nice.”

  “I know Cali. If I tell her now, she’ll spend half the day working. And once she gets started rearranging the schedule, she’ll see something else that needs to be done. She’s a workaholic. Which I love about her, but I don’t want to destroy her life. And...” He trailed off, and glanced around the road.

  “And what?”

  “She already wants to leave. If I mess up her work-life balance any more, I don’t think I can hold onto her much longer.”

  “Luke Devereaux being possessive? I don’t believe it.”

  “Good help is hard to find. If I can keep her with me for another year, I’ll take it.”

  “Well, she seems to like you for some strange reason. So you’ve got that going for you.”

  “Life was much easier when women weren’t ambitious.” Luke shot her a look to see her reaction.

  “Oh, come on. Women were always ambitious. We just used to have to pretend we weren’t. Or convince the menfolk that it was their idea.”

  “I guess I can’t fight you on that one. Lord help the man who ends up with you whispering in his ear.”

  “Well, I talk dirty, so I haven’t had many complaints.” The second she said the words, she wished she’d kept her mouth shut. As though Luke needed any opening to talk about sex.

  And from the way he suddenly clenched the steering wheel, she had a feeling he hadn’t missed her slipup. “You talk dirty?”

  “No! I was just talking out of my ass,” she quickly clarified. “Really, I didn’t mean anything...”

  “Maybe you just need someone to teach you how to do it then,” said Luke in a deep, husky voice.

  Evelyn fidgeted in her seat, her jeans suddenly seeming too tight and the car too hot. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted Luke to turn around and hightail it back to the city or whether she wanted him to drive faster.

  She looked out the window and took a deep breath. Maybe it would be best if she could just keep her mouth shut for the rest of the drive. Hell, the rest of the weekend.

  An hour later, Luke pulled into the driveway of his Hamptons cottage. Dark, fall skies didn’t detract from the beauty of the beach and waves crashing on the shore. As pretty as it was, Evelyn couldn’t stop staring at the perfect little blue house. “This isn’t what I expected,” she said as she headed up the steps to the wooden, wraparound porch.

  “Expecting a mansion?” Luke took the steps two at a time to beat her to the door and unlock it.

  “Well, I hate to sound spoiled, but it’s rather shocking that your apartment in one of the most crowded places in the country is bigger than this.”

  “My father bought this place right when he started making money. Not even he knew back then how big things were going to get. We’ve fixed the place up a few times over the years, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to make it any bigger. This was my father’s gift to himself and he loved it as is. I have some good memories of coming out here back in my college days.”

  “Still bigger than my place,” she said as he held the door open for her.

  The inside was the same upscale nautical theme as the outside. The front door opened to a living room that took up the entire right side of the house and was filled with natural light from the picture window that faced the beach. The walls were adorned with decorative anchors and a few other pieces of boat memorabilia, mostly blues and whites but with a touch of red here and there.

  “It’s very charming.” She set her bag on the floor next to the couch and turned back to face Luke.

  “Beautiful.” But Luke wasn’t looking at the cottage. He was looking straight at Evelyn.

  “Flattery?”

  “Truth.” And then he closed the distance between them, cupped her face between his palms and kissed her.

  Evelyn didn’t think about fighting him. She’d known from the second she’d gone back to his apartment last night that this would happen. And, Lord help her, she didn’t want to fight him.

  She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pressing her body into his, trying to feel every inch of him. He angled his head to kiss her deeper, his tongue teasing hers, and she was suddenly overcome. She’d waited too long for this. No more waiting.

  Her fingers twisted in his shirt and pulled it up, breaking the kiss so she could pull it over his head, revealing his toned chest and abs. Abs that she could touch now. No pretenses. No one about to walk in and interrupt.

  She skimmed the planes and ridges with the tips of her fingers, and her breath caught in her throat. Luke tilted her chin up and gave her another devastating kiss as he pulled at her shirt, reaching beneath it to spread his hands on the bare skin of her back. She gasped into his mouth at the sudden contact.

  And he caught her gasp with his mouth before he moved to kiss along her jaw and down the sensitive cords of her neck, nipping her softly at the base before soothing the sting with his tongue.

  Her moan seemed to set him off as he pulled her shirt off in one quick motion. He moved forward, pushing her back until her thighs hit the back of the couch, and he lifted her to sit at the edge. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he cupped her breasts, clad only in her black lace bra.

  He pushed her breasts together, kissing the top of one, and then the other, before moving the cups down so the taut peaks were exposed. As though she had no control over herself, Evelyn arched her back, wordlessly telling him exactly what she wanted him to do.

  And he obliged, taking one nipple in his mouth as his fingers caressed the other one with just the tips of his fingers.

  Abruptly, he pulled away. He gripped her ass tightly as he pulled her up against his hard erection an
d carried her out of the living room. He kicked a door open with his foot and the rest of the room was a blur as he crossed to the bed and set her down.

  Without waiting for him, Evelyn undid the button on her jeans and pushed them along with her panties over her hips. Luke was there to meet her, but he took his time pulling off the hard denim. He slowly pulled the material lower, kissing along the exposed thigh as he moved down, pausing to lick the delicate skin right along the side of her knee.

  He pulled off her shoes and then the jeans, and she was completely bared to his gaze. But it was impossible to feel self-conscious when a man like Luke looked at her the way he was. As if she were the first woman he’d ever seen. As if she were made of gold or some other priceless artifact.

  Then his hands were on her knees and spread her for his view. Her breath caught in her throat as he sat up on his knees, kissing the inside of her legs again, except this time, he was going up. As he trailed the kisses higher, sometimes nipping, sometimes kissing, he hooked her leg over his shoulder as he spread her wet folds.

  She had to bite her lip to keep from moaning as he slipped his fingers into her tender flesh, as his tongue stroked over her sensitive clit. Her hips bucked, but his free hand held her down as he kept on with the sensual torture, alternating between driving her higher with his fingers and mouth.

  She reached down to run her fingers through his hair, not sure whether she was pulling him closer or pushing him away. It was so hard to think straight when it felt as though her entire body was burning.

  And then she was on fire. The orgasm crashed into her, deep waves of pleasure washing over her. Her head fell back and she allowed herself to savor the moment.

  When she opened her eyes a few seconds later, Luke was standing and pulling off his jeans. She held her breath as his erection sprung free. Her body craved him inside her. Filling her.

  She bit her lip to keep from begging him to come back to bed as he kicked off his jeans and bent to pull out a condom from the back pocket. As he rolled it over his hard cock, she was half convinced he was taking his time just to tease her.

  Finally, she gave up on being proud. “Luke,” she breathed. “Please. I need this.”

  He smiled as he looked down at her. “You need me?”

  “I need you,” she admitted, her hand held out to him.

  He climbed up her body, pushing her farther onto the bed as his blazing hot skin touched hers all over. “I need you too, baby,” he said as his mouth crashed down on hers. As his tongue plundered her mouth, he settled between her thighs, his erection pressing against her core as her feet stroked the back of his legs, encouraging him to move.

  But before he gave her what she wanted so badly, he pulled away, pushing her hair out of her eyes, and stared down at her.

  “What are you waiting for?” she snapped as the desire reached a record high.

  “Well, someone told me that you liked to talk dirty in bed, and I have yet to hear anything dirty come out of that sexy mouth of yours.”

  She was going to kill him. Fuck him first, but there was definitely going to be killing too. “Are you kidding?”

  “Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you.” He pressed the head of his cock against her clit as a form of erotic bribery.

  “I’m not doing this now,” she warned.

  He smiled down at her. “I can’t think of a better time to talk dirty.”

  Evelyn pushed herself up just enough to brush her lips against his. “Please, Luke. Fuck me. I need you inside me so bad. Please fill my—”

  He thrust inside in one long, sure stroke. She groaned at the sudden sensation. He was big and it had been too long since she’d been with a man. He remained still for a few moments, allowing her to adjust. Then he pulled almost all the way out and thrust again. Evelyn’s fingers bit into Luke’s back as he started to move. All sign of playfulness in him was gone. He seemed wholly transfixed by her as he kissed her forehead and then started to move in fast, powerful strokes.

  All she could do was hold on as a new wave of pleasure crashed over her. He braced himself on one arm while his free hand slid under her ass to hold her in place for his pistoning hips.

  The friction of his skin moving against hers added to her arousal, and when she lifted one knee higher, opening herself as wide as possible to him, that was the last straw. A second orgasm hit her, and this time, she screamed.

  Luke pumped into her faster and harder until his own orgasm erupted. He buried his face into her neck as he came, holding her close as he shuddered his release.

  Evelyn came back to reality slowly, trying to catch her breath as she ran her hands over Luke’s muscular back, taking a moment to savor the feel of him in her arms.

  Luke let out a little laugh against her skin and she feathered her fingers through his hair. “What’s so funny?” she breathed.

  “Just thinking...”

  “Oh no. Luke Devereaux thinking. That’s never a good sign.”

  He gave her hip a playful swat.

  She gave a mock surprised sound. “Fine, fine! Sorry. What were you thinking about?”

  He pushed himself up to look down at her. “I was thinking that this was the best house tour I’ve ever given.”

  Luke rolled over and reached for Evelyn, like he had done plenty of times in the night, but this time her warm, naked body wasn’t there. He felt around on the empty sheets, but all he felt was cold emptiness.

  He opened his eyes and confirmed that he was alone in the bedroom. Damn it. He knew the night would have to end at some point, but that didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.

  Groaning, he rubbed a hand over his eyes. The sun was shining brightly through the window, but he didn’t feel as if he’d slept in. Granted, he’d been in bed for over twelve hours, but he’d been awake for most of it.

  Awake and fulfilling all the fantasies that had relentlessly played in his head for the past few weeks. Even thinking about the things he and Evelyn had done the night before had his cock hard and eager again. Greedy bastard.

  After last night, he should be out of commission for a week at least. Not already wanting more. If he’d thought that once he had a taste of Evelyn that would be enough, he’d apparently been wrong. Very, very wrong.

  But they were here for the weekend at least. Maybe he could even stretch it out for a whole week. Her boss, Hotchins, had seemed well and intimidated by Luke during their brief conversation in Evelyn’s apartment. Luke had enough connections that were well over Hotchins’s head that he had reason to be worried. He could work to keep Evelyn as his own personal protection for as long as he could.

  But after that? After this was all done? She wanted to go back to Texas. She’d been very vocal about that. And it wasn’t as if he wanted anything long term, so he should be happy. A week of great, no-strings-attached sex. That was his dream.

  So why was he so pissed at the idea?

  “Hey sleepyhead.” Evelyn poked her head in the doorway. “Get your lazy ass up. I made pancakes.”

  “You cook? I’m shocked, Agent Price.”

  “And for that remark, you can eat the ones I burned. Come on.”

  He sat up, pulling the sheet off and rubbing his eyes one last time. “I’m coming.”

  “That’s what he said,” she called as she disappeared from the doorway.

  “Fuck,” he muttered as he stared at the spot she just vacated. He might be in serious trouble.

  He pulled on a pair of jeans, but decided to go shirtless. He knew how much Evelyn liked him without, and at this moment, making Evelyn happy was his priority.

  He padded out into the kitchen. The setup was old-fashioned, with white cabinets and appliances in a galley that led to a small eat-in section with a wooden table and four chairs. A large window next to the table overlooked the ocean. There were also tables and chairs on the wraparound porch, but it was too cold to eat outside. Maybe in the afternoon when the sun was high in the sky, he and Evelyn could take a walk along
the beach.

  Sure, it was corny, but he’d love to see Evelyn against the backdrop of the crashing waves with the wind blowing through her dark curls. Actually, they probably wouldn’t even make it off the property line before he was dragging her back to the bedroom.

  He smiled at the thought as he took a seat at the table. A plate of pancakes waited for him. She must’ve been up for a while. She’d found some mismatched plates for the two of them to use. Some butter and syrup was also on the table. She picked up his glass and carried it to the kitchen. “We have water or milk. Any preference?”

  “Milk.” He leaned back. “I could get used to you waiting on me.”

  “Don’t,” she warned. “This is only fair after you made breakfast yesterday.” She poured him his milk and brought it back to the table, but her normal sultry walk was stunted, replaced with a limp.

  “Shit,” he muttered. “Was I too rough last night?” He never even considered her injury. She never mentioned it or complained in all the time he’d known her. But of course her leg would be sensitive. Damn it. He should’ve paid more attention.

  “No,” she assured him. “This isn’t you. It’s a low pressure system moving in. Didn’t you know? Getting shot makes you a weatherman.” She set his glass down and took her seat across from him.

  He picked up the syrup and doused his pancakes. “I always thought that was an exaggeration.”

  “So did I, to be honest. But when it’s about to rain, it tends to hurt a little more than normal.”

  “You walk so well on it normally. It’s like it never happened.”

  She let out a sad laugh. “I wish. I try really hard to make sure no one can tell. It’s a weakness, and where I come from, weaknesses are exploited.”

  “From Texas?”

  “From the border.”

  He took his first bite of pancakes and moaned. “Damn, these are good.”

  “They should taste good. They’re soaked in butter. It’s my secret weapon.”