Sizzle

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “Molly!” Devil groaned as he bent over, one hand pressed to his gut where she’d sucker punched him and the other rubbing his abused shin. “Honey, I didn’t mean it like that!” he panted, trying to catch her skirt as she whirled away from him.

  “Ha!” Grant barked, his amused laughter echoing down the hospital hallway, “Devil Delancy just had his ass handed to him by my sister!”

  Spinning to face her brother, Molly held out her hand. “Give me your car keys,” she demanded harshly.

  “Why?” Grant questioned.

  “Because I want to go home and he,” she said, pointing to where Devil still writhed in pain against the wall, “was my ride!”

  “How am I supposed to get home?” Grant asked with a frown even as he dropped his keys in her hand.

  “I don’t care,” Molly announced truthfully. “Ultimately, you are the one responsible for all of this! He is your best friend. You are the one that insisted I work for him. So you can figure out how the hell to get home, Grant!”

  “Okay, okay,” Grant said, holding up both his hands in a sign of capitulation. “Are you sure you’re in any condition to drive though, sis?

  “It’s the city of Atlanta that isn’t safe from her driving,” Devil wheezed against the wall, still not quite able to catch his breath.

  Turning, Molly gazed balefully at the hateful man who was obviously determined to make her life into a nightmare. “Really? You wanna criticize now?” she bit out, taking a half step toward him to finish maiming him. She might not find a judge willing to let her off for murder, but she was fairly certain that, given the circumstances, she had grounds for assault.

  Catching his baby sister around the waist and lifting her against him, Grant shook his head. “Now, Peanut….”

  “Lemmee go! I’ll put him out of our misery quick, Grant! I promise!” she vowed, straining against the arms holding her as her feet dangled in the air.

  “Well, now, this takes me back to the past,” Grant chuckled, keeping his arms around his squirming sister. How the hell many times had he held her back when her flash fire temper had flared? Too many to name, he knew. “Down, Peanut! We’ll figure this all out. I promise!”

  Sagging against her brother as she continued staring daggers at Devil, Molly took a deep breath. “Put me down, Grant. I won’t touch him again. I wouldn’t want to dirty my hands.”

  “You sure?” Grant asked, loosening his arms slightly. Molly was a wily one; she’d tricked him into believing she was harmless in the past, only to prove later that she was as dangerous as a wildebeest in heat.

  “Positive,” Molly confirmed when her feet touched the floor again and Grant released her. Straightening her skirt, she smoothed her hands over the fabric. “I can’t think about this right now. I can’t think at all. I’ll think about it tomorrow. Tomorrow’s another day, right?”

  “You go, girl! You get your inner Scarlett on!” Grant cheered his sister with an enthusiastic nod of support.

  “Sweet Christ,” Devil mumbled, running a hand down his sweating face as he leaned against the cold hospital wall.

  Ignoring the man behind her, Molly smiled at her brother. “Do your baby sister a favor. Warn your friend over there that if he wants to live through the night, then he needs to stay the hell away from me, Grant. Otherwise, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

  Grant smirked, peering over Molly’s shoulder to where his friend stood, bent, with his hands braced on his knees. “I think he’s got the message, Baby Girl.”

  “Wonderful.” Molly smiled tightly and lifted on her tiptoes to brush a kiss to her big brother’s cheek before turning and stomping her way down the hall toward the exit.

  Hell hath no fury like a Ramsey scorned.

  Chapter Eight

  Both men watched as Molly slammed through the exit at the end of the hall. Waiting until the double metal doors had slammed closed with a loud clatter, Grant turned to face his best friend in the world. Except for his wife, there was nobody he’d ever trusted more. In this moment, however, the urge to commit a felony ran strong through his veins.

  Hot, he shed his professional white doctor’s coat and draped it over his arm as he strolled calmly toward his friend. Stopping barely a foot in front of him, Grant tilted his head as he stared at Devil. “You do realize just how very, very fucked you are right now, right?” he asked, his tone deceptively amiable. “I mean, you recognize that those threats Molly was making against you … I’m fully prepared to make good on them if need be.”

  “Grant…”

  Holding up a hand, Grant shook his head. “First, just tell me one thing, Dev. Are you screwing my little sister?”

  Devil’s eyes widened at Grant’s blunt question. “Are you serious?” he blurted incredulously.

  “As the heart attack that Nana just had,” Grant retorted sharply, his hand clenching in the coat he held as he stared Devil in the eye. “Answer the question, Devil. Are you sleeping with my baby sister?”

  “NO! Before the kiss you witnessed at Nana’s bedside, I’ve never touched Molly in anything even approaching an intimate way. What the hell kind of man do you take me for, Grant?” Devil snapped. It was the God’s honest truth. His fantasies didn’t count, damn it. A man’s imagination was his own, and he could hardly control the vivid dreams he had when he slept, could he? Hell, Molly was an attractive, desirable young woman that any red-blooded man would find appealing, but he’d behaved honorably even in the face of temptation.

  Well, until now, anyway. Was it his fault that fate had so graciously provided him the very opportunity he’d been searching for?

  Relaxing slightly, Grant still glared at the man facing him. “Well, that’s a loaded question,” Grant returned with a snort. “Especially since I know you. But you get to live. For now. You and I, however, need to talk. You are going to fill me in on just what the hell is going on around here.”

  “Can we do it someplace else? I don’t think the hospital corridor is exactly the place to have this discussion, do you?” Devil asked uncomfortably, silently noting the attention they were drawing from the nurses and doctors passing by them.

  Grant considered the other man for a long moment fraught with tense silence. “Follow me,” he finally growled under his breath as he led the way down another corridor and left Devil to trail behind him. Pausing outside a private family waiting area, he stuck his head inside and found the room empty. “This’ll do,” he muttered, flipping the sign hanging on the door to occupied and gesturing for Devil ahead of him. Closing the door behind him, Grant crossed his arms over his chest as he watched Devil sink into a chair at the table in the center of the small area. “Well?” he prodded impatiently.

  “Well, what, Grant?” Devil retorted, rubbing a hand vigorously over his face as he tried to infuse his body with the energy he so desperately needed to have this conversation. He was more tired than he ever remembered feeling in his thirty-eight years on Earth, and now, he was expected to explain everything that had happened in the last hour to a guy who was more than capable of killing him and making it look like an unfortunate accident. The good doctor currently staring at him had access to all kinds of drugs that could mimic a heart attack or stroke, and Devil didn’t doubt the other man would use them in defense of his sister.

  “Devil, don’t pull that tightlipped, He-man Master of the Universe crap on me. This is my sister we’re talking about here. I love you like a brother, man, but if Molly gets hurt…”

  “I’m not trying to hurt Molly, Grant. I’ve been as much a part of her life as you have. I was right there with you when we were running shitfaced, pimply boys off her scent when she was a teenager. Since she’s gotten older, I’ve warned off my fair share of full-grown men with less than honorable intentions toward her, too. Don’t you stand there and act like I haven’t done my best to protect her!”

  “Yeah, Devil, I know. You’ve been protecting her from men like you, man. So, I think you might be able to understand
my concern when I walk in and see you telling Nana that the two of you are getting married! You are exactly the type of guy we don’t want for my baby sister.”

  “What the hell is it about me that you find so repellant, Grant?” Devil barked as his shoulders tensed in anger.

  “Really?” Grant quirked an eyebrow heavenward. “You’re gonna ask me that?”

  “Yeah,” Devil retorted, rising from his chair and lifting his chin.

  “You’re a man-whore, Devil. You’ve had your wick dipped in half the candle boxes in the greater Atlanta area! You aren’t exactly the husband a brother dreams of for his little sister!”

  Devil clamped down on his jaw and fumed. Okay, so Grant made a decent argument. Once upon a time, he’d enjoyed playing the field, hopping from one woman to the next and having a damn good time once he got there. He also knew that it still appeared that way to anybody who took a cursory look at his life over the past year.

  Appearances, however, were deceiving.

  “Would you say something before I’m forced to ruin those GQ good looks of yours?” Grant complained, propping his hands on his hips as he faced off with his best friend.

  “I’m not a man-whore anymore. Yeah, once I was, but not anymore. I’ve changed,” Devil confided quietly, rubbing his palm over his jaw.

  Closing his eyes for a moment, Grant shook his head as he processed Devil’s statement. “Man, that just doesn’t hold water. Molly has complained for the past year about the troop of tramps you’ve paraded through the office. Are you saying she’s a liar?”

  “Not… exactly.” Hedging was his only option at the moment, and Devil knew he needed to buy at least a few more minutes before telling his best friend his true thoughts.

  “Dev, I’ve gotta go upstairs and bring a couple of new lives into the world sometime in the near future. So, what say you cut the bullshit and tell me exactly what the fuck is going on before I give in to the urge to pound on your face a little before I go?”

  Licking his lips, Devil hung his head. Coming clean to what should have been the easiest person on the planet for him to confide anything was harder than he expected. Clearing his throat, he lifted his head to stare at Grant. “It’s true what Molly said. There have been a lot of women that I’ve spent time with this year.”

  “Yeah,” Grant agreed with a grunt. “A new one every two or three weeks from what I’ve heard.”

  “That sounds about right,” Devil muttered, wincing. “The thing is … I haven’t been serious about any of them.”

  Grant lifted his eyes to the ceiling and prayed for strength and guidance he needed to not kill his best friend. “You never are.”

  “I’ve sort of been using them,” Devil admitted reluctantly.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Grant replied with a sneer.

  “I haven’t been sleeping with the women that I’ve been seeing, Grant. I’ve been using them so I didn’t act on my attraction to your sister,” Devil informed the other man quickly, ripping the proverbial bandage off the wound in one quick yank.

  Stunned, Grant stared at Devil. “Pardon me?” he whispered hoarsely, tilting his head toward his best friend. “I’m gonna need you to say that again.”

  Chapter Nine

  Watching sympathetically as Grant sank heavily into one of the chairs around the table, Devil sighed. “I think you heard me the first time. It’s not gonna sound any better to you the second time around.”

  “You can not be attracted to my sister,” Grant denied absently, staring into space. “My psyche can’t handle it. I have two kids to put through college, man. I can’t afford the therapy that relationship would cost me!”

  Devil rolled his eyes while Grant buried his face in his hands and shook his head. “Look, I haven’t said or done anything that could be construed inappropriately with your sister.”

  “You mean other than that pesky engagement announcement you made in Nana’s room,” Grant replied, his voice muffled by his hands.

  “Yeah,” Devil muttered guiltily, “Except for that.”

  Lifting his head, Grant turned to glare at Devil. “What in the name of all hell were you thinking? You know Molly’s gonna kill you. There’s not gonna be a wedding. There’s not even gonna be an engagement. Because even now, as we speak, I can feel her plotting your demise. She was seething when she left here, man. I haven’t seen her that pissed since that dickwad broke her heart in college.”

  “I know,” Devil acknowledged softly. “I’ll fix it.”

  “Ha!”

  “I will,” Dev insisted with a frown. Hurting Molly was never on his agenda, and never would be.

  “How? You gonna march back into Nana’s room and break her heart?” Grant asked irritably. “That old woman was over-the-moon happy.”

  “You know I can’t do that.” Devil shook his head. “I’ve got to convince Molly to marry me. And you’ve gotta help me.”

  “Fuck you,” Grant retorted succinctly, shaking his head back and forth. “I’m not going over that cliff with you. No way, no how. I don’t care how you feel about my sister. Which, by the way, I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around.”

  “Your sister is a beautiful, loving woman. At least, she is most of the time,” he amended quickly when Grant opened his mouth to reply. “Any man worth his salt can see that she’s special. I guess when Nana was making her dying wish known back there, I snapped. On one side, I had the woman that raised me begging me to find a wife and make a couple of kids, and on the other side, I had the only other woman I completely trust. So, I went for broke.”

  “Oh, you’re gonna get broke, brother. Into teeny tiny pieces. There won’t be enough of you left to fill a salt shaker when Molly is through with you.”

  “Let me be the one to worry about Molly,” Devil instructed softly, stiffening his shoulders as he mentally started preparing his war plan. “I want to marry her, Grant. I want to make Nana’s last months with us happy ones filled with memories she’ll cherish. I owe her that.”

  “At the expense of my sister?”

  “No. Look, if Molly says no after I put my offer on the table, I’ll walk away from the idea. I’ll figure out something to tell Nana and let Molly off the matrimonial hook. But, I can make this worth her while.”

  “How?” Grant asked bluntly, clearly unimpressed by Devil’s plans. Honestly, this man was known for his blunt business acumen, and yet he had just managed to stumble his way into a never-ending black hole.

  “By appealing to her sense of logic and reason,” Devil explained strongly. Sure, those ran in short commodity with Molly, but if he dug deep, he was pretty sure he’d find at least a small volume of each virtue.

  Grant laughed shortly. “Gooooood luck, buddy. Those are two things that Molly generally lacks. I love my sister, but facts are facts. She goes with her gut. And I’m here to tell you, her gut thinks you are a fornicating prick at least ninety percent of the time.”

  “What does she think the other ten percent of the time?”

  “She’s sleeping,” Grant declared flatly, glaring at his so-called best friend.

  “Well, I plan on making her an offer she won’t want to refuse. A very lucrative offer. And when she accepts it and marries me, then that will give me the time that I need to woo her. I’ll convince her that I’m not the ‘fornicating prick’ she thinks I am. Somehow.”

  “Is it wrong to admit that I’m going to enjoy watching you squirm at the end of her hook? Cause, I really, really am.”

  Devil glared down at the good doctor. “I’m not squirming yet, asshole!” Sure, he might be floundering a little, but it had been an extremely unique kind of day. Really, how many times did a man announce he was getting married before letting the intended bride know? He could be forgiven for not quite being his usual confident self, couldn’t he?

  “Nah, you’re wriggling like a motherfucker, Dev! And you aren’t even really engaged yet! One thing about it – it’ll be cheap entertainment.”

/>   “You’re a dick,” Devil muttered, then scowled as he added, “This is all your fault anyway, you know.”

  Grant jerked upright in his seat. “How do you figure that?”

  “Easy. If I hadn’t let you have Karen all those years ago, I’d be the one married with a couple of kids. You ought to thank me.”

  Grant snorted derisively. “If you had married my wife, she would roast your balls over the fire and serve them to you on a bed of rice, one forkful at a time. Even when we were twelve, she knew better than to get involved with a scoundrel like you. Her feelings have not changed over time.”

  Smiling in spite of himself, Devil shook his head. He loved Grant’s wife, Karen. The three of them had been friends since middle school, and Grant was right. Devil could never handle a woman that took delight in doing things like rolling over a perfectly innocent set of golf irons when you forget one little anniversary. Of course, Molly would probably skewer him with a steak knife if he did something like that, but that was beside the fact. “You might have a point,” he told the other man as Grant’s pager beeped on his belt.

  “Okay, I need to go,” Grant said with a glance down at his waist. “Let me bottom-line things for you, Dev. Hurt my little sister and I’m gonna have to kill you. Make her cry, and it’ll be a violent way to go. Capisce?” he asked, rising to his feet.

  Devil nodded. “Understood.”

  Shrugging his physician’s coat back on, Grant adjusted the credentials on his pocket. “You still gonna go try and talk to her tonight?”

  “Yep.”

  “I think it’s a mistake, but may the force be with you, man. You’re gonna need all the help you can get.”

  “With a good game plan, all things are possible, Grant. Are you forgetting that I navigate around sharks for a living? My bread and butter are mergers and acquisitions.”