Devin-2 (3 page)

Smiling, he thought touching the woman's neck first might be a better place to start.

At three o'clock in the morning, he found himself back at the diner again. He had had to drive around for nearly an hour trying to find it and now that he was here, he had no idea what he was going to say to her.

Devin had pretty much calmed down now. He was still pissed at her, but that was more because he could not find her than anything else.

He walked in the door just as she was coming out of the kitchen with another man. And Devin promptly got pissed all over again. Then when the man leaned over and kissed her—on the mouth no less—Devin saw red.

Both Devin and Ronnie watched as the man walked out the door and then she looked over at him. Devin was actually taken aback by the amount of venom he saw in her eyes. And more shocked at how quickly his cock hardened.

"What do you want? I'm really busy and, unless you are eating, then I suggest you get the hell out."

"I want to talk to you, please." Pulling her into his arms is what he really wanted to do, and kiss her until she could not breathe. But he figured that he valued his life and where all his manly parts were, thanks.

"Wrong. You eat something, you can stay. You speak and I'll call the cops on your ass. I suggest you go. I might actually spit in your food tonight."

They both knew she would not and he walked to the booth where her books were and sat down, picking up the menu.

He either had to sit down or fall down. All the blood in his body had pooled in his cock and he was suddenly dizzy with need for her. That made his mood all the more confusing. He’d only just met this woman the night before and she was doing all sorts of things to his libido.

Christ, she was beautiful, especially as mad as she was at him. Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back from her face showing high cheek bones, tiny ears and a long column of a neck. A neck he wanted desperately to lick and nibble. Her eyes were a bright polished purple color and nearly glowed with emotion. He already knew she was tall, but tonight she was a few inches taller in her black knee-high boots. The long expanse of leg in between those and her mid-thigh denim skirt was covered in dark tights. The sweater set she had on was a perfect contrast to her creamy skin tone, dark green undershirt, and a shade lighter outer shell. The set was tight and her hard nipples poked through deliciously.

Reaching under the table, Devin adjusted himself. It was either that or he was going to cause serious damage to his hard cock. He felt her come up behind him and hoped she was planning to pour the glass of ice water over his swollen member and not his head.

"I'll have the Manager’s Special, eggs over easy and strawberries on the pancakes, please," he told her as he put the menu away and then looked up at her.

"Links or patties on your sausage? I also can do you some bacon, but it will take longer to cook up.”

"Links. A cup of coffee and OJ as well." She had not bothered writing anything down, but he knew his order would be correct. He just was not sure if he would be eating it or wearing it.

He noticed the phone book open to the attorneys' section and pulled it and her neat notes toward him. There were several names on the sheet and all but three had been neatly crossed out. He also noticed that his name was not on the list and it had been crossed out of the phone book as well. Crossed out hard and with several lines going thought his name and a mustache on his face. Devin smiled at that. Apparently, she had figured out who he was. When she came back with his coffee and juice, he did not bother looking guilty.

"Do you understand the word privacy? As in stay out of others people's things when they don't concern you,” she practically snarled at him.

"You left it out on my table—public domain. If it’s out there, you must have wanted me to look at it." He thought she would argue that it had been her table first, but she simply started jamming her things into her backpack mumbling under her breath as she went. He wanted to laugh at her, but was afraid she would hit him with her Laws and Ethics book, which was about three inches thick.

A little while later, she brought him his platter of food and sat them before him. His eyes nearly bugged out at the sight. The pancakes were at least an inch thick and the eggs perfect, the yolks not even broken. Strawberries were sliced and in a bowl of heavy cream, and his sausages were golden brown and smelled like heaven. Everything was perfect.

When Devin ran his last bite of sausage through his yolk, he realized he had eaten the entire thing. He would need to run a few extra miles on the treadmill this week, but it had been worth every extra calorie he had put in his belly. He looked up when she brought the coffee pot again and to gather his plates.

"Everything was delicious. I don't think I've ever eaten anything so good in a very long time. I'd like to talk to you now, Ronnie."

"No." When she started to turn away, he stood up, taking the empty plates from her and setting them back on the table as he backed her up. The coffee pot was a little tricky, but he managed to get it from her without burning either of them. Still, he moved her backward. When she touched the wall with her back, he simply pinned her there with a hand to either side of her shoulders.

"I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to clear up that I'm not gay. Those other men you saw me with, they're my brothers. In fact, Spencer has a little girl and the man you met this morning at the office, Nicky, he has twin boys."

"Okay. Now that you told me, I want you to back up." Her voice was panicky, but also husky like his. When she stuck out her tongue to lick her lips, he thought he would die from need.

"No, not yet. Why did you assume we were gay, Ronnie? I just want to know. Not that it matters, but I'm curious what led you to that conclusion." He leaned closer to her, felt something poke him in the belly, and looked down at the gun she had in her hand. "Are you going to shoot me, Veronica? Because I would rather you didn't. At least not now. I’d really like to taste you first."

He leaned closer still and ran his tongue along the shell of her ear and then down to her lobe. Pulling it into his mouth, he nibbled gently on it as he moved his hand down her arm to her wrist. Suckling gently on the tasty morsel even as he moved her hand and the gun to her side, he stepped closer to her. Heat pulled at him from her and he wanted to taste her, any part of her he could wrap his mouth around. He pressed his erection into her soft folds and groaned.

"Do I feel like I'm a gay man to you now, Veronica?” Devin whispered in her ear. “Do you still think that I have a male lover when your body can do this to mine?"

He felt her stiffen and it took him several seconds before he realized that they were no longer alone in the restaurant and that she was talking to someone behind him. He pulled away from her ear, but not her body.

"…a point. He's done that. Now he's leaving."

Devin turned and saw the police officer from last night standing directly behind him in a stance that said, "I'll shoot your ass, no problem, if you don't move." Devin turned back to Ronnie in time for her fist to connect with is nose.

~~~

Ronnie might not have gotten into trouble if the stupid man had not hit his head on the way down to the floor and knocked himself unconscious. But she had hit him. Looking at her hand, she realized it burned and she felt stupid.

Again.

Devin had only been trying to show her he was not gay. She had been so turned on that when he touched his body to hers she nearly came from his barely there touches. And the way he smelled. All sex and very male.

Then when he said those things about... She was not going to cry, at least not until she got home anyway. When the ambulance took him away, she went out to her car to go home.

Of course, her stupid car would not start and she had had to have Roger take her home. Tommy Bob, the restaurant manager and owner, had told her he would have to think about what to do about all this. He had never had any of his staff hit anyone before, not in all his fifty-six years, and he did not know what Mother was going to say about it.

"Ronnie, if that man presses charges, you could see jail time for assault. I'm not taking you to jail 'cause, frankly, I'm not sure what to do with you," Roger told her from the front seat of the cruiser as he drove. He would not let her sit in the front; she thought he was trying to make a point too. Damned men, why not just say what they meant? She wondered why they had to intimidate.

"I know, Roger. And you don’t know how sorry I am about this. Thanks for not running me in."

She did not bother trying to explain why she had hit Devin Grant. What would be the point? She could hear the disappointment in his voice. Hell, she thought, she was disappointed in herself. She had never in all her life hit anyone before and she hated that she had done so now. And she didn’t know what she would have done had Roger not shown up when he had. Devin was out cold and she had been trying to figure out how to revive him.

Ronnie was mad at herself because she didn’t want to become her father. Her father hit. He had hit her with his fists or whatever was handy when she lived at home. One time he had beaten her badly with an orange race car track. She still had scars on the back of her legs and back from that. All her bones had been broken by him at one time or another, including her jaw five different times. And that all occurred in the first six years of her life. He was a mean son-of-a-bitch and she hated him with every breath she took.

Her mother, the drunken sot, had done nothing more than laugh when Ronnie had gone to her for help. Lindy had told her all men were pricks. It was just a matter of finding one that did not hit too hard or too often.

Ronnie had stayed away from men her whole life, avoiding them like they were carrying a disease that one could get by simply being next to them. She was more than likely the oldest living virgin at twenty-eight years old.

Going into the house after Roger had told her not to leave town until she heard from him or Grant’s attorney—like she could—she went straight to her bedroom. Her hand hurt and she was sure that she was either going to lose her job or get written up. She could not afford to lose her job right now.

Ronnie’s roommates were still asleep and she was very quite when she walked by their room. Ben Kendal and Austin Pride owned the house and had been partners for nearly as long as she had been alive. Ronnie loved them dearly and was glad for their friendship. But right now she did not think she could deal with their drama. Smiling for the first time since this morning, she thought of the drama she would have to endure when she told them what had happened.

Filling up the huge tub in her bathroom with hot water and lots of bubbles, she stripped down and thought about the look on Devin's face when she had hit him. Looking at her hand again, she could already see the bruising start. Great, she thought, could this day get any worse? When there was a knock on her door, she seriously thought about sliding down under the water and staying there until she ran out of oxygen.

Opening the door slowly, Austin walked in. Without saying a word, he sat down on the toilet and played with the design embellished on his robe, only looking at her once in a while. Just when she was ready to scream at him, he spoke.

"Roger called. He said to tell you that you left your phone in his car and that Mr. Grant isn't going to press charges if you call his office first thing on Monday morning and do what he tells you to do. The number is by the phone in the kitchen. Then before I could find you, Thomas Bob called. He called to say he was sorry but he talked to his mother and they've decided that you must go. He said he's very sorry, but his mommy still holds the money.” Ronnie waited for more because she was sure there was. “That man is sixty-seven years old if he's a day. Why on earth he doesn't just put that old bat of his in a nursing home and grow some balls is beyond me. She probably doesn't even know she's driven him to seek men as a companion."

"I didn't know Tommy was gay. He seems so...straight to me whenever he comes into the restaurant."

Tommy was an odd sort of man. Given to fits of nervousness that made Ronnie think he was going to drop dead of a stroke at any minute. But he was nice to her and had let her work around her school. She didn’t know what she was going to do now.

"I didn't say he was gay. I think he goes out with men because he is terrified of his mother. He probably thinks all women are like her and avoids them like you do men."

She did not comment on that. They both knew that was true. She did avoid men, all of them.

Austin dropped to the floor on his knees and picked up the plastic cup on the side of the tub and began pouring water over her hair. He had done this before, washed her hair when she was stressed and needed to talk. He did it so well she was nearly asleep when he spoke again.

"Do you wanna talk about it, love? You know I'll listen, and if you don't want Ben to know, well, we won't tell him. You know how old queers are, all drama and absolutely no help."

She knew he was trying to make her laugh and she also knew that he would tell Ben everything when he went back to bed with him. They were an awesome couple and so loving to each other and to her. She loved them both with all her heart.

"I'm becoming my father, Austin, and I don't want to,” she told him quietly.

"Don't be stupid, girl. Your father is a crass prick who should have been put in prison years ago. Now tell me why you've come to this ridiculous conclusion.

Does it have anything to do with this Grant person?"

Ronnie nearly laughed at the anger she heard in his voice. He may be the sweetest man she knew, but he was also not afraid to say what he thought.

"Yes. I hit him and knocked him to the floor. He was...he had...I thought he was gay and he had come to prove to me he wasn't. He made me mad and I hit him."

Austin did not say anything as he ran his fingers through her newly rinsed hair, working out the tangles. Then he let the long tresses hang outside of the tub to dry.