In Her Sights (The Thousand Words Series Book 2) (2 page)

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“Chicago?” Lindsay asked again just to be sure.

Dev smiled. It was good to be home. Lindsay’s enthusiastic welcome at the airport was hysterical. He picked up a trail of people following him from the terminal, snapping pictures and asking random questions. It was a long flight and they were annoying, but of course he wasn’t allowed to show it. Then she jumped out from behind a pillar, grabbed him, and planted a big kiss on his cheek. A couple of girls beside him shrieked in surprise, and a grandmother with another girl actually fell down.

He went with it. Since the strap for his laptop case was slung across his body, both of his hands were free. Dev easily lifted Lindsay off her feet, swung her around, and kissed her full on the mouth for everyone to see.

Once he put her down, Lindsay just smiled and said, “Welcome home. I doubt you’ll get that kind of greeting from Kenny.”

“I hope not,” Dev agreed. “Maybe I’ll ask you to pick me up more often.”

They left to get his bags, without the entourage, which made Dev seriously consider asking Lindsay to pick him up in the future. Now she sat on his desk as he unpacked and repacked, preparing to leave again in a couple of days to record A Thousand Words’ third album.

“The answer isn’t going to change just because you keep asking, baby. Chicago: The Windy City, The Second City, My Kind Of Town, City by the Lake, City on the Make, Heart of America, The Big Onion – I don’t know what that one’s about. Maybe it’s to compete with ‘The Big Apple,’ but come on, they could have come up with –”

“All right! I get it,” Lindsay snapped and Dev smiled to himself as he finished hanging his slacks in a garment bag and slid a pair of polished wingtips in the bottom.

“Prada makes men’s shoes?” Lindsay looked over his shoulder.

“Yes. Oskar hemmed these slacks with these shoes so they’re like a matched set now. They don’t hang right with any of my other shoes. It’s annoying.”

“Tell Oskar to take a flying leap.”

“Oskar is my boss.”

“Leaving aside the hacker gig, which is the reason I love you –”

“Being a white-hat hacker doesn’t pay, Lin.”

“It’s charity work. You donate your time anonymously and it’s altruistic to the max. Leaving that aside, your job is playing the guitar. I think you can stop modeling for Oskar Viktor now,” Lindsay said.

Dev was tired of this argument, and he was used to getting it from Kenny, not Lindsay. He started modeling to get attention for the band and they didn’t need the exposure anymore. And as Kenny didn’t hesitate to point out whenever his modeling schedule conflicted with anything Kenny wanted Dev to do, Oskar was getting the better deal now. Mostly.

Oskar worked around Dev’s erratic schedule, and didn’t take for granted the free marketing he was getting every time he handed Dev a new suit to wear. Dev’s wardrobe was extensive and largely comped, but he was also a walking billboard. The thing he tried to explain to Lindsay repeatedly, and failed, was that he didn’t mind. And he sometimes relied on Oskar’s opinion in lieu of having any other adult men around. Less and less as time went on, but the relationship was there.

Dev took a deep breath and prepared himself to try again.

“Oh stop,” Lindsay cut him off before he even started. “You’ve got this pseudo-father thing going on with Oskar. Fine. I’ll drop it. I’ll get Kenny to drop it.” She waved her hand dismissively and looked away.

“No, that’s not it. It’s – wait, did Kenny say something?” Dev asked.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it,” Lindsay slid off his desk and wrapped her arms around his neck. She pressed her lips to his and slowly backed him against his dresser.

Dev cooperated with the kiss, sliding his hands around her waist and leaning into it. He didn’t like this situation, but he’d let Lindsay handle it if she wanted to. Kenny knew better than to come between him and Oskar, they already had that conversation. Dev let his hands move up Lindsay’s back, feeling her warm, smooth skin. Kenny and Lindsay never got along, so maybe letting them work this out for him would give them some sort of common ground. Or at least a starting place. A reason to call a truce anyway. It should have been done long ago.

Speaking of things that should have been done long ago, Dev pushed the garment bag aside and laid Lindsay on the bottom bunk bed. He never got around to redecorating his room and he regretted it now as he tried to simultaneously ignore the race car bedspread and unbutton Lindsay’s blouse while kissing her.

“It’s overdue that we broke this room in,” Dev said and kissed her cheek and moved down to her jaw.

“Agreed.” Lindsay’s fingers were already at work on his belt. She kissed him back then let him work his way down to her neck as he exposed her chest.

Sliding slowly down her body, Dev knew he was driving her crazy, but in a good way. He kissed the valley where her breasts just started to come together, loving the feel of their tender warmth pressing against his chin. Moving lower while leaving her bra still fastened was tricky, but he had the hang of it now. He let his hands rest on her sides – just where her delicate form tapered to her narrow waist – as he nuzzled her still partially covered breasts.

“Lower,” Lindsay moaned. Dev grinned. She wrapped her legs around him, hiking her skirt up in the process. The position made it awkward for him to leave his hands where they were simply because there wasn’t room for his arms anymore.

A scuffle outside his bedroom door made Dev pause, but only for a moment. He locked the door when he closed it. It was automatic now whenever he and Lindsay were alone, even though they’d never done anything to make it necessary. Well, almost never.

“Simon says?” Lindsay said hopefully.

Dev chuckled and skipped to just below her bra, kissing her abdomen. His elbows banged annoyingly against Lindsay’s knees, but he could continue playing her game and handle her obstacles without sacrificing his agenda.

Letting one hand slide up her body to cradle Lindsay’s face, Dev let the other move down between her legs and pull at the thin lacy thong. She was ready for him, but not ready enough. Dev wanted more foreplay and Lindsay was always so ready to go he rarely got it.

Pushing her thong aside, Dev let a finger slide along the warm moist channel now exposed. Lindsay pushed against him, her body clearly pleading for more. Dev took the front clasp of her bra in his teeth and unfastened it in a deft move. He kissed the cleavage now available and ran a finger along Lindsay’s slit again. She shuddered with pleasure.

A low moan escaped her barely parted lips, but it turned into an even lower growl when a knock at the bedroom door reverberated through the room.

“Just tell whoever it is to go away,” Lindsay hissed quietly.

Dev opened his mouth to do just that, but didn’t get the chance.

“Dev?” Sophie’s voice called. He let his face fall back to Lindsay’s stomach.

“A minute, Soph,” Dev answered and started to disentangle himself.

“You’re kidding!” Lindsay whispered.

“That erection you felt against your thigh would have survived a through-the-door yelling match with the guys, but it’s gone now. Sorry.” He kissed her and sat up. “I will try to get this done as quick as possible, then I’ll come back and finish what I started.”

Lindsay propped herself up on her elbows to look at him. Her bra and blouse hanging open, skirt bunched around her waist, Dev debated whether he really wanted to go talk to his little sister. He didn’t. Even though his girlfriend was glaring at him, he would rather be here and started to feel the stirrings of desire again. Maybe ...

No. It was too late now. Sophie was waiting and she’d just be back if he took too long.

“Dev, honey, just to be clear,” Lindsay said, her patience obviously strained. He wondered if an ultimatum would follow. She didn’t do things like that to him, but there was always a first time. “When we have kids, you’re not hopping up and interrupting our private time every time they fuss.”

He leaned forward and kissed her.

“Of course not,” Dev said, tucking his shirt back in. “I happen to know their mother is going to raise them better that that.”

Lindsay glanced at the door as Dev stood. “Clearly I need more practice on you.”

“You’re doing a hell of a job. You just didn’t get to Sophie in time. I’ll be back.”

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“What do you think you’re doing?” Sophie hissed as soon as Dev closed his door.

Dev whirled to face her at the end of the hall, framed in the doorway to the family room with the light behind her. Sophie’s face was in shadow, but her posture screamed her displeasure even if he’d missed her hissing at him like his pet snake.

“Coming to talk to you. If you’ll recall, you knocked on my door,” Dev reminded her. From the fragile way she called his name, so familiar from when his mom – their mom – first brought her home, Dev assumed Sophie needed his help or guidance. He didn’t expect to be lured into a fight.

“With Lindsay?” Sophie crossed her arms in front of her chest. Dev pushed past her into the family room and looked around. Thankfully, it was empty.

He rubbed his forehead as he considered his options. Dev doubted she was asking about the sex-talk. She was old enough that someone would have covered that with her by now. If Sophie overheard enough of something to ask, she knew very well what he was doing with Lindsay. Or trying to. Which meant that was the problem itself.

Great. Now what to do about it. He wished he could call Lindsay. Or Cassie and Tiff, or Bryan and Brenda, or even Jess or Kenny for advice. Of course he could just go with honesty. Dev sighed.

“You know very well what I was doing, trying to do, and it isn’t your concern. We’re both adults. Besides, you like Lindsay.”

“I have to live here too!”

“Fine. I’m sorry if we disturbed you. We’ll keep it down.”

“You weren’t loud. Yet.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Dev leaned against Kenny’s tiny desk in the corner to wait her out. A shadow moving down the stairs caught his attention. Flynn was coming, just great.

“There isn’t a problem, Dev,” Flynn said, joining the conversation. “Sophie, leave your brother alone.”

“But –” Sophie turned to her father in protest.

“He and Lindsay are adults. They’re in a relationship. It’s not like they’re on the sofa while you’re having a sleepover. They’re being responsible. He lives here too. Let it go.”

Sophie glared at her father, then her brother, then stomped off to her room – a whopping three feet away and across the hall from Dev’s.

Dev sympathized. He wasn’t any happier for Flynn’s interruption.

“I was handling this,” Dev said.

“I know,” Flynn nodded. “But I heard it upstairs, so Lindsay may have been able to hear it in your room. Besides, you’re only home a couple of days and she’s thirteen. Why make you waste time dealing with either arguing with her, or her being huffy with you? This way you reach the same conclusion faster and she can be huffy with me instead. You’re off the hook.”

“It doesn’t have to be complicated.”

Flynn smiled. “You were eleven when Cassie was thirteen. Your priorities might have changed in the last nine years.” He walked over to the sofa and leaned against the back. “Did you
want
me to take her side? Tell you no so you’d have a reason to leave?”

Dev didn’t see that coming and didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t like Flynn, but that felt like a low blow even for him.

“I know at some point you’re going to strike out on your own. All of you will. Cassie and Tiff are in grad school now. They come home when they can, but they spend as many breaks in California and New York with each other as coming home to visit family.

“Jess technically still lives here, but he has an apartment of his own too. Right now it’s for dating, but it’s just a matter of time before he starts sleeping there, then living there. Kenny’s bound to get a girlfriend again someday. Every time you guys go to a studio or on tour and he comes home single, I’m astonished all over again.

“You have Lindsay, but you’re devoted to school. Your life seems to be on track from what I’ve heard. If that’s not the case and you want to talk about it, I’m here for you. I want you to know that.

“I still have hope that someday we’ll be able to patch up our relationship. More importantly for now, your little sister and brother need you.”

Dev scoffed. “Sophie can reach me anytime she wants and Gunter doesn’t know me.”

“They may not know how much they need you.” Flynn paused and looked down the hall toward Sophie’s closed door before turning his attention back to Dev again. “You’re rarely home so you don’t see it, but Sophie encourages everyone to talk about Teri. You’re the opposite. You tend to keep your memories close and don’t talk about her much.

“Gunter will never know his mother like you did. Even Sophie got some time with her, some memories of her own. What’s worse, as you were so kind as to point out, I don’t make the best husband. Teri was very understanding and tolerant. She was wonderful and I can honestly say I’ll always see her as the love of my life. I wasn’t planning on getting married again, but I’m grateful I did marry her. I won’t find another woman like her. Quite honestly, I’m tired, Dev. I’m not getting married again.