Wicked: Tempt Me Not [Wicked Series Book 1] (2 page)

If the look on her face was any indication, she was every bit as surprised to see him as he was at seeing her. A jumble of thoughts rushed through his head but it only took him a second to realize that there was a beautiful brunette standing in front of him wearing nothing but skin.

With a growing smile, he leaned his head to the side. “Well, hello there gorgeous."

Her eyes widened before she took a deep breath and screamed.

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Holly felt dizzy by the time she'd let the last of the air in her lungs out. She stared at the man in the hallway before rushing to the sofa, grabbing the blanket off the back of it, and wrapping it around her body.

She looked around the room frantically, spotting a small glass figurine sitting on the coffee table. She reached for it, lifting it above her head, and turned back to the man.

"Who the hell are you? What do you want?"

The man walked completely into the room and Holly's arm rose higher, her makeshift weapon swaying slightly as her body shook.

"Here on vacation,” he answered. “And I hate to burst your bubble sweetheart, but this is my cabin."

"Your cabin?” Holly gasped in surprise. She stared across the room at him before straightening her spine. “You're delusional. This cabin was booked months ago. It's mine. I don't know who you are but you have exactly thirty seconds to get out of here before I embed this glass in your skull."

He laughed. Holly watched him lean one shoulder against the wall, cross his arms over his chest and laugh at her. Her fear turned ugly in that minute. She wasn't nearly as scared as she was pissed off now. Anger she could deal with. “What the hell is so funny?"

It took him a few minutes, but he stopped laughing, much to her surprise. Holly saw him inhale deeply before letting it out in one long breath.

"Look, I know for a fact that I booked this cabin,” he said. “And the shuttle dropped me off here a few hours ago. Now how did you get up here?"

"The shuttle,” Holly told him with a shaky voice. “I've been here since around noon."

"I see. Well, looks like someone made a mistake somewhere."

Holly snorted back a laugh as she looked at him. “You think?” she said, lowering her arm.

He grinned and pushed himself off the wall. Holly's arm rose automatically, her weapon wielded with confidence. He straightened, holding his hands out in front of him and said, “No need for that, darling. I'm not going to hurt you."

Holly held the blanket around her and watched him walk across the room to the front door. He leaned down, placing the things in his hand in one of the bags sitting there. There were several suitcases and various bags and she didn't know why she hadn't noticed them when she first walked in.

Glancing around the room, she spotted a guitar sitting on the sofa, before she looked back up at him. “I suppose this is yours,” she asked, pointing to the guitar.

"Yes.” He took a small step toward her and she stumbled backwards. “Look, why don't you go put some clothes on so you'll be more comfortable? We can try to figure out why we're both here when only one of us should be."

Holly watched him for a few seconds, tossing the object in her hand down on the sofa. She grabbed the blanket with both hands and took a slow step backwards, glancing over at the stairs.

Looking back at the man by the door, she gave a small nod of her head and turned, quickly making her way up the steps.

She rushed to the upper loft with her heart still racing in her chest.

Grabbing one of her suitcases, Holly tossed it up on the bed and unzipped it frantically, grabbing the first thing she saw. Glancing over the rail to the lower section, she looked for her intruder.

He walked across the room to the sofa. He wore nothing but a pair of well-worn black jeans. Hard, defined muscles gleamed in the filtered light from the fire. Moisture still glistened on his skin from an apparent shower and made the plain black tattoo circling his bicep shine. His hair was jet black, cropped close to his head, but a few small curls on top were tousled in a very haphazard way.

She had to admit he was quite pretty to look at. She hadn't seen anyone that healthy looking in quite a while. He was all bronze skin and rippled in the most delicious places.

Shaking her thoughts away, she moved to the farthest wall and quickly slipped her clothes on.

Devin grinned when he saw her step back from the railing. The sight of her when he walked into the living room was one he'd never be able to rid himself of. Naked as the day she was born. Of course, no one looked like that when born. Lord help the human race if they did. His cock twitched just thinking about all that delicious flesh glistening in the low light from the fireplace. She looked like a vision straight from his wettest dreams. Beautiful right down to her rosy tipped breasts.

He sucked in a breath, willing the image away. It was obvious someone had made a serious mistake. Overbooking the cabin was going to cost someone dearly and he hoped it wouldn't be him. Of course, things didn't have to be so dire. There
was
a beautiful girl upstairs and one shouldn't look a gift-horse in the mouth. Maybe this was his reward for being a good boy as of late?

Nah.

He chuckled to himself and picked his guitar up, placing it back in the case before walking to the door. He bent down, picking up the small blue bag he knew held his cell phone. He had brought it, just in case. One never knew what could happen and as long as it was off, it wouldn't become a bother.

Finding his phone, he hit the “on” button and waited as it charged up. Surely the resort manager could figure out why there was a woman in the cabin he had rented.

"So, you're still here, I see."

Devin turned at her voice and was struck speechless by the sight of her. Seeing her naked was one thing, but now, when he could actually look at her without his body responding was something entirely different.

The light from the fireplace cast shadows across her face and made her hair shine in the dim light. The pale yellow top she wore fell off one shoulder. Tight jeans hugged her thighs and hung low on her hips. A small glimpse of her stomach could be seen and the exposed skin looked like it had been dusted with gold. She was barefoot and the most innocent thing he'd seen in ages. Fresh and full of golden light. So much different from the girls he was used to.

She looked like an angel descending from heaven. When she stopped at the bottom of the stairs, he took a deep breath before shaking his head and turning from her. “Hadn't planned on going anywhere, princess."

She let out a small chuckle before crossing her arms over her chest and leaned against the railing of the stairs. “Well, you're not staying here."

Devin grinned at her, frowning a second later when he didn't get a signal on his phone. Opening the door to the cabin, he stepped outside. The displayed showed zero bars. “Stupid useless thing."

He walked back into the room, cursing under his breath, and threw his phone back into the bag before slamming the door. He looked up at her, watching her eyebrows rise in amusement. “What?"

"Do you normally talk to yourself or is this psychotic behavior something new? Since you're still here, this is need to know information. I have to be able to tell the police how crazy you were when they find your cold lifeless body on the side of the mountain."

Devin couldn't help but laugh at seeing the wide smile on her face. “Actually, I was trying to call you a cab, but I guess now you'll have to walk."

"Me! I'm not leaving. You are!"

"Oh, now there's where you're wrong, precious. This is my cabin and I'm not leaving."

"No, this is my cabin and stop with the stupid pet names,” she spat out. “My name is Holly."

"Fine, Holly,” Devin said, drawing her name out intentionally. “I can't get a signal on the phone and I sure as hell am not walking back down the mountain."

"Fine,” she said. “Wait right here."

She darted up the stairs, returning moments later with a cell phone in her hand. She locked eyes with him after punching in a few numbers. The smile on her face was smug. Devin couldn't help but grin when he heard the tell-tell signal of a dying battery.

Her smile disappeared and she looked at the phone before grunting in frustrating and darted back up the stairs. He stood by the door, listening to her talk to herself before she yelled, “Fuck!"

"Anytime, darling,” he yelled up to her. “Just get your cute ass back down here and I'll get straight to work on that."

She appeared at the top of the stairs and glared at him. “Are you always so crude?"

"I don't think I'm crude."

"Of course you don't,” she said, descending the stairs for a second time. “I can't find the damn phone charger."

Devin laughed. More so when her face turned bright red as she stomped to the sofa and flopped down, burying her hands in her hair and saying, “This is not happening."

Crossing the room, Devin stopped at the end of the sofa and waited until she looked up at him. “Normally I wouldn't give a rats ass whether you froze to death on the side of the mountain but, since you gave me such a lovely show upon entering, I'm sure we can come to ... some sort of arrangement.”
A cozy fire, two adults stranded alone. What more could a man ask for?
He leaned his head to the side and gave her a good long look from head to toe.

Her eyes widened to cartoon proportions and her mouth flew open. He smiled down at her, his tongue darting out to moisten his lips, and he bit it to keep from voicing his thoughts.

She sprang from the couch, her mouth snapping shut as she closed the distance between them. “Listen here buster,” she said, poking her index finger into his chest as she stood toe to toe with him. “There will be no ... arrangements of any kind! This is my cabin. It's stocked with my favorite foods and the only one leaving is you! Now, if you walk fast, you can make it back to the resort by sun up."

Devin grinned. He couldn't help it. Her face was bright red, her chest heaving with every harsh breath she took and he wasn't sure why, but seeing her get so worked up over the whole thing amused him. Just seeing that much fury contained in such a small package was the most thrilling thing he had been witness to in over two years, pathetic as it was.

He chuckled and reached into his pocket, pulling out his smokes and plucking one from the pack. “You know damn good and well I'm not going to do that. The resort is ten miles from here and I'm not about to walk that far for anyone."

"Well, I saw a nice little cave on the way up. It didn't look too far away. You can sleep with the animals for all I care and don't even think about lighting that thing up in here."

Devin stilled his hand in mid-motion, his thumb ready to fire the flint and light the cigarette dangling from his lip. He sighed as his amusement started to wane. She was becoming bitchier by the minute and no matter how much fun it would be to see her get riled up even more, he wasn't sure he was ready for what she may do if he pushed her too far. He really didn't want to walk to that resort.
Not that he would
, he grinned.

Pulling the unlit cigarette from his mouth, he placed it behind his ear, and grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Fine. So, what do we do now?"

"Um, you can leave so I can go to sleep?” Holly grinned.

"Not hardly,” Devin snorted. “You leave."

"Not gonna happen!"

Devin stared at her, watching her jut her chin up defiantly. He grinned. Taking a step back away from her he turned, sitting down on the sofa. He made a huge production of fluffing the pillows stacked up at the end and lying down, closing his eyes after giving her a wink.

Holly gaped at him. “What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm being a gentleman and letting you have the bed, but if you keep up all that bitching, I may just change my mind."

Holly stood there, completely speechless as she stared down at him. She didn't know what to do or say. This total stranger had just lounged out across her sofa and made himself at home. Her anger boiled hot. “Look, buddy."

"Devin."

Holly watched him smile with his eyes closed. He started humming and completely ignored her. “Fine ... Devin,” drawing his name out the way he'd done hers. “You are not staying here. I was here first. The way I see it, the cabin is mine."

Holly watched him, her gaze sweeping over his form and she gritted her teeth. He was ignoring her. He continued to hum, getting louder by the second.

The fact he was ignoring her wasn't as annoying as the song he was torturing her with. How many times had she heard it? Every radio station in the country played it every half hour and Roxy sang it daily, saying the words of the song were almost orgasmic.

When he just lay there, she shook her head and grunted in frustration, turning and making her way to the stairs. She stopped the second he started singing.

She listened to the words, the tone of his voice as he sang, and her heart rate increased with every verse. Turning her head, she looked over her shoulder to where he laid. She studied his face, recognition slowly clearing her foggy brain. Her eyes widened a second later.

It can't be.

His hair was short. That wasn't right. His hair should be long, falling over his shoulders. It was in the last picture she saw of him. She glanced at his arm. The tattoo was the same. The hair color, his name, the trademark black jeans, but...

He opened his eyes and flashed her a devilish smirk. Now that was definitely familiar. Was it really him?

When he winked at her, she gasped. “Holy shit,” she whispered. “You're Devin Shaw!"

Devin sat up slowly, grinning. He lifted one brow and gave her a nod of his head. “Bout damn time you recognized me. Now pipe down, I need my beauty rest."

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Holly stood rooted to the floor until her mouth had gone completely dry from hanging open. Her heart raced in her chest and she blinked a few times before closing her mouth.

She stared down at who she now knew was the very famous, although troubled musician, Devin Shaw, front man for the band,
Wicked
, the hottest thing to hit the music scene in years.