Page 55 of Her Devils

I shake my head, as if the movement could help me make sense of what he just said. “You aren’t in love with Kiara?”

He laughs. “Fuck no. Having a girlfriend is good for my image, which is something your new brother and his friends haven’t understood. Fucking around and partying is fun, but sponsors want household names. I just signed a new contract with a brand of luxury sports watches. It’s a seven-figure deal. I’ll be the face of their new campaign. They want the allure of danger but not the sleaze.”

This new information is mind-boggling. “You don’t love her, and she knows?”

“I don’t know if she knows,” he says with another shrug. “But it doesn’t matter. She might think that our relationship will evolve into love, since women are wired that way, but I never said that I loved her.”

I’m a little disgusted by it all. “If that’s what you want.”

He takes another step closer, covering my hand with his on the table. “That’s what I need for now, Len. To be honest, I don’t know if I’ve ever been in love. I don’t think I have.”

He uses his other hand to lift my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “The only women I know I love for sure are you and Anna. It isn’t romantic love, it’s different, something I treasure and I’m very protective of.”

“D,” I whisper, confused by his closeness, “I don’t think you even understand what loving someone means, no matter if it’s romantic or not.”

His fingers lightly stroke the sensitive skin under my chin. “Why do you say that?”

“Because the way you treated me isn’t how you treat someone you love, Darrius. Even if you didn’t reciprocate my feelings, you should have protected my heart when you understood how I felt. Instead, you used me to make your ex jealous and almost laughed at me when I thought you taking me on a date meant that you loved me, and then you chose one of my best friends as a girlfriend. Even if you don’t love her and it’s just convenient, you didn’t think about how that would make me feel, so please don’t talk to me about love.”

I didn’t realize how angry I really was, but I’m not the only one who’s furious.

“And who the fuck are you to tell me what love is, huh?” His fingers tighten on my face enough to keep me from looking away, but not enough to hurt. “Are you the authority on love, Len? Forgive me if I doubt it, or do you think that Jameson Walton wants more than a notch on his bedpost with you?”

I try to squirm away from him, but he doesn’t let me, tightening his grip on my hand too. “Now I understand why you came here with flowers. Anna must have told you about Jameson and me.”

His voice vibrates with anger. “She did, but I already knew. I saw you leave his room yesterday morning. You didn’t even look embarrassed about it.”

My reaction is a surprise even to myself. “That’s because I wasn’t embarrassed.”

He lets go of my face but not my hand. “You aren’t embarrassed that I caught you doing a walk of shame?” he asks, his brown eyes wide as he looks at my defiant smile.

“It wasn’t a walk of shame, D. It was a pussy strut, and I had a great night, so I had nothing to be embarrassed about.”

I know Darrius well enough to recognize that he’s furious, even though he’s trying to keep his temper in check. “You fucked him? How could you, Lenley? They are our rivals, my enemies. They started a fight on competition day in the locker room and almost got us all kicked out of the event. How do you think the video of me and that girl went viral? It was your brother, Cox. I bet he must have fucked that blogger and tipped her off to ruin my reputation.”

I don’t buy into his squeaky clean, boy next door image anymore. I’ve seen firsthand that it’s just a front. “Leave me out of whatever kind of beef you have with the Cove Devils, D, and Peyton isn’t my brother. Stop saying that,” I snap, trying to free my hand from his grip to no avail.

“Why does it bother you so much if I call him your brother? Are you fucking him too? I saw the way he looks at you, and he’s always next to you.”

His voice rises, and he’s practically shaking.

“Who I do or don’t fuck is none of your business, Darrius. You’ve never let me have a say on whom you fuck, so I expect you to extend me the same courtesy,” I yell, as mad as he is.

“Don’t you get it, Len? They are just using you to mess with me.”

I mean, yeah.

Darrius is right, but I’m in on the deal. I owe it to the Cove Devils, because I’ve started seeing how shitty of a friend Darrius has been this entire time. I’ve also finally started to come out of my shell, and the guys have been in my corner this entire time. “How dare you? They have been better friends than you’ve ever been. Thanks to you, I lost both you and Kiara. Peyton, Channing, and Jameson were there for me when I was heartbroken and needed someone to comfort me.”

He completely loses his shit. “How?” he yells. “How did they comfort you? By fucking you?”

Again, yeah, but it would be unfair to reduce my deal with the Devils to just fucking. There’s a lot of lust between the four of us, and we found common ground in our mutual thirst for revenge, but that’s just how we started. I’ve come to consider them friends, and I trust them.

“Yes!” I yell back. “They showed me that you and I were both wrong, Darrius. You were wrong that I’m boring and unattractive, and I was wrong for waiting for you to see me as something other than your last choice. I was someone you turned to when you were bored with your girlfriends or hookups.”

He pulls on my hand, and I’m so intent on telling him to fuck off that I didn’t expect it, so I go crashing against his chest.

“Lenley, those guys are bad news. They don’t care about you, they—”

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