Page 79 of Wicked Devotions

“Oh, sorry.” She gives me a fake smile. “I forgot you were sitting there.”

“Bless your heart,” I say with a matching fake smile. “You know what, honey, I’ll just have what you’re having,” I say to Banks. Before she walks away, I lean up and press a chaste kiss to his lips.

He grins at me as she walks away, and I stare daggers in her back. “You’re jealous.”

I snort derisively. “No. She’s just rude.”

Banks and Declan look at each other and laugh.

“You know you never have to worry about me, right?” Banks asks.

Do I? I’m not entirely sure I can say I do definitively. But I’m also not sure that I have the right to ask for monogamy from him when I’m doing what I’m doing. Everything that exists is such a gray area for us. For all of us.

Before when I was just with Banks, it felt like a walk in the park. Now it feels like a walk in the bog. I know the direction I need to go in, it’s just that every step is filled with uncertainty.

“Harper?” Banks’s brow furrows as he turns to look me in the eyes. “Tell me you know.” His blue eyes search mine as he cups my cheeks.

“I know.” I muster a smile for him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He kisses my forehead and tucks me back against his side.

Declan looks back and forth between us, his expression unreadably blank. Our food and drinks come out quickly. I notice our server turning her attention from Banks to Declan. Jealousy flares inside me as he flirts back with her.

I know I shouldn’t be angry. It’s irrational. Maybe he’s just doing it to keep the heat off Banks. I dismiss that idea as soon as it comes because Declandoesn’t do that type of thing for anyone except Emerson and Cy.

Is he trying to make me jealous?

If so, I’m obviously not going to give him the satisfaction. Nope. Two can play this game. I watch as he gives her his full, dimples-included smile, the one that lowers my IQ by twenty points. Then he does the unthinkable. Hewinksat her and takes the check after insisting on paying for all three of us.

I notice her number scrawled on the bottom of the receipt and see red. He drops enough cash to cover the meal and a tip as we all stand up. Before he can grab the receipt with her number, I snatch it up and shove it into my ice water, ignoring the guys’ laughter as I walk past them.

“You’recute when you’re jealous,” Declan says as he leans over me to secure the airplane door.

“I wasn’t jealous.” I buckle the harness. “I was irritated because she was rude to me.”

“She was rude.”

“Then why were you flirting with her?” I spin to look at him only to see a huge grin spread across his face.

“So, you were jealous.”

“How you even have friends is beyond me. So obnoxious.”

He laughs, then laughs harder when he looks at me. “Do you want the truth?”

“Clearly.”

“I was jealous.”

My head whips to the side with that unexpected confession. “Of what?”

“Banks. The way you so easily tell him you love him. You two are so natural together.”

“Because we’ve been together for years. Of course there’s comfort and familiarity there. We do love each other deeply.”

“I know.”

Instead of continuing the conversation, he starts rambling off numbers and letters to air traffic control. I sit back in the chair and enjoy the late evening flight. After a while I take a break from looking out the window and look over at Declan.

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