Page 19 of Suddenly Tempted
No, Devlin Storm was definitely not the man for her.
Definitely not.
He shifted in his sleep, wincing with pain as he moved onto his back. Even in the simplicity of sleep with his muscles slack, his face was the most offensively perfect thing she’d ever seen. Gone was the hot-blooded broody look. The alpha male whose intense green eyes could bed whichever ladies he took fancy to. Instead, he was a sleeping Adonis with cheekbones and a jawline that could cut through the snowdrift. And a cupid’s bow so perfect she wanted to reach out a finger and trace the lines. His hair had mussed a little on top, a bird’s nest that was thick enough for Darcy to imagine running her hands through and . . .
Darcy. She chastised herself silently. Devlin Storm might not have been the man for her, but the way he looked was playing havoc with her hormones.
She was running hot and cold, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d give herself a fever and start saying delirious things back to him. As though making a point, a giant shiver ran through her body and as quietly as she could, she crept to the fire and threw on another log. Settling at the foot of the mattress for a moment, listening to the howling wind and the gentle snores from Devlin. Two sounds so incongruous with each other, yet they seemed to be in sync.
Then she gathered a couple of sofa cushions and rested them between her and Devlin so that she wouldn’t roll over in her sleep again. She couldn’t imagine anything worse than resting her hand on his stomach, stealing her fingers up under his jumper, following the trail of hair down to his waistband, putting her lips on his lips, his hands on her . . .
Enough!
Darcy rolled over to face the wall, her cheeks aflame, pulling the blankets up to her chin and listening to the storm batter the cabin. Devlin Storm would have to wait. The only thing that mattered at the moment was surviving.
* * *
“Rise and shine, Miss Wainwright!”
Darcy stirred, stretching like a cat and almost purring beneath the covers. Then she snapped her eyes open, remembering once again where she was. She was surprised to see that the cabin was drenched in fierce sunlight and muffled by an eerie quiet. She sat up, massaging a crick out of her neck and blinking the fuzziness from her eyes until she made out Devlin standing in the doorway. He was holding something in his good hand, and he carried it into the room. He looked at her, tilting his head, an almost smile crossing his lips. The way his eyes studied Darcy, the intensity of them made her skin prickle.
“What time is it?” she asked, trying to smooth back her hair.
“Six,” he said.
“Six?” she replied. How on earth had she managed to sleep for so long? The fire was still going, radiating heat, and the old mattress beneath her had become strangely comfortable. If she tried hard, she could almost convince herself that this was a luxury suite at the Royal Alpine, and that the man standing over her was her boyfriend.
If Devlin noticed her blush, he didn’t show it. He stretched out his hand and she saw that he was using one of the nature books as a tray. On it was a petri dish with a broken-up protein bar, and two beakers full of water.
“Your champagne breakfast is served, madam,” Devlin said, still grinning. “Our luxury spa opens at seven, where you will find a team of masseuses waiting for you to treat you the way APEX Club members should be treated. None of this shack in the mountains rubbish.”
Darcy laughed, wondering if she was still asleep.
“The APEX Club?” she said, leaning back against the sofa and picking up the beaker. “They’re the ones who booked out the resort. I want in.”
Devlin coughed and looked down at his own filled petri dish.
“You probably don’t, to be honest. It’s mostly just me and my friends messing around.” His protein bar was holding his attention.
Darcy guessed why he was putting her off the club that she was 100 percent not nearly rich enough to join, but she felt he was in a good enough mood to press him on it.
“And these friends of yours, are they infamously brooding, bad-boy billionaires too?” she teased.
“No,” Devlin shook his head, the corners of his lips twitching. “I think you’ll find some of them are more than approachable. Annoyingly so.”
He sat down on the mattress next to her, grinning.
“Hold up,” Darcy said. She was slightly distracted when Devlin shifted closer and she noticed just how good he smelled. How someone who’d hiked up a mountain after crashing a helicopter and sleeping in a cabin could smell so fresh was beyond her. “Hold up. The APEX Club is just you and all your billionaire friends? So it’s the APEXBillionaire’sClub. You’re a member of a club called the APEXBillionaire’sClub?”
She peeled with laughter, enjoying the way Devlin’s perfect lips pursed.
“Wait, I never said we were called that,” Devlin protested. “The APEX Club—”
“Is that to remind yourselves how rich you are every time you go there?” Darcy teased again. “The APEXBillionaire’sClub.” Darcy let out a honk of a laugh. “Well, my club is a lot more exclusive. I don’t need to brag about my wealth.”
“The Darcy Wainwright Club? So exclusive I’d double the member numbers by joining that one.” Devlin scooted sideways and out the way of the back of Darcy’s hand.
“It’s a good job I slept well, mister,” Darcy said, grinning. “And talking of which, what’s got into you this morning?”
