Page 25 of Suddenly Tempted
Her betrayal had cut way deeper than the breakup ever did and he’d never spoken to anyone about his private life after that.
Devlin Storm the island, he thought to himself.Devlin Storm the mountain.
Darcy hadn’t been too far off when she had joked about the first rule of the billionaire club beingdo not display any weaknesses. Only, it wasn’t the rule for any club he was a member of, especially not the APEX Club. It was a rule Devlin had built around himself like a protective forcefield.
He turned to Darcy again, and she smiled up at him with the same fierce determination.
“Are you okay?” she asked, and he nodded. “The offer’s still there if your arm’s getting tired.”
A good listener, she’d said. A good person. Darcy wouldn’t have sold his story. Would she?
“I’m good for the moment, thanks,” he said, slowing more and letting Darcy walk beside him.
The snow was hardened here, their footsteps not so deep and draining. They walked on in companionable silence, punctured by the occasional wheezy groan from Darcy.
“I wouldn’t have left you behind,” he offered, cautiously.
“What?” Darcy’s voice came in a breathless whisper.
“Back there, you said I’d left you to die.” Devlin went on. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t do that. I sometimes act without thinking—”
“No shit,” Darcy interrupted.
Devlin ignored the pop, but a smile grew on his lips.
“I could see you at all times — I knew where you were.”
He left the words hanging in the air. They were true.
“Thank you,” Darcy said, so quietly her words were whipped away by a flurry of windy snow.
Devlin smiled, ducked his chin down, and pushed forward up the steep slope. His arm throbbed, a new burning sensation was trickling down his skin and he knew that wasn’t a good sign. A break he could deal with, infection was a whole other ball game. He really needed to get a look at it, but they had a long way to go to the ranger’s station yet.
“Devlin,” Darcy’s voice was a welcome distraction from the pain. “I know you said you’d never leave me behind, but what would happen if a mountain lion started running for us? Would you run off and leave me then? That would be exceptional circumstances, so I’m not saying I’d mind, but—”
“The Alps doesn’t have mountain lions,” he interrupted.
Darcy seemed to ponder that fact for a moment, as she trudged silently through the snow.
“That’s a bit of a cop-out answer,” she said, eventually. “What if it was a bear then?”
“Nope,” Devlin replied, steering them around a crop of large boulders.
“Nope you wouldn’t run, or nope there’s no bears?”
Devlin laughed, feeling a bubble of happiness burst unexpectedly in his chest.
“There are bears, but they’re not this high up. Not this time of year.”
“Hmm,” muttered Darcy, scratching the top of her hat with her gloves. Devlin remembered the way she’d pushed at his chest, and the heat that had been radiating from her cheeks had set his insides alight. “That’s still a bit of a cop-out. So I’m taking from your lack of answer, you’d run. That’s okay. It’s important we have a bit of survival instinct in us all.”
“Darcy, I don’t know if I’d jump in front of a bear if it was lumbering towards us. I might do. But maybe trust me enough to know I’d not take you where the bears could be . . . if I could help it.”
The look she gave him froze his heart. In the same way she’d asked him to trust her, that look said she wouldn’t trust him as far as she could throw him.
“Do you not feel safe with me?” he asked quickly, the idea burning hot like the infection growing in his arm.
Darcy’s eyes widened. “Oh no,” she said. “It’s not that I don’t feel safe with you. I’m just trying to picture you jumping in front of a bear to save me.”
