Page 46 of Suddenly Tempted
“That’s cheating,” she whispered, watching as he cut the cards in two and stacked them again.
Devlin was silent as he dealt them seven cards each and placed the deck in the middle of the table. He took his time. Whether it was because he could only use one arm or because he was so focused on her, Darcy wasn’t sure. But it was maddening, the tension simmering between them, hovering just beneath the surface like an unspoken challenge.
“Give me your Kings, Devlin,” she said, trying and failing to sound casual.
“Go fish,” Devlin replied, holding steady. “Tell me, Darcy, do you play cards with all your dates?”
Darcy grinned, picking up a card from the pile and adding it to her hand.
“Only the ones up to the challenge,” she said.
“I’m honoured,” Devlin said.
“I’m already planning my victory dance,” she replied.
“Don’t get too cocky, Wainwright. I’m full of surprises.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Darcy teased, but her pulse quickened at the way his eyes sparkled with amusement.
After the last few days, Darcy could tell Devlin was starting to relax. His arm was strapped to keep it from hurting so much, his jaw unclenched, his whole persona a world away from the man who’d demanded she get ready for his helicopter. She could tell he was enjoying this — their little back-and-forth — the way they were dancing around the inevitable pull between them. She ignored a niggling doubt that what had happened between them was a result of his adrenaline pumping and clouding the reasoning part of his brain.
They played in near silence for a few minutes, saving themselves for card requests and Go Fish commands. But Darcy couldn’t stand how the air was growing thick with unspoken words, so she glanced at him over the top of her cards.
“What does a man like Devlin Storm do in his spare time?” she asked.
Devlin chuckled, studying the cards in his hand. He’d worked out a way to play with just one working arm, it took him a bit longer but he’d done so without complaining that Darcy had picked a game where he was quite obviously at an immediate disadvantage.
“What’s this ‘spare time’ you talk of?” he said. “Show me your Queens.”
“Go Fish,” Darcy replied. “And I don’t believe you work 24/7. So I’m going to fill in the gaps if you don’t do it for me.”
She watched as he placed his cards face down on the table and then drew one from the deck.
“So,” she went on, “I’m picturing you finishing work, heading to the gym and working out until you’ve released all that pent-up aggression because your assistant brought you the wrong stapler. Once you’ve run a ten-minute five-mile run and pounded that treadmill like it’s the face of your mortal enemy—”
“Okay, okay, jeez,” he interrupted. “I see I’ve got a long way to go to win you over still. So, I’m not sure I should be telling you this, actually.”
Darcy arched an eyebrow, trying not to smile.
“When I get home after a long day in the office, I sit in my pants and eat cereal while watching reruns ofSuccession.”
The laugh that burst from Darcy surprised even herself.
“You’re telling me you watch power-hungry billionaires stab each other in the back while shovelling Cheerios onto a spoon? All in a pair of boxers?”
“What can I say?” He shrugged. “Though they’re Calvins, before you start imagining me in a pair of saggy, paisley prints.”
Darcy felt her cheeks heat as she pictured Devlin in a pair of Calvins. “Is that not a kind of busman’s-holiday show for you?”
“What about you, Darcy?” He ignored her question, watching her for a beat. “What’s your show?”
“Am I a total cliché if I sayGilmore Girls?”
“Yes,” Devlin said with a grin. “But I won’t hold it against you.”
“It’s a comfort,” she said. “The small town where everyone knows each other. The quirky characters. The romance. It’s my go-to when I want to escape.”
Devlin watched her for a beat, his expression softening. “I get that,” he said, quietly. “We all need to escape sometimes.”
