Page 53 of Devotion: Isn't What It Seems (Love Isn't What It Seems 1)

“You are giving your cousin more ammunition,” I murmured against his lips, ready to drag him upstairs.

“Maybe,” he answered back, his voice low so only I could hear him. “But I don’t give a fuck. Because later, I intend to bury my cock deep inside you.”

I blushed with the feeling of anticipation. Okay, so maybe he didn’t have a filter either.

“I can’t wait.”

At the thought of later, my voice came out breathless. Surprise and desire flashed across his face at my answer, and a smug thought crossed my mind that I still had it in me to surprise people.

“Go,” I told him with a smile. “I’m going to play with your books.”

As if he had to pull himself away, he left me in his beautiful library. Only Ainslee and I were left. I wondered when Callen left but I didn’t want to ask her since it would probably open the door to another blunt comment.

I smiled to myself as I dug through the books. I sat on the floor, lost in another world glancing through the books with Lachlan lingering at the back of my mind.

“Eve, you seem…” Ainslee’s voice brought my head up. “It’s hard to describe it. From less than two weeks ago, you seem different.”

I frowned. “Different?” I asked.

“Maybe a better word is happier,” she pondered. “Or relaxed. I don’t know, you just seem different.”

I looked at her pensively. I felt different too. Since the moment I saw Lachlan, I felt like my world slowly started to get brighter. Unwilling to ponder on it too much, I just shrugged my shoulder and went back to my books.

“Are you ignoring me?” She chuckled.

“No,” I answered her low. “I don’t want to put too much thought into this. I’m just going with it.”

She nodded as if she understood what I meant.

“Something changed for you in the last twenty-four hours too,” I added.

I didn’t need to ask. I could see it all over her. To my amazement, she blushed. The sassy woman without a filter actually blushed! She was watching me as if deciding what she should tell me.

“How about we don’t talk about any of it?” I suggested softly.

Whatever it was, it was clearly hard for her to talk about it. She eagerly shook her head in agreement, her beautiful red hair bouncing around her face.

We sat there in silence, me on the floor surrounded by books and her on the steps that lead to the second layer of the library, both of us lost in our own thoughts.

The memory of the night I last saw my son and my husband flashed in my mind.

I came back from my latest book release tour early that night. I wasn’t supposed to be back for another night but I moved heaven and hell to get home. I never thought that night would begin and end the way it did. I never thought I was going to feel such dark despair that night. Never thought the pain and guilt was going to follow me for months.

Until Lachlan entered my life.

Whatever it was about Lachlan, he breathed life into me. And this place helped too. I felt lighter. And if I could bottle these feelings, I totally would.

“We have to get ready,” Ainslee exclaimed, shutting down my memory lane.

“Ready for what?” I asked.

“For the ball tonight?” Her voice was exasperated. “You know, party.”

“Wasn’t that yesterday?”

“The party is all weekend,” she explained. “I can’t wait for you to see the dress I picked for you tonight.”

“Oh, Ainslee,” this time it was my turn to be exasperated. “I hope it’s simple.”

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