Page 7 of The Devil Gets His Due

He raises a brow. “You don’t like kids?”

I feel a small sigh release somewhere inside me. Idolike kids, actually, but since I don’t plan to have any, their presence always produces this tiny voice in the back of my head asking if I’ve chosen the right path. I’d rather not spend the rest of the evening trying to drown it out.

“It’s my understanding they get in the way of attending Coachella and taking spontaneous trips to Cabo.”

“That,” he replies, “is the first sensible thing I’ve heard you say in six weeks.”

The party is a refined,elegant affair that goes without a hitch. I’ll never admit this to Graham, but I suppose it’s a much moreBen and Gemmaevent than I’d have come up with if left to my own devices.

I also don’tneedto admit this to Graham because he already knows and is gloating about it. “It appears a party held in LA isn’t the ‘opposite of fun’,” he says, stepping beside me.

I look up, up, up. It’s really hard to appear condescending or disdainful when you have to practically tip over backward to meet the guy’s eye. “Like you know what’s fun.”

“I didn’t hear any complaints last night.”

My head jerks up toward him again. “First of all, I thought we agreed that last night never happened.” I glance around me. “Secondly, I’m surprised yourememberlast night.” Surely, taking me back to his room wasn’t a decision he’d have made sober.

His gaze falls to my mouth. “I remember enough,” he says, and there’s something there, in his voice. Something gravelly and interested, and a memory flickers to life: his palm, flat on my stomach as he went down on me, holding me in place. His gaze on me while he did it: hungry, a hundred percent in.

“Huh,” I say aloud, though I didn’t mean to. Because I suddenly know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there’s another side of him, and I liked it. A lot.

Six is waiting nearby and I should be running away from this little chat as fast as I possibly can, but…but… “So, what exactly do you remember?”

His gaze drifts over my face, assessing me. His mouth opens to reply and then Six’s arm is around my shoulders and a tray is shoved in front of me. “Shots,” says Six. He grins at Graham. “You too. Even though you’re hitting on my girl.”

“I didn’t realize she wasyourgirl,” Graham bites out.

“No worries, bud,” Six replies, oblivious to Graham’s tone. “I don’t hold grudges, and your brother got me out of jail on two different occasions, so I consider you family.”

“You’ve been to jail twice?” Graham smirks as he lifts a shot from the tray and toasts me. No one has ever made being a smug prick sexier. “Sounds like you two are perfect for each other.”

Graham’s sarcasm goes right over Six’s head.

“Damn straight!” he says, slamming his drink before nodding at Graham. “We’re all heading to this bar downtown since this is wrapping up. You in?”

I brace myself, silently willing Graham to bow out, to excuse himself so he can go chart the comparative GDP of small countries no one’s ever heard of or whatever he considers a fun Saturday night. But instead, his gaze lands on me.

“Yeah,” he says. “Why not.”

To play designated cockblocker once more, I’m sure. No surprises there—ensuring no female leaves pleased is probably his personal motto.

Those hickeys, that ache between my legs…they don’t prove anything.

4

KEELEY

Boom, boom, boom.

The sound is like a basketball hitting a microphone, or cannon fire.

It takes me a second to realize it’s myheadmaking this godawful racket.

My eyes open slowly, blearily, as I struggle to make sense of what I’m seeing. Where am I? Every single room at the Langham faces the golf course, a boring and endless sea of green. Except I’m looking out over…a city.

A city that isn’t LA.

I’d like to claim I’ve never woken up in an unfamiliar room—obviously a lie, since I just did it yesterday—but I can at least say I’ve never woken up in the wrongcity, until today.

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