Page 67 of Her Devil

“And he blocked the door and wouldn’t let me out. See, it’s nothing. Not like he put his hands on me or anything.” Stephanie rushes out the explanation, doing her best to downplay it.

“Lucky for him,” Leo says, clearly on board with whatever Oliver is thinking as the man stands back up, wringing his hands together and continuing to pace. “What do you want to do?” Leo aims the question at his friend rather than mine.

“Surely it’s down to Stephanie whether she wants to do anything about it?” I intervene. “And she just said that she’s fine, so I’m not sure it needs the two of you rolling through like cavemen and banging on your chests.”

Oliver cracks his wrists, shaking his arms and rotating his neck, diverting my attention from where Stephanie seems to shrink in on herself. Or, that is, until he slides in the water beside her, pulling her to his chest and taking her chin in his thumb and forefinger, drawing her cowed gaze to his.

It’s almost too intimate to watch, the way their gazes lock, his anger melting away as her confidence slides back into place. A transfer of emotional energy and power. Something intangible, and yet you can see it when he brings his lips to hers. It’s brief but possessive, and very clear that he isn’t going to leave this alone.

And neither is she.

“I’m in,” she declares.

There’s a wicked glint in his eye as he grins. “Oh, baby. That’s cute, but let us handle this. I wouldn’t want you to get someone else’s blood under those nails.”

She holds his gaze, her perfect eyebrows raising in challenge before bursting into laughter. “Okay, baby. It’s on you,” she agrees as Aimee’s phone alarm rings from the side.

“That’s our fifteen-minute warning, ladies and gentlemen,” she explains. “I’ll jump out when the next one goes off, ready to get that garlic bread on.”

It’s the ice breaker we all needed as the tension seeps from the air, the threat of whatever retribution Oliver has in mind put to one side, for now.

“You think he‘s being too harsh?” Leo asks, swimming alongside me as I head towards the steps at the far end, more astute than I give him credit for.

“I dunno,” I reply, my feet hitting the bottom as the water slows my steps, its unseen pressure wiggling through my fingers as I move them through the water.

“What do you think would have happened if it had been you someone cornered?” he asks as I trip, catching my toe on the bottom step before landing heavily on one of the others.

“Mother…” I swear, clutching my foot under the water.

His fingers peel mine away as he lets the thought marinate in my brain. How would I have got out if someone cornered me? If they locked me in a room where no one else was likely to be coming through.

“Do you think Wyatt would take that laying down?” he asks, running soothing circles over my toes. The question is barely audible over the sound of the blood rushing through my ears, his familiar scent mingling with the last of the summer flowers and the chlorine from the pool, a heady combination when mixed with the way his skin smooths over mine. “What about Jacob, or Nick?” he asks. “What about me?” The last words fall from him on a rumble, an intense darkness in his gaze as he pulls back.

He would go to war for me, with me, if needed. He steps out, water cascading over his skin as he holds his hand out for mine. It feels poignant, this moment, like the second I lace my fingers with his a pact has been made. It’s a promise that I know he would avenge me. Needed, or not.

And as I slide my fingers through his, the promise is made. For better or worse. He’s got my back, he’s on my side. Some of the tension seeps from his shoulders as we step from the water together, another alliance formed within the pressure cooker of The Sect.

“We still don’t have clothes for you guys,” Charlotte comments, diverting my attention. “So, if you’re coming for something to eat, you might want to go get dried off first.”

“Good point,” Jacob agrees, jumping out of the pool.

Wrapping a towel around my chest and the sarong around my waist, I can’t help the way my gaze follows his movements. It’s uncanny how he looks like Nick. I know, identical twins and all that, but the interested one is sulking with me. Rightly or wrongly.

“I’ll let Chester know we won’t be around for dinner,” Jacob adds, winking my way before heading back to the house, and I know I’ve been caught ogling.

With a chuckle, I shake my head, getting my stuff together.

“Can you make it back to the pool house in one piece?” Leo asks with a smile.

I’m sure he caught me too, but he was probably joining me in the ogling. He’s worth a look, that’s for sure.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” I reply. “See you at ours in ten.”

He nods, rounding Jasper, Emmerson and Oliver up as the four of them head back to theirs, dripping water along the way.

“I don’t know where they found these guys, but they’re hot as hell,” Penelope says, wrapping the towel around her tightly.

“Girl, you are not wrong,” I agree, watching the four of them disappear.

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