Page 39 of Yours, Always
Prudence laughed. “I knew there was a reason I liked you, Devlin.” Her attention went back to Annabelle. “Now tell me what’s really going on.”
“Obviously, Pru, he’s fucking gorgeous.” Annabelle was acting like she was bored with this conversation, her tone turning dry as tinder. “Every time I look at him, I have to change my panties. If I had my way, every day would be a fuck fest. And we would fuck on every available surface. I bet he has those plant hooks in his office so he can string up a sex swing on a moment’s notice.”
“Oh my God!” Devlin covered her face with her hands and fell off the couch, laughing.
Prudence knew Annabelle too well. She settled back into the couch with her wine—Annabelle was just getting started.
“You know all those mirrors in his office? I bet he asked for them specifically so he could see his specimen of a body from all angles while he fucked. And don’t be fooled by the display cases filled with all those so-called treasures he collected from his travels. Sex toys. I guarantee you, they all are. Why do you think he kept that old publisher’s desk, when his decor is clearly postmodern? So he can get head during the day with no one being the wiser. It’s all I can do to not think about his head between my thighs, arching against his mouth on that desk. His couch is leather. Again, another clash, it’s for easy clean-up. Don’t get me started on the wet bar—”
Prudence interrupted, “I just wanted to know how he was as a boss,” she said with a completely straight face.
Annabelle took a sip of her wine. “Oh. Well.” She cocked her head. “He’s fine.”
Devlin howled on the floor, clutching her side.
“Don’t think you’re going to get out of this, Devlin,” Prudence threatened. “Ladies’ night is all about the oversharing. We love a good overshare.”
“I just moved here. I don’t have anything to share.”
“You’ve been here over a year, that isn’t an excuse, and you know it,” Annabelle said, throwing a pillow onto the floor for Devlin.
Prudence thought back to the coffee shop earlier that week. She remembered Devlin’s face when she mentioned Gabe—something had crossed her features. If she hadn’t been staring right at Devlin when it had happened she would’ve missed it. As it was, she’d caught the shadow of emotion. It was time to figure out why.
“You know, Gabe is single,” Prudence said casually.
The same flicker crossed Devlin’s face. She hid it quickly but darted a glance to Prudence like she knew she was caught. It was still a long moment before she spoke, the words coming out softly.
“Gabe and I have met before.”
Both Annabelle’s and Prudence’s jaws comically dropped at the same time.
“We may have had a one-night stand before I left Boston.”
“What?” Annabelle screeched.
“You didn’t think to tell us in the year you’ve been here?” Prudence exclaimed.
Devlin sighed. “It’s because I knew you’d overreact exactly like this.”
“I don’t think this is an overreaction, lady,” Prudence said.
“Maybe a slight one.” Devlin pulled herself to a cross-legged position on the floor. “There’s not a lot to tell, really. I didn’t even know his name.”
“Definitely a one-night stand. That’s why you didn’t know he was Greyson’s brother?” Annabelle asked.
“Something like that. It was right before I left Boston, I met him at a bar, and he spent the night. It was one night, no strings attached, just a good time.”
“That must’ve been when he went to that Craft Brewers Conference,” Prudence stated, thinking back to the last time she knew Gabe went to Boston.
“That’s the last time I remember him going to Boston,” Annabelle echoed Prudence’s thoughts. “So, how was it?” She wiggled her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.
“It was good,” Devlin offered.
“Good? Yikes, I’d always thought Gabe would be better than ‘good’,” Annabelle said.
“Thought about it a lot, have you?” Prudence asked.
“No more than any other red-blooded female would. You haven’t?” Annabelle questioned back.