Chapter Seventeen
VIOLET
Four days into Operation Cracked Wide Open By The Devil (And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt and a Serious Case of Lady Blue-Balls), and we’re officially addicted.
Devlin to melty cheese and cheesy romance, exactly in that order.
Me to…
Well, I won’t say I’m hooked onhim, exactly. But the way he makes me feel?Goddess. He’s just so damn magnetizing—that’s the only word for it. Not just because of the obvious reasons—hello, sex on a smoldering stick with a side of more sex, and more sticks, all of them sexy and smoldering, Smokey Bear would definitelynotapprove—but the subtle reasons, too.
Like the way he focuses on me so intently when we’re talking and remembers all the details I share with him—from the big stuff like the café’s profit-and-loss projections to the tiny stuff like which Charmed episodes are my favorite, and the names and magical focuses of all four of my sisters, even though he’s only met Olivy. And if a more cat-friendly male exists, I’ve never heard of him. I’ll be lucky if Grumpy and Sunshine don’t pack their bags and hitch a ride with Devlin when the spell finally breaks.
And the laughing? Forget it. I’m doubling over so much these days I’ve almost got abs now. Like, full on lady-six-pack, here we come.
Devlin is definitely a performer—easy to see why he’s so popular on social media. But the more time we spend together, the more I’m starting to realize that the public side of Devlin Pierce is mostly just for show.
It’s here in my home—in these often silly, always fun moments together—I get to see the other side. The side of a man with deep emotions and even deeper battle scars. A man with an immortal life marred by loneliness and regret. A man who’s just as funny and kind as he is naughty and sinful.
And a man I really wish I could get to know better. One who isn’t bound to leave me the moment we break the spell.
I know it can’t go beyond that, though—our magical bond, the arrangement. My brain gets it. My heart gets it too. Unfortunately, the vag is completely opposed to the idea that Devlin and I have an expiration date. Fully out of hibernation now, she’s serving up non-stop fantasies day in, day out.
And Devlin’s antics arenothelping matters. Every touch and whispered innuendo may be a joke to him, but even when hedoesn’tgo full-on Ambrosia Divine, acting out passages with a passionate exuberance that leaves me wet and weak and wanting, he’s still riling me up.
Tonight, after reciting a particularly intense passage between Lennox and Savannah that leaves Devlin just as breathless and turned on as me, I’m so wound up I feel like I’m about to implode. If I don’t do something to take the edge off, I’m worried I’ll do somethingcompletelyreckless.
Like… just spitballing here… Stripping bare, mounting him on the couch, andbegginghim for a onetime deposit?
Yeah.Thatkind of reckless.
So, after yet another reading session followed by not one buttwocups of my Shut the Fuck Up and Calm the Fuck Down tea, which doesnothingto calm the fuck downme, I realize there’s only one solution.
I haven’t booked a self-care session with Mr. Wiggles since Devlin’s arrival—feels kind of weird getting off when the object of your naughtiest fantasies is right outside the door—but if ever I needed the support of my emotional support vibrator, it’s now.
After triple-checking that Devlin is asleep on the couch, the television droning softly in the background, I close my door tight, light a few candles with the flick of my wrist, strip off my bottoms, and climb into bed.
The vibrator comes to life before I even touch the button, good ol’ Mr. Wiggles, the sound and feel of that familiar buzz triggering the clench of my thighs, the hardening of my nipples, everything in mesoready for this…
Closing my eyes, I slide one hand up my shirt, fingertips delicately circling my nipple, then pinching itjustright, my other hand drifting lower, thighs parting, the tip of the vibrator buzzing a teasing path down my clit that sends tiny jolts of pleasure straight to my core.
“Devlin,” I whisper, his image dancing through my mind as I recall his every teasing touch, the warm honey of his voice, the light in his eyes when he laughs. I picture him stretched out on my living room couch now, less than fifteen feet from the door, and I wonder if he knows what I’m doing in here. Who I’m thinking about.
Maybe he’s not asleep. Maybe he’s out there tossing and turning, the desperate ache keeping him awake just as it keeps me awake, everything inside him wound as tight as a drum…
I slowly tease the vibrator inside, imagining it’s him filling me up instead, his mouth at my ear, whispering all the filthy things he thinks about when we read together. Then, blazing a trail of kisses down my belly, down one of my thighs, right back up again to settle injustwhere I need him…
The vibe pulses to a higher speed, higher still as I drag it back out, then push in again, out and in, imagining the scrape of Devlin’s sexy stubble on my skin, his tongue circling my clit, then dipping inside, deeper, deeper still…
Mr. Wiggles downshifts, throbbing against my G-spot in a way that’s got my hips bucking, back arching off the bed, oh goddess, right there,rightthere…
“Devlin!” I gasp, a dark thrill zipping through me and… holyhell, “Yes!Yes!”
The orgasm rips through me like lightning, a white-hot explosion that spreads from my center outward, tingling heat racing up and down my legs, my whole body singing with it, and—
“Violet!” Devlin bangs on the door. “Are you all right? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing! I’m… I’m good! Just—ohhhh fuck…” I haven’t even stopped twitching from the aftershocks of the last bomb when another ignites, set off by the sound of his voice, a hot wave of pleasure crashing right through me, and then—
