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He stroked my cheekbone. “That is why it is so important that we become a team. We know how to take care of one another. Nobody else will do it for us.”
I reached for him, put my hand over his still fiddling with his belt buckle. I had a sudden sense that I needed to claim him when he was still in the midst of his freely-offered vulnerability. “Then claim me for your team, Devin.” I began to reverse what he had put in order, in case he couldn’t work out what I meant. “Here. Now.”
He was still resistant, pushing my hands away half-heartedly, but with his secret laid down between us there was a path for him to communicate his desire as well.
“It’s an important part of bringing this full circle,” I told him. “The last time, my parents only thought you fucked me in their house. Now, they’ll think surely we couldn’t have had enough time.”
Devin’s hands finally left mine alone and closed hard over my hips. “We don’t have enough time. If you think I would let you off easy…”
“If they bother us in the middle,” I interrupted him, “we’ll tell them to wait.” My fingertips traced over the mark marring his skin below his hip, and I saw much of the playfulness drop from his face. He had guided my hand the last time we had done this, so I would not be able to touch where he was not yet ready to accept touch.
“You know this is my mark too, Devin,” I told him. “It doesn’t have to be about them. It can be me you think of, everything we had to go through to find one another—”
“Don’t push it,” Devin warned me, and his fingers finding their way under my skirt reminded me that he was a quick study when it came to my body, and I would be indeed wiser to let him lead at a pace he could handle. But I couldn’t follow this advice completely, and nudged at him with my hips until he gave me exactly what I was wanting.
“Better than all that money I could have held onto if I’d kept out of it,” he muttered, sliding fast into me once he was decided. He put his mouth over the top of mine as I started to raise my voice. “Quiet, Julia, we’re far from done here yet.” His voice calm as he made his claim on me, though I could feel his passion in every move he made. “Petty revenge—truly, the best revenge.”
He still couldn’t express himself well, but I understood. I finally got it. Perhaps the hardest part for Devin to accept was that it was so not about revenge any more.
Chapter Nineteen
My parents nearly fell off the lounge chairs they had only recently resumed when I walked out hand in hand with Devin. Daddy’s head whipped towards the front door—he knew what had happened now.
“Hello, Mahoney,” said Devin, adopting a relaxed posture against a doorframe though I could see he was more tense than he ever was just with me. “I regret to inform you I won’t be making use of the bank account you sent me. Julia and I have opted to make other arrangements privately.”
I conspicuously adjusted the top I’d opted to keep in disarray—just as he’d made it.
“Haven’t changed a bit since you were a little tyke, O’Hare,” Mum accused. “Still poking your nose into other people’s houses where you aren’t wanted.”
Staying silent at that was too much. “Mother, I can’t believe you would dare to invoke that as some badge of honour. There is nothing smart or funny about what you did.”
“I see you are thoroughly informed about our prior history now.” Daddy was hurrying to lay a claim over this s
ituation. “I suppose the cover of darkness only works so many times with a modern girl like you, Julia.”
I curled my lip at him. “This is how crass you’re willing to be with your own daughter?”
Devin stepped in to save the situation from hopeless acrimony. “We do need to find a way to work together here.” It seemed unbelievable to me for a moment that he could do it—but of course, he had learned early what happened when communication was impossible. “I am sure it will not be long before we are engrossed in a new conflict, but we need to find a way through this one, or the coming months of preparation for the wedding will be unhappy ones for us… and if you make Julia unhappy at this time in her life, I guarantee I will find a way to make the two of you far unhappier.”
Mum put her hand up. “You are still going ahead with the wedding?”
Of course it hadn’t occurred to her yet that Devin might have developed a sincere interest in me at any point, because this had never become more than an exchange of power plays to her.
“The wedding is the only thing I’m certain about right now,” I said, even though that wasn’t true. I had no doubts about the potential between Devin and myself any more, but there were so many more complicated parts to this that I couldn’t imagine working my way through. There were my parents, obviously… but how did I tell Devin his own cousin was such a thoughtless traitor? How could I face Angel when I knew she had already completely dismissed me?
Devin had made me understand there was only so much distancing ourselves from them. So even though it riled me up—Devin practically negotiating for my exchange into his family—I made myself stay quiet for the moment, and listen.
“It is time to consider ourselves even,” Devin told my parents. “I have no further desire to engage in hostilities as might have occurred before. Obviously, for your part, you will need to stop trying to claim Julia back as if she belongs under your protection.”
I was surprised when Daddy spoke directly to me, not Devin. “You are setting yourself a terrible challenge for your first steps out into the real world, Julia.”
I just wanted to snap at him: and whose fault is it that I don’t have the skills I need? But I could see Devin’s approach was right. If we refused to put a close on this, they would not let us have a moment’s peace.
“There’s a lot of strength in me you haven’t seen yet,” I told him.
Devin went back to talking about things Daddy really cared about. “United we will shake a lot of foundations and open many doors. I don’t expect we will ever be able to work closely together, but there is no reason we cannot be seen as a team in the eyes of others.”
Mum folded her arms and shifted her weight dramatically to one hip. “Are we not good enough to work on the level of a little sneak?”
