A wave of dizziness flooded my head, making my stomach turn.

“Oh God. I think I need to sit down.”

Before I knew what was happening, Dev scooped me up and carried me through the balcony doors toward the sofa in the middle of the library.

He sat me down and walked over to a hidden cabinet housing a refrigerator. He pulled out a bottle of sparkling water and brought it back, unscrewing the cap and handing it to me.

“Drink. It will settle your stomach.”

I followed his directions and then leaned my head back against the couch. I went through every possibility over the last few months, and the only conclusion was that one fateful evening a little over six weeks ago.

“The beach.”

“Yes, the beach,” he said as he sat next to me.

“When did you figure it out?”

He propped his arm on the back of the sofa, rested a hand on my stomach, and began to draw circles.

“I started to have my suspicions when you kept refusing your favorite drinks, but blew them off, thinking you wanted to keep a level head and not risk the challenge of the alcohol content of Jacinta’s concoctions. Then, at dinner, your face turned green as you smelled the steak on your plate. You love a seared tenderloin.”

“So, my aversion to red meat confirmed your virility?”

“Yes. And the fact I’ve been inside your body multiple times a day since the first of this month.”

“Oh.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d stopped taking birth control?”

“I didn’t.” I faced him. “This wasn’t planned. I missed a pill here and there over the last few months and thought nothing about it. You couldn’t look at me, much less want to screw my brains out. What happened six weeks ago was unexpected.”

“For the record, I always want to screw your brains out.”

I glared at him. “Devin. Really?”

“That night, I watched you sleep on the lounger for over thirty minutes. Then you moaned my name, and it was all over. I had to have you.”

“If I recall, you had me five times. I could barely walk the next morning.”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I wish I’d said to you the words I’d planned. The reason why I came to see you in the first place.

“Instead of talking to you, I made love to you and then lost it when Clint called to discuss the case and the paparazzi showed up. It went from me begging you to take me back to me giving you an ultimatum to pick between our relationship and your career.”

“It wasn’t one of your better moments. If you want to know the truth, your words that night were the catalyst for me wanting to file for separation. It pushed me to realize that I had to put myself first for a change, no matter what anyone thought.”

“However devastated I was to get the notice, I knew I deserved it.” He cupped my face and ran a thumb over my lower lip. “I destroyed the most important thing I had in my life for over twelve years. My relationship with you.”

I covered his hand with mine. “I’m as much to blame, if not more. I allowed this to happen.”

“I did learn some interesting news last week after you made me leave our property.”

“I did not make you leave. No one can make you do anything. Case in point, you muscled your way back into the house on the first. Now tell me what you discovered, super sleuth.”

“I discovered we aren’t separated. You never filed the paperwork.”

I cringed. I’d forgotten in all the chaos of the past few days to mention the fact.

“Are you mad?”

“No. Although, you had me convinced.”

“How did you find out?”

“I was searching the records for the exact date you filed so I could figure out what day you decided it was over. You have no idea how happy I was to find nothing and to know you hadn’t given up hope.”

“I’m a sucker for you, Judge Camden.”

“Sami.” He lifted my chin. “I want us to do things right this time. We can’t keep going around in circles taking the same actions and expect different results. We can’t brush our problems under the rug like we tend to do.”

“And pretend to fix it through sex,” I added.

“As much as I hate to agree, you’re right. Sex is our way to cover up the real problems. Now, I’m not saying give up sex altogether, I’m saying we have to address whatever issues we’re having before falling into bed.” He sat back, pulling me against him. “Agreed?”

“Agreed.” I closed my eyes, listening to his heart beating a slow, steady rhythm.

Now we had to tell our families. Carol and Mommy were going to be ecstatic, but I wasn’t sure how Richard would react. He’d supported me against Papa, but that didn’t mean he’d turned over a new leaf on his traditional views of politics.

“Stop worrying about them. This is the first time in our lives that our parents’ expectations have no influence on us.”

I turned my head up toward him. “Then kiss me and keep me from thinking.”

“I thought you said no sex.”

“I said no sex to solve our problems. Kissing is not sex.”

He sat up, pushing me onto my back, and hovered over me. He leaned down as I lifted my face, but he bypassed my lips and grazed my cheek with his nose. Then he trailed down my neck.

“What are you doing? I said I wanted a kiss.”

I grabbed his face and tried to urge him to my lips, but he grasped my wrists in a tight hold, pinning them to the couch.

“You requested a kiss. What you didn’t do was specify where. Hold on to the armrest and don’t move those hands.”

My heartbeat accelerated, and my skin tingled. Wetness pooled between my legs as my nipples stiffened into hard peaks.

“I did not hear a protest, so I take it you like where I want to kiss you.”

“Devin,” I whimpered.

Who wouldn’t want his talented mouth on them?

He cupped my breasts through my dress, pinching the tips, and then moved lower, gathering the hem of my maxi dress. He pushed my legs apart and wedged his shoulder in between.

He leaned down toward my exposed underwear and then stared up at me with a wicked grin.

“This is for my eyes only. All I want you to do is feel.” He covered his head with my dress.

My fingers dug into the fabric of the sofa as Devin’s hot tongue traced the seam of my swollen, aching pussy.

He pulled my thong to the side and repeated his slow torture. “You’re so wet.”

He continued his torment, making my body catch fire and scream for more.

“Devin, please.”

“What do you want, baby?” He blew onto my aching core. “And be specific.”

“Devin James Camden, if you don’t fuck me with your mouth this second, I’m never going to have sex with you again.”

“Now, we can’t have that.”

His lips captured my clit and without preamble, my body detonated.

I lowered one hand to grip his fabric-covered head and arched up to meet the rhythm of his tongue. My body prickled with goosebumps and my mind clouded with the cascade of emotions my orgasm brought forth.

“Damn, baby. You were ready for me. Let’s see you do it again.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I need you to make love to…” I stopped my request as a knock sounded on the door and it opened.

“Dev, Sam, I think…” Ashur came to an abrupt stop. “Oh, for the love of God. I can never unsee this. Dammit, Devin. That’s my sister.”