“Where is that cowardly son of a bitch? I swear on my favorite Louis Vuitton clutch that when I find that yellowbelly son of a goat, I’ll make him beg for mercy! Nobody treats me like this, Molly! NOBODY! ”
Wasn’t that just frickin’ great? Not only did it look like the gates had been stormed, but the enemy had breached the wall and begun to scale the fortress, too. Didn’t that just make for the luckiest of all days? Looking around for a makeshift weapon in case she needed one, Molly Ramsey couldn’t help wondering where the hell a good musket was when she needed one.
Instead, Molly made do with what she had and covered her trusty stapler with a ready hand while she smiled sympathetically at the statuesque woman with the extraordinary good looks that stood in front of her desk. Molly knew the woman’s name was Carolyn Miller and that she was an up and coming fashion model in the city. Over the past week of dealing with the other woman, Carolyn had been the very picture of effortlessly composed beauty. Today, however, Carolyn’s poise and grace had vanished, leaving a frazzled woman with trembling hands and a slightly homicidal gleam in her eyes. And those were just two of the early warning signs that this chick was standing at the edge of a very messy nervous breakdown – compliments of Molly’s boss. With a heavy heart, Molly silently acknowledged to herself that it was going to be another long day at the office.
Momma had warned her there would be days like this, and everybody knew the kind she’d been talking about.
Long. Tedious. Thankless.
Too bad her momma hadn’t shared that she should expect all those days to arrive in one long, never-ending stream of woe. And why hadn’t she mentioned there’d be so darn many of them?
Jarred from her thoughts as the irate newcomer tossed her Hermes bag down on the chair in front of her desk, Molly braced as the gorgeous woman leveled her with a suitably wounded glare and barked a terse, “Get him. Now.”
“I’m terribly sorry, ma’am, but I can’t do that,” Molly apologized as she shook her head, wincing when the willowy beauty lifted her chin stubbornly and glared at the door just beyond Molly’s shoulder.
“Fine, I’ll get him myself,” the blonde bombshell declared, moving to take a determined step around the desk.
Molly merely sighed to herself as she mentally surveyed the items on her tidy, well-ordered desk, idly wondering exactly how lethal her letter opener could be in the right hands. She was tempted to just hand it to the interloper and point to the office behind her, but she knew she’d hate to have to call the police for the inevitable clean up. The paperwork alone would be a bitch. That could be the only reason she had for stepping out from behind the relative safety of her desk and holding a hand up to slow the other woman’s forward momentum. It certainly wasn’t any kind of displaced loyalty toward the miscreant who signed her paychecks. Absolutely not! She simply didn’t relish the thought of spending her evening penning a witness statement to Devil Delancy’s murder. No, Molly had her own best interests at heart when she focused her attention on the wounded eyes of Mr. Delancy’s affronted lover.
“Now, Ms. Miller, you know that I can’t let you go any farther,” she reminded what she had to assume was her employer’s newest ex-bimbo-of-the-week. “His rules, you understand. If it was up to me, I’d hand you a hand grenade and tell you to have fun, but he does sign my much needed paychecks.”
“That bastard only obeys the rules he likes, Molly, and you know it!” Carolyn Miller all but shrieked as she turned away and began rapidly pacing the length of the reception area. “He needs to come out here and face me like a man instead of acting like a little boy hiding behind his protector! Honest to God, Molly, he dumped me!” She paused for a second and stared at Molly disbelievingly. “Men DO NOT dump me,” she informed Molly gravely. “I do the dumping!”
Molly wanted to groan. Loudly. Why was this happening to her? What perverse powers had been at work when fate had conspired against her and arranged for her to work for her brother’s best friend? What kind of grievous sin had she committed at the ripe old age of twenty-four to be saddled with Willy the Wonder Ass and all of his assorted relationship woes?
She’d been a good girl who had done all the right things, damn it!
She’d gone to a great university, graduated with honors, written a killer resume, and commenced the hunt for a job with all the ferocity of a soldier going into battle.
Sadly, though, there wasn’t an exceptionally high demand for individuals with a degree in Art History.
Even more depressing than that?
Those pesky student loans still came due on a regular monthly basis whether she had a job or not.
And so, she ended up here, working for her older brother’s best friend in a position she was quickly beginning to despise. Her official job title was Executive Assistant to the President and CEO of Delancy Industries. But she had determined months ago that so-called title had been a sham and her actual job title was SUCKER! Because if she had to actually define her job, she would call herself a one-woman defense squad against the so-called evil forces of Devil Delancy’s jilted lovers. At present, the enemy’s ranks were growing, and they invaded frequently…. in the form of sobbing, anxiety ridden ditched divas like Carolyn.
Yes, she was trapped in hell.
With William freaking Delancy and his dancing dick!
That insufferable man had truly earned his nickname of Devil. Widely reported by the ladies to be Satan between the sheets, he was well known for his “love ‘em and leave ‘em” offenses. Which would have been bad enough, but he was also given credit by his contemporaries in the business as being one of the shrewdest, most manipulative financiers in the industry and reputed to have a singularly unholy touch when it came to making money. A self-made millionaire several times over, he was coldly analytical in his business practices…and even more so when it came to his personal life. Like the stocks and commodities he dealt with, he considered women little better, trading and shuffling them as often as he did his investment portfolio. It did not help that he was also sinfully sexy in a tall, dark and dastardly kind of way...and charming as hell when he put his mind to it.
Most women saw Devil Delancy as challenge, the thrill of the ride well worth taking all the risks.
Lucky for her, Molly was not one of those women. Hell, no!
Personally, she thought it was all downright disgusting and much more sordid than she could stomach.
Which was why she genuinely felt awful for the beautiful woman standing in front of her desk.
Just not quite awful enough to risk Devil’s wrath if she interrupted him with the woman’s demands to see him. Molly already knew what his answer would be.
The man had iron-clad policies in place regarding this particular type of dating drama.
Nope, Devil Delancy was through playing with the lovely woman currently trying to glare little Molly into submission, and nothing Molly could say or do to her boss was going to change that. In his eyes, the emotional transaction had been concluded. The deal had been sealed.
He was done with woman number eight hundred and forty-one...or wherever the hell number this one ended up in the curious countdown of Devil’s devious deeds.
Taking a deep breath, Molly pasted a serene smile on her face and shook her head again. “I’m really very sorry, Ms. Miller. Mr. Delancy has given me strict instruction that he’s not to be interrupted this afternoon for anything. Or by anyone. There’s really nothing I can do.”
“But, Molly!” Carolyn Miller exploded with a shriek, her hands waving wildly as she dove toward the chair in front of Molly’s desk and dug into her purse. “He broke up with me in a card! A card, Molly!”
Flinching slightly as Carolyn waved the card in question underneath her nose, Molly took a step backward. She was all-too-familiar with the little piece of paper clutched in the other woman’s hand. She’d seen plenty of them in the year she’d worked for the scurrilous magnate currently hunkering down in the office behind her.
The man couldn’t even bother with originality, Molly thought with a mental eye roll as she eyed the piece of expensive cardstock pinched between Carolyn’s fingers. Every woman Devil bedded got an identical bouquet of flowers when the relationship came to its inevitable end. And the attached card always said the same thing every time.
She could quote that damn parting message of his in her sleep!
Dear (Insert Witless Wonder’s Name Here),
Our time together has been incredibly special, but like life, all good things come to an end. Please accept these flowers and accompanying gift as a token of my high esteem, and please remember our time together fondly.
My highest regards,
Devil
And while Devil was a stone cold player, he wasn’t a cheapskate. Every lady received a lovely parting gift… a necklace. The exact same necklace. Only the gem pendant ever changed. Sometimes it was an emerald. Sometimes, a ruby. Occasionally, if Devil had really had a genuinely exceptional time – or what Molly assumed was a great lay – it was a sapphire.
Never diamonds, however. Even Devil wasn’t so callous as to send a girl’s best friend when dissolving a relationship.
But it was always a necklace. And always a bouquet of yellow freaking roses.
Molly should know. She and his florist had drinks once a week.
“I want to see him!” Carolyn demanded, slamming her Christian Louboutin heel against the expensive Italian tile of the small seating area adjacent to her office. “At the very least, he owes me the courtesy of an explanation!”
Good luck with that thought, Molly silently jeered. Satan slows for no mere mortal, even when she has a tiny waist and double-D breasts. Just let her take the tastefully expensive trinket and go, she prayed to a God that seemed to be steadfastly ignoring her.
Man, this sucked, Molly thought as she stared into Carolyn’s breathtakingly irate face. The sad part is that this woman was one of Devil’s friendlier cast-offs. Not that they’d be sharing Sunday mimosas at brunch, but she and Carolyn had actually had an amiable relationship. Unlike most of the other hoochies she’d had to deal with in the past year, Carolyn had been different. She was one of the few brainless bimbos the boss man had dated that hadn’t seemed to be threatened by Molly’s admittedly strange relationship with him. Which was a feat that had proven to be a truly rare occurrence over her months working for Devil, and Molly always appreciated those ladies when they came along, infrequent though it was.
Straightening her slim shoulders, Molly shook her head slowly as she decided a more personal approach might be a more effective tactic with this spurned beauty. “Listen, Carolyn. Don’t do this to yourself,” she said with a quiet firmness that she reserved for the ladies that were particularly resistant to Devil’s kiss-off message. “It’s simply not going to happen. He’s not going to agree to see you. Not here. Not now.” Not ever, Molly silently added. “But, I think you already know that, don’t you?”
Carolyn’s mouth abruptly closed and she blinked quickly several times as she seemed to absorb Molly’s rhetorical question. “Why, Molly? Why does he do this?” she whispered violently after several seconds of silence. “Why would he do this to me?” she asked, wisps of her platinum blonde hair flying ever so slightly around her face.
Watching as the woman’s manicured hands curled into fists at her side, Molly shook her head because she knew Carolyn wasn’t really looking for an answer. “You deserve better,” Molly offered honestly – because, really, no female (no matter how needy she was) deserved this. “I’m really sorry.”
Touching the blue stone resting at the base of her throat, Carolyn offered Molly a bitterly rueful smile. “At least I got the sapphire, right?” she murmured painfully. “There must have been something about me he found memorable.”
To soothe the fragile ego or to not to soothe the fragile ego? That was the question currently rolling through Molly’s addled mind. The Christian angel that sat on her right shoulder reminded her that it would be the kind thing to do...and would more than likely get the crying woman out of her office quicker. But the cackling demon on her left had more exciting ideas, the best of which was drop-kicking the demanding diva out the door. Oh, how she wanted to do just that!
Her better angels won, as they usually did. “You lasted a lot longer than some of the others, Carolyn,” Molly shared truthfully, even though her mind jeered at what she was saying. The current mademoiselle-of-the-moment had only lasted longer than the others by a day or two. Devil never held onto a woman longer than a couple of weeks. Sadly, the man seemed to have the attention span of a perpetually horny gnat. However, after watching Carolyn trying so valiantly not to cry, Molly felt compelled to at least try and console her. “You know the only woman that Mr. Delancy has ever really loved is his grandmother. I just don’t think he has it in him to give another woman more than what he offered you.”
Now that statement was the bald-faced truth as far as Molly could tell. But she was still going to kill Devil for this later!
“Something to be proud of then, I suppose,” Carolyn muttered, lifting her chin and smoothing her flawless silk dress around her hips. Glaring at his still-closed office door, she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Mark my words, Molly. One day that Devil is going to feel the pain he’s dished out to others tenfold. I just hope we’re both there to see it.”
Yeah, so do I, Molly thought dryly. Unfortunately, she doubted it would ever happen. When it came to romantic relationships, Devil was missing a sensitivity chip. Extending her hand, she smiled again. “From your lips to God’s ears. It really was a pleasure, Carolyn.”
Shaking the younger woman’s slender hand, Carolyn smiled weakly. “You’re smart, Molly. I could tell that about you right away. You be careful around him, okay? He’s cold-blooded as a snake and twice as venomous. Don’t let yourself get bitten on the ass by him, too.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t,” Molly assured her with a dismissive grin. Getting bitten anywhere by Devil would require that he see her as a woman rather than his best friend’s baby sister.
Needless to say, that wasn’t likely to happen. Demons would be serving iced mocha lattes in Hell first. Because while Molly considered herself to be passably pretty, every prima donna that had hung off Devil’s arm since she could remember could only be described as ravishingly beautiful. Their runway-model looks far outshone her cute but curvy figure. And since she wasn’t going to deprive herself of her Ben & Jerry’s any time soon, she’d gotten comfortable with her size eight hips, thank you very much. Not to mention that she was smarter than the average lab rat (her SATs declared her so!), and she felt confident that she could outsmart that sizzling son of a bitch who cowered behind his office door!
So, no… she wasn’t worried that the snake that was Devil Delancy would be sinking his teeth into her. Not her ass or any other location.
And somewhere in the Universe, a bitch named Fate cackled maniacally.