Launching the last donut at Devil Delancy’s insufferable head, Molly decided that she should have used knives rather than pastries as her missiles of choice. Perhaps that would have dimmed the cad’s booming laughter. And she had just sacrificed a half-dozen of the finest doughnuts known to mankind, too.
“You done yet?” Devil asked, peeking around the arm he’d thrown over his face to see if she was still locked and loaded.
“For the record,” Molly said with as much dignity as she could muster after resorting to throwing food to get her point across, “I hate you.” She didn’t, not really, but it sounded good. Blowing an agitated stream of air through her nose, she glared at him as he brushed doughnut glaze off his shirt onto the floor.
“That’s unfortunate. It’ll make being married to me a real bitch, babe.”
“Devil,” Molly moaned, lifting a hand to shove her hair out of her face, “Will you please sing a different song? Today, I was only throwing breakfast pastries. Has it occurred to you that tomorrow I might be firing bullets?”
“Given the fact that you can’t aim worth a damn,” he said with a wandering look to where an innocent doughnut sat perched on the microwave, “I’m not real worried.”
Shoulders sagging, Molly sank back into her kitchen chair. “Let’s get back to our original conversation. You accused me of character assassination. I take offense at that. I’ve never said a thing about you that wasn’t true, Devil, and you know it.”
“No, you assumed everything you said was true, but you don’t know it for a fact.”
“What are you talking about?” Molly asked irritably.
“Have any of the women that I’ve dated in the past year told you that I slept with them, Mols?”
Blinking, Molly stared at him. Now that was an unexpected thought, wasn’t it? “Well, no,” she replied slowly, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she felt his gaze on her face. Why the hell was she squirming? She hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d looked at the facts and drawn predictable conclusions. It wasn’t rocket science, for heaven’s sake!
“No?” Devil echoed with a smug grin, his eyes glittering with dark mischief.
“No! Some of the siren squad might have insinuated as much, but none of them ever actually came out and said the words. What did you want them to do? Wear around t-shirts saying ‘Did the Deed with Devil Delancy’? That’d just be tacky. You say those poor women were only after your money, Devil, but you were only after one thing, too. And I seriously doubt it was stimulating conversation,” she added with a sniff of disdain.
Molly watched as Devil pressed his lips together and a muscle flexed in his jaw. “What?” she asked, exasperated. “Why are you getting your nose out of joint, Dev? It’s not exactly been a well-kept secret that you’ve got the sex drive of a superhero on speed.”
She paused and did a double take as Devil’s face turned an alarming shade of red when the words left her mouth. He looked positively explosive, and she briefly wondered if, perhaps, she’d pushed a little too far with that remark. Tact had never exactly been her strong suit. Sighing, she gathered her energy to try to reason with the stubborn fool again. “Devil, listen…”
“Molly, stop talking. Stop talking now,” she heard Devil order in a lethally soft voice as he leveled her with a stare that sent a chill down her spine. His eyes were bright with anger, and the muscle in his jaw clenched and unclenched with startling regularity. Biting her lip, she swallowed and wondered if she’d meandered across some invisible line in the sand with him. It wasn’t as if she’d been trying to make him mad. It just seemed to be a talent at which she excelled.
“Why?” she couldn’t resist asking in a tiny voice. Speaking probably wasn’t her wisest move, but she couldn’t resist. She always had liked to tempt fate. And she was pretty sure Devil wouldn’t actually hurt her. At least not physically.
“Because if you say one more single asinine thing to me, I’m afraid I’ll start shaking you. And if I start shaking you, I might not be able to stop. That would be unfortunate because then Nana would be disappointed that I didn’t have enough self-control to keep from killing my fiancé and thus, ruining her vision of a dream wedding, and then Grant would kill me for putting a less-than-gentlemanly hand on his sister.”
Molly stared him with a kind of horrified fascination that she couldn’t fake. “It’s official. You’re nuts. And nothing I’ve said is asinine!”
“Yes, I agree with the first part of what you’ve said. You have finally managed to drive me crazy,” he retorted sharply. “Conversely, I categorically disagree with you on the last part of your statement. Because, trust me, your declarations about my alleged bedroom activities are, indeed, asinine since I haven’t been to bed with a woman since you stumbled into my office looking for a job,” he roared, coming to his feet.
This time, it was Molly’s turn to laugh.
And she did. Loudly. At great length.
Until tears streamed down her face and she was bent over double. She was fairly certain her cackles could be heard on the moon.
Because if she knew anything at all, it was that there was no way on Earth that Devil Delancy had lived like a monk for the past twelve months. Pigs would be taking flight over at the Delta runway at Hartsfield Airport before that ever happened!
“Would you stop laughing like a damn hyena?” Devil snapped when her chortles hadn’t slowed a full three minutes later. “I’m telling the truth, damn it,” he declared indignantly, crossing his arms over his broad chest as he loomed over her beside her chair.
“Uh huh,” Molly gasped, nodding furiously as she pressed a hand to her now-aching belly. She could only laugh harder as she glanced up into his livid face. “I bet next you’re gonna t-tell me you’re a born again virgin, t-too!” Molly giggled hysterically, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. Oh, she could not wait to share this whopper with Sami and Viv. They’d be in stitches for days.
“Damn it, Margaret,” he growled.
Jerking her head up at the use of her Christian name, Molly’s laughter suddenly disappeared as she stared into his livid face. Jumping as Devil slammed his cell phone on the table in front of her, he bit out a demand. “Start calling them.”
“Calling who?” she asked faintly, shifting her eyes from his face to the phone and back again. Something was wrong here. Seriously wrong. The man was serious.
“My former flames,” he replied with a barely contained rage that vibrated with every word he uttered. “Ask them if I’m lying. If you’re so sure of yourself, start dialing.” Bending so that he was nose to nose with her, he smiled coldly. “I. Dare. You.”