Still seething an hour later, Molly finally gave up any pretense of working on the Excel spreadsheet she’d been preparing on the newest company Devil had acquired a few days ago. She’d stumbled over entering the last several figures anyway, and the busy work was doing nothing to distract her from the original source of her aggravation.
Rising, she walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Atlanta skyline and peered outside as her restless mind debated her most recent run-in with her boss. It wasn’t like she was being unreasonable, was it? She didn’t consider it too much to ask to be left out of Devil’s dating dilemmas. Not that he’d agree that there was actually a dilemma to speak of.
She was certain he thought the subject was closed.
Of course, it actually was closed for poor, pitiful Carolyn.
For her, too, she supposed.
Until the next time one of his women came along to disrupt her world. Unfortunately, chances were that the next of Devil’s passing fancies would be a lot less like Carolyn and a lot more like the Cleopatra wannabe’s evil twin.
Oh, there would be another woman for Devil in the near future. Molly was as certain of that as she was that sun would rise in the East and set in the west. She’d accepted long ago that where the highly-sexed William Delancy was involved, she’d probably have about seven to ten days of relative peace in the valley between conquests. He was nothing if not predictable.
She guessed she should savor the serenity while it lasted, right? It was, after all, her favorite time of year. Late November had finally obliterated the hot humidity that Georgia was known for, and Christmas was just around the corner. Soon, she’d be putting up Christmas decorations in her small Druid Hills apartment and shopping with her girlfriends for gifts at Perimeter Mall. She had a lot of good things on the horizon. So, ‘twas definitely the season to stop obsessing over her employer’s love life and start concentrating on her own.
Molly Ramsey needed a good man. An honest man. A man brave enough to not shudder in the face of evils like Devil Delancy and his hot harem of harlots. In a city with millions of men, it shouldn’t have been that hard, but finding that guy had become a somewhat daunting challenge. Between Dev, his floozies, and her own overprotective big brother, the odds of finding that magic male were dwindling at a lightning pace. Finding a truly good man was becoming about as difficult as lassoing a unicorn.
And lately it felt as if she was never going to get laid again.
She figured part of the reason that Devil’s exploits irked her so much was her own sexual frustration. She hadn’t been to bed with a man in two years.
Two incredibly long, supremely unsatisfying years.
At first, the dry spell had been intentional. After a bad breakup with her college boyfriend, the whole idea of intimacy had left a sour taste in her mouth. In the intervening months, the taste had faded and her heart had healed.
Her long walk through the sexual desert, however, had continued with nary an orgasm in sight.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t had opportunities. She wasn’t an ogre; she’d had some chances to get her groove on. Her gal pals had thrown more than a few unsuspecting men in her path – and some of them had actually been quite gorgeous. Sadly, she hadn’t felt one iota of lust for any of them…not a single speck of desire had flared. She refused to think about the fact that butterflies fluttered whenever Devil happened to turn those incredible blue eyes of his toward her. That meant nothing besides the fact that he’d probably given her an ulcer.
All in all, she didn’t understand it. She was a healthy, not unattractive chick. So, why was it that she couldn’t get worked up over any of the hot, young men her friends introduced her to? Why did it have to be the irascible, irritating, and very, very forbidden William Delancy that got her heart pounding and juices flowing?
There were two plausible explanations as far as she was concerned.
Either God hated her, which she doubted since she regularly attended church and worshiped devoutly, or – and this was much more likely to her way of thinking – she was mentally unstable.
Yep, that had to be it. Devil had finally driven her around the bend during the year she’d worked with him and somehow seduced her psyche into dreaming about him every time she closed her eyes.
There had to be a twelve-step program for that. Perhaps she should contact some of his throng of tramps and find out if they’d formed some kind of self-help club that might help her recover her sanity.
She was sure about one thing, though. She absolutely could not continue her descent down this rabbit hole. No, indeed! What this Alice needed was to get the dickens out of this wicked Wonderland before she threw herself at the Mad Hatter’s mattress.
Getting horizontal with her brother’s best buddy was not in anybody’s best interest. Blowing the tumbleweeds off her woo woo with Devil just wasn’t a viable solution - even if the man was a walking, talking sinful temptation.
Nope, she’d just continue her tour through the sexual Sahara badlands all alone.
Growling under her breath, Molly ran a fidgety hand through her loose red hair, gathering it at the base of her neck. “Get a freaking grip here, Mols. This isn’t the end of the world,” she muttered to herself. If the worst thing she had to complain about was her lack of a good lay, then life could definitely be worse.
Turning as the phone on her desk began to jingle, she returned to her desk.
“Delancy and Associates,” she answered automatically. “William Delancy’s office. May I help you?”
“Yes, I hope so. This is Jasmine Waters. I’m a registered nurse in the emergency room over at Emory Hospital. We’ve admitted a Kathleen Delancy for treatment, and she’s indicated that a Mr. William Delancy is her next of kin. May I please be connected with him?”
“Nana?” Molly replied weakly as she caught herself against her desk and a wave of panic rolled through her. In the blink of an eye, all her earlier worries seemed insubstantial in the face of a real emergency. She’d known Devil’s grandmother since she’d been born. Hearing that the elderly woman had landed herself in the ER sent raw fear pulsing through her veins.
“Yes, I do believe she mentioned that Mr. Delancy was her grandson. Is he there?” the nurse questioned a tad impatiently. “It’s of the utmost importance that we locate him as soon as possible.”
Blinking quickly, Molly swallowed. “Yes, absolutely, ma’am. I’ll connect you immediately. Please hold,” she ordered, jabbing the red hold button on her phone before spinning toward Devil’s office and running toward his closed door.
Not bothering to knock, she barged into his inner sanctum for the second time of the afternoon. Unfazed by the hard look he shot her as his finger rose in the air to silence her while he spoke to someone on his phone, Molly shook her head frantically. “Devil! Get off the phone now! It’s an emergency!”
She nearly shrieked when he rolled his eyes and continued speaking. Running across the room, she snatched the cell out of his hand and pulled it to her ear. “Devil has to go. He’ll call you back,” she informed the caller breathlessly before jabbing the end call button and throwing the cell on his desk.
“Molly, that was the President of Harper Industries, damn it! You know, the company I’m currently trying to acquire. It took four fucking hours and seventeen emails to get that call in place! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he barked, his eyes flashing angrily as he turned his attention toward her.
“Devil, shut UP! I don’t care about Harper or his industry and right now, neither do you! Screw the goddamned deal!” Molly yelled, her heart in her throat.
Catching the desperation in her voice, Devil stilled, looking up into her flushed face. “What’s happening?” he asked quietly, his big body already bracing for whatever blow she was about to land.
“Emory Hospital is on line one. It’s about Nana!” Snatching the receiver off his desk, she shoved it against his chest and pressed the flashing button on his phone.