Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 132031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
The thrift store had rolled out the refurbished red carpet for Cash.
“There he comes,” the cashier said quietly to Dev, onto his pretense of ignoring Cash. He steeled his heart and stiffened his spine as he glanced across the room. The employee-only door was a straight shot from where he stood.
Cash used the lane like a catwalk, sauntering down the aisle. He turned this way and that, grinning at the customers, mapping the area as he came forward. Fucker was good at mesmerizing his prey. He’d give him that. The tension Dev had carried since last night had eased. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the man. Cash’s genuine alluring grin was in place as he used his fingers to sweep the lock of hair back off his forehead. His always perfectly styled hair was messy from all the changes of clothing.
Dev liked those strands being disheveled, falling into Cash’s face. He was truly a beautiful man. His heart wanted the dream he’d been so swept away by almost twenty-four hours ago. He envisioned Mae grinning up at Cash.
The image he’d created of having someone normal and nice in the girls’ life now put a frown on his face. His girls. Pain slashed across his heart again as he thought about them. It had been stupid of him to entertain any thought or dream of normalcy. Nothing could ever change his existence. He knew his place in life. The reality of never being allowed out and always having to walk the club walk turned his stomach.
He didn’t have the luxury of such foolish fairy tales.
The shackles tightened around him like the zip ties last night.
“You got yourself a hot one,” the cashier murmured, her voice in awe. The older woman currently being checked out cut her gaze to Dev then over to Cash.
“Shameful,” she muttered and buried her face in her wallet.
“Fuck you, lady,” Dev sneered, standing to his full height. His guard instantly raised. “No one asked your goddamn opinion. Did they?”
Cash walked straight up to him. The smile was still in place even though it didn’t reach his eyes. “What’s going on?”
“She’s a fuckin’ bitch,” Dev stated, nodding to the lady who gathered her things while giving him a hateful look.
Cash cut his gaze to her. The range of emotion on Cash’s face tickled Dev. Those manners probably didn’t allow him to call anyone a bitch, for any reason. The confusion caused a well of laughter to bubble inside Dev that may have come out a bit hysterical. And that was one hundred percent Cash’s fault.
“What’d I miss?” Cash asked, brow furrowed.
“The chick behind the counter said my boyfriend was hot,” Dev said loud enough for everyone in the store to hear. “Which isn’t a fuckin’ lie, but that bitch old lady said we were shameful.” Dev had no way to know for sure, because he refused to ever look at that bitch again, but he felt her gaze fixed on them as she started to leave the building. He was nothing if not a showman. Dev cupped Cash’s neck and stepped into the man, drawing him closer. He leaned in to tenderly press his lips to Cash’s.
The anxiety within eased the second their lips touched. His heart gave a happy flutter.
Cash applied the smallest hints of pressure to the kiss before he opened. The tiniest parting of the lips in invitation for Dev to deepen the kiss. Dev lifted his gaze to Cash staring down at him. Cash’s hands came to Dev’s hips, tentatively testing the touch then the hold.
He should pull away. If he knew what was good for him, he needed to pull the fuck away.
At any other moment in his life, this kiss would have turned pornographic just to get under the old lady’s skin, and any other homophobe in the building, but shit had changed for Dev. All those deep feelings that had developed at such a rapid pace were now ripped open and raw. At the same time, they lit his body on fire by just having Cash’s touch again.
His body took the decision away. The tip of Dev’s tongue slipped into Cash’s mouth, met with a similar hesitation from Cash. Dev closed his eyes. All the frantic feelings that had taken root from the second he’d looked up to see that kid, Joe, holding a pistol on him, evaporated. The mounting worry for the future. The insurmountable grief of his precious children not being his. Ties to the club cinching tighter around him again. The pain of betrayal by someone he cared deeply for. They all vanished as Cash’s velvety tongue moved against his.
From the first moment he and Cash had clasped hands with one another, they belonged.
Fuck no, he didn’t believe in destiny or fate. That would mean he didn’t have a choice where Cash was concerned. By God, he had made his own decisions. Out of every person he’d ever met, his mind, no, his heart had chosen Cash and given itself freely with no expectation in return.