Page 57 of Billionaire Undeceived - Devon

I could hardly fault him for trying to protect the people he loved.

Ihadbeen lying to everyone, so his intuition had been right.

Even though I hadn’t always been honest with him, he trusted me, and I’d die before I ever betrayed that trust in any way ever again.

“I’m glad you told me,” I said softly. “But I really don’t care what your motives were in the beginning. I was hiding things, and you didn’t know me. You were just trying to protect your family. Your protectiveness is one of the things that I adore about you.”

“So are you willing to give this a shot?” he asked in a serious voice. “I’ll definitely screw up, and I probably won’t do all of the things I should for you. I’m going to be incredibly inept with the relationship thing, but I promise that I’ll try.”

I reached up and stroked his stubbled jawline. “Oh, Devon, you’re already more amazing than you know. We’ll take it slow. You know I haven’t had the best track record with boyfriends, so I’m no expert on good relationships.”

“I think I can do better than those idiots,” he rumbled. “They obviously didn’t know a good woman when they had one.”

Devon was at least a million times better than any guy I’d ever dated.

I wished he could understand that, but he apparently was worried about his lack of experience at being in a romantic relationship.

“I know a good man when I see one now,” I murmured as I kissed his jawline.

“I’m not going to press you about a future,” Devon commented. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when all of this is over for you. I just want to be with you with everything in the open. It’s getting pretty damn hard pretending we’re just friends. My family definitely isn’t buying it.”

I laughed. “I can tell you that Hannah definitely isn’t.”

“My mom and my brothers aren’t fooled, either,” Devon admitted. “We don’t have to sleep together, Reese. You deserve some dates first, and some boyfriend behavior.”

I wanted to argue after having a little taste of what it would be like to be with Devon, but I didn’t.

I was going to let him take this at his own pace.

“What did you have in mind,” I asked curiously. “We’re riding together tomorrow. Is that a date?”

“If I had my way, I’d take some time off work and fly you anywhere you wanted to go, but that’s not possible right now. I’ll think of something. You’ll also be getting endless gifts, and you can’t argue if they’re coming from your man.”

I sent him a warning look. “Please don’t get crazy.”

“Sweetheart,” he said rationally. “I’m a billionaire. I have so much money that I don’t know what to do with it, and Iamgoing to give you things.”

“I don’t need anything,” I argued. “I only have a small savings here, but I have money in my real accounts, and I’m the only child of wealthy parents. They aren’t billionaire wealthy, but I’m their only child, and they spoil me rotten.”

“Then it’s my turn to spoil you rotten,” Devon said adamantly. “That’s my job now.”

“And what exactly can I do for you?” I asked.

“You already spoil me,” he said firmly. “You cook for me, you make me special things, and you care about me and not my money. Those things have meant a lot to me, Reese. A guy couldn’t want anything more than that. This guy doesn’t.”

“Mind blowing sex?” I suggested in a sultry voice.

“Don’t start on that, woman,” he growled. “Or you’ll never get a single date before you end up in my bed.”

I wanted to tell him that it was just fine with me if he wanted to go that route, but he obviously had his mind made up about exactly how all of this should go.

“It’s not easy to keep quiet about it,” I said teasingly. “Not when you’re about to date the hottest guy on the planet.” I paused before I asked in a more serious voice, “You obviously saw my scar from the shooting. Is it still ugly? I try not to look at it.”

“It’s not ugly,” he said like he was irritated that I thought that it was. “It’s part of you, Reese, and every part of you is beautiful. It is a little scary how close it was to your heart, and it guts me to think about how much pain it caused you, but nothing about you will ever be ugly to me.”

Sometimes Devon said the sweetest things that he didn’t even know were sweet.

My hand went to the healed wound on my chest automatically. “I’m hoping it will fade, eventually.”

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