More tapping on the screen and Dean returned the phone to his back pocket. The tension was getting to me and I wiped sweat from my brow. My friend appeared just as he always did, so it was only me stressing the hell out. He was hoping for, at minimum, a ride in the car while I was about to see my future.
Gods, if Roy didn’t get out soon, I’d race to the car and drag him out, pin him to the car and demand an explanation about the car’s ownership before asking him if he was the guy I was marrying.
“Here he comes. He’s got dark hair,” Dean observed. “Oh shit. It’s your man.”
“What?” I wasn’t as tall as Dean and there was a damn hedge in the way. I got on tiptoes as Dev closed the car door and buttoned his jacket. He wore a pair of sunglasses, but his pinched mouth signaled he wasn’t pleased about returning to the scene of the crime.
Conflicting emotions battered me and the edges of my vision went dark until all I could see was a tiny pinprick of light. I must have collapsed because when I opened my eyes, Dean was leaning over me, slapping my cheek.
“Owww.”
“Good, you’re alive.” He hauled me up. “Are you going out there or am I?”
What was happening? I rubbed my head to clear the fog and blinked. Car, Dev. Motel. Marriage. Roy. What the fuck?
“You.” I leaned on the desk. “Find out…” My voice trailed away and Dean sat me in a chair, saying he had this, and went outside.
But despite the room spinning around, I got up and leaned on the counter. Dean had left the door open and his loud voice boomed, “I’m surprised to see you.”
“You asked me to come.” Dev crossed his arms. I wished he’d remove his sunglasses, but maybe, just like his arms, he was using them as protection.
“I was communicating with the car owner, who I’m pretty sure isn’t you.”
“A technicality.” Dev shrugged.
“Nope. Car theft is an enormous industry and is not a ‘technicality.’” He put the last word in air quotes.
“Look, if you’re here to shake me down, you’re out of luck. I can’t and won’t pay you because I’ve done nothing wrong, so whatever this is, it’s over.”
I’d stayed hidden while they spoke, Dev’s voice sending goosebumps spiraling over my skin and my cock engorging. But he wasn’t on the level, spinning fibs into a web of lies.
Dev turned on his heel, but not before glancing at a room on the second floor, the one where we’d had sex. But that was my imagination, wasn’t it?
I should have stayed where I was and let him leave, but I didn’t have any answers.
“I don’t owe you an explanation,” he said over his shoulder.
Tearing out of the office, I screeched, “But you owe me one!”
“Hess!” He raced toward me, his arms outstretched.
“Whoa, not so fast. I need answers and then you can go on your merry way and into your fiancé’s arms.”
“It’s complicated.” His eyes pleaded with me to fall into his embrace.
While Dev wasn’t paying attention to Dean, I observed my friend from the corner of my eye as he sauntered toward the car and ran his hands over the hood.
“No. The guy I’m supposed to marry owns this car, so fess up. Who the fuck are you?”
Chapter 16
Who are you?!?!?!
Devyn
“But you owe me one!”
I instantly recognized that voice. It was the one that I heard as I fell asleep, the one I longed for every quiet moment, the one that cried out my name as we made love in this motel.
