Dev slowly raised his eyes to the woman’s, heat suffusing his face. This was the worst encounter he’d had with a girl since ninth grade. “I…um. I guess I deserved that.”
Her smile dissolved into laughter and she handed him back the other champagne glass. “Admit it. Mark had nothing to do with you coming over here.”
Devon hated champagne—it tasted like sour tonic water to him—but he upended the flute and drank half the contents in one gulp. “Okay,” he said. “I do admit it. What’s your name?”
“I’m Kylie Kent. You?”
“Devon McKee.”
“Devon,” she repeated, thoughtfully.
“How do you know Mark?” he asked.
“I’m his aunt.”
“His
what?
”
“His aunt. Even though he’s older than I am. It’s kind of weird, but true.”
Dev digested that, working out the math. He guessed it was possible that Mark’s father or mother had a much younger sister.
Kylie was doing some thinking of her own. “Wait…Devon…you’re Mark’s rock-star friend?”
“I was never more than a minor local celebrity.”
“Mark mentioned you. And I guess that explains the leather pants.”
“Er.” He’d never before felt the need to explain those, but now, in her presence, he wished he’d worn something boring and khaki. He wished he’d tamped down his spiked, rocker hair and maybe even left his gold chain at home. He was crashing and burning here, big-time.
“Not that they’re not very nice leather pants,” she added, evaluating them.
“Yeah, okay. You hate my pants. Whatever.” He raised his chin and angled his head down at her. If she weren’t so damned hot, he’d be cutting his losses and walking away right now. Dev, heretofore the coolest guy in Miami, felt like the city’s biggest dork. It wasn’t a feeling he liked.
“I don’t hate them at all,” Kylie said. “I want them myself.”
“No kidding?” Dev asked. “Here, you can have ’em right now.” Tongue between his teeth, he went for his fly. After all, he had to recover his man card
somehow.
She laughed. “Maybe we should get to know each other a little better first.”
“You think?”
“Yes.” She tilted her champagne glass towards her perfect lips and drank.
“Well, but I was getting the distinct feeling that you didn’t
want
to get to know me better, so I thought I’d speed things up a little bit.” He grinned his signature, megawatt, killer grin. The one that used to inspire girls to throw their panties at him up on stage.
She shook her head at him.
“What?” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
“You,” she pronounced, “are a mess.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
She pursed her perfect lips. “But you have a peculiar, repulsive appeal,” she said thoughtfully.
Dev blinked. He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that.
She nodded, drumming her fingers on her glass. “I think you might do.”
“Do?”
“Mmm, hmm. You just might.” But then she turned on her heel and walked away, her actions, like her words, sending damned confusing signals.
How could a guy be repellent and have appeal at the same time? It didn’t make any sense.
Devon upended his glass again and sucked down the rest of the hated champagne. Then in three long strides he caught up to Kylie and stepped in front of her. “I’ll
do?
Do
what,
exactly?”
She flashed that Swiss-bank-vault smile again. Then she patted his cheek. Her touch sent an electric current through him, from his jaw to his toes and then up to toast his balls.
“Me,” she replied. Then she walked off again, leaving him staring in her wake.
KYLIE FORCED HERSELF to keep her shoulders straight and didn’t permit herself to turn around as she walked to the ladies’ room. She was pretty sure that Mr. Black Leather Pants was still standing there with his mouth hanging open, and she relished the moment.
Kylie, girl, you’ve still got it. Or you can at least fake it. See?
Nobody needed to know that she was a loser who couldn’t keep her own fiancé’s interest. Nobody needed to know that she’d lost him to internet porn.
Kylie entered the fussy, overdecorated ladies’ lounge and stepped up to the wide gilt mirror, where she took a quick inventory of her face. Eyeliner: currently unsmudged. Blusher: fine. Nose: a smidgeon shiny.
She reached into her bag for her compact, pleased to note that her hands were steady. She powdered her nose, adding a layer to what she thought of as her “war paint” for the evening.
She studied her reflection critically. Everything was more or less symmetrical. She had nice hazel eyes. She was no dog. So why had Jack felt the need to—
Who knew. Why had Tiger Woods cheated on his absolutely stunning wife?
Well, sweetie…men do like variety, you know. Maybe some racy lingerie, a wig or a little role-playing would help.
Kylie jammed the compact into her purse with a little more force than necessary as she remembered her older sister’s well-meaning hints.
Note to self: never complain about your sex life to your relatives!
Not only was her sister’s advice annoying and humiliating, but it also conjured up all kinds of horrible specters about what she might have gotten up to over the years.
Kylie shuddered and pulled out a lipstick. There was nothing to touch up, but she did anyway, killing time before she had to return to the garden room. Small talk wasn’t her favorite thing.
At least it’s only internet pictures,
her sister had said.
Yeah, sis. Right. A lot you know.
It would have been better, really, if Jack had cheated on her with a real woman—or even two. Imperfect women with stressful jobs and ungrateful children and PMS.
But she simply couldn’t compete with a constant parade of flawless, airbrushed beauties and their bountiful beaver shots. Jack could pull them up at any time for his viewing pleasure. And he did.
How pathetic he was, sitting in the dark with his porn. So why did
she
feel like the loser? She was crazy.
Kylie had finally had enough of the repeated talks and the repeated broken promises to stop. She’d dumped his sorry ass.
If only she didn’t remember what Jack was like before he’d discovered OxyContin and internet porn. He’d been handsome and charming, with a bright future in medical equipment sales ahead of him.
He’d been a blue-blazer kind of guy, definitely not the type to show up to a coat-and-tie dinner in, say, black leather pants.
But Jack was now unemployed and boozing it up in T-shirts that said things like I’m with Stupid, and Property of So-and-So’s Athletic Department. He needed a barber badly and a life even more.
And it was time for Kylie to focus on what she herself needed: to wash Jack out of her hair for good.
She needed a distraction.
A male distraction, one with no conscience so she wouldn’t feel at all bad about using him for her own psychological and physical purposes.
Yes, she needed some acrobatic, sweaty, therapeutic sex with a hot stranger. A stranger who wouldn’t want a relationship, since she was done with those for a while. A stranger who was ready to peel off his inappropriate pants within moments of finding out her name.
Devon McKee had honed right in on her. Devon, with his I’m-a-sex-god eyes and his background full of rock ’n’ roll groupies, was just the ticket. Her ticket to ride.
He’d do quite handsomely.
And she was sure he’d do her well.
2
DEVON, AFTER a moment of stunned silence, followed Kylie out of the reception, only to see her disappear behind the door of the ladies’ room.
There was no question that given the opportunity he would
do
her. But he didn’t like the way she’d neatly plucked the power out of his hands along with the champagne glasses. He felt like a piece of meat.
He had a mental image of Kylie poking and prodding him through plastic wrap as he sat on a foam tray in the cold case of the local supermarket.
Repulsive appeal?
As if he had an area of gristle or a streak of fat running through him, and she wasn’t sure he was worth his per-pound price. As if she’d take him home in a pinch, but was tempted to wait until he oxidized a little and went on sale.
That stuck in his craw.
Devon McKee of Category Five had been Grade A prime beef in his heyday. Hell, he’d had a local artist make a mobile of the lacy thongs that had been tossed at him. He’d had the bad taste to hang it over his pool table in the game room of his rented house.
He wasn’t particularly proud of that now, but then, he wasn’t proud of a lot of things he’d done.
Kylie Kent was right. He
was
a mess. But he wasn’t used to being summed up so thoroughly and instantaneously by a woman. And he’d already decided to start cleaning himself up. Maybe not today. But soon.
“Dev, what are you doing lurking out here in the hallway?” Adam asked him. Adam Chase, a medical student, was the best man, and he was currently sporting a broken nose. Or close to broken, anyway.
“Nice schnoz. Where’s the stripper you stole from the bachelor party last night? You didn’t bring her as a date?”
Adam glowered at him, and Dev grinned.
The very cute blond stripper had exploded out of her plywood cake only to elbow his friend right in the face, knocking him to the floor.
Adam squinted at the champagne flute Dev held and deliberately changed the subject. “What’s with that? You hate champagne.”
“Yeah, but I’m trying to stay away from the rum.”
“Since when?”
Dev waved a hand at him and ambled into the garden room. He went to the bar and then belatedly brought Aunt Mildred the drink he’d promised her.
She arched a drawn-on eyebrow at him. “Thank you, young man. Did you have to harvest the grapes, first?”
Was every woman here, from five to ninety, going to bust his balls? But his lips twitched. “Yes, ma’am. Apologies.”
She patted his arm. “It’s all right. I saw you almost trip over your tongue when Kylie walked in. The girl’s always been a looker. Sweet, too.”
Sweet?
“She’s far too wholesome for you, dear. Wait until tomorrow at the wedding and I’ll introduce you to a naughty girl who’s more your speed.” Aunt Mildred, to his horror, winked at him.
For the second time in a half hour, Dev found himself speechless. Then he got defensive. “How do you know I’m not looking for a nice girl?”
She cackled. “In those pants?”
Damn it, he was going to set fire to them.
“I really am looking to settle down. You know, find the One. Believe it or not.” He wasn’t sure he believed it himself, but the words had somehow flown out of his mouth.
Mildred eyed him shrewdly. “Your tone is sincere. But are you serious or…self-delusional?”
Dev laughed weakly because he had no idea how to respond.
Was
he self-delusional? After all, he’d just failed the challenge his sister Ciara had set him: to keep a houseplant and a goldfish alive for a month. She’d gotten the idea from some movie.
Anyway, the plant had died after ten days, despite his best efforts. And the fish was looking depressed and moody. He hoped the neighbor kid wasn’t overfeeding it while he was away for the weekend. Or forgetting to feed it at all.
“Why are you abusing me, Aunt Mildred?” Dev asked her, with his best innocent-little-boy smile.