On the Steamy Side - Louisa Edwards [78]
She forgot everything but Devon. She forgot her name. She forgot to breathe.
Luckily, the car’s engine shut off in time to keep her from passing out. Lilah broke the kiss like she was breaking the surface of the lake after being held under by one of her rambunctious boy cousins.
Gasping for breath and looking around for familiar landmarks, she saw that they were in the underground garage below Devon’s apartment building.
Paolo got out of the car and came to stand by her door. Evidently trained in discretion, he didn’t open the door immediately, but stood by, ready and waiting, his back ramrod straight and hands at his sides. Lilah was impressed.
And grateful. She needed a second to compose herself. Half a minute more, and she’d have been swooning in Devon’s arms like a character out of Gone with the Wind. Melanie, not Scarlett, and what girl wanted to be Melanie? Not only insipid in her own right, but to have to end up with boring Ashley? Ugh.
Aware that she was hiding in literature to calm herself down, a tried-and-true Lolly technique, Lilah forced herself to meet Devon’s eyes.
He looked amused, as if he’d been in on her mental book club discussion. Or maybe it was just his default expression.
“Everything okay over there?” Devon’s tone was gentle, soft. Lilah had no idea if he was serious or if he was mocking her.
Assuming it was the latter, Lilah lifted her chin and stared him down.
“You probably think I’m going to freak out,” she said, “but I’m not.” So there.
“Thought never crossed my mind,” Devon said, all chivalry. “Shall we?”
That twinkle in his eyes made him look like a cheerful sex demon. He had the seductive smile going, too. Lilah thought about shocking the heck out of him by pushing him back against the opposite door and ravishing his mouth, but that could so easily backfire. Chances were better than average that rather than reacting with shock, he’d ravish her right back and they’d end by steaming up the windows of his limo with the driver standing right outside.
They said good night to Paolo and made it to the elevator without mauling each other.
Lilah made sure to keep a foot of space between them in the elevator. She might be intent on busting out of her Lolly shell, but that didn’t mean she was ready to put on a public show for any of Devon’s neighbors who might have a yen to take the elevator, or for the doorman keeping watch over the security cameras.
Lilah wanted adventure and excitement; she did not want to star in anyone’s homemade Girls Gone Wild video.
Not that she didn’t feel a little on the wild side, she mused, casting a sideways glance at the Greek god to her left. The Greek god who, for some unfathomable reason, was interested in plain Lilah Jane from the middle of Hicksville. Lilah tried not to contemplate the eventual fate of most of the mortal women who’d tangled, however briefly and deliciously, with the gods of Greek mythology.
She was determined not to count the cost before she’d even had the joy. She’d lived her whole life like that, always doing the right thing, making the safe choice, trying to make her family proud and not be a burden—and what had it gotten her?
Not a fraction of the happiness she’d found in Devon’s arms, that was for sure.
The elevator chimed—even the ding to let them know they were at Devon’s private floor was elegant—and the door slid open.
“Good evening, Mr. Sparks.” The quiet voice of Daniel Tan, Devon’s assistant, broke Lilah out of her momentary fantasy of falling on Devon and taking him by storm the instant they were inside the apartment.
A flash of guilt assailed her. Right, the assistant. There to babysit Tucker. How could she have forgotten?
“I’m going to go check on Tucker,” she said. “Is he in bed?”
“All tucked in and sound asleep, last time I poked my head in,” the young Asian-American man assured her.
“Thanks, Daniel,” Devon said. “I appreciate you doing this on short notice.”
“Anything