Don't Go Baking My Heart

“Hey.” She tapped his arm. “Look at me a sec.”

He didn’t move. “I said I’m fine.”

“Devon King, you better look at me right now.”

“Or what?” he asked, gaze still locked forward, hand still tightly furled in his lap.

“Ferris wheels are pretty romantic spots, you know.” When in doubt, flirt it out.

She didn’t know what was up with him when he had practically dragged her onto the ride—had actually held her hand in public for everyone to see, just as she had finished telling Maxi their relationship was all about business—but she would suss out the problem. She dropped her hand to his thigh, squeezed lightly. “Ever had a handjob on a ride?”

His head jerked over to her at last, and whoa, alright, that explained it. His dark gaze looked a little wild, too wide, a hint of panic reflected there. He was trying to hide that shit, but his body was giving him away.

“Why in the world did you come up here if you’re afraid?” she asked, a touch curious and exasperated.

“I’m not. I just have a healthy distrust of this.” He waved his hands around just as the wheel gave a small lurch. “Fuck.” His hand gripped onto hers that was still on his thigh. “I wasn’t thinking. Just saw you and Maxi talking and…”

Ah, so things were sliding into place now. He’d rather go on something he considered a death trap than face the possibility that Reba might blurt something out to his sister.

“Are you telling me you came on this thing, which you hate, just so Maxi and I wouldn’t talk?”

“I’m sure my mother mentioned everything to her already.”

“Yes, we spoke about that briefly.”

“What else?” He started kneading her hand gently. Did he realise he was doing that?

“Nothing much, really. I didn’t ask, but Remi probably also told her about seeing us at that exhibit. Maxi said we look cute together.”

He frowned. “I like to keep my personal stuff private.”

“And it still is. I didn’t tell your sis that we had sex. You rushing up and holding my hand like that might raise some questions, though.”

“But what about your friends?”

“Not yet.” Trina would be especially thrilled to hear that sex had happened, even though she had bet against Reba being able to charm Devon. Reba wasn’t counting the sex as part of this. It would feel squicky.

“I don’t like this. This is what I wanted to avoid.”

“What do you like, Devon? Except that thing I do with my tongue,” she smirked. He wasn’t as relaxed as she was, but he had loosened up some since she’d distracted him from where they were.

He peered down as the wheel kept moving. “This is really fucking high up. How can you enjoy any of it?”

“It’s a thrill. Haven’t you ever just wanted to do something that has your heart screaming a little? And look how pretty it is from up here.” She gestured around, trying to get him to look anywhere but down.

“It’s…” He looked around. “This was a mistake.”

“I need to take a pic.” She slowly reached for her phone with her free hand, sliding it out from the small crossbody bag she had strapped across her body, and took a quick photo of herself. She could have released her other hand to take a proper photo, but Devon seemed to be deriving some sort of calm from her touch.

“I got you, okay?” she told him when she’d finished, giving his hand a squeeze to reassure him.

“You don’t if this wheel unhinges from the bolts and takes on a life of its own.”

She poked his side. “What am I gonna do with you, hmm? The wheel’s going nowhere.”

The wheel chose that exact moment to stop, to let the first set of people off, she presumed. Devon’s entire body locked up. She felt it in the flex of his hand. They were still a couple of seats up from the ground, which meant the moving and stopping was going to happen a few more times before it was their turn to hop off.

She reached out to grab his chin and turn his face her way. “We’re almost there. Talk to me. You haven’t told me how cute I look tonight.”