Devil's Vengeance (Sydney Storm MC 3)

Hailee

I drank half the martini Devil bought me before stopping and placing the glass on the table we sat at in the busy Italian restaurant he’d brought me to for dinner. “It was a long shitty day.”

And a long crappy week. Work used to be my happy place. Not so much anymore. Thank God for Friday.

The thing that had kept me going during the days was the time I spent with Devil at night. He made good on his promise to pick me up after work every day, and I looked forward to that each day. Not to mention the long nights of sex. After locking us away at his house for a couple of nights, though, he’d insisted we go out for dinner that night.

“Any luck finding jobs to apply for?” I’d told him how and why Rachel was being a bitch, and he had encouraged me to search for a new job.

I shrugged. “I’ve found a couple, but none of them really excite me. Plus, none are as close to home as Rachel’s.”

“How was she today?”

I rolled my eyes. “She was still going on about me needing to work out my priorities. If I have to sit through another week of that next week, I may just stab her in the eye with a pointy stick. I mean, I’ve worked for her for two years and never once given her any reason to treat my badly. I’ve tried pointing out that the free massages don’t hurt her business, but she seems to have it in for my project.” I drank some more of my cocktail and added, “I just don’t get it.”

“Have any more of your volunteers pulled out?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve lost four in total now. So I had to spend my lunch hour reworking the schedule for the next week. I think I’ve got it sorted. So long as no more leave me. It just means that I’m going to be busy a few nights next week and all day next Saturday doing massages.”

He grinned. “I tell you what, darlin’, I’ll massage your tired body afterwards.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Devil had a knack for making me laugh when I didn’t think it possible. He’d made this week bearable. “Let me guess, you’ll pay special attention to certain parts of my tired, weary body… like, my feet and hands.”

His grin broadened. “Definitely your hands. We don’t need them to get too sore and tired. I have plans for those hands.”

“And do I need to pay you for these massages? Or are you doing it from the goodness of your heart?”

“I do everything from the goodness of my heart, but a blow job wouldn’t be a bad form of payment.”

My body relaxed as all the tension Rachel had caused seeped away. I lifted my glass to my mouth and said, “If you play your cards right, you may just score one of those tonight.”

I drank the last of my cocktail after that, enjoying the way he responded to what I’d said. Just watching Devil was something I could spend all my time doing, but watching him while pleasure and satisfaction danced across his face took my enjoyment to a whole new level.

It was while we sat in silence simply gazing at each other that my brother slid into the booth next to me, joining us.

“Aaron, uh, what are you doing here?” I faltered on my words because he’d caught me by surprise.

He gave me a tight smile. Glancing back and forth between Devil and me, he said, “I’m here for dinner with a friend and just happened to see you as the waiter took us to our table. Figured I’d come and say hi to my little sister and see what she’

s up to since I haven’t heard from her for a week.” He zeroed in on Devil when he added, “And since she never told me she’d started dating a new guy.”

His gaze met Devil’s as he said that, and I didn’t miss the look that passed between them. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I guessed it was some male thing that we women would never understand. I suspected Aaron’s eyes were saying, “Don’t fuck with my sister or I’ll slice your dick off before I feed you to the sharks,” while Devil’s eyes said, “We’re cool, man, no need to threaten death to my dick.”

“Since when do I have to report in with you every time I go out with a man?” His attitude annoyed me. It seemed to be way worse than ever before, too. I figured that maybe they knew each other, but wasn’t sure. I never had spoken to Devil about that day in the back of Aaron’s car. We’d had other things on our minds.

Aaron didn’t respond to that, but rather, said, “You two meet that day at the animal protest and then just decide to start seeing each other?”

Devil ignored the attitude blazing from Aaron. “No, man. We met again after that at the pub Hailee’s band plays at.”

“How long do you intend to date Hailee?” Aaron’s voice took that hard edge he often reserved for when he was working. I hated that he used it on Devil.

Devil didn’t appear surprised in the least that Aaron was being an asshole. “For as long as she’ll have me.”

Aaron’s body tensed next to me. He was built, so we were crammed into my side of the booth, sides touching, and I felt his turn rock hard. “I don’t see it going anywhere.”

I spun sideways to face him. “Aaron!” I chastised. “Do you mind? How dare you come here and be so damn rude.”

He hardly even acknowledged me. Instead, he kept his focus completely on Devil and said, “Hailee’s been through enough shit with men to last her a lifetime. She sure as fuck doesn’t need you coming along and breaking her heart when you decide to show her who you really are.” Anger was practically rolling off him, and I couldn’t figure out where it came from.