Deal Breakers (Dealing with Love 1)

She waves the napkin in the air. “And I’m supposed to just take your word for it? You don’t want a real relationship, Riley! This phone number proves that. You can’t do long term monogamy!”

I grab it from her and throw it on the floor. “I didn’t want the fucking number! I don’t want anyone else’s fucking number!”

“Then what do you want, Rye? What the hell do you want?”

“YOU! All I’ve ever wanted since the day we met was you!”

She’s stunned. “What?”

I decide actions speak louder than words. Fuck Rainey’s advice. Devyn needs a reminder of how explosive we are together. I advance upon her and cage her against the wall.

“What are you—” she starts to ask.

I answer her with my lips pressed against hers. She fights me for half a second before she moans, pulling me into her. It’s just as good between us as I remember. Better even. We’re saying everything we need to with our lips and our tongues. She kisses me back with so much fucking passion it’s like it's been bottled up all these years. She runs her fingers through my hair, yanking forcefully as she demands more. Never breaking the kiss, I grab her legs and wrap them around my hips. I grind into her and she tightens her legs around me to press into me deeper. My dick is harder than steel, dying to be inside this woman where it belongs.

I break away from her mouth and move down her neck. “God, I hate that I can smell his cologne on you.”

Devyn tenses and pulls back to disentangle herself. I step back and meet her eyes. Shit, she looks like she’s about to cry.

She points toward the bathroom door. “Go, Riley! I’m not

this girl. You can’t just go around saying things like that, kissing anyone you please.”

“I wasn’t the only one doing the kissing,” I remind her.

She groans in frustration. “Just go! I’ll be out in a minute.”

I try to get a read on her but she’s shutting down. “Dev—”

A tear drops down her face. “GO, RILEY!”

I step back and take a deep breath. I slam my hand against the door. “Fuck!” I unlock it and pull it open with much more force than necessary. Before walking away, I lower my voice and say, “I’ll give you time to get your shit together, but don’t walk away from this, Devyn. Don’t walk away from us.”

DEVYN

I TURN TOWARD THE mirror and stare at my reflection after Riley stormed away. God, what am I doing? My hair is tousled and my lip gloss has been sucked off entirely. I make myself as presentable as possible and take a deep breath. I can do this. I’ll just go out there, tell everyone I have a headache, and then Jackson and I can leave so we can talk privately. I can’t put this off any longer. My reaction towards Riley just now proved that. It’s not fair to Jackson to continue along the path we’re on.

I make my way back to the table a moment later. Riley is noticeably absent and the remaining four are suspiciously quiet.

Drew clears his throat. “Uh…Riley had to go—said he had something to take care of.”

“Oh.” I look up at Jackson. His ears are cherry red and his eyes are narrowed into slits.

Rainey touches me lightly on the shoulder. “Everything okay, hon?”

I fidget nervously as all eyes are on me. “Um…I have a headache. I think I need to call it a night.”

Jackson stands without a word and begins walking towards the door.

I nod towards him. “Um…I guess we’re going now. Lorraine, I’ll call you later.”

“You’d better,” she says.

Jackson barely says a word to me on the entire drive home. The tension in the air is suffocating. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him angry before but that’s definitely what this is. Does he sense that something happened between me and Riley?

He pulls against the curb in front of my building.

“You’re not coming in?” I ask.