Hidden Devotion (Trinity Masters #5)(12)

Devon pressed his lips to each corner of her mouth then rested his forehead against hers. He was breathing deeply, and she knew, she just knew, that he was as affected by their kiss as she was.

There on the banks of the river Seine, Juliette had the romantic first kiss of her dreams, and fell hopelessly in love with the man she would someday marry.





Chapter Four




The ringing stopped as the person on the other end answered. “Hold on, I need coffee.”

Devon smiled, the screen of his phone a whirl of color and fabric as Rose moved around. It was six thirty in the morning on the West Coast, which explained Rose’s need for coffee. She propped the phone up somewhere in her kitchen and he watched her moving back and forth prepping her morning caffeine before coming over to lean on the counter, staring at him through the video call. The gorgeous upscale kitchen behind her made him long for his condo in DC instead of the pot of room-service coffee in the hotel room. As nice as this hotel was, it wasn’t home.

“Okay, give it to me straight.”

“Juliette is back in Boston.”

“And?” Rose’s eyebrows, dark against her pale skin, climbed up her forehead.

“When I mentioned being called to the altar she told me to get out.”

For a moment Rose’s face relaxed in an expression that was almost relief. “So that’s not why she’s back?”

“Or she hadn’t figured it out yet.”

“Juliette isn’t stupid.”

“No, but she’s stubborn, and ignores things she doesn’t want to be true.”

Rose shrugged in agreement, sipping coffee. “I guess we’ll have to keep our eye on the mail.”

They chatted for another few minutes, though the conversation felt stilted. Devon was trying to figure out why he was getting the feeling that Rose was either sad or worried, when there was a knock on his hotel room door.

Rose heard it too, and went perfectly still. “Can’t fault that for timing.”

Devon knew what she was talking about, knew what she was expecting, and he felt the same. They’d joked about watching the mail, but correspondences from the Grand Master were delivered by messenger. A young man with a bike helmet under one arm was standing outside his door. Devon signed for the large, nondescript envelope.

“Bring it over here where I can see!” Rose’s demand pulled Devon from his blank-faced study of what he held. He took a seat at the small desk by the window, heart thumping. It was a standard document-size mailer. Opening it, he shook out an invitation-size cream-colored envelope. The front was embossed with the triquetra—the symbol of the Trinity Masters.

“Fuck,” Rose whispered.

“Rose?” When he glanced at the screen, Devon was shocked to see the pain etched into her face.

She waved her hand then turned so he could only see her profile. “Open it.”

What the hell was going on with Rose? Glancing between the envelope and the phone, he decided to deal with one thing at a time. He’d been waiting for this—had imagined the moment when he’d be called to the altar. Most members of the Trinity Masters didn’t meet their spouses until they were called to a special ceremony. What he, Rose and Juliette had—a trinity arranged and acknowledged, if not formally announced, long before they were of the appropriate age to marry—was unique. Opening the envelope, Devon pulled out the folded sheet of heavy cream paper.

Devon Asher,

As of today, your previously arranged trinity is dissolved. Within the next twelve months, you will be called to the altar to meet your spouses.

Grand Master

“Devon? Devon?!” Rose’s voice pulled him back to the present.

Jumping from the chair, he grabbed his shoes, sat on the edge of the bed and shoved his feet into boots.

“Devon, what’s going on, why did you run away?”

He grabbed his jacket from the closet, moving on instinct.

“What did it say?”

He didn’t answer, but plucked his phone and wallet off the desk and headed for the door.

“Devon!” She screamed his name loud enough that he heard it even over the sound of the hotel room door thunking closed behind him as he ran for the elevator. Holding the phone up, he looked at Rose, but the words wouldn’t come.

“Where are you going?” This time Rose’s voice was soft and soothing, coaxing him to respond.

“I’m going to talk to the Grand Master.”

She sucked in a breath just as the elevator doors opened. “Why?”

Devon stepped in and hit the button for the lobby. The call dropped as the elevator did. Rather than answer the inevitable call back from Rose, he held out the sheet of paper as he walked, snapping a photo and texting it to the woman who had, until five minutes ago, been destined to be one of his spouses.

*****

Juliette yawned and stretched. She had no idea what time it was. The windowless office, so far underground, had thrown off her internal clock. She’d been too angry and keyed up after Devon’s visit to stay at the house, so she’d raced to the Grand Master’s office—her office. Though members couldn’t enter the Trinity Masters’ headquarters unless the library was open, they had a secret door that most people, including most of the library staff, thought was blocked off and she fully intended to stay here, immersed in the piles of papers, until she stopped thinking about what she’d done, about the notes she’d sent.