The Devil You Know (The Devils #3)(56)

The female voice is approaching, insistent and possessive.

“You’d better go, Ben,” I reply. “Before your date sees you talking to someone else.”

And then I hang up the phone.





For the next two hours I continue to drink, but I can’t numb myself enough to not be upset about the conversation.

All I really want to do is go curl up in the room Keeley’s staying in here and weep, but I suspect she and the guy she’s seeing already had sex in the bed, so I remain in place, perched on the edge of the hot tub while she persuades two guys to rub our shoulders and two other guys to rub our feet.

I guess I am drunk because there’s literally no way I’d go along with this sober.

“I liked him,” I whisper. It’s possible I’ve said this several times since I ended that call.

Keeley leans her head on my shoulder for a half second. “I know, babe. Pick someone here instead. Anyone. Sleep with Jason if you want. I really don’t mind.”

I laugh miserably. “I don’t want to sleep with anyone. Not even Jason, but I appreciate the offer.”

“More alcohol, then,” she says, raising my empty glass and hers. “We need two more boys to fetch us fresh drinks!”

I laugh again and close my eyes, wishing I could just have this whole day behind me. And then Keeley says, “uh oh”, and I open them again…to discover Ben standing on the other side of the hot tub. He’s wearing jeans and an unbuttoned flannel shirt over a t-shirt, looking better than any man ever has…aside from the fact that he is very, very angry. Although that looks sort of good on him too.

The rubbing stops.

“Thought you were in Palm Springs,” I call over the music, and for the first time I hear myself. It turns out I am drunk.

“Gemma,” he says, eyes narrowed, “can I speak to you?”

I get the feeling he’s not actually asking. I climb out—my feet no longer working as well as they did when I climbed in—and he pushes through the crowd to wrap a towel around me.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“I’m celebrating Jesus’s birth, obviously.”

The DJ chooses this moment to put on “Talk Dirty to Me.”

His nostrils flare. “You’re drunk. Let’s go.”

I stiffen. I’m not doing this again. I’m not letting someone else hold all the cards and dictate how I lead my life while refusing to invite me into his. I’m not letting someone convince me I’m the issue.

“Fuck you,” I reply, which is far less eloquent than I intended, but gets the job done. I turn and push through the crowd to get to Keeley’s room on the second floor, but by the time I reach her door he’s behind me again.

And it just makes me sad.

I hate that he’s still being the Ben I’d begun to believe he might be, someone honest and invested, when I’ve already got proof he’s not. “Go back to your date,” I tell him, marching inside the room, looking for my stuff.

He follows me in, standing in the frame of the door with his hands shoved in his pockets and his eyes narrowed. “What the fuck is this about?” he demands. “I wasn’t with anyone. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. And what was that downstairs? I leave you alone for one fucking day and find you getting massaged by two guys at once?”

“I saw you, asshole,” I reply, and my throat tightens. Fuck. I refuse to cry in front of him. “You and Juliet Cantrell. Having ‘way too much fun’. I’m not here to help you cheat on another girl.”

He frowns. “Juliet? I’m not with Juliet.”

I pull the towel tighter around me, suddenly freezing. I want him to get the fuck out so I can change. “Really?” I ask with an angry laugh. “Well, then you should tell your friend Drew, because she’s saying something very different online.”

He stares at me in shock. “You looked her up on Instagram,” he says quietly. “You looked her up to see what I was doing this weekend.” He sounds incredulous rather than angry, but it’s an accusation nonetheless.

I point my finger at him. “Don’t you dare make this about me and what I did. I’m not the problem here.”

There’s a quiet, pleased gleam in his eye. “Nor am I. Has it occurred to you yet that if I was with Juliet, I couldn’t have left and driven two hours to come get you?”

He might have a point. But that doesn’t explain everything, and I’m no longer willing to be someone who accepts half-answers and hopes for the best.

“Then what was that about Juliet having ‘way too much fun’?” I demand. I’m showing all my cards, but it’s not like I can backtrack at this point…he already knows what I did.

“I have no idea!” He pushes his hands through his hair, making it even more deliciously fucked up than it was. “We’re just friends. We’ve always just been friends. Her boyfriend no-showed this weekend, so I imagine Drew was hoping to piss him off.”

I pull the towel tighter. I suppose…that’s exactly the kind of thing Keeley and I would do for each other if one of us was in Juliet’s shoes. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Keeley already did something like that today.

“Now do you want to tell me why the hell I arrived to find you being manhandled in a hot tub, wearing next to nothing?”