Cards of Love: The Devil (Devil's Playground #1)(2)

Just like everyone else in my life.

His jaw tics. “Where’s David? I thought we all agreed he’d supervise you during these?”

“That’s funny.” I gesture between us. “We didn’t agree to anything. You told me some reporters wanted to interview me this week and said not to speak to anyone without him present.”

“Eden,” he grinds out, and I curse myself for wondering if that’s how he’d grunt my name if we finished what we started that night. “Where is he?”

I give him a big smile. “I told him to grab some lunch.” My smile falls. “You know, since I’m not a fucking child who needs a babysitter.”

With that, I march upstairs to my bedroom.

“What newspaper did you say you were from? Because you’ll be cleaning out your desk by the end of the day,” Cain booms from the living room. His voice lights every nerve ending of mine on fire, even from so far away. Until I hear the next words out of his mouth. "For fuck's sake, my wife's body isn't even cold yet. What kind of person comes into someone's home and says that shit to a kid who’s still mourning her mother.”

Locking the door behind me, I fight the urge to laugh. My mother’s been dead for over a year now, and Lord knows I haven’t spent more than a second grieving the woman who treated me like her life’s greatest mistake instead of her daughter.

Neither has Cain.

Despite him ripping the reporter a new one, anyone with a pulse knows their marriage was one hot steaming pile of bullshit.

He was twenty-five and she was thirty-nine when they got hitched—which made me—who was only fourteen at the time—closer to his age than my mother.

But given her own campaign focused on family values when she ran for District Attorney four years ago—and she had no family—other than the daughter who caused a huge scandal that year—she needed to find someone to fill the gaping hole my sperm donor left in our family portrait.

Enter Cain Carter—not one to pass up a good opportunity, even in the face of gossip and outrage—he married her. Most likely because— scandal or not—she knew all the right people. People who ironically enough, got him to where he is now.

Running for mayor and presumed to win. Which will officially make him the youngest mayor Black Hallows has ever had.

Well, as long as there aren’t any scandals in the next eleven days.

I know he’s wanted this for a while now, but to be honest; I have mixed feelings. Half my heart wants him to win because I know it’s a stepping stone to his real dream—becoming president one day. But the other half wants him to lose so it gets rid of at least one obstacle between us.

Then again, if he loses, who knows what will happen to me. As of tomorrow, I’m a legal adult, which means he’s no longer under any legal obligation to take care of me.

Shortly after my mother died in a car accident, Cain disclosed his plans to run for mayor and gave me two choices. Either I could end up a homeless teenager on the street, because my cunt of a mother didn’t leave me a dime. Or I could stay with him and he would take care of me, provided I did everything he said, played the part of the good little stepdaughter, and didn’t cause any waves during his campaign.

It was an easy choice. I’ve been in love with Cain since the moment I laid eyes on him…despite meeting him while I was at my lowest.

Unfortunately for me, he’s as straight-laced as they come, appears to give a shit about my well-being most days, and would never cross that line.

Except for that one night.





Chapter 2





Eden





Three Weeks Ago


“Didn’t know you were in here.”

I startle at the sound of his voice even though I heard the front door open followed by his footsteps.

Fumbling for the remote, I put the show I was barely paying attention to on pause and look at him.

The light from the television illuminates his tall and toned form as he rests against the entryway and I fight back a shiver.

If he didn’t enjoy politics so much, I’m positive he could have had a successful career as a model. He’s an intriguing combination of rugged and boyish good looks. Light brown hair cropped close in a style that’s suitable for business. Big brown eyes that are full of determination—like he’s always working toward the next big goal. And his chin, which is clenched in irritation more often than not, has the sexiest dimple smack dab in the center of it.

However, my absolute favorite feature of Cain’s are his lips. The man has the kind of lips women from all over the world go under the knife for. They’re full and sensuous, turning up at the corners ever so slightly to give him a perpetual smirk—like he knows how bad I want to kiss them.

“It’s Saturday night, shouldn’t you be hanging out with your friends?”

I inwardly flinch, not because of his cool tone or the slight slur coming from the booze he must have consumed tonight, but the fact that he knows damn well I don’t have many friends. Make that any.

I’m pretty much the town’s pariah, thanks to an incident that occurred when I was fourteen that led to my mother pulling me out of regular school and me continuing my studies at home.

Even now, the sting of embarrassment is so sharp my breath catches. I never meant for anyone to get ahold of the letters I wrote my seventh-grade teacher, Mr. Delany.