The Charm Offensive(51)

Because that’s not how Ever After works.

In thirty-seven days, Charlie will get engaged to Daphne Reynolds. That’s the story they’ve been crafting since night one. That’s how Charlie gets his happy ending.

In thirty-seven days, Charlie will kiss Daphne Reynolds like this, but tonight Dev is going to lose himself in practice kisses, get carried away by Charlie’s hands, the push and pull of Charlie’s body, even though he knows how badly it’s going to hurt tomorrow.





Charlie


He doesn’t want to miss a second of this. Kissing Dev. Dev kissing him.

His sober brain wants to memorize every detail this time, so when Dev pulls away again, he’ll have something to hold onto, something to remind him it was real. That once, he kissed someone he liked, and they kissed him back. Even if it’s only for practice.

Dev is definitely going to pull away again. Charlie can feel it, even as he shifts beneath Dev so that Dev’s hips slide down against his own, their mutual desire straining against flimsy sweatpants. Dev groans into his mouth as he rubs himself against Charlie’s body. Charlie wants to eat that sound, pour it like sugar over fresh strawberries.

Dev is going to pull away, and Charlie needs to stay in this moment, to record it for posterity.

The smoky sweetness of Dev’s skin this close; Dev’s sharp knees and sharp elbows and sharp hipbones, all digging into him; the confidence of his tongue and the sureness of his kisses; the heat of his skin as his thumbs brush across Charlie’s nipples, and oh. That’s not something he knew his body could do, but it’s like Dev knows everything about his own body and Charlie’s. Charlie wants to remember that feeling most of all—the feeling of Dev bringing to life parts of himself he didn’t know were there.

“Do you like that?” Dev’s voice, against his throat. Dev’s thumbs, circling his chest.

“Um, obviously.”

Dev laughs, and then it’s his tongue circling Charlie’s skin, his mouth on Charlie’s chest, sucking as he slides lower down his body, and—

“Dev.” Charlie catches both of Dev’s hands and stills him. “I think we should probably… stop. I need to…”

Dev understands and slides off Charlie. Charlie pecks Dev clumsily on the cheek and barely makes it to the bathroom. It doesn’t take much to finish; he’s almost there already. All he has to do is imagine what it would have been like if he’d been brave enough to let Dev keep going.

When he comes out of the bathroom, he can hear the sound of the shower running next door. He puts on a shirt and wanders into Dev’s room, sits down on the edge of his bed. He leans over. The whole bed smells like Dev.

“Are you sniffing my pillow?”

Charlie jerks up and sees Dev standing five feet away, hair wet, in a different pair of basketball shorts. “No, I was inspecting your pillow. For… dirt.”

Dev smiles, and something immense shifts inside Charlie’s chest, something he doesn’t understand, something he can’t name.

“Yes, I was sniffing your pillow.”

Dev laughs and comes over to the bed. “You really are kind of a weirdo.”

Charlie opens his legs so his knees can bracket Dev’s knees. “You smell good. That’s hardly my fault.”

Dev’s fingers wind into his hair, and Charlie catches his hand. He kisses the soft skin on the inside of his wrist. Dev pitches forward a little. He looks like he wants to fall into Charlie’s lap again, but then he forces himself not to. Holds back. “We should go to bed.”

“Okay,” Charlie says, and he starts to lie down.

Dev throws his head back and cackles. Charlie didn’t know he was funny until Dev Deshpande started laughing with him. “In separate beds, sir. Come on.”

Charlie lets Dev haul him off the bed and drag him toward the door between their rooms. “Good night, Charlie.”

Charlie looks back at him one last time. “Good night, Dev.”



* * *



“I’m going to kiss you now.”

Angie Griffin leans in close to him on the fainting couch, and Charlie responds (quite composed, he thinks) with, “Cool.”

Cool. It’s totally cool he’s sitting in the parlor of some ridiculous estate outside of New Orleans before a Crowning Ceremony where he’ll send home two more women and keep eight—eight women who theoretically want to marry him. It’s totally cool he has to sit here kissing Angie when all he wants to do is kiss Dev instead. It is totally cool Dev has to stand there watching him kiss Angie. Though he’s not really sure how Dev feels about any of the kissing.

“Cut!” Skylar shouts from the other room, mercifully ending the awkward make-out session. Charlie and Angie both get up off the couch and head toward the main ballroom, where a different camera is filming Parisa.

Apparently, the only way Dev could convince Maureen Scott to let Parisa travel with the show was to have Parisa actually appear on the show. Charlie introduced her as his best friend for the cameras, and before the Crowning Ceremony, she’s supposed to grill all the remaining contestants about their intentions. Parisa is clearly more intimidating than Dev realized, so everyone is regretting the arrangement at this point.

“I said be tough,” Ryan tells Parisa. “I did not say make them cry.”