Microsoft Word - MaximumVelocity.rtf, page 32
“What communiqué?” she asked her heart skipping again in her chest.
“He sent you through a New Reno divorce.”
“Bastard.” Her mind reeled, she touched Devlin’s temple briefly and instantly knew he
was telling her the truth. Despair plunged through her.
“Well, if I was hesitating before in throwing myself into your arms, that won’t be an issue
for me now. I think what Tyler and I had is basically blown to bits.”
Devlin released his hold on her slightly. “I know what it is like to be in a loving
relationship, Samantha, right now you are just confused, and you’re reacting with your hothead
instead of giving it time to digest. You need to sit down and think before you plunge head first
into something you can’t take back. Sleeping with me will destroy your life with Tyler. Even if
Tyler wanted to take you back, I would not let you go.” His eyes blazed with passion. “Once I
taste the forbidden fruit, I will not want to let the apple of my eye go. It won’t be like my
relationship with Johanna. Johanna and I never consummated our relationship. We merely
courted.”
“Courted, how quaint that sounds coming out of someone like you.”
He snorted. “It’s true, we never took our relationship to the next level. True, I was going
after her to get your goat, and yeah, I might have asked her to marry me just to make your head
explode but Johanna and I would have been bad for each other… even though I still care for her,
we would not have worked as spouses.”
Samantha slipped out of his grasp and walked toward the large window. The blackness
of space met her. “I feel like I am lost in space,” she murmured, her heart burning. “I don’t know
if I can ever go back to the way I was with Tyler. His deception ruined what fragile trust I had in
him. I never thought he’d cheat on me, and I never thought he’d be affiliated with the Anasazi
Triad.”
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“You seemed like you adored him above all others.”
“Love can sometimes be an illusion, Dev.” She heard him walking toward her. “Tyler left
me once. He walked away claiming he couldn’t take my dangerous lifestyle, but now I think he
walked away because he couldn’t bear living with me anymore. What if his superiors told him to
ally himself with me by becoming my husband? If it was a carefully plotted ruse,” her voice
cracked. “I am an ass kicking woman but I am not made of steel.”
“I know you are not, Samantha. Who is?” he asked, putting his hand on her lower back.
She trembled at his touch.
“I feel as if I am not only lost in space but that I am standing on the edge of a cliff, and if
I jump I jump toward you, if I stay, I stay rooted to a man I don’t even know anymore. If he
wanted to reconcile in the future I don’t know if I would be open to it, and if I stay the way I am
now, I’ll grow into a bitter woman who resents what she’s become. There is so much I have to
figure out. So much I am not sure of. I do know one thing, Tyler and I are irreparably
damaged—we can never go back, not that I would want to given what’s happened between us.”
He sighed. “I could throttle Tyler right now for you, Samantha. I never really liked him,
and I guess I didn’t hide my dislike. I always felt he was hiding something. I hate to say I was
right especially considering the circumstances.”
“What is done is done. Tyler betrayed me, by not trusting me with the truth. Whatever
his superiors told him, he could have trusted me enough to tell me who he really was! Did Dylan
even know?” She groaned with frustration. “And the biggest damn joke is on me!!! I am
supposed to be charmed. I am supposed to be just like Charlotte but I am bloody useless,” she
screamed, several light bulbs in the room exploded. “And,” she added bitterly, “I am not enough
like Charlotte to suit Tyler’s tastes.” She bunched her hands into tight fists. If Tyler were here in
the room with her right now he would be facing an ever-loving world of hurt.
“Whoa. Settle down, Samantha.” Devlin walked toward her, opening his arms for her.
She jumped back. “Stay where you are until I reign the power back in. I don’t want to hurt you. I
have already screwed up way too much in my life.”
“Since when were you ever concerned about my well being?” he joked, his laughter
growing short and being replaced with concern. “Come here,” he invited. “You were calm before
when I held you. As much as I know you used to hate me....”
“I never hated you,” she admitted, feeling embarrassed at her confession. “If I hated you I
would have found more ways to stay out of your way. I was attracted to you like a moth to a
flame, and I think you always knew that.” She shifted uncomfortably. “We’re ill-matched on the
outside, but....”
“But what?” he prodded.
“On the inside we are the same. We are both haunted by our pasts. We each know what
it’s like to live with a suffocating guilt that nearly consumes us each day.”
She walked toward him. “If I have to walk into the flames I am glad you’re the one that
will make me burn.” She let him fold her into his arms. “You smell pretty good for being through
what we were both through today,” she murmured.
He chuckled. “I bathe regularly and use really good body hygiene products,” he
murmured.
“This could be bigger than the both of us,” she mumbled against his chest. “We are going
to light a fuse on a very big bomb. When Tyler finds out…when my sisters find out....”
“Charlotte already knows,” Devlin muttered. “She was trying her best to keep you from
being burned by me, but with all of her power even she can’t stand in the way of fate. I guess
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she thought she could borrow Tyler but you weren’t supposed to have any fun on the side either.
I don’t know what to make of her, one minute she’s doing all she can to destroy you and the
next, she is being all sisterly with her love and protection. Just know that I am not going to let
you go, Samantha. You’re mine if you stay here with me.”
“I don’t want to be Tyler’s anymore, so that won’t be an issue.”
“Are you sure?” He cupped her face gently with his hands. She had never known that
Devlin could be this tender. She put her hands on his.
“As sure as I could ever be. If you wanted me to, I would readily become the next Lady
Devlin.”
His eyes sparked. “Really?” he asked. “I think I just might have to take you up on that,
Star.”
“Star? That’s a different endearment.”
“You’re my shining beacon. You were the light that pulled me back at my darkest hour,
and I could not have wished for anyone better.”
She thrilled at his words. She’d finally found what she needed. She had finally given
into destiny, shattering the lies that surrounded her for so long. Most would say she was
behaving erratically by jumping so quickly into another man’s arms but she hadn’t really been
Tyler’s for a long time. Even after she’d saved his neck from the gallows there had been an
invisible barrier between them.
“Maybe we never should have reconciled,” she murmured, shoving Tyler to the back of
her mind.
“After this, as I said before you will never be able to reconcile with Tyler. He isn’t your
husband, anymore…not legally, and judging by the ardent fervor in your eyes not emotionally
either. I won’t be your man on the side, Samantha.”
She smiled. “So, let me get this straight, no British beefcake on the side for me, huh? I
guess I’ll just have to settle for you as my main dish. Just don’t think I will change how I react
to you when we are not behind closed doors.”
“Why would I ever think that, Samantha? I know full well you will not change. I just
hope you’ll know that I do not regard you the same way I did before.”
“Let me guess, you used to think I was a cold hearted frigid witch of a bitch.”
He smiled, his hands roaming up and down her back. “I think we’ll have to remove you
of this very bothersome leather coat of yours. Leather might feel sensual to the touch but I want
to feel your skin against mine, I am already half exposed to your eyes.”
Turning away from him, she quickly took off her leather jacket and threw it on the
nearest chair. “I just realized I don’t have any clothes on this ship,” she laughed.
“The Excalibur is close. I will go and get you what you need when you need it.”
“Johanna won’t be happy with me and Charlotte....”
“Since when did you care what others thought of you, Samantha? You told me on more
than one occasion that you didn’t give a rat’s ass what I thought of you.”
“That’s because I didn’t want you thinking of me too much. I was afraid of what it
would lead you to do.”
“If you thought I was turned off by you, Samantha you are sorely mistaken. From the
first time you blew my life apart I was attracted to you. I would have taken you to my bed far
before this, except I don’t think you’d be willing and that doesn’t turn me on.”
She smiled. “You said you would not be my man on the side, well, I won’t be one of your
many women that you run either.”
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His eyes twinkled. “No other woman will share my bed as long as you share it. Why
would I even want to think of any other woman?” His eyes sobered. He kissed her long and
hard, she nipped his lower lip with her teeth.
“We’ll either be each other’s downfall or we will make each other by this union,” he
mused.
She smiled. “Don’t worry, being with me will not ruin you. Let me just call it a hunch.”
“I won’t let you reform me.”
“How ever would I begin to reform such a scoundrel and a rake? You’re as devilish as
they come, Dev. You’re a real bad boy with a true heart of gold. Besides, I always was the bad
girl in the family. I might be worried you’re going to try to reform me. I say things that
shouldn’t be said, I do things that can drive a man wild, and I am addicted to coffee and danger!”
He pulled her shirt out from where it had been tucked into her pants and ran his hands up
underneath it. “You might be a bad girl but you feel so good,” he murmured huskily. He took his
hands and gently undid the hooks of her bra.
The cotton of her shirt rubbed against her naked breasts making her nipples pucker
tightly. She’d already been aroused but now.... He knew just how to push all of the right
buttons. His hands cupped her breasts, and he kneaded them gently making her almost crazy with
pent up desire. “They are like ripe little berries and now I am about to taste the forbidden fruit.
God definitely endowed you with a hefty blessing, Star.”
He kept avoiding the terms sweetheart and darling, and she knew why. “You call me Star
and what do I call you?” her head whirled.
“I call you Star because it’s something I doubt Tyler has ever called you.”
She paused as he kissed the valley between her breasts. “I will just keep calling you
Devlin, then, shall I? You don’t have to concern yourself about calling me sweetheart or darling
as long as you don’t say it in the tone that Tyler said it. Yuck. He always sounded like he
wanted to be somewhere else, I guess he did.” She sighed, the sharp pain of his infidelity searing
her like a hot poker.
He smirked, “Whatever makes you happy and whatever makes you happy makes me
happy.” His tongue swirled around her nipple, his hot licks driving passion through her. She was
almost breathless. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought back to Tyler. She’d given him her
heart and he’d served it right back to her on a silver platter. That bastard would pay. She would
make him pay. He’d never wanted her. When he’d left her once before, she should have let him
go. He’d made a laughingstock out of her. Her marriage coming to an end would probably
make the Ice Comet Tabloids.
Devlin didn’t seem like the sort of man to leave the women he loved. She doubted he
would ever feel that way toward her, but even if he didn’t, she could live with that. In fact, after
tonight, she just might swear off men all together.
As if he sensed her thoughts, he looked up at her with a frown, his eyes swirling with
passion.
“Swearing off men. You?” he laughed, circling his hands around her waist, he brought
her close to him so her breasts pressed against his chest. “I can’t wait to get you totally naked,
and you’re driving me up the wall with passion, but I have to ask.... Why can I sense your
thoughts?” Her heart slammed down in her gut. A smuggled sob escaped her.
“I was always afraid of this.” She drew in a deep shattering breath.
“Afraid of what? If you’re afraid of me, I can still walk away without too much difficulty,
granted I will need an extremely cold shower, I realize I come with a lot of baggage and our age
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difference might scare you.”
“It’s not the age difference, it’s not your baggage…I mean, I always thought I would
spend my life with a man who wasn’t an intergalactic crime lord, but hey, you can’t always pick
the cards fate deals you. Two days ago, I believed I was with the man who made me complete. I
never wondered why he couldn’t sense my thoughts when we made love. I never wondered why
he could leave me so easily. When I was running to save Tyler I sensed him but not like I should
have sensed him. I never believed in the tales, but with you, you’re a game changer. You’re
making myth a reality.”
“Okay, I am a little lost here, your thoughts are so wild and random.”
“You won’t want to know what I have to tell you. You’ll be repulsed no doubt. I sort of
understand that I am just a conquest. Fucking me is one hell of a notch on your bedpost and I
admit, I would love to screw you as well, I think we’d be wicked together, but there’s still time
for you to escape everything that will happen if you do actually join with me.”
“By joining you mean intercourse, right?” he asked.
She nodded her head, “Yes. Already the connection between us is being forged, you can
sense my thoughts, you saw my pain when I saved you from the telepaths, but if you stay with
me, we will be linked until one of us dies, maybe even beyond death. I have never really put
much research into how the dynamic between someone like me and her twin heart works.”
“Twin heart?”
“Soul mate. That’s why you can hear my thoughts. You’ll always be able to if I want
you to and when we’re aroused like this, not only will my body be exposed to you but my mind
and soul will be as well!”
“Heavy,” he said dryly. “From lukewarm enemies to lovers in one fell swoop.
Interesting.”
“Tell me now if you want to run. I won’t hold it against you.”
“If I run will you ever find anyone else who can do what I can do with you?”
“If you mean have sex with me, probably. If you mean make passionate love to me in the
only way you would be able to—no. No one could take your place. This is why I have
continually pushed you away. I suspected it, I knew it as soon as we locked gazes, and I lived in
fear of it. If I hadn’t had Tyler in my life…if you hadn’t been involved with Johanna when we’d
first met. But then, come to think of it, you weren’t really involved with her at that point. You’d
only met her the day before. When you saw me, we both felt the fireworks and when I brushed
you off, you continued to pursue, Johanna. I couldn’t let you do that, could I?”
“That’s why you broke Johanna and me up.”
She let out a frustrated cry. He was right. “I had to break the two of you up. I knew she
wasn’t meant to be yours and I knew Dylan was meant to be hers. I am sorry. I am so sorry for
