impatient gesture and smiled. In her way, she’d loved Zach. He’d given her what she’d wanted and cared about most. Money and position. Their child.
“How’s Tiffany?” she asked her old teacher. She really didn’t worry about her daughter. She knew Zach would take care of her, but she missed her baby. Death changed a lot of things, but it didn’t change that.
“She’s well.”
The Escalade pulled up to a curb, and Zach got out and walked to the front door of a condo. He knocked, the door opened, and what’s-her-name stood in the threshold wearing what looked like a black slip that hugged her body. Devon gasped as Zach stepped inside and wrapped her in his arms.
“Oh hell, no! This can’t be happening.” Death changed a lot of things, but not a strong emotion like hatred. She watched Zach devour the woman’s mouth. Over the course of their ten-year marriage, he’d been with other women. She’d known and hadn’t cared. The day she’d decided to move back to Cedar Creek while he had to live in Denver, she’d known he’d fill his needs with someone else. She’d expected him to, and as long as he avoided getting caught in a sex scandal, she was happy with the arrangement. He could sleep with whomever he wanted—except
“How did this happen?” Devon stepped forward and waved her arms and hands until the image dispersed.
“Every date she’d gone on for the last three years has kept her single.”
“Why hasn’t the curse—or gift, I mean—worked on Zach?”
The old teacher shrugged. “God works in mysterious ways. Perhaps it is fate.”
“So they’re together?”
“The relationship is new, but yes. In part due to you. If not for your hand in things, she might have married someone else.”
Devon folded her arms across her suit. This could not be happening. Some people didn’t understand what it was like to have things that belonged to you taken away. To watch your momma’s car repossessed, your furniture removed, and your house foreclosed. Her momma’s second husband had cleaned out her bank account, and they’d lost everything. Like beggars, they lived off the kindness of relatives until Momma had found a rich man to marry and replaced it all. Devon had hated living like that, but she’d learned a valuable lesson. Win at all costs and don’t let anyone or anything take what belongs to you.
Ever.
“You said I’ve earned another gift.” She unfolded her arms. “Right?”
“Yes, but you don’t have to use it on the woman you wronged this time. That wrong has been corrected, and you can use this gift to serve mankind. You can do wonderful things. Help end poverty or aid in the research to find cures for diseases. I suggest you use this gift for the greater good.”
Greater-schmater.
She’d never listened to Mrs. Highbarger, and she wasn’t about to start now. There was one thing to do. One thing that Zach had always resented and hated her for. One thing he would hate what’s her-name for, too. She closed her eyes, and said, “There. It’s done.”
Mrs. Highbarger shook her head, highly disappointed yet again. “You still don’t learn,” she said, as her image began to shimmer.
“She can’t have him!” Devon hollered. “What’s her-name was always jealous of me. In the sixth grade, she took Tinkerbell away from me. Then she tried to take Zach, but he was mine!”
As before, the teacher took a step back through sliding glass doors that suddenly appeared. The doors whooshed closed, and the gray mist formed solid walls. Devon’s skin tingled as her beautiful Chanel suit warped and faded into a horrible polyester floral-print dress with a big lace collar. The hem hit her just below the knee and she looked like an escapee from 1983.
She looked beyond racks of clothes, shelves of towels and sheets, to a big wall of automotive tools. “Where the hell am I?”
A gentleman with a friendly smile and the name Norman sewn above the pocket of his polo walked toward her.
“Hello,” he said. “Welcome to Sears. Home of fine Craftsman Tools.”
Chapter 12
Zach lifted his face and watched Adele’s eyes turn a shade darker. “Are you going to invite me in?”
She nodded and took a step back into the house. “Did you win your game?”
“Yes.” He followed.
“What was the score?”
“I don’t know.” He brought his mouth back down to her soft lips. He tried to keep it gentle, to ease into it, but Adele wasn’t playing around. The kiss she gave him sucked away any thought of gentleness. It was all slick tongues and carnal implications. Which was fine with him. Sometimes you had to go at it hot and hard and get the first one out of the way.
He kicked her front door shut and brought her body against his, so close he felt the imprint of her against his chest. Her hands slid over his arms and back, greedy as if she couldn’t get enough. He liked knowing he did that to her. God knows he couldn’t get enough of her.
He’d left her at four that morning, and sixteen hours later, here he was again, back for more. He’d driven like a madman from Amarillo to get to her, and he hadn’t even known if she wanted to see him.
Her hand slid down his waist to the front of his pants. She squeezed his erection and caressed him through the denim. Desire, hot and gripping, tightened his scrotum, and he had to lock his knees to keep from falling.
He lifted his face and came up for air. “I couldn’t stay away.”
“I’d hoped you’d stop by. I went to the E-Z Mart.” She slid two fingers inside the top of her slip and pulled out a condom wrapped in black plastic. “When I set the box of magnums on the counter, the clerk’s eyes bugged out of her head.”
God, he loved that she was prepared. He took the condom from her and stuck it in his back pocket. “What would you have done if I hadn’t shown up?”
“Tracked you down.” She pulled his green-and-black sweatshirt over his head and reached for his belt. “I don’t have your phone number, so I couldn’t call and ask you to come over.”
“We’ll fix that.” He grasped the bottom of the little black slip she wore and drew it up to her waist. “Later.” His hands found her bottom covered in the small silk panties. As she pulled at his belt, he lowered his face to the curve of her neck and opened his mouth against her soft skin. “I like this.” She smelled of flowers and he kissed his way across the top lace of her slip.
“I bought it this afternoon. It’s sexier than the old T-shirt.”
“I like the T-shirt.” He grabbed her wrists to keep her frantic hands from finishing things before they started and pinned them behind her. “Not so fast.” Her back arched, and he buried his face in her cleavage. He rubbed his cheek against her breasts and sucked her hard nipples through the slick, silky fabric. He loved her breasts. In his hands. Mouth. Against his chest.
“Let go. I want to touch you.” She fought against his grasp, but he wasn’t ready for her to touch him. Not ready for it to be over. He might not remember a book he’d once given her, but he remembered this. At least his body did. He felt twenty-two again. As if they were picking up exactly where they’d left off.
He let her wrists go, and she reached for the front of his pants. She pulled and unzipped and shoved her hand inside. Her soft palm wrapped around his dick, and he nearly lost control before he was inside her.
“Baby, you have to slow down.” He turned her and pulled her back into his chest.
“No,” she whispered, raised her hands, and brought his mouth down to her. “Later.”
She gave him a long wet kiss, drawing out his will to slow anything down. He loved the way she touched him. How she let him know how much she wanted him. He’d been with women who’d done anything and everything to fuck a football player, and he could always tell if a woman was feeling it or just trying to impress him. Adele wasn’t
