Law #2: Don't Play with a Player: A Sweet Office Romance Story (Laws of Love) by Agnes Canestri (web ebook reader .txt) 📕

While we sip our cocktails, are all we could have hoped for—pink and gloriously yummy—I tell Ellie everything about our hot tea incident.

Well, everything except the wild fantasies her brother’s shirtless sight unleashed in me.

Ellie nods as she listens, clicking her tongue once or twice.

I recite the exchange Devon and I had about true love, and as I get to the point I’d wish to change the most, she claps her hands.

“Ah, still Morgan. I can’t believe this. She might’ve been the homecoming queen, but she was such a tart. I could never understand what my brother saw in her.”

Morgan?

Long slender legs, thick blond mane, and perfectly sculpted porcelain-doll features pop into my mind, together with a taunting smile and extravagant zebra coat.

I met the woman who destroyed Devon’s faith in true love, and I didn’t even realize it.

“Did they split a long time ago?” I inquire.

“Yep.” Ellie sighs. “Just when Devon started his company. I guess he has Morgan to thank, partially, for Hudson Communications. After they broke up, Devon started to focus only on work. He didn’t go out, and he didn’t date. His dedication paid off, because in less than a year his company booked the first big client.”

Didn’t go out and didn’t date?

This doesn’t sound like Devon.

Ellie points at my wrinkled forehead. “I can see you’re second-guessing me. Do you happen to be an avid tabloid reader?”

Wow, Ellie is pretty good at reading minds.

Since I’m busted, I have no other choice but to tell the truth. “Avid? Absolutely not. But my roomie is. Thus I’ve seen my share of articles about Devon. Also, your brother told me he only enjoys relationships as long as there are no strings attached.”

“That’s what my brother wants everyone to believe—even himself. For the first two years after Morgan, Devon worked like a madman. I feared he would become a workaholic and suffocate himself in his career. So, when Pete convinced Devon to start clubbing with him, I was glad. I hoped Devon would meet a girl who would break Morgan’s curse. But instead, my stupid brother developed a taste for the womanizing lifestyle and began equating relationships to few-nights-stands.”

Morgan’s image in my head gets enriched with a magic wand. I see her place the jinx of “no-love” on Devon.

“What did Morgan do?” I ask.

Ellie purses her lips and takes another sip from her pink beverage. “Mhmm, this is delicious.”

She gives a thumbs up to the bartender who’s been throwing admiring glances at her. The man’s face drifts into a grimace of joy.

Ellie pivots back to me. She smooths her cocktail napkin carefully with her free hand, then places her glass on the counter. “Morgan cheated on Devon. When Devon found out, he broke up with her, dropped out of college, and began working full time on his own company.”

“Cheated? Oh, that must have been awful,” I say with more emotion in my voice than I’m comfortable revealing.

Ellie throws me an appraising glance. “It makes you see Devon under a different light, doesn’t it?”

Despite my best effort to keep up a barrier against Devon, another stone loosens in my heart’s wall. How can I blame him for his disillusioned view of love after what he’s been through?

My compassion for him gives my brain permission to release some suppressed thoughts. Thoughts that make my breathing grow shallow.

I reach for my glass and drain my cocktail, hoping the sweet liquid will wash away my previous misconceptions about Devon and the mushy sensations currently brewing in my stomach.

It doesn’t quite manage to do that, but somehow the agreeable warmth of alcohol spreading into my belly makes me feel better.

Ellie watches me with narrowed eyes. “You were thirsty, huh? Shall I order us another round?”

Her cocktail is still half-full, but I could use another of these delicious pink miracles.

An unexpected giggle jumps from my throat. “Oh, I’d love that.”

Ellie grins and stands up. Instead of waving to the bartender, she walks over to him, probably to motivate him a little.

While she’s gone, I close my eyes and enjoy the woozy but pleasant sensation of weightlessness that settles around my toes and fingertips.

I’ve never been one to hold my liquor, never even practiced it much, to be honest. The one time I had three glasses of sweet sherry on a New Year’s Eve, I only felt sluggish and sleepy.

Now, however, my facials muscles are prone to smiling without any conscious effort. The tip of my nose feels like it doesn’t belong to my body, and I find it extremely funny.

Maybe tonight could become a fun experience after all.

Who would have thought so, after my hot tea fiasco?

The image of a shirtless Devon comes back to me, and the cocktail must have brought down all my healthy defenses, because I don’t discard the vision.

I let the memory of his muscles linger in my mind and create a never felt buzz in my chest. I don’t chide myself for it, just let it stir up all that it wishes, while a delightful smile spreads on my lips.

Chapter 26

(Devon)

Jimmy greets me backstage with a wide grin. “Dev, thanks so much for jumping in for Harry. You’ve no idea how tough it is to get a pianist as good as you on short notice.”

I smile at the chubby, round-faced man who, as always, wears a black shirt with the club logo embroidered on his chest.

“No problem, Jim. You know I like to help whenever I can.”

To be honest, I was more than happy to leave Ellie and Laia alone for a while. I wouldn’t be great company to the girls anyhow. My chat with Laia put me into too much of a grim mood for that.

Jimmy scratches his thick, white beard, which I know he keeps growing, despite his wife’s sheer dislike of hairy men, to honor his favorite baritone saxophonist. “But it’s such a special evening for you. I hate to tear you away from your lovely companion. She does have something of Magos Herrera’s charm, doesn’t