006: jealous man

Allera's POV

"Did you have a fling with him?"

"Daphne, get back inside. You're naked."

"Nothing my neighbours haven't seen." She grabs my arm and spins me around. "Can we talk about Niko? The last thing I'd want is to fuck my sister's ex."

"Leave me alone."

"Allera! For heavens sake! Talk to me. You've been acting weird all day!"

"Like you care." I scoff, shaking her off. "Don't wait up for me and please, go back to what you were doing."

She opens her mouth then closes it. Her eyes harden and she glared at me. "Fine! Keep it all to yourself! Don't talk to anyone. Let it eat you up till you fucking drop!"

Her words sting a sensitive part of me. A part I didn't think existed anymore.

Tears mist my eyes and I clamp my teeth down on my lower lip till I taste copper. "Fuck you, Daphne."

"Fuck you too! You cold-hearted bitch! Urgh. Why do I even bother with you!"

A movement up ahead makes me look up. Niko stands outside the door, shirt undone, eyes sly as he stares at me.

My hands tremble with the desire to march up to him, and punch his stupid face. Hastily, I turn and keep walking till I'm out in the street. Daphne screams curses at me till I'm gone. I jump into the first cab I see.

"Take me to a bar. Anyone close by. " I say, biting back tears.

The ride is a long one. The bar is one of the high end ones, with low lighting and men in expensive suits nursing their alcohol.

"I need a private suite." I say to the bartender, my voice tight. "Now. And drinks, a lot of them. All your expensive wines."

"O-okay Miss. Right this way."

Once I'm inside the private bar, I feel every emotion I've bottled inside me explode.

I reach for the first bottle, a red wine I can't be bothered to read the label of, and chug down half of it. Some of it spills down my lips.

I've never been a heavy drinker. I did enjoy a sake drinking game with Grandpa Kazuo, but that was years ago. The alcohol burns my throat. The burn moves to my eyes. Soon, I'm bawling my heart out.

Who am I kidding?! I don't want an open marriage! I want Carter to be mine and mine alone!

It was one thing to know Niko was a fling of Carter's. Now each time I look at Daphne, I'm going to see him.

My stomach starts to hurt, phantom pains from earlier today. The tears come harder. I recall the hospital, the doctor's grim face as she listed out all the complications, all the things I'll never be able to do again. "It'll be hard, Mrs Stein. Not impossible, but greatly difficult." The one thing I wanted more than anything....gone. Forever. I needed Carter. I needed the love of my life. And he was...

I reach for the bottle again. My hand shakes, I end up knocking it on the ground.

That's the last straw.

I collapse over the table, my body trembling with sobs, tremors that shake the sturdy glass table. I can't recognise my own voice. There's no way the anguished cries of pain filling the air belong to me.

Time doesn't feel real. I don't know how long I spend crying. I do know the exact moment I wasn't alone in the suite.

I lift my head, wiping my eyes before I look up. "You've got to be shitting me."

Devon Sinclair stands before me, hair messy, eyes a cool steely gray. "What are you doing? This is my private suite."

I get up to leave. "Sorry. I didn't know."

"I didn't say you could leave."

I turn to him. I know I look like a hot mess right now, but that's the least of my worries. It's not like I'll see him again. With a soft sigh, I sit back down and grab another bottle of wine.

"If you're crying this much over him, then just throw him out." Devon plucks the bottle from my hands and pours me a glass. "You do have great taste in drinks after all. Not that watered down shit."

"What makes you think I'm crying over a man?" I grumble, snatching the bottle from him. "I'm crying for my future."

"Future," He chuckles, sitting close to me. "Right."

"I mean it. It's not because of him, he can go to hell." I don't mean it. "I needed him. I came home, cut open, missing an organ, and bleeding. And what was he doing?!"

"You had surgery? And he wasn't there?" Devon's thick brows knit together. "Are you okay? Should you even be drinking?"

I chug down some wine stubbornly. "I'm fine. And he didn't even care! What surgery did I have? He didn't care! He just opens his big, stupidly beautiful mouth and goes 'let's open our marriage'."

Devon raises a brow. "Stupidly beautiful mouth?"

I choose to ignore that. "Guess what? The same guy that was fucking him, is also fucking my sister!"

"Damn." He looks shocked.

"I know right?! It's crazy! What the fuck are they even on?! I keep thinking, If I had died on that operating table, how long do you think it'd take before he noticed?"

He shrugs, sipping his wine. "Two weeks?"

"That makes me feel even worse!"

"I don't say anything to make anyone feel better, Miss Akiyama. I have this small curse, I can only speak the truth."

I roll my eyes and slam my back into the couch. "Liar."

How I went from crying my heart out to blurting my life to a stranger in five minutes is what I can't understand.

"You're still in love with him." Devon says quietly. "It's all over your face."

I don't reply. My heart folds in on itself. It doesn't take a night to get over a love I've had for years.

"So, is this why you shamelessly asked me to be your rebound? To get back at your husband? Make him jealous?"

I chuckle. "Carter is the least jealous person I know. He won't even care. A plot to make him jealous? It will backfire like crazy."

"You're wrong."

I turn to him. My breath vaporises as I'm face to face with him. He leans in, so close I can taste the expensive wine we just shared on his breath. I gasp, leaning back, but he's faster. He grabs my hip and yanks me closer till I'm sitting in his lap.

"What are—"

"Men are very simple creatures, Allera. I can prove it to you that your husband is a very jealous man."

He says it with such conviction, like he knows Carter personally. And he way he says my name...fuck. My pussy flutters around nothing.

I swallow, my throat drier than the dessert. "How?"

His hands on my hips move higher, he leans back, spreading his legs and allowing me to sink into him. He smells so good, warmth practically bleeding from him. I bite back a soft sigh as my clothes pussy brushed against the front of his pants

Fuck. He's hard.

"Take your phone out." His voice is low command, one that rumbles in the pit of my stomach.

I do as he says, my hands trembling as I unlock my phone.

"Take a picture. A provocative one."

My eyes widen. "W-what?"

"Go on. I'm giving you permission to use me. For tonight only."

I bite my lower lip. My heart thuds erratically, like it wants to explode.

Permission to use me. The way he says it sounds so fucking sexy.

I adjust my hips to get a good angle and he groans, his grip on my waist tightening. "Careful now, pretty. I still don't fuck married women."

"Yet you're painfully hard for one." I shoot back, opening my camera.

He grins, flashing those pearly fangs. "Don't tempt me now,"

I hold my phone up, making sure my face shows but his doesn't, just the cut of his sharp jaw. He moves, his face squished into my chest. His hands move, gripping my body possessively. My short gown rides up my thighs, just a sexy flash of my underwear showing.

I've never done anything like this before! I'm so scared ...but I'm so excited!

"Send it to him. No text. No context."

Nodding, I send the picture to Carter.

Devon's lips press into my neck, right over my pulse, soft and hot. I shiver, gasping softly. I don't push him away. If anything, I tilt my head back. "It won't...it won't work. He won't even—"

My phone starts to ring, cutting me off. It's a video call from Carter.

Devon chuckles, a devilish sound "Hook. Line. Fucking sinker."