Immortal (Fallen Angels #6)(39)
Author: J.R. Ward

Jim didn’t even glance his way. Probably best. The fucker’s stare seemed to have become weaponized.

“So Sissy and I are going to Home Depot.”

“Now?”

“No. Next month.” Ad got to his feet. “Of course now. You want to stay here and watch the traps—”

“I’m coming, too.”

Jim headed for the door at a stalk and let the thing slam behind him. He even left his coffee behind, which was going to improve his mood even more, no doubt.

“Fantastic,” Ad muttered. “Soooo lookin’ forward to being in an enclosed space with you two. Hashtag ‘awesome.’”

Chapter Nineteen

“Devina, I want to support you in whatever way I can. But it’s a challenge when you won’t speak.”

As Devina sat on her therapist’s oatmeal-colored sofa, she figured that the woman had a point. Humans couldn’t read minds, after all. But shit, where to start.

“Is it a setback with your job?” the therapist murmured. “I know you said that that colleague of yours was trying to undermine you when it came to the Vice Presidency position. Or is it an issue with the man you’ve mentioned?”

Ah, yes, a happy reminder of how much she’d had to keep to herself to avoid blowing that little master’s-of-social-work-level brain to smithereens: Devina had turned the war into a promotion at a corporation, and Jim into a competing VP. Then, when things between her and the savior had gotten hot and heavy, she’d switched over to something closer to the truth.

That Jim was a love interest that was not going as well as she’d hoped.

“You know, this is the first time I’ve seen you like this.”

Devina cleared her throat. “Silent, huh.”

“No, without makeup. You’re quite beautiful without all of the so-called enhancements. Have you ever contemplated going without it on a regular basis?”

Devina touched her face. “I guess I forgot to put any on.”

“Your hands are bandaged. Did you hurt yourself?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to know how, Devina. I want to help you.”

God, the woman’s voice was as soothing as a gentle hug, the kind of thing that made you want to pour your heart out, even if it wasn’t in your nature.

“I had an accident. All over everything I own.”

The woman’s eyebrows lifted in her well-padded face. Today she was wearing yet another loose getup, with a skirt that fell to the floor and a blouse that probably had been part of a tent in an earlier life. Everything was in muted shades of brown, just like the office walls, the rug, the couch, the pair of reading glasses around her neck. Even the box of Kleenex was the color of a macaroon.

It was like a sepia photograph.

Although the beach wood pieces were more seventies than suffrage when it came to era.

“…what happened? Devina?”

Devina refocused on the woman. “You don’t know who I really am.”

“I don’t?” The therapist smiled a little. “You’d be surprised how much I know about you.”

Uh-huh. Right. “I don’t … love people. I’m not built like that.”

“But you have love inside of you.” As Devina started to argue, the therapist shook her head. “No, you love your things—you care for them, keep them safe, worry about them. It’s not healthy, and there’s an addiction component to it all, but you do have the capacity to bond. Unfortunately, you choose things because they’re safer—that is understandable, though. Inanimate objects don’t do unexpected things or break your heart or betray you. Objects are safe. People are complicated.”

Well, yeah, Devina thought. But she also wasn’t into the hearts-and-flowers shit because she was evil, hello.

“He loves someone else,” she blurted.

“This man of yours?”

“The one I’m in love with … yes, he loves someone else. But he is mine. He’s supposed to be mine, not hers.”

“The two of you are in a relationship?”

“Very much so.”

The therapist nodded. “And you feel that he’s been unfaithful?”

“He’s now living with someone else. I mean, I was with him when he met her. I just never expected…” She pushed her hair back. “Here’s the thing, it’s like, he and I have this romantic night down at the Freidmont, right? And it’s all amazing. The best sex we’ve ever had.” Jim had fucked her so hard from behind that her forehead had left a bald patch on the rug at the foot of the bed. “But the morning after? He goes home to her. Leaves me, and goes home … to her. And I’m telling you, it’s not like she’s attractive. My God, she’s built like a Ticonderoga pencil. Flat. So flat, and that hair? Please. I’ve seen rat fur with better body. It’s downright embarrassing that he could actually be attracted to her.”

“Did you have an understanding that you were in a monogamous relationship with each other?”

“Of course.” How could he want anyone but her? “We’re in love.”

“But he’s seeing this other woman.”

“Yes.”

“So what happened that prompted you to call? You just said you’d had an ‘accident’ all over your things?”

Devina fought the urge to break down as she pictured the mess of her basement. “It was bad enough that he was with her after we had our special night. But then I totally put myself on the line for him. I broke some major rules to save his … job.”

“Are we talking corporate mandates, or state and local laws?”

She guessed the Creator’s rules and regs were more like the feds’. “Pretty high-level laws. I saved his job for him—and then I watched as he went to her right in front of me and…”

Okay, she totally didn’t want to think about Sissy and Jim getting all reeeeeeeunited and it feeeeeeels so gooooood after he’d come back from Purgatory.

Fucking hell, she was going to be sick.

“Does she work in this company, too?”

“How can he do this to me?” Devina muttered.

“You know, I think it might be more productive to focus on yourself and where you want to go from here. You can’t control him or his choices. All you can do is take care of yourself and put your needs first. At the end of the day, people have to earn the right to be in your life, and it sounds as if he’s not doing that. It may be a healthier option to avoid contact with him and reassess the relationship. With distance comes perspective.”