Page 20
Story: Accidentally Vacationed with an Incubus (Briar Coven #2)
We were laughing so hard that the cabin door swung open before we even reached it, revealing a very startled BooDini standing at the threshold to welcome us back.
It felt like it took forever to close the last few steps to the cabin, the two of us doubled over in laughter, leaning against each other for support to keep from collapsing entirely.
Every time Devlin managed to catch his breath, my giggles would set him off again, sending us both spiraling into another round of helpless laughter.
By the time we finally stumbled inside and flung ourselves onto the couch, my sides ached, my face hurt from smiling, and my lungs burned from lack of air.
It had been so long since I’d genuinely laughed like this.
Despite the almost debilitating pain of my long-unused laughter muscles, something inside me felt.
.. freer. Like a weight I hadn’t even realized I was carrying had been lifted, leaving my chest lighter, my breath coming easier—figuratively, if not literally.
“I haven’t laughed like that in what feels like forever ,” Devlin said, mirroring my thoughts as he clutched his sides.
With some effort, I shifted on the couch to face him.
The first time I’d seen Devlin had been in the bath. Head tilted back, eyes fluttering beneath heavy lids, his lip caught between his teeth in pleasure as he jerked himself off. Surprised as I’d been in that moment, I had thought he was the most handsome man I had ever laid eyes on.
But as he lounged on the couch, head tipped back, the corners of his eyes still crinkled with laughter, his lips shifting between a wide grin and a sharp hiss whenever the stitch in his side twinged—I genuinely couldn’t decide which version of him was more attractive.
He exhaled deeply before tilting his head toward me, his golden eyes darkening slightly. “Are you ready for the next scene?” he asked, his voice unreadable.
For a split second, my throat closed up, and I almost responded with a completely undignified, off guard, squeaky retort, but I was saved by the sudden thud of my two notebooks materializing onto the coffee table.
The battered, old one with the original draft, and the newer one, where I’d rewritten everything up to this scene.
“Appreciate it, BooDini,” Devlin said as BooDini hovered eagerly beside him. Devlin picked up the second draft, flipping it open before glancing at me. “Mind if I take a quick skim through it?”
Heat flared in my cheeks, and for a split second, I was tempted to tell him no , because the thought of Devlin reading just how much sexual tension I had layered into the story was mortifying.
Tension that hadn’t been there before. Tension that was a direct result of what he had made me feel last night.
But another part of me wanted him to read it. To see if he could read between the lines and realize that it wasn’t Kieran I’d been thinking about while writing. It was him.
Swallowing hard, I nodded and settled in, watching his reaction very carefully.
Devlin flipped through the pages with ease, quickly finding the chapter.
His eyes skimmed the text at first, scanning over the familiar words, until his pace slowed, his focus sharpening as he began to read in earnest. He was so completely absorbed that his reactions were surprisingly easy to read.
I watched as his eyebrows lifted when he reached the new paragraphs, his nostrils flaring slightly, his bottom lip catching on one of his canines as he read through Mina’s inner thoughts as Kieran pinned her to the wall.
Then came the huff of laughter when he reached the part where Mina used a tickling charm to repel Kieran—reducing the rough, dominant alpha into a reluctant, giggling mess.
Devlin smirked, finally looking up. “Nice touch with the tickling charm,” he said. “ Very relatable.”
“Do you like it?” I asked, my initial embarrassment overshadowed by my eagerness for his opinion.
Devlin’s lips quirked into a grin. “I love it.”
And, yeah , my heart might have skipped a beat at the enthusiasm in his voice.
“If we can get the rest of the intimate scenes up to this standard,” he continued, “you’d have a real shot at making it onto the #IReadItBeforeItWasFamous shelf.”
“You really think so?”
Devlin met my gaze, his expression serious. “Jen, take it from a demon who has read a lot of smut in his time— Dean is going to love it. ”
A smile broke across my face before I could stop it, warmth flooding my chest.
“Let me just go over the scene we’re about to do,” Devlin said, grabbing the first draft and flipping through the pages until he found the right spot.
BooDini hovered over his shoulder, its sheet-like form crumpling slightly in deep concentration.
Then, suddenly, its cutout eyes widened, and if bedsheets could blush, BooDini would have been bright red.
With a silent gasp, it clapped its tiny ghostly hands to its cheeks in pure shock before swiftly gliding past us and fleeing up the stairs.
I didn’t hear the attic door squeak shut, which meant that—despite its obvious embarrassment—BooDini was still loitering on the landing above, likely making sure everything stayed aboveboard before it truly left us alone.
“So... what’s the, uh, plan?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
Devlin clicked his tongue thoughtfully against the roof of his mouth before replying.
“I was thinking you could hide behind that armchair and pretend to be Mina. She thinks she’s found a secluded spot to, uh.
.. relieve her building tensions.” He hesitated, then quickly added, “You don’t have to actually reenact that part.
” The nervous chuckle that followed made me highly suspicious that he wouldn’t have minded at all if I did.
“And then we’ll switch to Kieran’s point of view.
I’ll storm in from the kitchen, acting as if I just can’t get you—I mean, Mina —out of my head.
And then,” he continued, “I can use a teaching aid to, you know... help you visualize how he would go about... relieving his tensions.”
“A... teaching aid?”
“Yeah,” Devlin said, getting to his feet and disappearing into the kitchen. A moment later, he returned with a banana in his hand. He held it up. “ Teaching aid. ”
To say I was disappointed is an understatement.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to scramble for the right words to ask Devlin if he would please consider just dropping his pants and fisting his cock in front of me again, because at that exact moment, the banana vanished with a pop .
Devlin frowned, glancing around in confusion.
I, on the other hand, flicked my gaze up the stairs and immediately caught BooDini’s eye.
I tipped my head in silent thanks before turning my attention back to Devlin, who had given up on locating the missing banana.
Instead, he reached for the remote to the TV that had been stolen over a decade ago, only for his fingers to grasp at nothing as it disappeared into the ether.
A rapid-fire series of pops echoed through the cabin as everything with even the remotest resemblance to a phallic shape vanished one by one.
The final pop rang out, and a box of tissues materialized on the coffee table beside my notebooks.
Devlin exhaled sharply, rubbing his temples. “I’m not much of a mime,” he muttered, shaking his head. “This is going to be difficult without something to hold on to.”
I sucked in a breath. “I mean, if you’re comfortable with it, I don’t mind if you.
.. you know... actually do it.” Devlin’s bourbon eyes flicked toward me, unreadable.
“I mean, I’ve already accidentally caught you, so, like, I’ve already seen—” Oh my Gods, stop talking.
Mercifully, I managed to shut myself up before the verbal trainwreck could get any worse, finishing the disaster with a weak, “But, um, only if you’re comfortable with it. ”
Devlin tilted his head, watching me for a moment. Then, with a small, knowing smirk, he said, “Jen, I’m an incubus demon. I’m comfortable with it. But only if you’re comfortable.”
“I’m comfortable with it,” I blurted, probably with way too much enthusiasm, and I had the painful realization that we had both severely overused the word comfortable in what was possibly the most uncomfortable conversation ever.
A beat of silence passed.
“Okay,” he said finally. “We’re both comfortable with it. I guess I’ll, erm... go into the kitchen and get into Kieran’s mindset.”
“And I will just”—I shot to my feet, sidestepping behind the armchair—“pretend to be Mina and hide behind this armchair until you’re ready.”
“Uh-huh,” Devlin murmured, eyeing me before awkwardly making his way into the kitchen.
As I hunkered down behind the armchair, deliberately thinking about anything other than touching myself like Mina was supposed to, I heard the attic door squeak shut. BooDini, evidently not wanting to witness the results of its own meddling, had finally retreated.
A full three minutes passed in silence.
Without warning, Devlin stormed out of the kitchen so abruptly that I had to physically swallow back a yelp of surprise.
His brows were furrowed deeply, his jaw tight with frustration as he stalked up and down the living room, pacing like a caged predator.
With a sharp exhale, he dropped onto the couch so forcefully that it squeaked backward a few inches.
Devlin clamped his eyes shut, tilting his head back as he crossed his arms tightly over his stomach, letting out an exasperated breath through gritted teeth.
His entire body was wound tight, his knuckles white from how hard his fists were clenched, as if he knew that if he relaxed them, his hands would betray him—would seek the release he was desperately trying to resist.
Then, his stomach let out a loud, hollow growl. A thought flashed through my mind— Was Devlin actually... hungry?
But before I could dwell on it, all sensible thought left me.
Table of Contents
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- Page 20 (Reading here)
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