Inheriting Miss Fortune Bonus Scene

I recommend reading this short after finishing Inheriting Miss Fortune. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Dev – That Night Two Years Ago

Katie and I sat side by side on her back patio as the sun dropped low behind the house next door. When she’d told me she was having friends over for a cookout, I’d wondered if she was trying to distract herself from nerves about our medical appointments in the morning or celebrate the next step in her dream of being a mother. 

I still wasn’t sure, but either way, it was nice being with her again.  

Over the laughter and easy chatter of the other party guests, an old Beatles song followed a reggae tune on the wireless speakers, and I laughed softly at Katie’s eclectic music taste.

“You’re so strange,” I told her.

“Nothing new there.” Her dimple popped as she grinned at me. “I put this on the playlist for you. The entire thing is a low-key homage to what you’re doing for me, Dev. I can’t thank you enough.”

My ears picked up the lyrics about getting by with a little help from friends, and I rolled my eyes. “Please. I’ll never be able to repay you for helping me get into Yale—with a scholarship, no less—so can we please stop?”

“Fair enough.” She nudged my shoulder with hers. “We haven’t talked—really talked—in a while. How are things with your parents? Have they gotten their heads out of their—”

“No,” I interrupted. The guilt and regret that were my constant companions these days churned in my gut and left a sour taste in my mouth. “Nothing’s new there, either.” I cleared my throat. “Tell me how things are going at your firm. Is your fancy law career all you thought it would be?”

The light floral scent of her perfume wafted through the warm spring evening, and she allowed the subject change with her usual easy grace. “It’s great. Really great. My work is challenging and fun, and I’ve met some amazing people. In fact, I want you to meet my work husband. He’s—oh! There he is.” She waved her hand as a man stepped out the back door of the house. “Tully, come here and meet Dev!”

The man lifted his eyes from the stone pavers, and I felt like I’d been struck with a two-by-four right in the chest. Light blue-green eyes met mine. One of his dark eyebrows quirked up in the middle like he was asking a question. His lips were full and peachy pink, and I wondered idly if he’d swiped on lip balm before coming to Katie’s party.

He wore salmon-colored khaki pants with a plain white T-shirt that looked deliberately faded and worn as if made that way by a designer brand. His bare feet were visible in brown leather flip-flops, and my stomach did a funny little twist at the sight of his second toe sticking out a bit further than his big toe.

I swallowed and glanced back up at his face in time to see him raise that quirky eyebrow in amusement. Heat flooded my face.

“Tully, you remember me mentioning my high school bestie, right?” She beamed and set a hand on my shoulder. “This is Dev.”

The man—Tully—gave me a warm, friendly smile and offered his hand to shake. “Nice to meet you.”

Caught up in those eyes, I wanted badly to say something suave and memorable.

“Uh. I… Uh… yeah. Hi.” As I shook his hand, I felt my face getting hot. 

Great, Devon. Just great. He’ll remember you’re an idiot. Perfect.

“Dev lives in New York now,” Katie went on in a teasing tone. “The asshole went off to a fancy college in New England and stayed. I guess he found friends he liked better than me.”

“New York? Wow. How do you like it?” Tully asked.

I considered the question for a moment before responding. “It’s… it’s New York. There are good things and bad. I like being close to my friends from school who are all there, but I don’t love the noise of the city. And the crowds. I…” 

My mouth snapped closed before I could begin to wax poetical about missing the wide-open space of Katie’s grandparents’ ranch and the ability to jump into a saddle and ride hell for leather until I was covered in sweat and empty of my demons.

These days, my demons never left, so a hard ride only left me sweaty and breathless.

But I still craved it with every portion of my being.

Tully’s eyebrows dipped. “You…?” he prompted. 

Katie stood up from the little two-seater outdoor sofa and gestured for Tully to take her place. “I need to check on the food. Ask him about horses. Dev loves talking about horseflesh.”

My heart rate surged as he took the seat next to me. Floral perfume was replaced with mint in the summer night air. I couldn’t help but smile as I nodded toward the drink tumbler in his hand. “Did she force a mojito on you?”

He rolled his eyes. “She goes in these waves, you know? One week, it’s this sangria recipe ‘you just have to try, Tully!’ And the next, it’s a new craft beer ‘that’ll make you see god.’ What’s wrong with a nice glass of chardonnay is what I’d like to know.” His attempt at mimicking Katie’s soft, Southern voice made me smile.

“Nothing,” I assured him. “But I have to admit you don’t sound very Texan if you’re not an enthusiastic beer drinker.”

He shrugged. “I like beer fine. In fact, I’m happy to try whatever Katie wants me to try. I’m easy.”

It was my turn to lift an eyebrow, and he immediately laughed when he realized what he’d said. 

Then he shrugged as if admitting it.

Tully took a deep swig of his drink from the sweating glass. I couldn’t help but stare at his Adam’s apple as he swallowed. 

“So you, ah… you work with Katie? At the law firm?” I said a little desperately. For the first time in a long time, my heart was beating a mile a minute from nothing more than a man’s proximity. I didn’t think I’d ever felt this kind of instant, total attraction and recognition with anyone before, and it was taking epic levels of restraint to keep from asking him to follow me to Katie’s guest room and let me bathe his bare body with my tongue.

I hadn’t come to Texas to hook up. I was here for two purposes: to stud Trigger out to Katie’s grandparents one last time and to stud myself out to their granddaughter.

The rules from the clinic were clear. In addition to hydrating, I had to abstain from hot tubs and ejaculation for forty-eight hours.

Which I hadn’t considered a problem until right this moment.

Because for some reason, I wanted this beautiful man more than I thought I’d wanted anyone in my life. There was something about the kind eyes and rumbling laughter that made me want to stay here on this little sofa and ask him inane questions about his job, and his family, and his thoughts on breakfast cereal and his local bowling alley until the streetlights turned off and the neighbors got up to work tomorrow morning.

He told me about being on the partner track at the firm along with Katie, about how they set goals together and held each other accountable, and about how he was trying to get back into running after recovering from a strained hamstring.

I told him about a recent musical I’d seen on Broadway with a friend, about how I’d stumbled across a cool photography gallery recently while on a road trip through Maine, and about seeing a horse give birth to twin foals last year.

We talked for hours, though it felt like minutes. Other guests came and went, joining the conversation for a few moments or longer but always leaving the two of us together at the end. After a while, it became obvious that I wasn’t the only one feeling the pull. Tully didn’t get up to refill his drink when it was finished or to get food when it was ready. He didn’t seek out conversation with anyone else, either. 

With every word the man spoke, his intelligence, humor, and kindness shone, and I fell more deeply into… well, attraction at the very least. The desire to spend more time getting to know him. The ache to have him know me, too. 

When I finally had to leave him to visit the bathroom, I was left wondering if I might break the vow I’d made to myself by planning a return trip to visit Katie just on the off chance I could see Tully again. 

I wouldn’t, of course. Couldn’t. I’d told Katie I wouldn’t have a relationship with her baby, and I would never change my mind about that…

Even if those moments I’d spent with Tully had been the first time in forever that I’d felt my grief and guilt over my brother’s death recede for a little while. 

The party had gotten busier as the night had worn on, with groups of coworkers, neighbors, and old college and law school friends joining. Katie was in her element, chatting and mingling with a wide smile on her face and bursts of laughter here and there.

I smiled to myself as I pushed open the door to the bathroom. It was good to see Katie happy and settled. She would make an amazing mother, and I was relieved to see she would have plenty of support in the endeavor even though her parents were insensitive shits.

Before I could turn around to close the door after me, a warm body pressed against my back, and the sound of the door closing hit my ears.

“Come home with me.”

I closed my eyes and breathed in the taste of mojito while his voice, warm and solid, wrapped around me.

“I…” I needed to tell him I wasn’t allowed to hook up tonight. I wasn’t allowed to come. That being with him while unable to ejaculate would leave me with the worst case of blue balls in the history of humanity.

“Yes,” I said instead.

Chapter 2

Tully

The minute I’d stepped outside into Katie’s backyard, my eyes had locked on the most beautiful man in the group. Possibly—okay, definitely—the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. 

I preferred men who were refined and urbane. Lovers who understood that I was too career focused to prioritize a relationship. I liked to think I’d left my fantasies of tall, rugged cowboy types behind when I left my dad’s ranch. 

One look at the man sitting beside Katie had me changing my tune. My lust was instantaneous… and all-consuming. 

Please be gay,I’d pled silently over and over as I’d approached, and when I’d caught him giving me a delicious up-down moments later, it had felt like the sweetest victory.

Jackpot.

When he’d excused himself to visit the bathroom inside, I’d decided to shoot my shot. If Dev turned me down, I’d go home with my tail between my legs and rub one out to the memory of his dark, wavy hair, berry-red lips, and sad, hazel eyes.

But now he was here with me in my apartment, shoving me against the nearest wall and kissing the fuck out of me with those lips. His hands were everywhere—up my shirt, down my pants, tangled in my hair. I wanted to beg him to fuck me or let me fuck him. Blow me or let me blow him. Any damn thing he wanted just so I could see him naked and touch him everywhere.

I shoved my hand down the front of his jeans after yanking them open, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled it away. “No.”

I was too brain-scrambled to do anything other than obey his wishes. Maybe I was moving too fast. Maybe he wanted to be in charge. Either way, I didn’t much care as long as he kept his hands on me.

“Tell me what you want,” I gasped as his teeth nipped at the thin skin on my neck. “I’ll do anything.”

“Fuck,” he groaned as he ground the hard ridge of his cock against mine. “Want to make you come.”

“Bedroom.”

I pushed him away before reaching for his hand and pulling him down the hall. My clothes disappeared in a frantic combination of yanking and cursing while I nodded at him to get naked.

Thankfully, he did. We tumbled together onto the bed, reaching for each other’s faces to kiss again and again.

Dev’s knee pushed my legs apart, and he reached down to stroke the heel of his palm down my shaft before cupping my balls. “Let me suck you off,” I said between sawing breaths. My fingers curled into his thick dark waves as I turned my face to kiss him again on the lips.

He shook his head before moving down to kiss my jaw, my neck, my chest. He pulled a nipple into his mouth and sucked hard, causing me to arch up and let out a desperate noise. “Please,” I begged.

His mouth continued down my chest, but before he got much further, I ran out of patience and flipped him over so that I was on top, moving my mouth down his body the same way. He tried yanking on my hair to get me to come back up to kiss him more, but I was too desperate to get my mouth on his cock.

The tip was leaking, sticking out shiny and dark from its hood. My mouth watered with the desire to taste him, to make him writhe and gasp with pleasure.

Just as I dropped a kiss onto a square-shaped mole over his hip bone, he yanked me bodily up and around until I was under him again.

“Wait, I—” Before I could get the words out, that I’d wanted to suck him off, his mouth was on my cock, sucking hot and wet. “Fuckkk.”

My brain went into staticky spirals as he took me into his throat. His tongue swirled around my cock, and one of his hands came up to tweak a nipple. I grabbed his hand and held it in mine to keep from coming too quickly. I didn’t want it to end. His mouth was perfection, but it was more than that. His dedication to my pleasure, to making sure I came first, was strangely endearing.

When was the last time I’d been with a man so intent on making me feel good? It definitely hadn’t been with a random hookup. But there was a unique kind of… gentlemanly quality to Dev that made me want to find out more about him. To learn why he was the way he was.

I understood now why Katie liked him so much. He was kind and quiet but also a good conversationalist. He’d asked a ton of questions during the evening of me and Katie’s other guests. Dev had the ability to make people feel seen and heard without dominating the conversation.

“Dev,” I said, squeezing his hand to get his attention. “Turn around. Let me suck you, too.” My words came out jangly and breathless. I was on the knife’s edge of orgasm, and I knew once I came, my brain would hit the road completely.

I wanted to share it with him, fly over the edge together.

He doubled down with a shake of his head, releasing my hand to move his fingers down beneath my sac to brush against the tender skin of my hole. I sucked in a breath just as he lifted his hazel eyes to mine.

There was so much heat in his gaze that I immediately soared off the cliff.

His eyes never strayed from mine. In those warm hazel pools, I saw relief, pleasure, heat, and so much fucking pain. I wanted to hold him, to tell him I would listen to anything he wanted to tell me. I wanted to get to know him better, to ask him more about himself. To learn why he left Texas all those years ago and seemed reluctant to come back.

Dev’s mouth trailed back up my stomach and chest to my neck, where he sucked a patch of skin under my ear. 

“You’re so fucking responsive. I could touch and fuck you all night.”

His deep voice made goose bumps prickle along my skin. “Yes,” I said with a lazy grin. I moved my hands into his messy hair, secretly thrilled it was messy from messing around with me.

He moved his lips to my earlobe and tugged. “But I have to go,” he whispered. 

My stomach dropped. “Not yet. I’m going to one-up your oral skills. Just give me ten more seconds of afterglow,” I teased, running my fingers through his hair to mess it up even more.

He pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Can’t. I don’t want Katie to know I left. And I have an early morning appointment tomorrow.” He moved to get off the bed.

“Wait,” I said, confused that he was leaving so suddenly. “What about after your appointment? Can we… do lunch?”

I hated sounding so desperate, but I simply was that desperate. I more than wanted to see him again… I needed to.

His expression was answer enough before the words were spoken. “I’m leaving directly after my appointment. I have to trailer my horse back east, and we need to be there for an event in two days. I’m…” He swallowed, and for a brief moment, I felt like maybe he regretted his sudden departure as much as I did. “I’m glad we met.”

I shoved myself up and reached for my phone where I’d tossed it on my bedside table. “Give me your number, and I’ll—”

“No,” he said, yanking his clothes on. “Sorry.”

I stared at him. Words built up behind my teeth as I wondered which ones might change his mind. Was it something I said or did?

Had I not been good enough, generous enough, to warrant staying in touch?

“Oh” was the only word I allowed out.

Dev’s expression was apologetic, and maybe I fooled myself into believing it was regretful, too. “I’m sorry. But I… I’m… I’m not coming back, so…”

My throat felt full of the words I would now be too embarrassed to say. “Yeah, no. I get it. Totally. I… wish you all the best. With… everything.”

He hesitated before nodding and mumbling his thanks.

I got up and threw on a pair of shorts before walking him to the door. 

He turned and looked me up and down, almost the same way he’d done earlier, but this time, the look was less assessment and more… memorizing.

“Take care of Katie, will you?”

I blinked in surprise. “Always.”

Dev clenched his jaw and finally met my eyes. “And take care of you, too.”

My chest tightened. “Only if you promise to take care of you,” I said softly.

He stepped forward and pulled me into his arms, crushing me into one of those tight hugs that seemed to last forever and heal something soul-deep you didn’t even know was broken.

I held on to him for dear life and said a prayer for the first time in at least a decade.

Dear god, please let me cross paths with this man again. Please give me another chance to know him and be with him.

It took two lonely years, years in which I tried to forget him and failed, before my prayer was answered.