Free Scorched (Sizzle #2) by Sarah O'Rourke Page A

“If
Mannie wants to cancel the ceremony, I can’t stop him, Dev.  Nobody will be
able to do that.  He’s a highly emotional, hot headed Latin man that feels like
he’s been living a lie with his lover for years.  I’m pretty sure that not even
Godzilla could slow him down if he decides to end things with Nick.” 
    “I get that,” Devil agreed readily as both
he and Molly watched Samantha cover a slack faced Armando with a cashmere
blanket from the back of one of the wingback chairs.  “I suppose what I’m
asking from all of you is to not purposefully add any fuel to Mannie’s flame
right now.”
    “So you want us to delay him with a lack
of support on our end,” Vivian clarified.
    “All I’m saying is maybe don’t be so eager
to help him start canceling plans if he asks you.  I’ve been texting with Nick
and the poor guy is a wreck.  He doesn’t want to lose Armando any more than
Mannie wants to let Nick go.  This can be fixed, ladies,” Devil assured the
roomful of doubtful women passionately, looking from one hesitant woman to
another. 
    Glancing in Sami and Vivian’s direction,
Molly gave a small shrug.  “I guess we could give Nick a shot to make
this right, couldn’t we?” she asked her friends in a small voice.  The idea
certainly didn’t thrill her, but this was Mannie’s future happiness on the
line.  If there was even the slightest chance that this major fuck-up could be
repaired, didn’t they owe it to Armando to do what they could to insure his future
with Nicolas?  “What do you guys think?” she asked the girls.
    Sami ran a frustrated hand through her
long blonde hair.  “As much as I despise agreeing with Satan’s son,” she began,
offering a nod toward Devil, “I gotta say, if I was in Mannie’s position, I’d
want some answers.  And the only person that’s gonna have those answers to give
is the pecker packing son of a bitch that  we all wanna skin and skewer over an
open flame.”
    “Not all of us.  I, for one, know this is all a big misunderstanding that can be straightened out if I can
convince you people to not shift into the overly-emotional psycho mode you all
seem to favor when times get a little rocky,” Devil announced belligerently.
    That’s when Molly knew beyond a shadow of
a doubt….
    She’d married the smartest idiot on the
planet.

Chapter Six
    Devil
    “I’m telling
you both, I barely escaped that house of horrors with my life, assholes!” Devil
yelled at the two men sitting in the darkened corner of the local sports bar
they regularly frequented when the need to flee their significant others became
too much of a temptation to resist.  “Stop laughing at me, you hyenas!  I
thought those she-beasts were going to maul and devour me before I ever made it
to my own front door, dammit!  Even the lion gave the gazelle a thirty second
head start, but not those women.  Hell, no!  In fact, not only did they not
give me a head start, but I’m pretty sure it was Vivian that tripped me on the
way out.  And I know it was Samantha’s shoe that caught me on the temple
once I was down.  And all the while, my so-called loving wife just
freaking watched!  That was until she decided to participate.  Thank God her
aim hasn’t improved with time,” he yelped above the chuckles of his
contemporaries. 
    Christ, but
he needed to find better friends.  The ones he had wouldn’t be entirely happy
until one of his stories ended with, ‘and then, the paramedics shocked my heart
back to life’.  Evil bastards, the lot of ‘em, he thought as he looked between the
faces of his oldest friend and his beleaguered vice president.
    Hell, last
night hadn’t even been a catastrophe of his own making.  Which reminded him,
blame still had to be rightly and justly placed on somebody else’s head.  Narrowing his gaze as he looked at his company’s youngest (and most
successful) vice president, Nick Santino, he growled and pointed one long,
tapered