Devoted to Pleasure Read online

  PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF

  SHAYLA BLACK

  “[Black] always delivers strong characters, great stories, and plenty of heat.”

  —USA Today

  “Shayla Black’s books are a must-read.”

  —Lora Leigh, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  “Emotional, searingly sexy stories.”

  —Maya Banks, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  “Shayla Black inspired us to write, and now inspires us to do more, get better. She is a master of her craft: a wordsmith, a storyteller, and an undisputed genre trendsetter.”

  —Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author

  “Absolutely fabulous.”

  —Fiction Vixen

  “Wickedly seductive from start to finish.”

  —Jaci Burton, New York Times bestselling author

  “A Shayla Black story never disappoints!”

  —Sylvia Day, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  Titles by Shayla Black

  The Devoted Lovers Novels

  DEVOTED TO PLEASURE

  The Wicked Lovers Novels

  WICKED TIES

  WICKED ALL NIGHT

  (novella)

  DECADENT

  DELICIOUS

  THEIRS TO CHERISH

  SURRENDER TO ME

  HIS TO TAKE

  BELONG TO ME

  WICKED FOR YOU

  MINE TO HOLD

  FALLING IN DEEPER

  OURS TO LOVE

  HOLDING ON TIGHTER

  The Perfect Gentlemen Novels

  (with Lexi Blake)

  SCANDAL NEVER SLEEPS

  SEDUCTION IN SESSION

  BIG EASY TEMPTATION

  Anthologies

  FOUR PLAY

  (with Maya Banks)

  HOT IN HANDCUFFS

  (with Sylvia Day and Shiloh Walker)

  WICKED AND DANGEROUS

  (with Rhyannon Byrd)

  Specials

  HER FANTASY MEN

  The Sexy Capers series

  BOUND AND DETERMINED

  STRIP SEARCH

  ARRESTING DESIRE

  (novella)

  A JOVE BOOK

  Published by Berkley

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

  Copyright © 2018 by Shelley Bradley, LLC

  Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.

  A JOVE BOOK and BERKLEY are registered trademarks and the B colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Black, Shayla, author.

  Title: Devoted to pleasure / Shayla Black.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Jove, 2018. | Series: A devoted lovers novel ; 1

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017061350 | ISBN 9780399587368 (softcover) | ISBN 9780399587375 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Bodyguards—Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Romance / Contemporary. | FICTION / Contemporary Women. | FICTION / Romance / General. | GSAFD: Romantic suspense fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3602.L325245 D49 2018 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017061350

  First Edition: July 2018

  Photo of couple © Claudio Marinesco

  Cover design by Alana Colucci

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  To all my Facebook Book Beauties,

  Thanks for making every Wednesday night a fun-filled #WineWednesday. Y’all are the best, and spending my evening with you is the highlight of my week! Since I adore starting a new series, I’m hoping you’ll love this one.

  Until we raise our glasses together again, happy reading!

  CONTENTS

  Praise for the Novels of Shayla Black

  Titles by Shayla Black

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  About the Author

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Devoted Lovers is a new contemporary romantic suspense series about high-octane men of danger and their brave, big-hearted women. This world runs parallel to the Wicked Lovers universe. If you have not read that series, it isn’t necessary to do so in order to understand or enjoy Devoted Lovers. Be aware, however, characters from that series and events that took place in that world will be referenced in Devoted Lovers. If you have read the Wicked Lovers novels, I hope you enjoy some of the glimpses of your beloved favorites.

  For those who have read the Wicked Lovers series in its entirety, the Christmas party referenced at the end of Holding on Tighter is the same one referred to at the end of this book. The more complete version of this event is in Holding on Tighter.

  Thank you for taking the leap with me into a new cast of characters who embrace their need for adrenaline, mischief, and love!

  SHAYLA

  CHAPTER 1

  Monday, November 3

  Sunset, Louisiana

  When the door to the exam room opened, Cutter Bryant stood and wiped his damp palms on his jeans. Anxiety gripped him. The look on Brea Bell’s face felled him. Before his best friend opened her mouth, he knew what she was going to say.

  “I’m pregnant.” Her soft voice was a teary whisper in the otherwise empty office before her breath caught on a sob.

  The sound ripped at his guts. He reached out and pulled her into his arms, stroking his hand down her narrow back.

  Cutter had known Brea since he was eight. He’d never forgotten the summer day Preacher Bell and his wife, Lavinia, had moved into the little bungalow next door to his family in Sunset, Louisiana. The missus had arrived, unpacked a few boxes, and promptly gone into labor. His mama had helped the couple to the nearest hospital and he’d been dragged along, almost a witness to the birth process on the drive. He remembered the Bells arriving home a few days later with a tiny, tightly swaddled Brea. But Mrs. Bell had fallen sick soon thereafter and died. The preacher had thrown himself into work. Cutter’s mother had always wanted a daughter and had all but adopted the adorable, motherless girl. Cutter had simply
accepted Brea as his sister since he’d known he would never have one.

  And now she was having a baby of her own—by a manipulative son of a bitch who didn’t give a shit about anyone but himself.

  Cutter had to repress his urge to seek out his shithead of a co-worker Pierce Walker, aka One-Mile, and take him down. As much as he wanted to, committing a premeditated murder would put him behind bars for the rest of his life. And Brea needed him more than he needed to commit violence on her behalf.

  “It’s all right.” He pulled back and cupped her face. “We’ll handle it.”

  She looked up at him with teary dark eyes. “How is it all right? You know what my father will do. What the town will say.”

  Absolutely. Her father would completely lose his shit. The small town would pounce and gossip unceasingly because they were bored and had nothing better to do. The living she made as a hairdresser would dry up because no one would want their ’do done by “that hussy.” Not everyone in town held such a narrow view . . . but enough that Cutter knew she had cause to worry.

  It was another reason he’d moved to “the big city.” Lafayette, Louisiana, was hardly a concrete Mecca of millions, but it was big enough that most people were too busy with their own lives to mind anyone else’s.

  “Do you want to consider terminating the pregnancy?” He already knew what her answer would be, but she’d need to consider every option before she made any decisions.

  Cutter wasn’t surprised when she slid her palms protectively over her still-flat stomach. “Heavens, no. I would never do that. I’m not judging. That choice might be all right for some people but you know I wasn’t raised that way.”

  Though she and her father had been at odds for most of her life, Brea loved the big preacher and tried so hard to live righteously, to make the man proud. Her being unwed and expecting would devastate him—and his reputation. Ending the pregnancy, if anyone ever found out, would be ten times worse.

  He thanked goodness Brea had chosen to visit a doctor in Lafayette or her secret would be Sunset’s juiciest fodder by the end of the day.

  “Understood. Let’s grab a bite of lunch and talk.” Cutter escorted her to the door.

  Someone walked into the clinic. Brea cast a side-eyed glance over at the stranger, a fortysomething man who never once looked her way, merely went about his business, totally not caring why she had an appointment.

  The second Cutter escorted her outside, the chill in the wind told him November was finally bringing some relief to the muggy days they’d endured through September and most of October. Brea wrapped her sweater around her slender shoulders and hopped in his truck when he opened the door.

  He dashed around and settled in the driver’s seat, then tugged on his seatbelt and started the vehicle. “What are you going to tell One-Mile?”

  She tensed, eyes going wide. “Nothing. You can’t confront him about this, either.”

  “Look, he’s a jackass and he’ll make a lousy father, but—”

  “I’m asking you to keep my secret.” She pleaded with those big dark eyes he’d never been able to refuse. “Please.”

  “I have to work with him every day.” As a fellow operative for EM Security Management, sometimes Cutter even had to trust the asshole with his life.

  She frowned. “It’s not as if you voluntarily speak to him. All you have to do is not mention me.”

  Was she insane? “He asks me about you all the time.”

  Pretty much every fucking day. Cutter still wasn’t sure why. The guy didn’t seem capable of actual attachment to anyone, but he obviously wasn’t above using a woman for sex.

  Brea bit her lip. “If my daddy finds out I got pregnant by a man who’s never even taken me on a date, he’ll disown me. You know that.”

  No disputing that fact. Cutter wasn’t sure what that had to do with informing the douche who’d impregnated her that he was about to become a father, but after the confirmation of such jarring news she was entitled to a break in logic.

  “When are you finally going to tell me what happened between you two?”

  She shook her head. “Leave it.”

  He tried another tactic. “Be honest with me. Did he even bother to wear a condom?”

  “Don’t do this.” She frowned.

  “At least tell me if he forced you—”

  “No. And I won’t cry rape when it wasn’t.”

  He wanted to ask again just how the fuck a sweet girl who took her morals so seriously had crawled into bed with a professional killer. But Cutter knew. She’d done it to save him because he’d traded himself for a group of innocents trapped in a hostage situation. The lone gunman had threatened to blast himself and the building into a million pieces, so before the swap, he’d called his mama, his older brother, Cage, and Brea to say good-bye. Instead of accepting the situation, she’d hauled ass to Pierce—who insisted everyone call him One-Mile as an homage to the former military glory of his longest recorded kill-shot. She’d pleaded with him to save her best friend. The audacious piece of shit had bartered her body for Cutter’s life.

  Every day since Pierce had blown away the perp threatening him, guilt that she had sacrificed herself ripped Cutter in two. Now that she was pregnant, the sting was a hundred times worse.

  What the fuck was she going to do?

  He wanted to argue that One-Mile had emotionally raped her, but he wouldn’t win that argument because Brea refused to have it. What was done was done. Now they simply had to deal with it.

  “Move to Lafayette,” he suggested instead. “You know my apartment complex has great security and good neighbors.”

  “With Daddy’s heart condition?” She shook her head. “I can’t leave him. Besides, all my clients are in Sunset. I’d have to start my business over.”

  “You wouldn’t be that far away. And you can move in with me until you get on your feet. I’ve got a spare bedroom.” He used it for an office, but he would gladly sacrifice it to help her out.

  “Live ‘in sin’ with you?” She slanted him a chiding glance. “You know that’s what the town would say. The preacher’s daughter and the town drunk’s son shacking up. What a shame . . .”

  He let out a breath and shook his head as he put the truck into drive. “Damn it, I wish those small-minded idiots would keep their mouths shut.”

  “You’ve lived in Sunset most of your life. You know they won’t.”

  With every passing moment, her situation came sharply into focus. Her options were slim to none. They dwindled to zero without help.

  Cutter looked at Brea as he drove away from the clinic. She stared at her hands. Tears fell down her delicate cheeks. He wanted to tear One-Mile in two. The only reason he hadn’t kicked the big sniper’s ass already was because Brea had begged him not to.

  “Can I ask you a question?” He didn’t want to hear his suspicion confirmed, but he had to know. “Was Pierce your first?”

  Brea sent him a puzzled frown until his meaning caught up to her sheltered brain. She blushed. “Of course he was.”

  Cutter gripped the steering wheel, wishing it was One-Mile’s neck. She had given the virginity she’d saved for her husband to that shitbag in order to save his life. No, Cutter hadn’t asked her to. But he owed her. He’d always taken care of Brea. He wouldn’t stop now.

  “I think we should get married.”

  Swiping the tears from her cheeks, she zipped her gaze to him and gave him a stunned blink. “Have you lost your ever-lovin’ mind? I can’t ask you to do that.”

  “You’re not asking. I’m offering.”

  “It’s sweet but—”

  “You’re out of options, Bre-bee. In order to keep the townsfolk and your father off your back and keep your baby, you need a husband.” Cutter didn’t know what One-Mile would say if he knew she needed a husband, but the sniper wasn’t fit to lick
the soles of Brea’s boots, much less call her his wife. He would ruin her life more than he already had.

  Regret softened her face. “I love you, Cutter. Like a brother. I don’t think of you . . . that way.”

  “I don’t think of you that way, either. You’re my sister in every way except blood. But we’ve stuck together through thick and thin. We’ve grown closer over the years because we both know what it’s like to be the latchkey kid of a hardworking single parent. I don’t want that for your baby. I doubt you do, either. So unless you want to find yourself cast out of Sunset altogether and raising your child alone, I’m your best hope.”

  She shook her head—not in refusal, but confusion. “What would you do if you married me?” A flush rose to her skin again. “I don’t go out of my way to hear gossip, but I can’t always avoid it. I know you’re a red-blooded man. I know you like women and you don’t enjoy spending your nights alone. I can’t give you . . .”

  Sex.

  Cutter winced. She’d quickly found his one hesitation, too. He could live with her. He could vow to love her for the rest of his life, though not romantically. But he couldn’t imagine taking her the way he had his last hookup—with his tongue, then braced against the door, impaled by his cock as he wrung one orgasm after another from her body until she’d been soft and sighing and sated.

  “I wouldn’t ask you to,” he assured. Nothing he wanted less from Brea than to get naked and sweaty. This entire train of thought was giving him hives.

  But what the hell would they do about sex?

  Brea bit her lip. “I guess . . . if you were discreet . . .”

  She wouldn’t care who or what he did.

  Cutter wasn’t keen on breaking his marriage vows. Deep down, he was a traditional guy who’d intended to take them seriously someday, with the right woman. But Brea found her life altered forever because she’d tried to save him. He had to return the favor. That meant getting over his moral qualm. If she didn’t mind, he’d eventually have to find a way not to, either.

 
-->