Unbreakable Devotion: A New Adult Romance Novel
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Authors: Amanda Chayse
Unbreakable Devotion
A New Adult Romance Novel
Book One of the Unbreakable Series
Copyright © 2014 Amanda Chayse
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced
, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, entities, or locales is entirely coincidental.
~Devon~
Devon stood outside, watching the fall leaves spin and sprinkle around him in a colorful tapestry of fall. He was wondering how his playmate of fourteen years had done this to him. They were best friends, went to school together, played together, shared each other’s toys, and began middle school and high school together.
He played at her house, ate meals there, and became like a son to Erin’s mom. And Erin came over to Devon’s house, played with all his stuff, ate up their food during many lunches and dinn
ers.
“Are you coming over today?” she
often asked him with her hopeful smile.
This was like music to Devon’s ears, even if he pretended to be aloof and cool. “I guess. What are we going to do, play with your dolls?”
“You have your own to play with. I have a new video camera, though. We can make some funny videos.” Her bright smile was starting to make his heart race.
“Sure, Erin. Whatever makes you a YouTube
star,” Devon smirked. Devon was fascinated by how creative Erin could be. She could get thousands of hits just making one funny video. There were a lot of things he was starting to like about her more and more, and it terrified him.
After all,
this was his best friend. They told each other just about everything. What was he supposed to tell her now? That he wanted to kiss her when she looked at him with her big blue eyes and full lips?
Erin’s dad had left her and her mom when she was only two, and Devon’s dad died when he was only four. “My mom is never home. She work
s all the time, just like yours,” she often remarked when he came over. “Promise me you’ll always be my best friend,” she would sometimes say for no reason.
Devon would hide his wide grin when she made him
promise him. “I promise, Erin. Just like yesterday.” He ribbed her to no end, but would miss the day she would stop asking him.
They shared their deepest feelings and deepest fears, but they snapped out of conversation quickly when it got them too down, as if they were both attuned to how much pain they could take.
“Smile and think about something happy,” she reminded him. Increasingly, the happiest thing he could think of was spending time with her.
But we
were best friends, after all, and nothing more
he would try to convince himself. Even when they fought, which was usually a matter they both made short work of for the sake of their friendship, they remained best friends. In their often unstable lives, their friendship was a given like the morning sun.
Nothing came between them. It was the magic of their relationship. Their friendship always trumped everything. They knew each other too well to let a careless offense, an unkind word, or a mean comment fester for too long.
“Take it back,” Erin demanded after Devon called her “ugly” when they were twelve. It was easy for Devon to apologize. For one thing, he knew it wasn’t true. “You’re not ugly, Erin. I was just mad.” It was a good front. She would never figure out that he actually thought she was beautiful now. But for another, he wanted to see her smile again, which was warmer than the afternoon sun that caressed his face as they played outside. Her smile made his day, and he would not trade it for anything. He could never tell her that, though, or she would run away from him and never want to see him again. It would be better to see her and pretend he felt nothing but friendship for her.
He had to play this game at least for a while.
But last summer things really changed. That’s when he and Erin went swimming at the lake, as usual, except it was not as usual. Devon always knew that Erin was cute, in her own goofy way. Her blue eyes always shined when she laughed, and he was captivated when her soft pink lips perked up in a devastating smile. He started to notice her shimmering blonde hair cascading over her golden summer skin. He had wanted to kiss her even as a kid, and did at least three times on the cheek. But they were kids, and he did not think much of it.
This summer, a kiss on her beautiful swollen lips would melt him in the summer heat and leave him wanting to kiss her even more as her soft blonde hair cascaded over his hands, and his nimble fingers wandered over her delectable
body. He could barely look at her now, without feeling these feelings that had nothing to do with friendship. Her soft curves flustered him, and made him deny what was happening, but it was all too clear.
What the hell is going on?
he thought.
This is the same girl he saw in grade school in that silly uniform they made them wear in private school, her goofiness still fresh in his mind. Her little blonde curls were that of his best friend, a kid sticking her tongue out at him, and then smiling as if to say, “You know you are my best friend.” Then they would have lunch together. Her mom had given her a ring that she took off and placed in her lunch bag to keep it clean.
One day she forgot that it was in the bag and she threw the lunch sack away by accident with the ring in it. “Please, Devon, I have to have my ring back,” she said with pleading eyes and tears streaming down her face. “Please help me get my ring back.” Her pleading was irresistible even then. He must have gone through a hundred crumpled lunch bags in the school dumpster before he found one with the name “Erin” on it. She opened it to find the ring that her mom had given to her to let her know she was special. And then she kissed him, in sixth grade. And in one moment it was all worth it, but that was a different kind of happiness. This was something entirely different. The feelings for her had only grown stronger over the years.
This was more like a category five hurricane that lifted him off the ground and threw him through a wall, landing him in a pile of debris, dazed and disoriented.
The summer began like any other for them. Erin had worked part-time at a retail shop by the lake during the busy season. Devon mowed lawns and did landscaping work in the neighborhood in the morning hours before it got too hot. He enjoyed working his own hours and being his own boss. Later in the day, he would take a bus to the lake to cool off and to see his best friend Erin.
Devon had been dating Laura since the end of the school year. She was on the volleyball team with Erin. An athletic and beautiful girl, Laura stood five feet nine inches tall. Girls like Laura used to tower over Devon in grade school, but during the past year he had shot up to just over six feet tall. He also transitioned from a skinny and lanky kid to a lean and muscular eyeful with a handsome, strong face and strong, broad shoulders.
Devon was now catching the attention of many of the girls in the area. Laura was the first to make her move. “We should hang out this summer, Devon. It will be fun,” she said with a sweet smile and warm eyes. Devon just thought this particular girl was interested in him, when in fact many were but Laura approached him first.
Devon could not resist. Laura had hazel eyes, shoulder
-length brown hair, and adorable freckles on her nose. She was already stunning going into her junior year of high school. As the summer went on, they were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. Devon took her through the trails in back of the lake to an old cabin where they made out repeatedly.
I had not thought much about Devon’s new girlfriend. I knew Laura from the volleyball team and I was glad that two of my friends were getting together. Devon was always my best friend, and I liked to see him happy. But I could not resist teasing him about kissing Laura, and asking him if he was in love.
I had begun to notice that Devon, who used to be at my eye level, now towered over me. His body had become lean and strong, and his big green eyes complemented the handsome symmetry of his face. I pushed the thought out of my mind
.
One day, when I was in the retail store getting off work, Devon grabbed me from behind and lifted me up off the floor, a feat that would have been entirely impossible for the little Devon of just two years ago. Devon wanted to go swimming with me, and enjoy the day with me, his best friend.
I felt his strong arms around my waist, lifting me up across his powerful chest, spinning me around, and setting me back down. I turned around and looked at his bright smile, the way his tousled hair fell over his squared, handsome face, his muscled chest rippling through his skin-hugging shirt, his playful smile that sent me reeling now. I actually felt my heart race and my body tremble. I blushed from his touch, and swore I felt electricity flow through me. But I explained it away quickly. “Don’t sneak up on me like that,” I said with the shake of my head and flushed cheeks.
“C’mon, come swimming with me.” Devon’s eyes were bright and happy, pulling my hand like he always did when he was excited about something he wanted us to do together.
“Okay, sure, let me grab my stuff.” I had used my extra money to buy some new clothes where I worked. “I can just change here and be right out. You can be the first to preview my new bathing suit!”
“Wow, I feel special already,” Devon teased.
“Oh, hush and give me your honest opinion. I don’t know if green is my color.” I peered over my shoulder, curling my mouth sideways with a sly grin as I walked into the dressing room. I did not know why I did it. Maybe I wanted to see whether Devon would even notice me like he did beautiful girls like Laura. When I slipped on my green bikini, I knew emerald green was one of my best colors, and that I wanted to impress him, even if I did not admit it to myself at first. At least I wanted him to see that I was no longer just a little girl.
“Sure,
just hurry up.” Devon sat on a storage cart and bounced his long legs off the steel frame. He grabbed a coat hanger and spun it around, waiting for me. Devon had come ready to swim with his stuff in his bag. He had a light green linen shirt on that outlined the contours of his muscled chest, and his dark blue swim trunks hung loosely off his hips.
When I came out of the dressing room in my new green bikini, Devon’s eyes grew large. He moved his hand over his leg and dropped the coat hanger. He clumsily fumbled for it and placed it back on the cart. I giggled as he fidgeted around on the cart.
“So what do you think? Am I ready for the summer?” I playfully placed one hand in the air and another hand by the side of my thigh.
Devon’s eyes traced Erin’s lush and soft curves, her golden skin leaving him breathless. Her blonde hair cascaded down the soft curves of her shoulders. Blonde peach fuzz trailed down her flat stomach and around her perfectly round navel, and disappeared into her shapely bikini bottom. Her round, supple breasts were magnificently formed. Devon licked his lips and shook his head as he took a quick breath. “It’s good, you’re good—it’s very, very good,” he stammered.
“Ha ha, are you serious? Tell me honestly.” Erin stood with her hands on her hips.
“It looks fine. Green is your color. You are blonde, you know. C’mon, let’s go swimming.”
Erin shimmied into her shorts and pulled her shirt over her top, and scampered across the street to the lake with Devon. Devon was trying to remember whether he had ever seen Erin look so stunning. His mind was scanning for pictures of Erin, and the only thing he found were memories of his childish, sometimes goofy friend. There was certainly never anything sexy about her. He did remember her sweet smile and melting blue eyes, but he had never seen her like this.
What a body
.
“Devon! Devon!” Devon was lost in thought as Erin tried to get his attention.
“What! God! Stop yelling, Erin!”
“What a space cadet you are! Are you thinking about Laura again?” Erin giggled her wonderful giggle that Devon always loved. Her laugh filled him up inside. Okay, that was another thing he liked about her. But still nothing close to
the beauty he had seen in her today.
“Yeah, something like that.” Devon stared straight ahead at the lake.
“I was asking if you had any sunscreen.” Erin was looking up at Devon, still bemused and gazing off in the distance.
“Yeah, of course. It’s in my bag. We’re covered.”
“Great, let’s go!” Erin said, romping towards the water. She spread her towel out and pulled her shirt off over her bikini top. Devon watched her again, her blonde hair falling gently down the smooth curves of her back. She turned and smiled at him. “C’mon, slowpoke, while it’s still summer.”
Devon rolled his eyes and jogged towards her.
“Put some lotion on my back!” Erin lifted up her thick blonde hair. Her green strap adorned her golden brown skin, now moist from the summer sun. Devon shuffled his backpack off and grabbed the sunscreen. He loved the smell of summer, suntan lotion, and the summer air. But Erin’s scent made it magical, that sweet smell that permeated his entire being. Devon squirted the lotion out and rubbed the white lotion on Erin’s tanned skin.
“Don’t forget my ears and my neck.” Erin smiled sideways as she held her hair up, her eyes glancing at him from the
side. Devon took deep breaths now, trying to calm his nerves as his heart raced, his chest thumping as he touched her soft sun-warm skin.