Jesse's heart sunk all the way to her feet as she looked up at the luscious brunette who wore a blue gown that clung sensually to every perfect curve of her body. Her midnight blue eyes devoured the two men sitting on either side of Jesse while she ran her slender fingers through the pearls around her neck.
“What? Don’t I even get a hello?” She purred as everyone just kept looking at her in silence.
Jesse’s hands curled into tight fists of annoyance as the confidence she had been building up all day shriveled up into nothing.
“Leticia,” Devon said in a tone Jesse had never heard before.
“What do you want?” Jax asked pleasantly enough, while he toyed with one of Jesse’s curls. There was an underlying note of anger in his voice that had Jesse wanting to frown. She resisted though, putting on her ‘business face’ and watched the three of them carefully.
Leticia laughed lightly behind her hand.
“I want what I’ve always wanted, darling.” She purred again, adding fluttering eyelashes this time for more effect.
Anger boiled up in Jesse’s stomach. She clenched her fists tighter so that she wouldn’t jump from her seat and pull out every perfect curl from the ... female in front of her head.
Jesse blinked and forced her fists to relax as she registered her violent thoughts.
Devon and Jax must also have picked up on it because Devon’s hand slowly started massaging her thigh. Jax let his hand drift down so that he could thread his fingers through hers.
Leticia watched Jax do so and shot Jesse a hard look before turning back to the men with a hungry stare.
“Shouldn’t Martin be helping you with that, then?” Devon asked.
“Martin? He’s old news already,” Leticia cooed. ”But you know he was always just a passing fancy. Nothing like you.”
Jesse’s eyes widened slightly when she realized Leticia was one of their ex-lovers.
She turned her head to give Jax a look, but Leticia caught it and smiled viciously at her.
“That’s right, us three used to be extremely close. Isn’t that right, Devon?” She said, running her fingers up Devon’s arm. Sending him a smoldering look under her lashes as she did so.
Devon took his hand off Jesse’s thigh long enough to pick Leticia’s hand off of his arm. He flicked it away with a look of complete disgust before covering Jesse’s thigh again.
Jesse tried not to laugh at the woman’s shocked look.
That had definitely not been the way she had seen that going.
“Not that close, Leticia.” He told her, his eyes and tone hard.
Leticia blinked, as if at a loss for what to do, but she blinked it away. Smiling widely as she started running her fingers through her pearls again.
“Are you still mad about,” She quickly glanced at Jesse before finishing in a stage whisper,” that.”
That? Jesse thought.
“I was never mad, Leticia. Neither was Jax. You just made it that much easier for us to get rid of you.” Devon informed the woman heartlessly as he called the server, who had been hovering close to their table, to order a bottle of wine.
Jesse’s lips twitched as she watched Leticia fume, her face taking on a slightly reddish hue, but she kept her cool.
Jax squeezed Jesse’s hand meaningfully, making her turn towards him. The sparkle of suppressed laughter made her lips twitch even more and she let out a shaky breath as she tried not to laugh out loud.
“Oh, still here are you?” Devon asked in faked surprise when their server left, and he turned back to see her.
Jesse shoved her face into Jax’s neck, muffling her laughter. She felt him smile as he, too, hid his ace in her neck. He curled one arm around her back so that he could press her closer to him.
“I hadn’t thought to leave.” She told him through gritted teeth.
“Unfortunately,” Devon muttered under his breath making Jesse laugh even more.
“Something funny?” Leticia sneered and Jesse slowly forced herself to stop laughing before looking up at the woman who suddenly didn’t seem so beautiful anymore. The horrible sneer pulled at her mouth making her face look distorted.
Jesse’s smile widened even more.
“As a matter of fact, yes.” She said, tilting her head to the side to give Leticia a meaningful look.
“We’ll see who’s laughing when they suddenly leave you like they did me.” She said, wiping the smile off Jesse’s face as she voiced her fears out loud. Putting them right there on the table for Devon and Jax to hear.
Devon’s hand squeezed her thigh as he turned towards Leticia with a look that had her taking a very quick step back.
“You see, that’s where you’re wrong.” He began as Jax linked his hand to Jesse’s again while giving the other woman a look similar to Devon's.
“Jesse is sweet,-“
“Thoughtful,-“
“Sexy as hell,-“
“Honest,-“
“Sensual,”
Devon shot Jax a look to which his brother just shrugged.
“Unpretentious,”
“In other words, she’s perfect.”
“Unlike you,” Jax said with a careless shrug.
“So before you embarrass yourself even more, I suggest you turn around and go back to the 60year old man who you came here with in the first place.” Nodding at their server who had arrived with their wine, Devon poured Jesse a glass with slow deliberation as he spoke.
“Which means: Fuck off, in polite terms,” Jax informed her with a grin when she just continued to stand there, glaring at them.
“You bastards.” Leticia hissed.
“Now, now, there’s no need to be like that,” Devon said, sounding slightly disappointed in the woman who looked like she was about to dump his wine all over him any second.
“Is there a problem here?” An expensively dressed gentleman asked, bravely stepping up next to Leticia.
“I don’t know, is there?” Devon asked.
Leticia opened her mouth to spit her answer in his face. Then she caught the people at the nearby tables looking at her and smoothed her features into a pleasant smile.
“No, no problem at all.” She finally managed to say, or rather hiss.
“Then you may leave.” He said, looking away from her dismissively. He moved his hand up Jesse’s thigh, which brought her out of the state of shock she had gone into.
“I’ll see you again, Devon. I’ll make sure of it.” She said before walking away with her head held high.
The manager apologized profusely for their dinner being interrupted, but Devon waved him away. He had brought Jesse here because he had wanted to spoil her for a change, but all these people were completely ruining their night so far.
It was just their luck that Leticia had to be here the same night they came.
Bloody selfish bitch.
He still couldn’t believe that she felt in the wrong after everything she had put him and his brother through a couple of years ago.
She had played them both in a rather skillful game, pretending to be the perfect girl that they could easily fall in love with, and it had worked until her true colors started to show. She had tried to break his relationship with Jax. Feeding his brother lies and crying to him about things that he had supposedly done.
They never told her the reason they liked to share. It had been the main reason his brother never believed her. That and the fact that he knew Devon better than he knew himself.
They had tried to get rid of her for months after that but she had pretended not to hear them. Pretended that everything was okay. It was when they had caught her in bed with another much older man that they had finally gotten rid of her.
They celebrated for a week afterward.
Devon put his glass of wine down and turned to the woman of his dreams after the server had left with their order. He frowned when he saw that she was just blankly staring at the table.
“You alright?” He asked, cupping her chin and turning her face towards his.
She blinked a couple of times but finally nodded. Giving him a small smile that had his heart doing somersaults in his chest.
Tonight had been the first time he had actually seen her smile. Like really, genuinely smile and it had nearly killed him. Her face had lit up, making her twice as beautiful as she already was.
“I’m sorry about Leticia.” He whispered against her lips, not having even realized that he had moved his head closer to hers.
“It’s alright.” She said just as softly.
Devon shook his head.
“No, it’s not. Tonight was meant for you.”
“For us to spoil you,” Jax added against her neck, making her shiver slightly and her lashes dropped slightly.
“And that ... woman ruined it.”
This time it was Jesse who shook her head.
“It‘s not – wasn’t ruined. It’s just-,“ she cut off, biting the side of her lip as she tried to decide if she should ask them or not. Jax made her mind up for her really fast.
“Just, what?” He asked into her ear, causing her to melt where she sat.
“Did you mean it?”
“Mean what? Devon asked while he nibbled the corner of her mouth.
“What you said about me?” She answered, and both brothers pulled back so that they could look at her face to see if she was serious.
She was.
“Of course we meant it!” Devon said with a dark frown.
“Oh.” That was all Jesse could say and after a few seconds of having them stare at her, she slowly lifted her hands and placed one on the side of their faces.
“You make me feel braver than I’ve been in a long time.”