“And how are things going for you?” She had asked him, and somehow, he knew she already knew he was struggling. Her warm smile remained, but her eyes searched him for vulnerability.
“Not as good as those two, maybe,” he said, motioning toward the matches Gerri had set up. “Kate isn’t exactly warming to me the way I had hoped.”
Gerri ordered a gin and tonic, then turned her body to face Devlin. Despite her size and age, the woman had an intimidating presence about her. Something about the way she carried herself with confidence seemed nearly inhuman.
“What were you hoping for?”
Devlin sighed, then shrugged before shooting back his beer. “I’ve been buying her gifts, showering her with compliments and attention. I took her out to a friend’s yacht party …”
“And?”
“And she is still closed off to me,” Devlin confessed. “It’s been a very frustrating and confusing experience for me.”
Gerri gave the moment a beat of silence, considering Devlin’s every word. She then brought a single finger to her lips and tapped it lightly before responding thoughtfully.
“You have to show her that you are serious about the relationship. That you are truly invested in being the man that she needs. Showering her with gifts and luxurious dates may seem romantic on paper, but to her, it may seem inauthentic.”
Devlin had never thought of that. He had never had to work so hard for any woman’s affection in his entire life. His good looks and wealth were all he needed to not only get someone to bed but to get their undying adoration.
They had been easy to conquer, and then he would become bored with them. None of that was their fault, of course. They just weren’t his fated mate.
“Hmm,” Devlin said. “Then what other ways can I show her that I am sincere about all of this?”
Gerri let out a soft chuckle, then slid off the stool she had been perching on. She patted his shoulder before starting to move to the couple beyond them.
“You are a smart man, Devlin,” Gerri said. “I’m sure you can figure out that there are other ways to show someone you want something with them, something eternal rather than some fling. You will think of something.”
She gave his shoulder one final pat, then moved to the couple to check up on their interaction.
Devlin heaved out a long, deep sigh as he ordered two more pints for him and Victor. Gerri was right. Kate wasn’t a shifter, and also wasn’t a human who was easily impressed by money and prestige. She had been a child who wasn’t appreciated, so it would make sense that she would be standoffish to any potential men trying to lure her.
Devlin returned to Victor, and they decided to stay at the clubhouse for dinner. Because they attended the restaurant and golf course often, the servers knew them and made it pretty obvious about hitting on them. Victor participated while Devlin merely watched, amused but lonely.
They left around midnight, heading to their own private quarters at their massive mansions. Victor gave Devlin one final bit of advice and support as he leaned into the car window.
“You have to show her who you are,” he said, sounding a bit slurred. “When she sees that, I know that she is going to love it.”
Devlin laughed to himself, then thanked his friend. His driver took him home to an empty house. One that felt even emptier with the thought of Kate lingering on his mind.
The man could have anything he wanted in life. Literally. He could call up someone in the middle of the night and get a helicopter to fly over to Kate’s place, sweep her off her feet, take her to the top of the highest mountain and confess to her his undying love.
But those were things his money could buy, and she clearly wasn’t interested in all that.
Devlin moved through the house slowly, stuck in the dark recesses of his mind.
He came to the thought of an old friend, one who had immensely let him down. He had been a man who was quick to trust when he first started earning his wealth. It was only after the betrayal that he started cutting people off, feeling used for his money and position in the business world.
Devlin showered and had one more drink before heading to bed. He knew that he wouldn’t sleep, not with his bed being so big and so empty that it nearly echoed in its solitude.
He sat on the terrace outside his bedroom, gazing up at the stars. He had never been much of a poetic man, but there was something that had struck him about what Gerri had said about two shooting stars.
Devlin never thought he would find love, even though he was a shifter, and being a shifter meant that you were destined to find one person you were meant to be with. Even then, though, it all sounded like bullshit to him. But Kate made him feel like a poet.
He wanted to chase the stars in the sky, capture them all for her, and spill them at her feet for her forgiveness.
He drank and brooded until nearly three in the morning before finally calling it quits. He climbed into bed without much expectation to sleep, longing for Kate but also searching in his mind for a way to truly show her that he wanted, more than anything, to be her man.
Devlin dreamed about a life with Kate, and it was the most beautiful vision he had ever observed. She was wearing a transparent red dress, beckoning for him to come to see as she planted her feet in the water of some forgotten sea.