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Now, Derek Freaking Pender (that should be his actual middle name but really it’s Felix and he hates it) is standing in front of me in skintight black boxer briefs and I’m about to faint. Sure, I’ve seen him naked plenty of times. But that was different. We were young, and time (that unforgiving jerk) has erased most of my memory.
This…this feels like an entirely new experience. This feels like palms sweating. Thighs tingling. Toes curling.
One more question and I win.
He sees the hungry look in my eyes and his grin turns downright wicked. “Ask your question.”
I don’t hesitate. “Why do you anonymously fund a nonprofit that helps single mothers pay their rent and mortgage?”
His eyes flare. I got him on that one. “You really were digging through my finances, weren’t you?Pass.”
And then without an ounce of self-consciousness, without a bit of hesitation, Derek steps completely out of his underwear, leaving all of him (and I do mean all of him) on display for my eyes to devour. He lost and I won—but when his eyes lock with mine and I see the arrogant glimmer I love so much, when he steps closer to me to make the first move as defined in the earlier rules of the game…it sure feels like he won somehow.
“What’s the secret game you were playing?” I ask, my face tippingup, up, up as he approaches. He’s powerful clothed. He’s unearthly naked. My skin warms and tingles as every cell in my body reaches for him.
“No secret game.”
“Don’t lie to me, Pender.”
“Truly.” He glides my hair back, fingertips brushing my shoulder in a whisper. “I only lost because I want to show you in a physical way that I’m intentionally and completely vulnerable to you, Nora. That I’ll gladly lose to you every day of my life—because for me, the prize is just being near you.” His hand slides against my jaw and a tremble runs through me.
“Now, a few truths.” He leans down to kiss my cheek. “I don’t want to tell you what’s in my bedside table because when I do, it will change everything between us, and I don’t think you’re ready for it yet. I have no desire to watch you bolt out the door, so you’ll have to be content with waiting.” Another kiss on my other cheek as delicious heat billows off his body, silently calling to mine. “My favorite color is hazel.” He angles my jaw up and his lips find the underside of it. “And I fund that organization because when we were dating, you said you’d wished something like that would have existed for your mom and other moms like her. So when I got my first major paycheck and my CPA asked what kind of charities I’d like to donate to, your words were the first ones that sprang to mind. I did it anonymously because I didn’t want you to see it and think it was strange ofme.”
“I would never have—” He silences me with a finger to the bow of my lips.
“And the first day I saw you again in the conference room, I waslivid”—he growls that word—“that you were still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life.”
Now tears collect in my eyes and drop down my cheeks. Derek wipes them with his thumbs. “I’m at your feet, Nora. If you want me, I’m yours.”
There’s no part of me that needs to even pause to consider it. “Yes, Derek, I want—”
My words are taken by Derek’s crushing kiss. His mouth catches mine with a force that stirs every corner of my body. It simmers over my lips. It heats my skin and inches its way to my core.
His hand whispers down my side, drawing goosebumps to the surface of my arms and the tops of my thighs, as he wraps around to my lower back, tugging me up against him. Our kiss slips away and comes together again, angling and re-angling. The best geometry class of my life.
My heart is thunder as he carries his breath down my throat, teeth gliding gently over my flesh until he reaches the base of my neck. The inky night slips around us, stars winking out the window, encouraging me thatthisis a very good idea as Derek’s mouth sucks lightly at my throat.
More, more, more.
“Happily,” he says, because apparently I’d been whispering my sentiments out loud. My abdomen tightens instinctively as Derek’s knuckles brush against the skin of my midriff, briefly toying with the waistband of my lovely pink trousers. With an expertise worthy ofan award, he flicks open the button, pulls the zipper down, and then drops them around my ankles. It happens in a flash. Cold air rushes my thighs, but I shiver from Derek’s large warm hand moving around to my ass and giving one firm squeeze.
He groans a gutted sound that sends need striking through me from all corners. “These are not your days-of-the-week panties,” he half growls in my ear.
“No. They’re not.” My smile is dipped in confidence.Theseare lacy.Theseare see-through.Theseare sexy and daring and make me feel like a woman. Derek’s eyes eat me up from head to toe.
“I love them.” A dark grin overtakes his mouth. Eyes glittering dangerously. “Now take them off.”
His thumbs hook the flimsy waistband and peel them off me—inch by inch. I can’t stand to keep my hands to myself any longer. I want to plaster myself to him and never let go. To start, I trace the raised lines of the tattoos on his shoulders and chest, letting my fingertips dance down his hard abdomen and toward other hard places. But Derek catches my wrist, stopping me before I can.
“Not yet,” he warns. No—pleads.It cracks the moment wide open, reminding us how much this means to both of us. “I don’t want to rush. Tonight I just want to savor you.”
There’s absolutely no arguing with that. So I raise my arms above my head, letting Derek remove my bandeau top. He gives it a few quick tugs, but it won’t budge. I’m just about to show him where to find the zip when I hear a sharp tear. My sad little bandeau falls limply to the ground next to my trousers as a discarded scrap of fabric. I’ll take this top home with me and frame it with a little plaque underneath that readsAn Ode to Cancún.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to rush,” I chide, taking my hands up over these mountain ranges he calls shoulders.
“We have to make exceptions now and then. I’ll buy you a newone, Ginger Snap,” he whispers against the shell of my ear, teeth catching at my lobe once. Tension gathers between my thighs as Derek’s tongue swirls over my pulse. Sensations unlike any other zigzag down through my stomach.
My nails bite into his back, trying frantically to get closer, to feel the rocking pressure of our hips meeting. He swears against my skin before his hands drop to hook under my thighs. He hoists me up so we’re face-to-face, and despite drowning in this haze of lust, I’m able to appreciate how very blue his eyes are even in the moonlight.
