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“Believe me, I don’t want to, but Brea is waiting for us.”
“Oh my gosh, I forgot about her.” I put my hands over my hot, flushed cheeks. “I’m aroused.”
“So am I. You’re gorgeous with pink cheeks.” He lightly kissed my lips. “We’ll talk more about this after she leaves.” He raised my wrist to his lips and pressed them to the bruises. “No one hurts my girl.”
My girl?I liked the sound of that.
“Okay, as long as you stay tonight.”
“Stay?”
“All night.”
He kissed me, stirring me up again. “I’ll stay… all night,” he whispered against my mouth.
During dinner, my phone buzzed again. I had forgotten to see who called me earlier. It could only be one of two people, Lily or Tate.
“Do you need to get that?” Derek asked.
“I do. I’ll take it in my room.” I smiled, leaving the table and answering the call as I walked down the hallway. “Hey there.” I shut the door with my backside so I could talk to Tate privately. I hadn’t spoken to him since I left California.
“Howdy, stranger,” Tate said in his husky, robust voice. Dang, I wished I could get one of his bear hugs.
“I’m sorry about missing your call earlier. How are you?”
“No worries. It’s great to hear your voice.” Instantly, he calmed me. “I miss you. I hate not getting to talk to you when I want.” The emotion in his voice made my heart hurt.
“I miss you too. I didn’t realize how hard it would be not talking to you. Eventually, you’ll be able to call whenever you want.”
“It feels like you’ve been gone months,” he grumbled.
“It’s actually going to be three weeks on Tuesday.”
“Shit, then time must be going at a snail’s pace. Is there anything you need?”
“No, I’m fine. What about you? Is Lily driving you crazy?”
He laughed. “She’s always driven me crazy, so nothing new there. I don’t want you worrying about us.”
“I do worry. It’s what I do. You know that. I’m also worried about you and Viv. I’m even worried about Will. Lily said he looked awful when he dropped by the office.”
“We’re all fine. Don’t worry, sweets.” Tate’s tone then turned ferocious. “As for that cheating bastard, don’t bring him up again on one of our calls, all right?”
“I won’t bring up Will anymore, but if there’s something I should know about him, I need to trust you’re going to tell me. I have to be able to trust you, Tate.”
“You can trust me. I’d never lie to you.” He inhaled a deep breath. “I sure as hell won’t let him hurt you again. He’ll forget about you soon enough and will move on.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but the truth was, I was trying to move on with my life. For months, Will had had Cori. I was sure he would rebound faster than I could imagine. I ran my hand over the spot on the bed where Derek and I had our first kiss. Yes, I was moving forward with Derek.
“Sweets,you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Why don’t you tell me about the business and what’s new?” I wanted to talk about pleasant things, not Will.
Tate filled me in on the latest at LA Premier for the next fifteen minutes. When the call ended, I was relieved the topic had never veered back to Will. Nor was I ready to tell him about Derek.
The call with Tate threw me off for the remainder of the evening. It was great to talk to him, but I couldn’t get the thought of Will moving on out of my head. I hated how even the mention of him got under my skin. It had to be because of the baby… Of course it was because of the baby. We would be forever bound through our child.
Derek cleaned up the dishes for me while I showed Brea the new items for the nursery. I loved having them in my home, my friend and significant other. I didn’t want to think of Derek as my boyfriend, not yet anyway. But down deep, I knew we were heading in that direction.
