His eyes are smoldering, and my heart is finally racing for the right reasons. He leans toward my mouth, but stops short of breaking contact with my eyes. And he says it. “I love you.” When his lips touch mine, my body melts in pleasure, but as he pulls his lips from mine, he looks with wonder to my upturned face. “How did I become so obsessed with you?”

“My plan from the start…” I try for seductive, but I’m sure it’s a fail.

He mocks me with my own words from the last time we were here together. “And here I thought you hated me…”

I return the mock. “I never hated you.”

He smiles gently and returns his mouth to mine. My knees are shaking, and warmth is flooding to my core. But before my knees give out completely, he lifts me to straddle his hips. I’m firm against his groin, and he’s hard in desire. He carries me down the hallway to his master bedroom and lays me gently on the bed, covering my body with his.

He slowly and meticulously starts to wriggle my jeans over my hips and down my legs, and my pussy soaks instantly in anticipation of his touch. I’ve missed this. As my underwear is equally slowly pulled from my hips, and my sex exposed to him for the first time in a month, his eyes darken and burn with heat.

He leans toward my mouth one more time, giving me a short kiss before whispering quietly in my ear, “I will never share you with anyone again; I promise.”

He lowers his mouth between my legs as he watches my eyes. When his tongue slides slowly and lightly between the cleft of my sex, I gasp loudly. The warmth of his breath with the tickle of his tongue lightly passing over my skin is enough to send an uncontrollable shudder through my body. I want him to devour me, but he’s in the mood to torture me. As he continues to lightly and playfully run his tongue over my slick folds of skin, my arousal builds to an almost painful level. And before long, I’m begging.

With one more smirk to my desperate, pleading eyes, he latches himself to my body harshly, and he does devour me. He pulls my clit within his mouth, and he tortures the tight nub with his tongue. When he separates from my body, it is only so he can lick every exposed inch of my skin, soothing me with the warmth of his tongue. But I need to come desperately, and when his tongue finds my nub again, it is mere seconds before my body explodes and I do. My orgasm has me convulsing and tightening every muscle in my body, and when it finally fades, I’m gasping for breath.

As I lie panting, barely able to move, he moves up my body and swiftly plunges to his hilt within my tight sheath. It’s been over a month since I’ve made love to him, and my body feels as tight as the first time he took me. I’m in pain, but my body adjusts quickly in my contentment. I’m finally complete and filled with him. He moves slowly at first, seeing the pain in my eyes, but as I adjust, his thrusts quicken. Before long, he’s driving powerfully into my body, expecting me to accept all of him. It is furiously fast and intense, and he comes quickly and harshly, panting against my neck as his orgasm fades from his body. But he doesn’t pull from my body. Instead, he stays within me.

He’s watching me. His finger is winding through my stray curls, and he watches as they spring back to shape as he lets go. His finger moves to my face, tracing over my cheek, gently caressing the skin. It trails down to my chin before tracing my lips. He’s watching so closely, studying his touch and my skin. When his finger moves to run down the bridge of my nose to the tip, he finishes as he leans his mouth to kiss the tip of my nose. It is a gentle tickle as he connects to my skin. I stay still as he continues to watch me and touch me. His slow, deep breathing is hypnotic, and I’m in heaven.

When he finally pulls from my body, he takes his place behind me and pulls my back into his body, but he’s not finished with me yet. He presses his mouth to my shoulder and starts kissing gently across my shoulders and back.

He makes his way to my far shoulder, leans to my ear, and with a deep steadying breath, he speaks to me. “I want you to stay. I’m not going back to the city. This is where I grew up, and this is where my family is. I know it’s my home, but I want it to be yours too…”

This is my dream. The corners of my mouth pull up at his words, though he can’t see my expression.

“Are you sure that’s what you want?”

Even in my contentment, a twinge of unwelcome worry plagues me after the last month apart, but he reassures me easily as he pulls me to face him. “I’m never letting you go again. I promise. I never wanted to be apart from you. I just wanted…” His head is shaking slowly from side to side, and his brow is furrowed. “I just wanted what was best for you. And I didn’t think that I was.” His eyes are sad as they regard mine.

“What’s changed?”

He watches me, saying nothing. He’s debating his words, or perhaps building the courage to speak them, but after many long seconds of silence, he responds, “The last month has been … awful. I think my sister was ready to ship me back to New York, and quite frankly, I’m not certain she wouldn’t have tracked you down herself if you hadn’t shown up today.” He’s smiling gently now. “I’ve been miserable away from you. And oddly, my sister said nearly the same thing you said to me. If I love you, it’s my job to give you everything I want for you, and not let the guilt I feel for how I’ve failed you get in the way of doing that … and I do love you. She called me a chickenshit for leaving you.” Now he’s smirking, but his eyes are gentle and honest. He watches me intently for many more seconds. It’s apparent he’s not yet finished speaking, and I hold my tongue, wanting nothing, including my mouth, to stand in the way of his words. “I’m glad you came today. It forced me to see that you were okay. I’ve imagined for so long that I’d destroyed you by the things you were forced to endure at Trimbles. And, I think I needed to see that you came out of all of it okay. Hurt, sad, upset, maybe even heartbroken, but not broken. I needed to see that. You’re still intact … at least proverbially.” He finishes with another smirk.

With my mind set at ease, and my future locked securely to his, I relax, and so does he. Rain is starting to fall gently outside, and Derek rises from the bed and walks to the sliding wall of windows, pulling them wide open. The scent of rain and earth filter in. I’m given the most amazing view of his backside as he stands watching the rain. He’s so beautiful. Lean and tight. His bottom begs to be touched and caressed. I want to massage every muscle I can see. He turns and catches me staring at his backside, and comments with a wry grin, “Watcha thinking about?”

“That your bottom is just as impressive as the rest of you.” I smile sweetly.

“Impressive, huh? I could say the same of you.”

He returns to bed, and I get what I want. I touch the firm cheeks of his bottom as he lies on his stomach watching me. I caress the strong, tight muscles, and move my hands over the backs of his thighs and back up to his bottom. As I trail my fingers up the cleft between his cheeks, his muscles jump and flinch instantly before he relaxes once again with a chuckle. When I’ve finally had my fill of his backside, he pulls my body back down to his, and we stay there in one another’s arms.

Derek leaves me only long enough to call Morgan to set dinner plans for the next night and reassure her that, yes, I’m still here, and, no, I’m not going anywhere.

She apparently doesn’t believe him, and as he approaches me with his phone in his outstretched hand, he comments with an exasperated note to his voice, “She wants to talk to you.”

I spend the next couple of minutes speaking to Derek’s sister, and by the time I hang up, I’m convinced we will definitely be friends. She’s coming for coffee the next morning, and as she ends the conversation, it is with one final stirring comment. “We have so much to talk about, Ashton. You deserve answers, and I promise I’ll give them to you.”

As I disconnect and hand Derek the phone, he watches me cautiously. I’m sure I look dumbfounded. I am dumbfounded. He continues to study me, but he finally sits nervously on the side of the bed by my side.

“She says I deserve answers… What does she mean?” And I look to him with questions wrinkling my brow.

He’s nervous but resigned. “It involves Morgan too much for me not to let her tell you herself. But I promise you, no more secrets. You will know everything you want to know about me.” And I know he’s telling me the truth. I trust him. Whatever his secrets are, they have never been meant to hurt me, only to protect me, however impossible that might have been.

After I call Liz to invite her and Frederick to dinner the next night, we finally settle back in to spend nothing but time together until the next morning.

Chapter 29

“I’m so sorry, Ashton. This is my fault. All of it.” She’s beautiful even with tears in her eyes. Morgan has the same dark and intense gaze as Derek, but she is not in the least bit intimidating.

When Morgan arrived an hour ago, we settled outside on the expansive deck with our coffee, and by the time we’d finished our first cup, I’d discovered I’d been right on the money with Morgan. I will definitely like her. She is an elementary school counselor in nearby Burlington. Her husband, Charles, whom I will meet at dinner this evening, is a lawyer. It is clear she adores her husband as much as I adore Derek. The way she keeps looking between Derek and me, regarding our interaction with a small smile on her face while we sip our coffee, is precious to see. She truly enjoys seeing us together, and it puts me instantly at ease with her.