Love Like Ours (Sugar Lake Book 3) Page 10

  Holding her gaze, he slid a finger into the cup of her bra and pulled it down, freeing her breast. And holy cow, the predatory look in his eyes was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. He lowered his mouth, teasing her into a noodle-legged mess of desire. Her body trembled with every suck, and though she’d never before been this aggressive, this unafraid or turned on, she trusted him completely and guided his hand between her legs.

  “Aw, fuck, Talia,” he ground out.

  His greedy voice sent lust coursing through her like a raging river, uncontrollable and inescapable. Their kisses turned frenzied as he shifted his body, blocking the view of her from the hallway. He adeptly unbuttoned her jeans and pushed his hand down the front at the same moment he claimed her mouth in another brutal kiss. His fingers moved swiftly to the place she needed him most, and he groaned into their kiss. That greedy noise and the feel of his hard shaft against her had her spreading her legs wider. He teased over her sex as he possessed her mouth in a kiss so deep and rough, fire sizzled in her veins. His fingers sank into her, and she gasped with pleasure. His thumb pressed on her clit, moving in a mind-numbing rhythm as his fingers found the magical spot that sent her up onto her toes. She couldn’t concentrate on kissing, standing, or anything other than the pleasures radiating through her as he sent her soaring.

  He swallowed her cries with more all-consuming kisses, until she collapsed in a breathless heap against him, her body jerking with aftershocks as he whispered, “Stay,” in her ear.

  Sometime later, after Talia agreed to stay for dinner and they both calmed enough to actually focus on something other than the passion consuming them, they watched a show with his father and then began cooking dinner. Derek couldn’t stop looking at Talia. He moved closer so their arms touched as they sliced peppers, sweet potatoes, onions, and zucchini. He knew it was a lot to ask of her to accept his dancing, his father, his life. A shy smile lifted her lips, and in that moment he felt like she’d always been right there with him. Like she belonged there.

  “You cut veggies like a pro. Are you sure you suck at cooking?” They were making herbed lamb cutlets with roasted vegetables, one of his father’s favorite meals.

  “I make a mean microwave meal.” She glanced at the vegetables on his cutting board. “You cut twice as fast as I do.”

  “I’ve been doing it my whole life. You can’t grow up with a chef and not learn from him. All those hours I spent at the restaurant paid off as a blessing in disguise. I can’t imagine trying to order in or eating out with my father. There are too many foods we try to avoid, like processed and white foods, which aren’t good for cognition, and too much agitation with crowds and unfamiliar surroundings.”

  “Do you cook all your father’s meals?”

  “Yes, except when Maria is here. It’s not difficult. It just takes planning and the desire to want to eat something colorful and delicious that doesn’t come from a box.” He softened the tease with a kiss.

  “Hey, don’t dis my eating habits.”

  “I have no idea how you have survived this long on sugar and microwave meals, but I’d never try to get you to change, much less change what you enjoy eating.”

  “I never said I enjoyed them.” She set down her knife and helped him put the vegetables on a large baking tray.

  “Then there’s hope for you yet.” He kissed her again, knowing he’d never get enough. “Now we drizzle olive oil over them.” He stepped behind her and placed his hand over hers, drizzling the oil with her. “I saw a flyer for a cooking class on the table by your door. Are you thinking of taking it?”

  “It was part of my journey outside my comfort zone. I was considering it. Piper’s been pushing me. She keeps urging me to join an outdoors club and go hiking or something like that.”

  He put the vegetables in the oven. “I’ll teach you to cook, and I’d love to take you hiking when it’s warmer. Or skiing, mountain climbing, whatever you’d like.”

  “Whoa, skiing? Mountain climbing? I don’t even go camping anymore. Not after what happened when I was young.”

  He arched a brow. “Bear incident?”

  “Bear?” Her eyes bloomed wide. “Another reason not to go in the woods, but no. My father took us on a family camping trip and it rained so hard our tent flooded. Five kids, two adults, and one tarp. We were two miles from our car, in the dark. It wasn’t pretty.”

  He chuckled as she went on to describe their cold, wet night. But there was no missing the happy thread in her voice as she relayed what sounded like an adventure.

  “Besides, it’s not as if your life isn’t busy enough already,” she said as he set mint leaves and thyme on her cutting board and lamb cutlets on his.

  “If you chop those up, I’ll trim the fat from the lamb.” When she began chopping, he said, “If you haven’t guessed my selfish reasons, teaching you to cook and taking you out for a hike or whatever would give us more time together.”

  Her gaze flicked up to his. “Suddenly a cooking class with Chef Derek sounds perfect.”

  “Did you ever help your mother cook?”

  “We all helped, but I always had my nose in a book, so while I helped, I never paid attention. I’m not the only one who didn’t learn to cook. Piper could burn water. But Ben is an amazing cook. And I did learn how to make soaps and lotions from my mom. Cooking is just not my thing.”

  “I’d like to be your thing.” He stole another kiss. “Your family sounds like fun, and you seem close to them. You’re lucky.”

  “I am, but not as close as my sisters are to each other. They talk about everything. I’m more private.”

  “So, they won’t hear the dirty details of our pre-dinner make-out session?”

  “No!” she insisted, eyes as wide as saucers.

  He chuckled and pulled her into his arms. “Good. Some things should be private.”

  “They wouldn’t believe it if I told them anyway.” She lowered her voice and said, “I’m not normally like that.”

  “You mean too sexy to resist?” He kissed her until she went soft in his arms. Man, he loved that feeling. “Trust me, babe, there’s not a single moment when you’re not too sexy to resist.” She blushed, and he kissed her crimson cheeks. “Like now. I could carry you into my bedroom, and—”

  She silenced him with her fingers over his lips. “Shh. You’ll get me all hot and bothered again. I don’t usually . . .”

  He pressed a kiss to her fingers. “Just knowing I can turn you on with words turns me on.” Enjoying another flash of surprise in her pretty eyes, he said, “I don’t normally do or say those things, either. I have a feeling you and I are going to find we’re doing a lot of things with each other that we wouldn’t normally do.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  AFTER A DELICIOUS dinner, during which Jonah complimented Derek’s cooking about a dozen times, asked if he remembered when their mother used to cook lamb, and called him Archie twice, they sat in the living room looking over several of Jonah’s notebooks and drawing journals. There were cartoons of his and Eva’s wedding day, of Jonah and Derek eating apples at the top of a mountain, backpacks sitting open behind them, and of a gap-toothed young Derek with a bright blue backpack in front of Harmony Pointe Elementary School on his first day of second grade. There were drawings of meals and scenery, cars and family vacations. Jonah hadn’t only captured happy memories. There were sketches of a teary-eyed, red-faced young Derek with a broken toy scattered at his feet and a watery-eyed Eva as she stood over the grave of her mother, crushing the stems of a bouquet. So many emotions jumped off each and every page, Talia thought the collection of more than three dozen notebooks and journals should be titled Depiction of a Full Life.

  Now it was almost nine o’clock, and she relaxed on the sofa, listening to Derek play his guitar and sing “Lean on Me” in his father’s bedroom. He was so caring, she wondered if he ever felt ripped off or overwhelmed. If he did, she hadn’t seen it today.

  She returned the drawings to the shelf
and noticed the leather journal Jonah had been holding when she arrived. The journal Derek had mentioned was his. She didn’t want to snoop, but she was anxious to see it. She took it to the couch and sat with it on her lap, listening to the soothing cadence of Derek’s voice as he lulled his father to sleep with a song. She’d had a long talk with Fletch that morning when she’d gone to take Molly for a walk before coming to Derek’s, and he’d mentioned that he’d noticed a difference in her. He’d said she seemed lighter, happier. Fletch knew her so well, he’d asked if she was frightened by not having complete control of her emotions. It was a question Ben might have asked if she’d seen him these last few days. It was frightening to feel so much so fast, especially when a good part of Derek’s life was unfamiliar territory. She couldn’t avoid thinking about having been hurt in the past, but that was a decade ago, and Derek had already proven to be so much better a man than most men she knew. He shouldered the weight of his family, and he had already been painfully honest about his personal life. Fletch told her what Ben had been telling her for years. Don’t let some idiot college kid ruin you for a worthy man.

  Derek’s hand on her shoulder pulled her from her thoughts.

  “Damn,” he whispered as he sat beside her and put his hand over hers on the journal. “You’ve already looked at your surprise?”

  “My surprise?”

  He lifted it from her lap, unwound the leather strap that kept it closed, and opened to the first page, where cartoonish writing read Talia’s Journey Out of Comfort and Into Life. Below, in simple script, he’d written, As seen through the eyes of the man she almost ran over. A cartoon of her upper body sticking out of a bottle, her waist trapped by the skinny neck, her hands pushing at the rim. Her long hair was tousled, and her eyes were wide and frightened. Raised brows brought an element of excitement to the fright looking back at her. The label on the bottle read, COMFORT ZONE. As with his father’s drawings, only one element was colorized. Her eyes were vivid shades of brown, with flecks of gold in the shape of question marks around the pupil.

  “You made this for me?” She met his gaze and saw so many emotions staring back at her, she couldn’t process them all. It was good to know she wasn’t alone in that whirlwind.

  “This is an important journey, and I’m honored to be a part of it. I thought it might be fun to look back at it someday. You know, when we’re skydiving or backpacking through Europe and your sisters are green with jealousy.”

  “We’re?” she said carefully, her heart hammering hopefully.

  “You didn’t even blink at skydiving, but that beautiful brain of yours zeroed in on the more important thing I said. I really like that about you, Professor Dalton.”

  She took his hand and placed it over her racing heart. “It wasn’t my brain zeroing in.”

  His lips came down over hers, swift and uplifting, like a summer breeze off the ocean. It was so easy to open up to him, to want more of him and with him, but she was well aware of the limitations on his time—and so was he.

  He pressed a tender kiss to her lips and said, “Where’s the harm in dreaming big?”

  “I’ve only ever dreamed big when I thought about my career. I wanted to teach and become tenured. That seemed big to me.”

  “You never had dreams of a family of your own? A white picket fence?”

  She swallowed hard, because that wasn’t something she’d shared other than a quippy comment to her family at times. “I did, a long time ago . . .”

  “The cheating ex?” His brows slanted angrily.

  She nodded. “I don’t dream big, and I’ve stayed away from guys like you, who are popular and hot, for a very long time.”

  “You think I’m hot?” he asked far too innocently.

  She bumped him with her shoulder. “Like you don’t know it.”

  “I only care that you think I’m hot. Tell me why you don’t dream big anymore, because we need to fix that. You should have dreams.”

  “I’m starting to think maybe I should,” she said, feeling the tug of hope. “Terrence, the guy who cheated on me, was popular, handsome, outgoing. Everyone adored him. We were in a study group together, and he kept flirting with me. I was surprised when he first asked me out because I’m a book girl, not a party girl.”

  “A gorgeous, smart, funny book girl. Don’t ever demean the incredible person you are. If some asshole didn’t realize that, that’s on him. Not a reflection of you.”

  She tucked away his cherished words. It was what she’d told herself for a very long time, but somehow hearing it from Derek made it real. Believable. “Thank you. Anyway, what happened was horrible, and something I never want to go through again. We’d dated for a number of months. I’d help him with his classes, and we’d go out places. Sometimes I’d leave parties early because it just wasn’t my thing, but he never complained. And I didn’t mind that he stayed to hang out with friends. I trusted him. I thought we were good, you know? We had plans to spend part of spring break at his house and part at mine, so our families could get to know each of us better. Ben went to the same school I did, and he tried to warn me before everything went bad. He said he’d seen Terrence with another girl at a party, but when I asked Terrence about it, he denied it. I was blinded by my feelings for the guy, so I got angry with Ben. I reacted so badly. I said things to him that I still regret. I even told him to stay out of my life.” She swallowed hard, ancient sadness welling up inside her. “A few weeks later, this girl confronted me after class. I’ll never forget her. She had blond hair, blue eyes, a perfect figure, and she had one of those voices that’s soft and makes you lean in to hear her talk. Anyway, she told me she was seeing Terrence and had been for months. She showed me pictures of the two of them. There was no denying it. When I broke it off with Terrence, I needed to understand why he’d hurt me like that, and he said I wasn’t feminine enough, wasn’t outgoing enough. I just wasn’t enough for him in any way. I wondered if he’d gone out with me because I helped him with his course work, but that thought was even worse than just not being enough for him.” Even after all these years, his hateful words brought the sting of tears. She refused to cry over him and blinked them away. “Ben showed up at my dorm that night because I hadn’t responded to his texts.”

  She inhaled an unsteady breath as Derek put an arm around her, drawing her against his chest. He kissed her temple and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  “I found out later that practically everyone at school who knew us was aware of his other girlfriend. I was mortified and hurt, and I never told a soul other than Ben and Fletch, and they’ve never told anyone. I told my family I decided the relationship was taking too much away from my studies, which they believed, because . . .” She shrugged and managed a smile. “I’m me, right?”

  “I love who you are, Talia.” He held her tighter. “What did Ben do to the guy?”

  “Exactly what you would want him to, given the angry look in your eyes. Ben stormed out of my dorm and hunted Terrence down. I’m not someone who agrees with fighting, but my heart was so broken, I was glad Ben went after him. I’m ashamed to say that, because we were only kids and kids do stupid things, but still. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit there was a sense of vindication in seeing Terrence’s broken nose the next day.”

  “Sounds like Ben’s a good man. I would have done much worse. And you gave up your dreams. And now you hide behind your job and probably date safe guys who aren’t likely to hurt you.”

  How could he see her so clearly? She hadn’t dated often, but when she did, she went out with guys who had what she considered safe office jobs, who didn’t party or frequent bars. The problem was, while they were safe, something had always been missing. In a strange twist of fate, they were never enough for her. They didn’t incite passion or the flutter in her chest when she saw their numbers on her phone or heard their voices, like Derek did.

  She had a feeling he saw all of that, too, and didn’t need her to verbalize it.

  “Something li
ke that,” she admitted.

  “I wish I’d known you then. I’d have kept you all to myself, so guys like him couldn’t get close enough to hurt you.”

  “You might have been too wild for me back then.”

  “Ah, you like men who are strapped down by ailing parents?” he teased.

  “Only one particular man,” she said, and he kissed her again, slow and sweet. “I don’t consider caring for your father as being strapped down. That would be like seeing Bridgette as strapped down because of her son. When it’s family, it’s not being strapped down. It’s doing what’s right, what your heart tells you to do. And you haven’t let it keep you from living your life or having dreams. That says a lot about how resilient you are. I’ve been thinking about the project you’re putting together with your friends.”

  “Speaking of my friends, they adore you. We’re going skiing a week from Saturday. I’d love it if you’d join us.”

  “I haven’t skied since I was about eight years old. My parents taught me how, but I’m really more of a lodge girl.”

  A wide grin appeared on his face. “Even better. I promised to help you step outside your comfort zone. This is perfect. I’ll give you a refresher.”

  She groaned. “What if I suck? Or if I get hurt? It won’t be any fun for you.”

  “Being with you is what makes it fun.” He pressed a whisper of a kiss on her cheek, and his eyes darkened. “You won’t suck . . . unless you want to.”

  She felt her cheeks burn.

  “Man, I could watch you blush all day long. Don’t worry. I won’t let you get hurt, and I promise we’ll both have fun.”

  She inhaled a shaky breath. “Okay. I’ll try.”

  “Awesome. Now, what were you saying before I interrupted?”

  “I’m too busy worrying about breaking my leg to remember,” she teased, earning another delicious kiss. “Mm. Now I remember. We’re having a birthday dinner for my mom Wednesday. I’d really like it if you’d come. You can bring your father, and I was thinking that you might want to share your idea with Ben. There’s no guarantee he’ll be in the mood to talk business, but it won’t hurt to meet him. He knows about all sorts of businesses, and he might have some valuable advice. Besides, even though I think my family will drive you crazy—and I know they’ll drive me batty after meeting you—I’d like for you to meet them.”