Love Like Ours (Sugar Lake Book 3) Page 11

  “I want to get to know them,” he said appreciatively. “But I’ll see if Maria can stay with my father. Meeting your family all at once might be too much for him.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry. I should have thought of that. You don’t have to change Maria’s schedule.”

  He ran his fingers through the ends of her hair and said, “Maria’s been all over me since you and I met. She won’t mind. Besides, I have to work Tuesday and Friday nights and Saturday afternoon. I’ll lose my mind if I don’t see you in between, and I want to meet your family.” He glanced at the journal and said, “How else can I know if I drew them right?”

  “Drew them?” She anxiously flipped the page in the journal and couldn’t suppress her delight at the sketch of her at the wheel of her car. She was drawn from the back, from her shoulders up. Her fingers gripped the wheel so hard he’d drawn tension lines shooting out from them. Derek leaned on the hood of her car, looking rattled, shoulders tense, hair hanging loose around his face, but in each of his vibrant blue eyes he’d drawn tiny stars forming a heart.

  “Stars,” she whispered with awe.

  On the back of the previous page, he’d drawn all her sisters standing around a table, upon which was a phone surrounded by cupcakes and doughnuts. She couldn’t stop grinning at his depiction of her family. Curvy Willow had full breasts, one hand propped on her rounded hip, while Piper was drawn petite and wielding a hammer, her mouth open wide. Bridgette’s hands were splayed, rivers of worry on her brow, as if she were trying to calm the others. How could he possibly know that?

  “I wanted to draw your mom, but I had no idea what she looked like.”

  “Her name is Roxie, and she looks like a Roxie, with thick, curly blond hair. Derek, this is incredible. I can feel the energy and can practically hear them all talking at the same time. How did you know Bridgette was a voice of reason?”

  “She’s a mom. She has to be.” He tucked her hair behind her ear and said, “There’s more.”

  “More?” She turned the page, excited to see her life from his perspective. He’d drawn himself in the hallway outside her classroom. He was leaning back, one ear oversized, one foot off the floor, as if he’d stopped midstride, and peered into the room with hearts in his eyes. The next page showed her standing beside the table after class, arms crossed, a serious look on her face, her foot tapping the floor. She laughed, sure she had seemed that nervous and stern.

  “I must have come across like I had a stick up my butt.”

  “You are the most intriguing woman I know, and you do not appear to have a stick up your very fine ass. Don’t apologize for being you. I happen to like you very much.”

  She tucked that sweetness away and turned another page. He’d drawn them sitting in the cafeteria having coffee. There was a place card in the center of the table that read First Non-Date. He’d drawn gears in Talia’s head and had made them shades of red, as if they were churning.

  She glanced at him, and he motioned for her to turn the page. She did and found the drawing his father had been looking at. She and Derek were lying in the snow side by side, hearts in their eyes, their fingers inches apart as Molly licked his face. He’d written, Meant to Be? with stars in the sky.

  A dreamy sigh slipped out. “Derek, this is beautiful and more romantic than anything I could ever imagine. Thank you.”

  “I look forward to adding more to it.” He set the journal on the coffee table and gathered her in his arms.

  He was so close, her lips parted with anticipation.

  “You deserve a world of romance, Talia, and to be surrounded by beauty.” He nipped at her lower lip, and her pulse spiked. “I may not be rich,” he said in a husky voice, thick with desire, “and I don’t have endless hours to woo you with extravagance.”

  His hands moved into her hair, angling her head back so he could taste her neck. And taste he did, with long, slow, openmouthed kisses that made her toes curl as he lowered her to her back. Who needs trips when your touch transports me to the most heavenly places? His weight pressed down on her in all the best places as he lavished her with kisses. His lips brushed over her skin like whispers, and she wanted to capture every one of them.

  His teeth grazed the shell of her ear, and he said, “But I’ll give you every stolen second I can squeeze out of my day and sexy nights when we can sneak them in.”

  He drove her to the brink of madness with his magnificent mouth, kissing and licking, nipping at her lips and neck until she was barely breathing, much less thinking. His hands moved confidently, aggressively, groping her breasts and hips, making her wild with anticipation as she clawed at his arms and back, wanting so much more of him.

  He pinned her in place with a seductive stare. “I want to touch you, Talia. Taste you. Make you lose control.”

  Yes, please, yes. The plea echoed in her head, but she was too lost in him to force a sound. He dragged his tongue over her lower lip, and she arched up, trying again to capture a kiss. A wicked smile appeared on his face, taunting and challenging and somehow also comforting. The safety she felt with him was beyond anything she’d ever known.

  “Most importantly,” he said as he caressed her cheek, “I can give you honesty. I’m a man you can trust not to hurt you.”

  “Yes,” finally sailed desperately from her lips.

  As if her plea severed his last restraint, Derek’s mouth crashed over hers, smothering her in a penetrating kiss. Her hips bolted off the cushions, and she tugged at his shirt, bit his jaw, his lips, every nip driving his arousal higher. He devoured her with the recklessness of a man who didn’t have his ailing father in the next room and knew he needed to get them behind closed doors, stat.

  He didn’t try to explain, didn’t say a word as he pushed to his feet and lifted Talia into his arms. She gasped, clinging to him as he strode toward his bedroom.

  “Your dad?” Talia asked in a shaky voice.

  Closing his bedroom door behind them, he lowered her to her feet in the moonlit room. “There’s an alarm on his door. I’ll hear it if he gets up.” He took her face between his hands, soaking in the sensuality brimming in her eyes. “I can’t resist you, Talia, but if you need me to slow down, just tell me. I’ll always listen.”

  Holding his steady gaze, she toed off her shoes, peeled off her sweater, and dropped it at her feet. “Your turn,” she said with the sexiest smile he’d ever seen.

  “Christ, baby, you’re gorgeous.”

  He took off his shoes and tugged off his shirt, barely able to contain his desire. They came together with the urgency of a starving couple taking their last meal as he stripped off her bra, sending it floating to the floor. Her breasts pressed against his bare chest as he claimed her in another smoldering kiss that made his cock throb and his thoughts scatter. They stumbled to the bed, and he tore back the covers and came down over her as they kissed, unwilling to break their connection. It had been so long since he’d been driven by more than the need for release, he was overwhelmed by the emotions engulfing him. He wanted to take her, taste her, memorize every glorious inch from her fingertips to her toes, but fuck . . . He was desperate to bury himself deep inside her and feel her sweetness all around him.

  He kissed her jaw, down her neck, slowing to slick his tongue over the rapid pulse beating there, and sealed his mouth over it, giving a single hard suck. A long, sensual moan streamed from her lips, spurring him on. He tasted his way down her chest, her fingernails digging into his shoulders as he teased her with slow strokes of his tongue around the taut peak of first one beautiful breast and then the other. She arched against his mouth, breathing harder as he devoured her. He lingered in the valley of her cleavage, drunk on her feminine scent, the heat of her skin, the feel of her nails digging into him. He kissed a path lower, between her ribs, his hands playing over every inch of her flesh, slowing to worship the dip at her waist and savoring the gentle swell between her hips as he worked open the button of her jeans. He lowered the zipper and hooked his fingers in
the waistband. She lifted her hips, allowing him to drag the jeans lower. He took his time, kissing her thighs as he stripped the jeans down to her knees and sealed his mouth over her inner thigh, sucking hard enough to leave a mark.

  “Derek,” she pleaded, her hips rising off the mattress.

  “Too hard?” he asked.

  Her head thrashed from side to side. “I need more.”

  “I do, too, babe. I won’t leave you hanging.”

  He slicked his tongue all the way up to the seam of her panties and then he blew on the wetness. She shuddered beneath him, clutching at the sheets as she struggled against the confines of her jeans. He placed his hands over hers, pressing them into the mattress as he sank his teeth into her panties and dragged them down her hip. She lifted and wiggled, helping him as he repeated the taunt on the other side, revealing a tuft of dark curls and leaving the thin silk just low enough to cover her entrance. He proceeded to tease all around her sex, earning one needy whimper after another. He slid his tongue over her damp curls, along the sides of her sex, inhaling her intoxicating scent. When he pushed his tongue beneath the thin material, taking his first taste of her, heat streaked to his cock, sending a surge of lust through his veins. She moaned, rocking her hips as he teased her drenched sex. He pressed his tongue over her clit, moving in a quick rhythm until she was trembling, pleading at the brink of release.

  “Derek,” she whispered breathily. “Please!”

  He tore off her jeans and panties, spread her legs, and sealed his mouth over the very heart of her.

  “Oh! Oh!” She grabbed his head, rocking against his mouth. “Yes! Yes!” she cried in harsh whispers. “Harder! Oh—”

  Her eyes slammed shut, and her head thrashed as he held her at the peak, her body shuddering around his tongue. He stayed with her until the very last quiver. Then he moved swiftly up her body, rocking his hard length against her entrance, and claimed her in a rough kiss. She hesitated, and he drew back and wiped her sweetness from his face, then recaptured her glorious mouth. She was right there with him, meeting every eager stroke of his tongue with one of her own, fisting her hand in his hair, and rocking against his hard length. He longed to be inside her, to feel her come apart in his arms, but first . . .

  “Open your eyes, baby.” Despite her encouraging pleas, she was his careful girl. He knew they were flying at breakneck speed and he needed to be sure she wouldn’t regret anything they did. He didn’t want to give her any reason not to trust him, and he needed to see that trust in her eyes.

  When they fluttered open, he saw the answer before he even asked the question.

  “Hey, there.” He brushed feathery kisses over her lips. “Just making sure we’re together in this.”

  “As long as it doesn’t end up in my journal,” she said softly.

  “You don’t want to remember our first time together?”

  “I do, but I love the journal. I might want to share it,” she said cautiously.

  “Okay, I promise to be covert,” he said, knowing he’d leave this out if she hated the drawing that was already forming in his mind. He never wanted to forget his beautiful girl saying, Your turn.

  “I trust you,” she said.

  Hearing those words took his breath away—and let another dose of reality in. A dose he had to share. “I want to make love to you more than I want my next breath. But we can’t spend the night together. It might throw my father off if he sees you in the morning.” He caressed her cheek and said, “We can wait until we have the chance to wake up in each other’s arms.”

  “I already assumed that, and I’m still here. I don’t want to wait.”

  “Talia . . .” His voice trailed off, because there were no more words to be said, only feelings to share, emotions to capture. He kissed her tenderly before stepping from the bed and stripping off his clothes. She watched him boldly, her cheeks pinking up as his erection sprang free.

  As he reached into his drawer for a condom, she touched his hand. “Hold me first?”

  It was the sweetest thing he’d ever experienced. All his protective urges surged forth as he set the condom on the bed and took her in his arms. His cock lay on her damp curls as they kissed and embraced, her softness molding to his hard frame. He didn’t know how long they remained in the blissful state of unity, but it was long enough that he felt everything change, and he realized it didn’t take the act of making love for them to become one.

  They already were.

  He drew back, brushing kisses over her lips and cheeks, and his heart came tumbling out. “Is it possible to fall for someone in a matter of days? Hours? Or am I alone in feeling like we’ve found something so incredible, it’s surreal?”

  “It’s real,” she said without hesitation, and their mouths came together, sealing their words.

  He sheathed himself between ravenous kisses and aligned their bodies as he took her in his arms again, cradling, protecting, and giving her all of himself. They gazed into each other’s eyes as their bodies came together so perfectly, he was once again swept away.

  He touched his forehead to hers and said, “So real . . .”

  They found their rhythm and followed it all the way to the end of the rainbow.

  They lay together afterward, bodies intertwined, hands and mouths still exploring, even as they drifted in and out of sleep. When Talia moved to leave the bed, he tightened his grip and kissed her temple. “I don’t want to let you go.”

  “I can’t stay,” she said, soft and sated.

  For the first time since his father’s diagnosis, he felt the full weight of his commitment and wished he weren’t bound by the immense responsibilities so she could stay with him and he could wake up tomorrow and make love to her again. Have breakfast together like a normal couple.

  Those thoughts were followed by a wave of guilt so big he had a hard time climbing out from under it. And then he realized he had another bomb to drop. This was his life. He forced the longing and disappointment aside, and when that didn’t work, he kicked the motherfucking emotion as far away as he could.

  “Babe, my dad has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I can’t come to your class. Save notes for me?”

  A sweet laugh fell from her lips. “You don’t have to feign interest in my class.”

  “I’ll never feign a thing with you. I meant it.” He kissed her again. “Maria’s here for a few hours in the morning. I’ll text, and if you’re free I’ll come by.”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  She touched his ring, a question hanging in her eyes.

  “It was my mother’s.” He twisted the thick vintage-looking gold band with the engraved floral pattern and three tiny inset emeralds. “My father gave it to me after she died.”

  “I love that you wear it. And the bracelets?” She touched the beaded and leather bands around his wrist.

  “These were my father’s. I can’t remember him ever not wearing them. Usually with Alzheimer’s the oldest memories go last, but for some reason, he wanted these off one day, and he never let me put them back on.”

  “I like them.”

  “I like you, Tallie girl.” He pressed his lips to hers, hating that he was so aware of their time together ticking by.

  “Tallie girl . . . ?” she whispered.

  “You mind?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve never been anything but Talia or Tal. I like it.”

  “You’re my Tallie girl . . .”

  After some time, they reluctantly climbed from the bed. He helped her dress and tugged on his jeans. The walk to the front door felt like a walk down the plank. What kind of man made a woman leave after being so close? Another wave of guilt crashed over him.

  He drew her into his arms and said, “I hate that you have to leave and that I can’t drive you home and walk you to your door.”

  “We both knew how tonight would end.”

  “You’re incredible. Thank you for understanding. Did you ever imagine you’d go out with a man who had a
curfew?”

  “To be honest, I had a hard time imagining myself going out with anyone.”

  “Then why me?”

  She went up on her toes and touched her lips to his. “First it was your eyes, and then your honesty and humor. But your heart sealed the deal with Team Grant.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  TALIA MADE THE mistake of stopping by the bakery on her way in to work Monday morning. Despite her lack of sleep, she’d felt refreshed and rejuvenated, which her sisters had immediately homed in on. She’d spent her brief visit denying that she’d been, as Piper had put it, banged into oblivion. Now it was midafternoon, and Talia had an hour to catch up on emails and phone calls before her next class. On her way to her office, her phone vibrated. She pulled it out, expecting to see a text from one of her sisters, who had been trying to pry the juicy details out of her all day, and hoping to get another text from Derek. He’d asked her to text when she got home last night so he wouldn’t worry, and she’d happily complied, enjoying his protectiveness. But he hadn’t returned her text. He’d called instead, saying he wanted to hear her voice one last time for the night . . . or rather, early morning. It was such a loving thing to do after the day and night they’d shared, she’d lain in bed afterward reveling in happiness.

  She sighed at her mother’s name on her screen. Her mother hadn’t been at the bakery this morning, but gossip traveled faster than the speed of light around the Dalton family. She opened and read the message. The girls said my potion worked! When can we meet this yummy creature your sisters can’t stop talking about?