CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jenny stared down at Derek.
Holy. Shit.
Her hands hovered over him but she didn’t touch. She didn’t even know where to start.
Derek was a well-built, solid man, but she’d never realized quite how…big…he was. His shoulders were wide and muscled, his chest was broad, and his arms were flat-out beautiful. All of this was covered with tanned skin. And tattoos.
She’d seen the ones on his arms before, of course. Many times. He only had one tattoo on his body, and it was an exquisite angel on his ribs, wind-ruffled wings spread wide and a sword in one hand.
Much as Jenny liked tattoos and muscles—hello, who didn’t?—she couldn’t seem to drag her attention off his nipple piercing.
“Aren’t you going to touch it?” Derek broke in on her scattered thoughts.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” he murmured back, lips curving in a slow smile.
Jenny stared at the metal and clasped her boobs protectively. She realized what she was doing when Derek’s eyes flared, and she dropped her hands. They landed on his ridged stomach.
She decided to go ahead and leave them there.
“Doesn’t it hurt?” she demanded. “I can’t even imagine the pain of having someone pierce your nipple. And I have given birth. I have the capacity to imagine a lot of pain.”
Derek took her wrist and slid her hand up over his abs, leaving it on his chest. He settled back and watched her.
Jenny sucked her lower lip between her teeth.
She touched him.
The metal was warm from his body heat, and slipped smooth against her cautious fingertip. She circled the rounded ball at one end. Then she took it between finger and thumb and wiggled it. Then she tugged it lightly.
Derek hissed, his neck arching.
Jenny snatched her hand back. “I’m sorry!”
“Don’t be. I like a bit of pain. Good thing, as it happens. You do not have a subtle touch, Finley.”
She snapped her gaze up to his, indignant. “I am as gentle as a kitten! I am the queen of Jenga. I am the reigning family champion at Operation.”
His hot chest under her exploring hand heaved with laughter.
“I am freaking gentle!”
“No, baby. This is gentle.” Derek had been holding her hips, and now one hand drifted around to the small of her back. He eased below the waistband, callouses playing whisper-soft against the fragile skin above her panties. And almost without her noticing, even though she was looking right at him, he dipped his entire large hand down the back of her jeans and into her panties, and cupped the naked curve of her butt.
Jenny jerked, her knees tightening around him. “May I remind you, Tate, before you start groping—
“You started the groping, the way I recall it—”
“—that I have you in a very vulnerable position.” Damn her voice for coming out high and breathy.
“Is that a fact?”
She tweaked his piercing again. She wanted to make him jump. Only Derek didn’t jump.
He took in a deep breath, and his eyelids lowered. His eyes were a hot dark gleam behind his ridiculous lashes.
“Oh.” Jenny had a moment of clarity. “When you say you ‘like’ a bit of pain…”
“I’m not finishing that sentence for you.” Derek slid the hand she’d somehow forgotten he had in her panties back out and up her spine to play with her hair. He took the tie out and hummed with approval when her hair fell down around her shoulders.
“Is this a sexual thing?” Jenny said. “All the piercings?”
“No. They make me feel pretty.”
She stared at him. Could not tell if he was being serious. “Rebelling against your parents, being the pastor’s son?”
He lifted a brow. “Hard to rebel against parents who would support you in all and any life choice you care to make, bar crime. You know my mom, Jenny.”
Yeah, Jenny knew Mrs. Tate. If Derek said he wanted to dye himself blue, Mrs. Tate would supportively try to pick out the shade with him, and then she’d send him a hand-crafted greetings card, with glitter, saying something like, ‘So, You’re Blue: That’s Great!!!’
“You like my tattoos,” Derek said.
She wanted to lick his tattoos.
He studied her. “You don’t like the piercings?”
She didn’t quite know how she felt about them. “This is my first time, is all. Seeing a piercing other than, you know. Ears and face.” She traced his eyebrow. “I like this one. As for the other? I don’t know. I am aware of the Internet, I’ve seen pictures. I’ve just never touched one before.”
And she couldn’t stop touching Derek’s. What the hell, he liked it, right? She kind of thought she did, too. She flicked it.
Derek shifted under her, and Jenny got a thrill of pure feminine power.
Now that, she liked.
“I’m wondering,” Derek said, catching her wrist and bringing it up to his mouth. He turned it, pressed his lips against the sensitive underside and continued to speak against her skin, “if you plan on kissing me any time soon?”
Jenny stroked her thumb over his cheekbone. “I’m considering it.”
“Anything I can do to sway you? This, maybe?” His fingers threaded through her hair and fisted lightly as he drew her down.
She stretched out on him full-length.
Derek’s dimples flashed. “Kiss me, Jenny,” he said, “and I’ll let you play with my other piercing.” He rocked his hips up into hers. “It’s the best one.”
Jenny had been a second away from laying her mouth on his, but at this she pulled back. “You haven’t really got a piercing down there, have you? You’ve bragged about it a lot, but you haven’t really. Have you?”
“I don’t brag. Kiss me, and you can find out.”
“Are you kidding? I can’t concentrate on kissing you if I’m thinking about that. It’s one thing to be pierced here, and here—” she flicked his barbells, “—but come on. For real?”
“You’re killing me,” Derek said. “I’m trying to be a gentleman. You are not making it easy.”
“Nothing about me is easy.”
“I’d noticed.” He broke off to stare at her lips with such intense focus, goosebumps prickled over Jenny’s skin. “God,” he said, deep voice edged with something that sounded like despair. His fingers in her hair flexed. “You can look in a minute, baby. First I have to…” He exhaled sharply and his hold in her hair tightened. Derek drew her down even as he arched up, closing the distance between them. “Jen,” he said on a groan. “Waited so long for this. For you.”
He kissed her, hard.
Derek held her face between his rough palms and angled her how he wanted. He stroked his tongue against hers in a confident demand that made her lower body tighten in a sudden, brutal clench. One hand curled at her neck. The other hand skimmed down her spine and he gripped her ass with raw possession.
Jenny gasped and moved against him, feeling his length pressing into her hip.
Derek tore away and threw an arm over his eyes. His chest heaved beneath her. “Shit.”
Jenny bit his neck, tasting the heat and salt of his skin.
So quickly it forced a sharp pant out of her, Derek flipped them, putting him on top and her back to the cushions. He slid a knee between hers and pinned her with his gaze as he used that knee to open her legs, making room. He settled his weight on her. “Now, where were we?” He pretended to think. “Ah, yes. I was about to show you my cock.”
Jenny’s face flamed.
Derek’s eyes widened and he burst out laughing.
She shoved him. “Don’t you dare laugh at me, deviant.”
Still shaking with amusement, he swept her hair back. “Why did that make you blush? I put my tongue in your mouth, and you bit me. I had my hands in your pants, and you yanked me. I mention my cock, and you blush?”
The fact of it was, Jenny Finley was all front, and she was terrified that Derek was about to find her out.
Jenny wasn’t inexperienced when it came to sex. She preferred to think of herself as a specialist. She was a specialist in having sex with her ex-husband. And no one else.
Ever.
Dean was nothing like Derek. Dean was a traditionalist. Sex had been kept to the bedroom, under the covers more often than not, and that had been fine by Jenny.
Dean had never once pinned her to the sofa in broad daylight and offered to show her his dick piercing.
He’d never offered to show her anything.
“Honey,” Derek said. “If you don’t want—”
“I do.” She gripped his muscled arms. “I want. But I’m kind of freaking out.”
“Mmm. What’s freaking you out?” He shifted off and she grabbed for him blindly. “Hey,” he said. “I’m not leaving you. Not going anywhere.” He settled on his side then dragged her against him, hooking her thigh around his hip and bracing an arm on the side of her that was open to the room. “Comfy?”
Jenny nodded.
Derek considered her. “Let’s switch,” he said. He lifted her with shocking ease, moved her over him, and tucked her so that his large body was between her and the room, and she was surrounded by him. He swept a hand down her thigh. “Up,” he said.
Jenny obediently slung her leg over his.
Derek smiled, his face soft and warm. “You are a puzzle, Jenny Finley. But I think I’m starting to work you out.”
Jenny didn’t think a trained professional could work her out, but what did she know?
She wanted Derek so badly she felt like her skin could barely contain so much raw desire, and at the same time she was scared. She knew she had no reason to be, but…she was.
“What’s freaking you out?” Derek asked again. “Us?” He flexed against her. “This?”
Jenny stared at Derek’s very obvious erection. Jesus, it looked big. “The thing is, Dean was what you could call…preppy.”
“Got a few things I’d call Dean Hansen. Preppy doesn’t even make the top hundred.”
Jenny grinned, pressing her forehead to his throat. “You’re kind of outside my comfort zone, Derek.”
A gentle touch feathered over the nape of her neck. “Fun, isn’t it?”
“Eh.”
Derek nudged her face up to his. “Preppy Dean,” he prompted.
“I like you,” she said.
Derek bent his head and dropped a hard kiss on her lips. “I know.”
She mumbled against his lips, “What if I don’t like your piercing? What if it…bothers me?”
He laughed.
“I don’t think you’re taking me seriously, Derek.”
“I am. You’re not gonna have a problem with it.”
“How can you know that? Okay. Confession time.”
“This is going to be good.”
She drew a pattern over his chest. “I may have looked up piercings on the Internet. On Alex’s computer, of course. There is no way I’d use my laptop, Kate would somehow know.”
“Ah.”
“I didn’t melt in a puddle of lust, Derek.”
“At pictures of random dudes’ cocks? I’m stunned.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Shouldn’t I have felt a little, you know? Frisson?”
“There is no ‘should’, baby.”
“Derek.” She glared at him. “What if it grosses me out?”
He shrugged. “Then it grosses you out.”
That simple? “I have to tell you right now, if you look at any part of me and then tell me I gross you out, I will have a big problem with that.”
“You think I don’t get what this is about?” He ran a finger along her jawline. “You’re not worried about not liking my piercing. You’re worried about hurting my feelings.”
“Is that so strange? Men can get weird about women looking at their dicks and saying, gross.”
“We’re talking about my piercing. Not my dick. That’s where the piercing happens to be. You hate it that much, I’ll take it out.”
Instead of reassuring her, this made Jenny mad. “And what about this one?” She flicked his nipple. “Or this one?” His eyebrow. “What if I make you take these out, and then tell you I want you to laser off your tattoos? Next thing you know, I’m cutting your hair and putting you in khakis and pastel Ralph Lauren polo shirts and loafers, Derek. What happens then?”
“You are pretty full of yourself, aren’t you?”
She jerked away. “What does that mean?”
“Just because I offered to take out my dick piercing if you can’t stand it—although I think you might like to give it a chance—doesn’t mean you can push me around.” He cupped her throat with a warm palm.
“Please,” Jenny scoffed. “You are so easygoing, I can push you around like a shopping cart.”
“You think you’re the boss, Jen?” Derek’s eyes were alight with amusement. “Want to take stock of where you are right now?”
Jenny froze. Then she heaved against him and shoved at his shoulders.
“Ooh. A tussle.” Derek captured her hands and subdued her with infuriating, arousing ease. Pressing one of her hands into the cushion by her head, he dragged the other down his chest and over his ridged abs, all the way down to his jeans. “Now.” He rocked into her. “You doing the honors, or am I?”
Jenny’s mouth went dry and her heart slammed in her chest. She blinked up at him.
“Me? Okay, then.” Derek leaned back and used his free hand to undo his belt, eyes steady on hers.
The sound of the metal clinking was loud in the otherwise silent room. Derek dragged the belt loose, and tossed it over the end of the couch where he’d earlier tossed his T-shirt. Jenny didn’t move, other than to drop her gaze to watch his long fingers work on the fly of his jeans.
For God’s sake. She could have an orgasm watching the businesslike way he did that, flicking open the button and drawing the zipper down. Slow enough she heard the tick-tick-tick of the metal teeth separating. He reached in, and took himself out.
“Holy crap,” Jenny breathed. “You’re a monster.”
“That’s a nice kick to my ego’s nuts.”
“No, no,” she said, taking him in her hand. She shivered at his hot, hard weight. “You’re beautiful, but… Damn, how do you stay conscious when you get a boner? Is the piercing necessary? Did you have to get it to preserve structural integrity? Is it like a support beam? You have to have it, or you sprain something? Maybe get a hernia?”
“Stop trying to squeeze your legs shut,” Derek said. “You’re going to crack me like a walnut. I’m not that big.”
“Yeah, Derek. Yes you are.”
“I’ve seen bigger.”
“Were you at the zoo?”
“Jen.”
“Yeah?”
His hand covered hers, and squeezed. “You’re not throwing up or fainting or saying ew, gross. Can I take this as a good sign?”
“Yes.”
“If I let you go, you’re not going to run screaming?”
“Nope.”
“All right.” Derek eased back, she lost her grip on him, and he relaxed flat against the cushions. His cheekbones were flushed, his eyes glittering. He tucked his arms behind his head and took a deep breath. “Have at it.”
Jenny got to her knees and straddled his thighs. Wow.
When she didn’t do anything other than stare, Derek gave a strained laugh. “Touch me.”
She did, running her palm from root to tip. He jerked under her, expression tightening. Jenny concentrated her attention at the head, where he’d been pierced with another barbell. She circled it with an exploratory fingertip. “Does it…” She cleared her throat and tried again. “Does it feel good?”
“Yeah,” Derek said, voice rough. He moved his hips restlessly.
Jenny reached out and laid a hand on his cheek. He turned his face into it, pressing a kiss to her palm. “And when you’re having sex?”
He nodded, scraping his stubbled jaw against her skin. “Feels better for you.”
Jenny tilted her head, attention back on the piercing. She rubbed a thumb over it. Like the one in his nipple, it was hot, warmed by his body heat.
“Guess that would really hit the spot,” she mused.
“Yeah,” he said again, then suddenly curled up to sitting. He hauled her tight against him, threaded both hands into her hair, and kissed her. His eyes were shut, and the glimpse of his face she had before he took her mouth with his own made her moan into the kiss.
Her hand was trapped between them. Might as well do something useful with it while it’s there. She gave him a single, firm stroke.
Derek went wild.
After that, everything was a blur of heat and panting, thrusting and grabbing. Jenny struggled against Derek, trying to tug his jeans down to give her more room.
Somehow they ended up on the floor, Derek on top.
Great. Much easier to get at him like this.
She hooked his waistband and wrenched down. As soon as she’d gotten his jeans over his ass, she rolled over him and did her best with the access she’d gained.
He let that continue for all of two seconds, then he went for the hem of her shirt. Her arms clamped down, trapping the fabric. Before the idea of Derek seeing her love handles could toss her out of the moment, he growled and rolled them again, putting her flat to the floor.
He unsnapped her jeans and drove a hand in, knowing fingers going straight to the target. He sucked in a breath when he felt her. “Fuck, Jen,” he said. “You’re so—”
She arched against him, nearly bucking him off when he stroked into her, and he laughed.
“I need more—” he started to say, then gave up talking in favor of kissing her again, devouring her mouth. He did this drawing back and up, teasing her into following him until it was his turn to be straddling her.
“These are coming off,” he said, tugging her jeans. “I need more. I want to see. I need all of you, Jen. God, please, don’t tell me no.”
Keeping her eyes on his fierce, hungry face, as if looking away from him would puncture the bravado that had gotten her this far, Jenny didn’t protest as he unzipped her jeans. His hot gaze flicked up to hers…and he stopped.
“Honey,” he said, coming back down over her. “Shit, I didn’t mean that. Tell me no. You can always, always tell me no.” His fingers dug into the back of her neck as he held her for a soft, gentling kiss. He leaned his forehead against hers, holding himself still with obvious effort. His chest rose and fell with quick breaths.
“It’s not no,” she said, hating how uncertain she sounded.
“It’s not yes, either, is it?” he whispered.
It was I want to but I don’t know if I can.
Fact of it was, Jenny’s sex life up to this point had been mostly satisfying. Mostly for Dean.
He’d been a considerate lover, but on those occasions when she wasn’t as into it as he was, he’d had a tendency to get impatient with her. Of course, that made it even harder to get on board, and then all hope of having an orgasm was out the window.
She knew Derek wouldn’t be like that. She knew it in an odd, searing way that rattled her to her core. He’d be patient, and kind, and gentle.
He was being gentle right now, his breaths evening out.
The problem was, she didn’t want Derek gentle. She wanted him like he was a minute ago: out of control, skin sheened with perspiration, all slick muscles and hot friction against her.
And he did feel so, so good against her. Everywhere. His bare skin, his heavy weight that should feel oppressive but didn’t, his erotic movements, his unrelenting heat.
She didn’t want it all to fade away and get toned down and civilized so he could coax her into pleasure first. It might all fade away so much that he decided it wasn’t worth the bother to build back up.
They might end up having a cup of chamomile tea in the kitchen, and chatting about window boxes again.
“Not me today,” she said. “Just you.”
“We don’t have to do anything today.”
She clutched him. “I don’t want to stop.”
Derek’s penetrating gaze tracked over her face as if he was working something out. “Okay.”
“You’re not…mad?” Ugh. Why did she ask that? He wasn’t going to get mad, this was Derek. “Know what, forget I said that. But if you were thinking about getting mad, buddy, then—”
Derek put a hand over her mouth. “I said I need all of you, Jen. I need this.” He cupped her between the legs. “And this.” He kissed her forehead. “But most of all—” he ducked his head to lay his lips over her heart, where he whispered, “—I need this.”
“My God. You’re romantic.”
He winked. “Also not about to turn down the beautiful woman who wants to give me an orgasm.” He turned them until he was once again on his back, and flung out his arms wide, offering himself up to her. “Have your wicked way with me. Here, I’ll help.” He put her hand on his erection and stroked their fists up and down a few times, showing her how he liked it.
When his hand fell away, Jenny continued on her own. As an experiment, she tugged on his nipple piercing.
Derek’s teeth dug into his bottom lip and his body rippled beneath hers. “You’re determined to drive me crazy,” he said, eyes closing.
Jenny had never seen anything so sexy in her entire life as Derek Tate, on her living room floor, about to lose it. She leaned down and pressed her lips to his softly.
He wrapped her hair around his wrist and held her as he sucked and bit at her mouth until she opened. He panted against her, hips jerking, until his desperate breaths turned short and harsh. With a husky groan that raised the hairs on her arms, he shuddered his release.
Jenny’s heart thrashed in her chest as she watched the tension drain from Derek’s powerful muscles and he lay with complete abandoned satisfaction before her. She blinked a few times. She was pretty sure she’d had her own orgasm, or something damn close.
From watching him.
“So,” Derek said when he’d recovered and had finally stopped kissing her, “I’m thinking it’s safe to say that the cock piercing doesn’t gross you out.”
“Safe to say,” Jenny agreed.
Once they’d gotten off the floor and set to rights, Jenny walked Derek to the front door. There, he drew her into his arms as if he wasn’t ready to leave, even though he’d told her seconds ago that he had things to do.
He tipped her chin up, his eyes searching hers. His dimples made an appearance. “Beautiful,” he murmured.
Sure. She gave him an awkward smile in return.
He shook his head at her. “I’m gonna push you, Jen,” he said, expression growing serious.
After what they’d done, she’d expected him to be even more than his usual laid-back with satisfaction. Instead he seemed sharper, more alert, more focused.
“I want you. I want this. Us. And I’m going to push until I get it. I think you know how I feel about you pushing back. Do it. Fight me. I enjoy a challenge. But talk to me. And most importantly, Jen, next time I see you? I want you to remember one very important thing.”
“Yeah?” she said.
“Don’t forget the extra jalapenos.”
Jenny opened the front door and pointed. “Out.” Some reckless impulse made her smack his ass as he went.
Derek turned on his heel, snatched her through the open doorway and thrust her back against the wall of the house. He licked her mouth open and kissed her, harsh and dominating. Their teeth clicked together.
“Try that again,” he said in a low voice, “and I will spank you.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“You do that.”
After a minute, Jenny laughed. “Weren’t you leaving?”
“Yeah.” He bent his head and feathered his lips up the side of her neck. “I’m rethinking it. What about you?” He nibbled at her skin.
“I would be rethinking it,” she said, “except for the fact I’ve got to pick Kate up in an hour.”
Derek flashed her a dirty grin that made her knees weak. “I can get a lot done in an hour.”
“I have no doubt.” She gave him a closed-mouthed kiss and pushed him back, trying to look severe. Failing. “Leave.”
With a casual salute, Derek went to where he’d parked his bike alongside her car.
Jenny watched as he slung a long leg over the bike, putting on his helmet with the unconscious grace of long practice. He backed out of the driveway and glanced over at her, standing on her porch.
Jenny gave him two thumbs up.
Even over the rumble of the engine, she heard his deep laugh as he rode away.