DEREK FOLLOWED THE directions in Talia’s text toward her office Tuesday afternoon, feeling like they’d been apart for weeks. Every step amped up his anticipation. He’d never been a needy guy, and as far as women were concerned, a text here and there had always been enough communication for him. Especially over the past few years, when he’d felt like he was on a hamster wheel, chasing the hours from caring for his father to taking classes and working. Maria was a godsend, but until Talia, he’d considered Maria’s prompting to let a woman into his life a headache he didn’t want to deal with. He’d never imagined finding someone who understood the responsibilities he had, much less someone smart, gorgeous, and as family oriented as he was. But then again, everything about Talia was different from the other women he knew. Hell, even the way she kissed was like nothing he’d ever experienced. She was as sweet and careful as she was eager and passionate. Why did he expect something like communication to be typical? Texts and phone calls were nowhere near enough. He wanted to look into her eyes, to share the excitement of the drawings his father had done yesterday evening. He wanted to hold her in his arms when she told him about her day, and he wanted to hear what she’d taught in the class he’d missed.
When he finally found her office, he peered into the open doorway. She was on the phone and waved him in. Hiding the flowers he’d brought behind his back, he stepped inside and closed the door, because he needed to get his lips on hers or he might die from withdrawal. She looked gorgeous in a low-cut white blouse with frills around the collar, showing just enough skin to make him want to tear that pretty blouse right off. Her slender brows arched in question as he stalked toward her. He was sure he looked as greedy as he felt, ready to collect all the kisses he’d missed.
“Dad, I really have to go,” she said into the phone as Derek came around the desk and ran his fingers through her hair. Her breathing hitched. “Derek and I will see you Wednesday night. I love you.”
He mouthed, I’d love to come, and waggled his brows, earning a flush of embarrassment as she ended the call. He pulled the bouquet from behind his back and her eyes lit up. She leapt into his arms and pressed her smiling lips to his.
“Thank you,” she said breathlessly as he set her on her feet and handed her the flowers. “They’re gorgeous.”
“Not as gorgeous as you. How’s my girl?”
She smelled the flowers. “Wondering if my father could tell I was hot and bothered by the sight of you closing my office door because of all the dirty things that went through my mind.”
She licked her lips, and he backed her up against the desk. Taking the bouquet from her hands, he set it aside.
“I haven’t begun to get you hot and bothered.” He ran his hands up her legs and squeezed. “Do you know how bad I want to drop to my knees right now and make you feel so good you’ll be floating on cloud nine for the rest of the day?”
Her breath rushed from her lungs, but her gaze darted nervously to the door.
“Tell me what dirty things went through your mind.” He threaded his fingers into her hair and lowered his mouth to her neck, enjoying the fresh flush of her skin.
“Something like this . . .” She grabbed his hips and pulled him tighter against her.
Her eyes sparked with heat, but she glanced at the door again. The conflicting messages made his head spin. He tugged her lip free with his teeth, then covered her mouth with his, taking her in a slow, persuasive kiss. Her pleasure-filled noises made him hard as stone. Their kisses turned hungrier, and he couldn’t resist pushing his hands beneath her skirt and gripping her outer thighs. He loved how she trembled at his touch and the way she went soft in his arms when he slowed their kisses. It was agony knowing he couldn’t take this further, but he had only minutes before he needed to leave for his shift at the bar, and he knew making out in her office was way outside her comfort zone. But knowing she’d gone there for him made him all sorts of happy.
When they finally came up for air, he could barely see straight. She gazed at him through the same hazy fog, her fingers running through the ends of his hair as she said, “I thought you had to work.”
“I do. I only have a few minutes.” He couldn’t resist kissing her again. “But I had to see you before I went. I won’t get off until midnight. Is that too late to text?”
She shook her head. “Never too late.”
“I had so many things I wanted to talk with you about,” he said between kisses. “But now all I want to do is keep kissing you.”
There was a knock on the door, and her face blanched. He gave her a chaste kiss and took a step back as she nervously stood up and smoothed her hands over her skirt.
“Thanks for making time for me. I’ll text you when I get off work.”
There was another knock.
“Come in,” she said.
Derek hoped whoever it was wouldn’t notice the flush of her cheeks like he did.
Her office door swung open, and one of Derek’s favorite teachers walked in, apologizing for interrupting.
“Professor Harbin,” Derek said to the stocky gray-haired man, extending his hand. “I was just on my way out.”
Professor Harbin shook Derek’s hand, his wise eyes moving between him and Talia. “It’s good to see you, Derek. How’s your father?”
“As well as can be expected. Thanks for asking.” He glanced at Talia, who had somehow managed to seamlessly slip into her professorial persona.
“How do you two know each other?” Talia asked.
“Derek was my star student,” Professor Harbin said with an affirmatory nod. “But if you’re teaching him, then you’re probably experiencing the same thing.”
“I’m not teaching Derek,” she said, her gaze shifting a little nervously around him.
Derek held his breath, unsure of how to handle the situation. He’d like to jump in and claim Talia, but he didn’t want to say anything that could cause her trouble.
“Actually,” Talia said carefully, “Derek and I are seeing each other. He’s my boyfriend.”
Derek tried to hide his surprise and the pride swelling inside him. He loved knowing she didn’t feel a need to hide their relationship.
“Oh. Well, then, I guess you’re not teaching him, are you?” Professor Harbin flashed an approving smile. “You can’t go wrong with this young man. He’s going to make a difference in people’s lives.”
“Thank you, Professor. And speaking of making a difference, it’s time for me to go serve up some relaxation.”
“Still working at the bar?” Professor Harbin asked.
“It pays the bills.” He glanced at Talia and said, “I’ll call you later.”
Derek fended off the regulars, serving up drinks to lonely women and guys who were looking for a piece of ass. He laughed at lame jokes and nodded at all the right times. He knew how to play the game and make the tips he needed, but tonight his mind was on Talia and the way she’d owned their relationship in front of her colleague, which made it hard for him to pretend to be interested in what anyone at the bar had to say. He watched his friends Geno and Lola dancing. Lola was a tiny blonde with almost no breasts or hips, but lonely guys fed her fives and tens like she was Marilyn Monroe. She was paying her way through school by dancing. Geno was a thick-legged, barrel-chested Italian, with short, pitch-black hair, tattoos across his back, and a flirtatious personality. Women loved him regardless of whether he was dancing or bartending. After his shifts he always hung out to grease the crowd, and he earned even more than Derek did because of it. He gave every woman—and some of the men—the impression that one day he might go home with them, when in reality he was married with two little girls. His youngest had special needs, which was why he danced in addition to his full-time day job as a contractor. Derek had never played the game as well as Geno. He left like a bat outta hell after his shift, and when he was dancing, he imagined being nineteen years old again, partying on foreign beaches where no one knew him, when dancing hadn’t been a means of income. He used to wonder what he looked like up onstage. Did customers assume he was just a dancer? Or could they see that every hip gyration, every pelvic thrust, every time he pointed at a woman was with the hopes of earning enough money to create the future he wanted for himself and his father? Nowadays he simply used that mind-numbing time to escape the stress of daily life.
“Hey, Grant.” His boss, Tyler Reddington, tapped him on the shoulder, pulling him from his thoughts.
He tossed the towel he was using to wipe down the bar over his shoulder. “Yeah?”
“Geno’s wife just messaged me. His daughter had a seizure and he’s got to take off. Can you cover the rest of his dance shift?”
Derek ground his teeth together—at the news Geno was about to be dealt and at the idea of taking off his clothes for anyone other than Talia. But this was his deal, and without it, Our Friends’ House would never come to fruition.
Talia lay on her back in the middle of her bed looking at the drawing in which Derek had cleverly wrapped the flowers he’d given her. She’d spent the evening perusing romantic getaways on the internet for her mother’s birthday and imagining what it might be like to be at them with Derek. She’d finally found one for her mother, texted all her siblings and made arrangements for her mother’s gift, but her mind lingered on Derek for the rest of the night. He’d texted around eleven to say he had to work late to cover his friend’s shift—dancing. She’d felt queasy at the thought of all those women with grabby hands and willing mouths pawing at him, but then she’d looked at the drawing and knew it wouldn’t matter who wanted him, because he only wanted her. He’d drawn himself as an octopus standing behind a bar, serving drinks to big-breasted fish with puffy red lips and stars in their eyes and male sharks with sharp teeth and hungry eyes drooling over them. The octopus had a drink in each of its eight arms, a bored expression on its face, and a thought bubble over its head filled with tiny pictures of Derek and Talia. He’d drawn them kissing in her office—she loved knowing he’d hoped to do so before they actually had—lying in his bed gazing into each other’s eyes, and holding hands under the table when they’d had dinner with his friends. In each drawing he had red hearts in his eyes, except the one of him standing behind the bar. In that one, his eyes were a dull blue. The In-Between Hours was written in curly letters along the edge of the paper, running from the bottom to the top.
She pressed the drawing to her chest, missing him more than she should after only a few hours. She’d gone to walk Molly after work, and she and Fletch had talked for a long time. He seemed genuinely happy for her, but he’d cautioned her, as any good friend would, reminding her about how she thought she’d known Terrence and he thought he’d known his ex-wife. But she knew Derek was nothing like Terrence. No man could be as unselfish as Derek and as selfish as a cheater. The two just didn’t go together. She glanced at the gorgeous flowers beside her bed, thinking about the afternoon. She’d been nervous about mentioning her and Derek’s relationship to Greg Harbin because even though Derek wasn’t her student, he was a student at the school, and she didn’t want to be seen as doing anything inappropriate. But all it had taken was one look at the man who had quickly become so important to her and she’d known she couldn’t—wouldn’t—deny their relationship. After Derek had left her office, Greg had raved about his drive and determination. He’d mentioned that Derek had missed classes due to his father’s illness, but he’d not only followed up to make sure he had all the required materials to do well, but he’d also gone above and beyond with each of his assignments, often having intense conversations with Greg via email long after the assignments had been turned in for no reason other than sheer interest. She had the feeling her boyfriend was an academic at heart.
Her cell phone rang a little after one o’clock, and she felt herself smiling before she even saw Derek’s name on the screen. “Hi.”
“Hey, there.” He sounded tired. “Did I wake you?”
“No. I was just admiring a blue-eyed octopus.”
His low laugh rumbled through the phone.
“How was work?” she asked as she rolled onto her side and leaned on her elbow. “You sound tired.”
“Work was . . . work. I’d much rather have been with you.”
Butterflies fluttered in her belly, and she closed her eyes, picturing his face when she’d pulled him against her in her office, his full lips, the way he’d caressed her cheek. She could almost feel the sting on her scalp when his fingers threaded into her hair. “I wish you were here with me right now.”
“Me too, but I need to give Maria a chance to go home. You could come to my place . . .”
She rolled onto her side, hope and desire swirling inside her. “What about your dad?”
“I was thinking . . . We’d have to get up earlier than he does, because I still think seeing you in the morning might throw him off, but I’m willing to try if you are. I don’t want to wait to see you. Come over. Be with me, babe. Please?”
Her heart beat faster with every word he said.
“Take another step outside your comfort zone and we’ll add another page to your journal.”
She sat up, her pulse running rampant. “But don’t you need your sleep?” Please say no. She didn’t even know why she’d asked.
“Babe, I’ll live on thoughts of sleep if it means I can be with you. Be with me tonight, Tallie. I want you in my arms. In my bed. I want to be buried deep inside you and kiss you until you come apart and then hold you safe and close as you doze off.”
Her insides burned with desire. She wanted his mouth on her, his rough hands holding her down as he feasted and teased and took her to the moon and back.
“I will make you feel so good,” he said seductively, his voice slithering through the phone like a drug lulling her in, “that next time you won’t hesitate to accept.”
Her eyes darted around her room as if her answer were written in the walls. But there was only one place her answer lived. She put her hand over her heart and said, “Let me pack my things.”