Derek

“I spoke to an old friend earlier this week.” Serena lies in my arms, my fingertips tracing light circles against her soft shoulder, which goes against everything I stand for.

I don’t cuddle. I’m not sweet. I don’t cherish the still, small moments or crave the feel of a post-coital woman in my arms.

If she were anyone else, I’d be watching her dress, tossing her a compliment or two for good measure, and biding my time until she slips her shoes on and makes a beeline for the door.

My cock is still hard, still wet from her arousal. The scent of sex and lost inhibitions fills my lungs, and her taste lingers on my tongue.

“Oh, yeah?” My head settles against a pillow.

“I’m going back to the city Saturday morning.”

My gaze snaps to her.

“Just for the weekend. I’ll be back Sunday.” She clears her throat, pressing her hand against my chest and resting her cheek there. “It’s just something I need to do.”

I don’t think it’s a good idea, but it’s not my place. She’s her own person. She can do what she wants.

“My friends, they miss me,” she says. “They want me to come home. And I miss home too. But the whole time I was on the phone earlier, all I could think about was how I was going to miss this little place.” She laughs. “Which is ridiculous, because I’ve only been here such a short amount of time.” Her voice falls to a soft whisper. “And then I wondered if it would be you that I’d miss.”

She sits up, tucking a strand of fiery hair behind her ear. Our eyes find one another in the dark.

“And then I realized that would be ridiculous, because I’ve only known you a week.” She releases a breathy, nervous laugh, and her eyes move to her hands, which are damn near knitting a sweater at this point. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. I guess my point is, I have no idea what I want. And I know you asked me to stay in Rixton Falls a while longer. With you.”

She looks up at me, and the world around us stops.

“I have no idea why you’d want me to stay,” she says. “I find it hilarious, because you’ve spent all this time telling me to stay away, that you’re incapable of being anything I need . . . it’s really the other way around.”

“What are you talking about?” I break my silence. Her thoughts are like dandelion seeds scattered in the wind, going every which direction.

“You’re Family Ties and I’m Sex and the City. Our worlds are never going to mesh, no matter how hot the sex is.” Her hair falls over her shoulders, framing her beautiful face. “And we can pretend whatever this is is all about the sex, but we both know better. This is a slippery slope, Derek.”

“You wanted this,” I remind her. “Remember?”

Serena pulls away, sliding closer to the edge of the bed, and this moment fades before my very eyes.

“I wanted what you were offering.” Her head tilts. “You shouldn’t have asked me to stay, Derek. That wasn’t part of the deal. That . . . changed things.”

“Explain.”

“I only wanted to have fun with you. I didn’t want this to turn into a whole thing—”

“You’re reading too much into it.” I groan.

“Am I?”

We sit in silence. I can’t answer her question. I don’t have an answer. All I know is for the last two years, every woman I’ve met has been the same. Carbon copy drama queens. Vanilla. Basic. Desperate to please. Desperate to be loved. And for the first time in a long time, I met a woman who stirred something in the deepest part of me.

A woman who made me question my convictions.

A woman who made me smash every rule I’d ever laid out.

Serena climbs off the bed, never once taking her eyes off me. “I’ll be back Sunday night. I think we could use a couple of days apart anyway. This is just . . . moving too fast. Becoming something it was never supposed to be.”

And just like that, she’s gone.

* * *

I go to work early Friday and head straight to pick up Haven Friday night. Saturday morning, I wake up extra early and take my daughter out for breakfast so I don’t have to watch Serena leave.