Ten
The DC Insider: It looks like we may need to find a new Hottest Ticket in Town. Derrick Jameson and Ellie Gold have been living it up. Dates and dinners. There’s even a rumor that they’ll be attending a charity event together next week. Does this mean Derrick plans to put a ring on it? We’ll have to wait and see.
Derrick knew he was in trouble the second he opened his office door. Both Spence and Jackson were in there. Spence looked at home in the big chair with his feet up on the desk. A bit too comfortable, but at least he was in the office, which was more than he’d been in months.
Spence made a show of looking at his watch. “You were gone for two hours.”
Yeah, that was the last thing Derrick intended to talk about. “I had something I needed to do.”
Truth was the sex had him reeling. He hadn’t even used protection. That had never happened in his adult life. He’d never even been tempted to skip that step. With Ellie, he wanted it all. He ignored the risks.
The idea of a fake arrangement had backfired on him. He didn’t want an on-paper-only relationship with Ellie. Then again, he didn’t know what he wanted with her. Nothing made sense, including his choices, at the moment.
“How is Ellie adjusting to her new house?” Jackson asked.
Her house. Just the thought of that should have set off an explosion in Derrick’s brain. He was not a guy to settle down. He rarely invited women to his house. That’s what hotels were for.
He maintained a strict wall, keeping almost everyone but a select few out of his most personal space. But with Ellie the lines had blurred from the very start.
“She was less than impressed that I went ahead and scheduled the movers.” Talk about an understatement.
“Women.” Spence shook his head. “Man, you’d think they’d love having their stuff packed up without telling them first.”
Derrick glared at Jackson. “You told him.”
“It was too good not to share,” Jackson said, not even bothering to deny it.
Spence leaned back with his arms folded behind his head. “Big brother, can I give you some advice?”
That wasn’t what Derrick wanted right now. “Get up first.”
Spence whistled. “You’re grumpy for a guy who had sex. You did, right? I hate to think you look that disheveled just from talking.”
“I was fine until I walked in here.” That was pretty much all Derrick wanted to say on that topic, so he gestured for Spence to get up then took his seat.
“The advice?” Spence leaned on the edge of Derrick’s desk.
“Right. From the guy who isn’t dating anyone.” Derrick held out a hand. “Please enlighten me.”
“I talked with Ellie for fifteen minutes and I think you need to be careful.”
That got Derrick’s attention. “Of her?”
“Of losing her, dumb-ass. Don’t mess this up.”
Not bad brotherly advice. “I’m trying not to.”
Spence shook his head. “Try harder.”
* * *
The day had been this whirlwind of emotions. As soon as Derrick left the house to go back to work—because of course he did—panic set in. She worried about what would happen when he came home and what they’d say to each other tonight. The whole thing was now awkward and weird.
Planning the rest of the day after surprise sex was not easy. So, Ellie relied on the same thing she always did—Vanessa. She moved around Derrick’s chef-caliber kitchen right now, cutting vegetables and making a salad.
Vanessa was there, just in case. Kind of like a shield against bumbling conversation. How Derrick would feel about guests in his house was a different question, one Ellie hadn’t thought about until right now as she heard footsteps on the stairs. Well, if he didn’t like it, that would teach him to move her in without talking to her first.
Ellie plastered on a smile as soon as she saw him. “You’re home.”
His gaze hesitated on her face before skipping to the counter and the stack of cutting boards and knives sitting there. “You’re cooking?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” Sure, it was fair, but still.
Vanessa popped her head around the corner. “Also, don’t panic. I’m helping.”
Derrick gave Vanessa a small wave as he stopped beside Ellie. “You can’t cook?”
She snorted. “Can you?”
“I can grill. Men grill.”
Vanessa winced. “Oh, boy.”
“Typical,” Ellie said at the same time. “Well, if you’re done impressing us with your testosterone... Derrick, this is Vanessa, my best friend.” She rushed to add one caveat. “The one person other than Jackson who knows this—us—isn’t real.”
His expression went blank. “It’s not?”
“The contract thing.” For some reason it hurt to say the words this time.
It’s not as if they had some sort of miracle sex. It was great and her body still hummed, but she didn’t think sex solved everything. Though she had to admit, something did change. Inside her, deep inside.
Together they were sexy and comfortable...they worked. The churning, that ramped-up feeling of being excited to see him and to hear his voice, didn’t strike her as fake. She’d never experienced it before and it made her a little twitchy now because she hadn’t had enough time to analyze it, but she knew it amounted to more than a practical agreement between friends.
She had such a short time to savor this feeling. She’d been the one who insisted on limiting the time of the agreement to two months. He had wanted more months and now she did, too.
Derrick still didn’t show any reaction. His affect had gone flat and stayed there. “You told her.”
She rewound the comment in her head, looking for any judgment, but didn’t hear it. That didn’t mean it wasn’t there. “Is that a problem?”
For a second he just stood there, not talking. Then a lightness stole over him and he glanced at Vanessa. “You don’t have a habit of gossiping or talking to the Insider, do you?”
The hint of amusement calmed Ellie. Her neck muscles unclenched as she relaxed again.
“Any secret Ellie tells me stays with me,” Vanessa said.
“Happy to hear it.” Derrick stopped in front of the lasagna pan and put his finger out as if he intended to poke it. “So, what’s this—?”
“Stop.” Ellie slapped his hand away. “You have to wait.”
He smiled at her. “Should I order takeout to be safe?”
That look... His walls fell and he stopped being the commanding-man-in-charge-of-everything to be a man. This was at-home Derrick and she had no defense against this sexy side of him. This was the Derrick who had landed her in his bed—and would put her back there. This Derrick was dangerous.
But that didn’t mean that she was ready to let him off the hook for his behavior earlier. Her arms still ached from the quick move she and Vanessa had made of most of her stuff to one of the extra bedrooms upstairs.
Oh, no. He’d be paying for that one for a while. “Tough talk from a guy who made a big mistake today.”
Vanessa turned around, spoon in hand. “Yeah, you owe me for carrying all those books around.”
“Technically, that’s Ellie’s fault since I hired movers. She sent them away,” Derrick said.
Vanessa shook the long spoon at him. “I heard you were Mr. Bossy Pants.”
Derrick groaned as he made his way around the counter and took a seat on one of the bar stools. “Oh, good. Now I get to fight two of you.”
The byplay made Ellie smile. She hadn’t been raised with banter in the kitchen. Her entire childhood had raged like a house on fire. There was always some new crisis and not enough money to handle it.
There were no settled moments of her parents joking with each other, or very few of them. Stealing a few now with Derrick had a warmth settling deep inside her. She’d always wanted this—a home and security. Someone who made her hot but also made her want to snuggle on the couch.
“Are we wrong?” she asked, wanting the moment to continue for just a bit longer.
“No.” He rested his hands on the counter. “Today I was an overbearing jackass.”
Ellie almost dropped the glass she’d picked up. “Whoa?”
Vanessa looked from Derrick to Ellie. “What?”
“What you heard was progress.”
“I can learn.” He shrugged as he stole a mushroom off the salad and popped it in his mouth.
Ellie wanted to believe that. She was desperate to believe that and she wasn’t even sure why. “But can you set the table?”
He winked at her. “I’m on it.”
She watched him meander around the kitchen. He rolled up his shirtsleeves and dug in. Grabbed the plates and silverware. Even hummed while he did it, which Ellie found oddly endearing.
And the man could move. Those long, determined strides. The long legs and that flat stomach. She’d seen him without his clothes and with them on, and she was a fan of both.
She glanced at the table. “Three? Isn’t Spence coming home?”
“He’s having dinner with Jackson. There was some thought tonight might be loud around here.” Derrick shot her a sexy little smile. “From all the yelling, which Spence thinks I deserve.”
“I like him.”
“Yeah, I figured you would.” Derrick finished with the table and walked back to the counter.
Ellie expected him to stand there or look at his watch, or even try to fit in a half hour of work before dinner. Instead he draped an arm loosely over her shoulder and brought her in close to his side.
Vanessa did a double take but didn’t say anything.
“So, what else can I do?” he asked.
As far as Ellie was concerned, he was doing it.
* * *
Hours later dinner was over and the dishes were done and put away. Vanessa hung around, telling stories about the men they’d dated and some of their stranger travel adventures. To Derrick’s credit, he listened and asked questions. He genuinely seemed to enjoy the night even though Ellie guessed he’d rather be tied to his desk working.
Now it was almost midnight. Vanessa had gone and Spence had come home. After a bit of small talk, he’d settled into the bedroom he always used when he was in town. Ellie started the night in Derrick’s bedroom because it would have been weird for them to sleep separately if they were really dating.
Some of her clothes, the ones she and Vanessa managed to collect before dinner, hung in Derrick’s oversize closet. The thing was as big as two rooms with shelves and racks and drawers and a chair.
A chair.
When the house went quiet, she’d snuck to the bedroom she intended to sleep in even though she wanted to stay with him, wanted to forget that Spence slept nearby and that stupid agreement. She craved his touch. Needed him to hold her, kiss her, roll around in that big bed with her.
She wasn’t really the casual sex type. She needed a connection, a relationship. She didn’t have a lot of experience but all of it included condoms.
So much had happened over the last few months. She couldn’t even process it all. Her nerves were frazzled. A list of pros and cons kept cycling through her head.
With Derrick everything was different. More intense. Less clear. She’d bent her personal rules until they broke. Instead of feeling guilty or thinking she’d messed up, a wave of sadness hit her. A sense of loss at not being with him now. Of not being able to hold him, to touch him tonight, like she’d thought about all day.
She thought back to the first time he’d proposed this fake arrangement. The whole thing had confused and annoyed her, but something in his eyes and voice had compelled her. She’d agreed to an arrangement she’d never go for under any other circumstance.
Sure, there was the Noah piece. The part about her needing money and some bit of security. All that was real, but the truth was she’d signed that agreement because she’d wanted to. Because, for once, she took something she wanted—Derrick.
For the first time in her life she operated without a road map. She let emotion guide her. She saw the risks and accepted them, even knowing that the likelihood was this would end in pain and heartache. There really was no other way for a relationship built on fake facts to finish.
She was so lost in thought she almost missed the soft knock on the door. When it sounded the second time, she scooted out of bed, careful to make sure her shorts and T-shirt were in place when she opened the door in case the visitor was Spence.
Derrick stood there in what looked like lounge pants and a gray T-shirt that fit him like a second skin. That fast, her temperature spiked and her insides started to whirl.
She gripped the side of the door. “Are you okay?”
They’d worked out this plan about getting up early and keeping her bed made and door shut. Derrick had talked about using the excuse of her stacking her stuff in here until she could go through it all. She was accustomed to living with boxes, so having them around now didn’t bother her.
“I wanted to check on you.” Derrick shifted his weight from foot to foot.
The move struck her as uncharacteristic and a bit vulnerable. “I don’t—”
“May I come in?”
Good grief, it was his house. She stepped back. “Of course.”
He walked in and caught her up in his arms. His mouth covered hers in a kiss that had her forgetting about boxes and clothes and just about everything else. She grabbed his shoulders, dug in and held him close as pleasure pulsed through her. When he lifted his head a few seconds later, she felt breathless and weak. Her resolve had melted along with her resistance.
“I’ve wanted to do that since I got home from work,” he said in a whisper against her lips.
Tonight had been incredibly special. She’d laughed until she couldn’t breathe. She’d built memories. Discovered a warmth she’d never known growing up because everything had been so uncertain between her father’s and Noah’s moods.
She trusted and loved Vanessa. She was an integral part of Ellie’s life. Derrick was supposed to be temporary, but her feelings for him, how she thought about him during the day, were anything but fake. They’d started this ruse by barely talking and now she texted him every day. Sometimes she made up silly things to ask, just to see his response. And he always responded.
“We are inviting trouble.” She said it more to convince herself than him.
“I know.” Derrick rested his forehead against hers. “I guess I can’t convince you to join me in my bedroom?”
He could, so easily. That was the problem. “We should...”
“Right.” He gave her arms a gentle squeeze then dropped his hands.
She felt the loss to her bones. It settled in and had her trembling. But she couldn’t go overboard with her feelings. “Derrick.”
“I’ll let you get some sleep.” He kissed her on the forehead, quick and simple.
Then he was gone and it was all she could do to keep from calling him back.