CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Chloe walked quickly, wanting to catch him before he made it over to where Liz was at. When he saw her, he started to smile, that was until she took hold of his massive bicep with two hands and swung him around, so his back was up against his vehicle.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

It took him a second to get his bearings back. That obviously was not the greeting that he was expecting. “Well good morning to you too, Chloe,” he said with an amused look when he realized that she had just body slammed him.

“I’m serious, Derek! What are you doing here?”

“I signed up to help out today.”

“You promised the next move was up to me,” she said.

“I’m not breaking that promise. I had no idea you would be here today. I called Hannah’s and talked to Liz the day after our date. You had just gotten me thinking about it…”

“Bullshit! This is a blatant stalker move.”

Derek laughed, “Stalker? You’re the one who challenged me to do more than write a check. I’m trying to do my civic duty. You being here I will admit is a bonus.”

He let his eyes run over her body taking in the tone, tan legs showing underneath the cut-off shorts. “I’m not stalking you, Chloe. Trust me, if I wanted to do that I would spare no expense doing it and it wouldn’t involve me picking up trash.”

She thought about that for a second. He had a point. He had plenty of money and undoubtedly contacts that could track her down in a heartbeat. If he was a stalker it was doubtful he would show up in such a public forum…wasn’t it?

She rolled her eyes and started to walk away, and that was when she felt his hand on her arm. She froze and looked down at it and then up at his face. “Please don’t touch me,” she said. He let go of her arm but didn’t break her gaze as he said, “I’m sorry.” He could have thrown the fact that she touched him first in her face, but he didn’t. Instead, he looked her in the eyes and said, “I apologize if I caught you off guard. I really do only want to help.” Damn him for being so polite!

“It’s fine,” she said, “I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. Liz is over there.” She pointed out the team leader and then just left him standing there and went back to her post. Her body was in turmoil. That simple touch of his hand…firm, but not aggressive in the least had all but melted her insides. This guy was too much. When she reached Donny, he gave her a curious look, but he didn’t say anything. She took the bag he held out to her and got back to work, trying not to look back where she knew Derek was at.

She began stabbing at trash right and left, and after a few minutes she heard his smooth, silky voice say, “Wow, I wouldn’t want to be that trash.”

She turned around to find him holding a trash bag and one of Donny’s sticks. He smiled and said, “I’m on trash detail too, but don’t worry, I’ll stay out of your way.”

With a frustrated sigh, Chloe went back to her work and left him to his. She tried to work her way away from the little pond and put some space between them. She spent the next twenty minutes or so with her head down and nothing but the retrieval of trash on her mind. She picked up the empty food containers and soda cans that littered the dirty sand between the monkey bars and the swing set and watched Lexi and Brett start hanging the swings. When Lexi started in her direction, she wanted to run. She knew exactly what her friend was going to want to talk about, the one thing she was trying like hell to keep her mind off of.

“You didn’t say tall, dark and dreamy was coming.”

“I had no idea,” Chloe said, not disguising her annoyance.

“Really? So he’s really just here to be a Good Samaritan? That’s even sweeter.”

“Oh stop it! He’s here because he knew I would be here. It’s not sweet at all.”

“I still think it’s sweet. Look at him. You know how many other opportunities he must have today…yet here he is, picking up trash and playing with two of the meanest little boys I’ve ever met just to be close to you.”

Chloe looked over then. What she saw made her heart swell to at least twice its original size. One of the twins had something in his hands. It looked like a big nest. The other twin and Derek were gently placing eggs inside of it. When they finished, Derek put one of the boys on his shoulders and the little boy who usually had too much energy to stand in one spot for more than a minute was gently placing the nest back into the tree. “That son of a bitch,” she muttered.

Lexi laughed and said, “Why, because he’s showing you his human side?”

Chloe didn’t answer her friend. She didn’t have to. They both knew that she was right.

Derek held true to his word once again. He spent the entire day either working or playing with the boys. He had even had lunch with them under the tree they had found the nest in. It was obvious to see on their little faces how much they appreciated his attention. Chloe tried to keep her attention on the task, but it was hard.

While he moved, bending up and down picking things up or stretching across the monkey bars as he painted them, each muscle in his torso would ripple underneath that t-shirt he was wearing and make her fingers tingle with the longing to touch him. By the end of the day, she was more sexually frustrated than she ever remembered being in her life. As they were packing things up, she felt someone at her elbow and looked up to see him standing there.

“Thank you for suggesting this,” he said. “I had a great day.”

He was covered in sweat and dirt and a big swipe of yellow paint that one of the boys had swiped across his chest. Chloe had never seen him look so appealing. She smiled, trying to conceal the unadulterated lust that she was feeling inside.

“You did a good job. You should get some kind of bonus for keeping those crazy boys in check.”

He smiled; a genuinely happy smile and Chloe had to mentally hold herself back. “It was fun playing with them. I don’t get much of a chance to be around kids. They made me feel like a kid again myself. It was nice to take a break from being a grown-up for a while.”

“Well again, thanks for coming,” she said. “I’m sorry again about what I said when you got here.”

“It wasn’t your words so much that troubled me,” he said, with a serious look, but he couldn’t maintain it as he said, “When you threw me up against the car I was a little bit afraid.”

Chloe had to laugh. When she stopped laughing, she said, “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he said, “It was hot, the biggest thrill I’ve had in a while.”

Chloe felt her face start going hot and she knew she was blushing. Shit! She didn’t blush! Jesus, this guy turns her into a simpering school girl. She looked at where Lexi and Brett stood alongside his pick-up, and she said, “I guess I should go. Lexi and her guy are waiting.”

“Sure…hey Chloe?”

“Yeah?”

“I understand if you would rather not…since you haven’t called me. I had just assumed you dating me wasn’t something you were interested in, but I was thinking about going to see a movie tonight. I was wondering if you would like to go.”

Say no. Say no. Say no. “Yeah, a movie sounds good,” she said. “Where should I meet you?”

He grinned, “Meet me? You won’t let me pick you up?”

She let herself fleetingly recall what he said about how many resources he had if he wanted to stalk her. Not telling him where she lived did not make her any safer if he was a threat. “Oh, okay. Yeah, you can pick me up. I live at 622 Ocean Drive number four.”

His smile broadened, and he said, “Great, I’ll be there at seven.”

She watched him ruffle one of the twin’s hair and shadow box with the other one on the way to his car and wondered when the aliens had taken over her body and began to control her words and impulses.