by Lynn Hagen
I was still lying on my stomach while I watched him balance the tray. It was like the tea tray all over again. Things were shaking and clanking, and I sucked in a breath when he was close to my bed and tripped.
There hadn’t been anything to trip over. Just smooth wooden floors with no obstacles.
“Whoa!” Derek spun and managed to right himself.
I wanted to be pissed at his clumsiness, at the fact I’d almost gotten hot coffee spilled on me, but there was so much concentrated effort on his face that I couldn’t bring myself to yell at him.
“Hand me the pills.” I didn’t want to be groggy again, unfocused or have cotton fill my head, but at the moment, my only concern was bringing the pain down to a manageable level.
“But you have to eat first.” Derek tapped his finger on the bottle. “Do not take on an empty stomach.”
I snarled at him. “Pills first and food second.”
“Luckily you can’t get up and kick my ass.” He set the tray on the table by the window. “You’re going to follow the instructions. Now let me help you sit up.”
He did realize that by coming close to me that I could take that bottle away from him, right? He sucked at negotiating. The bottle was in his back pocket, and fuck, I was plotting to get them, which made me feel like a straight-up junky.
“How do you want to do this?” Derek slid his arms under me, as though he was about to roll me over. Bad idea. That would’ve dropped me right onto my healing, still painful back.
He started grunting and straining, and I was waiting for him to break out in a sweat. The solid build of my body was no match for the pipsqueak. His rail-thin arms shook as his face turned red.
I was such a rank asshole for enjoying this. He looked determined to help me up, so I shifted an inch to give him hope. His eyes lit up, as if he’d accomplished something, and now I felt bad for fucking with him.
“Just tug my arm so I can sit on the side of the bed.” There was another part of my body that I wanted him to tug on, with his lips. Those perfect, gorgeous pink lips.
“Okay, we’ll try it that way.” Derek looked relieved. “I had no idea you were so solid. It was like trying to move a brick wall.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’d given his efforts some resistance. I told you I was a rank asshole.
But now I was helping him to help me. I really did need the meds. My back felt as though the fires of Mount Doom were consuming me. Playtime over.
“There’s a TV tray tucked in my closet.” Now I was the one sweating and grunting. Sitting up pulled at the skin of my back, and I wanted to punch the wall at the wave of agony that swept through me.
Derek retrieved the tray and walked it over. He tripped again. The tray went flying out of his hands as he propelled toward me. I braced for the impact. How the fuck had he survived this long with killing himself?
He smacked right into me, and my arms instinctively curled around him.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?” Derek tried to scramble away, but I tightened my grip. My fucking back felt like it was being roasted over an open pit, and all I wanted, all my wolf wanted, was a kiss.
I must’ve hit my head when I was shot. Must have knocked the sense right out of it. But I had to admit, his small frame felt good pressed against me.
When Derek looked up at me, I cupped his face and pulled him up, because bending down wasn’t an option, and brushed my lips over his. The warmth, the smell of dark roast coffee on his breath, his quick intake of air… Fuck, this short shit would be my undoing.
I already saw myself giving in to this need whenever it stuck me. Giving in to Derek whenever he was close. My frozen heart was starting to thaw, even if I fought to keep it encased in ice. Derek Wolfe was bad news for me, a vulnerability I couldn’t afford to have, but tell that to my body, which was hard for the klutz.
“Mr. Russo,” Derek said when he pulled away. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Max,” I snarled. “Call me Max, and why not?”
“Because it just isn’t.” Derek struggled to get up, and I let him, stunned that he’d rejected me. No lover had ever rejected me before. It was a strange, exhilarating feeling that stuck in my chest and made my dick even harder.
“Now eat so you can take your pills.” He walked away from me, and I grinned. Derek had no idea that he’d just challenged me, and now, more than ever, I was determined to have him in my bed.
* * * *
Two days later and I was back on my feet. My shoulder still hurt, but I had work to do, and lying around in bed, sexually frustrated because Derek fell over himself to avoid me as much as possible, was driving me crazy.
“I don’t care what you have to do,” I said to a guy I’d paid handsomely in the past when I’d needed a problem taken care of. “Just find Antonio. Call me when you have him.”
“I’ll call you when it’s done,” The Cleaner said. “But I usually don’t do deliveries.”
“I’ll double your fee on this one,” I said. “I want Malkovich brought to me.”
“Consider it done.”
I hung up just as Derek knocked on my office door. We were at Russo and Associates, and I felt this was the safest place to be besides my penthouse. Lucas, Reese, and Gabe had offices on the same floor, were watching out for trouble, and had hired extra security.
We didn’t trust any pack members since one of them was a traitor.
“Come in,” I called out. The door was closed, but I knew it was Derek. He had a certain knock, almost light, with three taps, then two. He acted as if we had some kind of code going on.
“Penny said to bring these to you.” Derek had a manila envelope crushed against his chest. He looked over his shoulder before turning back to face me. “How do you feel?”
“About the same as when you asked me thirty minutes ago.” I held out my hand, and Derek brought me the envelope. I saw the timid way he came toward me, a contrast to how he’d acted in my penthouse. At home, Derek was a spitfire that made me take my meds and stay in bed until I’d recuperated.
In the office, he was back to being a timid mouse afraid to come near the big, bad wolf. I didn’t want him frightened of me. That hadn’t been my intention. In fact, I’d gone out of my way to make sure I didn’t snap at him or give him an evil glare.
Yet he shuffled across the floor as though I’d bite him at any second. And I really wanted to bite him. Just not the way he thought. I was still aching to fuck him. I hadn’t gotten that out of my system. Every day that he kept his distance only made me hornier.
But I kept that in check. I needed to lure him to me with honey, not my bullshit attitude.
“Close my door.” I took the file and noticed how quickly he snatched his hand away. He was still trying too damn hard to keep his distance from me.
“Did I do something wrong?” He appeared baffled, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at me.
“Just close my office door, Derek.” I set the file on my desk, uninterested in what he’d brought me. I had my sights set on him for days, and I wanted to test the waters again.
He did as I asked but stood by the door like he’d bolt at any second. I got up from my chair and slowly approached him. One, I didn’t want to scare him. Two, my back still hurt like a bitch. Every step made it throb, and I couldn’t wait until it was fully healed.
“Did you need me to take notes?” He watched me suspiciously, my movements, my expression, while his body shook slightly.
“No, no notes.” I brushed my hand over his cheek, and damn, his eyes fluttered closed as he exhaled. Talk about the perfect, most beautiful reaction to my touch. “Just you.”
I captured his lips, drawing them to mine. He stiffened. I slid my arm around him and pulled him close, nearly crushing his body to mine. After a few heartbeats, Derek relaxed against me. I teased his lips with my tongue, probing at them, until Derek opened for me and I took the kiss deeper.
Fuck. Wh
at was it about this human that drove me crazy? I’d never craved anyone like this before. His touch, his voice, his lips, and his body. I caught a growl in the back of my throat, afraid the sound would scare Derek away.
He slid his hands up my chest, and I let my suit jacket fall from my shoulders and float to the floor. He unbuttoned my vest and parted the fabric then started working on the buttons of my dress shirt.
His fingers slipped a few times as we continued to kiss, as he continued to set my blood on fire. I was starting to envision him living at my penthouse full time, of having Derek become a permanent fixture in my life, and that didn’t frighten me half as much as I thought it would.
I didn’t like where he currently lived. The neighborhood was a cesspool of degenerates who wouldn’t think twice about hurting him. I’d never had anyone to protect before, and a warm, odd, fuzzy feeling entered my gut.
We started to move backward as I slipped my vest and shirt off, tossing them aside. Derek gave a soft laugh against my lips as we headed for my couch, and I couldn’t help but return the smile.
Our kiss stopped long enough for me to yank his dress shirt off. I had to touch bare skin, had to tweak his hard nipples, had to tease him so he knew what was to come. Derek’s breath sucked in quickly before it was replaced by a long, delicious moan.
That got me going like nothing else could, the way I’d drawn those emotions out of him like pulling honey from a hive. Sweet, warm, and exactly what I wanted.
His eyes became heavy-lidded as I turned us and shoved him down. He bounced on the cushion, threw his head back and laughed, then sat forward and unfastened my slacks. I’d thought about his lips curled around my cock, had thought about it obsessively since the first time we’d had sex in my office.
If I was honest, thought about it since I’d first laid eye on him when he’d walked into my office without knocking.
“But isn’t this against your office policy?” he asked.
That policy had flown out the window when I’d decided to keep Derek as my personal assistant. No fucking way could I have kept my hands to myself. It would’ve been like trying not to touch the warmth of the sun or refusing to suck in my next breath. I was a starving beast and damn if I didn’t want Derek desperately.
He had to have put some kind of spell over me, because I’d never obsessed over anyone. Ever. That feeling as if you’re falling and there was nothing to grab onto? The ground coming at you at a high rate of speed? Those feelings were stuck in my chest, that free-falling emotion that Derek had me going through. Exhilarating and scary, and now I’d become an adrenaline junkie who couldn’t get enough of that feeling.
My legs shook and the muscles tightened when Derek’s lips touched my cock. Sweet Lord, pure fucking pleasure wrapped in a tight ball of ecstasy. The tip of his pink tongue darted out, lazily drawing in the pre-cum dotted over the slit. I wanted to growl. To tell him to hurry things along, that I couldn’t wait for this slow action to finish.
His wet, parted lips were wreaking havoc with my wired body. I’d never fought this hard not to pound into anyone, not to grab his hair and fuck his mouth until the desperate fucking feeling was gone.
Gah, fuck! I had to touch, to slide my fingers through his golden strands, to grip them and strangle them as I punched my hips forward, hissing as his mouth opened wider and he took my cock deeper into the tight depths of his throat. Those muscles squeezed my dick, tearing a growl from my throat.
Derek’s hands rested on my thighs, pushing himself forward while using me as leverage so he didn’t fall over. His fingers were hot to the touch, his lips scorching, his moaning making my cock swell even thicker.
White-hot ecstasy shot through me like a lightning storm, igniting every nerve ending. I threw my head back and shouted my release, unable to contain the firestorm erupting from my balls. My orgasm was ripped from me, my cum overflowing Derek’s mouth. He tried his best to swallow every last drop before he pulled back and licked his lips.
All I could do was watch as he got up and went to my desk. He pulled out the bottle of lube I kept in there and returned to the couch while wiping the rest of my release from his mouth and chin.
That was goddamn hot.
My jaw clenched when he finished undressing then turned, pressing his chest to the back of the couch. My wolf howled as Derek lubed his fingers and drove them deep inside his ass.
My cock twitched, coming back to life.
My heart raced, watching how much pleasure he was bringing himself.
My stomach clenched because I knew I could never let this beautiful creature go.
I knew, in that very moment, that I was falling for the human. He was unthawing my frozen heart, making me want to do things I’d never done before.
Care for someone with an unimaginable depth.
I grabbed the lube from him and coated my hardened cock then tossed the bottle aside. Derek sucked in a breath. I kissed along his body, inhaling his sweet, sweet fragrance. I wanted to own this man, possess him in ways that he would know he was branded by me.
That he was all mine and no one else’s.
The mere sound of his voice haunted me, the way he looked at me, the vulnerability in his green eyes that I would never take advantage of. I slid my hands up his arms, gripped his biceps, and kissed his nape.
This felt so damn intimate, like I was giving Derek a part of me that I’d never offered anyone else. He didn’t make me feel like damaged goods. He didn’t look at me as though he was too pure to have. Derek wanted me just as much as I needed him. My past and present didn’t matter to him, didn’t make him want to run from me.
“Need you in me,” he whispered as he arched his back, rolling his shoulders as I kissed them. “Need to feel you stretching me wide.”
After a small growl, I lined my cock up and inched my way inside. I felt Derek’s body welcome me with searing heat and slick tightness. Derek groaned and rolled his head to the side. I pressed my hand against his throat, pulling his head to my chest as I punched my hips forward, snarling, growling, needy.
Derek’s body was so goddamn perfect, so made for me, so right that I never wanted to leave it. His asshole gripped my dick and refused to let it go. I thrusted harder, deeper, kissing along his divine neck, his jaw, and nipped at his earlobe.
This fucking guy made me want to reach for heaven, made my heart swell and my stomach fill with a thousand wings. My skin was riddled with goose bumps as I pistoned into him, uncaring who heard his loud, gorgeous moans.
“Faster,” Derek begged. “Harder.”
I pulled back, grabbed his hips, and unleashed myself. My body moved powerfully, my hands lifting Derek as my cock stretched him wide. Derek gripped the back of the couch, crying out as I hammered into his hole, my dick driving fast and hard, just like he’d asked. My back twitched, my wound reminding me it was there, but I ignored the pain, pushing it aside.
Electricity shot up my spine, my orgasm cresting, and ignited everything inside me. As Derek shouted my name, his hole clamping down hard on my cock, my own release swept me under and shook me to my core.
I stood behind him blinking, coming back down to earth, gasping for breath as I let him down on his feet and eased out of his body.
“I need a nap.” Derek yawned and curled onto the couch.
I walked over to the closet and pulled out a blanket, draping it over him. “Sleep as long as you want, love.”
And I’d meant it. He’d curled himself around my heart and gotten under my skin, and now there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him.
Including protecting him with my life from threats not only from Antonio Malkovich but also from anyone else who might want to use him as leverage.
Chapter Eight
Derek…
How was I supposed to concentrate? I was a complete airhead as I sat at my desk and stared at the complicated phone system. Buttons were lighting up, and all I could think about was the hot-as-fuck sex I’d just had in Max’s office.
Then I spotted Chad hobbling my way. My twin looked as though he was on a mission—grim expression, purposeful strides, rigid posture, and an expert on those crutches.
And he was heading right for me.
Yikes!
There was nowhere to hide. Plus he’d already spotted me. I knew he was about to grill me about our phone call, which I’d cut short because I’d hung up on him.
I reached for the phone to pretend I was busy and knocked over my glass of water. Damn it! But the spill gave me a reason to run past him to grab some paper towels stored in the utility closet.
Too bad I couldn’t hide in there until he was gone. As you can tell, I was a chicken when it came to Chad.
“Don’t even try it,” Chad said. “I know you too well. You’re not going to avoid me, Derek. We’re gonna talk about the trouble you’re in.”
I spun and shushed him. “Keep your voice down.”
“Clean up your spill. It’s lunchtime. We’re going to the cafeteria downstairs and talk about this.” Chad grabbed the roll from my hands and sopped up the water, tossing the towels into the trash.
“You’re awfully pushy.” I crossed my arms over my chest. Chad wasn’t normally like this. In the emergency room he’d been whining and begging, but now he wore a deep scowl, giving me a look that said he wasn’t going to be ignored.
With no other choice, unless I wanted to race from the top floor and hide somewhere else—I doubted Chad would let me get that far because he would trip my clumsy ass with his cast—I walked with him to the elevator.
He could also whip a crutch at me like a boomerang and knock me out cold if I resisted.
So much for an easy day after my fabulous morning. I should’ve known better because things never went my way.
The cafeteria was located on the ground floor, with a great view of the street, allowing me to see the hustle and bustle of Ridgeview as Chad and I got our food and sat close to the window.