Fire and Ice (Sticks & Hearts Book 2)

by Rhonda James

  “I love you too, Derek. So very much.”

  “Are you hungry?” He smiles knowingly and begins spooning fried rice and Hunan chicken on my plate.

  “Did you forget my egg roll?” I strain to see what else is hiding behind all those takeout containers.

  “I could never forget my Pookie’s egg roll.” He laughs and pulls one out of the bag. We eat in silence for a few minutes before curiosity gets the better of me.

  “What’s in there?” I aim my fork at the wrapped boxes to my left.

  “Oh, those? Those are for after you’ve finished,” he replies, not giving any clue as to what may be hiding beneath all that shiny paper.

  “I’m finished now.” I push my plate away and rub my palms together in anticipation. He gives me a look but then sighs and shoves his plate aside.

  “Open this one first.” He hands me the larger of the two presents. I tear open the paper, because the anticipation really is killing me. The box is lightweight, so I have no clue what it could be. When I open it and peel back the tissue paper, I let out a startled gasp and my eyes tear up all over again.

  “Derek Davis. What did you do?” I place the box on the table and lift out the first item. It’s his jersey. Complete with his name and number on the back. I stand and hold it up in front of me like I’m modeling it for him.

  “I loved the way it looked on you that night at The Library. I’ve been dying to see you in it again ever since,” he growls in a throaty voice.

  Because I love him and I love the way he’s looking at me right now, I grab the hem of my dress and pull it over my head. I turn and place it carefully on the back of my chair before turning back around. Derek is sitting there, staring at me with eyes full of lust and love. I slip the jersey over my head, and give a little spin before striking a pose.

  “Well? What do you think?” I ask in my most seductive voice. He swallows hard and continues to stare.

  “I think I should have given that to you two months ago.” He motions with his finger for me to go to him, and when I’m there, he pulls me into his lap and gives me a heated kiss. “You do realize this is staying on tonight. Right?”

  “It’s heavy material. I’ll be all hot and sweaty.” My lips hover below his mouth.

  “That’s okay. I like it when you’re hot and sweaty. Remember?” He lowers his mouth to my jaw and makes a sound like he’s trying to eat me. I giggle and squirm in his arms. “There’s still more in the box.” He lifts his chin toward the gift, and I reach for it and pull out a second jersey identical to mine but in miniature size.

  “Oh, sweetie. I love this,” I whisper and hold it up against my chest. “Our little girl is going to look so cute in her daddy’s jersey.”

  “Hey, now. Who said anything about a little girl? I think it’s a boy and he’s going to look badass in my jersey,” he says playfully while pinching my ass.

  “Do you care if it’s a girl or a boy?” I ask quietly. “You can be honest. I won’t mind.”

  He hesitates a moment then nods his head while saying “No” at the same time. “Boy or girl, I don’t care, just as long as it’s healthy. But I’ll tell you right now, if we have a little girl, she won’t date until she’s thirty and there sure as hell won’t be any sex in hotel rooms with strangers,” he growls.

  “Hey, don’t knock hotel sex. If memory serves, it was pretty fucking amazing.” I wiggle in his lap and feel his arousal beneath me. I wiggle again, hoping he’ll take the hint and carry me inside.

  “Save that for later.” He bites at my bottom lip then soothes the sting with a kiss. “You still have more presents.”

  “Okay.” I pretend to pout then get up and reach inside the box. I pull out a large manila envelope and look back at him. “What’s this?”

  “Open it and find out,” he says with a smirk on his face.

  I pry open the clasp and pull out a stack of papers that are stapled together. There’s still something at the bottom of the envelope, and when I turn it over to dump it out, a set of keys lands on the white tablecloth. My heart is beating wildly in my chest as my eyes quickly scroll through the first page of the packet.

  “You bought me this house?” I close my eyes and allow myself to cry again. There’s no use fighting it. I cry all the time now. These are happy tears, though. I’m overwhelmed. How did he manage to buy it when it had already been sold? I can’t let him buy me a house. This isn’t right. It’s too much. It’s… It’s… exactly what I needed. Finding out about the baby and then learning I’d lost the house, I was devastated. I couldn’t imagine raising our child anywhere else. I wanted our child to know where I’d grown up. I wanted them to make as many happy memories here as I had made. And I have so many happy memories here. “Derek, I don’t know what to say.”

  When I finally open my eyes, he’s no longer sitting across the table but down on one knee at my feet. He’s looking up at me with his beautiful blue eyes and a very nervous look on his handsome face. He’s holding a small box in one hand; it’s propped open to reveal the most beautiful diamond ring I’ve ever seen. It’s a band of white gold with a raised heart-shaped diamond in the center.

  “Say yes,” he states simply.

  “Delaney Marie Dixon, it’s no secret that I’m out of this world crazy head over heels in love with you. From the moment we met, you’ve set my heart on fire, and it burns so strong every day. I promise it will keep burning every day, because I will love you till the day I take my last breath. You’ve made me a better man and you’ve given me the gift of a precious little baby to care for. I promise that neither of you will ever doubt my love for you. I will always be there for you. You are my hope and my reason for living. Please, say you’ll marry me.”

  “Yes!” I scream. “Yes, I will marry you, Derek Anthony Davis.” The smile that stretches across his face is a thing of sheer happiness and beauty. I know without a shadow of a doubt this man loves me and will take care of me. He’ll do it without question or expectation of anything in return. He’ll do it because that is how his heart was made. He will be my rock. My protector. My best friend. My lover. My superhero.

  My everything.

  And I’ll do my level best to be all of those things and more for him, because that is what his love has done for me. It made me stronger. It gave me purpose. It gave me hope.

  Derek is my hope.

  Hope is a beautiful thing, and it’s even more precious when you lose it and it somehow finds it’s way back to you.

  EPILOGUE

  DEREK

  Four months later

  “Babe?” I call out as I enter the house, carrying the last of many boxes I’ve brought with me from her parents’ storage unit. I stopped by there on my way home from work.

  For the past two months I’ve been working as a sports broadcaster at Station WKBT in Detroit. Just before graduation, Mitch Harrison called to inform me he’d purchased the struggling network. He said he wanted to turn things around and return it back to the successful station it once was. One of the ways he planned on ensuring that happened was by hiring hot, young talent, namely yours truly. He offered me my dream job, same as he’d done back in Atlanta, only this time it was different. My life has taken a drastic change in the five months since I’d last seen him. Now I have a family to think about. Two people who depend on me. This time, I wasn’t worried about being worthy of getting the job. Now my main focus is to be considered worthy of keeping it.

  When she doesn’t answer, I stop by the fridge to grab a bottle of water then go in search of her. I check the basement first, remembering she’d mentioned something about organizing the laundry room. When I don’t find her there, I take the stairs two at a time thinking she may be upstairs in the bedroom. If I’m lucky, she may even be taking a nap, which means she’ll be in bed, which means I can join her.

  I already hated myself for leaving this morning, knowing how nervous she’s been about teaching her first dance class today. I push open the bedroom door, expecting to
find her just as I left her, curled up fast asleep in bed. But she’s not there either. The bed has been made, and all the throw pillows are neatly lined up against the headboard. The picture of Laney and her mom, taken on her eighteenth birthday, still stands on the bedside table on her side of the bed. I reach down and study it for a moment, as I’ve done many times, then walk over to the other side of the room and place it back on the wall where it usually hangs. Something outside the window catches my eye, so I walk over and pull back the curtain to find her standing out in the backyard.

  She doesn’t flinch as I approach her from behind and circle my arms around her growing middle, covering her hands with my own. “Hey, baby. You okay?”

  She smiles, turning her head to meet my lips for a kiss. “Yeah. I’m good. I’ve just been out here thinking about things.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I thread our fingers together and rest my chin on her shoulder. “What kind of things?”

  “Several things, I guess. How happy you make me. How excited I am about this baby. How I wish my mom could be here with me. I hate that she never got the chance to meet you, and I hate that our children will never know how wonderful she truly was,” she answers sadly.

  I sigh and kiss her on the cheek, but I don’t say anything. I just listen, because right now I know that’s all she needs from me. We’ve talked about this before. About how much she regrets her mom dying. I wish I could change the past and take it all away. If I could, I would do it in a heartbeat. I’d take all of her pain. All of her regrets. All of her fears. Everything. I’d take it all and carry it for her if I could.

  But I can’t.

  Even if I could, she wouldn’t let me.

  She’s too damn stubborn.

  All I can do is stand by her side and love her through it all.

  So, that’s what I do.

  It’s what I’ll always do.

  Because this beautiful woman owns me body and soul.

  Her smile is the very reason for my happiness. And her love is what keeps my heart beating.

  “Did you finish bringing in the last of the boxes?” she asks, though her mind is clearly somewhere else. I don’t press. If I’ve learned one thing about Delaney Dixon, it’s that she’ll let you in, but only on her terms. She’s working on trying to change that, but it will take some time. She’s been through a lot in her young life. She’ll only talk about what’s on her mind when she’s ready. So I sit back and patiently wait for that time to come around. Sometimes it happens right away. Sometimes it takes a few days. Or even weeks. It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.

  “I did. The last few boxes are on the dining room floor.”

  “That’s good. Thank you. I’ll go through them later tonight.”

  “You’ll do no such thing.” I turn her around to face me. “In less than an hour you have twenty little girls coming here to learn ballet. You need to go and get ready for them to arrive. I’ll take care of everything.”

  Her lips begin to tremble, and I know it’s taking everything she has to keep it together.

  “What if I fail? What if they don’t like me?”

  “Babe, they’re going to love you. You’re an amazing dancer; there’s no way you’re going to fail. Why would even think that way? ”

  “Just, hear me out, okay?” She peers up at me with her big brown eyes, and all I can do is nod. “We’ve done all this work. You’ve already given me so much.” She gestures toward the house and then to the barn I just recently had renovated into a dance studio for her give lessons. “I guess what I’m saying is, I’ve already cost you so much. What if I’m not a good teacher? Then all of this will have been for nothing. The time, the trouble, the money. You’ve been so patient with me. All the worry I’ve caused you.” Her hands cup the sides of my face and she stretches on her tiptoes to kiss me. “Derek, I love you, but I can’t help feeling like I’m a burden you have to bear. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to offer you in return, and you deserve so much, Derek.”

  “Laney, please stop doing this to yourself. We’ve been through all this, and my answer will always be the same. You are everything to me. Every day. Every hour spent waiting for you. Worrying about you. Taking care of you. And I would do it all again if it meant I could have just one more minute holding you. Or one more second of your lips pressed against mine. You have never been, nor will you ever be, a burden to me. You, Miss Dixon, are my future wife, the mother of my child, and the love of my life. Now, if that’s what you call a burden, then I’ll happily carry it for life or longer.”

  She sighs contentedly and tightens her hold around my neck. “I know I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you—“

  “But don’t you ever stop doing it,” I finish the sentence for her, like I always do, and she doesn’t try to hide her smile.

  Her head tips back, and she shields her eyes from the sun. “Wow. You sure know how to woo a girl, don’t you?”

  “I’ve been told I have a way with the ladies,” I joke. She pokes me in the stomach. “But the only girl I care about wooing is you. Is it working? Have you been wooed enough, yet?”

  “Hmm, I’m not sure. I think maybe it’s gonna take just a little more wooing to convince me.” She smiles seductively, and I know what she’s thinking. I know because I’m thinking it, too. God, I want her. I want to bury my hands in her hair and lose myself inside her.

  She begins walking backwards toward the house, and I follow like a lovesick puppy. One very lucky lovesick puppy.

  “Do we have time for this?” I ask, already stripping out of my clothes.

  “Babe, what have I always told you?” She peels away her shirt and sends it sailing over my head; it lands on the shrubbery behind us. “I’ll always make time for you. After all, I need my daily dose.” She runs up the stairs and into the house, and I take off after her. When I catch her, she’s already in the bedroom, sprawled out on the bed and completely naked, just the way I’d been hoping to find her when I came home earlier.

  “You are so goddamn beautiful,” I growl as I slowly approach the bed. The mattress dips under my weight as I place a knee beside her and crawl up her body until I’m hovering inches above her. “Christ, what did I ever do to deserve you?” I stare down into her chocolate-colored eyes and hope like hell she can see my love reflecting back at her.

  “Whatever it was, I hope you never stop doing it,” she whispers and reaches between us to stroke the length of my cock.

  “Never.” I lean closer and capture her lips in a slow, sensual kiss that lasts just long enough to make me hungry for more. “I love you, baby.”

  “I love you, too, Ace. Now hurry up and give me my shot of Vitamin D,” she begs and wraps her long legs around me.

  “Jeez, so bossy,” I growl and give her perfect ass a firm squeeze. “Your ass is perfect. Have I already told you that?” I wink, knowing damn well I’ve told her that about a hundred times. She laughs softly before drawing her bottom lip between her teeth and arching her pelvis up to meet me. My hips thrust forward, filling her in one fluid motion. Her soft gasps encourage me as I rock gently back and forth, enjoying the tight feel of her pussy as it loosens and contracts around my erection. As we move together, I can’t help feeling I’m the luckiest man alive. I have a woman who loves me and a baby on the way. I’m probably the happiest man on earth right now.

  Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I’m buried balls deep in my most favorite place on earth.

  We find our climax together. We are so hot for each other it doesn’t take long. As we lie together, I tangle my fingers in her dark hair and nibble hungrily on her plump bottom lip. No matter how much she gives me, I always seem to want more. Yep, I have it all. But I’m a man who likes to push boundaries. A man who always wants more. They don’t call me the Dirty Gentleman for nothing. I brace myself on my forearm and give her my best panty-melting smile. The one I gave her the first night we met. She loves it when I do cheesy shit like that and can
’t help giggling softly.

  I lean forward and murmur against her kiss-swollen lips. “Promise me you’ll never stop begging for my cock.” She giggles once more then reaches down between us and wraps her hand around my junk.

  “Pfft. Easiest promise I’ll ever keep.”

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Writing a book is truly a labor of love that requires a lot of time, dedication, blood, sweat, and tears. Sacrifices are made, and we lose quality time with our family and friends. We often close ourselves off from the rest of the world while burying ourselves deeper in the fictional world we’re creating. There are so many individuals who’ve come alongside me on this journey in order to help me see it through to completion. I owe each and every one of you a heartfelt thanks for sticking beside me, even on days when I was curled up in a corner, rocking back and forth and ready to raise the white flag. Writing this book took everything I had, at a time when I felt I didn’t have a whole lot to offer. My characters gave me a lot of shit, but I’m glad I hung in there because I believe the story they ended up telling was worthy of making it into your hands. I’m very proud of what lies between these pages and I hope you are too.

  First and foremost, I thank God for giving me the desire to write, and the ability to tell my stories in a way that touches the hearts of so many readers. I pray I’m able to continue doing what I love for many years to come.

  There are many people I need to thank who helped me during the writing of FIRE AND ICE— The first being Melissa Mendoza—Melissa read this book in bits and pieces, and quite often I left her hanging at the best parts! She’s always the first person to read my work, and I trust her with every word. She stands behind me and supports my dreams, no matter how crazy I may get while trying to reach them. She’s not only the best PA there is, she’s also my best friend and I would be lost without her. I LOVE YOU, MELISSA!

  To Shawn Garcia for always reading at the last minute, her impeccable attention to detail, and for always knowing just what to say. I’m so thankful Jersey Girl brought us together.