by Isabel North
She shrugged. “He never thought I’d be with anyone else.”
“Ever? Were you supposed to be pining for him, or…?”
“Nothing like that. And, I can see where he’d get the idea.”
“That you should be alone?”
“That I’d choose to be alone rather than risk Kate’s security. My heart. But he was wrong.” She cupped his cheek. “I choose you.” Before Derek could respond, she added matter-of-factly, “Because I love you.”
He fell on her. He’d had her minutes ago, and at her words the need to claim her again roared over him, slamming into him out of nowhere.
Jenny laughed into his ravenous kiss and encouraged him as he rocked powerfully against her. He tore his mouth away to kiss and suck his way down her neck, her breasts, back up to her mouth. The thrust of his tongue matched the thrust of his hips, and he reached down between them to guide himself home when he stopped.
“Don’t you dare stop!” Jenny gasped.
“Have to. No condom.”
She bit his shoulder. “I don’t care. Keep going.”
“Jenny. I can’t. We have to at least discuss it first—”
“I’m healthy. Had a check-up a couple of months ago. Are you healthy?”
“Yes—”
“Let’s go.” She slapped his butt.
His Jenny. Tells him she loves him, then slaps his ass. Again. “Seriously, woman,” he said. “Final warning.” Jenny reached between them, took him in her hand and angled him. He pulled his hips away with a hiss. “We can’t. Be responsible.”
Her eyes turned distant for a second.
There we go, she’s being sensible about this.
She wasn’t being sensible. She was calculating. “I’m good. Wrong time of my cycle to get pregnant.”
“I’m not taking the risk.” Derek glared at her. “When I make a baby with you, Jen Finley, it won’t be a gamble. It will be deliberate.”
“When?” she echoed.
“When. There will be candlelight, and rose petals, and a bed. There will be no splinters, no grazed knees, and it won’t be on the couch. It will be romantic as fuck.”
“That’s lovely,” Jenny said, eyes shimmering. She grabbed him. “But I’m feeling about as romantic as I can stand. And I want you now. In me.”
Holding her gaze, he slid his hand down and in. She sucked in a breath as he stroked her. “How’s that?”
“Good,” she said contemplatively. “Although, I had another part of you in mind.”
He made an adjustment, turning his wrist. “Better?”
Her neck arched and she stuttered out a sigh. “I suppose it will do.”
“Don’t you worry about my ego.”
“You know you drive me wild.” She tangled her hands in his hair and kissed him. “And I promise I’ll get around to finding you a certificate of achievement or something, so when you have these moments of doubt you can look at it hanging on your wall, and be reassured.”
“Keep looking at me like you do,” he told her. “It’s enough. You’re enough. You’re everything.”
Derek watched, rapt, as Jenny lost herself to his touch, loving her uninhibited response as she climaxed again, this time slow and sweet. He took her cries into his mouth and continued to kiss her, lazily, while she came back to reality.She relaxed for about three seconds before she started to heave at his shoulders.
Derek raised a brow. “Trying to go somewhere?”
“Trying to roll you. Your turn.”
“I’ll take my turn in a minute. When we’re done talking about Dean.”
“Right. I got distracted. Where were we?”
“You love me.” She blushed, and Derek shook his head. “I love you, too. You know that, right?”
Jenny ducked her chin. “I kinda suspected you might.”
Derek shifted to his side and tucked her against him. “Dean got hit with the stupid stick…” he prompted, playing with her hair.
“Right. And decided to start throwing his weight around. I don’t know if it was the idea of you in our lives, or because I wouldn’t take his money. Either way, staying true to form, his answer was to gamble. He planned on frightening me with a lawyer, because he knows I can’t afford one. And I can’t. Which is why I called Gabe.”
Derek had to make an effort to keep his voice polite. “Now we’re getting to the interesting bit. Why him and not me? Because I’m yours, Jenny. Not Sterling. Me. I stand between you and threats. Not Sterling.”
“I know.” She stroked his neck soothingly. “I was bluffing. I had an elegant plan. I wanted to borrow one of Gabe’s lawyers and use the threat of him to back Dean down. All I needed was a name, I wasn’t at any point going to actually hire a lawyer. What with not being able to afford one. Gabe sure as hell wasn’t supposed to show up.”
“But when you told Sterling what Dean was doing, he dropped everything to rush to your aid. Like he’s your white knight.”
“Gabe’s whimsical.”
“He’s overstepping. You’re mine.”
“Do you think you could pound your chest when you say that, maybe grunt a bit? Because I’m not getting it from the repetition alone.”
Derek growled.
“I promise you, Gabe and I are not like that. One day I’ll explain the, uh, the nuances of our relationship, but Derek? Gabe has never meant to me what you do. No one has.”
He wound a lock of her hair around his finger and tugged. “Okay. You’re a resourceful woman who is more than capable of making her own decisions and determining the course of her own and her daughter’s life. And I admire the bluff. Very devious. I still have one question, and this is the big one. Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Simple. I wanted to clear all the obstacles away before I told you you’re marrying me.”
He blinked.
“I did think about asking you to come to the meeting, but…” She trailed off and stared at his chest.
He lifted her chin to make her meet his gaze. “But?”
“I didn’t want to burden you.”
“Not a burden.”
“Are you sure? I thought you’d be busy trying to solve your own problem.”
Derek went cold.
“You know,” Jenny said. There was no accusation in her voice whatsoever, but it still burned when she continued, “You lost the garage.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
That shut him up.
Derek did nothing but stare at Jenny for a long, painful minute. Then he said, eloquently, “Shit.”
She kissed him. This time he yielded when she tried to roll him over. She stretched out and sighed happily. Propping her chin on her stacked fists, she watched him think.
“Lila cannot keep a secret to save her life,” he grumbled.
“Why did you even try to keep it a secret from me?”
“Are you kidding?”
Apparently it was obvious to Derek. It was still a mystery to Jenny. “No, I’m not kidding.”
He pressed a hand to the small of her back as if to hold her there. As if she was going anywhere. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted you?”
“Days and weeks?”
“Months. Years. Sometimes I think I’ve always wanted you, Jen. And then I got you.” His fingers spread wide. “You were free of Dean, of Sterling, you were giving in at last, and then Marshall hit me with the news that he’s retiring. Turned me into what has to be the least attractive romantic proposition in the world to a woman who divorced a husband who ruined her financially, and followed that up with dating a fucking billionaire.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Go ahead and stop worrying about Gabe. Pretend he’s irrelevant.”
“If I’d told you I was facing a financial struggle, you would have shut me down.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Jen. Our entire courting history pretty much consists of you shutting me down. Over and over again.”
He had a point.
For God’s sake, the first
time they’d gotten close to starting a real relationship, she’d used Gabe as an excuse.
“So, you were going to get me good and stuck on you before you revealed that I’d hitched myself to another financially-troubled man?” she said.
“When you phrase it like that, I sound—”
“Ruthless? Not quite the gentleman everyone thinks you are, and I have the splinters in my ass to prove it?” She ticked the list off on her fingers. “You are also determined, patient, creative.”
He nudged his hips into hers. “Spectacular lover.”
“Spectacular lover,” she agreed. “Thanks for reminding me. And most importantly, you are going to let me co-sign a loan, because I have some money saved, and I believe in you.” She yelped when he snatched her hand, curled it into a fist, and held it between his palms.
“I am not taking your money.”
“We’ll discuss it.”
“Will we, now?”
“Yes. We’ll discuss everything. Because I’m in, Derek. I love you. I’m with you. All the way. I want, and I need, all of you. As in, this.” She stroked his erection. “And this.” She stretched up to kiss his furrowed forehead. “But most of all—” keeping her eyes on his, she lowered to press her lips over his heart and whispered, “—this.”
How d’you like me now, Tate? You’re not the only one who can be romantic.
Slowly, Derek sat up. Jenny’s pulse accelerated.
He tipped her off him, set her on the couch and stood, zipping up his jeans.
“Wha—” she began.
Gripping her jaw, he bent to lay a devastating kiss on her stunned lips. “Do. Not. Move.”
He strode out.
“Derek!”
He reappeared in the doorway, wrenching his T-shirt on over his head. “Condoms,” he said. “Going to get them. Lots of condoms.” He pointed at her. “Stay there. Stay naked. I’ll be...” He ran back in, kissed her again, then ran out, yelling from the hall. “Stay!”
“Derek!”
He groaned and swung back into view. “What?”
“Can you pick up a pizza while you’re in town?”
“You got it.”
* * * *
Derek slipped out of bed the next morning, trying not to wake Jenny. She flailed upright the moment he moved, looking around in a panic.
“Hey,” he said, sitting on the edge of the mattress. “I’m here.”
Jenny flopped back, yawning. “Morning.”
“I’m heading out,” he told her. “Got to get to work.”
She swiped for her alarm clock and squinted at the display. “How can you possibly be awake? It’s still early.”
He’d gotten back with the condoms and the pizza, and they’d worked their way through both. It was three a.m. before Derek had fallen asleep, with Jenny draped over him in what he’d learned was her favorite position. Now, her eyelids were heavy. She yawned again. She was exhausted.
Derek, on the other hand, was wired.
Jenny threw back the covers. “I’ll make you breakfast before you go.”
He tossed the covers over her face and she fought them before she emerged, spluttering. He leaned down, pulling the quilt tight over her arms and trapping her. “No need.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Bring me coffee later instead.”
“Will do.”
He grinned, and left.
Riding his bike into Emerson, Derek had plenty of time for thought. A lot of that thinking time was spent on Jenny. The taste, the feel, the sweet reality of having won her. Made him feel like a goddamn king, to hear her say those words, I love you.
Even though the fate of his garage was a dark cloud on the horizon, Derek’s eyes were filled with the sun. He’d find a way to make it work.
If he could get Jenny Finley to love him, finding new premises for Rawlings’ Auto Repairs would be a piece of cake.
He’d miss this place, though. He unlocked the gates and drove onto the forecourt. He wouldn’t miss the stress it had caused since Marshall blindsided him. From start to finish, it had all had happened so quickly. He’d assumed this kind of sale took time, with months of back-and-forth negotiations and legal processes, but the garage had been yanked out from under him in a matter of weeks.
It had taken longer to buy his apartment.
The buyer must be as motivated as Rawlings, was his best guess.
He’d find out soon enough. If he was lucky, he might not have to move, might even get a better rental agreement out of the whole situation. If he was less lucky, he’d have the nightmare logistics of packing up the workshop and shipping it to a new location. Either way, he’d manage.
Derek started work fitting a new exhaust pipe to an old Toyota, playing the stereo loud. He didn’t hear the car drive in, but the movement alerted him and he glanced over, expecting Burke.
A sleek black vehicle ghosted to a stop.
Derek strode over to the stereo and switched it off. He stood in the open bay door, arms braced over his chest, as Gabe Sterling unfolded from his Aston Martin.
“Your car makes a hell of a statement,” Derek said to the man.
Sterling took off his mirrored aviators and hooked them in the front of his T-shirt. “You know, I’ve heard that before. What does it say to you?”
“I’m a pretentious dick.”
“Yes, but what does the car say to you?” When Derek didn’t crack a smile, Sterling winked. “I’ve heard the pretentious thing before, too.”
“I’m shocked.”
Sterling skimmed a palm over the pristine black hood, and gave it a fond pat. “No one’s ever said it about my girl, though.”
Derek grunted, eyeing the car. “What’s the problem?”
Derek hoped it was a biggie. He didn’t wish Sterling ill—poor bastard lost out on Jenny, after all, and Derek could be magnanimous—but he’d love the chance to have a poke around. He was a great mechanic. Hadn’t gotten his hands on an Aston Martin before. Likely a gorgeous machine like this was outside his skill set.
Damn, Derek wanted to get under the hood and find out.
Sterling’s amused voice broke in. “You want me to leave you and the car alone for some quality time?”
“Probably not a good idea. Can’t promise I’d behave myself.”
He laughed. “I’m not here about my car, but if you want to give her a thorough going-over, be my guest.” He tossed his keyring at Derek, who snatched it out of the air and stared at it blankly. “The problem seems to be between you and me.”
“I don’t have a problem with you, Sterling.”
“Then the hostility is because of…?”
Derek clenched his jaw. “All right. You want to know?”
“I would, yes.”
“Jenny,” Derek said, and left it at that.
Sterling looked at him, turned to look over his shoulder as if expecting to see Jenny there, then turned back to Derek. “Gonna need a little more.”
“Okay. I get that you guys have your own relationship, and I’m not dumb enough to tell her who she can and can’t have in her life. It was good of you to come running to Jenny’s aid, but she doesn’t need you anymore. She has me.”
“Huh,” Sterling said. “I’m aware that she has you. I know what’s going on between the two of you, and congratulations, been rooting for you. Regardless, Jenny did need me. She called and told me so. If she ever needs me, I’ll come running. I always will. You being with her won’t change that, Derek.”
“Fair enough. So long as you’re clear that you lost your chance. If this was some big swoop in to save the day and get her back move, forget it.”
“It was a swoop in to save the day move. At least, it was a swoop in to watch my little firecracker squash her ex-husband move.” Sterling’s sharp green eyes glinted with challenge.
“She isn’t your firecracker,” Derek snapped.
“Oh, but she is. Always will be.”
“She’s with me. She chose me. Not to sneak into her house at nigh
t for a hookup.”
“Okay.”
“Not to have a secret affair with.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“For good. You don’t get to have Jenny again.”
Sterling rocked back on his heels with an enormous grin. “Have her?” he said. “You mean sexually?”
“Yes, I mean sexually.”
“I have never had and will never have Jenny Finley sexually. I have her in my life. I have her as a friend. Sexually?” He shook his head. “Jenny isn’t my type. My type is five feet and six inches of awkward, who also happens to be pregnant with my child, and married to me.”
“You’re married?”
Sterling held up his left hand and proudly pointed at the ring Derek hadn’t noticed until now. Because, you know. He was a guy.
“You mean you never… You and Jenny never…?”
“No. Jenny Finley is the sister of my heart. Sister. I’m a pervert, but I ain’t that perverted.”
Derek eyed him. “You were never even tempted?”
“Did you not hear me when I said sister?”
“You two never even kissed?”
“If I didn’t know from the background check I ran on you that you are an only child, Tate, I’d be worried. No kissing.”
“I don’t get it. Why would she…?” Derek clasped the back of his neck and stared at the ceiling. He groaned. “Son of a bitch. I fell for it.”
“Did she tell you we were together?” Sterling asked.
Derek nodded, and Sterling’s laughter filled the garage.
“Goddammit,” Derek said. “She told me you two were hooking up on the quiet. A secret affair.”
“That explains your less-than-friendly attitude. Hah. This is funny, awkward, and yet at the same time, surprisingly convenient.”
Derek looked at him in wordless question.
“Funny,” Sterling said, “because she played you. Kate is the spit of her mother, and you’re the man who gets to parent that girl through adolescence. Good luck with that. Awkward, because you think I had your woman, and I didn’t, but I do own your garage. And convenient because, hey. Wedding present.”
Derek blew out a hard breath. “Oh, you asshole. You? You’re the buyer?”
“I am the buyer. I like Emerson. I’ve been looking to invest in property here for a while.” Sterling turned and made a frame out of his hands as he squinted at the back wall. “I’m thinking about turning it into a coffee shop. Hardwood floors. Tables over there. What d’you think, a little bookstore area? If not books, something cute. Like yarn. Nora’s cousin, Anna, is an interior designer. I’ll get her to come up, take a look.”