He lowered his head and narrowed his eyes. “If I stayed here, there’s no way I could stay on the sofa.”
Kristina licked her lips in response. “Works for me.”
Derrick opened the door and pulled her through the doorway. Anxious to get to the third floor, he moved to the middle of the stairwell and listened for a second. Nothing. He was familiar with each tenant’s voice. They were all doing something other than traveling the corridors. “Works for me too.” He pulled Kristina up in his arms.
She whooshed out a breath in response. “Um… you’re going to carry me up three flights of stairs?”
“Nope. I’m going to jump three flights of stairs. Ready?”
She bit down on her bottom lip, but nodded.
Derrick knew the exact force; he’d done this many times in the last two years since she’d moved into the building. He softened his knees and propelled himself off the concrete, soaring upward and over the railing, landing in front of her door.
He felt Kristina’s heart pound against his chest, but she smiled. “Well, that was different.” She laughed. “Whew! The blood is rushing to my head. Give me a second to get my bearings before you let me down. I think my feet are still on the ground level.”
Derrick continued to hold her in his arms as she handed him the keys. “I can hold you as long as you wish. You weigh practically nothing, and I rather like having you this close.” He unlocked and pushed open the door.
As he stood in her tiny living room, he dipped his head to hers. Her lips parted and he sealed his mouth to hers. Walking to the sofa, his lips still pressed to hers, he sat with her in his arms.
Kristina wrapped her arms around his neck, her hands moving through his hair. It felt so good. He didn’t ever want to let her go. How did people function? He couldn’t imagine having to go to work or eat, or anything for that matter. He wanted to lie down beside her and never leave her side. His father had tried to explain to him once, but it was difficult to understand. Hard to comprehend how you could want one person forever. He’d liked women before, thought that he could make it work, but the couple times he’d mentioned to his father that he thought that maybe he’d felt something, his father had laughed. He’d bellowed, “When it happens, you’ll know. It’s like nothing you’ve ever felt.”
His father had been correct. Derrick had been a fool to think he could have forced this with anyone other than Kristina. He’d been in love with her spirit for too long. His soul had known all along what it wanted.
Kristina pulled back, smiling. “As much as I don’t want to stop kissing you, Derrick. I really need to take care of my plants.”
He sighed, running his hands through his hair. “Tell me what we have to do, please. I never thought I’d be upstaged by plants.”
She scooted off his lap and sauntered toward the kitchen, shaking more than she had to he was certain. Unable to resist, he followed. As she filled the pitchers in the sink, he nuzzled against her. Her body squirmed beneath him as the heat of his breath tickled her neck. He moved his hands down the length of her arms, pulling the first pitcher up to the counter. He pressed his mouth against her skin and she cooed in response.
He lifted the second vessel out of the sink and she turned in his arms, inching her fingers up his shirt, unbuttoning it along the way. When she had it completely undone, he allowed her to move it off his shoulders, throwing it over a chair at the dinette.
Kristina ran both hands over his chest and down his arms. “Are you trying to distract me?”
He smiled. “I was filling water pitchers. You’re the one who started undressing me.”
“Maybe they can wait until morning,” she said, drawing out her words slowly, in the sexiest voice he’d ever heard.
“Oh, no. We’re watering these plants now.” He drew up one of the canisters and headed over to the first window, then whooshed through the house before Kristina could move toward the first plant. He appeared in front of her, an empty water canister in his hands. “Done!” He whisked her off her feet and carried her to the bedroom.
“Aww… you didn’t show them any love. You have to talk to them so they can get their life-sustaining carbon dioxide—”
Derrick pressed his lips over hers, cutting off her words. He lowered her to the bed and crawled over top of her. Stupid plants, he thought. Thankfully, Kristina seemed to forget about her foliage as her hands traveled over his shoulders and across his back. He groaned with pleasure, wanting her fully. His body lit up, ready to partake, but he pulled away. “We’re not going to do anything tonight, Kristina.”
She crinkled her eyebrows together. “What do you mean? Why?”
“It’s just not right. Not yet.”
“But you said—”
He rested his fingers over her lips. “I know. We’re committed. But it’s still our first night together. It just doesn’t feel right. I want it to be more romantic, more of a buildup.”
She sighed. “I don’t understand. How can there be more of a buildup than we’ve already experienced? What I felt was the most incredible sensation ever.”
He smiled and warmth seared through his chest at her words. “Thank you. But trust me; it’ll get better. Right now, I just want you to kiss me again.”
Kristina lifted her head and parted her lips, allowing him access to taste her again. The same feeling as before soared through his system. He couldn’t imagine ever tiring of kissing her.
He jerked his head up at a sound outside and saw a shadow pass by the window. “You don’t have a fire escape on this window, do you?”
She squinted in the dim light. “No. It’s outside the kitchen window.”
“That’s what I thought.” Derrick jumped to his feet and peered through the wood slats. The shadow moved across the roof of the next building. No way would he catch the perp. They’d heard his words and had moved for cover. Definitely a creatus based on the speed. He could only pray it was someone from his family checking on him and not the rogue.
Chapter Ten
Kris stared at her reflection in the wide chrome-framed mirror while Derrick stood behind her. “Are you sure this is okay?” she asked for the hundredth time, checking her makeup in the unnatural light of his vanity mirror. Her bathroom, though smaller, had soft natural light. Her entire apartment was warm and sunny, even in the dead of winter. It was how she preferred it.
Now, due to his insistence, she’d lined up all her plants in front of Derrick’s wall of windows in the living area of his condo. And now she was attempting to figure out if her makeup looked acceptable in his master bath, which had no windows.
Derrick touched the collar of her sweater, which rested at the edge of her shoulders, pressing his lips to her bare skin. “You look beautiful. What are you worried about?”
“I just want to make sure they think I’m good enough for you.”
He hummed out a breath, smiling. “It doesn’t matter what they think. I love you, and that’s all that matters.”
Kris gulped, tears forming in her eyes. He hadn’t said those words. He had said he’d fallen, but in her language, those three little words meant everything. She turned to him. “I love you too, Derrick. I always have.”
He brushed her hair away from her face. “Then why are you crying?”
She didn’t know why she was crying actually. Overwhelmed, scared, a million reasons why, she assumed, but mostly because she felt his love in an almost palpable way. “Hearing you say that… it feels real. You’re real. And I’m so scared they’ll hate me and try to tear us apart. I’ve been alone since I was eight and the thought of losing you—”
Derrick placed his hands on either side of her face and kissed her softly, then moved his fingers under her chin, directing her head up to face him. “You’ve never been alone, my love. I’ve always been here.”
“I know.” She sighed. “It’s what kept me going, what kept me in Boston. But what if they—”
“They can’t,” he cut in softly. “Believe me.
This is the one thing my family—all of them, even my brother—understands. Even if they are not happy, they know there’s nothing that will change. And my mother will love you. Another woman around...” he trailed off, as if not wanting to finish his sentence.
Kris inhaled a deep breath and whooshed it out, appraising the cold tile and metal around her. If she were in her home, she wouldn’t feel so out of sorts. “If you’re not worried, why did you insist we pack up my house in the middle of the night and come here?”
He dropped his hands to her shoulders, fiddling with the soft threads of her sweater. “I just wanted you with me. In a safe place. Your apartment is too easy to break into. All of my doors and windows have extra security, with reinforced steel and glass. Even a creatus couldn’t break in here.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You think one of them will try to hurt me?” she deduced. “This all happened after you jumped up last night. What did you see?”
Derrick shrugged. “Just a shadow.”
Kris presumed he wasn’t telling her everything, but she also had a feeling he wasn’t going to either. He’d whisked her out of the house so quickly last night her head had spun. Not that she minded being with him all the time, but one minute he was insisting they needed to do something romantic before they went further, and the next he’d had all her plants in the rear of his Navigator. He had helped her pack a duffle bag of clothes and toiletries, but he’d paced the entire time, as if he were all of a sudden in a hurry.
Once they’d arrived at his house, though, he’d carried her items into the spare room. She’d walked right into the room behind him, snatched up her bag, and moved it to his master bedroom while he watched.
After that, they’d cuddled in his bed together, but he’d refused to do anything but kiss her. She’d finally fallen asleep, but had awoken to discover he’d left the room. Following the muted sound and flickering light of the television, she’d found Derrick sleeping on the sofa, remote still clutched in his hand.
Knowing he wasn’t going to confess any more than he had last night, she stepped out from under his hands. “I’m ready.”
“Good. Let’s go,” he chirped, drawing her toward the door.
Derrick’s trek away from the city surprised Kris. She’d assumed his family—as he continually referred to them—all lived nearby. Instead, they drove north then headed west on 495 toward the city of Harvard. She’d been through Harvard a few times. It was a quaint, but beautiful town. They passed the town hall on their route, and Kris couldn’t help but giggle. It looked as though someone had torn the building out of a Norman Rockwell painting and planted it on the main thoroughfare next to the general store and fire department.
With its whitewashed exterior, front porch, and even a crow’s nest on the roof, Kris wanted to pull out her charcoal and tablet and draw for the first time in years. Several apple orchards and farms with riding stables lent a down-home feel to the small town. It was hard to believe such a place existed so close to Boston.
About a half an hour after they’d left his apartment, they turned north again. After several miles of rolling hills, he finally turned onto a dead-end street as indicated by the no-outlet sign. They passed six chalet-style houses on large plots of land. When he reached the end of the road, he turned off to the left, traveling down a gravel driveway. Derrick finally pulled to a stop in front of another tri-level house, nestled between several species of evergreens. A large barn sat off in the distance adjacent to what looked to be a vacant vegetable garden.
Kris lowered her head, gazing out the window to absorb everything. “This place is enormous. Whose house is this?”
“My parents,” Derrick said simply, opening his door and hopping out of the vehicle.
Her heart thrummed in her chest, her earlier nervousness returning, only worse than it had been as she was now here.
Derrick opened her door and took her hand. “It’s okay, Kristina. No one’s going to bite you.”
“Are you sure?” she fretted, gnawing on her bottom lip. “Maybe we should just go. Give them a few years to get used to the idea of us being together.”
He stepped in front of her, lowering his head to her eye level. “Everything will be fine. You’re strong, independent, and feisty. Feel free to be yourself. Don’t let them scare you, especially Vic.”
“Who’s Vic?”
Derrick kissed her quickly, then taking her hand, pulled her into the house. He opened the door and stepped inside. The area they walked into was a den of some sort, with an older, seventies’ style brown sofa and console television. Derrick walked through that area and up a small flight of stairs, passing a hallway leading to several rooms. When they reached the first landing, Kris could see another living area off to their right, only more modern than the room below them. Derrick ignored that area too and walked out a door leading outside again.
As soon as they stepped onto the porch, Kris saw a hundred or so people—creatus, standing in loose circles. Everyone stopped to look—and glare—but then, other than one group of four people, most went back to their subdued conversations, as if not the least bit concerned. She released a short breath of relief as Derrick took her hand and led her down the steps. Her previous nervousness started to melt away at the warmth of his hand wrapped around hers. He wasn’t embarrassed of her, so what was the worst thing that could happen. Even if his brother or parents didn’t approve, it didn’t mean he’d leave her. He had said he’d never leave her and he’d never let anyone take her away. So she had no reason to fret about losing another person in her life.
Derrick made his way to the smaller group, but the entire time they approached, a woman shook her head, her beautiful face contorting with every step they neared. Her hair was long and raven black. Her features, like Derrick’s, were striking, and Kris realized immediately where the myth of Wonder Woman must have begun. She, along with most of the other women, looked like Amazons, tall and utterly beautiful. Kris hoped that she was a sister Derrick had failed to mention. Because if this woman had a romantic interest in Derrick, she might just kill Kris on the spot by the look of things.
The Amazon took a step forward. “I can’t believe you’d bring that tramp—”
“Victoria!” Derrick barked, causing Kris to cringe behind him. So much for being strong and feisty.
A man standing next to the woman patted her arm, whispering something Kris couldn’t hear.
Victoria’s lips drew back, and if Kris wasn’t mistaken, she growled. “You bitch!”
The man, who Kris noticed looked more like Derrick than any other of the men around her, clamped his arms around the woman, and Derrick rushed them, taking the woman’s other arm. Both men dragged the woman away, kicking and screaming obscenities, before Kris could even blink. Kris stood there with tears stinging her eyes, wanting just to seep into the ground. What had she done? She didn’t even know the woman. A chill started at the base of her neck and rushed through her body, immediately making her shiver. Wrapping her arms around her body, she attempted to calm her nerves before she bolted up the stairs to the safety of the Navigator.
An older woman with lighter hair than the rest approached and Kris quivered, knowing Derrick wouldn’t be able to protect her. “It’s okay, Kristina.” The woman wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Her warm chocolate eyes instantly soothed Kris, making her feel as though she were gazing into Derrick’s eyes. Her features were soft and round, nothing like the other women now gawking at the commotion she’d caused. “Welcome to the family, honey. Vic will get over it; she doesn’t have a choice and she knows it.”
Kris gazed up into the kind woman’s eyes, noticing there was something different about her. Though Derrick had said there was no way to tell, every one of the persons around her looked as though they were related to one another, other than this woman. “You’re human, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I’m Sabrina. Derrick’s mother.”
Chapter Eleven
“What is wrong with you, Vi
c?” Derrick roared, wondering if it was safe to release his grip on her arm. “Was that you last night? Huh? You think you can scare her away?”
Victoria lifted her head, ignoring his question. Tears trailed down her cheeks. “I loved you, Derrick. How could you?”
He closed his eyes to break off the pain of her declaration. He’d always known that she loved him, and he loved her too, but they’d never be anything more than friends. Well, maybe not anymore, which made his heart hurt for her. She’d always be his confidant; he’d hate to lose her friendship. “You know I tried. We both tried. I’ve been trying for fourteen years. It wasn’t ever going to happen, Vic. You know that.”
She dropped her head to her hands, and Michael patted her shoulder. Sometimes Derrick wished she would just leave. He had a feeling that if he could have fallen for her, she would have instantly reciprocated. It was his hang-up, he knew; his love for Kristina wouldn’t allow it to happen.
“I’ll stay with her,” Michael said. “Go take care of your woman. She’s probably scared to death.”
Derrick stared at his brother in disbelief. Again, Michael’s actions baffled him. Even though they had a human mother, he’d never hidden his distaste for humans. Even their mother knew how Michael felt. Michael knew if the military ever found out about the creatus, especially him and Derrick, they’d use them as guinea pigs. He and Derrick were an anomaly among the group, but no one dared mess with them. As strong as the creatus were, they were stronger. For some reason, a human and a creatus didn’t make a half-anything. Derrick and Michael were twice as strong as their full-bred cousins were. Neither his grandfather nor his father could explain or come up with any rational explanation, even with their combined medical expertise.
Derrick glanced at Victoria, feeling horrible, but he had no choice. He was in love with Kristina, and he finally understood that he’d been in love with her for the last few years, the reason he could never fall for another woman.
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