Taking Flight (A Devereux Novel)

by Whiskey, D. G.

  “Are you okay?” he asked huskily, the fierceness of the predator leashed so he wouldn’t hurt her.

  Sara nodded. “You can go faster. It feels incredible, but it’s just so deep.”

  Derek sped his hips and increased the depth of his thrusting, giving her more of him than he had before. Her inner muscles rippled along his length, clutched against him and sending shocks up her spine as his movements pushed her back up along the path to orgasm.

  The pleasure was deeper, fuller this time. High-pitched moans tore themselves from Sara’s throat and her nails dug into Derek’s back as she fought to contain the feelings he created in her body. The pace increased even further until his hips slammed into hers, each slap as their bodies came together driving her crazier with lust.

  His hand dove into her hair and held the back of her head. “Do you like feeling me inside of you?”

  She cried out, the roughness of his voice and domination of his actions giving her something she’d never experienced before. “Yes! Yes, I love it!”

  “I want you to come on my cock. Are you going to come for me?”

  Sara couldn’t answer—his words set a spark to the pile of tinder inside of her. As soon as he asked, her muscles quaked as powerful convulsions rocked her body. He continued to thrust into her, driving her higher into her climax until she lost the ability to understand what happened around her.

  Her breath came in huge gasps as she fought for enough oxygen to feed her screaming muscles. Aftershocks caused tremors inside of her, and any attempt to move her limbs was impossible.

  When Sara roused enough to figure out what was going on, Derek crawled into the bed beside her and pulled her to him. She hadn’t even noticed he’d left.

  “Did you finish?” she asked.

  I hope so. I wouldn’t be good for anything more at this point. Blissful and much overdue sleep already chased at the edges of her mind, lulling her to blackness.

  “I did,” he replied. “I pulled out and came into a towel since we weren’t using a condom.”

  Condoms!

  She hadn’t even thought about it. Her and Michael never had to use them, so it had been years and years since it had crossed her mind.

  “Smart,” she said. She tried to say more, but couldn’t form the words.

  He kissed her forehead as sleep dragged her down into its warm embrace.

  Wow.

  Derek stretched, his muscles the special kind of sore that told him he’d engaged in rigorous physical activity and then passed out so deeply that he didn’t move a single time over the course of the night. Blood flooded back through his body, and it woke him a little more.

  He patted the bed around him but Sara was nowhere to be found. The mattress beside him was still a little warm.

  That happened.

  He couldn’t regret it. It was what he needed, mind, body and soul. But he couldn’t be sure it was what Sara wanted. Had he pushed her into it, used the danger they were in, her desperate situation? Had he taken advantage of offering her the shelter of his home to sleep with her?

  Those were questions he couldn’t answer yet, and he felt too good about life to worry about them. Yes, there was a mysterious man out to kill him and everyone he cared about, but that was no reason to feel guilty about experiencing joy.

  His dresser had been ransacked, the drawers opened and previously folded clothes left tangled and unkempt. A wry grin crossed his face as he located a pair of slacks and a shirt.

  As he left the room, he looked over the railing on the balcony to see Gary had abandoned the recliner below. When he got to the bottom of the big staircase and approached the kitchen, he discovered the reason.

  “You’ll have to come and check it out,” his brother said. “You’d love the museum, and there are many unsolved mysteries there you could dig into.”

  “I may have to do that, once I’ve wrapped up here,” Sara replied.

  She was busy at his stove where a heavenly mix of food sizzled in a frying pan. It looked as though she had found the one pair of sweatpants he kept around, and she proved that one of his shirts could look cute. Gary had pulled up a chair and sat with his cast extended out in front of him, keeping her company as she expertly flipped the food in the pan.

  “Do I smell bacon?” Derek asked. “I didn’t even know I had bacon.”

  “You didn’t,” Gary said. “I bought that a couple days ago. You don’t stock a fridge well, bro. I fixed that.”

  “Bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes… I’ve got it all,” Sara said. “What would you like?”

  He smiled as they met gazes. Her hair was half-bound, with some of it trailing down the right side of her face in lazy curls. He liked it.

  “All the above? I must have done something right to deserve all this!”

  Sara just laughed, and Gary looked back and forth between them, comprehension dawning on his face. Derek expected a smartass comment, but to his surprise, Gary just smiled and made himself busy with his orange juice.

  “Okay, these eggs are done. The rest of the food is keeping warm in the oven. Help yourself! I’ll wake Beck. She had a rough go of it yesterday.” Sara bounded past Derek, sprightly and full of energy. After passing him she tugged his arm to turn him around and pulled his face down for a quick kiss. She tasted like oranges. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” Derek replied automatically as she skipped away with a laugh. He stared after her until Gary’s laughter brought him back to the room. “Oh, shut it.” He took a dishcloth and threw it at his brother.

  “So, that happened last night, I guess?” Gary asked. “Good for you. You two are a good match for each other. Better than anyone else you’ve dated.”

  A flood of delectable scents burst forth from the oven as he opened the door. He took a piece of bacon and snapped a bite off. The salty pork melted over his tongue, and his eyes closed in bliss. He took the dishes out and heaped a selection of food onto a plate.

  “Yeah, that happened.” He passed the plate to Gary and then started on his own. “I hadn’t meant for it, but I can’t be upset about it.”

  “You didn’t want to sleep with her? Why not? I thought you would have been all over that long before now. At least, the Derek I used to know would have.” Gary gave him a long look.

  “Things are more complicated now. Considering all that’s happened… It isn’t wise to bring someone else into the middle of everything. For heaven’s sake, Gary, their apartment was torn apart! That must have been because of me, because of us. If she hadn’t been seen with me so often, if she hadn’t seen the attack on me in the alley, then maybe she wouldn’t have been targeted. Can I justify drawing her even closer? What if she gets hurt?”

  His brother speared a piece of scrambled egg with a fork and munched on it. “Isn’t that her decision to make? Besides, we don’t understand what’s going on, and you need something to give you stability for now. Sara could be the key to that.”

  Stability? Derek had been tiring of the same old game he had played for what seemed like forever. Sleeping with new women all the time, but never letting them close enough to learn anything real about him. The endless parties, socializing, and whole glamorous lifestyle had lost its appeal.

  The chatter of the two girlfriends coming down the stairs filled the bottom of the house. It was nice having other people around on a Sunday morning. He was used to utter silence unless he put on music, but the house was big and it felt more natural to be occupied like this.

  “You might be onto something there,” he said, watching as the girls appeared through the hallway.

  “Good morning,” Becky said. She was still bleary-eyed, and Derek wondered if anyone besides Gary on his painkillers had gotten much sleep the night before. “This little monster terrorized me and now insists on feeding me. I resisted, but she’s got way too much sass in the morning.”

  The dynamic between the two had been terse the night before, but the atmosphere was much lighter if still tender thi
s morning. Derek was glad to see there didn’t appear to be any obvious emotional trauma from the ordeal they’d suffered.

  “What can I say?” Sara said. “I’m in a good mood. It’s a gorgeous day with the sun shining and delicious smells filling the air. It makes me feel like we can conquer anything. Even the thought of flying doesn’t seem so awful right now.”

  The other three traded a few looks. That was a bold statement from someone paralyzed by the thought of walking up more than a flight of stairs.

  “What’s on the docket today, chief?” Gary asked Derek. “I won’t be good for much more than sticking around here with this leg. It might be a Netflix and reading type of day. Maybe I’ll try to make it out on the patio and soak up the afternoon sun later. That’s one advantage you have over Boston here—the excellent weather year-round. Spending my winters visiting you might not be the worst idea.”

  “I’ve got to get one more practice flight in, at least,” Derek said. “The race is… oh, shit, the race is tomorrow! I’ve been so wrapped up in everything it slipped my mind.” He stared at his brother in shock. “I’m not even sure I can beat Rex. He’s always talked a big game, but everyone says something is different this year and he may back it up. It’ll be really tight. I told you about the bet?”

  Gary nodded. “You can do it, Derek. He’s a complete asshole, and he deserves to lose. It’s only right you’re the one to put him in his place.”

  “I don’t know,” Derek felt doubt encroach on his mind. With the attacks on the girls’ apartment and the potential involvement of their foe in Gary’s broken leg, he felt even more as though the challenge with Rex was the least wise thing he had ever done. “I’d planned on quitting the league after Evan’s visit, but I got so mad and couldn’t back down.” He hesitated. “I can do this one race and then quit the rest of the season after that. Frederick won’t be happy, but he can shove it.”

  Sara ran her hand down his arm and squeezed his hand. “You don’t have to race him, Derek. I doubt anyone would blame you. Just say your brother is in town and had an accident. Thanks to the paparazzi, everyone knows anyway. It won’t be that big of a deal.”

  “Yeah, Derek, screw ‘em. What do you have to prove to anybody?” Becky said. “It’s your life and your money, and you can do whatever you want.”

  Gary knew him better. “I’ll come out and watch with you.”

  “Gary!” Sara smacked his arm. “Why would you say that? Tell Derek he shouldn’t do it!”

  “That won’t work, Sara. As much as he knows that he shouldn’t do it, and as much as he doesn’t want to, Derek always stands by his principles. He won’t let Rex get away with being an absolute tool with no consequences. Besides, the money isn’t for him. He’s already earmarked it for the charities I work with.”

  “It’s true,” Derek said. “I could bow out and donate my fifty million, but I planned on giving Rex’s as well. And if anyone doesn’t deserve that money, it’s that pompous asshole.”

  Sara’s lips thinned when she realized his mind was set. “Well, I hope you cream him, then. And you better stay safe.” Her finger pointed in his face. “Because I will never forgive you if you get yourself killed over this. We have enough danger in our lives at the moment.”

  He captured her finger and brought it to his lips. He kissed the tip.

  “I promise.”

  Before Derek left for the airport, Sara got him to lend her a computer so she could get work done. Once the afterglow of their union faded, it occurred to her she had major work to do if she expected the relationship to last.

  Do I want the relationship to last?

  Sara had avoided thinking too hard about what she wanted from her association with Derek, but the time had come. She’d fallen for him, and that changed everything. Could she go ahead with her investigative piece if she wanted to stay with Derek? She already knew the answer to that.

  I never wanted to do Ron’s dirty work for him, anyway.

  She’d decided before she even consciously thought about it. She would destroy the piece and not allow it to get published. That would betray the man she was falling in love with, and she couldn’t do that to him.

  He had enough problems to worry about without her throwing a wrench in his public life. And her research could help although there were glaring holes that dead-ended her progress.

  Luckily, she had a new resource in the house she hadn’t had access to before.

  “So, Gary,” Sara said as she settled into the couch across from his recliner. “Derek told me you guys inherited your father’s company?”

  He looked around in what she guessed was an instinctual response to any mention of the company. Becky was upstairs digging through Derek’s things, searching for any raw material she could use to rebuild her portfolio. After sleeping on things and stuffed with Sara’s patented mood-raising pancakes, she had declared herself glad the old stuff was gone, clearing the way for her to create bigger and better designs.

  Gary raised an eyebrow. “He said that? Wow, he’s a lot further gone than I thought. We aren’t supposed to talk about the company with anyone.”

  “I got that impression.” Sara laid all but one of her cards on the table. “Look, I want to help. I have certain skills as an investigative journalist, and I can help you guys figure out what’s going on here. I have a stake in this game, too.”

  “Why didn’t you ask Derek this?”

  “I was going to, but…” She felt her face grow hot, and she bet she blushed right to the roots of her hair. “Let’s just say we didn’t get to it.”

  He lifted his hands and turned his head, “Okay, okay, fine. I don’t need to hear it. That’s a good excuse. I don’t know if I can just unilaterally give you information though, what little I have. It was an agreement between all four of us not to divulge anything outside the family. After all, we don’t even know that much ourselves.”

  Sara frowned. It was frustrating how secretive everything about Onyx was. But it was her calling to unravel secrets, figure out mysteries, and solve puzzles. The more walls she ran into, the more she wanted to get to the bottom of whatever was going on behind those military contracts and the billions of dollars changing hands.

  “How much personal contact have you had with the company? Have you been to any of the offices?”

  He shook his head. “I was never that interested, to be honest. I’ve been off doing my thing in Boston, and the company is just this thing I knew existed but didn’t affect my day-to-day life.”

  “I’m sorry if it’s a sensitive subject, but what about when your father died? You had a meeting with the board of directors, right?”

  Gary shifted in his recliner, settling his leg into a more comfortable spot. “We did, yeah. They showed us his note, written in his handwriting. There were about six or seven of them, but we didn’t meet for long. They said that they would keep running the company the way Father would have wanted it to go, and that we didn’t need to lift a finger, the profits would just show up in our bank accounts. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t care about much beyond that.”

  Sara couldn’t even imagine. Would she be willing to sit back and let countless millions roll into her bank accounts without knowing where it came from? She thought not, but people are saints in theoretical situations. Reality was a different beast.

  “Let me state what we know about the company. You’ve personally seen six or seven people associated with the company, but no offices. I did a little preliminary searching and found no mention of it anywhere. Not at all. And there are no accounts associated with it, for tax purposes or otherwise.” She wasn’t yet prepared to mention the military contracts she had come across courtesy of her government contact. “If it wasn’t for the firehose of cash shooting into your accounts, I would be tempted to say this was all an elaborate prank and the Onyx Company is a figment of our imagination.”

  None of it made sense to her. She could see a similar level of hopelessness in Gary’s face. “Do you
want me to see if I can get Evan on the phone? He’s seen a lot more than I have. He might tell us more.”

  The chance to talk directly to the Devereux brother who had his fingers in the pot? Sara couldn’t think of a better opportunity to get to the bottom of it all. “That’s the best idea either of us has come up with so far, Gary.”

  The plane engine sputtered and died.

  Derek smiled. The day’s practice runs had gone even better than he expected. There was no chance Rex could beat him if he flew like that in the race tomorrow. He had shattered his previous competition records on every single run, coming in far ahead of his pre-season flights.

  If being with Sara will always make me feel like this, there’s no way she’s ever going back to Chicago!

  He had been running on a high ever since waking up that morning. The way she looked into his eyes… it gave him warm and fuzzy feelings he had never experienced before. He’d never been able to resist teasing Gary when his little brother became entrenched in a relationship, but here he was on the other side of the fence and suddenly he understood.

  There was no room for error, and Derek didn’t want to leave anything to chance, especially with whoever was out there trying to hurt him and those he loved. The post-flight checks were onerous, but he did them twice, leaving the plane in the best possible state for the race tomorrow. It was a sacred task, a ritual he used to prepare his mind for the intense mental highs and lows of a race. After so many practice runs and preparation, it always came down to one final attempt. No more room for mistakes, no more time to visualize himself roaring to victory.

  The plane was perfect. He kept it in top shape, but it still gave him a sense of satisfaction to know just how great the condition of the vehicle was, a finely tuned machine that was ready and waiting to respond to his every command. He locked the hangar.

  “Look who it is.”

  Derek froze. He would recognize that despicable voice anywhere.