Planning the rest of the day after surprise sex was not easy. So, Ellie relied on the same thing she always did—Vanessa. She moved around Derrick’s chef-caliber kitchen right now, cutting vegetables and making a salad.
Vanessa was there, just in case. Kind of like a shield against bumbling conversation. How Derrick would feel about guests in his house was a different question, one Ellie hadn’t thought about until right now as she heard footsteps on the stairs. Well, if he didn’t like it, that would teach him to move her in without talking to her first.
Ellie plastered on a smile as soon as she saw him. “You’re home.”
His gaze hesitated on her face before skipping to the counter and the stack of cutting boards and knives sitting there. “You’re cooking?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” Sure, it was fair, but still.
Vanessa popped her head around the corner. “Also, don’t panic. I’m helping.”
Derrick gave Vanessa a small wave as he stopped beside Ellie. “You can’t cook?”
She snorted. “Can you?”
“I can grill. Men grill.”
Vanessa winced. “Oh, boy.”
“Typical,” Ellie said at the same time. “Well, if you’re done impressing us with your testosterone… Derrick, this is Vanessa, my best friend.” She rushed to add one caveat. “The one person other than Jackson who knows this—us—isn’t real.”
His expression went blank. “It’s not?”
“The contract thing.” For some reason it hurt to say the words this time.
It’s not as if they had some sort of miracle sex. It was great and her body still hummed, but she didn’t think sex solved everything. Though she had to admit, something did change. Inside her, deep inside.
Together they were sexy and comfortable…they worked. The churning, that ramped-up feeling of being excited to see him and to hear his voice, didn’t strike her as fake. She’d never experienced it before and it made her a little twitchy now because she hadn’t had enough time to analyze it, but she knew it amounted to more than a practical agreement between friends.
She had such a short time to savor this feeling. She’d been the one who insisted on limiting the time of the agreement to two months. He had wanted more months and now she did, too.
Derrick still didn’t show any reaction. His affect had gone flat and stayed there. “You told her.”
She rewound the comment in her head, looking for any judgment, but didn’t hear it. That didn’t mean it wasn’t there. “Is that a problem?”
For a second he just stood there, not talking. Then a lightness stole over him and he glanced at Vanessa. “You don’t have a habit of gossiping or talking to the Insider, do you?”
The hint of amusement calmed Ellie. Her neck muscles unclenched as she relaxed again.
“Any secret Ellie tells me stays with me,” Vanessa said.
“Happy to hear it.” Derrick stopped in front of the lasagna pan and put his finger out as if he intended to poke it. “So, what’s this—?”
“Stop.” Ellie slapped his hand away. “You have to wait.”
He smiled at her. “Should I order takeout to be safe?”
That look… His walls fell and he stopped being the commanding-man-in-charge-of-everything to be a man. This was at-home Derrick and she had no defense against this sexy side of him. This was the Derrick who had landed her in his bed—and would put her back there. This Derrick was dangerous.
But that didn’t mean that she was ready to let him off the hook for his behavior earlier. Her arms still ached from the quick move she and Vanessa had made of most of her stuff to one of the extra bedrooms upstairs.
Oh, no. He’d be paying for that one for a while. “Tough talk from a guy who made a big mistake today.”
Vanessa turned around, spoon in hand. “Yeah, you owe me for carrying all those books around.”
“Technically, that’s Ellie’s fault since I hired movers. She sent them away,” Derrick said.
Vanessa shook the long spoon at him. “I heard you were Mr. Bossy Pants.”
Derrick groaned as he made his way around the counter and took a seat on one of the bar stools. “Oh, good. Now I get to fight two of you.”
The byplay made Ellie smile. She hadn’t been raised with banter in the kitchen. Her entire childhood had raged like a house on fire. There was always some new crisis and not enough money to handle it.
There were no settled moments of her parents joking with each other, or very few of them. Stealing a few now with Derrick had a warmth settling deep inside her. She’d always wanted this—a home and security. Someone who made her hot but also made her want to snuggle on the couch.