“Are we wrong?” she asked, wanting the moment to continue for just a bit longer.
“No.” He rested his hands on the counter. “Today I was an overbearing jackass.”
Ellie almost dropped the glass she’d picked up. “Whoa?”
Vanessa looked from Derrick to Ellie. “What?”
“What you heard was progress.”
“I can learn.” He shrugged as he stole a mushroom off the salad and popped it in his mouth.
Ellie wanted to believe that. She was desperate to believe that and she wasn’t even sure why. “But can you set the table?”
He winked at her. “I’m on it.”
She watched him meander around the kitchen. He rolled up his shirtsleeves and dug in. Grabbed the plates and silverware. Even hummed while he did it, which Ellie found oddly endearing.
And the man could move. Those long, determined strides. The long legs and that flat stomach. She’d seen him without his clothes and with them on, and she was a fan of both.
She glanced at the table. “Three? Isn’t Spence coming home?”
“He’s having dinner with Jackson. There was some thought tonight might be loud around here.” Derrick shot her a sexy little smile. “From all the yelling, which Spence thinks I deserve.”
“I like him.”
“Yeah, I figured you would.” Derrick finished with the table and walked back to the counter.
Ellie expected him to stand there or look at his watch, or even try to fit in a half hour of work before dinner. Instead he draped an arm loosely over her shoulder and brought her in close to his side.
Vanessa did a double take but didn’t say anything.
“So, what else can I do?” he asked.
As far as Ellie was concerned, he was doing it.
* * *
Hours later dinner was over and the dishes were done and put away. Vanessa hung around, telling stories about the men they’d dated and some of their stranger travel adventures. To Derrick’s credit, he listened and asked questions. He genuinely seemed to enjoy the night even though Ellie guessed he’d rather be tied to his desk working.
Now it was almost midnight. Vanessa had gone and Spence had come home. After a bit of small talk, he’d settled into the bedroom he always used when he was in town. Ellie started the night in Derrick’s bedroom because it would have been weird for them to sleep separately if they were really dating.
Some of her clothes, the ones she and Vanessa managed to collect before dinner, hung in Derrick’s oversize closet. The thing was as big as two rooms with shelves and racks and drawers and a chair.
A chair.
When the house went quiet, she’d snuck to the bedroom she intended to sleep in even though she wanted to stay with him, wanted to forget that Spence slept nearby and that stupid agreement. She craved his touch. Needed him to hold her, kiss her, roll around in that big bed with her.
She wasn’t really the casual sex type. She needed a connection, a relationship. She didn’t have a lot of experience but all of it included condoms.
So much had happened over the last few months. She couldn’t even process it all. Her nerves were frazzled. A list of pros and cons kept cycling through her head.
With Derrick everything was different. More intense. Less clear. She’d bent her personal rules until they broke. Instead of feeling guilty or thinking she’d messed up, a wave of sadness hit her. A sense of loss at not being with him now. Of not being able to hold him, to touch him tonight, like she’d thought about all day.
She thought back to the first time he’d proposed this fake arrangement. The whole thing had confused and annoyed her, but something in his eyes and voice had compelled her. She’d agreed to an arrangement she’d never go for under any other circumstance.
Sure, there was the Noah piece. The part about her needing money and some bit of security. All that was real, but the truth was she’d signed that agreement because she’d wanted to. Because, for once, she took something she wanted—Derrick.
For the first time in her life she operated without a road map. She let emotion guide her. She saw the risks and accepted them, even knowing that the likelihood was this would end in pain and heartache. There really was no other way for a relationship built on fake facts to finish.
She was so lost in thought she almost missed the soft knock on the door. When it sounded the second time, she scooted out of bed, careful to make sure her shorts and T-shirt were in place when she opened the door in case the visitor was Spence.
Derrick stood there in what looked like lounge pants and a gray T-shirt that fit him like a second skin. That fast, her temperature spiked and her insides started to whirl.
She gripped the side of the door. “Are you okay?”