“It’s happening,” Derrick said.
Noah stood. “I’ll be back when he’s not here.”
That comment struck her as silly. “It’s his house.”
“Leave the video,” Derrick said.
“Because you say so?”
Derrick shook his head. “Because I’m asking you not to release it.”
“Fine.” Noah slammed the drive onto the table and walked out.
* * *
Derrick watched Noah go. Apparently storming out in a huff was a Gold family tradition. Ellie did it better, but Noah was pretty good at it. Even slammed the front door.
Ellie stood. Derrick half expected her to go upstairs and not talk again this evening like a repeat of last night. He fought to find the right words to say but nothing came to him.
She stopped next to his chair. Her hand slipped into his. When she gave his arm a gentle tug, he figured she wanted him to stand.
The change in her mood confused him. “Are you okay?”
Instead of answering him, she kissed him. Her arms slipped around his neck and she pulled his head to her. Then her mouth met his and speaking wasn’t on his mind.
Her tongue licked out to caress his bottom lip. She had his brain misfiring and his pants growing tighter. It took all the strength he possessed to lift his head and stare at her, to drag his mouth away from hers. “You don’t need to thank me this way.”
He waited for her shoulders to stiffen, for her anger to rise.
She pressed a finger to his lips. Traced the outline before letting her finger trail down his throat to his chest. “You told me once that I should only kiss you if I wanted to kiss you.”
The sound of her deep voice was enough to touch off something inside him. He got hard and his resistance to her, what little he still had, melted. “That’s still the rule.”
“I want to kiss you.”
It took a second for her words to register in his brain. She wanted him. Through the missteps and the battles, after sleeping alone, she still wanted him.
Still, they’d been through some hard days. “Be sure.”
She pressed her hand against his chest, backing him up until his butt hit the wall. “I am. I choose you, Derrick. Not because of an arrangement or money or my brother. I want you because of you.”
That’s all it took. The last of his defenses fell. Every argument for why he should hold back and not let this mean anything vanished.
His body vetoed his brain. They could talk later. They needed this now.
His mouth met hers in a kiss meant to possess. He wanted her to know this was real. There was nothing fake about how much he wanted to touch her, to be inside her. His hands traveled over her as she unbuttoned his shirt. She reached the bottom few and tugged. Buttons ripped off and pinged against the floor.
It was a wild frenzy to disrobe. He wanted her naked but settled for shoving her skirt up to her waist and tugging her bikini underwear down. Their legs tangled and he leaned against the wall for balance. When that didn’t get him what he wanted, he spun them around.
With her spine pressed against the wall, he lifted her legs to his hips and settled his body between them. Her ankles balanced against his ass as he held her with one hand and rushed to unzip with the other.
Chaos filled his mind. A wild energy pounded through him. All he could think about was being inside her, of feeling her body wrap around his. At the last second, he slowed. His finger went to the very center of her. When he found her wet and ready, he slipped into fast forward again.
“I’m going to help your brother, Ellie,” Derrick said between stinging kisses.
She put her palms against his cheeks and forced him to look at her. “Yes, but later.”
“Much later.”
Then he was inside her. He plunged in and stopped. Ignored the sexy little growling sounds she made and just enjoyed the tight grip of her body around his.
She pinched his shoulder. “Derrick, move.”
This one time he was happy to obey.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The DC Insider: The party is on! We admit we were worried Derrick Jameson blew it, but friends and family are gathering. There’s word of a sparkly dress and champagne being brought in by the truckload. Let the marriage plans begin.
Two more weeks of tentative peace passed. Ellie returned to Derrick’s bedroom. He hadn’t proposed in a better way, but he did spend some time each night touching her ring. His finger smoothed over it with a near reverence. He’d spin it around on her finger as he watched in awe.
She still didn’t understand him. His mood stayed relatively steady but he worked too much and continued to say the odd stray comment that made her wonder how often he dealt with actual human beings other than her.
A month had passed since they’d first slept together. After a detour to help a friend, Carter was on the way, which meant she would know both brothers soon. Even Derrick’s father was flying in with his relatively new wife.