Your place so Oscar isn’t alone?
Leave it to her to worry about his pet, he thought, feeling a grin on his face.
“I take it that’s her?” Lucas asked.
Derek had all but forgotten he was in the room.
“Yeah.” He typed back, suddenly eager to see her.
You. Me. Naked. Make my long day a distant memory.
Be there soon, she wrote back immediately.
On my way. “Gotta go,” he said to Lucas.
Lucas pushed himself to standing. “Far be it from me to keep you from getting laid.”
“Fuck off,” Derek muttered with a grin.
“Bye.” Lucas strode off, laughing.
Derek rose and grabbed his jacket from behind the door, in a rush to get home. Because he needed her, he realized. Needed her to help him unwind after a shitty day, needed her for peace of mind and for the best sex he’d ever had.
Because it wasn’t just sex. That was something he’d realized the last time they were together. It wasn’t sex anymore. It was making love. Something he’d never experienced before, which made it both easy to recognize as different and scary as fuck.
Although they hadn’t been together long, he felt like he’d always known her. That they shared a connection that went back in time and transcended misunderstandings in the past … but not socio-economic differences.
How could he be in love with the girl in the mansion across the way? Never mind that now he was the one with the money to buy as many mansions as he wanted, in whatever country or on whichever island he chose. There was still that class difference.
Her family didn’t approve of him. At least her brother didn’t, and he knew damn well her father would hit the roof. He didn’t know about her mother, but he had his doubts she’d take her own stand in her daughter’s favor.
When it came down to actually choosing, if it came down to that, could Cassie walk away from her family? Would they make her opt between them?
Could Derek put her in that position?
Fuck. Well, no decisions had to be made now. He was going home to have more fantastic sex with the girl he couldn’t get out of his head or his heart. He’d worry about the other issues as they arose.
Because he wasn’t giving her up without a fight.
He didn’t hit traffic on the highway and arrived home in near record t
ime. Oscar greeted him, and he beat Cassie here because, though his doorman had instructions to let her in to his apartment, the rest of the place was dark.
He flicked on the light just as the knock sounded on his door. He let her in and allowed for Oscar’s crazy-boy greeting, knowing he’d never get the dog to settle if he didn’t have his licks, pets, and hellos.
She knelt, her big down parka dragging on the floor as Oscar did this thing. Cassie giggled and crooned to him before Derek called him off. “Oscar, come on, boy. Come here. Bed.” He walked to the kitchen and returned with a high-value treat that would keep him occupied for a good long time.
Then he turned to Cassie. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
He took three steps forward and pulled her into his arms, sealing his lips over hers. The kiss immediately turned hot, this despite the fact that she wore a puffy jacket and there were barriers of clothing between them. He bit her lower lip and she moaned into his mouth, his tongue sweeping through, tasting her, devouring as best he could.
Needing to feel her skin, he pulled back, unzipping her jacket and tossing it to the floor in the hallway. She kicked off her shoes.
“Do I need to feed you dinner first?” he asked, trying to be a gentleman.
“No. Just hungry for you.”