At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles)

His lips brushed against my ear. “Mars.” I shivered as he flicked his tongue against the lobe. “Your body feels incredible.” His words heated me through. He grasped my hips, drawing me harder against him before pushing his hands down the front of my dress and across my legs. “You want this.”

And he was right. He could drag one finger between my legs to find out just how bad I wanted it.

His voice was demanding and sensual. “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll stop.”

“Derek,” I groaned.

“Because I can’t lie anymore.”

I whirled in his arms, looking up into those hazel eyes filled with lust. His arms came back around me, settling on my ass. My own hands looped into the curl of his hair at the base of his neck.

Some part of me said to let go, to not worry about repercussions, but I’d been so careful. So fucking careful the last couple months to not give my heart over to this man. He had the power to break me, and I didn’t want to be the dumb girl who got hurt again. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

“Why?” I asked, my voice cracking.

His brow furrowed. “Why what?”

“Why did you leave the first time?” I asked the question that had been haunting me all these years. “Why?”

“I already told you.”

“No, you didn’t. You said you were an idiot. You said that it was a mistake and you missed me. Those are excuses, not a reason. We’d had a great time, and then you were gone. You practically called me stupid for thinking it was more.”

He sighed and nodded. “You’re right. I did those things but not why you think. It’s going to sound stupid.”

“How so?”

“Because I liked you.”

I blinked at him. “That’s not—”

He held up a hand. “I liked you, Marley. Not just liked you. I was falling head over heels. I’d never felt that way about anyone before in my entire life. I dated. I’d been with other people. Girls never mattered to me. Then, here you were, crashing into my life over a feud, and I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”

“But…” I began helplessly.

“So, I ran scared.” I met those hazel eyes and saw the sincerity there. “I didn’t want to be tied down. I thought that if I acted like an asshole, then you’d let me go. It wasn’t until I saw you again at Halloween that I realized how incredibly fucked I was.” His hand came to cup my jaw. “No one else is you, Mars. No one else will ever be you.”

My world tipped at those words. I’d thought that he treated me just like every other girl. And here he was saying the opposite. My brain and body couldn’t seem to process the information.

“How do I know you won’t run scared again?”

“I’m still here, aren’t I? I made a mistake, but I’m not scared of this with you anymore, Marley.” He pressed one soft kiss to my lips. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Something sparked in my chest at those words. Something I’d been holding back all this time. Too afraid of the pain he’d caused me to see it too clearly. I’d wanted his body and enjoyed his friendship and felt something budding. But I was way past that now. I was in deep with him. And I didn’t want to come back from the precipice. I wanted to jump again. Only the unknown had been holding me back. The unknown was gone.

I raised onto my tiptoes and crushed our mouths together. He kissed me like he’d been waiting his entire life to do so. It was rough and passionate and full of pent-up need.

Derek took my hand without another word and pulled me toward the exit. He texted Amelia to let her know that we were leaving. She sent back a wink emoji. Derek laughed as we took the elevator down to the penthouse. We had two rooms, but Derek drew me into his, kicking the door closed behind him and thudding my back against it.

I gasped, and his mouth covered mine. Months. It had been months of want and need. Months of waiting. Months where I was certain this would never, ever happen again. Not ever.

But he’d stuck by me. He’d waited. He’d been patient. He’d proven himself.

And now, we couldn’t scramble out of our clothes fast enough. There would be time to take things slow and reacquaint ourselves with the other’s body, but that wasn’t happening tonight.

My hands went to his waistband, unbuttoning his pants and shoving them off of his hips. He hoisted up my dress, and reached for my underwear. I gasped as the material ripped in his hands.

“Derek!”

He grinned devilishly. “I’m impatient.”

But I couldn’t even be mad. Not when he gripped me by the backs of the thighs and slammed me into the door a second time. We were both impatient. A yawning need taking over all of our movements. I grasped for his cock in the dark, drawing him to me. He touched the tip against my opening.