“He’s funny too.”
“Funny?” I asked, knowing Derek was a lot of things, but funny was not one of them.
“Yeah.”
“What did he do that was funny?”
She shrugged then headed to her bedroom. “Don’t be nosy, Mom.”It was Wednesday morning, so instead of leaving for work, we enjoyed some time together. I arrived to see him already standing there, waiting for me to enter his penthouse at any moment. He looked at me with trepidation in his gaze, as if he were waiting for a sentence from a judge.
“She really liked you, Derek.”
He closed his eyes as he released a sigh of relief, like that had been weighing on him all night.
I smiled, touched that her approval meant so much to him.
“She said you didn’t make her feel stupid when she didn’t get it, and if she couldn’t get there, you taught her differently until it settled in her mind.”
“She’s a bright girl, Emerson. There’s no reason she should ever feel stupid.”
I loved the way he believed in people so resolutely. He believed all people were capable of anything with the right tools, so when he described Lizzie that way, he meant it. “She said she wishes you were her teacher instead of the one she currently has.”
He dropped his gaze and didn’t say anything.
“And she said you were funny…but didn’t tell me why.”
The corner of his mouth rose slightly, but he turned away to try to mask it.
“Why does she think you’re funny, Derek?”
He shrugged.
“Come on, why won’t you tell me?”
He released a sigh before he turned back to me. “I appreciate how loyal your daughter is for not throwing me under the bus.”
“Throwing you under the bus for what?”
He took a while before he answered, as if he was searching for the words. “Well, when I looked at her teacher’s worksheet and all the goddamn red ink everywhere, I realized he spends more time ripping apart her work than explaining what she should have done beside it, which would have been a lot more effective and instructive…so I blurted out that her teacher was an asshole. She found it amusing.”
Of course she did. “You guys sound alike.”
“I’m sorry. It just came out.”
“It’s not a big deal, Derek.” I chuckled because I actually found it funny. “I’m sure that made her feel connected to you, so that’s fine.”
“I know you work really hard to make sure she behaves a certain way.”
I shrugged. “I think it’s inevitable. Lizzie has a strong personality and calls things as she sees them. It’s not really a bad thing. She calls people out on their shit instead of blindly accepting her environment. I don’t want her to have a dirty mouth, obviously, but I’m relieved that she’s that way.”
“You know where she gets it from, right?” He turned back to me, amusement in his eyes.
I grinned. “Yeah, I know.”
“And if she grows up to be like you, I think you’ve done your job as a mom.”
Those words filled me with elation because that was all a mother wanted to hear—that she’d done a good job, that she’d raised a beautiful person. When I thought about how Derek was when we met and how much he’d grown, it made me realize how lucky I was to have a man like him, a man who would change for a woman.
All my apprehension about the success of this relationship faded away after that first meeting between Derek and Lizzie. They both seemed to get along and enjoy each other’s company. I understood tutoring Lizzie wasn’t the same thing as being a stepfather, but it was still a good first step.
A hurdle we both conquered.
I continued to stare at him in front of me, in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, his hair styled and his jaw shaved. He was a million times more handsome than he was before, knowing he’d done something for me that utterly terrified him.
He continued to hold my gaze as he waited for me to say something. When I didn’t, he whispered, “What is it?”
“I just…” I stepped closer to him. “I’m not sure if I want to jump your bones on that couch…or give you a blow job instead.” My hands moved to the bottom of his shirt, and my fingers slowly slid underneath.
His eyes darkened immediately at my bluntness, his body stiffening as he prepared for whatever my decision would be.
My fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt and slowly pulled it up his body.
His eyes stayed on me as he lifted his arms so I could pull it over his head and leave him bare-chested, hard, and sexy.
My hands went to his jeans and got them loose before I pushed them down, hooking my fingers in the waistband of his boxers so I had a good grip to get them down his narrow hips, his thick veins emerging, and then his big cock. “So, you have a preference?” I tugged his bottoms down farther as I sank to my knees in front of him.