Mine at Midnight

by Jamie Pope

  But he didn’t take her to his room. He took her to his den, which had a couch, a television and a wall of bookshelves. He pushed her down on the couch before going to his knees, his upper body settling between her legs.

  She wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but for some reason she wasn’t expecting what he did. He opened her and gifted her with one long, firm lick that made her entire body tremble. “Oh God, Derek.”

  “You’re so sweet,” he told her before he licked the length of her again. He was definitely a man who knew what he was doing, who enjoyed what he was doing. He gave her slow, intimate kisses there, like she was the most precious thing in the world, and then sucked her most sensitive part into his mouth. She cried out, saying words she wasn’t sure made sense, but she couldn’t control it and just when she thought she couldn’t feel anymore he slipped two fingers inside her.

  She swore as he began to pump his fingers and work his tongue in unison. She didn’t feel like herself. She had never felt this free with a man. It was Derek. He made her uncomfortable. He made her angry. He made her want to be near him. It was hard to explain why.

  Orgasm took over her entire body. Sex had always been pleasant, and she had looked forward more to the closeness of the process than the end result, but not today. There was no pleasantness here. She felt raw and stripped and amazing. What Derek did to her left her completely breathless and boneless.

  This was an experience.

  “Derek.” She panted. He must have known that she wanted him with her because he covered her body with his own and lay on top of her. She wrapped her arms around him, loving the way his heavy body on top of her felt, loving the way he smelled like her and wood and aftershave.

  She could have stayed there forever like that, but he kissed her neck and climbed off her. “I’ve got to get back to work. You feel better? If not, my personal bathroom could use a deep cleaning.”

  He walked out then, and she swore again. That man would make her pull her hair out.

  Chapter 8

  A few evenings later, Derek stepped outside on his porch. He rarely was in a bad mood, but today had caught up with him and he’d found himself being irrationally annoyed all afternoon. Being outside made him feel slightly better. The sun was going to set soon, painting the sky a gorgeous salmon-orange color. There was a breeze blowing, causing the leaves on the trees around him to gently swish. He looked toward the ocean in the distance, and it reminded him of the last time he was at the beach. He was with Ava in his truck, eating cake as the sun set.

  And just as if he’d magically conjured her, he spotted her walking up the road. She was in a black two-piece that was sexy but understated. Her hair was pinned up. Her look was almost old-fashioned, like she was a throwback to another time. She looked just like a pinup. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

  She must have felt his gaze, and she looked up at him, giving him a little wave as she walked past his house. He couldn’t let that be the only interaction they had that day.

  He stepped off his porch and met her as she turned into her driveway.

  “Invite me inside,” he said to her.

  “What if I don’t want to be bothered with you today?”

  “You like Thai food?”

  She paused before she answered. “Yes.”

  “I’ll buy you dinner.”

  “Do I have to put on actual clothes for this dinner?”

  “I would very much like to see you eat dinner naked, but I would be afraid to see what happened if you spilled soup on yourself.”

  She frowned at him. “You know what I meant. Are you having it delivered?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you flirting with me?”

  “Yes.”

  She cocked her head to the side and looked at him. “Why?”

  That was a good question. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know why he liked her or why she had buried herself so deeply under his skin or why she popped into his head a million times a day. “Something to do.” He shrugged.

  “Come in.” She opened her door, which was unlocked.

  “You shouldn’t leave your door unlocked like that.”

  “Why not? Are you saying your island isn’t safe, Mr. Mayor?”

  “No.”

  “Don’t you leave your door unlocked?”

  “Yes, and you broke in, which is exactly my point! Any old thing could just walk in off the street.”

  She rolled her eyes. “There’s about a quarter of a mile between me and the next neighbor, so I’m assuming you’re worried about you breaking in here? What are you going to do? Build me a new patio set when I’m out shopping? Actually, I think I would like that. Can you do that for me?”

  He followed her inside the house, trying not to focus on the way her behind swished as she walked. “You want some of my furniture?”

  “It’s very beautiful, Derek,” she said with no sign of snark. “Although I don’t know where I’d put it. This place is furnished, and I currently don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “I thought you had a condo in Miami.”

  “I’m renting it out. My tenant signed a two-year lease. I thought I’d be married and living in Europe by now.”

  He could hear the tinge of sadness in her voice. It had been almost a month now. In the big scheme of things it was only a short time, but he hated that she was still mourning the loss of such a big creep. He didn’t want her to be sad about it anymore.

  “I could make you something small. Not furniture.”

  “Like what? A trinket box? For all the jewelry my ex keeps sending me?”

  “You got more?”

  She nodded. “Black diamonds. Absolutely gorgeous. I sent them back. What else can you make me?”

  “A dollhouse. My uncle was an architect, and he used to build my cousin elaborate dollhouses with furniture and working lights. He showed me how. That’s how I got into woodworking. I can make just about anything.”

  “Make me something. Anything. Surprise me.”

  “That’s going to cost you. A lot.”

  “I have to spend time with you. I think that’s payment enough.”

  “Have to? I’m the mayor of this island. Everyone wants me at their events. You should be thrilled to be honored by my presence.”

  “If everyone wants you at their events, why are you in my house?”

  “Maybe I don’t want to go to a place where I’m treated kindly and respected. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment.”

  Ava stepped forward and placed her hand on his cheek. “What’s the matter, Derek?” she asked softly.

  “Huh?”

  She touched his chest, her hand resting on his heart. “There’s a little edge to you today. And the fact that you sought me out after not speaking to me for days is telling. You want to distract yourself from something.”

  “Maybe it’s because I find you incredibly beautiful and I want to be near you.”

  “Maybe you’re full of crap.” She grinned at him. “Order our dinner. I’m going to go change.”

  “Don’t.”

  “Don’t?”

  It was an outrageous request on his part. He couldn’t really expect her to eat dinner in her bathing suit, but he liked the way she looked in it. He wanted to dine with a pinup girl tonight.

  “No. Keep it on.”

  He thought she was going to protest, but she just nodded and set her beach bag down before she handed him the phone. “I want pad thai.”

  * * *

  They ate dinner sitting on the couch that night, watching television, talking during commercial breaks. Derek sat close to her, his warm body pressed against hers. It was a comfortable evening. He was one of the few people she could just be quiet with. For once in her life she didn’
t have to worry about impressing anyone.

  “My mother called today,” he told her when the show ended. “That’s why I’m feeling funky.”

  “You two treated each other like acquaintances. You’re not close?”

  “I spent more time with my aunt and uncle than I ever did with her. They would have liked to have raised me full-time, but my mother refused to turn over custody. I was never sure why she didn’t.”

  “You’re speaking as if she doesn’t love you.”

  He shrugged, which wasn’t what she was expecting. She had seen the tension between them. Anita was the opposite of her mother, who would kiss the skin off your face if you let her. If there was one thing Ava was sure of in her life, it was that she was loved deeply. Derek was loved, too. Hideaway Island adored him, but that kind of love was surface love. He needed to be loved deeply. Everyone deserved that.

  “What did she want?”

  “For me to fix something.”

  “And that’s the only reason she ever calls, right? When she wants something?”

  “Yeah...” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’m sorry. I sound like a whiny little punk.”

  “I would tell you if you did.” She smiled at him. “Tell me about your mother.” She placed her hand on his hard thigh. It suddenly made her think about the other day. After he had finished giving her the best orgasm of her life he had laid his big, hard body on top of hers. She loved the feel of him; even sitting this close to her was giving her a little charge.

  He had walked away from her that afternoon, lying on his couch with her skirt up and her legs open. It left her feeling incredibly vulnerable. She didn’t know what she had been expecting from him, but she hadn’t expected that. She had taken a hard blow from Max. She never wanted to be put in that position with a man again, but Derek had come along quite unexpectedly, and she was starting to like him. She just needed to keep herself from liking him too much.

  She definitely needed to keep some space between them, but right now she couldn’t make herself move away.

  He touched her hand, absently rubbing his thumb over her now-bare ring finger. “I’m the product of an affair my mother had with a married man. On an island this small you would think everyone would know that, but they don’t. My mother and my grandmother had big falling-out over it and my mother moved off-island. She moved back when I was two.”

  “She broke things off with your father?”

  “No. She was his mistress until I was ten. But he wasn’t a hands-on father. Moving us closer to her family gave her the freedom to chase my father. She thought she would force him to leave his wife if she had me. She thought that we would be one big happy family. The plan backfired. A young, hot mistress becomes less appealing when she has a rowdy toddler to chase around.”

  “How is your relationship with your father?”

  “Nearly nonexistent. My choice. Not his.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s hard to explain. I look like him. More than any of his other legitimate children, and he’s strangely proud of that. When I got a little older he used to summon me to his office in Miami and tell me all about his business and how to run it and how to get what I wanted out of life.”

  “He was grooming you to take over.”

  “Yes. He never tried to hide the fact. Everyone knew I was his son. Including his oldest son, who he called into the office just before I was going away to college. He humiliated him that day, telling him that he was weak, and because of that he would have no hope of becoming a great man and that he was going to leave everything to me if my brother didn’t shape up. He did it right in front of me. I lost it that day. I blew up at him. I never went by it, but Bernal was my legal last name. I had it changed. I refused to speak to him. He threatened to cut me off. But I didn’t care because I didn’t want any of his money. I took out loans and worked my way through college woodworking.”

  “Bernal? Your father isn’t Victor Bernal, is he?”

  He nodded. “You know him?”

  “He’s one of the richest men in the country. He and Max play golf together.”

  “And now you know why I hated your fiancé so much.”

  “Oh, lord.” She rubbed her forehead. “They are two of a kind, aren’t they? You must think I’m like your mother.”

  His eyes went wide. “Why do you say that?”

  “Young woman gives up nearly everything to be with a rich older man.”

  “But you were going to be the wife. My mother was always just going to be the woman on the side.”

  “And neither one of us could stand the roles we were in. She didn’t want to be the mistress, and I didn’t want to be the wife.”

  “What do you mean you didn’t want to be his wife? You were days from walking down the aisle.”

  “It didn’t feel right,” she admitted to him. “I didn’t feel like I could be who I really was with him.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I’m here, trying to figure it out. But we’re talking about your messed-up life right now. Not mine.”

  “My life isn’t so messed up. My parents are the only two people in the world who get to me.”

  “Hey, I thought I got under your skin.”

  “You do.” He said, picking up her hand and locking his fingers with hers. “But in a very different way.”

  She didn’t know what to say to that, but she found herself leaning over to kiss the side of his face. He slid his hands up her neck and cupped her jaw, looking into her eyes for a long moment before he kissed her.

  It was one of those kisses that robbed her of her breath, that made her feel like she was having an out-of-body experience. He didn’t let up. He just kept kissing her and kissing her until she couldn’t support her own weight. She would have let him kiss her like that forever, but he broke the kiss.

  “Damn you, Derek. Damn you for doing that to me.”

  “Damn you for making me want to do that.”

  She slipped her hand up his shirt to feel his hard stomach. He sucked in a breath. “If you touch me like that, this is going to escalate, and I’m not sure you’re ready for that.”

  “Well, I do owe you a favor.”

  “A favor?” He frowned.

  “Like the one you did for me at your house the other day.”

  “Oh,” he said, nodding very slowly. “Can I choose how you’re going to repay me?”

  She nodded, feeling excitement build in her chest. “I can always say no.”

  “Of course. Will you take this off for me?” He touched the top of her bathing suit. He didn’t want her to change out of it when she got home. She’d put on weight since she had been here. Her entire family had told her that she was too thin before her wedding. The closer she got to the event, the less she recognized herself. She had morphed into another woman, and now she was changing again and she still wasn’t comfortable in her body. But tonight she had noticed the way Derek had looked at her. Lingering, hot looks that made her feel incredible. She got tingles every time she had caught him staring.

  “Yes.” She stood up and tugged at the tie that held up the bathing suit. She didn’t take her eyes off him as she slowly removed it. There was hunger there and as much as watching him look at her turned her on, she also felt incredibly stupid all over again. The man she was about to spend the rest of her life with had never looked at her with this much desire.

  “Will you take off the bottoms, too?” he asked her as he stood up. She nodded again and removed them. She was completely exposed to him, completely vulnerable again, which she hated. She had never been this kind of woman. She didn’t strip for men she wasn’t in a long-term relationship with. But it was kind of freeing, because there were dozens of things that she had done with Derek that she would
never have imagined doing with another person. She wasn’t exactly sure who she was, but she felt like she could be herself with him.

  She was sure he was going to approach her when he got up, but he walked to the door, picking up the Hula-Hoop that was beside it.

  “What are you doing with that?”

  “I think we both know what I want you to do with this?”

  “Put it around your neck to see if I can choke you with it?”

  He gave her a devastatingly wicked grin. “I’m not into that. I saw you Hula-hooping that day and ever since then I been imagining how you would look doing it naked.”

  She took it from him. “This is what you want?”

  “Very much.”

  “Okay. Go sit down.”

  He did as she ordered leaning back on the couch, his hands tucked behind his head and looked up at her with anticipation. This was a situation that she never thought she would be in, but as odd as it was, she found herself okay with it. She knew Derek was a busy man, but when he was with her, she had all his attention. He didn’t have his phone with him tonight. It was nice to be with someone who wasn’t constantly staring at a screen or waiting for the next big deal.

  She started to Hula-Hoop, not sure if there was a seductive way to do it, but she kept going. Derek grinned at her, and then his grin turned into full-blown laughter. It stung. She dropped the Hula-Hoop.

  “You are such an incredible asshole. Get out!” She started for her bedroom, but he grabbed her wrist and tumbled her into his lap.

  “Wait. No. You’re upset.”

  “Of course I’m upset. I take my clothes off for you, and you’re laughing at me. I haven’t been feeling too great about myself, and you laugh at me when I am literally the most exposed I have ever been.”

  “No, baby.” The concern on his face was clear. “You think I was laughing at the way you look? Are you insane?” He cupped her bottom in his hand. “And what kind of man do you think I am? Do you really think I would do something like that to hurt you?”