A Hard Man to Love (10 page)

“And?” he asked, rolling the deodorant under his arm.

“You and I were seeing each other then, and we had an agreement that when you were in town, you spent your time with me.”

“If you recall,” he said, “that was the same weekend you told me you wanted to end our relationship because it wasn’t working out. I don’t see the relevance now.”

“That’s not the point. We weren’t finished yet.” She stopped, afraid to ask the next question. “Why didn’t you ask me to go to the wedding with you?”

He set down the bottle. “Because I asked Celeste.”

The droll answer angered and hurt all at once. She pressed on, though, because she needed to know if she’d really meant so little to him.

“She said you even invited someone else before you invited her.” Her voice sounded steady, even though pain twisted in her and made it difficult to talk. “She thought it was me, but it wasn’t. Why didn’t you ask me? You owe me an answer.”

With a sigh, Derrick turned from the mirror. “No, actually, I don’t. I went to my sister’s wedding with a friend, and that’s all you need to know. Celeste and I have always had a platonic relationship, and she’s married to my brother now. I’m sure she explained we went as
friends
.”

“She did, and she also explained that you took care of her costs for the entire trip. You went through all that expense when I was already there.”

“What do you want me to say? I never lied to you, Eva. This is a ridiculous conversation. I told you from the beginning I would see other people.”

“Not when you came to town. You promised. And what about the other woman you chose before Celeste? Who was she?” She didn’t want to be one of those women—whiny and needy—yet here she was, being whiny, being needy, and hating herself for it.

He pinned her with a withering stare that probably caused others to shake in their boots but bounced off of her because of her determination to get answers. “We’re not going to talk about this anymore. I have my reasons for doing what I did, but it’s in the past now. Let it go. I’m surprised you’re even asking me these questions when that was the same weekend you told me you no longer wanted to see me.”

“Would you have been okay with me coming to Atlanta and seeing another man while I was here?”

His gaze narrowed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Just as I thought,” she said bitterly. “You had a different set of rules for yourself.”

“I don’t need this right now.” He rolled his neck. “When you go to see the doctor next week, see if they can prescribe something to get your hormones back into balance.”

Eva trembled with rage at his condescending tone. “There is nothing wrong with my hormones. You just don’t like being called out for the hypocrite you are. Since you didn’t even respect our agreement, I can only imagine how many women you slept with during the short period we were together. Oh, by the way, I ran into one of your exes—Johnnie, the one you spent New Year’s Eve with. Charming.”

His mouth settled into a disapproving line, but otherwise, he didn’t react. She’d thought, hoped, she could get through to him, but that wasn’t the case. No closer to getting answers than when she walked in, Eva’s frustration mounted.

Derrick folded his arms across his bare chest. “I don’t have to explain myself, but Johnnie was before you. Even if she wasn’t, my seeing other women didn’t affect what we had. You don’t hear me demanding to hear all the juicy details about your other male friends, like the schmuck you planned to go out with the weekend I canceled my trip to the island. Spare me the jealous act. I don’t question the men you slept with when we were together, so don’t question what I did.”

But there hadn’t been anyone else for her. Because she’d waited around for him to grace her with his presence whenever he was in town, happy for the crumbs from the table of his time.

“You don’t even know him. James isn’t a schmuck. He’s a nice guy.”

He became very still. “His name is James?” His eyes locked on to hers, and she saw the anger simmering in them. The smoky blue-gray darkened to slate. She’d never seen that look on his face before. “Don’t ever mention his name in this house again,” he said quietly.

A little piece of her thrilled at the command, even as she understood the gravity of his words.

“We shouldn’t have gotten married,” she said in a quiet voice. “This whole thing was a huge mistake. We don’t see each other. We don’t talk. We don’t do anything.”

With a sardonic lift to his eyebrow, he said, “I figured you’d be happy to be alone.”

“Normal people don’t like being alone.”

“I take it you’re implying I’m abnormal?”

She let her silence be the answer.

“What you see is what you get. What more do you want?”

She thought about the day spent with Cassidy and Celeste and the life they shared with their husbands.

“I want a real marriage—”

“We have a real marriage.”

“With affection and . . . love.”

“Love wasn’t on the table.”

Her throat tightened.

“You can’t live off of love,” he continued. “It doesn’t pay the bills. Ask your girlfriends what they would rather have: love or money. The realistic ones will say money. The Pollyanna ones looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, like you, will say love.”

“I’m not Pollyanna,” Eva said defensively. “Is it so hard for you to understand a woman would want to marry for love? This—this marriage won’t last.”

“It has as much of a chance of survival as any other marriage. Fifty-fifty. Those are the odds. I promised you fidelity, and I promised to take care of you. That’s a hell of a lot more than most women can say they receive. You should be on your knees thanking me.”

He moved restlessly, pushing away from the dresser, and took a few steps in her direction. “This conversation is over. I’ve had a long day, and I’m ready for bed.”

His gaze wandered down her body, and prickly longing oozed into her again. Why couldn’t she stop wanting him? Even when he angered her, the heat of desire stirred her blood.

“Unless you plan to join me, I suggest you head to your own room.”

Eva pulled the robe tighter around her body. “I wouldn’t let you touch me if you begged.”

“Beg? You must think you have kryptonite between your legs.”

“No, because that would make you Superman. And we both know there’s nothing super about you.”

“Ouch, you’re really pulling out the big guns tonight.”

“You make me sick.”

His mouth lifted at the corner. “You’re so sick you come up in here like a jealous wife. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were purposely trying to piss me off. Is that what’s going on?”

Was it true? Had she come here to goad him into some type of response, to get a reaction—anything—instead of him being so cold all the time? She certainly wanted more contact, and ached for the way they used to be before they broke up, even if it had been one-sided. Nothing would please her more than to get just a little bit of affection from him, a touch . . .
anything
.

“I’m riled up because of your dishonesty, and I wish I’d never agreed to this sham marriage,” she said instead.

“Too late to back out now, sweetheart.”

“You’ll never change, will you?”

His smile came slow. “Why should I?”

“God, I hate you.”

This entire episode had been a wasted effort. Nothing could penetrate the ice around his heart. With nothing left to say, Eva stepped wide around him toward the connecting door.

Derrick drew his fingers into a fist, watching her as she moved past him.

He was going to let her walk away. He really was. The random tantrum tossed at him at the end of another long day had irritated him, and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with her accusations. But when she flounced by him in a whisper of satin and lace, he caught a whiff of carrot and honey. The scent grabbed him and shattered his good intentions. Hunger assailed him like miniature daggers attacking his groin. It reminded him that she was his wife. He had every right to her body, and he would no longer deprive himself.

When she swung open the connecting door, he was already behind her, and his palm collided with the wood above her head, slamming it hard against the frame.

She froze.

“You’re sleeping in here tonight.”

Chapter Eleven

Only seconds passed before she responded, but it seemed longer. He waited patiently, his jaw aching as he fought the tension taking over every cell of his body.

“I’m going to sleep in the other room.”

He bent to her ear, dragging another breath of her provocative scent into his lungs. She smelled so good he couldn’t wait to lick every inch of her body. “Is that what you think?”

She edged sideways, refusing to turn and look at him, and he brought up his other hand to the door, imprisoning her in the wide circle of his arms. Stepping closer, he wedged a knee between her legs and pressed his erection into her buttocks, the urgent pounding of his hard flesh leaving no doubt as to his intentions.

His actions were demanding, but he didn’t have a choice. The choice had been wrenched from him the minute she walked in and he saw the heated look in her eyes when she caught sight of his nakedness. Their argument had only delayed the inevitable.

He continued to whisper in her ear. “We haven’t consummated our marriage yet, which is interesting, considering before we were married, we couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. You want us to get it over with, don’t you, Eva? Isn’t that why you came in here so angry, all worked up with jealousy? And you got me worked up, too.”

“You’re wrong. I’m not jealous,” she said unconvincingly.

“Oh, you’re jealous, all right.”

She pressed closer to the door to evade him, but he followed, drawn like a bear to a honeycomb, unable to resist the primal urges of his body. A soft laugh drifted across his lips as he closed in, trapping her in a tight cage made of skin and muscle.

“You said you were tired.” She could pretend if she wanted to, but the tightness in her voice laid bare the truth for his ears to hear.

“Not anymore.” He reached around in front of her and tugged the knotted belt loose. “I warned you about what you should wear walking around this house at night. Turn around. Let me look at you.”

Slowly, Eva turned to face him, so close in proximity the soft satin dragged across the skin of his chest. He grabbed the edges of the robe and pushed it from her shoulders, allowing it to fall in a puddle at her feet.

He lowered his head and tasted the fullness of her mouth, setting off a spark of fire that blazed through his blood. “You taste so good,” he murmured, nipping at her lips. “I could just eat you up.”

Seizing her lips again, he devoured them with a demanding kiss. She half moaned, half whimpered as she collapsed into him, opening her mouth for the erotic twirl of his tongue. He crushed her, flattening her soft breasts against the hard plane of his chest and grinding his hips into hers to alleviate the pressure in his loins.

Eva whimpered softly, splaying her hands across Derrick’s back, delighting in the velvety softness of his skin over the rigid muscles of steel. Her hands drifted lower and loosened the towel, discarding it to the floor so she could drag her nails up his hair-dusted thighs, feeling the muscles tense beneath her touch. He groaned and shoved one hand into her hair to anchor her mouth even harder to his. Slowly, she moved her hands higher up the back of his legs to grip his tight buttocks.

Tearing his mouth away, he lowered his head and dropped kisses down her neck—sucking the sensitive flesh there—and moved across her collarbone, then to her breasts covered by the sheer material.

The pressure of his lips made her ache unbearably. It had been so long since he’d touched her, since she’d felt his mouth on her body, that she grabbed him by the back of his head and pulled his head tight to her breast, forgoing gentleness and silently making her demands. His mouth opened over the turgid peak of one nipple and sucked it through the peach-colored satin, the sharp pain of pleasure landing like a lightning bolt between her thighs.

He soaked the material with his fervent sucking, and her knees buckled, so that the only reason she stood upright was because of her arms entwined around his neck. Her fingers combed through the curls at his nape, holding him tight, her voice vibrating with need as she whispered, “Yes, yes.”

When he lifted his head, she greedily sought his mouth to tug on his lower lip, then nibbled his chin and rubbed her nose along the crook in his neck. His heavy pants matched her own.

“Take off your panties.”

The rough texture of his voice as he whispered the command almost made her come right then. What could she do but obey? Primed as she was, they were of little use to her now, soaked with the evidence of her voracious need for him.

She slipped the underwear past her hips, stepping out of them as he gathered the end of the gown and proceeded to pull it over her head. Once she was naked, they reached for each other at the same time, their mouths fusing in a hungry kiss. He backed her across the room until her thighs hit the edge of the bed.

When he released her lips, he gave her direction without saying a word by turning her around and then patting her bottom to urge her up onto the bed. She climbed up and crawled to the middle on her knees. Eyes closed, she felt the mattress depress as he joined her. Anticipation raced through her body, and she bit her lip to stop from begging him to hurry.

He edged closer, and she wobbled in her position on all fours. One hand smoothed over her right butt cheek, and his moist lips pressed a kiss to the hot flesh. Biting down harder on her bottom lip, Eva lowered her shoulders and arched her back, pushing her bottom toward his mouth.

He sucked his breath between his teeth and swore softly. “Look at you.”

He treated the outer edge of the crack of her backside to the slow, intimate trail of his tongue, all the way up to the base of her spine, where he pressed a solitary kiss. She couldn’t take much more, certain she’d lose her mind if he didn’t hurry and enter her soon.