Sweet Sunshine (22 page)

Derrick

“
KEEP STARING LIKE
that and you’re gonna get her pregnant just by looking at her.”

I choked on the sip of beer I’d just taken and turned to glare at Noah, the bastard. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and elbowed him in his gut, taking pleasure in how he hunched over and groaned in pain. Harlow and Chloe both looked at us from across the deck. I smiled and waved like it was nothing until they turned their attention back on the baby in Chloe’s arms.

“Will you shut the fuck up?” I whisper-yelled.

“Just stating the obvious, man,” he grunted, still out of breath from my well-placed elbow to his ribs. “You’re looking at her like she’s a steak and you haven’t eaten in a goddamned week.”

There was no denying that. I wasn’t sure exactly when it happened, but Chloe had suddenly become something I obsessed about on a regular basis. When we weren’t together all I could think about was her. When we were, I couldn’t keep my damned hands off her. I was like a junkie needing a fix. I’d gone from anti-commitment to wanting her within my grasp constantly in the blink of an eye. If you had told me months ago I’d actually
enjoy
being so twisted up about a woman, I’d have laughed in your lying face.

But that was then. And as I looked at Chloe holding Lucy, Noah and Harlow’s new baby girl, there was no fear, no dread tying my stomach into knots. I didn’t worry about the
what-ifs
. I was just happy. Really fucking happy.

And damn she looked good holding that baby.

“She tell you about what went down with Layla at the bakery today?” Noah asked, pulling me out of my own head.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do about that woman.” Anxiety clawed at my insides whenever I thought about my daughter. I’d give anything to have Eliza with me constantly, but I just didn’t have what I needed to take to a judge in order to strip Layla of her rights. At least not yet. But the wait felt like it was slowly killing me.

“Man, you should have seen your girl,” he tilted his chin toward Chloe, appreciation heavy in this voice. “Didn’t know she had that kind of spunk in here. Even
I
was a little scared of her. Sweet, shy Chloe’s got some claws on her, brother. And they’re sharp as hell. I’m pretty sure Satan’s Mistress is still feeling the sting of them.”

I wasn’t going to lie, after Chloe told me what had happened, and the boiling rage that turned my vision red finally subsided, I’d gotten hard as a rock visualizing my little sunshine going toe to toe with the she-devil. Hell, I was getting hard now just thinking about it.

“Says good things she’d defend you and your girl like that,” he continued. “Woman like that, well, I’d say she’s worth keeping around for the long-haul. But that’s just me,” he shrugged like he thought he was being smooth and I didn’t have a clue what he was getting at.

“You aren’t telling anything I haven’t already realized, man.” I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, one side of my mouth hitching up in a grin.

He chuckled. “So you managed to pull your head out of your ass?”

“Yep.”

“Thank Christ,” he sighed and patted me on the shoulder. “Harlow will be pleased. Now she won’t have to shank you in your sleep.”

Chloe

I LET OUT
a yawn as I walked into Derrick’s house, dropping my purse and overnight bag on the couch as I passed. “Lucy’s adorable,” I smiled through my exhaustion as I thought about the tiny baby I’d just spent hours holding. Was there anything on earth that smelled better than a newborn baby?

“She’s a little cutie,” Derrick agreed as he closed and locked the front door. “You look like you could fall asleep standing, baby.”

I hummed and gave him a sleepy smile as I kicked my sandals off. “I probably could.”

He moved closer and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Waking up so fucking early can’t be good on you, sunshine.”

I nuzzled into his chest, basking in his warmth and the concern lacing through his words. I never thought I’d be where I was right in that moment. I’d dreamed of Derrick holding me just like this countless times, but I didn’t actually think it would happen. I always considered him out of my reach. To be honest, sometimes I still had to pinch myself just as a reminder that I wasn’t dreaming.

“It comes with the territory, honey. A baker’s gotta bake.”

His hands ran a soothing pattern up and down my back and he spoke against the top of my head, “Maybe if you didn’t hold such a tight rein on your employees, you’d see they’re more than capable of picking up a little bit of the slack.”

I pulled back to look up at him, his arms wound around my waist so I couldn’t move completely away. “What are you talking about?”

“You put too much pressure on yourself, baby.”

My brows furrowed. “Well, yeah. It’s
my
business. My livelihood. If I don’t do it, who will?”

“Did the bakery fall to ruin when you were out sick?”

“No,” I answered on a glare, making him smile that devilish smile I loved so much.

“Who do you think took care of everything while you were gone those few days?”

“My staff,” I grumbled, reluctant to concede his point.

“I know you want to be in control.” He reached up with one hand and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m not saying you need to let things go completely, but maybe work out a schedule where you’re not the
only
one going in at the butt-crack of dawn to prep and bake for the day. I have no doubt your guys would be willing to take on the extra work. They’re pastry chefs after all, isn’t that what they like to do?”

I opened my mouth to argue but my mind blanked. There wasn’t a single thing I could say that he wouldn’t be able to rebuff, easily. Because the fact was, he was right.

“I see I’m getting through,” he chuckled and I smacked him in the shoulder.

“No need to gloat about it.”

“Ah, but there is. You see, if you lighten your load and share some of the early morning hours, I won’t have to feel so guilty for keeping you up all night long.”

The glower I pasted on my face contradicted the rush of moisture I felt between my legs.
God, he was hot
. “Someone’s feeling cocky.”

His mouth came down on mine. “And in a few minutes, you will be too.”

MY HANDS SQUEEZED
the slats of the headboard so tightly my knuckles grew white. I moaned in ecstasy as I threw my head back. I couldn’t remember sex ever being so good before.

“That’s it, sunshine,” Derrick grunted as he pounded into me from behind, one of his hands leaving my hip in order to wrap my hair around his fist. “I want to feel you squeezing me.”

“Oh, God. Don’t stop Derrick. So close. Baby, so close,” I groaned, using the headboard as leverage to push myself back on his cock even harder.

“Does my girl need it harder?” he asked after pulling on my hair so I’d straighten up on my knees, giving him the perfect access to my ear and neck.

“Yes.
Yesssss
,” I hissed out when he gave my hair another yank, never once losing stride in this thrusts.

“Want to fuck you hard, baby. You want that too?”

“Uh huh.”

I cried out at the loss of him when he pulled out, but the sound was cut off when he suddenly flipped me onto my back, spread my legs wide, and shoved back in.
Hard
.

“Hang on,” he warned just as he grabbed hold of the headboard like I’d been just seconds ago and began fucking me so hard I could feel him
everywhere
.

“Oh shit! Oh God. Yes,
yes
! Just like that,” I cried as I dug my nails into his shoulders. I could feel my release building, building, building, threatening to crash over me and pull me under.

“
Fuck
,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “So fucking beautiful. Christ, sunshine, the way you take my cock… goddamned
perfect
.”

My hold slipped on his sweat-dampened skin and I lost purchase of his shoulders, raking my nails on his chest as he continued to thrust, driving me closer to insanity with each one. He must have loved the bite of pain, because he lost all control, his whole body moving as he powered in and out, fucking me like a madman.

“Need you to come,” he panted, his hazel eyes a shade darker than normal as he stared down at me.

“I’m close,” I gasped. “So fucking close.”

“Get there, baby.”

“Almost,” I whimpered.

“Get there,” he pulled almost all the way out before slamming back, “
now
!”

That was all it took. I fell over, yelling his name as the most intense, most powerful, most consuming orgasm I’d ever experienced washed over me. It seemed to last forever. My back arched, my eyes screwed shut, and all I could do was hold on as pleasure rocked through my entire body, clamping my walls down on his cock so hard I was sure it had to have hurt.

“Holy shit,” he groaned, his hips pumping one last time before he buried himself deep and emptied inside me. “
Fuck fuck fuck!
Unh. Oh God!”

Every twitch, every jerk of his erection sent tremors through me until we both collapsed in a panting, sweaty heap onto the mattress.

I had no clue how long we lay there in silence, nothing but the sounds of our short, choppy breathes filling the room, but it wasn’t until we’d managed to slow both our heart rates down that he pushed up on his forearms and looked down at me, his eyes warm with something unfamiliar, something I’d never seen in them before as he smiled.

“Next weekend I have Eliza, I want you here with us,” he stated matter-of-factly.

My eyes went wide for a moment before I laughed. “Derrick, I think sex might have melted your brain.”

He stared in silence for several seconds, just long enough to make me squirm with discomfort, which only brought attention to the fact that he was still inside me. “Derrick?” I asked, uncertainty shrouding me voice.

“I want her to know about us,” he said softly.

“You’re serious?”

“Dead serious, sunshine.” He leaned down and ran his nose along mine. “I told you, this is real.
We’re
real. I want her to know you’re in my life as something other than just a friend.”

“You don’t…” I swallowed audibly against the emotion building in my throat. “You don’t think it’s too soon?”

God, his smile was going to be the death of me. No man should be allowed to have
that
brilliant of a smile. “Not at all. Besides, she’ll be fucking beside herself with excitement.”

I giggled. “Yeah. She does kind of like me, doesn’t she?”

“I think it’s safe to say she more than
likes
you, sunshine.”

“I more than like her too,” I whispered. My chest squeezed as the words I so desperately wanted to say fought to be released. I knew it was too soon, I knew it would more than likely freak him out, but I couldn’t hold them in. I needed him to know how I felt.

“I more than like you too.” Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the most eloquent way to tell a man you loved him, but I’d kind-of-sort-of chickened out last minute.

He laughed before releasing a sarcastic breath. “Well thank God for that, because I’d hate to tell you I love you and not have you say it back.”

I froze and I swear to God, my brain malfunctioned just then. “What?”

His lips brushed against mine softly. “I,”
brush
, “love,”
brush
, “you.”

“Like a…
friend
?” I dragged out, desperately needing confirmation that I hadn’t stumbled into some sort of alternate reality where down was up, left was right, and love meant something
totally
different.

“
No…
” One of his brows quirked up. “Like the woman I want to move into my house sometime in the near future so I never have to sleep without her next to me again.” I gasped, but he kept going. “Like the woman I see eventually wearing my ring, carrying my last name, and if she’s willing, hopefully someday my babies.”

“Bab
ies
?” I asked on a sniffle as tears broke free and began making tracks into my hair. “Like more than one?”

“Well how many are you thinking you want, sunshine? I mean, I already have one. Are we talking a football team’s worth here? Because I don’t know if I have that kind of strength.”