Page 8 of Unravel You

“I didn’t promise anything.”

“I beg to differ. You did promise to marry me on September twenty-first.” I kissed her before she could protest. What was really holding her back? We were meant to be together. She had to know that. I parted my lips, and she ran her tongue along my teeth. Why was this the biggest turn-on? Pulling back a tiny bit, I let her try again. She liked it hard but was too afraid or too shy to demand. When she moved in, she lifted my hand from her waist and pressed it to her breast. I deepened the kiss and was rewarded with a moan.

“I’m yours,” she whispered.

“I know. So about September.” I paused for effect. She exhaled but other than that issued no more complaints about the date. “Before now and then, we need a trip to Atlanta. I think it’s bad form for the parents of the groom to meet his bride on the day of the wedding. Feels like a shotgun wedding to me.”

She laughed. “A little. Though I’d never force you into anything. You know that?”

“I know that. Don’t change the subject.”

“Okay. When do we go?”

“How about next week?”

She leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, as if the perfect excuse to say no were written there. Truth was, I understood her hesitation. Meeting the in-laws was a big deal. I was a wreck when I met her parents last month. Valentina’s mom was so much like her it was easy to talk to her and get her to like me. Her dad, the retired cop, was another thing. My mom wasn’t a cop, but she had her reservations about me marrying someone so soon after my divorce. She’d lost all faith in my ability to choose the right woman this time around, which was why I wanted Mom to get to know Valentina and fall in love with her the way I had.

“I guess that could work.”

“My family is going to love you.” I cupped her face to make her look at me and not at the ceiling. “I honestly believe that all you have to do is show up and they’ll see why I’m so crazy about you. They’ll give their blessing, and then that’s it.”

She squished her eyebrows together and opened her mouth, but no words came out. When she didn’t speak for several seconds, I kissed her forehead. She had a way of retreating into her own head and shutting me out. “Say something.”

“Does it have to be so soon?”

“Yes. We don’t have long before the wedding.” I braced myself for impact because she’d definitely have a problem with what I was about to ask of her. “I was thinking we could visit Atlanta for a month.”

She jumped off my desk and buttoned her blouse. “The what?”

Chapter3

Don't Run

Valentina

Their blessing?

We needed his family’s blessing to get married? After that intense phone call with his mother last month, I figured he had given up on it. I should’ve known better. I walked around Derek’s desk and grabbed my blazer.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” I glanced up at him.

Where his gaze could be at times intense and so intimidating, he also had a soft side to him, a serenity that was contagious. I slowed down and released a breath.

“I can see the wheels in your head spinning out of control.” He put up his hands.

“What about Max?” I asked.

“I know. How about this? Let’s go somewhere for lunch and talk about it.”

A few hours with Derek? Who could say no to that? “I can do lunch.”

His sexy grin made me wish he had offered something other than lunch. But he was right. We needed to talk, not a repeat of what we did on the sofa. I hadn’t completely recovered from that yet. The orgasm had been more intense than anything I’d ever felt. After two months of sex with Derek, that was saying something. I rubbed the side of my face to make the tingling go away.

He ran the pad of his thumb across my cheek. “Let’s go before I change my mind and take you back to the house instead.”

As it always happened with Derek, all he had to do was send a text and things just got executed. By the time we reached the landing pad, the helicopter pilot was already in his seat, engine running, and waiting on us.

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