Page 16 of Unravel You

Thankfully, the driveway was on the side of the house. If she’d come in through the front entrance, Valentina would have been mortified for the second time today.

“Do you think she saw us?” She squished her face between her hands. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“You don’t look embarrassed.” I kissed her mouth. When I parted my lips, she pushed me away.

“Don’t start that again. Let’s go home.” She chuckled.

I groaned and sat on the sofa next to her. “Can I remind you that I saved you from an angry bear before?”

“Technically, you warned me about the bear.” She glanced down at my crotch and laughed. “But I won’t forget. I promise. Don’t make that poor girl leave and then come back.” Her expression turned serious as she wrapped her fingers around my hard cock. “I think about this all the time too.”

“You’re trying to kill me, I know. Let’s go home before I change my mind. Or fire thatwomanfor interrupting what could’ve been the come of the year.” I grabbed my phone off the coffee table and texted our pilot to meet us at the landing pad.

Next to me, Valentina sighed. “It was.”

Oh, come on.I shifted my weight on the couch, but before I could kiss her, my phone rang again. I glared at the screen. Shit. More problems.

Chapter5

Derek’s Lilly’s Son

Valentina

“So much for a day off, huh?” Derek brushed my lips with his as his deft fingers worked the harness.

I glanced out the window, letting the picture form in my head, his hands on me, his mouth. It was never enough. Even now, we hadn’t left Vail and the Bear Cabin already felt like a dream. Or a faraway memory.

“I’m sorry I have to work some more.”

“Don’t be. You gotta work.”

He ran his thumb over my cheek, but other than that, he didn’t try to touch me once he tapped his headset and nodded to the pilot. As soon as Derek settled in, my stomach flattened against the seat. The helicopter liftoff wasn’t like an airplane’s liftoff, where the change is slow and gradual. I let the disorientation take over. When the sky seemed to be all around me, I didn’t fight it or try to find my center again. I closed my eyes and pretended I was floating.

Being in love with Derek was very much the same. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find my footing. And still, I felt safe with him. To my right, Derek yelled into his microphone. Not at me or the pilot, someone else, someone with bigger problems than me.

The return flight was faster. To my surprise, we didn’t go back to the office. Instead, we landed in a small airport near the house, where a car waited for us. I stayed put until Derek finished his call a minute later. He was pissed about something. I got the feeling he didn’t want to discuss it with me because it all had to do with Bridget. No doubt he wanted me to pretend she didn’t exist, but she did. He didn’t have to protect me from her.

“Ready?” He offered me his hand, and I took it. Getting off a helicopter was tricky. “See? We made it back before dinner.”

“So we did.” I adjusted my gait to keep up with him as he escorted me to the car. I climbed in the back seat, and my heart sank when he shut the door. My window lowered on its own, and I sat there gazing up at his beautiful face with the sun shining behind him.

“I will be home for dinner, I promise.”

I nodded, mumbling an okay. Before I could ask if he was going back to the office, he darted toward the second car waiting in front of mine. My guess would be he wasn’t. Otherwise, we would have landed at the helipad there.

“Mrs. Cole. Welcome back,” the driver said. “Home. Is that right?”

“Yes, Tom. Thank you.”

Max was already home. No sense in going all the way to the office just to get my computer. What a day. I rubbed the back of my neck. Then it hit me. Shit. I agreed to go to Atlanta for thirty long days. And now I had to deliver the news to Max.

At the house, Em already had dinner going while Max played by the pool with his swimming instructor.

“He’s getting so good.” She smiled at me when I strolled into the kitchen.

I joined her by the window over the sink. She had a view straight into the pool deck and beyond that, the cottage where I lived for a month at the beginning of the summer. Had it only been a little over a month since I first kissed Derek in the small house? Did Em see it all? I bet she saw all this coming a mile away. Derek and I had not been all that clever in hiding our feelings.

“He really is.”

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