Page 13 of Inevitable Inheritance

“How did I get here?”

“I brought you,” Derrick replied. He pulled his chair closer to the bed and sat, grabbing his mug and taking a sip.

“I don’t remember,” Taylor furrowed her brow. The last thing she could recall was blenders and then the total gym.

“You were out cold. I tried to wake you, but you were out, so I carried you to—”

Taylor choked on her coffee, “You carried me?” She croaked. She had never been carried in her adult life.

“Yeah,” Derrick said and then took a lot of interest in his mug. He ran a hand through his hair. “Anyway,” he continued, “I carried you to my car, and then I brought you home, uh, I mean here. I carried you here.”

He was blushing.What the heck?Taylor thought, he was stuttering and blushing, Derrick didn’t—

She scolded herself,You don’t want him to pretend to know you, why are you pretending to know him?

Taylor just nodded and shifted to sit on the edge of the bed. As she freed her feet from the comforter, she noticed her shins were bare, and then she became very aware that she had no pants on.

Taylor’s eyes widened and she looked at Derrick, “Did you undress me?”

Derrick smirked and rolled his eyes, “I helped you out of your jeans and pulled your sweater off, Taylor, I would hardly call that undressing you. It’s not like you’re naked.”

Taylor could feel her cheeks redden now, and she didn’t know if it was from embarrassment or anger. “Please kindly refrain from doing that from this point forward,” she said.

Derrick bit his lips, trying to hold back the smile. He pulled his mug to his lips, nodding at her order.

He was so smug, Taylor thought as she simmered over the thought of him undressing her. She scanned the room again, trying to change her mind and caught the clock telling her it was 1:30 p.m.

“So we leave at what time?” she asked, eyes still on the clock.

Derrick cleared his throat and coughed a little. Taylor was positive it was to cover a laugh, but she ignored it. “We’ll leave here at 10:30 tonight, get to the marina around 11, and hopefully set sail by 11:10,” Derrick replied systematically. He was like business Derrick, a whole new model, conveying everything responsible and authoritative.

“Okay, Business Ken doll. Then what? Where are we going and for how long?”

“I hate when you call me Ken doll,” he scowled at her, but his tone didn’t match his words. He actually sounded happy at the reference to the childhood nickname she had just used. “We are going to sail to San Francisco, couple days, hang out a few.”

Taylor thought it over, sipping, “I don’t have clothes, how do—”

“Taken care of,” Derrick cut her off.

She raised a brow, “Oh yeah, and how’s that?”

“I had Marty pick up—”

“You told Marty?” Taylor exploded. Marty was Derrick’s baby sister. Besides Derrick, Marty Fletcher had been the person who knew Taylor best growing up. But Marty was a spitfire. She had a reputation for loving attention, and she had a hard time keeping her mouth shut. If she knew about the crazy agreement, no one could keep her from telling the world.

“No, I didn’t tell Marty,” Derrick said, a small smile curving his lips. “That would have been the equivalent of facing a firing squad,” Derrick said, shaking his head at the thought. “No, I told her I wanted to surprise someone special with a trip and needed clothes for her.”

Someone special. Well, fancy that, Taylor thought. The reference to her, in order to keep up the lie of course, had Taylor’s heart beating fast. This was really happening, this crazy plan was really going forward.

“And she bought that?”

“Yeah, she did,” Derrick replied. “Not that she didn’t pester me annoyingly forever to try and find out who it was, but she worked quickly when I told her I needed it very soon. She has been hounding me about getting out and dating for a while.”

Taylor smiled, set her mug on the bedside table, and leaned back on the bed, her arms bracing her, “So Marty’s still the perpetual romantic?”

Derrick rolled his eyes, “Of course. And her brother who hasn’t dated—well, ever—or been ‘linked’ to anyone lately is in desperate need of romance, she thinks. So even the hint of my being romantically involved with someone has her on cloud nine.”

Taylor dropped her gaze and picked imaginary lint from the duvet covering her lap. “This isn’t romance, Derrick, it’s business,” Taylor said quietly, and she glanced up after him.

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