Page 98 of All In Good Time

She stood her ground, tilting her head back further as he towered over her. He could have yelled in her face, but he didn’t. His voice lowered, his head sloped downward. Her exhale shuddered as his words slid gently over her face.

“All I wanted was you. Nothing else, justyou.”

She couldn’t believe him. She shook her head, her words barely a whisper. “You hate me.”

“Hate you?” He laughed, unbelieving. “Itriedto hate you, I really did. Every day, I tried to forget you, but I can’t. I think about you all the time. I can’tstandto be away from you.”

It couldn’t possibly be real. She was in a dream, floating away from her body, which prickled where his chest nearly touched hers, where his fingers brushed her knuckles.

“I can barely hold myself back right now.” He said it through clenched teeth, deep and raspy.

Becca snapped back into herself, and her eyes widened. Everything she wanted stood right in front of her, and the resistance she’d built snapped away like string.

Selfish. She was soreadyto be selfish.

“Then don’t.”

There was a split second that Derek’s eyes widened a fraction, and then the next she was taken.

His lips consumed hers, and she drowned.

The heavy wall that had been built between them crumbled into dust and was replaced by flames. Sucking, burning, eating flames that engulfed Becca over every inch of her body.

She was ready to be burned alive against him, to let it leave her as ash under his feet.

He didn’t let her go. His hands came to her—one on her cheek and one on her waist—and he held her together.

Afraid she would fall, she wrapped her fingers into Derek’s hair at the back of his neck and clung to him as he tilted her face up and opened her lips with his.

This was the second time, but it felt brand new. Like a secret never whispered before.

His touch was skilled, as his fingers brushed gently against her cheek, contrasting the hungry rhythm of his lips.

She never wanted it to end. She never thought it could get better.

Then his lips moved from hers, and she whined at the loss of them. But he didn’t pull away.

He moved even closer, his mouth brushing along her cheek, to the edge of her ear and skimming at the bottom as he whispered something only she would ever hear. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

A heat ran through her face and traveled through every inch of her body.

The fiery combination of lust and love consumed her, and she would become whatever Derek wanted, whatever he needed.

His mouth continued to move down, and instinctively, her head arched to the side, granting him access to the skin where her shoulder and neck connected. That was enough for him.

Becca gasped into the steamy air of her room as Derek’s mouth opened against her bare skin, and in response, he groaned.

The sound sent chills down her arms and spine and sent her head backward in delight.

He stepped forward, and Becca followed in sync until the backs of her knees hit the edge of her mattress. Slowly, oh so slowly, Derek managed to control their fall onto the sheets, while his mouth continued to work steadily at her neck.

Becca panted, her hands grabbing clumsily at his shirt, desperate for more of him. She wanted to see him, wanted to feel him bare against her.

She grunted in disappointment as one of his hands engulfed hers and pulled it away, pinning her by the wrist against the bed. Opening her mouth, Becca prepared to beg.

A cold bucket of water showered over them as a knock sounded on the door.

They sprang and stared into each other with wide, darkened eyes. Becca remained on the bed and watched Derek as he stood frozen in the middle of her bedroom. His chest rose rapidly, meeting the same pace as hers.

---