Page 107 of All I Ask
He sighs and releases me. “I don’t know what to do with her.” Derek’s back is to me, but I can hear the confliction in his voice. It’s so hard sometimes with kids. When they’re little, it’s almost as though you can convince them you’ve got it all figured out. Now, not so much.
“She’ll get over it—or not—but it’ll be what it is.”
I know Chastity wants me to be happy and will accept what our relationship will become. We have a bond and even though the idea of having Everly in her life is her equivalent of hell, she’ll do it for me.
“I don’t want it to be what it is, baby.” My heart races at the term of endearment. It’s the first time he’s called me anything other than Teagan or Tea. “I want it to be better. I want her to accept you.”
“She doesn’t know me, Derek. She can’t like me if she doesn’t see that I’m not all the things she has made up in her mind.”
He runs his hand down his face. “I don’t know how to fix this.”
I smile and walk up to him. He looks so upset by all of this and it warms my heart. I love that he cares so much and wants this to work. I know I want the same. Everly getting to know me isn’t on him—it’s on me. “When she comes over tomorrow, I won’t hide. I’ll talk to her in a way that won’t seem like I’m trying. Let me fix whatever is broken between the two of us.”
Derek nods and then lifts his hand to my face. “I don’t know what I did in this life to deserve you. It’s only been a few weeks and I can’t fathom how I lived without you.”
My eyes well up with tears because I feel the same. “I’ve missed you too.”
He brings his mouth to mine, kissing me slowly. Each beat of my heart feels like it’s for him. I don’t know how it ever worked before. Just by being near me, he’s fixed all the things that were broken.
Derek is the balm to my wounds. He’s the air that fills my lungs in a way I didn’t know I was missing. It’s as though, everything I felt is being validated. I never reallyknewbefore if we were right together. But I hoped.
My fingers slide through his hair, holding his mouth to mine, hoping that I convey all I feel within my heart to him. He has to feel all that I am, right? My body can’t possibly contain all of the love I feel for him.
His mouth grows hungrier and I’m now gripping his neck. I need more. I want everything from him. My fingers drift to his shoulders and then around his back, pulling him closer.
Derek’s hands move to my ass, and then hook under my thighs, lifting me up. I wrap my legs around his waist and hold on. He moves us so my back is to the wall. I can feel everything and yet not enough.
“We should stop,” he says against my mouth.
But I don’t want to stop.
“No,” I whisper and then bring our mouths back together.
He kisses me with so much passion I could explode.
“Tea.” He says my name and then his lips are on my neck. “Tell me what you want.”
“You. I want you.”
His eyes meet mine. “I’m yours.”
Those two words seem to settle my entire world. He is mine and I want to be his. I want to touch him, taste him, love him the way I’ve always hoped. Our lives have been wasted time and I’m done living that way.
“Will you let me down?” I ask tenderly.
I see the confusion in his eyes, but he doesn’t hesitate to release me. When he does, I take his hand in mine and start to walk toward the bedroom.
“Teagan.” I appreciate his apprehension, but there’s none from me.
I turn to him, letting him see the truth in my eyes. “I’ve wanted this for so long. I’ve spent my life wondering, and I don’t have to wonder, Derek. We don’t have to wonder. I’ve loved you in some form or another what feels like my whole life and now, I want you to make love to me.”
His chest rises and falls faster and his other hand touches my cheek. “I love you more than I thought I did before.”
“Then show me.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Teagan
