Chapter Nineteen
Her heart stopped. Sagging back from the counter, away from the woman’s stunned expression, Ginger turned to see Derek standing at the end of the corridor, underneath a sign that read Waiting Room.
With his ever-present badge clipped to his waist, Derek looked bone-weary, his white shirt wrinkled and speckled with blood. Stubble covered his wide jaw. He looked at her in shock as if he couldn’t believe she stood there, just a short distance away. Her eyes ran over him, taking in every detail, never wanting to forget a single thing about him.
She sobbed. “Oh God. Oh, Derek.”
Ginger’s body shook so severely, she couldn’t run to Derek as fast as she wanted to, but somehow made it to the end of the corridor. She leaped into his open arms, wrapped her body around him, and held on tight. His steady heartbeat drummed against her chest, reassuring her. With her face pressed into his strong shoulder, she wept harder than she could remember.
“Shhh, baby. I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay. God, you’re frozen.”
Derek hadn’t been shot and killed. He was alive and vital, holding her in his arms where she belonged. Ginger repeated those facts over and over in her head. Or maybe she said them out loud. She couldn’t be certain.
Slowly, she became aware of her surroundings. They stood in the center of a waiting room occupied by at least forty uniformed police officers and detectives. With her legs wrapped around his waist. Crying like a baby. Yelping, Ginger buried her face against his neck to block out all the amused grins.
Derek strode out of the waiting room and stopped in the first unoccupied hospital room they came across. Even after the door closed behind them, she could hear the whoops and catcalls echoing from the waiting room. Making no mention of the noise, he set her down on a narrow hospital bed, scanning her tearstained face.
“Sweetheart, talk to me. What’s wrong? Did something happen to Willa?”
“No,” she hiccupped, staring into his handsome, concerned face. “They told me someone shot you. They said I should get here as soon as possible.”
“Me? No, one of my officers was wounded. We’re just waiting for him to be moved into recovery.” Derek looked dumbfounded. “Who called you?”
“Patty,” she sniffed. “So you weren’t shot? You’re really okay?”
His jaw hardened. “I’m fine. Though I won’t be able to say the same for Patty much longer.”
“I don’t understand.”
Derek sighed. “Think about it. Did she actually say I’d been shot or did she just let you think it?”
She thought for a minute, paling at the realization. “Why would she do that to me?”
He made an irritated sound. “She must have guessed that based on my mood this morning, we’d broken up or had a fight. I’m guessing this was her misguided way of throwing us together.”
Ginger brushed the final tears from her eyes. “Wow. That is a woman who takes matchmaking seriously. And here I thought she wanted to fix me up with her nephew.”
“Over my dead body.”
“It almost was.”
Derek smiled, but it quickly disappeared. “How did you get here?”
She had to think. “Um…I drove my truck.”
Eyes pinching shut, he took a steadying breath. “You drove yourself here, upset, in the middle of the night. Dressed in your pajamas.”
Ginger glanced down, surprised to find herself in short terry-cloth shorts, a nightshirt and cowboy boots. “Huh. Look at that.” Gazing into his green eyes once more, she stroked his jaw until it relaxed a little. “I wasn’t thinking straight, I suppose.”
Derek still looked displeased.
Her hands moved to his chest, stroking over his shoulders. “So I’ve made my big, dramatic scene. Isn’t this the part where you kiss me, Lieutenant?”
“I can’t kiss you right now.”
“Why not?”
His chest rose and fell with a shudder underneath her hands. “I’m looking at you sitting there all puffy-eyed from crying over me. If I kiss you right now, I’ll never stop.”
Her heart pounded a wild beat. “Just one little kiss?”
Derek groaned. “God, this is how it’s going to be with you, isn’t it? When I can’t make love to you properly, you’ll beg me for it? I think you’re trying to kill me.”
Smiling, Ginger ran her nose along the side of his neck. “I need you alive for what I have in mind.”
His head dropped forward. “Being shot would have been easier than this.”
Ginger jerked back with a gasp, her eyes going wide. “Don’t say that.”
“I’m sorry.” Derek grabbed her wrists and blocked her with his hips before she could slide off the bed and get away from him. “Bad joke.” When a tear slipped out, Derek watched it track down her cheek.
With a soft groan, he kissed her, tenderly at first. She let her head fall back, parting her lips underneath his, granting permission.
Ginger whimpered and molded her body against his harder, muscular frame. Derek’s hands were everywhere, running up her bare calves and thighs, whipping off her nightshirt to reveal her naked breasts, then cupping and kneading them greedily. He gripped her knees and yanked her forward to the edge of the bed so he could rock into her body, despite their remaining clothes.
“If you keep quiet, I’ll give you what you need. Can you do that?” He drove his demanding erection forward between her legs, and Ginger’s eyes rolled back in her head.
“Yes.”
“But you’re going to give me what I need first, Ginger. Do you remember what you said to me the other night? I do. Every f*cking word.” His mouth found her breast, drawing a nipple between his lips and sucking hard. Ginger bit her lip but a moan of longing escaped, echoing through the room.
“I told you to keep quiet. If you don’t listen to me, we can’t do this.”
Her hands clutched at his hair as he tongued her nipples. “I’ll be quiet, I swear,” she whispered.
“If even one of my men hears your sweet little noises when you come, I’ll be very upset. Those are for my ears alone. Do you understand me?”
“Yes. Yes, I understand.”
“Good.” He rewarded her with a slow, provocative kiss of her mouth. “You asked me if I wanted to put it in your mouth. You asked if I wanted to be your first again.”
She watched through hooded eyes as his hands worked the buckle of his belt. Then he reached behind him to flip the lock on the door, his savage gaze not leaving hers for a second. Ginger felt drugged, but completely focused at the same time. She desperately wanted to please Derek and didn’t care if that made her weak-willed, because she planned on demanding he please her just as thoroughly afterward. Her body shook and heated under his regard to such a degree, she almost climaxed then and there.
Derek took Ginger’s hand, placing it against the stiff bulge behind his fly, and pressed his hips forward suggestively. “I haven’t been the same since you said those things to me. I’ve been in a bad way, baby.”
Unable to wait any longer, Ginger unzipped his pants and dropped to her knees. She took his hands and placed them on either side of her head. “Show me what you want.”
“There’s nothing you can do that I won’t love.”
Gripping the thick base in her hand, she didn’t allow herself think, just followed her instincts. She tasted every inch of him with her tongue, lips, and teeth, listening to his increased breathing or growls to judge what he liked. His fists wrapped themselves in her hair, indicating when to speed up or slow down. She couldn’t get enough of his taste, the sounds of pleasure he made. When Derek tried to pull her away, Ginger didn’t want to stop and told him so.
“Trust me, I don’t want you to stop either, baby. But I need to feel you come.” He gripped her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet, kissing and licking at her mouth until her body undulated against his once more. “Dammit, I swore the next time I had you, I would go slowly.”
She tore her mouth away, panting. “No. I don’t want you to hold back. Take me however you want me.”
Before she could finish voicing her appeal, Derek spun her around until she faced away from him. She flattened her hands on the high bed to balance herself as he crouched down low behind her and peeled the shorts from her legs. Absently, she registered the rip of a condom wrapper and the faint sound of Derek rolling it onto his erection.
After he’d finished seeing to their protection, Ginger’s short puffs of breath were the only sound to be heard in the room, until Derek finally spoke.
“No panties again, sweetheart?” He made a guttural noise of either approval or disappointment. She couldn’t tell without seeing his face. “If I didn’t think the sound of my palm against your ass would draw attention, I would remind you how much your forgetfulness pleases me.” Ginger’s sharp inhalations accelerated even more, her chest heaving. “I’ll have to show you a different way, I suppose.”
Then he bit her. His teeth sank into the flesh of her ass, stopping just before they broke the skin. She didn’t dare cry out, instead trapping the scream inside her throat. Before Ginger could truly register what he’d done, she heard his pants hit the floor, belt still attached. One arm snaked around her waist and held her steady as he thrust home inside her.
She couldn’t prevent the hiss of pleasure from escaping through her teeth. The difference compared to last time astounded her. No pain, only fullness and the immediate urge to move.
Derek’s chest pressed against her back, his hips tilting upward into hers so high and deep, the position forced Ginger onto her tiptoes. Then he pulled out, almost leaving her completely, before thrusting deep once more. Ginger bit her lip to keep from crying out, positive she drew blood.
“Do you feel that, baby? That’s your man moving inside you.”
Bracing herself on her elbows, she ground back against him, circling her hips and begging him to keep moving, but he seemed determined to set the pace.
“Please, Derek.”
He thrust hard and quick exactly five times, just enough for Ginger to get used to the rhythm before slowing once more. “Who’s f*cking you, Ginger?”
She knew what he wanted to hear. Throwing her head back, she reveled in every word. “My man. My man is f*cking me.”
With a stifled growl, he yanked her back against him and pumped his hips up and into her wildly. Ginger held on to the bed, absorbing each thrust that carried her closer to release.
“F*ck, baby. I’ll never get used to how tight you are.”
Derek’s hand slid over her hip and found her *oris, applying pressure and friction with his middle finger until Ginger’s body shuddered and shook with the most powerful orgasm she’d ever experienced. A minute later, Derek followed, groaning his release into the side of her neck.
When their breathing returned to normal, Derek kissed Ginger’s shoulder and pulled out of her slowly. Then he turned her in his arms so he could hold her.
“I can’t seem to control myself long enough to show you we’re not just about sex.” She felt him shake his head. “Even so, Ginger, I’m not going to apologize for what just happened. When we touch each other, it’s honest and real. I crave it.”
Ginger remained silent, absorbing Derek’s warmth. She wanted to forget the agony of the last hour and simply enjoy being held, but she couldn’t. The uncertainty of what lay ahead for them didn’t scare her nearly as much as losing him. She’d learned that hard lesson tonight.
“I know that now.” Sucking in a shaky breath, she gave him her honesty. “When I thought you’d been shot, maybe even before that, I realized you were right. What I feel for you…it’s not only physical.”
Arms tightening around her, he started to speak, but she laid a hand on his chest to stop him. She’d just taken a big step admitting her feelings and needed to let it settle.
“I know sex doesn’t define us, Derek. But maybe it’s an important part of what’s between us. And I think that’s okay. We’re people who need more than words. Can we agree on that?”
Derek kissed the top of her head, holding her close. “You won’t get any argument from me.” He tilted her chin so he could meet her eyes. “But someday, when we need reassurance from each other, our words will be enough. I promise, Ginger.”