Chapter Twenty-One
Ginger’s heart pounded. She was actually going to tell Derek about the money she’d stolen. Everything that happened next between them would depend on his reaction. She didn’t harbor any fears that he would arrest her or demand she return the cash to Valerie. She could rest easy on that score. But one thing she’d learned about Derek? He took his job as a law officer very seriously. How would he feel about having a thief in his bed?
If anyone had told her a week ago she would be considering a relationship, with a cop no less, she would have laughed and called that person a filthy liar. Well, here she was. And she’d be damned if she’d waste her time pretending to be someone else. He would accept the worst of her or nothing at all.
Maybe she’d shed a little bit of her former self this week by quitting Sensation and taking a meeting with an actual businessman about her furniture. But she would never completely shed the girl from Nashville who’d once flashed her breasts at a hardware store owner in exchange for him installing a deadbolt on her and Willa’s bedroom door. That Ginger had worked with what the good Lord gave her, and she would never be ashamed of her actions.
Only one question remained. Would Derek be ashamed of her?
“Willa and I didn’t have the best of upbringings,” she started, hating her voice for shaking. “Our mother, Valerie, she had me young and…she wasn’t quite ready for a kid. And by the time Willa came along, she still wasn’t ready.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve had to do things maybe some people wouldn’t approve of to keep us clothed and fed—”
“Ginger, I know.”
Her expression went from anxious to confused. “You know what exactly?”
Derek released a breath and placed a hand on her arm, like maybe he thought once he explained, she would make a run for it. Unease spread through her.
“Please try not to get upset.”
She didn’t say anything.
He sighed. “I ran a search of your name on the national database. There was a missing persons report filed for you and Willa, by your mother, three weeks ago.”
Ginger couldn’t get air into her lungs. She lurched up in the bed, hand clutching her chest, vaguely sensing the alarm in Derek’s voice. Valerie had gone to the police and reported them missing. That could only mean one of two things. Their mother had suddenly decided she gave a damn—highly unlikely considering the condition she’d been in when Ginger last saw her—or something was very wrong. Her mother didn’t associate with cops unless they were in the process of arresting her. If she’d walked into a police station without handcuffs on her wrists, there must be a damn good reason.
The money. Ginger never really stopped to ponder where it might have come from. Derek said Valerie filed a missing persons report, but hadn’t mentioned the theft. Which meant Valerie needed to find Ginger to get the money back.
But she would never involve the cops unless her circumstances were dire. Life or death. Either it hadn’t been her money to begin with and she’d been holding it for someone who now needed it back. Or she’d borrowed the cash and her debt was coming due.
How could Ginger not have seen this coming? Besides the police, who else was looking for them? And how could Derek have brought her into a room full of cops knowing about the missing persons report?
Ginger threw her legs over the side of the bed, intending to go pick up Willa from school. She couldn’t think beyond that. She just knew she didn’t want her little sister out there alone.
Derek pushed her back down onto the bed, looming above her.
“Get off me!”
“Jesus, will you just listen to me?”
She fought him, but his hips pinned her to the bed. “No. Let me up!”
“I took care of it! Ginger, I took care of it.”
Her body went still underneath him. “What does that mean?”
“It means no one will be looking for you in Chicago. There’s no way to delete the report, but I found a way to hide it. When I said you didn’t have to feel unsafe anymore, I meant it.” His eyes searched wildly around the room. “Dammit, Ginger. Where the hell were you going? Were you going to leave me? Leave town?”
Relief warred with the adrenaline still pulsing through her. “I don’t know. I don’t know! What was I supposed to do? Every cop at that event, the ones in the hospital…they’ve all seen me, know my name. Willa is a minor. What I did is considered kidnapping.”
“Don’t ever try to leave without hearing me out first, okay?”
The panic on Derek’s face broke through her racing thoughts. Whether or not she approved of his checking into her background, ultimately he’d compromised himself for her. Should she be grateful or furious? She didn’t know. Nothing seemed clear anymore. But she needed time to figure it out. Her plan to tell Derek about the stolen money could wait for another day.
“So you know my mother’s name now. You must have seen her rap sheet.”
“Yes,” he confirmed in a hushed voice.
“I guess you know all about me then. I had this big confession ready and you already knew.”
“There’s nothing in your past that could keep me away from you.” Derek’s voice radiated sincerity. “You can tell me anything.”
Ginger struggled against the tears gathering behind her eyes. Derek scrutinized her expression, as if he knew she held something back, but he didn’t press.
The barrier she’d erected between them had never truly existed. While she’d been pretending to be carefree, no-strings-attached Ginger, he’d known about the past weighing her down. It made her angry. It made her want to blot out the knowledge she saw in his eyes.
Ginger became aware of their position on the bed, his body wedged between her parted thighs. His obvious arousal told her he hadn’t remained unaffected. Ginger’s arms were pinned over her head, bringing their chests and stomachs flush. She could see the battle taking place on his face. Sympathy warred with his need for her.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped.
“Like what?”
“Like you feel sorry for me.”
“How do you want me to look at you, Ginger?”
She locked her ankles behind his back, watched him shudder. “Look at me like you did last night.”
With a loud groan of surrender, she felt the remaining anxiety in his body melt away, replaced by a different kind of tension. Derek rocked against her, claiming her mouth and biting at her lips until she offered her tongue. Liquid heat poured through her, spreading and warming everything in its path. Within seconds, her body craved him to the point of pain.
Ginger tugged her hands from his grip above her head. When they broke for air, she ripped her shirt off over her head and watched his eyes go dark as she molded her own breasts in her palms, tugging her nipples between her thumb and finger.
“Oh, baby, yes. Play with your tits for me. Show me where you want my mouth.”
Her thumbs caressed circles around her nipples. “Here, Derek.”
A heartbeat later, his mouth descended onto her breast, flicking the pink bud with his tongue before drawing the tightened tip into his mouth. Ginger’s head tossed on the pillow as he went back and forth between her breasts, rolling the stiff peaks in circles under his palms, blowing against them softly and grazing them with his teeth until she cried out for him to stop.
He raised his head, dark green eyes still riveted on her reddened, glistening nipples. “Where do you want me next, Ginger?”
The deep resonance of his voice washed over her, making her body tremble. Bravely, she took one hand and trailed it down her bare stomach, watching his diligent mouth follow in its wake, kissing and nipping at the sensitive skin of her belly. Finally, her fingers dipped below the waistband of her leggings, signaling where she wanted him to go. He caught her hand before it went too far, biting her sensitive palm in reproof.
“You like my tongue between your thighs, don’t you, sweetheart?” He hooked his thumbs into her waistband and slowly began sliding the leggings down her legs, along with her black thong. Ginger’s hips writhed in response to his question. “Yes, I know you do. I still have the nail marks on my shoulders from last time to prove it.”
Derek knelt at the end of the bed and slid his big hands underneath her ass. He gripped her tightly, urging her legs over his shoulders. Ginger’s body quaked in anticipation of his mouth finding her most sensitive place. She reached above her head and curled her fingers around the headboard for leverage.
Derek took his time looking her over before nipping at her inner thigh.
“Please, Derek,” she whimpered.
He smiled wickedly. “Can I tell you a dirty secret?”
“Yes,” she gasped. “Just hurry.”
Derek’s dark laughter increased her arousal, coating her in slick heat. Achingly slow, he sunk two thick fingers inside her. “If I could go back and do one thing differently that first night, I would taste your virgin p-ssy before I f*cked you. I bet it would have been extra sweet.”
Ginger climaxed. Her scream resonated through the room, ending in disjointed pants and moans as Derek prolonged the pleasure with his fingers. Arching away from the bed, she rotated her hips against his hand, never wanting the rippling spasms to end.
When she finally opened her eyes, Ginger sought his face and found him watching her with reverence. “God, you’re incredible.” Then his mouth found her core once more, licking the sensitive flesh with long, torturous strokes of his tongue, focusing on and exploiting the bundle of nerves begging for attention. Digging her fingers into his broad shoulders, she hurtled toward a second peak.
Derek growled as she came again, this time against his mouth. Ginger heard the now-familiar sound of him ripping open a condom wrapper with his teeth.
“I take it back. Nothing could taste sweeter than that.”
He jerked her hips up to rest on his thighs, pushed her legs wide, and filled her with his erection. As vulnerable and exposed as the position left her, Ginger had no choice but to match his demanding rhythm.
She needed his full weight on top of her, though, pressing her down into the mattress. She wanted to feel mastered, overcome. “I need you on top of me now. Please. I need…you to hold me down.”
His sharp eyes focused on her. “Baby, do you know what hearing that does to me?”
Following her down onto the bed, he pinned her soft body with his harder one, without sacrificing one precious movement of his body inside hers. Ginger sobbed at the perfection of it.
“Tighten those pretty thighs around my waist. I’m going to give it to you rough.” She obeyed. Holding her arms near the headboard, immobilizing her, Derek pounded into her. The sound of damp, slapping flesh and the metal headboard bumping against the wall echoed through the room, mingling with Ginger’s cries and Derek’s sharp expletives. “Is this how you wanted it, beautiful girl?”
“Oh God, yes. Harder, Derek.”
She didn’t think it possible, but he complied with her plea, pushing the headboard against the wall with even greater force. Ginger felt her body reaching for another orgasm and raced to meet it. Her wrists ached from being held in his punishing grip, but the pain of restraint only heightened her experience. She tugged on the unyielding hands holding her hostage and felt the dizzying heat move through her lower abdomen when she couldn’t get free.
“Derek!”
“I’m here, baby.”
The orgasm shook through Ginger. Derek thrust deep and ground his pelvis against her. Her insides quaked while her body remained completely restricted, unable to move. Ironically, she’d never felt freer in her life. The room dimmed and spun around her as she tried to hold on to the sensation, to memorize it.
Ginger knew eventually she’d have to question why being restrained fulfilled her and how Derek sensed it and indulged her needs so perfectly, but right now she could only focus on keeping her legs locked around Derek’s back as drove into her one final time and peaked.
“Ginger. Baby. Ginger!”
His grasp loosened as he climaxed, and she used the freedom to grab his ass and pull him deep. Sinking his teeth into her shoulder, he groaned. Ginger wrapped her arms around him when he finally collapsed, placing kisses along his collarbone and neck.
Rolling onto his side a while later, Derek pulled her hard against his chest. He didn’t speak, instead seeming content to watch her. One hand stroked her hair, separating the sweaty strands from her neck and face.
His continued silence began to unnerve her. Derek had called all the shots every time they’d been together. Maybe she’d made him uncomfortable, asking him to hold her down?
She kept her head on his chest, mortified over her brazenness. “I’m sorry.”
The hand stroking her hair stilled, and she held her breath. “Why?”
“You’re so quiet.” She paused to gather her courage. “I figured what I asked you to do…was it… not normal? Or wrong?”
She squeaked as Derek flipped her over onto her back. When she looked up into his face, it was covered in disbelief. “Ginger, you listen to me very carefully. Nothing we do together is wrong. Ever.” He shook his head. “If I’m quiet it’s because I’m trying to figure out a way to never leave this bed again. That was—”
She didn’t let him finish. Relief roared through her, and with a laugh, she sat up, threw her arms around his neck, and hugged him. At first, Derek seemed stunned by her action. But his arms slowly banded around her waist and held her so tight she struggled to breathe.
“You have no idea how happy hearing that makes me, Lieutenant.”
His laugh rumbled against her ear. Without breaking their embrace, he pulled her back down onto the bed, tucking her head into his neck. “Me, too. Sleep, now, beautiful girl. I don’t have to be at work for a few hours.”
Ginger snuggled in close. Within minutes, she started drifting off, lulled by the fingers stroking up and down her spine.