Men of Fortune 1: Derek Read online

  In her misery, she latched on to the part that made no sense. Plan? What plan?

  Adam shrugged. “I revised part of it.” The odious man was still grinning. If he sabotaged her, wrecked her marriage, he had a lot to answer for. First of which, he’d find himself without a job come Monday. Somehow, she would manage it.

  “I seduced Carly at the table…”

  The tension in Derek’s body communicated itself to her. She could reach out and touch it; it was so tangible, as was the feeling of inevitability rising within her. Adam, blackguard that he was, was sure to twist the tale and make it seem like her fault.

  True enough, he was now saying, “To my surprise, she invited me into the kitchen. You heard her.”

  A glance at Derek’s face revealed that his expression had grown even darker, prompting her to protest, “No, it wasn’t like that at all—”

  Derek’s fingers bit into her arm, and his eyes blazed. “I did hear you.”

  “Derek, please, listen to me—” Her arm hurt, but it was the bitterness in his eyes that stunned her, felled her, made her want to take him in her arms and comfort him. Somewhere in his past, a woman had hurt him, badly. A past she hadn’t known about.

  The truth shook her. She didn’t know her husband at all, hadn’t thought that the charming, easy-going man she’d wed would have ghosts in his soul.

  At this moment though, nothing mattered, not her insecurities, not her suspicions about Derek’s activities, nothing but the need to tell him what truly transpired. “I rejected him.” When he just looked at her, she repeated, “I rejected Adam.” Nothing mattered but Derek.

  Some of his tension eased, and her heart lifted. Perhaps there was hope for their relationship after all. Since trust still existed between them—and love, too—there wasn’t anything they couldn’t conquer, nothing they couldn’t get through. Together.

  She would clear the air after their guests leave. They’d start anew, build on top of what they already have and cement a stronger relationship.

  She exulted too soon.

  Derek glanced toward Adam.

  “I admit, I removed my clothes with the intention of seducing her, but she turned me down. Slapped me even. So hard you should still be able to see it. Here.” Adam turned his slightly reddened cheek toward his cousin. “Threatened to tell you about me if I don’t stop. You’ve got a keeper here, cuz.”

  She would’ve been gratified at Adam’s corroboration or even taken note of his admiring glance at her if she weren’t so incensed. It had taken her as soon as Adam spoke for the realization that Derek had looked at his cousin for confirmation to clout her over the head.

  So much for trust.

  “You believed him and not me?” she demanded, shoving Derek with a hard push at his shoulder. “He’s the villain here, Derek, the one who’s naked, the one who tried to seduce me without encouragement on my part and you look to him for confirmation of my word!” She was shouting by now. “Maybe you should’ve married him instead. Maybe you should—”

  Derek’s mouth came down on hers, hard and possessive. She struggled at first, tried to hold on to her anger, but she was no match for the desire that coursed through her, the desire that always came to the fore at one touch from him. Somewhere in all that lust, love pulsed, and it was this that caused her to soften, her body melting to accommodate him. He sensed this and pushed his advantage.

  She responded, her mouth opening, and his tongue slipped in, stroking and inciting her to fever pitch. His hands caressed her back, roamed down to cup her buttocks and lifted her to him so that his hard erection was pressed against her pussy. He ground into her, making her moan in anticipation.

  God, she missed this, missed him so much. Even after only one night apart. She craved him, like he was a part of her soul. All her fears and her insecurities rose up and coalesced in this moment, to be banished under the onslaught of his mouth and tongue and hands. She forgot their audience, forgot everything but the bliss of being in his arms again. Mindless with want and need, she recognized only that everything she required at that moment was right there before her.

  Soon, it wasn’t enough. Through their clothes, his cock chafed at her pussy, but she fretted at the muted contact. She wanted more. She wanted the sharp contrast of his skin against hers, his hardness against her softness. She wanted to feel him within her, his thick steely length plowing deep into her in a rhythm that never grew old. She wanted to be skin to skin with him, to feel him burning against her and let him fire her to a brighter flame.

  She didn’t even have to voice out her wants. He knew. Or maybe, he felt the same way.

  Without breaking their kiss, he lowered her feet to the floor, then his fingers tripped down the buttons of her blouse and ripped the last two. She thrilled at his virile strength, at the evidence of his impatience. She shrugged out of the material, and then he was removing her bra. Cool air drifted across her skin while he divested his shirt. Before she had time to shiver, she was pressed against him. Oh. Hmmm. The slide of skin on skin. His heat seared her, pebbling her nipples so that the hard, pointy ends pushed into his flesh, begging for his touch.

  Her hunger deepened.

  He undid the zipper on her skirt, stepped away a little so that the fabric floated to the ground. He drew aside her thong and slid two fingers into her. She whimpered and clenched around him. “Yes, oh God, yes…”

  He lifted his head a fraction, eyes burning. “This or my cock?”

  “Cock,” she gasped out. His fingers were good, but they wouldn’t be able to fill her the way his cock would, nor satisfy her the way she needed. A fierce, intense hunger had risen in her, a hunger only his cock would be able to satiate. A hunger that was mirrored in his eyes.

  His fingers disappeared, and she almost cried a protest before she remembered he was most probably undoing his pants. For that, he’d need his hands. Yes, she would be pa—

  Ah.

  His thick length filled her. Good, so good. She sobbed at the fullness, at the familiar feel of him stretching her, at the sense of completion and rightness washing over her. Home, wherever he was.

  He lifted her, his hands beneath her thighs, and she slid down the last few inches. Even better. Her pussy contracted around him, and he groaned. She buried her face in his neck, just as he was buried to the hilt in her. She loved taking all six inches of him.

  “Hold on,” he said, planting a kiss on her head.

  He strode to the small kitchen table at the side, which thankfully, she’d cleared as the noodles and the sauce cooked. He laid her down on the flat surface, and before long, he was pounding into her, his rhythm hard and fast. Exactly what she needed.

  Yes, yes! More.

  She was unaware she’d voiced out her demand until Derek chuckled, though the look of utter concentration on his face never wavered. He merely stepped up his rhythm, and the slap of their lower bodies gave her clit the pressure she wanted. She moaned, feeling the tension spiral.

  Through her rising pleasure, she was aware of his driving need—his need to possess, to mark, to claim her as his. The bite of his fingers into her hips where he gripped her. The powerful plunge of his cock into her. The compelling demand in his gaze as their eyes locked. She couldn’t look away, could only return his stare as she absorbed the full force of his thrusts. She opened her legs wider, accepting all that he had to give. His face contorted, his hips moved faster, and she knew when his rhythm broke, when he lost control and his thrusts became wild and frantic. He was near, and so was she…reaching…straining…for the incipient pleasure that was just out of reach…

  Her climax crashed down on her in reverberating waves of ecstasy. She’d never come this hard before, nor was the pleasure this intense, this mind-blowing. She screamed as Derek continued to plow into her, his thrusts sending her ever higher. Just when she thought she couldn’t take anymore, he jetted his seed into her and wrung another cry from her.

  When she floated back to earth, it was to find that
she was boneless. Pleasure and languor had invaded every pore and she couldn’t move, didn’t want to move, despite the hard surface beneath her back. Derek had collapsed on her, but supported himself with arms planted on either side of her so he didn’t crush her. Her legs were still clasped around his waist, and she made a half-hearted contraction with her pussy muscles, drawing a weak chuckle from him.

  “Still hungry?” He raised his head a little, enough to claim her mouth. His kiss this time was soft and gentle, yet full of promise. When their kiss concluded, he smiled down at her, his eyes shining with a light she’d never seen before. She realized then that his eyes had always contained shadows, but which were now gone. Forever, she hoped.

  “I love—” he started to say, but a disappointed voice from the kitchen doorway interrupted him.

  “You started the party without us.”

  Carly turned her head and saw four Fortune men ogling her—what part of her they could see, with Derek covering her vital parts—with unabashed amusement, Adam still fully naked. Had he even left the room while she and Derek were making love?

  She released a startled shriek and tried to make herself smaller, hiding behind Derek. What kind of men were they that they’d barged in like this—

  Adam was nodding. “A screamer. I like that. I like that very much.”

  “When we heard the scream, we thought something was wrong,” Matthias said, amusement evident in his voice.

  “And it turned out something was,” Oliver continued, grinning. “We were absent from the picture.”

  What the hell were they talking about?

  Over the roar in her ears, she heard her husband saying, “Out, all of you. I’ll call you after I’ve explained things.” Once his cousins have filed out, he looked down at her. His eyes were shadowed once again, but this time with anxiety.

  “Derek, what’s going on?”

  He withdrew, sat down butt naked on a chair and drew her into his lap. His expression serious, he turned her face to him before saying, “I love you, Carly, very much. I don’t want you to doubt—”

  “And so you don’t trust me when I told you I rejected Adam’s advances?” she asked in a dry voice. She wanted to hug him and told him she loved him, too, but some things needed to be aired. “You have to know I didn’t encourage him to make a pass at me nor to persist even when I had made my intentions clear.”

  “Does that mean you’re not attracted to Adam?”

  Of all the questions, this was one she hadn’t expected. Nor the intensity of his expression.

  “I…I…” She didn’t know how to answer without trampling over the fragile trust that had started to build again between them. If she lied, she’d be tampering with that trust. If she didn’t lie, she might destroy whatever new start they’d made. “Derek…”

  “Don’t lie to me.” His tone was absolute, implacable.

  She fidgeted on his lap, thinking of a way out and feeling the hardening evidence of his desire against her butt. Smiling in what she hoped was a seductive manner, she shimmied out of her thong, changed position and straddled him, cradling his cock between her pussy lips. “Want to make love to me again?”

  A burst of husky laughter. “You’re not going to distract me.”

  “But I want you, Derek,” she growled against his ear. She surprised herself. That wasn’t something she’d say before. Doubt asserted itself, despite evidence to the contrary. “Unless…you don’t want me?” There, that sounded more like the old Carly Kavanaugh that she knew. Being Carly Fortune didn’t change much of the old Carly. A little, but not much.

  She shifted position again, but this time, it was Derek who moved her so that he could push his hard, thick cock into her. Despite their recent coupling, desire erupted in her, high and flaming. Oh yes.

  He kept on pushing in until he was buried in her. To the hilt.

  My. God.

  “There, does that prove how much I want you?” His eyes demanded her answer.

  She arched into him, rubbing her nipples against his hair-roughened chest. “Derek…move…” His hands were like steel bands on her waist, denying her movement.

  “Not until you answer my question,” he said softly. “Do you find Adam attractive?”

  He was hot steel within her, spearing her yet withholding completion from her. She wanted to move, could’ve moved to chase down her own release, but he held her still. The wild, insistent urge rose in her, goading her, loosening her tongue—

  “Yes,” she gasped.

  Oh no. What had she done?

  Her eyes flew up to see his face, but he was impassive.

  “What about Matthias?”

  “Derek…”

  “Answer me.”

  “Yes.” With each positive response, she was digging herself deeper into a hole she might not be able to crawl out of, but she couldn’t help it. Her body was burning. She wanted to be possessed by him once again. She wanted that hard cock pounding into her, filling her and sending her into ecstasy over and over until she was brainless and immobile with rapture.

  “Nathan? Oliver?”

  “Yes, yes! Now move. Fuck me, Derek!”

  Eyes burning with unholy light, he lifted her a few inches above him, and then he was pistoning into her, hammering into her just the way she wanted. He drove into her like a demon was after him, and before long, they were both screaming and shouting their release.

  God, this was even better.

  Talking about other men obviously turned them both on. Who knew?

  She remained straddling his lap, her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed as she savored her boneless, satisfied state. Derek himself was slumped against the back of the chair, his breathing still none too steady.

  She didn’t know if he was angry at her revelations, and she didn’t have the energy to deal with him yet if he was. She remembered another topic, something that he owed her. “You haven’t answered my question,” she said in almost a whisper, not having the energy for something louder. “Why’d you ask Adam for confirmation?”

  He stroked a hand down her cooling back, wiping away the dampness. “It’s not you, it’s me.”

  “I’ve heard that line before,” she said dryly.

  “No, really,” he insisted. He sighed. “It’s a long story. Needless to say, you passed the test.”

  “Test?” she repeated, bewildered.

  “When you rejected Adam.” He sighed again. “I’m sorry, it wasn’t meant to be a test, not tonight at any rate. What Adam did was something I didn’t sanction. He initiated it on his own—”

  She didn’t understand. “You’re losing me.”

  “Right. Let me start over by saying my cousins and I used to share women.”

  “Share?” she echoed blankly. Comprehension dawned and she reared up so she could look at him in the face. “Share, as in sex?”

  “Yes. I shared mine mostly with Adam and Matthias, when we were roomies back in college.”

  The sharing started way back then? Along with the faint shock at the revelation, she couldn’t help noting her fascination with the topic, along with a strange excitement. What must it have been like for the women, to have the sexual attention of two or three such virile, attractive men?

  Of course, that wasn’t likely to happen to her. Good enough that she was able to catch Derek with whatever mysterious charm she possessed. What was the probability that it would work on another man, much less two? One thing she knew was that men needed to be attracted to the woman before they could even get it up and fuck her. No, those fantasies would remain as that—fantasies.

  On the flip side, it meant Derek was fucking other women, the women his cousins dated. Blood drained from her face as she recalled his recent strange behavior. “So that night, when you said you’d gone to dinner with your cousins, you were actually sharing their women?” She couldn’t leach out the hurt from her voice.

  “No, no,” he reassured her hastily, kissing her on the lips. “I would never share i
n their women without getting your permission first. I really had dinner with my cousins, then we went to the club to talk.”

  “What club?”

  Derek grinned, an unholy light in his eyes. “Oh, you’ll like it there, I think. I’ll take you there next time, promise.”

  “Was Lily there?” she blurted out. Oh God, she hadn’t meant to sound like a jealous wife. But damn it, she was a jealous wife.

  Derek must’ve picked it up from her tone, too, for his grin grew wider. “Yes.”

  Damn it, he was making her ask. She delivered a punch to his chest. “And?”

  “I didn’t fuck her.”

  She slumped against him, shame coloring her voice. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “It’s your right,” he said gently, smoothing her cooling back.

  “I should’ve trusted you wouldn’t.”

  “Like I trusted you with Adam?” His voice was dry and self-deprecating.

  A small burst of laughter shot out from her as she sat up and grinned at him. “We’re quite a pair, aren’t we?”

  “Perfectly suited,” he agreed.

  “Exactly my thought.”

  They kissed, soft, warm kisses that spoke of promise and trust and love.

  She nestled against him, content. “You were telling me about all those women you shared with Adam and Matthias?”

  “No, I wasn’t telling you about them,” he corrected. “What I wanted you to know was that after the group sex, after my dates had tasted Adam and Matthias, they’d usually prefer either one of them. Not all of them, mind you, but enough to dent my ego. You’ve seen Adam. His cock is much thicker and longer than mine—”

  “I prefer yours,” she purred, her pussy walls contracting around his semi-hard cock still buried in her.

  “You’re good for my ego.” He laughed and hugged her. “But you haven’t seen his moves yet”—she remembered Adam’s moniker, bestowed on him by previous lovers—“nor that of Matthias—”

  “I like your moves,” she said in a seductive drawl as she rotated her hips.