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Ash adds, “You’ve spent your whole life building your empire, providing for your family. Taking care of your wife. You only live once.”
It’s like Derek’s father is a different person. I’m sure his wife’s death and his own injuries fundamentally changed him, but this seems like a different man. More humble. More open. Warmer. I really hope it’s a turning point for this family.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but… did losing his wife help him put his own life, his priorities into perspective?” I ask.
“Good possibility,” Derek says, turning off onto our street.
“Can you two repair your relationship?” I ask.
“I don’t know. We haven’t ever had a real relationship from my perspective. He was a workaholic and a Shannon-oholic. End of.”
“I hope you can.”
“I have all I need right here with me right now,” Derek says.
Heat creeps up my cheeks.
He kisses my hand and holds onto it between us.
I spent almost an hour in the kitchen with Grace and Naomi, while the Steele men had their meeting. We cleaned up after breakfast and while the Steele men cooked a great meal they totally destroyed the kitchen in the process.
Derek told me he’ll be stepping up with helping with his father’s company. He said his clubs are running well with the current management and he doesn’t mind stepping up for a few months, helping to recruit some additional C-level team members to help lighten his dad’s load. Asher, who previously vowed to never work for the family business, is planning to step up as well.
Derek told me Grace is moving home with her father for a while to help run the household and take on her mother’s charitable work. Derek feels comfortable with the safety of where we live, but tells me he’s hiring extra security short-term while things get sorted with Elijah’s enemy and wants me to use personal security when I leave the house, until all this is over with.
I tried to ask questions, but he asked me to trust him, to not worry about any of that.
He scoops me up into his arms as we approach the front door of the house.
I laugh.
“Feels like a new beginning for us. Wanted to do this again. Crazy?”
“Batshit crazy,” I quip.
He laughs, pushes in the door code and crosses the threshold.
And I stare straight ahead. At my dream house. That Derek bought for me.
Tears spring up in my eyes.
“Bunny?” he asks.
I try to blink them away. But he’s seen them.
“It’s been a whirlwind. A whirlwind and a half. I think I’m just feeling it.”
He nods, seeming to understand, and carries me upstairs.
“Why are we going upstairs?” I ask.
“Why do you think?” he returns.
I giggle as I’m dropped on the bed. He pounces.
And he doesn’t fuck me. He makes love to me. Slow, unhurried, passionately. I cry when I come and he holds me tight, whispering that he loves me.
I’m cooking when Derek comes into the kitchen. His eyes light up.
