Page 44 of Fatal Conspiracy

His laughter tickled her ears, and she smiled. If she could keep him laughing, then maybe the shock of inheriting a multibillion-dollar business would feel less overwhelming. Derek had an appointment tomorrow morning with Anthony to go over everything with him and put a formal proposal together for the board. Anthony asked Derek to think about how he wanted to frame things, and she was hoping food and wine would relax him so he could look at it objectively. “I just wondered if I could cook for you and make things you’ve wanted to try but don’t want to have ten servings left over.”

“You couldn’t know this, but at Secure Inc., we have aresident chef. She prepares three meals a day and keeps the extremely hungry security personnel well-fed. Mostly, she cooks buffet-style, so I can take as little as I want. However, when she makes steaks or burgers on the grill, she always makes one for me that’s smaller. When I’m out on jobs, I stick to the kids’ menus if I don’t have a way to keep the food for a few days. It’s never for an extended period, so I don’t mind.”

“I didn’t know that about Secure Inc., though I shouldn’t be surprised. Cal seems to have everything in hand when it comes to keeping that place running smoothly.”

“He hasn’t always,” she admitted. “But as the company grew, he had no choice but to figure out ways to grow with it. Many of the Secure Watch employees work remotely, but I’m fortunate to have a room at Secure Inc. It’s a great place for someone like me to work.”

“Someone like you? Someone who is amazingly brilliant and scary good at her job, not to mention a beautiful person inside and out?”

Her smile was wide when she turned to him. “Are you trying to butter me up, Mr. Benjamin?”

“Nope,” he said, tracing her lips with his finger. “Just speaking the truth. From what I’ve seen over the last few days, you consistently underestimate your skills and yourself. I want to be the one who points out how truly remarkable you are so that one day, you’ll believe it too.”

“‘Remarkable’ is what they put on my chart at the hospital. A remarkably complicated case.”

“A remarkably resilient woman who deserves to be happy and enjoy life,” he corrected, stealing a kiss. His tasted like sweet wine and she moaned as he dipped his tongue in to taste hers. Her hand was tangled in his shirt,and she gasped for air when he finally released her lips. “Say you believe that, or I’ll keep kissing you until you do.”

“I absolutely do not and will never believe that,” she whispered with a sly smile.

“I warned you,” he teased before his lips attacked hers again. She wrapped her hand behind his head to hold his neck while his hand wandered to stroke up and down her rib cage. Each time he got dangerously close to her breasts, she inhaled a sharp breath, both wanting and not wanting him to touch her there. She yearned for his touch but knew he’d be disappointed by what he found, which wasn’t much of anything. “Stop thinking,” he scolded, his lips still on hers. “Whatever it is, it can wait.”

“Not really,” she replied. Since his lips were on hers, she didn’t have to look into his eyes, which gave her the courage to say what had to be said. “I was thinking about how disappointed you’ll be if you move your hand three inches to the left.”

“Like this?” he asked, sliding his hand from her rib cage to her chest.

The sensation was foreign after so long without a man’s touch, and she had to steady her breathing before she answered.

“Not much to see, right?” she asked, but rather than answer, he simply put his lips back on hers and kissed her breathless while his hand lay flat against her chest. His warmth soaked into her and somehow healed parts of her she hadn’t realized were broken. If they parted ways and she never saw him again, she would be thankful to him for the rest of her life for that.

“A woman’s body is always something to see,” he said, kissing his way across her chin and down her neck.

“But you’ve never seen a body like mine,” she promised.

“I won’t deny that,” he said, running his tongue along her collarbone until she shuddered. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I know you think you’re not worthy of being worshipped like any other woman, but you’re wrong. You deserve to be worshipped and ravished.”

“And you’re the man for the job?” she asked, to which he gave her a naughty grin.

“I sure as hell hope so.”

“Prove it,” she said, lifting her arms over her head. “Take my shirt off and prove it.”

Without a word, he grasped the hem of her shirt and then tenderly pulled it over her head to reveal her chest. She waited for him to say something, anything, but he just stared at her bare skin until goose bumps lifted across her torso.

“Derek, you don’t—”

He put his finger to her lips and lowered his head, where he kissed every inch of her skin, including the long scar that ran between her breasts. When he was finished, he lavished her nipples with his tongue to warm them until she was writhing under his hands. Before she realized it, he had worked her pants down past her hips, leaving her naked and open to his searching gaze.

“So damn beautiful,” he said, kissing his way down her belly.

“Why am I the only one without clothes on?” she squeaked as he ran his finger through the soft hair at her apex.

“I’ve been too busy taking off yours,” he answered, reluctantly pulling away to strip himself of his clothes. The sight before her was a solid reminder of how much bigger he was.

“So damn handsome,” she said, reaching up to touch his face when he bent for a kiss.

“Bruises and all?”

“Bruises and all,” she agreed, letting her hand wander to touch and feel his velvety skin under hers. Leveraging herself upward, she sat to feather kisses across his chest, taking time to trail her tongue along his sensitive spots the way he had hers.