“No. I’m sorry.” He kissed her forehead. “Let’s go pick tomatoes. I think there are some cucumbers that the turtles are getting into as well.”
She nodded, but the worry remained in her eyes. Thankfully, as soon as they stepped into the garden, her playfulness returned and she smiled as they harvested the latest bounty. When she picked up a particularly large cucumber, he watched her stare thoughtfully down at it.
“What’s wrong with it?”
She shrugged, hefting it as if weighing it. “Nothing.”
He saw the teasing glint in her eyes. “So, why are you holding it like that?”
She looked over at him. “Well, if you’re going to be away, then…” she looked down again. “Just contemplating your competition.”
Derick stared at her for a long moment, trying to understand. When her meaning came to him, he dropped his trowel and moved purposely towards her, a matching glint in his eyes. “Don’t even think about it,” he growled.
Carrie giggled, backing up, but being careful not to step on any of the plants. “But…you just said you may be gone a few days and…I might get lonely!”
Derick stomped towards her, his intent clear. A moment later, Carrie laughed and sprinted away, hugging the cucumber “competition” to her chest as she went.
Between his longer legs and her inability to stop laughing, he was able to catch her easily and scooped her up in his arms, her legs flying as he swung her around. This time, he didn’t hesitate. He headed inside, pausing occasionally to nibble on her neck exactly where she liked it, which caused her to laugh even harder. When he had her in his bedroom, he tossed her playfully into the bed, and pulled his shirt off. “You’re not going to need that cucumber, Jolene,” he growled, even as she continued to hug the thing closer.
Fortunately, she couldn’t stop laughing long enough to reply and he was able to toss her work boots away and even had her jeans off before she realized what he was doing. By that point, she didn’t care anymore and was fully on board. Especially when he kissed his way up her legs, spreading them as he moved closer and closer to his goal. “Do you think that the cucumber can do this?” he asked, and closed his mouth over that pink, swollen nub.
“Derick!” she gasped, lifting her hips entreatingly as he teased that sensitive nub. In no time at all, she’d tossed the cucumber to the side so she could use both hands to hold his head in place, guiding him. And then she was screaming his name as her first climax poured over her.
In the aftermath, he stood up and stripped off his jeans, grabbing a condom before returning to his favorite position. “I see you’ve abandoned the competition,” he said as he pressed deep into her body, moving slowly at first. When her legs shifted, her knees bending to take him deeper, he moved faster, pressing against her the way he knew she liked. Bringing her closer and closer. Her fingers inched around his shoulders, almost as if she were afraid to break her concentration as her body climbed closer to that beautiful peak. But he knew her now. He knew what she liked and gave it to her.
When she screamed again, her body arching against him as another climax hit, Derick felt her body tense, then the beautiful shivers came over her. He felt her fingers move from his shoulders to his hair and he groaned at her soft touch. That was always the trigger that pulled him over the edge and he tried to hold back, to savor this moment with her, but her fingers! Damn, he loved her fingers in his hair! So sexy and…she knew him just as well as he knew her now.
Carrie smiled when she felt Derick’s hands on her back, sliding up and down her spine. “You’re tickling me,” she whispered, her mouth moving against his bare chest.
“You’re awake?”
She laughed, snuggling closer. “I wasn’t asleep.”
“Could have fooled me,” he grumbled.
The sheets were tangled around their legs, but only because they hadn’t pulled them up over their bodies. Carrie might have done so in the past, but she knew that Derick liked to touch her afterwards, so she didn’t bother with the sheet anymore.
“We left the harvest out in the heat.”
“They’ll be fine for a bit longer.” He didn’t move, but Carrie sensed a change in him. Sure enough, he touched her hair. “Why did you dye your hair again?”
Every muscle in her body went from relaxed and happy to tense and nervous. Carrie knew she should have gone to the drugstore and gotten the hair dye sooner. But she’d just been so happy with Derick as well as the progress on her house that she hadn’t realized that the roots of her hair had grown out. When she’d looked in the mirror last week, she’d seen the blonde roots and gasped, rushing out to the store that very day to cover up the telltale signs of her identity.
“I just…I…” She wasn’t sure what to say. How could she explain why she hid her appearance? She couldn’t. Not without putting Derick in more danger.
Pulling away, she sat up, shoving her hair out of her eyes. “I’m sorry, Derick. I just remembered something.” Quickly, she grabbed her jeans and pulled them on, and her tee shirt. She didn’t bother to grab her panties or bra. Her fear was that overwhelming. Slipping her feet into her ugly work boots, she looked around, almost as if trying to figure out what she was missing. But that was pointless because the only thing missing was her common sense. “I have to go.”
“Go? Jolene, wait a minute,” he called out, frantically grabbing his jeans. But she was already out the door.
“I have something to do!” she yelled over her shoulder as she raced down the stairs, then burst out through the front door and sprinted across the yard to her house. Once there, she knew that she couldn’t hide from Derick. Not here in her house. So instead, she grabbed the keys to her pickup truck, her hat and sunglasses, then rushed back out of the house. Diving into her truck, she was already backing out of the driveway before Derick made it out onto his front porch.
Her heart ached as she spotted him and Carrie wiped away tears as she sped off, away from Derick and the happiness that she’d found in his arms. “Stupid!” she muttered to herself. “So stupid!”
Chapter 10
Carrie had stayed away from the house until midnight and had even considered sleeping in her truck. She’d done it many times before, but by eleven thirty that night, after driving around the town and the country roads, she knew that she owed Derick an explanation. He didn’t deserve her running off like that. He’d been so gentle and caring, concerned and kind. And she’d fled as if he’d beaten her.
When she pulled into her driveway, she noticed a light on in his living room, but no truck in the driveway. That was odd, she thought. It was almost as if…was he gone? Her throat closed at the thought of Derick not being there, not being next door to her.
That scared her silly! She looked around, peering through the windshield of her stupid truck. It was dark. Everywhere, it was dark with lurking shadows.
“Stop it!” she scolded herself. Holding her keys in her hand so that the keys came through her fingers, she hurried up the steps, then pushed the key home. But just before she slammed the door closed, she spotted something on her front porch. Derick had left her a basket of vegetables.