Free Unwrapped by Chantilly White Page B

enough, damn
it!"—and the largest of her candles, its flame blowing out on the
way toward his shin, though melted wax flew in an arc. If she was lucky, he'd
lose some leg hair getting it off his skin.
    Derrick beat her to the next item in reach, but he'd stepped
too close to her to do it. His fingers closed over the rest of the bottles on
the side of the tub. Her fingers closed over his left nipple and twisted it through
the thin fabric of his shirt.
    "Jesus Christ!"
    Dancing back out of her range, he dropped the rest of her
cache of lotions and bubble baths onto the counter with a clatter, rubbing his
abused nipple and scowling at her as if he were the injured party.
    "You're lucky I didn't aim lower," she said with a
meaningful glance at his crotch, biting her words off like chunks of ice
breaking from a berg in a bitterly cold ocean. "I want you to leave.
Now."
     
    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
     
    Drawing back from the open threat in her fire-sparked green
eyes—eyes still red and puffy from crying—Derrick's mind whirled.
This was not going at all the way he'd planned. He almost wished for his own
temper to rouse, but it couldn't climb its way clear of the agony he read in her
trembling mouth and quivering chin. Guilt clawed at him instead. She'd shed
more tears after he'd left.
    Tears for Barry? Or tears over him?
    Neither answer made him feel any better. He didn't want her
giving Barry-the-Prick another thought, but he couldn't bear knowing he'd
caused her pain.
    Some best friend he'd turned out to be. And now he had to
convince her to allow him back into her heart as something even more important.
Christ, he'd fucked this up nine ways to Armageddon.
    "Mia—"
    A sound like a teakettle on full boil issued through her
lips. "I said—"
    "I know, but I'm not leaving. Not until we talk."
    All at once, the fight seemed to drain out of her. Her
shoulders slumped. She pulled her knees up, barely visible beneath the mountain
of bubbles created by the jetted tub, and dropped her forehead to them, her
hands clasped around her legs.
    "Please go," she whispered, and had daggers of
remorse piercing his heart.
    He'd take her anger any day over defeated dejection.
    Cautious now, fearing more tears, Derrick flicked the switch
to turn off the whirlpool and dropped to his knees beside the tub, disregarding
the water all over the floor. In the sudden silence, the sound of her sniffle
shot into his gut like an arrow. He propped his elbows on the side of the bath
and stared at her bowed head, wondering how to begin. How to start the last
five minutes, or better yet the entire day, over.
    "Why are you here, Derrick?" She asked the
question to her knees, her tone wooden.
    All of his hazy plans and speeches, his barely-formed ideas
for how this conversation was supposed to go, dissolved. What she needed from
him was simple truth.
    "Because I need to tell you—"
    He paused to clear his throat and a slender thread of
self-preservation wiggled its way into his brain. He was putting his heart on
the line here, without the smallest clue how she really felt about him beyond
friendship. If he told her he loved her, and she didn't feel the same, it might
destroy everything they already had together. Was he really willing to risk it
all when they'd never even had one date as an actual couple? Had never shared
more than a few drunken kisses she might not even remember?
    The fact of the matter remained—she hadn't declared
undying love for him or asked for a relationship. All she'd asked him for was
sex. And, to be extremely clear, sex only once. It was up to him to convince
her she wanted more. Wanted him. Forever.
    Mia raised her head to stare at him, waiting for him to
finish. Her eyes held his, wide and wounded, but her entire face, from crown to
dripping chin, was covered in thick, creamy foam, giving him the totally
inappropriate urge to laugh.
    Something of his humor must have shown in his face, because
she frowned and said, "What?"
    In answer, he