Simple Perfection (15 page)

"My Della," he whispered as he rested his head on my back. I moved so that he came out of me, then I turned around and pulled him into my arms.

"Always your Della," I told him.

He held me tighter and we stood there as our bodies hummed our pleasure and our hearts healed.

Woods

My welcome-home for Della hadn't gone off in the way I had planned. I hadn't meant to take her in the foyer against the damn wall like a madman. But she'd been saying things that made me lose it. She wanted to be fucked and my body wanted to give her what she was asking for.

That hadn't been the plan. But I'd needed it. I had needed to hear her say she was mine. The thought of Tripp riding that damn bike while sitting between her legs ate me alive. I hated it. I wanted to remind her who belonged between her legs. Only me.

The idea that she believed I could be with anyone else still blew my mind. If she didn't know how completely I loved her, then that was my fault. I had failed her. I would fix that.

After I dressed her I brought her into the dining room. Jimmy had brought the staff over and set up a table complete with a linen tablecloth, candlelight, and roses. He had also brought the meal. It was Della's favorite special that we offered at the club. I watched as she took in the room. I had an Erick Baker playlist playing low over the sound system. She shifted her gaze over to mine and smiled at me shyly.

"This is beautiful."

"You were coming home. I wanted it to be special." I didn't mean to fuck you against the wall before you could even completely get in the house. Although I didn't say it aloud, her blush made me think she knew what I was thinking.

She turned and then stopped. She had seen the picture. The one Bethy had taken of us at the beach one afternoon. We had been lost in each other and hadn't noticed that Bethy was taking our picture. I had been sitting on the sand and Della had been straddling me, facing me. Our gazes were locked, and even in the photograph you could see the way we felt. There was no question as to how much I adored her in that moment.

"You had it framed," Della said, staring at it. I walked over and turned the dimmer on the lights up so she could see it better.

"Yeah, I did."

"I love that picture," she said, glancing back at me.

"Me too."

She turned around and looked at me. "That girl in the photo was scared. Of her past and her future. She was scared to love you. That's not me. I'm not scared anymore. My past is what made me who I am. My future . . . as long as I get to spend it with you, then I can't wait to live it. I'm going to be okay, Woods. I'm not going to . . . snap. I have a lot to tell you."

I already knew but I wanted to hear her tell me. I wanted to know her thoughts. I knew she'd met with both her birth parents, and I wanted to hear all about that.

I walked over to her and reached out and took her hand. "I always knew you would be okay. I was with you. I would never leave you. I was here to be strong when you were weak."

"And I love you for that. But I want to be the strong one sometimes. I don't always want to be the weak one."

"I just want you. In whatever way I can have you. But I'm glad you're happy. I'm glad you feel strong. I want you to be happy with yourself. Because you make my life amazing."

She sniffled and then smiled. "We need to eat. I'm fighting the urge to force you to make love to me again or cry because that was so sweet."

I tugged her hand and brought her to my side. "Baby, if you want me inside you again you just crook your finger. This food can wait," I told her before pressing a kiss to her lips.

"I want you inside me again," she said.

I was at least getting her to my bedroom this time. I had plans in there.

I pulled her behind me to the bedroom and opened the door, then stood back and let her walk inside.

The room was filled with candles and the bed was covered in pink and red rose petals. Della gasped, then looked back at me and gave me a naughty grin. "I thought I was going to have to come in here and beat someone up because they were in your room. That's what I thought when I saw the candlelight in your bedroom window."

I chuckled and reached for her. "Mmm, as sexy as it sounds to see you go badass over me, I would never touch another woman. Much less bring one in here. This is our room."

Della leaned into me and sighed. "I think Braden and Tripp wanted me to think that you had another woman."

I smiled into her hair. "Yeah. I think they did too."

"I'm going to kick their asses. I was all ready to kick someone's ass because of them. It's only fitting I kick theirs."

I laughed, then picked her up and carried her over to the bed and laid her down on the bed of roses.

She was beautiful. "Take off your dress," I told her. She sat up and pulled it off. We hadn't bothered to put her panties and bra back on in the hallway. She was naked and back where she belonged.

"Good girl. Now lie back and open your legs," I told her, and watched as she did exactly as I said.

My release from earlier was on her inner thighs. Her pussy was wet and swollen from the rough loving we'd just had. I pulled my shirt off and took off my shorts before kneeling on the bed between her legs. I ran a finger down her silky heat and watched her body tremble.

"My come is still leaking out of you," I said as I rubbed it over her clit.

Her breath stuttered and she bucked beneath my touch.

"It's so fucking hot to see my release on you like this."

I dipped my finger inside her, then ran it down her thighs. The possessive monster inside of me roared to life. "I want to mark you," I said as I slipped my finger back inside her to coat it with more of our mixed come, then rubbed it on the top of her mound.

"Oh God, Woods. Please," she begged, and moved against my hand.

"My come looks so good on you." I was fascinated with it. Seeing it soak into her soft skin. Knowing it was a part of me.

"Then please put some more in me," she pleaded this time.

I rose up over her and teased her entrance with the head of my cock. She cried out and tried to get closer. I slowly sank into her until I was completely inside.

"You're my all-in, Della. I'll throw it all away for you. I just want you. I'm all in, baby. This life with you, I'm planning on us."

She ran her legs up mine and smiled up at me. "This is it. This is our start. Take me home, Woods."

I dropped my head to her shoulder and began moving inside of her while our breathing hitched and we gradually climbed to the pleasure we knew awaited us. The place we could only reach with each other.

"Now, Della. Come with me," I ordered when I felt myself ready to explode.

Her immediate strangled cry as she began clawing at my back sent me flying off into nirvana.

Della

I opened my eyes and stared into Woods's eyes. He was already awake. The way he looked at me made me feel treasured. Like I was some precious jewel he wanted to protect. "Good morning," he said as his fingers continued to trace the length of my arm with a featherlike touch.

"Good morning," I said, smiling at him. "How long have you been awake?"

"You mean how long have I been staring at you?" he asked teasingly.

"Yes, that too," I replied.

"About an hour. I woke up and you were so damn gorgeous curled up against me I couldn't go back to sleep. I didn't want to sleep and waste time that I could spend looking at you."

My heart squeezed. "You have a way with words, Mr. Kerrington," I told him.

"You think?"

I nodded. "I know."

"Good, because I want to ask you about the past two weeks and I want you to tell me everything," he said.

"I thought you knew everything already," I replied, realizing it had to be Tripp he'd been talking to. Braden hadn't been with me for most of those weeks.

"I know what Tripp and Braden told me. I want to know everything that Della knows."

So they'd both been in on this. I couldn't be mad at them. Not now. I was in Woods's arms. They had brought me back here. They had made me face my fears.

"I almost didn't come back. I was scared to face you. I was afraid you didn't want me. Braden and Tripp talked me into coming back."

Woods smiled at me and reached over to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Sweetheart, I was coming after you. Your time was almost up. I had told Braden you had forty-eight hours. I had started packing my bag when I got the call from Tripp saying you'd be back in four hours. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you came home to me. But I wasn't going to stand back any longer. I'd given you three weeks. I wanted you back."

He had been coming to get me. That was why Braden was so insistent that I come back to him. She wanted me to be the one to come back. "I'm not sure what I did to score a best friend like Braden, but I'm so thankful I have her."

Woods kissed the tip of my nose. "There were a few times I considered locking her up long enough to get you and run."

Giggling, I moved closer to him. "But I came home."

"Yes, you did. And it was so damn sweet."

He wanted to know about all that had happened. I wanted to tell him about everything. "Do you know I was adopted?" He nodded. "Well, I met both of them. I even met Glenda's---that's my birth mother---family. She has a daughter and a son. Her husband was quiet but he seemed nice. I mostly watched her daughter. I wondered if I would have been so free and outspoken if I had lived her life. And I have my birth father's eyes. His name is Nile. He was the high school heartthrob. I can look at him twenty years later and tell that. He's handsome and I think he may still be a little in love with Glenda, which is weird. But I try not to think about it."

I continued to tell Woods all about meeting the people who gave me life. I hadn't told Braden much about each meeting and she hadn't pressed, but with Woods I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted him to know that Nile smoked cigars and Glenda used to sing. She wanted to be a country singer once.

By the time I had finished telling him about everything, he had sat up and leaned against the headboard and pulled me into his lap. He made small circles on the palm of my hand and stayed silent. So I talked more.

I told him about my fears and why I had left him. I told him that my night terrors were gone. I wasn't waking up screaming anymore. I was whole. I wanted to be a mother one day. I wanted so many things I'd been scared to want before.

He slipped his hand down over my stomach and I felt fluttery in my chest. "One day I want my baby tucked safely in here."

I covered his hands with mine. "Me too."

We sat there like that for a while and didn't talk. I had told him everything. Every feeling, every fear. He knew it all now. And he loved me. Through it all, he had loved me.

"Della," he said in a gruff voice.

"Yeah?"

"The idea of you on the back of Tripp's bike, with your arms wrapped around him, and him sleeping in bed with you and holding you through your fears---it's gonna be hard for me to get over. I'm thankful he took care of you, but you're mine to take care of. I don't want to have to see his face for a while. I need time to get over it."

I moved so that I was facing him. "I never thought anything of those things. I don't have any feelings for Tripp at all. You were the only thing on my mind."

"I know. That's why he gets to live. But it doesn't take away the fact I'm a man and I'm possessive of one thing. You."

He could be so sweet and romantic at times and then so tough and male at others. I shifted to my knees and gave him a wicked grin. "Let me see if I can get that image out of your mind and give you a new one," I said as I kissed down his chest and moved his legs apart so I could get between them.

He was more than ready when I got down to the bottom of his flat, hard stomach. I grabbed his thick length in my hand and held it while I flicked my tongue across the head.

"Baby," Woods groaned, and bucked underneath me.

"Mmm," was my reply as I looked up at him while I slid him into my mouth until he touched the back of my throat, causing me to gag. He always liked it when I gagged.

Both his hands grabbed my head. "Ah, that's good, baby. So damn good. Take it deep. Oh, hell yeah, gag on it." His words came out thick and raspy.

I continued to work my mouth over his cock while he praised me. I wanted to give him a memory that I could send him back to every time he thought about me and Tripp. I wanted to remind him who I belonged to. He never needed to worry. My body was wired for him only.

"Come up here," he said as he caressed my head. "I'm gonna come in your mouth if you don't stop."

I wanted him in my mouth. I grabbed his legs and continued to take him as deep as my throat would allow me to while sucking hard on the tip.

Woods's hands got more frantic and he now had handfuls of my hair. Each gentle tug made my pussy clench. "Gonna come. Your hot little mouth wants it, doesn't it? My naughty baby wants it down her throat. Fuck, yeah. That's my mouth to fuck," he said before yelling my name and holding my head as he shot his release exactly where we both wanted it.

When he eased his hold on my head, I slowly slipped my mouth up his cock, then back down again, cleaning him. I licked the sides and then pulled his head back into my mouth.

"Motherfuckinghell, baby, you're gonna kill me. Stop," he groaned, pulling me up and away from his sensitive flesh. He held me against his chest as he caught his breath.

I traced small hearts around his nipples with my finger. "Woods," I said.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Next time you think about me with Tripp, remember that instead. Okay?"

His hold on me tightened, then he chuckled. "I'll do that."

"Good."