Creatus

once, but it was difficult to understand. Hard to comprehend how you could want one person forever. He’d liked women before, thought that he could make it work, but the couple times he’d mentioned to his father that he thought that maybe he’d felt something, his father had laughed. He’d bellowed, “When it happens, you’ll know. It’s like nothing you’ve ever felt.”

His father had been correct. Derrick had been a fool to think he could have forced this with anyone other than Kristina. He’d been in love with her spirit for too long. His soul had known all along what it wanted.

Kristina pulled back, smiling. “As much as I don’t want to stop kissing you, Derrick. I really need to take care of my plants.”

He sighed, running his hands through his hair. “Tell me what we have to do, please. I never thought I’d be upstaged by plants.”

She scooted off his lap and sauntered toward the kitchen, shaking more than she had to he was certain. Unable to resist, he followed. As she filled the pitchers in the sink, he nuzzled against her. Her body squirmed beneath him as the heat of his breath tickled her neck. He moved his hands down the length of her arms, pulling the first pitcher up to the counter. He pressed his mouth against her skin and she cooed in response.

He lifted the second vessel out of the sink and she turned in his arms, inching her fingers up his shirt, unbuttoning it along the way. When she had it completely undone, he allowed her to move it off his shoulders, throwing it over a chair at the dinette.

Kristina ran both hands over his chest and down his arms. “Are you trying to distract me?”

He smiled. “I was filling water pitchers. You’re the one who started undressing me.”

“Maybe they can wait until morning,” she said, drawing out her words slowly, in the sexiest voice he’d ever heard.

“Oh, no. We’re watering these plants now.” He drew up one of the canisters and headed over to the first window, then whooshed through the house before Kristina could move toward the first plant. He appeared in front of her, an empty water canister in his hands. “Done!” He whisked her off her feet and carried her to the bedroom.

“Aww… you didn’t show them any love. You have to talk to them so they can get their life-sustaining carbon dioxide—”

Derrick pressed his lips over hers, cutting off her words. He lowered her to the bed and crawled over top of her. Stupid plants, he thought. Thankfully, Kristina seemed to forget about her foliage as her hands traveled over his shoulders and across his back. He groaned with pleasure, wanting her fully. His body lit up, ready to partake, but he pulled away. “We’re not going to do anything tonight, Kristina.”

She crinkled her eyebrows together. “What do you mean? Why?”

“It’s just not right. Not yet.”

“But you said—”

He rested his fingers over her lips. “I know. We’re committed. But it’s still our first night together. It just doesn’t feel right. I want it to be more romantic, more of a buildup.”

She sighed. “I don’t understand. How can there be more of a buildup than we’ve already experienced? What I felt was the most incredible sensation ever.”

He smiled and warmth seared through his chest at her words. “Thank you. But trust me; it’ll get better. Right now, I just want you to kiss me again.”

Kristina lifted her head and parted her lips, allowing him access to taste her again. The same feeling as before soared through his system. He couldn’t imagine ever tiring of kissing her.

He jerked his head up at a sound outside and saw a shadow pass by the window. “You don’t have a fire escape on this window, do you?”

She squinted in the dim light. “No. It’s outside the kitchen window.”

“That’s what I thought.” Derrick jumped to his feet and peered through the wood slats. The shadow moved across the roof of the next building. No way would he catch the perp. They’d heard his words and had moved for cover. Definitely a creatus based on the speed. He could only pray it was someone from his family checking on him and not the rogue.

Chapter Ten

Kris stared at her reflection in the wide chrome-framed mirror while Derrick stood behind her. “Are you sure this is okay?” she asked for the hundredth time, checking her makeup in the unnatural light of his vanity mirror. Her bathroom, though smaller, had soft natural light. Her entire apartment was warm and sunny, even in the dead of winter. It was how she preferred it.

Now, due to his insistence, she’d lined up all her plants in front of Derrick’s wall of windows in the living area of his condo. And now she was attempting to figure out if her makeup looked acceptable in his master bath, which had no windows.

Derrick touched the collar of her sweater, which rested at the edge of her shoulders, pressing his lips to her bare skin. “You look beautiful. What are you worried about?”

“I just want to make sure they think I’m good enough for you.”

He hummed out a breath, smiling. “It doesn’t matter what they think. I love you, and that’s all that matters.”

Kris gulped, tears forming in her eyes. He hadn’t said those words. He had said he’d fallen, but in her language, those three little words meant everything. She turned to him. “I love you too, Derrick. I always have.”

He brushed her hair away from her face. “Then why are you crying?”

She didn’t know why she was crying actually. Overwhelmed, scared, a million reasons why, she assumed, but mostly because she felt his love in an almost palpable way. “Hearing you say that… it feels real. You’re real. And I’m so scared they’ll hate me and try to tear us apart. I’ve been alone since I was eight and the thought of losing you—”

Derrick placed his hands on either side of her face and kissed her softly, then moved his fingers under her chin, directing her head up to face him. “You’ve never been alone, my love. I’ve always been here.”

“I know.” She sighed. “It’s what kept me going, what kept me in Boston. But what if they—”

“They can’t,” he cut in softly. “Believe me. This is the one thing my family—all of them, even my brother— understands. Even if they are not happy, they know there’s nothing that will change. And my mother will love you. Another woman around...” he trailed off, as if not wanting to finish his sentence.

Kris inhaled a deep breath and whooshed it out, appraising the cold tile and metal around her. If she were in her home, she wouldn’t feel so out of sorts. “If you’re not worried, why did you insist we pack up my house in the middle of the night and come here?”

He dropped his hands to her shoulders, fiddling with the soft threads of her sweater. “I just wanted you with me. In a safe place. Your apartment is too easy to break into. All of my doors and windows have extra security, with reinforced steel and glass. Even a creatus couldn’t break in here.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You think one of them will try to hurt me?” she deduced. “This all happened after you jumped up last night. What did you see?”

Derrick shrugged. “Just a shadow.”

Kris presumed he wasn’t telling her everything, but she also had a feeling he wasn’t going to either. He’d whisked her out of the house so quickly last night her head had spun. Not that she minded being with him all the time, but one minute he was insisting they needed to do something romantic before they went further, and the next he’d had all her plants in the rear of his Navigator. He had helped her pack a duffle bag of clothes and toiletries, but he’d paced the entire time, as if he were all of a sudden in a hurry.

Once they’d arrived at his house, though, he’d carried her items into the spare room. She’d walked right into the room behind him, snatched up her bag, and moved it to his master bedroom while he watched.

After that, they’d cuddled in his bed together, but he’d refused to do anything but kiss her. She’d finally fallen asleep, but had awoken to discover he’d left the room. Following the muted sound and flickering light of the television, she’d found Derrick sleeping on the sofa, remote still clutched in his hand.