converse.
“What was that about?” Derrick asked, pouring her some tea, then lifting the coffee pot for himself.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, stirring lemon and honey into her tea, pretending ignorance because she didn’t want to answer his question. She even lowered her eyes because he always seemed to be able to figure out when she was lying to him.
“Zarah, talk to me. What’s on your mind?”
The soft, gentle voice was still firm, but she could hear the tenderness in his voice. “I just have a lot to finish with the festival coming up in a few weeks.”
Derrick could tell that she was holding something back from him, but had no idea what that might be. He wanted to lift her into his arms and carry her back to his bed because she was honest with her reactions when they were there. She couldn’t hide anything from him, he wouldn’t let her and demanded that she reciprocate and tell him what she wanted. Something in her eyes told him that she was upset, but he couldn’t imagine what had changed in the last few moments, but he suspected it had something to do with the phone calls she went into London to make each week.
A thought occurred to him and he was instantly furious. Slamming his coffee cup onto the saucer, he leaned forward and glared at her. “You aren’t married, are you Zarah?”
Zarah was so startled by his question and anger that she almost dropped her cup. “Of course not!” she replied instantly. “Where did that question come from?”
Derrick watched her, relieved because her response was quick. She didn’t have to think about it, therefore, it sounded more honest. He accepted her answer simply because he didn’t want to consider that she was married and would lie to him. And then he remembered that she’d been a virgin until last night and his shoulders relaxed. “Sorry. It just occurred to me that your weekly jaunts into London might be to visit with your husband or lawyer.”
Her eyebrows went down with her increasing temper. “If I were married, I definitely wouldn’t cheat on my husband!”
Since he’d remembered that she was completely his, he smiled and winked at her, more at ease with that realization. “I know you wouldn’t.”
“Then why did you ask such a horrible question?”
“Because I know you’re hiding something and being married at your age and with your looks it seemed like a reasonable assumption. But I apologize for maligning your character in that way.”
She continued to glare at him, but his apology appeased her. Mostly. “Thank you for that.”
“So will you tell me what the weekly visit and phone call are about?”
“No.”
Derrick nodded, accepting that she trusted him in bed with her body and care, but there were some parts of her that she still felt she needed to keep hidden. For now. Eventually, he would know everything about her. “Okay.”
She was startled by that response, not sure what it meant. “Okay? Just okay?”
He laughed and picked up his fork, stabbing a bright, red strawberry and bringing it to his mouth. “Do you want me to interrogate you? A bit of torture to find out what you’re hiding?”
“Of course not.”
“Then I’ll accept that you’ll soon learn that you can trust me and will tell me what’s going on each Saturday morning. Until then, I’ll pick you up from work and will make love to you until you can’t move any longer.” He stabbed another strawberry and brought it to her lips, watching as her pretty, white teeth bit down on the succulent fruit. “You’ll learn to trust me outside of the bedroom eventually, Zarah.”
He held her gaze for a long moment, but his housekeeper coming back into the room distracted him. Zarah’s heart rate slowly returned to normal and she savored the fruit while sipping her fragrant tea. Derrick had to take a phone call and she listened, amazed at the large sums of money he worked with on a daily basis. He was apparently buying up some ailing corporation and challenging one of his vice president’s assumptions on the cost to bring the company back to profitability.
When he finished the phone call, he apologized and tucked the phone back into his pocket. “Time to get you home so you can change for your meeting,” he said.
Zarah was grateful for the ride back to her apartment. Thankfully Suzanne wasn’t home because Derrick insisted on walking her to her door and kissing her passionately before letting her