Attraction: (A Temptation Series Stand-alone) (The Temptation Series Book 4) (37 page)

I could see the sincerity in her eyes as she stood there and
begged me to understand. But my emotions were all over the place, and I didn’t
want to get into it with her at that point.

‘Carly, he means so much to me, but for reasons that aren’t
romantic. Yes, we had sex in order for me to get pregnant. But it was emotionless
sex. To be honest, it was horrible,’ she said with a blush.

I raised my eyebrow questioningly at her. ‘I find that hard
to believe. I’ve had sex with Derek — many times — and it was far from
horrible.’

‘Trust me,’ she smiled timidly. ‘It was awkward as hell and
we both hated it.’

Surrendering with a sigh, I scanned the surrounding
racecourse turned base camp. ‘Yeah, well I guess that doesn’t matter right now.
What matters is that Derek and his crew are found alive and safe.’

‘You’re right. He’s going to be fine, Carly. You need to be
positive. Bryce will find him.’

Dropping my head back and staring at the haze-ridden sky, I
blinked back my tears. ‘I hope so.’

Lucy rubbed her hands up and down my arms as if trying to
warm me up, which was weird, the temperature was fucking nearly forty degrees
Celsius. ‘Come on. Let’s find out what the plan of action is.’

We soon found out that the plan was for Bryce to land the
chopper as close to the property as he could with a search and rescue team of
three. Sean had demanded he go along, but there was no room for civilian
passengers, the Crow only having the capacity to seat four.

As Bryce elevated his helicopter and headed off into the
distance, I said a silent prayer, hoping that when it landed back on this very spot,
Derek would climb out of the cockpit and bless me with his incredible smile. I
longed for his smile.

***

‘Have they radioed in yet?’ I asked one of the ground
officers for the umpteenth time.

It had been over an hour since the Crow had departed, and I
was highly anxious. I just wanted the torturous wait to be over.

‘Not yet, they —’

‘Base camp, do you copy?’ the radio sounded.

The middle-aged chubby man picked up the receiver. ‘Yes,
copy that,’ he answered, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

Layla and Sean stepped closer, as did the other family
members in the room who were waiting just as anxiously as we were.

‘Yes. Right. Okay. Copy that,’ he finished and hung up the
receiver.

‘Well?’ Sean asked, running his hands through his hair and
gripping it tightly. ‘Have they found my brother? Is he all right?’

‘Yes, sir. Officer King and the rest of the crew are fine,
together with three civilians and a cat.’

Oh, for the love of middle-aged men with beer guts and
radio receivers.

Lexi wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my
shoulder. ‘See? I told you Bryce would help find them. It’s what he does.’

‘Well, thank fuck for what he does,’ I said with relief,
resting my head against hers and smiling for the first time in over twenty-four
hours.

***

Bryce touched the Crow to the ground not even fifty metres
from where I was impatiently standing, my body tingling with nervous
apprehension. He’d had to make additional trips to bring back the civilian
family and crew members first. Derek, being the senior officer, took the last
pass back to base camp.

As the rotor blades slowed, the cockpit door opened and
bright yellow legs exited. I held my breath as Derek emerged in his protective
suit, helmet in hand. He was covered in soot and looked extremely exhausted and
dehydrated.

I began walking toward him, which turned into a slow jog,
which then turned into a brisk run. Before I knew it, I’d slammed into him like
an emotional tidal wave.

‘Oh my god,’ I cried, kissing his charcoal-covered face.
‘For fuck’s sake, don’t ever do that again. Don’t ever scare me like that
again.’

‘Baby, it’s all right,’ he reassured me between my frantic
kisses. ‘Sh ... I’m fine.’

I pulled away from him. ‘No. You’re not. Look at you. What
happened?’

‘The wind changed suddenly. We had no choice but to take
cover in the property owner’s bunker. We were very lucky they had one.’

‘So why didn’t you radio for help?’

‘It’s a long story,’ he explained, his tone utterly
exhausted. ‘Come on, I need to debrief, hydrate and get the fuck home to
shower.’

I kissed his cheek and wrapped my arm around his back. ‘I
can help you with one of those.’

‘Excellent! I hate debriefing,’ he admitted jokingly, making
me laugh.

We began to walk toward the tent when Derek stopped in his
tracks. ‘Is that my brother, Sean?’

I stopped with him and took in his angry expression. ‘Yeah,
he’s been worried sick.’

‘I fucking doubt that,’ he snapped and began walking again,
his pace now quickened. I could barely keep up.

‘He has. He’s been —’

The sight of Derek’s right hook, slamming into his brother’s
nose, stopped any further words exiting my mouth. Bloodspilled out almost
instantly, peppering Sean’s shirt.

Before I knew it, Bryce was holding Derek back. ‘Hey, mate,
now’s not the time or place.’

‘Why the fuck are you even here?’ Derek barked out, furious
but also looking sad and confused.

‘I’m your brother. I was fucking worried,’ Sean mumbled as
he held his nose. ‘Why else?’

‘Let me go, Bryce. I’m all right. Let me go,’ Derek
demanded, his demeanour a little more subdued.

I stood frozen, my mouth covered with both my hands as Bryce
released Derek’s shoulders. Alexis and Lucy also looked shocked. Layla, not so
much.

‘You can leave now,’ Derek spat out at Sean before he walked
past him and into the tent.

Layla pulled a tissue out of her pocket and offered it to
her husband. He took it from her, but refused to let her look at the damage.
‘It’s fine. Just leave it,’ he instructed, clearly frustrated and annoyed.

‘Sean, it’s broken. You’re going to have to go to the
hospital,’ she advised with a sad expression.

‘Fuck,’ he growled. Sean looked at the tent into which Derek
had disappeared, a look of indecision on his battered and bloody face.

‘Leave him. That was a long time in coming. You know that.
And anyway, it was the most he’s spoken to you in years. It’s a start,’ Layla
added softly, as she placed her hand on her husband’s arm reassuringly.

Sean shook his head and let out a surrendered breath. ‘At
least he’s alive and safe.’ Then, turning for their car, he added. ‘Come on then.
I guess I deserved that, at the very least.’

Layla mouthed the word ‘Sorry’, but I shook my head dismissively
at her and mouthed ‘Thank you’ in return before she nodded and followed her
husband’s retreating form.

‘What the hell was that about?’ Alexis asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. ‘I don’t know the details.’

‘I do,’ both Bryce and Lucy said simultaneously.

Rolling my eyes, I placed my hand on my head. ‘Why does that
not surprise me?’

‘Do you want to tell them or should I?’ Lucy asked her
brother.

‘Be my guest,’ he nodded to Lucy before wrapping his arms
around Lex.

‘Okay. Sean accused Derek of sleeping with Layla not long
after their father had a stroke. His accusation was accompanied by the breaking
of Derek’s jaw,’ Lucy confessed.

‘What?’ I shrieked.

‘Apparently, Sean found out a little later on that his
accusations were false, and therefore tried to rectify his mistake. But Derek
wouldn’t have a bar of it.’

‘Why?’ I asked, sadly.

‘Because my brother is a worthless piece of shit and one I
do not want in my life,’ Derek interrupted.

He walked up to Bryce and gave him a hug. ‘Mate, once again
I can’t thank you enough.’

‘Don’t mention it,’ Bryce said with a slap on Derek’s back.
‘I’m just glad you are all right.’

Derek then turned to me and took hold of my hand. ‘Baby, I
want to go home. I want that shower and I want you in it.’

Wanting nothing more than to go home with the man I loved, I
blew kisses of goodbye to everyone else and let him drag me away.

***

After Derek was given the necessary all-clear by the
paramedics at base camp, we were driven to his house by another officer. For
the entire hour it took to arrive in Richmond, I clung to him tightly, not
wanting to let him go. I was an emotional mess, constantly fighting back tears
every time I dwelled on what it had felt like when I thought I had lost him.
The notion was making me ill — literally sick to my stomach.

By the time we pulled up to his house, he had drifted off to
sleep.

‘Baby,’ I said softly into his ear. ‘Wake up. We are home.’

‘Sh ... I’m dreaming,’ he groaned.

‘No, you are not. We are really here.’

He opened one eye and squinted. ‘Yes, I am. You just called
me baby and said we were home. I have to be dreaming.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Don’t push your luck,’ I warned playfully
while exiting the car.

He chuckled, said goodbye to the driver and then picked me
up and threw me over his shoulder en route to the front door.

‘Derek,’ I squealed, ‘put me down!’ As I hung upside down, I
took a moment to check out his arse. ‘Actually, your arse from this angle is
great. You have a great arse. It’s nice and round and firm,’ I explained as I
happily squeezed it. ‘It dips in all the right places.’

‘Dips?’ he questioned, fumbling with his keys.

‘Yes, like a slide ... wheee!’ I explained, sliding my
finger down one of his dips.

Derek chuckled once again and entered the house, heading
straight for his bathroom. He set me down on the basin and just stared intently
into my eyes. He went to say something, but I stopped him by placing my finger
over his lips and whispering. ‘Sh.’

I kissed him softly and proceeded to undress him, pulling
his polo t-shirt over his head while he manoeuvred his boots off with each
foot.

Stopping again to just stare at each other, my heart filled
with love. This man before me was a hero. He’d risked his life for people he
did not know, saved them and stayed with them until they were safe. He was a
gift and I planned on unwrapping and treasuring him.

Derek lifted me off the basin and pulled my singlet top over
my head. I unbuckled his pants as he unclipped my bra. We stripped each other
bare without so much as a word and then stepped into the shower.

When no words are spoken you can hear so much; the beating
of a heart, the intake of a breath ... two people becoming one. There is no
such thing as silence.

With soft
touches and gentle kisses, I helped clean the soot and dirt from his body,
washing the remnants of his terrible ordeal away. When they were no longer
evident on his body and washed down the drain, I wrapped my arms around his
neck and pressed my body to his.

‘Derek,’ I said, in a low but stern voice. ‘I love you and
can no longer deny it. I can live with your family problems and I can live with
the fear of your job. I can even live knowing that Alexander is yours. But I
cannot live without you. I just can’t. I don’t want to.’

A lone tear fell on my cheek and then travelled south until
it formed part of the droplets of water cascading down my body.

He lifted me up and pressed my back against the tile wall.
‘Then don’t. Move in with me. Make us what we “are”.’

The cool of the tiles made me gasp. ‘And what “are” we
again?’ I asked with a smile.

‘We just fucking “are”,’ he said, as he slid his erection
inside me and pressed his lips to mine.

As Derek and I made love in the shower, I realised what we
were. We were one; two people who made each other whole. Two people in search
of each other without even knowing it, and two people brought together by an
undeniable attraction that could not be ignored. Attraction is a force that
acts between oppositely charged bodies, tending to draw them together.
Attraction cannot be fought.

EPILOGUE

Just under two years later

‘Hey! Get out!’ I yelled at Bryce. ‘No grooms allowed.
Unless,’ I suggested playfully, wiggling my body, ‘you want to start removing
your clothes.’

‘You ...’ he pointed his finger at me accusingly, ‘you and I
are gonna have some words later. ‘And you ...’ he pointed to the sexy-as-fuck
stripper straddling Alexis’s lap. ‘Back the fuck off.’

Josh — also known as Mr Nude Australia — stepped aside with
a knowing expression, as if this was not the first time an irate partner had
stormed into the room during one of his performances.

I watched in disbelief as Bryce walked with purposeful
strides toward Alexis’ frozen frame, her expression extremely stunned. God, I
don’t know why she was so against seeing another man naked and having him dance
and wipe his sweaty body over her. It was her hens’ night, for fuck’s sake. Not
to mention it was hot and he was a stripper, so it was harmless.

She started to speak, seemingly to defend herself. ‘I didn’t
know —’

Bryce reached out, took hold of her hand and pulled her to
his chest, pressing a forceful kiss to her lips in a show of ownership. He
pulled back and looked heatedly into her eyes. ‘Want to go home?’

She smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

‘Hey! No, you are not!’ I protested. ‘This is your hens’
night. You can’t leave with the groom. Who does that?’

They both ignored me.

Bryce bent down and hauled Alexis over his shoulder and, as
he turned around and my eyes followed their retreating forms, I noticed Derek
and Will. Derek was leaning against the wall with a sexy as hell grin on his
face and Will was eyeing the stripper up and down with a look of disgust
.

Watching as Bryce made his way to the exit, I called out in
protest once again. ‘You can’t do this.’

‘I can and I fucking well will,’ he replied.