Fulfillment (Book 3 in The Temptation Series) (30 page)

I rolled over,
so that I was facing him. “I’m not sending you a naked photo of me
in a ridiculous looking moon boot, forget it.”

His finger did
not stop its journey over my skin, still swirling around and
finding my nipple. He rolled it between his fingers.
Oh, fuckity
fuck. His fingers are just so...fuck!

Instantly, my
breasts firmed and both my nipples said ‘hello’.

“I want a
picture,” he said firmly but with a husky voice.

I closed my
eyes, taking in the glorious feeling he was giving me. “No,” I
reaffirmed.

I felt him
take my other nipple into his mouth, so I grabbed his head, digging
my nails in and holding him against me.

He growled and
engulfed my breast more hungrily. “I’ll send you one.”

My eyes shot
open. “You’ll send me a picture?” A large smile appeared across my
face.

“Sure.”

I started to
get visions of different pictures he might send me, pictures of his
body and its stunning parts. “I’ll think about it,” I
compromised.

“Hmmm.” He
leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, then pulled away
regretfully. “Don’t be surprised if I’m not back here tonight and
you are in my arms. I don’t think I have it in me to stay
away.”

“Go!” I placed
my hands on his chest and lightly held him at bay. “Do what you do,
Mr. Clark. I will speak to you later.”

I watched him
walk out the door, staring at his perfectly defined arse in his
Versace pants, permanently etching it onto my brain so that I could
recall the sight when needed over the next few days—and boy, would
it be needed.

I got out of
bed, showered, and made my way downstairs via the elevator to see
the kids off before Danny chauffeured them to school.

“Bye, ratbags.
Have a good first day back,” I called to them as they grabbed their
school bags and made their way to the elevator.

“Bye, Mum.
Bye, Lucy. Bye, Nic,” they called back.

Lucy and Nic
were having breakfast and both waved to Nate and Charli as they
left the apartment. Nic pushed a cup of coffee across the breakfast
bar toward me as I uncomfortably shuffled onto the stool with great
difficulty.

“I cannot wait
to get this big, heavy, white piece of shit removed from my leg
today.” I growled.

“What time is
your appointment?” Lucy asked as she playfully shovelled some
Weetbix into Alexander’s mouth, his tongue gently pushing half of
it back out again.

“2 p.m.”

“Alexander has
his six month maternal health check appointment at midday, so I
will be back in time to take you.”

“Sorry, Luce,
I feel like such a burden.”

“Don’t be
silly. It’s no problem at all. I want to help, and anyway why do
you think we are staying here while Bryce is gone?”

“Because he
told you to stay.”

She laughed.
“Well yeah, he did. But no, you are family now and we help out our
family.”

I smiled
meekly at her over the rim of my coffee cup as I took another
sip.

“So what are
your plans today, Alexis, other than your appointment?” Lucy
asked.

“Well, I was
going to ring Derek and see if he was free to start giving me
guitar lessons.” I gave Nic a don’t-even-go-there look.

Lucy did the
same. “Yeah, I heard about that. I think it’s a brilliant idea.
Bryce will flip out—”

Nic
interrupted, “Hey about that, Alexis, I really am sorry. I didn’t
mean to imply you would deliberately cheat on Bryce with his best
friend. I was just trying to give you a friendly warning as to
Derek’s forwardness.”

“Nic, just
forget about it. All I’m going to say is I love Bryce and would
never do anything that would jeopardise that. He is not just my
lover, he is my soul mate. We belong together. As for Derek, well,
I barely know the guy, but from what I can see, he is lovely and a
great friend to Bryce. And anyway, I have plans to set him up with
my girlfriend Carly.”

Lucy laughed.
“Yes! They would be a match made in heaven.”

“Not sure
heaven is the correct place to match Carly up in,” I responded.

Lucy agreed
and laughed again.

***

After
breakfast, I gave Derek a call to see if he was available for my
first lesson. He was a firefighter with the Melbourne Fire Brigade
and worked shifts, so I was in luck as he was not due to start work
until this evening.

Within an hour
of my call, the buzzer to the door sounded.

“I’ll get it,
you take it easy,” Lucy said, as she placed Alexander on the floor
under his play gym. She walked briskly to the door and let Derek
in, and by the time she got back Alexander had barrel-rolled to the
edge of the lounge. “Hey you, Roly-Poly.” She picked him back
up.

“I think you
may need to get a kiddy pen?” I suggested.

She cringed.
“I think you may be right.”

Derek walked
past the two of them and sat down on the sofa opposite me. He
opened up his guitar case and pulled out a black shiny acoustic
then jogged to the man-cave and returned with one of Bryce’s
acoustics for me.

“I’m sure he
won’t mind you learning with this one,” he said with a sly smile as
he handed me the guitar.

Lucy’s eyes
widened and she scoffed. “You reckon?”

“It’s Alexis,
Luce. Come on, he’d hand me my balls on a plate if I taught her on
anything less.”

“Ha, yeah
you’re probably right.”

“Okay, let’s
get into it, shall we?” he said, as he positioned his guitar on his
right leg. “I hope you’re right-handed?”

I nodded to
him, smiling like a kid.

“Okay, hold
your guitar like this, and try to keep the headstock of the guitar
horizontal to the ground, not up or down like this,” he said,
demonstrating the movement for me.

“What’s the
headstock?” I asked.

He raised his
eyebrows, obviously trying to suppress an outburst.

“What?” I
sulked, suppressing my own outburst.

Lucy
laughed.

I dropped my
head and pouted. “Oh my God, I suck already.”

“No, that’s
okay. I’ll start from the
very
beginning
then.”

He took a few
moments to point out and explain all the parts of the guitar. I
already knew a lot of them, but the head...well...I didn’t know
that part was called a headstock. Now that I know, well...yeah...it
was freakin’ obvious.

After Derek
had patiently explained, I was now more familiar with the parts of
a guitar, learning terms like: tuning pegs, position markers and
frets.

“Okay, as you
can see the guitar has six strings starting with number one being
closest to the bottom and up to number six at the very top. Now
pluck each string to hear its sound.”

I did what I
was told.

“Do you know
the basics of sheet music?” he asked.

“Kind of, I
took singing lessons in school. We had to learn beats and rhythm,
but I don’t really remember. I remember something to do with face
though, you know f-a-c-e and ‘even good boys do fart’ or was it
‘every good boy doesn’t fart’. Shit! I can’t remember.”

Derek lost it
and threw himself back on the couch laughing hysterically. Even
Lucy lost it and rolled on the floor next to Alexander.

“What now? Oh,
I give up. This was a bad idea anyway.” I went to put the guitar
down next to me.

“No, Alexis.
No, I’m sorry.” He chuckled a little more before he composed
himself. “It’s not a bad idea. It’s a great idea and Bryce will
love it. I just think we will need to practice as much as we
possibly can. That’s all.”

Lucy stood up.
“I gotta go. Don’t give up, Alexis.”

She laughed
and mumbled something to herself as she headed upstairs.

“Now where
were we? Oh yeah, the boy who farted.” He chuckled again, so I
glared at him. “What you are referring to is the mnemonic for the
notes and spaces on the treble clef. It’s actually more commonly
known as ‘Every Good Boy Does Fine’.”
Oh, Alexis you stupid,
stupid idiot.

“Oh,” I
giggled. “Fair enough.”

He continued
on and cleared up the basics of sheet music including the time
signature, measures, and half, quarter and whole notes.

Before I knew
it I was strumming notes in rhythm and in beat, tapping my foot as
I went.

“You’re
actually a quick learner, Alexis.”

“Thank you. I
might get my mnemonics mixed up but I recover gracefully.”

“You do,” he
smiled.

“What’s the
time?” I asked as I didn’t have my watch on.

“Nearly a
quarter past one.”

“Shit! That
went quick. Luce should be back soon to take me to my appointment.
I’m getting this horrid thing off today.” I pointed to my cast. “Do
you want a drink or anything?” I went to get up.

“Yeah, but
I’ll get it. Can I get you one?”

“Yes, please.
Just some water is fine.”

He headed over
to the bar to pour us a drink.

Just as I was
thinking Lucy better hurry up, my phone rang. I hopped over to my
bag to fish it out and speaking of the devil, it was Lucy.

“Hey, where
are you?”

“I’m stuck in
traffic. A truck lost its load on the Bolte Bridge. Shit! I’m not
going to be able to get you to your appointment on time. I’m so
sorry.”

“Don’t worry,
it can’t be helped. I’ll just ask Danny to take me or get a taxi.
It’s no big deal. I’d better go and organise it though, so I’m not
late. I’ll see you when I get home.”

I hung up and
flicked through my phone in search of Danny’s number.

“Is everything
all right?” Derek asked as he handed me my glass of water.

“Lucy is stuck
in traffic and can’t take me to my appointment. So I need to track
down Danny and see if he is available.” I found his number and went
to press dial.

“Never mind
Danny. I’ll take you.”

“Don’t be
silly. I’m sure Danny can quickly drop me off and pick me up
later.”

“Alexis, it’s
fine. It really isn’t a big deal. And anyway, I’ve got nothing
better to do.”

I stewed on it
for a second. “Well, if you really don’t mind then thanks, I
appreciate it.”

“Okay, let’s
go then,” he swung his keys round his finger. “Hope you’ve got a
helmet.”

“What?” I
shrieked.

“My ride is a
Harley.”

“Absolutely no
fucking way. Thanks for the offer, but I humbly decline.” I went to
dig my phone back out of my bag.

“I’m kidding,”
he joked, and he gently placed his hand on the small of my back as
I hobbled past him on my crutches and through the front door.

***

Derek’s ride
was actually a bright blue 2012 Ford Ranger, pretty much the
perfect height for me to get in and out of without assistance.

During the
quick ride to the hospital, I’d found out that Derek and Bryce had
gone to school together and that’s when they started up the band.
Derek had also come from a wealthy family so to speak. However,
he’d had no inclination to follow in his father’s footsteps as a
shipping magnate. I’d also ascertained that he was single, and I
could not wait to put my Alexis-matchmaking-skills into play. If my
plan worked, Carly’s fiery hole would be doused sooner rather than
later.

We both took a
seat in the waiting room of my surgeon’s consulting clinic. There
were many other surgeons who practised at these particular offices
and their patients were also waiting.

“Thanks for
doing this. Hopefully we don’t have to wait for long,” I said as I
looked around the room.

A doctor came
out and announced a patient. “Asoka Andrews.”

Derek scoffed
under his breath. “Asoka?”

I smiled at
him strangely. “Yeah? I think that’s what he said, why?”

“Isn’t that a
character in Star Wars?” he explained.

“Yeah, I think
you’re right.” I laughed. “Ask Nate next time you see him, he’ll
know.”

“I will.”

I leaned
forward and picked up a magazine from the coffee table next to me.
I needed something to keep my eyes focussed on for when I asked my
next question. Match-maker Alexis was about to come to life.

“So, why are
you single Derek? What’s wrong with you?”

I noticed from
the corner of my eye that he’d swung his head round in my
direction, so I tried desperately to keep my stare fixed on the
pages. He didn’t answer so I chanced a glance up at him. He
actually looked quite adorable with his shaved head and blue eyes,
and especially the way he’d furrowed his chin in a
for-me-to-know-and-you-to-find-out kind of way.

“What?” I
asked. “That’s a fair question. You’re young, intelligent, good
looking and obviously athletic. You’re a firefighter and a lead
singer in a band. I don’t buy it. Something has to be wrong with
you.”

“Okay then,
you tell me what you think is wrong with me,” he challenged.

“Um, then
maybe I asked the wrong question before. You might not have a
girlfriend, but maybe you have a boyfriend?”
Shit! I hope not.
Carls’ hole will burn to a crisp if that’s the case.

He laughed.
“No, not gay. I have nothing against being gay, I’m just not gay
myself. Next,” he challenged again.

“Third
nipple?” I asked, unperturbed by my outrageous suggestion.

He laughed
harder this time. “No. Wanna check?” He went to pull down the
collar of his t-shirt.

I hit him in
the arm. “No, I believe you.”

“Next,” he
said again.

“Small
dick?”

“No. Wanna
chec—”

I cut him off
before he had a chance to finish.

“Alcoholic?”

“No, don’t
drink.”

“Drugs?”

“No, hell
no!”

“Bad in
bed?”

“Now you are
just insulting me,” he said playfully.

“Well? You
tell me then.”

“Why do you
want to know?”