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25 - Now What?
~Derek's Point of View~
My best friend was the only one outside of Eve and Haven that knew about my night in the dark. I walked out of the hotel a little after 5 am and drove home, ready to bang on the apartment door below mine and wake his ass up.
Heath of course thought I was nuts, that I could have easily just met a girl on a dating site for this fantasy and not had to pay $10k for it. We had both been single a very long time, both played the field, but both always came up with superficial women.
I needed a deeper, more intimate and personal connection. I needed that fire that comes from finding someone you can’t stand to be away from, that person that makes your worst day melt away. I’d never had it obviously, but I knew it had to be out there. I wasn't willing to compromise on this.
My family had been pressuring me to just "pick one," so to speak, and that wasn't happening.
Haven wou
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In The Dark 26 - Bye, Bye Haven
~Eve's Point of View~My phone dinged and I ran to it. “Keep everything the same for next time, but this time wear panties, I want something to keep.”I laughed out loud.You could just take me home with you, I thought, sitting on the couch.Jeez!I had no shame all of a sudden! Now I had to go shopping for the perfect panties.My mind started going through all the possibilities.“Did you tell literally everyone in the hotel to address me as Mrs. Russell or are they all just overly assumptive?” I wished I could see his reaction to that!“Oh, I told them to take extra special care of my wife ;).”I gaped at my phone and threw my head back on the couch and caught the sun coming up. It was unusually beautiful, and bright and it held my attention until it was fully up. I laid my head down on the arm of the couch
In The Dark 27 - You Can't Afford It
I spent the rest of the day in bed, half in a coma. My whole body ached but also longed for Derek to be all over me again.Now that I felt like he was serious, like he would keep wanting to see me, I relaxed. But I kept telling myself I needed to keep a boundary between relaxing and fully thinking this guy was going to be mine. I still had no idea what he was really thinking.I was like a lost fucking puppy dog for him though. If he broke my heart, it would just kill me. That would legit be it and I would become a nun.I was also convinced that I likely burned 20,000 calories last night so I ordered a whole pizza and wings just for myself.I was just getting into my Law and Order marathon when it dawned on me I never thanked Derek for the flowers. Shit! I tried to think of something witty to say but I came up empty.I simply said, “thank you for the amazing garden, no one has ever sent me flowers before.”
In The Dark 28 - An Even Playing Field
My eyes went cross eyed and I abruptly sat up. His hand immediately went to my lips, as if to silence me, how could he even see where my lips were?“Yes, or no … I don’t want to hear anything else baby,” he whispered.“But I--”I stopped myself. He began kissing my neck, he wasn’t fighting fair.“Will you marry me, Eve, yes or no?”My mind immediately raced a thousand miles a minute. He couldn’t be serious, we were strangers! I mean … I guess we knew each other about as intimately as it gets but … there’s so much more to being with someone.He began tickling my tummy and I laughed in his ear. Maybe I just tell him what he wants to hear, hell it’s not like we’d get married tomorrow. We could have a long engagement, meet each other’s families, break up if it doesn’t work out.Why does he need
In The Dark 29 - Double Standard
We had just finished breakfast and Derek was sitting up in bed, I was in his lap, cuddled into his neck and he was on the phone with his assistant. I just tuned him out and felt his warmth. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally hung up.“Your assistant is a guy,” I said, curiously.“Yep and a huge pain in my ass, but he’s damn good at his job, so I keep him around. I’ve had him about five years now. His husband is one of my lawyers,” he said, turning his lips into my neck.“Sounds interesting,” I said.I pulled away and held his face, “so what happens now … Mr. Russell?”He grinned and said, “no more of this hotel nonsense, I’m taking you home with me. We can stop at your place and get anything you might need for now, but anymore will have to be another day.”“Huh, already thought this through have you,&rdqu
In The Dark 30 - On To Adventure
The next day, Derek and Heath left to go to his actual office and since I had some time I knew I had to call Martin. I took a deep breath and decided just to go for it.This was one of the most awkward things I’d had to do but I could never just fully ghost Martin, I really did consider him my friend. It rang and rang, and I thought I should have texted him, of course he was likely working.Just when I was about to get his voicemail, he picked up, “hey stranger.”I relaxed, “hey Martin, how are you?”“I’m good … what’s wrong honey you never just call me in the middle of the day.”“Yeah … I’m … I ... uhm, I met someone and I quit working for Haven, I wanted to meet you at least one last time and tell you in person but--”“If you were mine I certainly wouldn’t let you around other men,” he said.&nbs
In The Dark 31- There's More
Derek and I could talk about everything and anything. We liked the same movies, the same music, and thankfully held the same political and religious beliefs. Being with him was just so easy, so natural, it had felt like we knew each other for years.Having all this money flaunted around was hard for me ... just a couple weeks ago I was shopping at thrift stores … happily! Now my fiance was begging me to take his black Amex and hit the mall. I just didn’t see the point.I’m not a better person, I’m not smarter or somehow elevated because of the labels on my clothes. I just didn’t care about it all. I had learned some stuff from the closet at Haven’s, like about the red bottom shoes supposedly being a status symbol. Some handbags were worth so much they were basically an investment just as much as buying a stock would be.But most of those clothes and shoes ... were also the most uncomfortable things on the planet!
In The Dark 32 - All In
We were now turned so his head was on my chest and I was stroking his hair.“Keep going baby,” I said.He let out a long breath.“When I was real little, my grandparents were trying to figure things out, you know long term. My grandmother’s family had money too, so there was a ton of inheritance to be had. Neither of them trusted mom and neither wanted her to get it but she was blood so it was tricky.Luckily, mom didn’t know much about how it all worked, and so … nobody bothered to tell her. There were certain, I guess you’d call them milestones that you had to hit. The first was being married by a certain age, then having an heir by a certain age. My grandfather seemed to think that by having a child so young, out of wedlock and by a married man, she forfeited it anyhow.Everything got transferred to me, but until I reached the milestones, I just got like a monthly allowance
In The Dark 33 - Ruby
The money obviously didn’t mean shit to me. But not having to sign a prenup, was real trust. It was a clear message to his family that he trusted me. Why did he trust me though, he barely knew me!It was all still too much. Literally just as soon as we were done with our little romp, the plane was about to land.We quickly dressed and my once decent looking curls were now a frizzy mess. I got my hair a bit damp and put it up in a bun, oh well. So much for making a decent first impression.I was pretty sure I’d been quiet, but when I came out I noticed literally everyone had in headphones anyway, so I relaxed. Derek wandered out, looking perfect and like nothing happened, of course. The stupid grin plastered on his face told the story.There were two cars waiting for us, and Heath drove for us and Marcus, Derek’s assistant. I had barely ever even seen Marcus’s eyes, they were always buried in an Ipad or
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