It seemed as though Steve turned over a new leaf overnight. Whereas before, he couldn’t hide his disgust for Amanda, now, he waited on her hands and foot, called her day and night, and generally acted like a man who was in love."I still don't know what you want from me, Steve," Amanda told him one afternoon when he took her out for lunch yet again. She wasn’t complaining, though.As far as she was concerned, she was living her best life. Steve could be quite charming when he decided to be and he was really putting his mind to being charming these days, but still, she knew that she had to be on her guard.She had been burned by him once before, and she didn't want that to happen to her again.It was a good thing that Steve was acting the way he was now and was giving her all the attention that she craved because Logan had all but disappeared into thin air after taking the fifty grand for killing Jerome.She knew that he would be back in no time though ... Perhaps when the money was fi
“I thought I already told you that I would have nothing to do with the kid. The only person I'm going to go after is your brother, and maybe I can be persuaded to go after his ex-wife too, but I'm not going to unalive an innocent child." Logan told her, scowling when she mentioned Harper."No one said you had to do anything to her yourself. You can surely hire someone to kill her or something, or if you don't want to do that, you can kidnap her and leave the rest to me. I don't mind doing it myself. You've got another thing coming if you think that Derek won't leave his wealth to her if anything happens to him or that bitch he's so obsessed with. If they're all out of the way, then naturally, since I'm the closest living and only relative, for that matter, I'll get everything." She told him. It was simple common sense.He seemed more grumpy than he usually was, and she wondered what an earth his problem was, but she did not care enough to ask him."Were you fucking that actor guy?" He
After their talk the other night, Derek began to court Ava. According to her, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get back together, so he made it his mission to show her reasons why getting back together was a good thing for the both of them.Her family remained in her house for a few more days after he talked with her Dad. During those days, he stayed away from her house so as to give her family some time and privacy to visit with her, but he still made sure to call her every day.Ava had never before seen this very attentive side of him, not even when he wasn’t avoiding her after they just got married. He had always been caring, so his caring nature wasn’t a surprise.However, now, he showered her with so much attention that it was becoming increasingly difficult to continue to keep her feelings for him at bay.The sexual tension between them had gotten to an all-time high, and Ava had never felt as attracted to him as she did now, not even when they were married. They both kept their
They were silent for a few minutes. Harper was already fast asleep because it was past her bedtime already and Derek realized that he should probably leave so that Ava could get some sleep as well."I should probably be leaving now," Derek said, getting up and stretching luxuriously. One day, in the near future, he hoped he wouldn’t have to leave Ava and Harper at the end of the day anymore, but for now, he would do whatever it was that made Ava comfortable and happy.Ava stared at his rippling muscles as he stretched, remembering all too vividly how hard and silky they used to feel under her hands. Damn! This was becoming even more difficult to bear.Shaking herself, she got up with him, so that she could walk him to the door, even though he had come here so many times that there was no need for that anymore and he could see himself out.With each day that passed, she fell more and more in love with Derek. As for him, she couldn’t tell how he felt because he acted the way he normall
Derek’s lips were just as delicious as Ava remembered them to be all those years ago when she last kissed him. She didn’t think she could ever get enough of them.At first, only their lips were touching, and Derek kept his hands to himself, still trying to give her the option of pulling away if that was what she wanted, but when Ava moaned into his mouth, he lost all control.He grabbed her suddenly by the waist, causing her to gasp into his mouth in surprise, and pulled her hard against his body. It was the hottest thing that Ava had ever encountered, and it caused her nether regions to throb almost unbearably.The kiss began to get more and more intense, until Derek groaned into her mouth, pushed her away, and looked at her with desire-filled eyes. She could tell he was about to apologize for kissing her, so she raised a finger to his lips to shush him. She had to stand on tiptoe to do that."Don't apologize, Derek ... unless you didn't want to kiss me.""Are you kidding, Ava? Kissi
Finally, he decided to have mercy on her and took the nipple in his mouth, sucking it gently, until she was writhing in his arms. Then he did the same for the other nipple.He alternated between the both of them, bringing her immense pleasure in a way that no other man had ever brought her.He did that for a while, and then he moved with her toward the closest wall in the room and made her lean against it. Then he squatted in front of her, and went to town with his head between her legs, working wonders with his oh-so-talented tongue.At this point, Ava was certain that she was going to go crazy. Never in her life had she been this turned on, and she had to cum right at that moment, no matter what.It seemed that Derek knew exactly what she wanted, because he began to expertly lap up her clit in that way he knew she loved, as though it was the last food on earth and he was a starving man.Ava moaned through it all, chanting his name over and over, and grabbing onto his head and shoulde
Ava unsuccessfully tried to tamp down the feeling of disappointment that engulfed her when she saw the empty space beside her.Why did Derek leave without telling her? With how intimate they were the previous night, she had been hoping that they would spend the morning together.After all, it wasn’t like he had to go to work today, or even any day if he didn’t want to, for that matter.It occurred to her that he could be with Harper, after all, Ava had woken up late. So she got out of bed, put on her robe, and padded out in search of him.Her whole body ached, but in a pleasurable way, and thinking about how the night went made her want to relive everything again.Derek wasn’t in the living room with Harper, however, and a quick check of Harper’s bedroom showed that the little girl was still fast asleep and alone.Ava checked around for a note but didn’t find any either. A quick look outside showed that Derek's car was no longer parked in her driveway, meaning he had indeed left.For
"I know, and I'm sorry for immediately assuming the worst. It’s just … you know … this is going to take some time to adjust to … um, well I …” Ava trailed off, her cheeks turning pink in embarrassment, especially because Derek looked a little hurt, but was trying to hide it.She couldn’t help how she felt though, and she knew that it was going to take a while and a lot of convincing before she was able to trust Derek on matters like this.Her heart was always on guard, and anticipating that his behavior could change at any time. That way, if it finally did, she would be prepared.“That’s okay. Of course, I understand. It’s not a problem at all. Anyway, away with you. Harper and I are going to prepare breakfast, and we need some space to ourselves, so you have to leave. You can go sit in front of the television with a glass of wine in your hand or something.” Derek told her, grabbing a bottle of wine and a glass and leading her out of the kitchen.Ava was only too happy to go. She sat
She smiled at him and slowly came out from behind the chair. Derek had no idea for how long she had been hiding there, but it seemed that it had been quite a while.“Daddy…” She said and without warning, rushed at him and embraced him tightly with more strength than he would have expected a child to have.Derek awkwardly patted her back and embraced her too, not sure if he should pick her up, kiss her cheek, ruffle her hair, or anything like that.“How are you?” He asked her, wincing as soon as the words left his mouth. He sounded like he was having a formal meeting with some board of directors or something like that, not talking to a child.However, Harper didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she made his decision for him by raising her arms, indicating that he should pick her up.“I’m fine, daddy. The bad woman told me that you died, but I didn’t believe her.” Harper told him.Derek immediately did as she wanted and she rested her head on his shoulder in the sweetest gesture ever. To his
A few days later, Derek was set to be discharged from the hospital. Everything felt so strange to him, and he felt a tad lonely.He had spent the last days of his hospital stay catching up on his present life or what it was supposed to be like.Nothing made sense to him, and he tried not to dwell too much on the grief that plagued him anytime he thought about his dad or the fact that the other remaining members of his family had turned out the way they had.Reading and watching all the pieces of news that he could gather about the whole incident, as well as asking tons of questions, made him not hurt as much as he would have at Denise's or Blair's death and Amanda's incarceration.He could not wrap his head around anyone doing what they had done, especially the fact that they kidnapped and tortured two innocent children, one of whom was his own daughter.He still had yet to meet his little girl, but he was going to see her that day when he got home.He was nervous as hell, about the m
Ava and Derek didn't get to continue the discussion for long after that, because Derek’s doctor came in and demanded that he needed to rest. Derek looked relieved at the doctor's words, and Ava realized that he needed some time to himself.She didn’t blame him, after all, everything she told him was enough to overwhelm even the strongest person.She was just thankful that he seemed to be handling things much better than he did after the accident.The next day when she came into the hospital room and spoke to him, he sounded all cheerful, even more cheerful than he used to sound before they had the previous day’s conversation, but Ava knew him very well and knew that he was forcing the cheeriness.Still, she gave him what he needed and pretended that everything was fine, so they talked about mundane things or just remained quiet when they ran out of things to say.Ava caught him staring at her several times, and his scrutiny made her feel a little self-conscious.She was aware that sh
However, Derek simply nodded as though he had been expecting such an answer. She could see the pain in his eyes though, but he did his best to mask it."I guess I shouldn't be asking a total stranger this, but do you know what caused me to fall out with the rest of the family?" Derek asked."It's actually a long story, and one that in my opinion, should be saved for when you're much better and out of the hospital.""Nonsense! I'm much better already. Whatever you’re going to say can't be worse than the knowledge that the man I looked up to for most of my life is gone.""Oh, trust me, Derek. It’s much worse than that.” Ava told him. His eyes looked troubled at her words, but they were also defiant.“Okay, I believe you, but I still want to know.” “I think you should focus on recovering first. You have all the time in the world to find out what's been going on in the time frame that you can't remember. You could even be lucky to regain your memory at any time now, and there'd be
He opened his mouth to ask her the questions he had in mind, but his burst of energy from earlier was rapidly reducing.He was suddenly beginning to feel really boneless and tired. In fact, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of the conversation.“It’s okay, Derek. You can go to sleep. We’ll talk more when you wake up.” The woman told him.Her voice was so soothing and he loved the way she ran her hands through his hair ever so gently.It occurred to him that he shouldn’t be letting another woman touch him that way, but he was too sleepy to tell her to stop.It didn’t matter though, because a moment later, he was fast asleep. He didn’t get to talk to the woman until the next few days.Still, none of his family members had come to see him in the hospital, at least not that he knew of, since he was almost always sleeping.As the days passed, he felt well and alert enough for a conversation with the woman, who was the only person that was constantly around him.His emplo
Derek’s life currently seemed like one big joke to him. The doctor had talked to him about memory loss and some shit that he barely remembered, but he had a feeling that there was way more that the doctor hadn't talked about.After the doctor left, he had stared groggily at the television, certain that what he was seeing on the news was a figment of his imagination, or perhaps, it was caused by hallucinations because of his medications.He hadn't stepped out of his hospital room yet, but just from what he saw on the television, it felt like he had somehow stepped into the future, which in a way, he supposed was the case.Try as he might, he couldn't remember anything past the time when he was lying on the road in the freezing cold, with every part of his body in serious pain, while he waited for what he was sure was certain death, and cursed himself to hell and back for not being careful and getting into the accident.Apparently, though, he was very wrong, and almost a decade had pass
After several seconds had passed, during which Derek continued to stare at Ava with a polite but blank expression on his face, Ava decided that he was joking.After all, he had done the same thing the first time after he came out of his coma when Harper was still missing. So she uttered a small laugh and chastised him.“That’s not funny, Derek. How are you feeling?” She asked him, coming closer to the bed and placing a hand over his forehead when the doctor didn’t object to it.To her surprise and growing dismay, though, Derek moved his head away, or at least, tried to do so. It was obvious that he was too weak to manage it fully, but his intent was clear and that was that he didn't want to be touched by her.“Who are you? Do we know each other?” He croaked out.She could sense fear in his voice, and when he continued to speak without giving her a chance to respond, she understood why he sounded fearful.“Madam, please. I was on my way to my parent’s place when I got into an accident.
Luckily enough, the surgery was successful, at least, according to what the doctors told Ava.She wasn’t a professional, so she had no way of knowing if this was correct or not, as Derek had been placed in a medically induced coma by the doctors until he was better.All she knew was that he lay in the hospital bed day in, day out, looking as white and still as a corpse, with the machines breathing for him.As for her, she had made a hasty recovery, which was probably fueled by the need to be present to look after Derek herself, and her flesh wound from the gunshot had all but healed.Although all the threats to Derek's life had been eliminated, so to speak, she still had this irrational fear that some other person who had some beef with him was going to sneak into the hospital and snuff the life out of him.Unfortunately, however, since he was in the ICU, she couldn’t be with him as much as she wanted, which made the whole experience even more scary and traumatic, as she had no idea w
“It was by sheer luck, if not, they never would have found you on time, and what would have happened then does not bear thinking about. Apparently, they managed to arrest the guy that Amanda initially hired to do all this sometime yesterday.Once the asshole realized that there was no chance in hell that he would get out of this and that he was well and truly done for, he began to sing like a canary. He led the police right to the house, and the rest, as they say, is history. I'm so thankful we got there on time.” Damien said.“Yeah, me too. It’s still hard to believe that Amanda could be filled with so much hate in her heart and that she was willing to go to such lengths to harm Derek, me, and even our child who has done nothing to her.”“I was surprised as well. I always knew that she was a mean person, but I never imagined that she was downright evil. I'm glad you followed through on your instinct.”“Me too. So is Amanda still …” Ava asked, unable to finish the question.“Unfortuna