Maybe … this is what it feels like to be chosen and connected by blood.
Both.
For the first time in my life.
77
DERRICK
I’m not okay.
I keep telling myself I am, but my legs haven’t stopped shaking since I woke up this morning, and my stomach has been doing backflips. I’ve changed my outfit three times.Maybe four.I’m losing track. Charlie leans in the doorway, watching me have a mild breakdown in real time, arms folded, hair still damp from the shower, looking disgustingly calm for someone whose boyfriend is spiraling.
“They already love you,” he reminds me gently.
“But what happens if they meet me and they decide they don’t like me anymore?”
Charlie gives me a look. “How can anyone not love you?”
“There are plenty of people who don’t love me,” I tell him, rolling my eyes.
Charlie steps close to me, cupping my face. “Well, I’m not one of them. I love you, D.” I gasp, sucking in the air.
“You do?” Still not quite believing someone like him could love someone like me.
“I do.” He smiles, leaning forward and kissing me slowly, deeply, showing me just how much he loves me with his tongue.
“I love you too.”
“You’re stronger than you think, D.”
“I know, but I don’t always want to be strong, and the fact that you are strong for me when I need it the most … no one has ever made me feel more loved, protected, strong, happy, special, all the things. It’s the first time in my life I have truly felt loved and secure with someone. I thank whoever I need to thank every day for finding you, Charlie. Because you’re a fucking catch and I feel like you’re going to wake up one day from this spell and realize you can do better,” I confess to him.
“Fuck. Never,” he tells me strongly. “You are the fucking prize, D. You.” A tear falls down my face. “We both need to stop being so hard on ourselves. We are perfect together. We each bring something to the other. Ying and Yang. We’re opposites, and I think that’s what works.”
Charlie’s right. We fit perfectly together. There was no going back he was my person and we both felt it the moment we met.
“I can’t wait to do life with you.”
“Me too,” he says, kissing me again, long and slow. “Now, let’s get it together, you have brothers to meet. And I would rather not meet them with my dick tenting my pants.” I look down, smirk, and then evilly grab his cock through his pants and give it a squeeze. “Derrick,” he growls, but I just smile because in this moment, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.
Before Charlie can respond the buzzer goes.
I freeze.
Charlie freezes and mumbles a slew of curse words at me. “Perfect timing.” He adjusts himself like he’s trying not to kill me.
My whole body feels like it drops through the floor. “They’re here,” I whisper, voice barely existing.
Charlie squeezes my shoulders. “Deep breath. You’ve got this.”
I take one. It does nothing.
He hits the intercom.
A male voice comes through, Scottish, deep, familiar.
“Hi, it’s Rowan. We’re all here.”
