Page 65 of Inevitable Inheritance

Fuck.

Or better yet, no fuck.

The ringing stopped and then started up again.

“Derrick?” Taylor said softly. “I think you have to get that.”

“It can wait,” he assured her breathlessly, and the ringing stopped only to resume again.

“Derrick, answer it,” she told him. She was breathing just as heavy as he was, and she was right.

Derrick reluctantly withdrew his hand from inside her pants and the other one out from under her shirt, spun them around, and grabbed the phone.

“Fletcher!” he barked into the phone, causing Taylor to jump.

“Uh, hi, Mr. Fletcher,” his secretary said on the other end. “Uh, your 4:30 phone meeting is ready for you to be patched in, are you ready?”

Derrick let out a breath. At least his sexual frustration would be good for this meeting—the other people involved could be assholes.

“Yes, Claire, sorry. Thank you. Go ahead and patch me in,” he said.

“Okay, sir, just a minute.”

Taylor went to move, but Derrick kept his arm around her like a vise.

“Let me up so you can do that,” she said to him, pulling at his arm.

“No. I—”

They were interrupted again by a knock at the door. “Ms. Preston, Charles Mickel and Todd Hammel here to see you,” a staff member said.

“See?” Taylor whispered as Derrick heard his phone being patched into the meeting. “It worked out.” She jumped from his lap and righted her clothes, took a deep breath, and walked toward the door.

Before she got too far, Derrick grabbed her hand. “Hold on,” he said into the phone. “Later,” he whispered to Taylor.

Taylor’s eyes went wide, and she pulled her hand away and left.

“Hello, gentlemen,” Derrick said into the phone.

“Nice of you to join us, Fletcher,” someone replied in irritation.

Kaboom!

“I was in the middle of something, and I am not in a good fucking mood that I was interrupted, so why don’t you clip your tone and get to telling me about this fuck up that I now have to sort out, which should never have been a problem in the first place!”

Silence.

“Yes, Mr. Fletcher, let’s get this done.”

Chapter Sixteen

There was no later.The next day and a half were a blur for Taylor of meetings with Todd and Charlie, lessons from Simon, and Marty’s last-minute fashion demands. Taylor stayed up late and woke up early to study faces and review bios, resumes, and credentials. Simon was also on hand to go over the essentials she needed to know and what to look for, and Taylor was surprised that she knew what he was saying before he said it.

Taylor was grateful for the busy hours because she really wasn’t sure what to say to Derrick. The second he had put his tongue on her neck, she had felt cemented in place, and then it had been a battle of wills, well, wills versus libido. Her will was saying “Get up!” but her libido was saying “Why? What is the harm here, really? False hope for him. Who are you kidding, Taylor? You are wearing a big fat ring he gave you. What’s wrong with just letting this happen, blowing off some steam, getting rid of the sexual tension?”

Her libido had such valid points.

And so she had shut her mind down, a process that seemed to be super easy when she was with Derrick and just felt. And it had felt good. And her will really did try and say stop, but it was totally drowned out by the pent-up need that her body was determined to quench. They were both adults, they could just have some fun, help relax themselves in a tense situation. No harm no foul, right?