Page 30 of Unwritten Vows

Liza

Derrick is speaking to his ex. He’s not happy, and he’s even less happy as he comes walking back.

He seems off once he gets to my side, and I keep my distance.

He’s being weird, and I don’t want to be an overbearing presence if there’s something going on with him. If he wants to tell me, he’ll tell me.

I try to have a good time, ignoring my concern, speaking with my father and the few other acquaintances I have at this party. Mostly I keep to myself, though. I’ve never really been much of a party-goer, and I’m already missing the book club that I skipped to come here.

Derrick comes to me and gives my waist a squeeze. I look up and smile easily at him and he kisses my forehead.

“So, nothing crazy is happening tonight,” I point out. “I think we might have a quiet one for once.”

“Don’t jinx it,” he says back to me. He gives me a smirk as if he’s kidding, but he actually sounds pretty serious.

“Hey…” I begin, ready to trod on the very unfamiliar ground of asking a man to confide what’s wrong with them when they clearly don’t want to admit there’s anything going on. “You okay?”

He looks down at me and sighs. “Yeah, Liza. I’m just… I don’t know. I don’t like what’s been happening.”

I breathe out in relief. “I can understand that,” I say with a smile.

“I don’t like it either. But you know, we have a lot of security, our fathers are public figures and so are you, we’ve been linked…

I can’t imagine that anyone would truly be able to do anything.

Daddy seems to think Edoardo is just trying to scare us. ”

Derrick tilts my chin up. “He told you that?”

I look up at him with a reassuring smile.

“He did. He’s overprotective, but he knows I’ve been stressing about this, and I think he knows he can’t keep me as safe as he wants if I don’t know anything about what’s going on.

I’m sure it helps that he’s had extra men following us around,” I say with a giggle.

Derrick drops his hand from my face and looks off. “So he has extra men following us. I wonder if they’ve noticed anything…”

“Like what?” I ask quickly, hoping he continues the thread of thought. I never thought I’d want to know, but I do, if only to help him talk it out and feel better.

“I’ve been trying to figure out who else might be hanging around besides Edoardo. I’m wondering if someone that knows me has been tipping him off.”

I think for a moment. “I guess I wouldn’t have a clue.

I’m so used to being watched at all times, it’s kind of a given to me now.

When you have security around you every time you step out of the house, you have to learn to ignore it and just try to have a normal life. It’s like a 24/7 reality TV show.”

Derrick nods, but he seems a million miles away. “How long have his men been following us?”

I consider the question. “Daddy told me he’s had men on us each time we’ve gone out. Oh—” I giggle again. “He also said he had eyes on you after you came to see him in the city the first time. He wanted to make sure you weren’t just some hooligan trying to bed his daughter.”

He seems to get a spark in his eye before looking at me with a toothy grin. “Seems that he didn’t accomplish what he set out to there. The hooligan did bed his daughter.”

I roll my eyes and he leans down to kiss me. It turns into something more, though, and with that comes a need that roars back to life inside of me, reminding me of the car ride we had just the other day.

“Can we go to your hotel?” I ask in a meek voice.

He freezes up, and I just know I’m about to hear bad news. “As much as I hate to admit this, you are safer at your father’s house. And I like you guys, but it would be a little weird for me to stay there, don’t you think?”

I had a feeling he might say this and prepared myself for it. I don’t like it, but there’s nothing I can do. And if I take him at his word right now, then I believe he can’t do anything, either. So I simply nod. “Yes, I suppose.”

He cups my cheek and kisses my nose. “I’ll try to figure this out tomorrow.”

I step back and look down at my hands. “Okay.”

He closes the gap between us suddenly and grabs my chin to lift my face to his. “What is it? Why are you looking down like that?”

I’m a little surprised that he’s so violently turned back into the Derrick who gave me an orgasm by biting me through my underwear in a car days ago, and I just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, which is the truth. “I’m worried that you’re just saying all of this to appease me.”

He backs up to look me full in the face, and his eyes burn into mine with intensity.

“Trust me, I want you as bad as you want me right now. But if I stay here with you like this for too long, I’m going to be walking around with my dick hard and blue balls for the rest of the night.

So just trust me, okay? Trust me that I want you, Liza.

That I just need to get to the bottom of a few things first.”

I think he’s stolen my voice, but push it out anyway. “Okay.”