L A Y L A ' S P O V
I'm in heaven. Aka the snack aisle at my local gas station.
It's Christmas week so there's a sale on the freshly baked festive cookies so of course I had to grab some, along with many different chip options for the long drive home to Chicago Derek and I have ahead of us.
I'm in a mental debate with myself over what type of m&m's I want when my phone rings in my purse. Careful not to drop everything in my hands, I pull my phone out and slide to accept the call as Derek's face flashes across the screen.
"Hey. You like the peanut m&m's, right?"
Derek chuckles. "Yeah I do. Why, where are you?"
"I'm at the store," I say, grabbing some red bulls from the fridge. Our road trip is going to take about eleven hours so the energy drinks will be much needed. "I'll be at yours in like.. twenty minutes?"
"No, meet me at your apartment. I'm here and so is your Christmas present."
At the mention of my present, I've never moved as fast to the checkout. "I'll be there in five."
I make it back to my apartment in three minutes tops, practically bouncing on my toes as I rush through the door. "Where is it?"
Derek stands from the couch, chucking as he makes his way over to me. "Hello to you too."
"Hi," I lean up and press a quick kiss to his lips, but my eyes are still searching around my apartment for my present. Can you tell I'm excited? My fingers curl into my palms when I pump my eyebrows. "Now gimme."
Derek's eyes travel to my hands and he fights back an amused smirk. "It won't fit in your hands."
Laughter escapes my lips. "Why? Is it your dick?"
Derek sucks in a teasing breath and narrows his eyes before he slides in behind me. "No, but thank you for that ego boost."
"Like you needed it—" My breath hitches when his hands slide around me and his palms cover my eyes. "What's happening?"
"The present is in your room," Derek chuckles, pressing a small kiss to my shoulder. "Walk forward."
Blinding navigating the way to my bedroom, Derek stops me and when he takes his hands away from my face, my eyes fall to a beautiful sleek vanity table with marble finish. There's columns of drawers on both sides with diamond style knobs and led lights surrounding the mirror. It looks like something out of a beauty salon. I love it.
I mentioned to Derek in passing a couple weeks ago that my bathroom doesn't have any natural lighting, so that's why it takes me a few extra minutes to get ready in the morning because I'm making sure that my makeup isn't orange or cakey. Not only did he remember that comment, he took it upon himself to build me something I didn't even know I needed.
"You built this?" I know Derek doesn't buy anything he can make himself. The bookshelf in his house, the dining table, all his backyard patio and so much more was all his doing. There's nothing he can't do. "For me?"
"Yeah," Derek nods, his eyes dragging over my face to catch my reaction. For once, he looks uncharacteristically nervous. "You like it?"
"I love it." A grin ignites across my face and I practically throw myself into his body. I press tens of small kisses to his smiling lips when I murmur, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Now something odd that was happening over the past few weeks makes sense to me. On our weekends off Derek was always suggesting I meet one of the girls for lunch or go hangout with them for a couple of hours, but now I know he needed me out of the house so he could work on this. If he wasn't literally obsessed with me the other twenty three hours of the day, I'd be offended he was trying to get rid of me.
Knowing he made me this vanity and all the time and effort he put into it makes this present one hundred times better than anything he could have ever bought me.
I finally pull away from his soft lips, my smile still etched into my face. "You're not getting your present until we're in Chicago."
Derek frowns and his thumb sweeps over my cheekbone. "I told you I don't want anything."
"Shut up," I mumble with another kiss on his lips.
Derek chuckles when he checks his watch. His eyes lift to mine with a nod of his head. "We better leave now to beat traffic."
I do one last scan of my apartment and do a mental checklist to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. Snacks, comfy sweats, boyfriend who's not my boyfriend until he asks me, suitcase, glasses.. I'm good.
"I'm ready."
Derek grabs all my bags and once we're settled into his truck and he pulls out of my apartment parking lot, I connect my phone to the aux and queue up the Christmas music playlist I made specifically last night.
"You get to listen to me singing for the next eleven hours. How lucky are you?"
"Wait until you hear me singing," Derek laughs, kissing my knuckles before he brings our joined hands to the gear stick and shifts. "I'm ten times worse than you."
The tune starts playing through the speakers and I reach over to turn up the volume, grinning at him. "Have at it."
"I'm driving home for Christmas..."
"Oh wow," I wince through my laughter. "You win. That's so bad."
Derek joins in on my laughter and soon enough we're both singing horribly along to the lyrics. It will be a Christmas miracle if both our ears aren't bleeding by the end of this road trip.
-
"You are such a bad influence," Derek mumbles around the handful of chips I pass to him, his attention focused on the road ahead.
A couple hours has passed since we left DC and we're now somewhere in Pennsylvania, surrounded by trees, trees and more trees.
"It's Christmas," I say, passing more chips to him. He opens his mouth and takes them without question. "Calories don't count at Christmas."
"Oh yeah?" He chuckles, casting me a quick look. "Who told you that?"
"The law."
Derek snorts a laugh, squeezing my inner thigh. "I must have been sick the day they taught that in law school."
When Derek shakes his head at my offer of more chips, I tip the bag back into my mouth to get all the crumbs. I laugh when the chip dust falls all down the front of my sweatshirt. I'm a mess. "How bad do you want me right now?"
Derek raises an eyebrow, amused eyes dancing between me and the road. "You think I won't pull this car over right now? Because I will."
I love being in a relationship. I'm rocking the homeless look ninety percent of the time and I'm still one hundred percent getting my back blown out later.
Derek and I spend the next few minutes discussing our plans for this week on how we're going to split our time between our families. We decide on basically hopping between both and relishing in all the free dinners we're going to be made because according to Derek, his moms cooking is the only reason he would move back to Chicago and I have the very same reasoning for my sister in law, Violet's cooking.
I lean over and rest my head on Derek's shoulder when I ask, "Are you nervous to meet my family?"
Well, Derek's already met my brother so he only has to meet Adam's wife and my dad. Since I found out Derek and my brother were best friends at one point, I didn't mention to Adam that I'm now working with and dating Derek, anticipating their surprise reunion tomorrow.
"No," Derek mumbles, pressing a kiss to my head. "I make a great first impression."
I prop my chin up on his shoulder when I look at him and laugh. "That's questionable."
Derek levels me with a challenging stare. "You slept with me from my first impression. I'd say it's pretty good."
"I wouldn't try that tactic with them. Don't think it will go down very well."
Derek snorts a laugh and his eyes flicker back to mine. "What about you? Are you nervous to meet my mom and sisters?"
"A little," I admit honestly. How can I not? They're the three most important women in his life. I don't see how anyone related to him couldn't be as great as him, but my worst fear is encountering one of those moms that thinks no girl will ever be good enough for their son.
"They're going to be so excited to meet you," Derek says. "If it makes you feel better, I think I'm more nervous than you."
Sometimes I forget that Derek has never been in a relationship and most things are a first for him. "Because you've never brought a girl home?"
Derek's eyes flicker from the road to me. "I've never even mentioned a girl to them."
A satisfied smile crosses my lips. In a selfish way, I'm so glad Derek doesn't have an ex's. I'd be insanely jealous that someone else has experienced what he's like in a relationship and I'm so glad I'm the first.
And I love that we can go this whole week in Chicago not having to hide our relationship from anyone. Around everyone in DC we have to watch what we say, careful not to slip up and say something that could insinuate that we're together.
We make our first pit stop for gas and while Derek's filling up the tank, I head inside and grab some more red bulls and a coffee for him.
Derek gives me a thankful smile when I pass him his black coffee and when he brings it to his lips, he jerks his head towards my red bulls. "All that sugar is going to make you crash pretty soon."
That's literally the opposite of what these are for. "No I won't."
Derek laughs as he eases back onto the road, clearly not believing me. "Alright, you won't."
-
Derek was right. I fell asleep.
When I stir awake the car isn't moving anymore, the seat warmer on my side is on and Derek's hoodie is draped over me like a blanket.
When I realise he's not in the car, panic rises through me for a split second and my head shoots up, but the unease is quickly settled when I see Derek standing my the hood of the car, his back to me while he stares out into the distance.
I have no idea where we are but the car is pulled off to the side of the road near an open field and the sun is just setting casting a pink and orange glow across the sky.
I throw open the car door, rubbing at my tired eyes. "Why didn't you wake me?"
"Just needed to stretch my legs," Derek smiles, his head swivelling in my direction. He opens up his arms as I approach. "And you looked too cute asleep."
"I seriously doubt that," I laugh, stepping between his legs and settling my back into his chest.
Derek let's out a content sigh which is followed by my own when his arms wrap around me and he tugs me into his body, tucking his head into the crook of my neck. We stand like this for a few minutes, watching the sun set over the horizon across the acres of land, breathing in the crisp, fresh, December air. It's so quiet out here other than the murmurs of a few cars on the highway in the distance and the whip of the shallow wind.
I roll my head back to Derek's shoulder, looking up at the stars staring to twinkle in the deep purple glow of the sky. "It's so beautiful out here."
"Speaking of beautiful," Derek says, tapping his hand to my ass. "Go stand out there. Let me take a picture of you."
I take a couple of steps back further into the field and when I turn to face him, I stand like a kid on their first day of school and flash him my cheesiest grin and Derek laughs behind the click of his phone camera pointed at me. I don't know how the next few minutes turn into a full blown photo shoot of funny poses and me spinning around in front of the camera for Derek's amusement, but it does. He doubles over in laughter when I flash him my tits as he clicks the last photo.
When we finally call it quits, I jog on back over to him, holding out my hand for his phone. "Can I see?"
Derek and I both can't contain our laughter as I swipe through the live photos and hold down on the picture and the sound of Derek hyping me up while I jokingly pose filters out through the speaker.
I'm about to hand him back the phone when I accidentally swipe out of his recent photos to his albums and one in particular catches my eye. The small icon looks like a photo of me and it's labelled with an L and a heart.
I gasp, my eyes lighting up. "You have a folder of photos of me?"
There's a sheepish look on Derek's face when he mumbles and tucks his head into my neck, "Maybe."
Warmth blooms in my chest. "Can I look?"
A soft kiss is pressed to my shoulder. "Only if you don't think it's creepy."
"You're obsessed with me," I say, trying not to let the tease in my tone escape. "It's nothing to be ashamed about."
Derek's laugh is muffled against my skin and he pinches my hip. "Look before I change my mind."
I tap into the folder and up comes hundreds of candid shots of me I didn't even know existed. Me dancing around his living room in my underwear the night we got wine drunk and had sex in front of the fireplace, me doing my makeup in the bathroom mirror, eating my morning cereal, curled up on the couch with a book in my hands and so much more of me laughing and smiling, looking so happy.
"Like I said," Derek says, shrugging shamelessly when I pause on one of the dozens of photos of me asleep, my head nuzzled into his chest. "You look cute when you're asleep."
I just know I'm grinning like a cheshire cat right now. "And the others?"
Derek fights back a smile and his hand slips underneath my sweatshirt to hold me against him. "Can we establish that I think you look cute all the time?"
He's practically asking to be teased. "Just cute? What about sexy? Ravishing? Gorgeous? Mind numbingly beautiful—"
"Yes to all of them, but most of all.." Derek grins, his lips skimming my jaw before they graze the shell of my ear. "Annoying."
I do a slow roll of my hips, feeling the hard length that's pressing into my lower back from behind. I bite back my satisfied smile. "Your dick doesn't think so."
Since we're so far off the road, an idea sparks my mind and I quickly look around. The highway is so far in the distance that the very few cars going by look like ants from here. Good enough for me.
I wiggle out of Derek's hold and pull open the back door of the truck, excitement and anticipation washing over my body when I find the pillows and blanket from our last date night still in the back seat. We finally got around to going to the Georgetown Waterfront Park, were Derek was planning to take me on our first date before the appendix fiasco, and we sat there for hours underneath the Christmas lights. It was perfect.
Gathering up all the pillows and blankets, I make my way to the flat bed of the truck, pop the tailgate and start setting them up.
Derek rounds the truck, watching me with amusement. "What the hell are you doing?"
I fluff up the last pillow before I hop up onto the flat bed, grinning when I lean back on my palms. "We're going to be all romantic and shit and have sex underneath the stars."
Derek clutches his hand to his chest, fake swooning. "You have such a way with words."
We're both smiling through our kiss as Derek lowers himself onto my body and we undress each other like we have all the time in the world.
We're in the middle of nowhere but when he finally slides into me, I've never felt more at home.
-
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! ps. the vibe of the photos Derek was taking of Layla is the one in the background of the cover art for this story :)