Simple Perfection Read online

I glanced over at the phone and considered calling Della. I hadn’t spoken to her in five hours. My morning had been packed with meetings and conference calls. She never complained. That bothered me. The fact was I thought she should complain. I was failing her. How was I supposed to run the Kerrington Club and take care of her? Any other woman would have been in my office throwing a fit. But never Della.

  A swift knock on my door kept me from picking up the phone. I would call her in a minute. “Come in,” I called out, and started looking for the papers Vince had brought me to sign earlier.

  “Vince wasn’t out there so I knocked.” Angelina’s voice wasn’t what I expected to hear.

  “What does Mother need now?” I asked without looking up at her. That was why she was here. At first I had been annoyed with her presence but she was helping my mother more than I could. More than I wanted to.

  “She misses you. It’s been over a week since you called to check on her.”

  Angelina was as good at guilt trips as my mother was. The two of them were so much alike. “I’ll call her later today. I’ve got work. If that’s all, please see yourself out.”

  “You don’t have to treat me so coldly. I’m helping you the only way I know how. Every day I stay here with your mother is for you. It’s all for you. I’m in love with you, Woods. I can’t compete for your heart because you won’t allow me in. But what is she doing for you? I don’t see her helping you—”

  “Enough. Don’t ever put yourself on the same level as Della. I didn’t ask you to take care of my mother. I can hire someone to help me if I need it. As for Della, she’s the reason I get out of bed each morning, so never underestimate her importance.”

  Angelina stiffened and opened her mouth to say more. I lowered my angry glare back to the contracts in front of me. I was done with this conversation. “Leave.”

  The clicking of her heels on the hardwood floors as she left the office was the most welcome sound I’d heard all day.

  When the door closed behind her I reached for my phone to call Della.

  “Hello,” her sweet voice said into the phone.

  “I need you,” I replied.

  “I just finished a late lunch with Blaire and Bethy. I’ll be right there,” she replied.

  “Just come in when you get here,” I told her.

  “Okay.”

  Exactly ten minutes and fifteen seconds later my door opened and Della stepped inside. Her dark hair was pulled up into a ponytail. The short sundress she was wearing hugged her curves more than I would have preferred. I stood up and walked around my desk.

  “Hi,” she said with a shy smile.

  “Hi,” I replied before resting both my hands on her hips and pressing my mouth on hers. Her lips were always so plump and soft. The faint taste of cherries from her lip gloss clung to my tongue.

  This was what I needed. This was what got me through each day.

  Della broke the kiss and placed her hands on either side of my face. “Are you okay?” she asked softly.

  “I am now.”

  Della gazed up at me as if she were studying me closely. Then she stepped back and turned to the door. Before I could ask her what she was doing the lock clicked in place.

  “Take off your clothes,” she said simply, then began to slip the straps of her dress down her shoulders.

  I was at a loss for words at the moment. I did as I was told. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Della. As her dress pooled at her feet and she stood there in nothing but a pair of pink lace panties and a matching bra, my hands started to tremble. Seeing her like this never got old.

  “We haven’t made love in here yet,” she said, smiling at me as she unsnapped her bra and let it drop carelessly to the floor.

  “No we haven’t,” I managed to say. When she hooked her fingers in the sides of her panties and started pulling them down, I reached my breaking point. The moment she stepped out of the pink lace I took the two steps separating us and picked her up, and her legs wrapped firmly around me. You couldn’t call what our mouths were doing kissing. It was too raw for that. We were taking each other. It was the best description I could think of.

  I wanted to take her on my desk but we weren’t going to make it that far. Not after that striptease. I wasn’t even going to be able to enjoy tasting her and touching her. I needed inside her now before I exploded.

  I set her down and flipped her around until she was facing the wall. “Brace yourself,” I whispered into her ear.

  Della leaned forward and placed both her hands against the wall. I took in the sight of her body arched out and my heart slammed against my chest. She was beautiful. Perfect. Grabbing her by the hips, I sank inside of her. The cry of pleasure was so loud I was pretty damn sure Vince had heard it outside at his desk, but I didn’t care.

  “So good, it always feels so good,” I whispered in her ear. The shiver that went over her body made me smile.

  “Harder,” Della panted, pressing her sweet round ass back against me.

  I slammed inside of her and stopped. Buried deep, I leaned forward and caressed her breasts. “You make me crazy, baby.”

  Della only moaned and wiggled her bottom. She wanted me to move.

  “It’s so tight. You feel like heaven. I want to stay right here for fucking ever,” I swore, and I meant it. Della’s pussy sucked me like the sweetest mouth I’d ever known.

  The tight hole I worshipped squeezed me and I froze. Then she did it again. What the fuck? It was like she was pumping my dick. “Holy shit,” I growled. She was gonna make me come way before I wanted to. I slid out of her and back in and the squeezing started again. “Baby, you’re gonna make me come,” I said in a strangled voice. I was fighting back the heat tightening in my cock. I was so close. “Della, baby, stop doing that. I’m gonna fucking explode. I can’t hold back.”

  She stuck her bottom out farther and the walls of her silky heat squeezed me tighter. It was as if she had just taken the control of my body away from me. I felt myself erupt as I called out her name and my body jerked helplessly against her.

  “Yes! Oh God, yes!” Della cried out, and her body went rigid in my arms before it began to shake underneath me. I wrapped both my arms around her and held her as we both came back down from the climax she’d sent us spiraling off into.

  “What the hell did you do to me?” I asked, holding her close.

  She leaned back against my chest and a smile tugged at her lips. “I fucked you and I did a real good job,” she replied.

  I hadn’t expected that response. Laughing, I picked her up, carried her over to the nearest chair, and sank down into it with her in my arms.

  “That was incredible,” I told her before pressing a kiss to her neck.

  “Do you feel better now?” she asked, arching her neck so I could access it better.

  “That depends,” I replied.

  “On what?”

  “If I can convince you to stay in here with me all day.”

  “You have to work,” she said, turning her head to look up at me.

  “Mmm, but if you’re here with me I can concentrate. And then you can get naked for me again and be a naughty girl when I need you.”

  Della threw her head back and laughed. The sound of it made everything in my world right.

  Della

  The phone on Woods’s desk beeped twice. “Mr. Kerrington, Miss Greystone is here to see you,” the secretary’s voice announced through the speaker.

  Woods closed his eyes and laid his head back on the chair we were sitting in. “Damn. What the hell does she need now?”

  Did she come here often? I fought back the jealousy that wanted to eat its way inside me. Of course she came by to see him. She was staying with his mother and helping her deal with things, which in turn was helping Woods. Unlike me. I wasn’t doing anything to help him. I didn’t know what to do.

  I started to get out of his lap but his hands tightened on me.

  “We need to get dressed.”

 
; “Don’t leave me here with her.”

  I leaned over and kissed the tip of his nose. “I won’t go anywhere. But I prefer to be wearing clothes when she walks in.”

  Woods let out a sigh and let go of me so I could get up and get dressed.

  “You get dressed, too. I don’t care what she’s seen before me, I don’t want her seeing it now.”

  Woods laughed out loud and stood up. “I’m going to put my clothes on, sexy. Calm down.”

  We both grinned at each other as we dressed. I liked the idea of her coming in here and seeing us together and knowing what we had been doing. It was silly for me to feel that way, but I did.

  “You can send her in,” Woods replied, standing at his desk while he watched me fix my hair, which our wild sex had messed up. My ponytail was barely hanging on.

  The door swung open and I spun around to see Angelina strutting inside like she belonged here. “I don’t know why you . . .” Her voice trailed off as her gaze landed on me. I finished adjusting my ponytail and let my hands fall back down to my sides.

  “Did you really just—”

  “Why are you back?” Woods cut off her question.

  Angelina jerked her gaze to him as if he’d slapped her. I watched as she fought to compose herself. Woods hadn’t bothered to run his fingers through his hair and it was messed up from my hands being in it. I bit back a smile as I looked at his properly rumpled appearance.

  “I came back to tell you your mother wants to have you over for dinner,” Angelina said tightly.

  “Unless Della is invited, I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it.”

  Angelina let out a frustrated sigh and shot me an annoyed glance before looking back at Woods. “She’s your mother, Woods. She just lost her husband and she’s hurting. You’re all she has left. Don’t you get that? Do you not care?”

  She was right. Woods’s mother might never like me. But she was his mother, and right now she needed him. “I want you to go, Woods,” I said before he could say anything.

  He looked over at me and frowned.

  “Please,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t argue with me in front of her.

  Woods ran a hand through his hair and I smiled at the way it was still messed up. He was adorable like that. “Fine. But only for an hour. This will also be a one-time thing. Next time I have dinner with her, Della will be with me.”

  Angelina’s annoyed grimace turned into a pleased smile. She would get him tonight, too, without me around. I hated that but I couldn’t let it keep Woods from his mother.

  “I’m glad you’re thinking with something other than your dick,” Angelina replied before spinning around and heading out the door.

  “She’s a bitch. Ignore her,” Woods said, shoving off from the desk he’d been leaning on and walking over to me.

  “I know,” I assured him, but deep down I worried that she was right.

  “They’re at the door, Della. Don’t let them in here. They’ll hurt us. All they want to do is hurt us. We have to keep your brother safe. They tried to kill him before. They’ll kill us this time. Don’t let them in. Shhhh. Stop that crying, you little brat! You have to be quiet. So very quiet, then they’ll go away.”

  I covered my mouth with both my hands to keep in the terrified cries I couldn’t control. I hated when this happened. Mom would get mean afterward. She didn’t like it when people knocked on our door. It upset her. And she would talk to him. He wasn’t there, but she saw him. That scared me, too.

  “Get up! They’re gone. Go to the door and get the package they left and be careful that they don’t see you.”

  I didn’t want to open the door. I wasn’t sure what was out there that wanted to get me, but I didn’t want to open the door. Momma had been making me do that more and more lately. Since my sixth birthday.

  Pain seared my head as she wrapped her hand around my ponytail and jerked me to my feet. I couldn’t let her hear me cry or this would get worse.

  “Go!” she screamed in that voice that sent chills down my body. The hard shove from her hands sent me stumbling out of the closet and into the hallway. She would stay in the closet until I came back with the package.

  I glanced back at her but instead of seeing her wild, distant eyes there was blood. It was pouring out of the room and into the hallway. No . . . no, there wasn’t supposed to be blood.

  Then a shrill scream of terror ripped from the small room.

  I jolted straight up and the scream was still echoing around me as it tore from my chest. It was my own scream. It was always my scream. Not my mother’s.

  I was still alone. Looking around the living room, I took slow, deep breaths while my heart kept hammering against my chest. I pulled my legs up and tucked my knees under my chest. Falling asleep without Woods here wasn’t something I did often. Having him near me while I slept kept me from having night terrors for the most part.

  The clock on the fridge said it was after nine. He should have been home over an hour ago. Had he stayed later with his mother? I reached for my phone on the coffee table and saw that I had two missed calls and one text message. All from Woods.

  I clicked the text message.

  {tm}Please answer. I’m worried about you and Mom passed out during dinner. I think she hasn’t been eating properly. Call me!{tx}

  That had been ten minutes ago. I jumped up from the couch and started to dial his number when the front door swung open and Woods came running inside. His eyes locked on mine and he stopped and let out a deep breath. “Thank God. Shit, baby, you scared me.”

  I dropped my phone and walked over to him. “I’m so sorry. I just woke up. I fell asleep on the couch. How’s your mother?”

  Woods pulled me against him and wrapped his arms around me. “She was too weak to stand up so I called an ambulance. Angelina kept saying it could be a stroke. She rode in the ambulance with Mom so I could come back here and check on you.”

  I pushed at his chest. “Go! Go to the hospital. No, wait, let me get my shoes, I’m going too.”

  “Are you sure? If you’re tired I don’t want to drag you to the hospital. We could be there all night.”

  I slipped my feet into a pair of tennis shoes and ran my hands through my hair. “I want to be with you.”

  Woods smiled and held out his hand for me. “Good. I won’t be able to focus if I’m worried about you here alone. If you need to sleep, I can always hold you.”

  I tried not to think about the fact that Angelina was helping him take care of his mother. He had been able to leave her knowing she would be there beside his mother. What was I good for? He had to worry about me. I was weak and needy. I was one more thing for him to stress over. I wasn’t any help at all.

  “Stop frowning. She’s gonna be okay. The paramedics said there’s a good chance her potassium is low. They don’t think it’s a stroke but they said due to her heart rate we needed to admit her and let doctors check her out.”

  I nodded as he laced his fingers through mine. “Let’s go,” I told him.

  I was going to find a way to be helpful. He needed someone to lean on right now and I was going to be that someone.

  “Did you sleep okay without me here?” he asked as we stepped outside.

  “Yes. I slept great,” I lied, because telling him the truth would only have upset him.

  Woods

  Della had finally given in and curled up against me. She’d been asleep within minutes. It was after three in the morning and they had Mom in a room under observation. Angelina was in the room with her. It was better that way.

  I wasn’t stupid. I knew Angelina wasn’t helping my mother out of the goodness of her heart. She had no goodness in her heart. She was doing it to get to me. It wasn’t like my mother needed a live-in nurse. Just a friend, and Angelina was being her friend.

  Della didn’t seem to mind. I had been watching to make sure it didn’t get to her. The moment it seemed like Della was upset about Angelina’s still being in our lives in this capacity,
I would end all connection with my mom until Angelina left. She would eventually leave anyway when she realized I didn’t want her and nothing she did was going to change that. Della owned me. She always would.

  Della started to whimper in her sleep. I pulled her into my lap, brushed her hair back off her face, and whispered in her ear. That always calmed her. She rarely had bad dreams anymore. I normally saw them coming on and stopped them before they could take over.

  “I have you, I’m right here. You’re in my arms and nothing can touch you, Della. Nothing, baby. I won’t let it,” I assured her as her breathing returned to normal and her body eased back into a peaceful sleep. Smiling, I pressed a kiss to the side of her hair. I liked knowing I could fight off her fear. It was a powerful drug to know all she needed was me.

  “Doesn’t that get exhausting? She’s like a helpless, needy child.” Angelina’s icy voice annoyed me. I didn’t look up at her. I’d rather have kept my focus on the woman in my arms.

  “How’s Mom?” I asked her.

  “She’s sleeping. She hasn’t been eating well. I knew that but I can’t force her to eat. I’m not a damn nurse. If you came to visit her more often she’d eat more. She misses you.”

  My mother had never missed me. She was my father’s puppet. She wanted me around if he did. When she thought I was going to marry Angelina she wanted me around.

  “You’re choosing her over your mother and it’s disappointing, Woods.”

  I lifted my eyes from Della’s peaceful face. “No. My mother is choosing her wants over mine. I will not live my life the way she wants me to. I will love who the fuck I wanna love. She doesn’t control that,” I replied in a cold voice.

  “You have the Kerrington Club to run, Woods. You need someone who can stand by you and help you. You have to take care of not only the club but her. She’s a weight on you, not a help. You can’t be a successful businessman with a burden like her,” she said, pointing at Della.

  I held her closer to my chest. I could do anything if I had Della. Anything.

  “What you’re not understanding—what my mother is not understanding—is I can’t live without Della. I can’t breathe. I can’t fucking concentrate. I need her. Just her. I can do anything if I have her with me. So take your snide comments and beliefs and leave me the hell alone. I know what I need and it will never be you. Did you hear that? Is it sinking in this time? It. Will. Never. Be. You.”