Closing the Deal (13 page)

“Yeah.” Too bad the old girl couldn’t have had a gig in Egypt—tomorrow.

“And to be my age yet still look so young.” As if Barbara herself weren’t stunning. The woman was gorgeous and had a grace that only true happiness and confidence could give a woman. “She must live right.”

“She lives with Botox,” Sydney said bluntly.

Barbara choked on laughter. “Yes, well, it seems to be working. In any case, I wanted to thank you for coming tonight. We haven’t had a chance to really talk, but I can’t tell you how excited I was to hear you’re seeing my son.”

Sydney glanced over her shoulder and saw Derrick frowning at her. When their gazes met, he hurriedly turned back to Dylan and yelled about some moron having the worst passing record in the entire NFL.

God, she really hated football. If it weren’t for those tight pants, she’d never watch the games.

“Ignore him. He’s showing off and keeping Dylan away at the same time. That’s how I know he plans on keeping you around.” Barbara squeezed her arm. “So Hailey tells me you’re a busy woman.”

The discussion turned to Sydney’s business. Then Barbara mentioned a few clients looking to move downtown. Before Sydney knew it, she learned she and Barbara actually had a lot more in common than affection for Derrick. Their fascination with several reality shows, gardening and a love of biographies took up the precious minutes leading to dinner.

Something in the kitchen beeped, and Barbara started. “Goodness. I didn’t mean to talk your ear off. I really need to get dinner ready.”

“I’ll help.” Sydney started to walk with her into the kitchen when Hailey interceded.

“Go mingle. I haven’t had a chance to hang with Barbara all night.”

When Sydney frowned, Hailey mouthed
Isabel
and followed Barbara into the kitchen.

Sydney looked for her mother but didn’t see her.

“If you’re looking for the sexy barracuda, she went thataway. To the powder room,” Dylan said.

She turned to him and smiled. “Thanks.”

“No, Sydney. Thank you.” He chuckled, but she had no idea why.

Knowing she needed to find her mother before the proverbial shit hit the fan—especially since Isabel had been guzzling wine like it was going out of style—she hurried down the hallway toward the bathroom.

She didn’t see anyone around, so she knocked.

“Out in a minute,” she heard James say.

“Sorry.” So where was her mother? In the bathroom with James, maybe? Then again, he hadn’t seemed like her usual type. He didn’t act like he had money coming out his ass, though he had the looks her mother liked.

Still… Where was Derrick?

She heard a low voice from further down the hallway.

“Really. You are the absolute best,” Derrick gushed.

“You naughty boy.” Her mother tittered from behind a half-closed door. “So many trophies, Derrick. Your mother has turned your bedroom into a shrine. Honestly, how did you do it all?”

He chuckled, and Sydney steamed. Normally her mother waited a while before hitting on her boyfriends. But something had Isabel in a pinch. And hell, Derrick was sexier than sin.

Hadn’t she warned him to watch out for her mother? So what the hell was he doing in a bedroom with her?

Sydney took a quiet step closer and peered through the seam in the doorway, keeping herself hidden. Dylan suddenly stood behind her, but before she could say anything, he put a finger to his lips. They both watched as Isabel thrust herself fully into the game.

Isabel put a hand on Derrick’s forearm and pulled him closer, as if to study one of his trophies. She acted off-balance, one of her signature moves. Then again, with all the wine she’d consumed, she might actually be unsteady. “I can’t believe how many awards you have. An All American? College championships? And your degrees…”

“Just like my old man,” Derrick said with pride. He put an arm around her mother and hugged her.

Hugged her!

Before Isabel could turn her face up and
accidentally
brush her mouth against his, Derrick squeezed her too tight. Isabel coughed. “Sorry,” he apologized then stepped away from her and peered at his trophy.

“Oh wait, this one’s Dylan’s.” He nodded and turned to her again. “You know, my brother had a hell of a right arm in the day.” He proceeded to list stats and names and games, his facts seemingly unending. So much for Isabel’s grand scheme for seduction. He talked to her as if she was a sports groupie or fellow player. Sydney half expected him to slap her on the ass and wish her a good game.

Derrick had handled Isabel just right. He hadn’t offered a challenge, which she would have gone after like a dog after a meaty bone. Instead he played oblivious. Each time her mother tried to move closer and touch him, he shoved a playbook in her hands or gesticulated wildly about a past game.

He started to wind down when Dylan whispered in her ear, “That’s my cue.”

Dylan entered and knocked his brother in the arm. “There you are. Dinner’s almost ready.”

“Oh good. I think I was starting to bore Isabel with our old football stats.”

Dylan raised a brow. “Which game?”

Derrick started all over again. This time he and Dylan nodded and laughed as they reminisced, leaving her mother completely out of the loop. Ingenious.

Isabel’s practiced pout turned into an honest scowl. “Well, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I’m going to wash up for dinner.”

Sydney hurried back down the carpeted hallway. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and joined James, Hailey and Barbara in the dining room.

Isabel soon entered and sat down next to Sydney, who sat next to Derrick. Throughout the meal, Isabel remained mostly quiet. Back to her polite, charming self, trying to lull the hapless males into believing her harmless.

Derrick caught Sydney’s attention when Isabel turned to reply to James. He winked, and she knew it would be all right. Her lover had no intention of falling prey to her mother. One worry put to rest at least.

But when Derrick turned the table-talk to Sydney, she didn’t like it in the slightest. He complimented her business sense and laughingly told them what a hard time she’d given him—one he’d earned. She tensed, expecting to hear it any time soon. All day long he’d been throwing it around, using the word in nearly every sentence. So much for a reprieve at the family dinner.

“It’s no wonder I love her. Red hair does lead to a fiery temperament.” He winked at Isabel, who nodded absently.

Ack. The
L word
again. And in front of his family. A challenge she had every intention of meeting.

Chapter Eleven

Derrick grinned at her with a wicked look in his eye. Oh, she was so going to make him pay later.

“Did you say love?” Barbara just had to rub it in.

Derrick opened his mouth to reply when Isabel interrupted with, “True. But at least the red hair is real. No bottled color on the Fields women.”

Her mother, at least, remained true to form. If the conversation didn’t involve her, she didn’t care.

Sydney expected Derrick to say something back to her mother, but he just smiled and told everyone how he’d ridden the Vortex with Sydney at the fair, and neither of them had thrown up.

“Nice, Derrick.” Gage frowned. “I’m eating, dude.”

“Baby,” Derrick and Dylan said as one.

Hailey tried to smother a smile.

Barbara shook her head. “You should see these three at our family breakfasts.” She shot Derrick a sly glance. “I’m surprised we haven’t seen you at one before now, Sydney. You’re more than invited, with or without Derrick.”

Derrick sighed. “With, Mom. You’re not helping.”

James grinned. “From what I hear, you never need help.”

Gage snorted. “That’s only because his dates usually have less between their ears than they have in their…” He paused and took a quick sip of water. “In other places.”

“Not Sydney. She’s got everything I want everywhere it counts.” Derrick put an arm around her shoulder and tugged on her hair. “But she gets it honestly, right Isabel?”

Her mother nodded.

“So speaks a man in love,” Hailey teased. The traitor.

“What I’d like to know is why you guys seem so interested in that football game. Who’s playing?” Sydney deliberately changed the subject.

Dylan saved her by taunting Derrick about his pick to win. Then James and Gage joined it. It seemed one needed testosterone to truly enjoy the game.

“Me?” Hailey shrugged. “I just watch it for the tight butts and shoulder pads.”

“Me too,” Sydney and Barbara said at the same time.

The women laughed while the men ignored them in favor of stats and jibes about winners and losers.

After dinner, the Warren men, as one, cleared the table. James tried to help, but Dylan shot him a nasty look and took his plate into the kitchen.

“I guess that’s what I get for hating the Bears.” James didn’t look too upset. “Barbara, how about I make some coffee?”

“That would be nice.” Barbara seemed miffed with him, but Sydney couldn’t have said why. Then again, she was still in shock that Derrick had told everyone he loved her. His family, the people who meant more to him than anything, and he’d confessed his affection in front of one and all.

She should have felt more uncomfortable. But instead she wanted to shout and do a happy dance. She felt the way she did when she nailed a sale. As if she’d accomplished something vital.

Hailey socked her in the arm.

“Ow. What was that for?”

“Don’t fight it,” her friend murmured. “He’s the Warren twin that never loses.”

“Yeah?” Sydney sneered. “Well, I don’t see my mother entering therapy anytime soon. So there’s a loss right there.”

“The night is young, my naïve young friend.” Hailey sighed. “You poor kid. I hope you didn’t bet anything you don’t want to lose.”

Sydney refrained from saying anything more when Barbara and Isabel sat across from them on the couch, surrounding the coffee table.

Somehow, between the coffee James brought them, the cake Derrick and Dylan placed on the coffee table, and the chocolates Gage delivered and left, conversation veered from clothing and Isabel’s incredible fashion sense to travel and then to men.

Before Sydney knew it, her mother was crying about her latest conquest, and how she didn’t know if she should commit to marrying for the seventh time or not. This, after hitting on not just Derrick but James as well.

Sydney shared a look with Hailey, who whispered, “What can I say? The woman is good.” They stared in awe at Barbara.

“Why don’t we take this somewhere more private, Isabel?” Barbara offered kindly.

Sydney’s mother left with Barbara and disappeared behind a closed door.

The men appeared as if by magic.

“She has an office she uses here sometimes,” Dylan offered.

“Just waiting for Mom to work her mojo,” Derrick said with a huge grin. “We didn’t want to interrupt.”

“And the game wasn’t quite over,” James said dryly. “We caught the end in the kitchen. Bears are going to suck this year.”

“You suck,” Dylan snapped.

“Nice comeback, Dr. Warren.” Gage laughed.

“Dickhead.” Dylan looked down his nose at his younger brother, and even Sydney had to laugh.

“Don’t you just
love
…” Derrick looked right at her “…when Dylan uses his snotty doctor voice to talk like a regular guy? No offense, James.”

James rolled his eyes. “None taken.”

Gage and Derrick shared a grin.

“Could you be any more immature?” Sydney asked.

“I could. But why bother, when I
love
just being here next to you?”

The others grinned. Everyone had to know he was rubbing her nose in the big
love
bowl.

“Derrick—”

“I
love
when you say my name like that.” He sighed.

“How about some coffee?” She tried to change the subject.

The others watched them back and forth, like watching a tennis match.

“I’d
love
some.”

Even she had to chuckle at that. “You’re such an idiot.”

“And that’s why you love me.” He linked his hands behind his head, his arrogance amusing, annoying…and justified.

“Yeah,” she sighed.

He froze. Everyone around them took pause.

Then his smile grew too wide for his big fat head, and she realized what she’d admitted. Out loud, in front of witnesses.

“Oh hell. There’ll be no living with him now,” Dylan groaned.

Sydney stared at the stupid smile on Derrick’s face, so in love with him it made her ill.

His mother chose that moment to walk out of her office. She handed Isabel a business card. “Jitters are more than normal, Isabel. Especially after this many go-rounds. Come on in tomorrow. You’ll feel better.”

“I will, thanks.” Isabel sniffed. And damn if her mother didn’t look like a million bucks even with tears streaking down her face. Then she took a good look at the crowd in the living room. “Well, what did I miss?”

Derrick hooted. “Tonight I just can’t lose.”

Sydney swore under her breath. She recalled what she’d bet Mr. Arrogant. At the wicked look in his eyes, she swore again.

Sydney should have known better. “Come on, Derrick, this is uncomfortable.”

Back at his house, with her hands tied behind her back, she wore nothing but heels, her thigh-high stocking and garter belt as she bent over his couch. She was eternally indebted to Hailey and Gage, who’d driven her mother back to her hotel. Otherwise, Sydney might have had to postpone paying her debt.

Because as much as she protested Derrick’s cockiness, she couldn’t
wait
for him to take his winnings.

She felt his hands spreading her buttocks before something slick penetrated her ass. She moaned.

“Fuck me, that’s sexy. That plug is nice and tight in there, Syd. Never bet against a Warren. And especially not
this
Warren.”

He stepped behind her, fully naked, and nudged her ankles farther apart. “Now before we do this, tell me again everything Dylan said to you after coffee, when my mom dragged me aside to give me the third degree.”

She groaned. “I’m telling the truth. We talked mostly about properties in the area. He said nothing about you, only that he was jealous he hadn’t found me first.”