As soon as those words left her mouth, the brunette froze and desperately prayed that the green-eyed man in front of her wouldn't pick up on what she just alluded to. She had never told anybody (not even that damn shrink she was forced to see in high school) how she really felt about all the things that had happened in her life. And she certainly wasn't going to start now - especially with Derek of all people. Besides, talking about it wouldn't change anything.
Mentally shaking her head, she tried to get her wits about her before the Brit could. However, it wasn't to be. "What are you talking about? Your parents are..." Derek groaned as realization hit him. Karen's parents must have divorced (most likely when she was a young child) and Roger later remarried; it was the only thing that made any sense to the Brit. He never would have believed that she came from a broken home, the brunette being so grounded and all; but from what she just let slip, it appeared that this was the case.
"Karen-" He paused, cupped her face and took a breath. "I get it, darling, I do; you don't want to get hurt. Given my reputation and my actions of last night, you have every reason to believe that you will be. But-."
"A leopard can't change its spots, Derek. You might say you can and maybe you will for awhile but it'll only be a matter of time before you go back to your old ways." She told him, grabbing his wrists and pulling his hands away from her face, albeit reluctantly.
The brunette went to move towards her bed, but was stopped by a hand grabbing her upper arm; which then pulled her into a firm chest. Derek, after turning her so they were once again face-to-face, leaned his forehead against hers and pleaded once more for her to give him a chance. "Look, I can't promise that I won't do stupid things in the future or that we won't fight, all couples do. But I promise to be yours and yours alone, for however long you'll have me. Just say that you'll give me a shot to be the guy you deserve."
Biting her lip, Karen desperately tried to think of any reason to not give the green-eyed man the chance he wanted. Annoyingly, faced with Derek's pleading expression, none was coming to her. Finally, after what seemed to be several long minutes (maybe a minute or so), she said "alright. One chance and only one chance. If you screw up then that's it."
Derek let out a breath he wasn't aware he had been holding in and seemed to visibly sag with relief. "That's all I need, darling." He murmured, lowering his head and capturing her lips with his own for a slow and sensual kiss - a kiss that the Brit hoped conveyed to his stubborn-as-hell star how much he loved her.
With a roll of her eyes, Karen grabbed her pillow and whacked her director/friend/somewhat boyfriend in the face with it. Stupid Brits and their unwillingness to acknowledge and/or understand the sport that they (Americans) called football. She'd had this same fight/argument with Dev a number of times, which always ended up with him being banished from the room whenever she had the game on. An amused smile tugged at her lips as she wondered what Derek's reaction to learning about that would be.
After a pretty intense make-out session (which almost ended up with them having sex - they stopped themselves before they did), the brunette wrangled the man into watching the rest of the Rose Bowl with her. Needless to say, she wasn't about to do so again.
"Oi! What was that for?"
"You know exactly what that was for. Our sports are different, I get that. But keep your disparaging remarks to yourself, would you? After all, you don't hear me bad-mouthing soccer, now do you? Sorry, that's football to you."
It was then Derek's turn to roll his eyes. He honestly didn't understand why Americans got so riled up about the bloody game. And he especially didn't understand why they would watch a title game when their team wasn't even playing in said game. Granted, the same could be said for those who watched the World Cup when their team wasn't in it.
"I'm sorry, darling, I'll try not to bad-mouth the game again." 'At least not in your hearing range.' He mentally added. "I have ask though, why do you like the game? I had you pegged for more of a baseball fan."
The brunette laughed lightly at that, remembering that she wore her baseball leather jacket to her audition for Bombshell - which is where she first 'met' Derek. "I like the sport well enough but I'm just not that big of a fan of it. The jacket's from a White Sox game that me, my dad and his friend Billy went to when I was 18. Billy bought it for me, he said as an early graduation present but personally, I think he would've bought it regardless.. It's the last thing he gave me before he died - which was only a few months after that.
Anyway, Iowa doesn't have a professional team; that is if you don't count the Barnstormers - which is the Arena Football team. But I don't consider them as one as the AFL isn't as popular as the NFL. We have several minor league teams and, of course, we have our college sports teams; the Hawkeyes, Cyclones, Bulldogs and Panthers - the Hawkeyes and Cyclones are better known than the other two though."
Derek just nodded, deciding it was best not to argue and actually look like he understood all of what his star just told him. When in truth, his head was spinning - and this was only after listening to her talk about something as inconsequential (to him) as the sports' teams in her Iowa.
The remainder of the evening was spent eating snacks and finding out stuff about each other like what their favorite color, food, movie, etc. was before falling asleep around 2 in the morning.
AN: my apologizes for the lengthy wait for the second half of this chapter. Hopefully I won't have as much trouble writing chapter 8 as I did with this one.