Chapter 11

Addison's POV

I woke up to my phone buzzing and groaned. I hadn't meant to fall back asleep. I'd just wanted to lie down and relax and think about everything for a few seconds. I grabbed my phone and looked at the screen and my heart skipped a beat. Derek had texted me.

"Hey, just checking that you're okay."

"I'm fine. Thank you, I typed back quickly as I sat up in the bed." I wanted to ask him where Meredith was, but I didn't dare.

"We never got to finish our conversation."

"Oh, we didn't?"

"No. Can we chat later?"

"Aren't you going to be busy?"

"Busy with what?"

"Work." I typed, even though that wasn't what I was talking about.

"I don't have to be in court today."

"Okay." That's not what I was talking about!

"So, are you available to chat?"

"What time?"

"Whenever you're free is good with me."

"I see."

"Unless you're going to be busy."

"With what?"

"Mark," My jaw dropped, I couldn't believe that he had typed that. "So will you be free or busy?"

"I'm free. There is nothing between Mark and I."

"Good."

"Why good?"

"You don't need to be playing games with Mark and myself."

"What about you and Meredith?" I couldn't stop myself.

"What about her?"

"How can you date her and kiss me?"

"That is part of the reason why we need to talk."

"I see."

"Can I call you now?"

"No, I'm busy," I lied as I lay back on my pillows.

"Okay, so tonight?"

"What about tomorrow?"

"Addison Adrianne Forbes Montgomery, I swear to God you're the most confusing girl I've ever met."

"I don't think you're confusing."

"If I was there, I'd put you over my knee and spank you."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"I think you'd like it more."

"Do you know?" I grinned at the phone. There was no doubt in my mind now. Derek was a kink master in the bedroom.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see."

"And you're calling me confusing?" I shook my head at the phone. Everything in me was telling me that he was flirting with me.

"I wouldn't be confusing if it wasn't for you."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that you my dear, have affected me much more than you think."

"Oh? How?"

"You'll have to wait to find out."

"Okay." I was itching to tell him to just call me now. I wished that he would just call me and be done with it.

"Have a good day."

"Thanks, you too." Was that it? Argh. I was irritated that he was just going to stop chatting when it was getting good.

"I'll see you tomorrow at the football field."

"Okey" Wait, what? Was he calling me tonight or not?

"I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Thank you."

"You need to take better care of yourself."

"I do"

"Get eight hours of sleep and eat your veggies."

"Yes, Dad."

"There are better nicknames you can call me."

"Like what?"

"You'll see."

"Like Sir?" I typed and laughed, wondering what his face looked like as he read the message. "Or Master?" I typed again and waited for his response.

"Whatever you like." He responds with a smiley face emoji.

"Derek Shepherd!"

"That works as well!"

"Fine. Whatever. See you tomorrow."

"Yes. And we'll chat after."

"We'll see." I typed, feeling annoyed.

"Have a good day, Addie. I know I will. My lips are still tingling from your kisses last night. "

"I hope you didn't catch anything."

"Is there something you need to tell me? Oops. I guess my quick-witted diss was a diss to myself."

"Funny. Not."

"Call me if you need anything."

"Thanks. I will." I put my phone down on the bed and lay back and stared at the ceiling. All of a sudden, I felt better.

Confused still, but better. Maybe Derek did like me. And maybe I did have a chance. Maybe, just maybe, I could let him see that he was the one for me and I was the one for him. I just hoped that Meredith would just disappear, along with my insecurities.

"How do you ask a man to dominate you?" I whispered to Amelia as we made our way onto the field. "How do you bring that up casually?"

"It seems like he might already know that you want that," Amelia said as she gazed at me with a huge grin.

"Well, I don't think he does."

"I wish you would let me tell Link that I know about Derek." She made a face and I squeezed her arm hard.

"No, you can't tell him that I told you. He'll never trust me again." "Trust you with what?"

"Anything." I moaned. "I don't want him to think I have a big mouth."

"He has to know you'd tell me." Amelia frowned. "I can't even believe that he wants to keep this a secret from me."

"He doesn't want to scare you."

"I am a big girl. It will take more than finding out my brother is a freak in the bedroom to scare me."

"He's not a freak."

"I don't mean freak." She laughed. "I meant freaky freak."

"Haha, so are you going to call me freaky as well?" I questioned her with a smile.

"Why would I call you freaky?"

"If I became Derek's sub?"

"Number one, I can't see you as a sub, but whatever floats your boat. Just don't wear a choker, please." She groaned. "No chokers with studs, they look so tacky."

"What looks tacky?" Link ran over to us with a big smile and lifted his hand so I could high-five him.

"Choker necklaces," Amelia said and made a face.

"Oh, I haven't seen a woman in one of those since ..." His voice trailed off and he winked at us. "Well, since a fun night, I had a few years ago."

"What sort of fun night?" I asked curiously and I watched as Link licked his lips and laughed.

"Trust me, girls, you don't want to know."

"Everyone gathers around, please." Derek's voice was loud and booming, and I noticed that he didn't even glance in my direction as he spoke.

"Someone's upset the bear," Link said with a laugh and looked at me.

"Not me," I said and made a face.

"It's always you, Addison," Link said with a grin. "It's always you."

"Run Addie, run!" Amelia screamed as I ran down the field with the ball. I was in shock as I held it and continued dashing down the field. I could see the marking lines that Derek had spray painted in the grass as our goalpost, even though I was pretty sure that they were against the rules of the park. That shocked me because Derek was someone who never broke the rules.

"Keep going, Addie!" Amelia screamed, and I made the mistake of looking back. Mark was a few feet away from me, and Alex was close behind him. I was praying that Alex got to Mark before Mark got to me.

I could also see Derek coming up fast behind Alex, and Meredith was farther back on the field near Amelia and Link. I gasped for air as I turned back around. I could see one of the guys on my team signaling to me to throw him the ball, but I didn't want to pass.

I wanted to be the MVP of the game. I didn't want the guys to just look at Amelia and me as two silly girls with no business being on the field. We weren't like Meredith: we didn't run marathons; we didn't play pickup basketball at the Y; and we weren't hiking up mountains or surfing in the Pacific Ocean along the coast of one of the Hawaiian Islands.

We were just average, regular girls who liked to have fun and played sports for some excitement in our lives. I knew the guys thought we were pretty worthless on the field, especially me. I mean, I couldn't blame them. I wasn't in the best shape, but I knew if I scored the winning points, I'd be looked at with new eyes.

This was about the game. At this moment, I didn't care about Derek or Mark or Alex or whatever other guy might be interested in me. I didn't care about looking pretty or sexy. I didn't care about being witty.

I didn't care about making Derek jealous. All I cared about was winning. And I knew that at this moment, for the first time in my life, I was a sportswoman. A true, dedicated, and fearless sportswoman.

I kept my head down and ignored the pain in my stomach and the cramps in my legs. I was not going to slow down. I was not going to let the pain win. I was nearly there.

"You've nearly got it, Addie !" Amy screamed, and I charged forward. I felt a hand grazing my back and I knew that Mark nearly had me.

"Oh no you don't!" I screamed and the ball forward as I saw the line Derek had made right in front of me. "Goal!" I screamed as I fell to the ground. "Goa!" I screamed again in excitement, tears, and sweat pouring down my face.

"Move over, Addison!" Mark groaned as he came charging toward me.

"What?" My body was frozen in shock as he came crashing down on me, his body feeling like a ton of bricks as he fell forward. "Ow!" I cried out, as my already aching bones screamed out in pain. His knees nudged my stomach painfully, and I cried out again. "Ooww!" I moaned as he looked over at me.

"Nice goal." He grinned down at me, his eyes sparkling as he wiped the mud off of his face.

"Thank you," I said lightly and tried to push him off of me.

"Oh, sorry." He laughed and jumped up. "I guess you can say you're a seasoned player now."

"I guess so." I groaned as I tried to stand up. "Ugh." I moaned and grabbed my knee. "I think I cut myself."

"We won! We won!" Amelia screamed and grinned as she came running towards me. "We're the champions, Addie!"

"Yay." I smiled and groaned again, as the pain in my knee got worse and worse.

"What's wrong?" Suddenly Derek was in front of me, his face looking grim.

"I hurt my knee," I said in a low voice. "And no need to be pissed, because we won."

"I'm not pissed," he said with a frown and kneeled on the ground. "I'm going to pull your pants leg up so I can check your knee, okay?"

I nodded mutely and watched as he pulled the right leg of my exercise pants up. We both stared at my bloody knee, and I groaned.

"Oh my God, I'm injured." I frowned and Derek looked at me with a concerned face.

"Are you okay?"

"She's fine," Mark said and rolled his eyes. "Just scraped her knee."

"Have some compassion, Mark!" Amelia snapped and walked over to me. "You okay, Addison?"

"I'm fine. I guess I just need to clean it."

"See, she's fine." Mark laughed and then looked at me. "I promise that our next rumble and tumble in the grass won't leave you with any injuries."

"There won't be another rumble and tumble," Derek growled and put my arm around his shoulder. "Lean on me and I'm going to help you stand up."

"Okay," I said softly.

"I have a first-aid kit in my car, so I'll clean it for you."

"Okay. Thank you." I smiled at him sweetly, and I could see Amelia grinning. I looked towards Mark, and he winked at me and then wiggled his eyebrows toward Derek. I realized then that Mark was no longer interested in me. Instead, he was helping to make Derek jealous. I giggled to myself as I realized that he was just as bad as I was, but I knew he was doing it for me, so I couldn't be mad at him.

"Are you okay, Addison?" Meredith walked up to us with a look of concern on her face.

"Yes, thanks." I nodded, feeling a bit bad. I was stealing her man from right under her nose. Not that he was her beau or anything.

"Good. Excellent score, by the way. The best move of the day!" Meredith grinned at me. "You sure showed the guys what's what."

"I try." I grinned back at her and for a second, I felt guilty. Guilty that I was swooping Derek out from under her when she was a nice girl.

"Hey, hey, hey, didn't you see me?" Mark looked at Meredith. "I think that my catch was pretty impressive."

"Impressive to whom?" She laughed and shook her head. "I saw you, and I saw Addison too, and Addison had the move of the day."

I stared at her face and I was pretty sure she was blushing. Curious, I looked at Mark a bit closer. His face was positively beaming as he stared at her.

"Hmmm.. everyone on the field." Scott looked back at me. "Maybe I'll concede this once."

"Wow, how grand of you." She laughed and patted the front of her T-shirt down. I was about to look away when I noticed something on her wrists. My eyes narrowed as I stared at the lines on her wrists.

"Are you ready, Addison?" Derek's voice was close to my ear and I nodded.

"Yes." I glanced up at him, and he put his left arm around me and pulled me up easily. I loved the fact that he was acting as if I were some hundred-pounds lightweight and not a considerable amount more than I was.

"Can you walk or do you need me to carry you?" he asked me as I leaned into him. I looked at his face to see if he was teasing me, but he looked quite serious. For a split second, I wanted to tell him that I needed him to carry me.

I wanted to start limping and moaning and making out like I was hurt, but I didn't. And not because I'm above faking an injury to get close to a guy, but because I knew it wouldn't be believable. He'd seen my injury.

I had scraped the skin off of my knee and it was bleeding. It wasn't a serious injury. Yes, it stung a bit, and yes, I was feeling slightly woozy, but I didn't need him carrying me. At least, not because of the injury I'd sustained. If he were offering to carry me into his bedroom, I would have had a completely different answer.

"I'm fine. I don't need you to carry me."

"Pity," he said softly and I looked over at him in surprise. His face still looked serious and I wondered if I had imagined him saying those words. We walked towards his car in companionable silence, and I enjoyed the feeling of his warm body next to me as he led me across the field. "I know I told you I wanted to talk to you, but you didn't have to injure yourself to get my attention," he said as we reached his car.

"I didn't," I said smugly. "I don't need to injure myself to get attention."

"True, you don't." He laughed.

"What's so funny?" My eyes narrowed as I gazed at him laughing down at me.

"I was just thinking about all the other ways that you draw attention to yourself."

"Oh?"

"Like saying you want to be a lingerie model at Victoria's Secret."

"I never said that!" I shook my head. "Alex said that."

"But you sure seemed happy when he brought it up."

"What are you talking about?" I shook my head and got into the backseat of his car.

"It seems to me you want men to think about you parading about in lingerie."

"No, I don't." I shook my head and watched as he slid into the backseat next to me. "Why would you even think that?"

"Maybe because that's all I've been able to think about for the last week?"

"What? My conversation with Alex?"

"No, you goof." He opened his center console and took out his first-aid kit. "You in lingerie."

"Me in lingerie?" I breathed out and watched as he pulled up the leg of my pants again so that he could clean my wound.

"Yes, that's all I've been thinking about for the last week."

"That's very bold of you to say." I gasped as he placed the antiseptic lotion on my knee.

"Why?" He looked up into my eyes as his fingers rubbed against my skin.

"Because."

"Because what?"

"Just because." I moaned as his lips came dangerously close to mine. "What are you doing?"

"What do you want me to be doing?"

"Derek!" I groaned, and he chuckled and moved back.

"I thought you liked kissing me. You liked kissing me last week."

"I don't understand you, Derek," I groaned and watched as he put a Band-Aid on my knee and leaned down to kiss it.

"All better," he said and looked at me. "What do you want to understand?"

"What were the marks on Meredith's wrists?" I asked quickly, the words darting out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"The marks on Meredith's wrists?" He raised an eyebrow at me. "What marks?"

"She had red indents on her wrists," I said. "I saw them. They looked like ..." My voice trailed o! before I could say the words 'handcuff marks'.

"They looked like what?" He grinned and leaned towards me, his lashes looking longer than I remembered.

"You know." I swallowed hard. How could I ask him what sort of relationship they had together?

"No, I don't."

"They looked like handcuff marks," I said finally.

"Oh?" He smiled and licked his lips deliberately.

"Yes."

"You're asking me if Meredith had handcuff marks on her wrists?"

"I'm asking you if you're seeing her, like, properly," I said, no longer able to hold it in. "I don't think it's cool if you are seeing her and seeing me at the same time."

"I'm seeing you?" he asked with a smirk and his eyes fell to my lips.

"Well, you know," I said, feeling like a fool. Why had I said he was seeing me? He wasn't seeing me. All we'd done was kiss.

"No, I didn't know." He laughed and pulled away suddenly and slid out of the car. "Come on." He grabbed my hands and pulled me out to join him.

"I didn't mean to say you were seeing both of us," I mumbled as I stood next to him.

The sunlight was blinding me, and I stared at his shoulder, instead of into his eyes.

"That's good."

"I mean, I guess you are dating her, but you aren't dating me."

"I am?" he asked.

"Well, aren't you?" I asked and shifted my eyes to look into his. Derek put his arms around my waist and pulled me into him.

"Do you want to be dating me, Addison?" he asked softly and my breath caught.

"I, uh, I ..." I stammered, my face red and not just from the direct rays of sun on my skin.

"I liked kissing you the other night," he said softly with a small smile and leaned down. "Did you like kissing me?"

"Yes," I squeaked out.

"Good." He leaned down and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. "You and I are having dinner tonight and we're going to talk."

"We are?" I squeaked out again, this time in a more indignant manner.

"Yes, we are." He kissed me again, this time harder and for longer. "You didn't even ask."

"I learned my lesson yesterday," he said with his lips against mine. "I asked you if I could call you, and you gave me the run-around. Today, I figure there's no point in me just asking you. I need to tell you."

"Well, I don't know what to say," I said breathlessly, my lips brushing against his.

"Just tell me what time to pick you up." He sucked on my lower lip and tugged gently. "I'll pick you up at eight."

"Oh." My stomach was doing flips and I put my hands around his waist to stop myself from reaching down to grab his ass.

"Be ready." He laughed and pulled my face towards him and gave me one deep, hard kiss before pulling back.

"Or what?"

"Or you'll see." He winked.

"You going to punish me?" I asked lightly, and he just laughed. I saw the others waiting for us in the field and so I started walking towards them. I wondered if they had seen us kissing and if they had, what were they thinking? I sure hoped Meredith didn't think that she had anything serious with Derek. I sure hoped that they didn't have anything that would prevent me from working my magic. I also hoped that they hadn't kissed or had sex. Though I didn't want to ask. I didn't want to know if they had, only if they hadn't. And how did you ask that question knowing that one of the answers had the potential to break your heart?

"I can't wait for tonight," Derek said from behind me and I jumped as I felt his hand lightly tapping my ass.

"Hey!" I turned around and glared at him. "What was that for?"

"I was just answering your question," he said and ran ahead of me. My heart thudded as I realized that tonight might involve a lot more than just talking.