She was walking around his apartment, looking around her appreciatively, for a guy he had a really great style. There was green coloured wallpaper on the wall behind his cognac leather couch, the other walls had a soft beige colour, there were hard wooden floors and his furniture was mostly black. He had the newest electronic gadgets, a 65-inch television, a surround system and lights which were adjustable via an app on his phone.

Everything he had done made sense, he had an incredible eye for detail, while it still felt very masculine. There was artwork on the walls, soft cushions and a plaid on his couch and well-kept plants around the living room. She loved plants, but never was able to keep them alive, he didn't seem to have that problem though, unless they were fake. Wanting to test that theory she took the leaf of a big plant in the corner of his living room between her fingers and felt the material.

'Checking if it is real?' Derek walked in from the kitchen area, handing her a glass of wine.

'Thank you.' she took the glass out of his hands and took a sip, letting out a small content sigh. 'It fascinates me, I have never been able to keep any plant alive. One time I even asked this clerk in the garden centre for advice, so he got all enthusiastic about this plant called the Ficus Elastica. He insured me that I could keep it alive, no more then 2 months later it was death and I had to throw it away.'

'Thankfully, the patients are in better care under your supervision.' he said as he let out a throaty laugh, she responded by giving him a shove on his upper arm and tried to give him a stern look even though her eyes were twinkling with mischief.

'My mom teached me a lot about plants, it was so bad that every time she got home with a new plant, she would hold a lecture about it for an hour, telling me what kind of plant it was, what it did for the air purification and what other benefits it had for our health. It drove me nuts, but in the end, I am able to keep plants alive. It also helps that I have a charwoman who waters them every week.'

'Making me feel bad with the whole -my mother was my teacher story-, while in reality you have been cheating.' she made a tsk-ing sound and laughed at him.

'It is truth though.. and I would never make you feel bad intentionally.' he said standing beside her. 'But I can make it up to you..' he wiggled his eyebrows at her.

'Ahh, you will ask your mother to help me with my planting problem? How sweet of you Derek.' she decided to play along and ignore his innuendo.

'You know I wasn't talking about that..' he pouted slightly.

'You weren't?' she tried to avoid eye contact; she knew once she would look, she wouldn't be able to hold in her laughter.

'No, and you know it. You little minx.' he laughed, attacking her sides with his fingers.

She tried to defend herself from his attack, but wasn´t able to due to the glass of wine in her hands, not wanting to spill anything on the floor or on him, she ran off quickly and put her glass on the table so that her hands were free.

'Oh, boy. Now you are going to get it.' she launched herself at him. He saw her coming from miles away, bypassing her moves easily. He grabbed her wrists in one hand while, putting them behind her back, while the other hand tickled her on all places he could reach, her tummy, side, neck and armpits weren't safe. Moving quickly from one place to another, she had no time to adjust or counter attack.

All she could do was take and laugh uncontrollably. 'Stop.. Deeeee-rek, please haha stop...' she tried to catch breaths in between her laughter and words.

'You know what to say, say it Mer.' he countered while keeping up his attack. 'Say it.'

'Meerrr-cyy.' she pleaded.

He stopped moving his fingers, his other hand still around the back, holding her hands in place. He looked down in to her eyes, suddenly feeling the urge to kiss her. And she seemed to feel the same since she was inching her head closer to his. Looking at his lips and back in to his eyes, his eyes darkening with desire. He couldn't hold it off any longer, he needed to kiss her again.

This kiss was different from the one they shared 2 weeks prior, this kiss was hot and strong, full off lust and demand. His tongue seeked direct entrance, running over her bottom lip, she granted him permission opening her mouth. She had never been kissed like this before, his kisses were intoxicating, making her throb from head to toe. On and on they kissed, alternating licking deeply with shallow thrusts.

His hand let go off her hands and travelled down to her ass giving it a firm squeeze before he surged his hips forwards, letting her feel his erection. That brought her back to senses.

'Book, Der. The book. We need to go through it.' she breathed out between kisses. He had the ability to make the world around her disappear, forget about all but him, it wasn't only in his kisses. It was in the day-to-day things they did, if they went out with friends, they would be so engrossed in conversation they didn't notice their friends leave. Or when they went to dinner, they would have so much fun talking to each other not noticing all the people around them disappearing, until the staff would come to their table with the bill to politely ask them to proceed elsewhere.

'Screw, the book.' he let out a defeated sigh.

She gave him a silly grin.

'I know, I know.' he breathed out, letting go of her slowly.

'How should we start?'

He grabbed the book from the coffee table and handed it to her.

'Let's start with chapter one..' he said smugly. 'And let's read it in bed.' he started to walk out of the living room, taking his shirt out his pants and throwing it over his shoulder, he gave her one last glance before disappearing through the doorway.

'Naked?! You said nothing about being naked!' she froze on the spot. Only to hear him laugh loudly.

'Come on Mer, you aren't chickening out, are you?'

'Oh, hell no!' she grabbed the glasses of wine and headed for his bedroom.