L A Y L A ' S P O V

"Please take all liquids, jewellery, electronics and wallets out of your bags before you place them in the plastic bins."

Travelling light for once with only one bag between us, Derek places our bag in the bin on the conveyor belt. We're in line at TSA ready to fly home to DC after an amazing weekend. We soaked up enough family time and newborn baby cuddles to get us through till we visit next.

But sadly, as I walk through the metal detector and I'm given the all clear, I know we're back to reality for now.

Derek walks through the metal detector after me and once he's cleared we stand to the side to wait for our bag. It moves along the conveyor belt through the monitor and surprisingly, the plastic bin with our bag gets pulled to the side for extra screening.

My brows furrow. "That's weird."

"Yeah," Derek laughs. Well, kinda. He quite literally says ha ha. "So weird."

You know what's even weirder? The fact that he seems..nervous. I suppose it's not that weird. TSA can be stressful and most people do get nervous even though you know you don't have anything in your bag. But Derek's avoiding eye contact, fidgeting and not even concentrating on me speaking to him.

"What in there? Cocaine?" I snicker, nudging his shoulder. There's not much but dirty clothes in there but Derek packed everything up when we were ready to leave so I didn't do it. I didn't think it was possible, but he looks even more nervous as the TSA agent starts scanning the crowd to see who's bag it is. My joke doesn't seem so funny anymore. I grip his arm and drop my voice. "Derek, is it?"

"What? No." Derek shakes his head dismissively, barely paying enough attention to what I was saying to catch my sarcasm. His eyes are glued to the bag as a TSA agent grabs it. "Wait here," He says, stepping towards the counter.

Fuck that. I follow right after him and just catch the end of the TSA agent asking if the bag is Derek's.

Tight lipped, Derek nods. "Yeah."

"Did you pack it yourself?" He asks and Derek nods again. "I just need do a quick check."

When he turns his back to us and starts ruffling throughout our things, I look to Derek and I swear I see an actual bead of sweat drop down the side of his face.

"What's wrong with you?" I whisper discreetly, trying not to seems too suspicious. I don't know why because if I was the TSA agent right now I would say Derek's guilty. Of what, I don't know.

"Nothing." Derek's throat bobs when he swallows harshly. His eyes are still glued to the back of the TSA agent as piles of our clothes start filling the table beside him. "It's fine."

It's not a second later that the TSA agent turns back around to us with our bag all zipped back up. "You're good. All clear," Surprisingly, his lips quirk up into a small smile when he passes the bag back into Derek's hands. His all knowing grin settles on me. "Have a nice flight."

My confusion about this conversation is drowned out by the sound beside me. If I've ever heard a sigh of relief before, it's nothing compared to what Derek let's out when he slings the bag over his shoulder somewhat frantically guiding me past the security section.

"What was that abou—"

"Want to get some coffee?" Derek slings his other arm around my shoulder. His eyes travel around the airport. "Food maybe? Shopping in duty free?"

I know he's only trying to distract me from his little nervous meltdown back there, but regardless, it's enough to grasp my attention. "Ooo. I love duty free."

We spend our time wisely by spraying all the testers of the expensive perfumes and colognes. After a while, I send Derek off to go get us some coffee so I can sneakily buy him a new bottle of his cologne. Mainly for selfish reasons because I love the one he wears. It's smells so fucking good. It's deep, dark, sexy and so him. Every time he puts it on I want to lick it off him. I tried once. Would not recommend. It doesn't taste as good as it smells.

When he's still not back by the time I get done at the checkout, I decide to find the restroom and text him to meet me outside. It takes me about ten minutes before I can even use the bathroom because the line is so long, but Derek's waiting for me when I finally step out.

He has our coffee in his hands, and a small bag hung around his wrist. I don't even need to see what's inside, because I already know it's a new bottle of my perfume. Derek loves it too. He sometimes spends hours with his head buried in my neck.

My laugh is lighthearted when I hold up the bag matching in my hand. "Did we really just both do the exact same thing?"

Derek grins, ushering my coffee into my hands. "Sexy minds think alike."

I hum constantly when I take a sip and the warm vanilla latte hits my tongue. "That is not the saying."

"But it's fitting," His arm slips around my waist, tugging me into his side as we walk down the terminal. "Adapt and overcome, my love."

We have time to stop for lunch and make it to our gate just as we're getting called for boarding and I get the window seat, of course.

Derek peers over the seat to look around the cabin, keeping his voice low when he leans into me. "Do you think—"

I don't even let him finish that thought. "Absolutely not."

Unfortunately for him this flight is going to be another failed attempt of us joining the mile high club. It's packed so there is absolutely no way we could sneak around, and logically Derek knows that, but he's just thinking with the wrong head.

-

I love being in the comfort of Derek truck and resuming my duties of being a passenger princess.

We touched down in DC and by the time we made it out of the airport car park I've already kicked off my shoes, pulled out the snacks I stashed in here before we left and connected to the aux while Derek drives us home.

"It's not that late," Derek says, flicking on his blinker before he merges onto the highway. "Want to go to your apartment and start packing up some stuff to bring to the house?"

"Tonight?" I stifle a yawn when my head rolls on the head rest to look at him. "I'm kinda tired."

Derek's hand slides up my leg to my inner thigh where he squeezes. "How about I pack while you look pretty and watch?"

"You drive a hard bargain," I grin. "I'm in."

Derek is not wasting anytime with me moving in with him. My lease isn't up yet and I can't get out of the contract, so technically we don't need to move anything out of the apartment just yet, but I love that he's so excited that he doesn't want to wait.

I'm excited too. He already told me I can change and add anything I want to the house to make it ours because right now, you can tell a man decorated it. It's not bad by any means, but Derek's the 'bare minimum' kinda guy and I'm a 'each product must have an individual organisation container' kinda girl. So, we're going to compromise and do it my way.

I can't wait to see his face when I tell him I want to change the backsplash in the kitchen to pink. It's going to be priceless.

While we're in the mist of our conversation about the moving process, we pull into my apartment complex and park before heading up the stairs.

"Maybe we can put your couch in the basement," Derek say, tapping his hand to my ass when I pass through my apartment door before him. "We could get a pool table down there too. Home movie theatre? Home gym?"

When he flicks on the lights I throw my keys on the side table and kick off my shoes, grinning. "Yes, yes and yes."

Being away for work so much allowed me to never really get attached to my apartment so I'm not that bothered about moving out. It's the end of my first milestone here in DC, but we have more exciting ones to come so I'm not all that sad about it.

"I'll leave the bigger pieces of furniture for when I can get somebody to help me carry them down stairs," Derek says, looking around the living room. "I'll call Spencer this weekend."

"Spencer?" I snicker teasingly. "You'd have better luck with Averie."

I fish out some of the empty boxes I still have from moving here from the storage closet and Derek gets to work on taping the bottoms. We decide on leaving the living room and kitchen for now until we can get bubble wrap for all my photo frames, plates and bowls. So we head to the bedroom to start there.

Derek pulls open my closet door, which is filled to the absolute brim and clothes quite literally start falling out. He was all for me not helping but now he doesn't look so sure. He groans. "This is a disaster zone."

I don't even have the mental capacity to muster up any reaction other than a wince. "Yeah, good luck with that."

Derek eyes me cautiously. "Are all these really necessary?"

I've come to realise I have a hard time parting with my clothes. Do I think it's necessary to have so much? Not exactly. Will they come in handy if I don't get a chance to do laundry for a few months? Absolutely.

"Yes and about that," I wince again. Three quarters of Derek's closet is already mine and not even half of my clothes are over there yet. I have no idea how we're going to swing fitting everything in there. I might have to take over the closet in one of the guest bedrooms. Possibly two of the guest bedrooms. "I have no idea how we're going to make all those fit."

Derek chuckles softly as he starts to pile the clothes into boxes. "Don't worry about it. I have it covered."

Leaving him and that vague statement to it, I walk over and take a seat the the vanity he built me and flip on the lights. I have no idea where this is going to go either, but that's tomorrows problem. I pull out a cleansing pad from the top drawer and pour some makeup remover on it before bringing it to my eyes, wiping away the remnants of my mascara.

"Layla, what's this?"

I swivel in my seat to look at him. My eyes are blurry from the makeup remover so I wipe them again with a cotton pad. "What's what?"

"What's this box shoved in the back of the closet."

Box? What box—oh my god.

"Don't open—that!"

When my vision clears, it's too late. He's already pulled the open my inconspicuous box labelled 'pillows'. There is absolutely no pillows in there and I want the ground to swallow me whole right now.

Now mortified, I can't even say anything. Derek doesn't say anything either. Until finally he peers up at me with a smug grin on his face and he fucking snickers.

I fire a pillow from the bed at him. "Don't laugh at me!"

Not even listening to me, he's full on laughing as he starts counting my battery powered boyfriends on his fingers. "One, two, three, four, fiv—"

I'm on the defence already. "Okay, okay! There's a lot. Get over it."

Derek honestly looks like he's having a field day right now. He's still fucking snickering to himself. "Why do you have this many?"

My cheeks are on fire. "Because I needed them."

Derek arches an amused eyebrow. "Because..." He knows exactly why. He just wants to hear me say it.

I try to mask my vulnerability with an eye roll. "Yes, Derek. You are the first man to ever make me come. Congratulations. Do you want a medal?"

His proudest smirk only grows. "Yes, I do actually. Preferably gold, but silver works better with my skin tone."

A frustrated breath passes my lips. "You're infuriating."

Derek's not paying attention to me again when he reaches into the box and pulls out a black curved vibrating dildo. His eyebrows raise in amazement when he presses the button and it starts buzzing, like it's some sort of science experiment happening in front of his eyes. "Babe...quick question?" His eyes eventually drift to mine. "Why are they all miniature?"

"Hey! They're normal sized. You just don't know that because you have a monster cock."

"Wait, say that again," Derek says, patting his pockets like he's looking for his phone. "I wasn't recording."

Rolling my eyes, I take the opportunity of him being distracted to swoop in and try pull the box away from him.

Shocked and borderline offended, when he sees my attempt to take it away, Derek snatches the box back. "What do you think you're doing?"

I don't know. Hide them. Put them in the trash. Burn them. Anything that involves getting them away from him so he'll stop making fun of me.

"Taking them away from you," I need an excuse that he won't question but me and my two last brain cells can't come up with anything better than saying, "They're...private."

Derek tilts his head questioningly. "I hate to break it to you babe, but when my dick is making a bulge in your stomach every night not much between us is private anymore."

Frustrated, I try again to pull the box from his grip. "It's different."

Derek teasingly tries to bite my hand to get me to let go. "How is it different?"

"Ah!" The fucker actually just bit me. "It just is!"

"Why? Do you need to set the mood before you can use these?" He snickers, pumping his eyebrows suggestively. "Light some candles? play some sexy music?"

Why is he making this worse for me? "Fuck you."

"Clearly you don't need to fuck me," He snickers as he holds up the pink rabbit vibrator, raising an amused eyebrow. "Want me to leave you two alone?"

Letting go of my death grip on the box, my eyes narrow and I hit him with a cool, calm and collected, "I hate you."

"I'm sure you do," He laughs when I turn away from him and walk away. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Away from you." I want to bury myself underneath the comforter and live in my delusion that the last ten minutes never happened.

"No, you're not," Suddenly his arms are wrapped around me from behind, lifting me off the ground. "Come on, Layla, " He laughs as I fight him. "I'm done. I swear."

I don't buy it one bit. His grip is making it hard to move, so I continue to struggle against him. "Derek, let me go."

"You want me to tie you to this bed right now? Because I will."

I groan, still not giving up my efforts to wiggle out of his hold. "Derek, stop."

Derek's whole demeanour changes when that word leaves my lips. He gently sits down on the edge of the bed, positioning me sideways on his lap so I can see the softness behind his eyes. The playfulness of his teasing is gone with a simple brush of his lips on my bare shoulder and his sweet, sensitive side is out. "Baby, why are you so embarrassed?"

"I don't know. I just am." My cheeks are dangerously warm. I'm nervous, blushing and embarrassed. This is so unlike me but in my defence, that box was never meant to be seen by anyone.

"Well, you shouldn't be."

I takes absolutely everything in me to not roll my eyes. "Thanks. I'm cured."

Derek's hides his snicker when he laces our fingers together, bringing them to his mouth and kissing the back of my knuckles. "Were you hiding them from me?"

I shake my head. "No, I forgot about them."

The curiosity behind his eyes is spiked again. "Well had you remembered, we could have been using them."

"I don't need them." The whole reason I forgot about them was because since I moved here I've never needed them. Derek keeps me very satisfied. I sigh deeply. "You're enough."

"Yeah, maybe," Derek brushes a soft kiss to my lips before he slowly tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. "But these toys can only add to your pleasure. That's a good thing, no?"

My lips fold into a line and give him a small shrug. "I suppose."

"It's a very good thing," Derek shifts me closer on his lap so I can feel how rock solid he is between my thighs. "See? I'm so fucking hard right now."

A slow smile spreads across my lips. So.. If he's all for it, then he shouldn't be opposed to what I'm about to suggest.

Derek sees the shift in my attitude towards the situation and retreats cautiously. He side eyes the pink dildo. Then me. He raises his pointer finger slightly. "Don't you be getting any wild ideas. That thing is going nowhere near me."

"Not that one," I giggle, reaching over to grab the bullet vibrater. "This one."

"That's my girl," He says smiling, satisfied that my confidence is back. He leans back on his palms, smirking. "Have your way with me."

-

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! The smut will be worth the wait I promise🫶🫶🫶