Unwillingly Yours (Warning: Love Moderately) (5 page)

          “You’re sorry…for what? For turning me down? Are you playing hard to get, is that it? Should I ask you again?”

          She squirmed at his insistence, but her tone was sharp with annoyance when she answered, “No. It’s NO to all the questions.”

          That was harsh.

          Too bad he wasn’t the type who got dejected so easily and especially where the girl of his dreams was concerned. He looked at her musingly. “Why do I have this feeling you don’t like me?”

          Derek truly wanted to know the answer. He simply couldn’t believe that he was only one aware of the pull of attraction between them, not when it was so strong he expected people to ask them to get a room any moment now.

          Was she so innocent she didn’t feel how different they were from the rest?

          Jaike was the one. He was damn sure of it.

          His mentor had once told Derek that recognizing a submissive was instinct for a Dom, a leap of blood that he would link them in an unbreakable bond. And it had happened exactly like that when he had first seen Jaike. Even with her back ramrod straight, her shoulders square, her lovely face aloof – Derek had known the truth about her, about him---about them.

          But what he couldn’t understand was why she was resisting him so damn hard.

          “Is that it?” he persisted. “There’s something about me you hate?”

          “I don’t hate you,” Jaike was clenching her teeth now.

          He responded to it with his most rakish smile. “Then you like me?” It was supposed to draw a smile out of her in return, but she only frowned.

          You should have smiled, Derek thought. If she had, then his instincts would have been wrong about her. But she had not, and that sealed her fate as far as he was concerned. If he hadn’t been convinced before, he was now.

          Jaike Hepburn was meant for him.

          This girl saw through past the charming easygoing veneer he had so painstakingly cultivated from when he was a child. It wasn’t his real nature, and it never would be, but he had become that person because it was what his family needed him to be.

In time, Derek had realized that he needed to let more of his forceful nature come out before repressing it drove him crazy. Eventually, he also realized sex was the perfect outlet for it. Inside the bedroom, his possessive and completely aggressive side came to the fore, his lust satisfied by the touch of a woman who would not only understand his true nature but appreciate it, too.

          Right now, all his instincts told him that he had found the exact girl that he wanted – needed - to make him feel right. His dick more than agreed, practically doing its best to tear its way out of his jeans.

          “Come on,” he murmured. “At least tell me why you hate me so I’ll know what I did wrong.”

          “I don’t hate you.” She was hedging, and they both knew it.

          He gave her a smile that was more sardonic than puzzled even though he felt both. As someone who came from a family that had billions in their bank account for over a century, the first lesson his parents had taught him was how to spot a gold-digger miles away.

          Jaike was no gold-digger, not even in the remotest sense, but Derek almost wished she was. At least then he would know where he stood with her. Right now, he couldn’t seem to find a way to get to her, and it frustrated the hell out of him.

          “You don’t hate me, but you don’t like me either. Why is that?”

          She toyed with her necklace, a simple chain with a heart-shaped pendant, bringing it to her lips in a nervous gesture he also found oddly sexy. “I just…I don’t hate you, okay? W-we just met. I wouldn’t have any reason---”

Derek said swiftly, “If you don’t hate me, prove it. Go out with me.”

Just as swiftly, she answered, “No.”

He smirked. “See?”

The scowl she gave him made him suppress a smile. How would she feel if she learned that her cute angry face was more a turn on for him, and that little scowl of hers just made him want to fuck her more?

Wanting to tease her even more, he murmured, “Give me one reason and I won’t bother you again.” He fished out his lighter from his jeans pocket and then his cigarette pack from another.

Jaike suddenly said, “I don’t like guys who smoke.”

“But your friend smokes.” Derek had a hard time keeping his face expressionless when he saw the flare of dismay in her eyes. She was a terrible liar, adorably so.

“It’s…it’s different.”

He looked at her intently. “You mean it in a way, don’t you?”

She shrugged.

Derek rolled his eyes, but he threw the barely used stick on the ground anyway, grinding it with his shoe. Pussy whipped at the first day, he thought. Worse, he didn’t care, not when he saw how happy it made Jaike.

Jaike hastily wiped the smile off her face at Derek’s knowing glance.

“Made you that happy, huh?”

“I hope you didn’t do it for me,” she muttered stiffly. “You should have done it for yourself.”

He couldn’t help chuckling. She sounded like a nun. “You’re one of those good girls, aren’t you? The kind---”

“I just don’t like guys who smoke,” she said shortly.

Derek wanted to curse. Was she mad about the smoking or was it because he was guilty of generalizing her? Whichever the case, Derek had said the wrong thing again, something the all-too-perfect Angelo Valencia probably would never have thought of saying.

Before he could apologize, someone had gone under his arm to emerge next to him like a pop-out arm candy. “Hey there, lover.” It was Tanya, one of the senior students that made up the party’s organization committee. She wore a corset-styled top and denim skirt, and Derek knew if he glanced down he would be able to see all the way to her perky breasts.

She tiptoed to kiss Derek on the lips. “I’m finally off duty. Let’s go?”  Tanya threw her surroundings with a dismissive glance. “This place is for losers.”

The dismay in Jaike’s eyes deepened into distrust, and this time Derek swore out loud.

Tanya’s head turned to him sharply. “Derek!”

He wanted to shake the other girl off him, but years of etiquette training prevented him. “Hush, Tanya.” It took a lot to keep his smile friendly. “That was a shitty thing to say and you know it.”

She pouted, trailing her fingers over his arm. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I want to get you alone. I can’t stop thinking about your dick---”

“Tanya, darling, now is really not the time to talk about that.” Derek’s face was flushed as his eyes jerked towards Jaike’s.

Jaike nodded at him, her eyes unable to meet his, just before she turned away.

Derek didn’t hesitate to disentangle himself from Tanya’s clingy hold when Jaike started walking away. Fuck no! He was not letting go of her just like that. He caught after Jaike, causing her to gasp as he forcibly whirled her around.

Jaike didn’t want to meet his eyes.

His grip tightened. “Forget about her. We don’t have anything serious going on. But you…” Derek inhaled. His voice was urgent as he said, “You’re different, Jaike. Go out with me.”

She pulled away from his hold. “I’m sorry, no.” She turned away again, and this time he let her go. He didn’t go after her, but he kept his gaze on her all the way until she reached the exit doors of the auditorium.

Too much. Derek had a feeling he had made his move too fucking fast, pushing her too fucking hard and he was going to pay for it.

Two Years Earlier

Jaike carefully adjusted her lens before kneeling on the ground, her lens zooming between the rails of Roosevelt Bridge. The position gave her the perfect angle to take a long-range shot of the town of Stuart. With dawn breaking overhead, the town appeared magical, wrapped in a mystery of pink clouds and orange skies.

Click, click, click. She took a series of shots before getting back to her feet. When she lowered her SLR, a guy stood before her, startling Jaike into a little jump.

          “Did I surprise you?” Derek asked innocently. He wore a black sleeveless shirt and khakis, and he had his own SLR camera slung around his neck.

          Jaike shrugged, not trusting herself to speak. If she did, her voice might reveal the suddenly maddening state of her heartbeat. 

          “You look beautiful.” Derek always said it like he meant it, even though she had to be Scarlett Johansson’s twin just to look marginally attractive next to him.

          “I don’t.” She said it because she meant it, too. She knew what she looked like, what everyone saw in her. Jaike was average girl in all ways---her hair was neither silky straight nor curly, her skin neither ivory nor gold, and her face was just…passable.

          What she couldn’t figure out was what Derek saw in her that made him so persistent all this time. There wasn’t a day she didn’t get to see him, talk to him, and he didn’t even seem to care if he did so while Angelo was right next to her.

          They had their staring contest again, one she always inevitably lost. His gaze made her uncomfortable even now, with the way his eyes caressed her body as if he knew what she looked underneath her clothes.

          In an effort to distract herself Jaike gestured awkwardly to his camera. “I didn’t know you’re into photography, too.”

          “I just joined yesterday.” The lazy smile on his lips was an arrow to her heart, one that never ever missed. And it was an arrow that struck her entire body.

Jaike tried to control her reaction to that smile, appalled at the heat that enveloped her, as if his gaze alone could command her body.

Derek smirked, as if he knew exactly what his nearness did to her. And he probably did, considering his reputation. Jaike wasn’t blind or deaf. She knew he was a ladies’ man, that he dated practically every girl who came on to him.

Derek reached out to touch her but she quickly stepped back. He chuckled, and even the sound was possessive, like he was only being generous in giving her time to be apart from him.

“I hate taking photos.” Derek lifted his camera from his chest, turning it around in his hands as if it was a toy he couldn’t decipher.

She pressed her lips together, not wanting to accidentally scold him for the careless way he held his camera. The muscles in his arms flexed with every move he made, and Jaike gnashed her teeth, hating how just the sight of it made her toes curl inside her sneakers. Why couldn’t she stop being so obsessed with him?

“Why are you staring at me like that?” There was that smirk again.

She stumbled for an excuse. “I don’t understand why you bought a camera if you hate taking photos.” She fingered the ID card pinned to her jeans pocket, which served to identify her as a club member. “Are you hoping you’ll improve with the club?”

Derek replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “I bought this camera, I joined this club, and I woke four in the morning today just to see you.”

Jaike’s lips parted in shock. When he didn’t take the words back, she said lamely, “That’s not a good reason to spend hundreds of dollars for something you won’t use.”

His laughter startled her. “You still sound like a nun.”

Derek’s amusement was infectious, and Jaike was unable to prevent her lips from twitching.

Derek pretended to clutch his heart. “At last! I thought I’d never see you smile at me again.”