Meant to Be Yours: New Adult BBW College Romance (Derek and Jaike Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    “See? She’s still eating. She can’t hear us. Now say you want it.”
    Diana started to choke loudly.
    Jaike’s hold over her spoon tightened. The other man was trying to strangle her mother. She wanted to cry, wanted to run to her mother to make it stop, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. If she did, that was what would kill Diana.  
    The knowledge that Jaike knew what was happening, from the very start.
    “You’re tough, bitch. That’s what I like so much about you. So much spirit. But in the end, you’ll do what I say. We both know that.”
    Another gasp from Diana, this time filled with even greater pain.
    “If you don’t say it, I’ll tell Tony that you don’t love him anymore. That you don’t want him as your Master—”
    Silence.
    Jaike’s tears ran down faster on her cheek. Please don’t say it, Mom. Please, please, please.  
    But then she heard it.
    “I want this.”
    The pounding resumed.
    Slowly, Jaike forced herself to continue eating.
    ****
    “Are you there, Jaike?”
    “Yeah, I’m here.” She wasn’t surprised when she realized she was crying. Remembering that always made the tears fall, and she doubted there’d ever come a day it wouldn’t. Even now, it hurt. Even now, it terrified her. She used to think she would never be like Diana, letting a man like Anthony Carras rule and ruin her life as he pleased, but since she met Derek Christopoulos?
    She knew now.  
    She was her mother’s daughter.  
    “I don’t want this, Marcy. I don’t want him moving in with me. I don’t like that he didn’t ask – I hate it. I hate the way he’s taking over my life and that…” She couldn’t say it, couldn’t make herself admit out loud that she was happy. She was stupidly happy that Derek Christopoulos wanted to move in with her.  
    “I wish he was like Angelo,” she burst out. Guilt nipped at her as she said the words, but she ignored it. “Angelo would never do something like this. He always respected my wishes, he was always considerate. If I said ‘no’, he wouldn’t push. He was a much better man…” She trailed off as the hairs on her nape stood up all of a sudden.
    Oh God.
    Slowly, Jaike made herself turn around, and her worst fears were realized.
    Derek stood behind her, and he was not alone. His friends were all with him, and it was clear on their faces they had heard every word she said.

Chapter Three

    Jaike waited for Derek to say something – do anything that would give her a clue about what he was thinking and feeling. There was a crippling, sick feeling in her stomach, and she felt like throwing up.
    I wish he was like Angelo.
    He was a much better man…
    The words repeated itself inside Derek’s mind, and all of it left an acid taste on his tongue. She wished he was like Angelo? Bullshit. If that was true, she would never have fallen apart so easily in his arms last night. If that was true, she would never have let him call her his. If that was fucking true, this passion between them – this drugging, all-consuming, obsessive passion – it would have died the moment she said ‘yes’ to another man and turned her back on him.
    Angelo Valencia III might be a better man than Derek, with the way he was so fucking correct at all times, but he sure as hell knew Angelo could never be the man Jaike wanted and needed.
    Derek, and only Derek, could be that man.
    His hooded gaze went to Jaike, and his chest squeezed at how pale she looked. Stubborn, stubborn woman. It was so fucking clear what she wanted to do. Her eyes were begging him for forgiveness, her body quivering in her effort not to go to him. Why was she so damn stubborn?
    Around him, his friends were silent, all of them able to read between the lines and patiently waiting for their cue from him.
    Your call, his friends’ stances were telling him. Did he want them to forget this? Remember this? Make it awkward for the girl standing so stiffly in front of them?
    Finally, Derek said,