Derek demanded.
“I’m sorry.” Jaike fidgeted, which just made her cuter and sexier in his eyes. That was bad, since his dick had already been rock hard the first time he had caught a glimpse of her face. Now it was a fucking pain that would prevent him from walking right.
“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