Warning: Love Moderately

by Marian Tee

  “I wanted to be the one to tell you, but she wanted to do things right.” It was another not-so-subtle dig.

  Angelo visibly bristled, but he still remained silent, his lips stiffly pressed together.

  Derek’s broad shoulders moved in an elegant shrug as he turned back to Angelo with a smile, his hand moving down to curl around the side of her hip. “But now she’s said it. Don’t you think it’s better if we put the past behind now and move on?”

  Jaike jerked in shock when she realized where Angelo was staring, his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flaring in fury as he stared at where Derek’s hand was holding her with familiar ease, a place that even he hadn’t ever touched. His face was filled with loathing as he glanced at her, snapping, “Is this true?”

  And slowly, she heard herself saying, “Yes.”

  Beside her, Derek’s body relaxed, and it was only then she realized how he had been standing so tensely while waiting for her answer.

  “You’re right.” The coy smile Rosie flashed at Derek made Jaike feel sick. “We should let bygones be bygones and just be happy together.”

  Jaike wanted to throw up. She couldn’t help turning to Angelo, searching for any signs of dismay in his handsome face. Couldn’t he see how the other girl was flirting with Derek? She knew Angelo was out of her league. She had known that from the very start, but at least she was and would have always been faithful to her, something Rosie could never be.

  But Angelo was no longer looking at her or anyone else. “Fuck you, Christopoulos,” he said brusquely, and then he was walking away, dragging his date with him.

  Marcy suddenly bounced into view. “Oh God, I can’t believe you had the courage to tell Angelo the truth and then this happened!” Her voice was unnaturally loud, making Jaike wince. Subtlety was so not Marcy’s forte.

  Derek still had his arm around her. Five minutes ago, his touch would have sent her into a panic but now it was something that kept her world in balance, something she actually felt desperate not to lose.

  “I want to go home,” Jaike whispered, more to herself.

  “I’ll take you,” Derek said immediately.

  Marcy nodded helpfully. “Yes, take your girlfriend home now, Derek.” Her eyes twinkled.

  If she could just summon enough energy, she’d be glaring at Marcy by now. She was not Derek’s girlfriend! She wasn’t anyone’s girlfriend! She was an ex-girlfriend. That was what she was. An ex-girlfriend! The thought threatened her resolve, making Jaike shudder involuntarily.

  Fifteen months. For fifteen months she had allowed herself to dream, had dared to believe that her life was finally going to be perfectly predictable because she had the right man next to her.

  She remembered laughing with Angelo as they argued about her choice of paperbacks in the bookstore. She remembered the times he would wake her up with a sweet chaste kiss on her lips if he caught her asleep on her laptop. Jaike remembered a lot more, but the memories that used to make her smile were now like knife stabs into her heart. They were so beautiful, and they were so fake.

  Derek’s arm tightened around her, and his voice was tight with worry when he spoke. “You don’t look good.”

  “I’m…fine.” She was. She had to be. She had been alone before. She could do it again.

  The walk back to Blake Hall was spent in silence. All she could do was concentrate on breathing and doing her best not to break down.

  Derek’s arm remained protectively curled around her shoulders even all the way up in the elevator. When they reached her floor, her fingers trembled as she fumbled for the keys inside her bag.

  Jaike turned around when she finally managed to unlock her door. “W-would you like to come in?” The words felt like they were from a Nicholas Sparks movie – it was that unreal, a bad omen that would somehow get a happily-ever-after.

  Was she really asking Derek Christopoulos to come inside her room?

  Derek stared at her for a long moment before nodding. “I’d like that, thanks.”

  And then he stepped inside with her and closed the door behind him.

  Jaike stared at Derek, a bit of her sanity returning and causing her to experience a sliver of panic as Derek’s gaze settled on her, his thoughts hidden behind the blank mask on his face.

  The room suddenly felt smaller and hotter, dominated by the sheer impact of his presence. She forgot about Rosie, about Angelo, about everything else. All she could see, feel, and think of was Derek.

  “Jaike.”

  Just that one word told her everything she didn’t want to know. The way he said her name, the way his eyes burned with a purposeful glitter---

  Once she had asked him why he kept bothering to be nice to her, when he so clearly didn’t lack for female company and she so clearly wasn’t comfortable in his presence. Then, he had only given her a smile that could have meant anything.

  But tonight, he was answering her.

  Derek Christopoulos wanted to be her fucking Dom.

  Literally.

  Three Years Earlier

  Angelo Valencia, dressed in his usual pretty-preppy boy shit, was making a move on the girl Derek wanted more than anything in his life. Eighteen fucking years old and Valencia dressed like he was headed to the NYSE. Who the fuck wore a tie to a post-orientation bash for freshmen? They were called fucking fresh for a goddamn reason.

  Unfortunately, the chick that had caught his eye seemed to dig Valencia’s style. Derek knew this for a fact since he stood close enough to hear every word exchanged between her and the prick.

  “Don’t let those girls bother you,” Angelo was murmuring.

  Derek knew the other guy was talking about the bitches that had surrounded the girl earlier. He was usually laidback, but even his hackles had immediately risen at the way those stupid bitches had talked shit about Jaike. He had been about to go over and help her, but Angelo had appeared out of nowhere, beating him to the punch.

  She smiled at the other man, her face softening. “I never do. You don’t have to worry about me.”

  Angelo grinned. “Good. I was afraid I’d have to join my first bitch fight just to protect you.”

  She laughed, the melodic sound stroking Derek like a siren’s call.

  The two spent more than a few minutes chatting and laughing. Her smile was breath-taking. It was the most beautiful thing about her, lighting her face up in a way that made him want to find out if she would give him that smile if - no, when – he took her body.

  His fists clenched as Jaike kept on smiling at the other man. Derek wanted to hoard her smile so that no other man would know how lovely she was.

  “I have to go,” Valencia said when a faculty member waved him to come over from the opposite side of the auditorium. He stepped in front of Jaike, which placed him directly in Derek’s line of vision as well.

  A possessive warning glinted in Valencia’s gaze just before he bent down to kiss Jaike on the cheek.

  Fucking asshole. Derek wanted to beat the other man up but knew it wouldn’t help him. He wasn’t blind. A lot of girls went for the bad boy – the rebel without a cause, but he knew that Jaike Hepburn was not like that. She would choose Valencia over him because she was the type to want someone she was comfortable with, someone who wouldn’t make her heart race or force her to lose control.

  Jaike Hepburn would not want someone like Derek Christopoulos – even if she needed him as much as he needed her.

  “Hi.” He strolled towards her as soon as Valencia turned his back, uncaring if the other man heard him or not.

  She had the look of a cornered rabbit as she took in all of him. Derek almost groaned at his bad choice of words. They made him imagine Jaike on her knees, taking his throbbing dick into her mouth.

  “H-hi.” It had taken Jaike quite a while to speak, and Derek tried not to be offended at how she clearly didn’t want to look anywhere but him.

  “I’m Derek by the way.” He suppressed a smile as she ducked her head so she could pretend she didn
’t see his outstretched hand.

  “Jaike Hepburn,” she mumbled.

  “I know.”

  Her head snapped up.

  “I’ve been watching you the moment you arrived.”

  A bemused look entered her eyes.

  “I’m thinking maybe we could go out after this, just to get to know each other better?”

  Her face turned red. “Umm, no, sorry, but thanks.”

  It took more than a moment for Derek to realize that she had shot him down.

  He tried again. “Are you worried because I’m a stranger? I’m a Christopoulos.” He tried not to flush at the words. He had never used his name as a bargaining tool, but for this girl he was apparently willing to do anything. “The whole school can vouch for me.”

  “I know you’re a…a…Christopoulos.” She had a cute frustrated look in her eyes, but it wasn’t enough to make him take pity. His pride was stung, knowing that she was implicitly choosing Valencia over him. Was she really that much of a fool to think she would be satisfied with second best?

  Her shoulders lifted in a helpless shrug. “But I just don’t…”

  “You really don’t want to go out with me?” 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 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.