Warning: Love Moderately Read online

For a moment, he was tempted to flip her on her back. He wanted to spank her beautiful buttocks until they became red with his handprint. Derek had seen the slightest hesitation in her eyes, and it fucking hurt.

  He understood and appreciated that Jaike was no fickle woman to transfer her emotions so easily. For whatever reason, she had made herself care for the prick. But Valencia was gone, and Derek was here. He would do everything possible to eradicate even the smallest trace of the other man in her heart. Derek wanted her totally consumed by him, the way she had completely consumed his thoughts and his feelings all these years.

  He pulled Jaike to him, making her gasp in surprise as she fell on top of his aroused body. He gave her a short hard kiss that made her whimper. It was sexy, rough, and exciting – nothing at all like the wet and sloppy kisses that she had experienced in the past.

  “Derek,” she whispered.

  His dick rose in response, sliding against her pussy, and startling out another gasp from Jaike.

  He moved his mouth to her ear. “And I’m yours, Jaike,” he whispered. “Always been yours.” He bit her ear.

  She gasped again, jerking forward in response, her pert breasts pressing against his chest.

  “Look at me.” Her eyes rose to meet him, clouded with desire. She looked at Derek the way he had always dreamt she would look at him, utterly willing to do anything to please him.

  Her surrender made his dick shoot up, trying to slip into her heat as he bit out, “Say I’m yours, Jaike.”

  She smiled tremulously. “Mine. You’re mine.” There was a note of wonder and shy pride in her voice, and Derek exhaled, striving for control as he nearly came at the sound at it.

  “Don’t ever fucking forget that, baby. We belong to each other, and I’ll fucking kill anyone who tries to get between us.” He kissed her again, fucking her mouth with his tongue until she gasped for breath, her nails digging into his back.

  Derek rolled them around, Jaike landing on her back. Not wasting any time, he went down on her, pushing her thighs wide open and pressing his mouth to her pussy.

  Fuck gentle foreplay, Derek thought as he inhaled Jaike’s lovely musky scent. He wanted to give her all in one shot, drive her crazy the way she had tormented him all these years.

  He thrust his tongue inside her warmth.

  Jaike screamed, and her hands immediately went to his hair, trying to use it to pull his head away as she writhed under him.

  “Don’t pull.” He held his breath, wondering if she would remember what she had promised.

  Slowly, Jaike’s hands loosened its grip.

  “Push my head closer so I can eat you better.”

  Mindless with passion, Jaike could only obey, pushing his head closer as she lifted her hips, grinding her pussy against his mouth.

  Derek gave his all to that kiss, using his tongue and lips to say what he knew he couldn’t yet utter through words.

  When she started trembling underneath him, her hips bucking wildly, Derek moved up, nuzzling the nub of flesh hidden between the folds. And then he started to suck.

  “Please.” Jaike knew she was about to come, and the thought that she was going to have her first orgasm with Derek blew her away, building her excitement into breathless proportions. She pushed her hips up more demandingly, nails biting into the panes of his arched back to urge him to eat her more.

  The fact that he was driving her wild drove Derek crazy, too, threatening every ounce of his control, urging him to fuck her with his dick instead of his tongue.

  “Please, please.”

  “Please what?” he rasped out.

  Her head tossed from side to side. “Please let me---”

  Derek’s teeth clamped on her clit, employing just the right amount of pressure to drive his girl insane with pleasure.

  Jaike came for him with a scream. Her body shook at the tornado of sensations that assaulted it, and she couldn’t stop the little whimpers of pleasure that spilled out of her mouth as she continued to come.

  The soft look of ecstasy on Jaike’s face hypnotized Derek. Mine, he thought as he quickly stroked himself. Keeping his gaze on the beautiful expression on his girl’s face, Derek sent himself over the edge and he came with a guttural groan.

  When Jaike opened her eyes, they were bright like jewels, and they shone even more as she smiled at him in drowsy contentment.

  The smile hit him like a bolt of lightning, and he trembled with renewed need. It was official: Derek had gone to fuck heaven.

  He gave her a wicked smile in return, just before he dipped his head down and licked her clean. His smile stretched on his lips when he heard her squeal in surprise, her hips tensing as he ran his tongue on her flesh from top to bottom.

  “Relax,” he ordered. His chest eased in satisfaction even as his dick throbbed when she immediately did what he asked, her hips slowly settling back on the bed and her legs falling open once more.

  Derek rose over her only when he had cleaned the very last drop of her cum. Bracing himself on his arms, he asked, “Who do you belong to, Jaike?”

  Jaike touched his face “Yours, Derek. I’m yours.”

  This time there was no hesitation at all, and the words of her submission made his heart slam hard against his chest.

  Yet Derek knew he still had a long way to go. There was a part of Jaike that still harbored feelings for Angelo Valencia, but soon all those feelings would disappear for good. Whatever it took, Derek would make them disappear.

  He lowered his head to take her lips for another kiss, letting her taste herself through him.

  “Just the start,” he said hoarsely as she pulled away from him, gasping for breath, her eyes dilated in desire. “This is just the start.”

  Tears welled in Jaike’s eyes at the wealth of promise that lied behind Derek’s words. Could she really make herself believe him? Would history not repeat itself with her and Derek?

  “Sleep now,” Derek murmured.

  The commanding tone of his voice soothed her. When he pulled her close, settling her on top of his body, Jaike snuggled willingly to Derek. She rubbed her face his chest, loving how reassuringly solid it was against her cheek.

  His lips touched her ear as he whispered, “Sleep, baby.”

  Her eyelids drifted shut.

  Her alarm clock buzzed, but unlike most mornings Jaike felt a deep-seated reluctance to wake up. Her eyes felt heavier, her body felt too languorous, and there was a dull throb in her temple. The pain reminded Jaike of the first time she had tried to drink alcohol and found out how she sucked at it.

  She squeezed her eyes shut as the pain increased. It felt like she had giant parasites partying inside her head. It took her a while to open her eyes, but when she did, what Jaike saw made her instantly remember everything that had happened last night.

  Derek. Jaike covered her mouth to keep herself from shrieking, her eyes wide with horror as she stared at his sleeping face next to her in bed. She peeked at his body and swallowed back another shriek. He really was naked. It hadn’t been a dream, what they had done last night.

  What had she done? Oh my God, what had she done?

  Her mind answered with explicit images, and she cringed from it. Maybe asking herself what happened wasn’t a good idea, after all. She remembered too much. Worse, she ached for it.

  Jaike carefully slid out of bed, trying not to make a sound as she opened the door just enough for her to squeeze her way out of the bedroom.

  The living room wasn’t any better at giving her respite. Jaike felt claustrophobic as every corner of her suite seemed to remind her of Derek. Angelo had been visiting her here all these years, and yet his personality never left an impression on her place the way Derek did.

  Still unable to breathe, she got out of her suite and ran all the way up to the rooftop area, where unused dorm furniture was temporarily stored under makeshift sheds. Jaike leaned against the wall and slowly slid down to the ground. She pulled her knees close, tucking them under her chin.
r />   When she closed her eyes, she was a little girl again.

  The wardrobe cabinet was near to bursting with Diana Hepburn’s clothes, but Jaike was a small child, and she had no problems squeezing herself all the way to the back. She had panicked at the sound of footsteps, knowing that Diana wouldn’t be pleased if she caught Jaike entering her bedroom without permission again.

  Diana was talking, and Jaike had thought her mother was on the phone until she heard a man answer her laughingly. Carefully pushing the plastic-wrapped gowns to the sides, Jaike wriggled forward until she could peek between the slits of the cabinet doors.

  The first person she saw was Diana, her blond hair big and wild around her face. There were dark circles under her eyes, and the red marks around Diana’s neck were already familiar to Jaike’s eyes, even though she didn’t quite understand what it was.

  “Do you love me, Diana?”

  Her mother lowered herself on her knees, head bowed. “I love you more than anything.”

  A naked man came into view, and Jaike knew him. Jaike had heard people call him ‘Anthony’ or ‘Mr. Carras’. But to Jaike, he was simply “Uncle Tony”, someone who had been in their lives for as long as she could remember even though Diana had told Jaike he wasn’t her daddy. He was a nice man, someone who took the time to play with her and her dolls.

  Uncle Tony caressed her mother’s bowed head in approval. “And you will do everything for me?”

  “Yes, oh, yes.” Fervor made Diana trip all over her words .

  “Anything?” He fondled Diana’s silk-covered breasts.

  “Anything, Anthony.”

  Jaike scurried to the edge of the cabinet when she heard the door squeak open. She pushed the dresses away to see who was coming in, and she cried silent tears when she saw another naked man walk in. Everything suddenly felt wrong and bad, like the time the doctor told her she had food poisoning. It was because she had eaten something rotten, and the scene before her felt like that. Ugly. Nasty. Rotten.

  “Love us both, Diana.”

  Diana swayed on her knees, but Uncle Tony didn’t reach out to help her. “W-what?”

  “Love us both.” He grabbed Diana by the hair, and her mother cried out. “It’s a fucking order.”

  Diana hadn’t a chance to answer. The two men were tearing her clothes away in seconds, and Jaike cried with her mother as Diana lied sandwiched between Anthony and the stranger, the rapturous expressions on their faces at odds with the agony in Diana’s eyes.

  And when they were done, when they pulled out of their mother, their flesh flaccid, Anthony had asked Diana to crawl to them and kiss their feet. And she had.

  Jaike leaned back, closing her eyes tiredly as the back of her head touched the wall. She only realized she had fallen asleep when she heard the metal doors of the rooftop opening.

  A shirtless Derek came out, and his eyes found her before she could even think of moving. She waited for him to say hello, to smile teasingly like he always did, but Derek did none of those.

  The morning light was behind him, and she had to shade her eyes just to see his face clearly. He was even more beautiful now, sexier too, with his tousled hair, blue-gray eyes still drowsy and stubble on his chin.

  She wasn’t Diana Hepburn, and he wasn’t Anthony Carras, but oh God, what if they were worse?

  “What’s wrong?” He didn’t even come close, and it made her want to cry. Why did Derek Christopoulous seem to know her better than she knew herself? How did he know when to give her space and when not to give her even a second to think?

  “You’re scaring me, baby. What’s wrong?”

  Everything, Jaike thought with an inner sob.

  She was his now.

  For better or for worse, she belonged to Derek, and she was so damn afraid of what that would mean for the rest of her life.

  This short is for promotional purposes only.

  The rest of Derek and Jaike’s story will be out on March 29, 2013.

  This is the debut novel of L. Marcelo.

  About the Authors

  Marian Tee is a Filipino-Chinese with a degree in Business Administration and a passion for manga and all things Japanese as well as learning languages. As a horror enthusiast, she loves watching scary flicks in her spare time and count Ladda Land and The Sixth Sense among her favorites.

  L. Marcelo’s skills in drawing and photography have earned her an Animation degree, but her love for books has eventually taken her life to another direction. A fangirl at heart, she occasionally flies out of the country to attend special events of her favorite Taiwanese and K-Pop stars.

  If you like what you’ve read, both authors would greatly appreciate if you were to leave a review for the book in Amazon and/or Goodreads.

  Readers are welcome to drop by at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Literary-Flings-Co

  to chat with the authors.

  Marian may also be contacted through her website at MarianTee.com

  Turn to the next pages to read excerpts of Marian Tee’s other works in Amazon.

  Chased: Book 1 of How (Not) to be Seduced by Billionaires

  Note: The second and third books in the trilogy, Courted and Caged, are already available in Amazon.

  Sensing the man next to me turning to my direction and not getting any unfriendly and competitive vibes from him, I silently breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of having at least one person in the room not antagonistic toward me.

  Friendly smile in place, I said, “Hel—oly shit.”

  Bottle Blonde gasped.

  I cringed at the sound. That was what I should have done. Gasped. But then – who could blame me, really? Anyone would have been completely shocked at seeing someone so incredibly beautiful in person. Men were not supposed to be beautiful, dammit. But this one was.

  His sun-kissed hair seemed to have all the shades between dark gold to copper – his natural hair color, in other words. It was impossible for any artificial hair dye to create his kind of hair, which was also naturally curly. Those adorable curls would have made him look gay if not for his strong jaw. His eyes were the lightest shade of gray, almost silver – and they were laughing at me, with his sexy-looking lips curved in a slight, amused grin.

  My heart sank the second time in minutes at the sight of it. Great. Way to make an impression on a potential rival in the workforce: let him know he’s turned your head around completely.

  Desperate to make him forget my embarrassing gaffe, I asked quickly, “Are you applying for the marketing research position, too?”

  He raised a brow, making me wonder what I had said wrong. His sexy secretive grin still playing on his lips, he said simply, “No.”

  We stared at each other after that. I didn’t want to – I swear I didn’t – but somehow his gaze was commanding and magnetic, and I felt like I wouldn’t be able to pull my gaze away unless he let me. And really, I knew how ridiculous that sounded – especially where I was concerned.

  My parents had even nicknamed me “Little Miss Granite” because I was stubborn as a rock. Even as a kid, I had a tendency to be headstrong when there was something I wanted.

  I had never been a pushover, and yet here I was - a slave to a stranger’s gaze. I was scared that if this man told me to bend over, I’d ask if he wanted me to take off my undies first or let him do the honors.

  The Werewolf Prince and I

  Somehow, I expected something a lot kinkier than this cozily furnished room. It even has its own faux fireplace and a rocking chair. If this was an orgy house, it would seem like Mr. Moretti has a taste for cougars. The really old ones.

  Past the mini-living room in front of the fireplace is a breakfast counter and a small but fully-equipped kitchen. There’s even a basket of fruits on the worktable, plus a blender half-filled with some thick-looking yellow liquid.

  Organic Viagra, perhaps?

  When I glance back at Domenico Moretti, he’s visibly exasperated. “It’s just fresh mango shake, my dirty-minded littl
e darling.”

  Forget about the dirty mind part. I’m totally blown away he’s called me his darling.

  “Don’t believe the stuff people have been saying about me. Most of it is garbage.” He frowns, staring hard at my face as if he’s seen something that doesn’t make sense.

  Shick!

  I try to school my expression into something less obvious, but it’s too late.

  He makes a choking sound. “Are you actually disappointed?”

  “I’m not!” My cheeks heat up at his accusation. And I’m not – really!

  Mr. Moretti laughs, a full-bodied one that shouldn’t have sounded so sexy but does. He leans back against his chair, still laughing. Seated as he is, head thrown back and lean muscular legs fully stretched out before him, Domenico Moretti looks like a picture-perfect ad for Playgirl.

  He’s also unapologetically aroused.

  I can’t help noticing, and it turns me into a tongue-tied lump of melting jelly. The shape of his erection is more than visible against his pants, which stretch tautly on his thighs. My heart speeds up, working double-time as he finally stops laughing and leans forward.

  “I’m sorry I made you faint,” he murmurs.

  Drawn: His Secret Toy

  “Relax,” he murmurs. “I’m not going to have sex with you, I promise.” A wicked grin briefly appears on his lips. “And that kills you, doesn’t it?”

  I want to say ‘fuck off’. I want to flip him the middle finger. But years of strict Christian upbringing are hard to ignore.

  “Piss off,” I say again instead.

  He blinks. “This is going to sound weird, but…do you turn Brit when you’re mad?”

  “Piss off.”

  We get into a tug-of-war, one that Yuki easily wins, and I’m out of the car in a flash.

  “Say ‘fuck’ and I’ll let you go right this minute.”

  “F…f...piss off!”

  Yuki doubles over. “You do!” He looks at me with tears in his eyes. “When we have fantasy sex, do I get to have a British accent, too?”