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

“Jaike.”
    Tears stung Jaike’s eyes as she heard Derek say her name. Why did she feel so damn happy just because he had said her name? Slowly, she clutched her chest, not liking the way her heart throbbed so painfully against it.  
    She had just shamed him in front of his friends. Didn’t he know that? Shouldn’t he be punishing her now? Shouldn’t he be leaving her now?
    When Derek no longer said anything, she couldn’t help it. “What is it?” Oh God, she sounded so militant – so irritated when she knew she was the one who was wrong.  
    He said quietly, “Just take it back.”
    She stared at him, stricken.  
    “That’s all you have to do, baby. Take it back and admit the truth.”
    Desperately, she searched his gaze for a sign of deception. He couldn’t mean it. No man could be as forgiving as him. No Master… no Dom could let her mistake go just like that.
    But when she looked into his blue-gray eyes, all she could see was the truth.  
    And something else, something she was too terrified to name.
    Jaike tried to make her throat work, but the words just couldn’t come out. Anytime now, she thought numbly. Anytime now and he would punish her, would shout at her for being fickle, would hurt her—
    But Derek did none of those.
    Instead, he simply turned away.
    She started to cry silently. She wanted to call him back so badly. I’m sorry, please, come back, forgive me. I’m begging you. Please come back—
    But memories of Diana were playing in her mind again, working like a cage that kept the words locked inside her throat, never to be spoken.  
    “Jaike?”
    When she looked up, she found herself staring up at Christien di Luca. She expected to see judgment or even disgust and fury in his gaze, and she wouldn’t have blamed him. But instead, she saw…sympathy.
    It made her cry harder.
    Behind him, she saw that Derek was too far away to hear her now. She would have to shout if she wanted him to hear her. His other friends were with him, Reid Chalkias and Nick Christakos, and both of them were as silent as he was as they walked away.
    When Christien saw where Jaike was looking, he asked quietly, “Do you want me to call him back for you?”
    She shook her head, still crying. No matter how much she wanted to say yes, she knew that it was something she alone should do.
    “If it makes any difference…I had never heard Derek happier than when he called us last night about moving in with you.”
    The words made Jaike want to sink to her knees and bawl her eyes out.
    “I don’t know exactly what he feels for you, but one thing I am certain of – you matter to him, more than anything else.”
    ****
    “And you haven’t heard from him since then?” Marcy whispered, wide-eyed. Both of them were seated at the bleachers, having finished doing their laps.
    Jaike shook her head. “Not a peep.” She, too, whispered, knowing that everywhere she went, there were always people looking and trying to listen in on her conversations. It was something she was slowly getting used to.
    “You’re not going to apologize and take it back?”
    “Why should I?” She shrugged, trying but failing to sound indifferent. “It’s his fault for eavesdropping.”
    Marcy only raised a brow.
    The look made her feel even more defensive, and she huddled more deeply under the terry robe she wore over her swimsuit. “What am I going to apologize for?” Jaike couldn’t meet her friend’s gaze as she uttered the words, knowing it for the lie it was.
    Below them, the other students in their class were starting to leave, with only a handful left in the pool. Even their swimming coach was gathering her stuff from the front-row bleachers, and the sight of it made Jaike feel depressed. This was her last class for the day, and after it she had nowhere to go back to except home.
    Funny how her home no longer felt like hers now.
    Derek only had to spend one night in it and just like that, the place already felt like his.
    “Why do