Protecting What's His (10 page)

Chapter Thirteen

With the reluctant bathroom attendant’s help, Ginger finally managed to get past Lisa and out of the bathroom. She pushed through the swinging door and nearly ran into Derek waiting for her on the other side, holding her shawl. One look at his face and she knew he’d seen Lisa enter the bathroom behind her.

Ginger stormed past him, through the lively banquet hall and lobby, encountering a few curious looks as she passed. She found herself on the dark street outside the hotel before she took a single breath. Derek’s hand wrapped around her arm, stopping her before she could hail a cab.

“Slow down. What the hell happened in there?” She spun on Derek and his irritated expression vanished. “Talk to me,” he implored.

“I’ve just been accosted by your hammered ex-girlfriend in the bathroom.”

“Jesus.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “What did she say to you?”

Ginger ignored the question. “You know what I don’t understand, Derek? Why you weren’t just honest with me. We’re not dating. We barely
like
each other. You told me this date was a favor
to you
. If you’d explained your reasons for bringing me along, we could have put on a
real
good show for old Lisa. Hell, if you’d asked nicely, I might have let you feel me up on the dance floor.”

He stared at her for a minute, expression confused, then took her arm and led her down the sidewalk, away from the hotel. A valet attendant even jumped out of his way to let them pass.
Nice.

“Let me
go
.”

“No.”

Upon arriving, Derek had parked his SUV down an empty side street adjacent to the hotel, placing a police department placard in the windshield so it wouldn’t be towed. In the night’s darkness, the street now resembled more of an alley, steam rising in white curls from manhole covers and zero traffic passing by.

Having no choice but to trip after him in her heels, she fumed in silence at Derek’s back the entire way to the car. Reaching it, he whirled around to face her.

“Are you jealous?”

Sputtering, she pulled her arm out of his grasp. “
Excuse me?
”

“You are.” He nodded slowly. “Good.”

“You have no idea how close you are to a painful death right now.”

Derek stepped closer and Ginger held up a hand to stop him. He merely kept coming, pressing his chest against her palm and groaning at the simple contact.

“I don’t play bullshit mind games, Ginger. I brought you here for a lot of reasons. Making Lisa jealous definitely wasn’t one of them.”

Ginger scrutinized Derek’s face closely to judge his sincerity and sensed him telling the truth. He’d been up-front with her since the beginning of their association about what he wanted. Mind games simply weren’t his style. If she allowed herself to be honest, she’d hardly believed Lisa in the first place.

So why didn’t she feel reassured? His words did nothing to soothe the foreign emotions swirling around, bumping into each other inside her chest. She felt out of control, a little giddy. She wanted to slap Derek across the face just so he’d chase her down and make her pay for it. None of her thoughts made sense.

Derek had been watching her carefully. Now he stepped closer, right into her space. Ginger’s back came up against the SUV. Tipping her face up using her chin, Derek’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully on her face.

“Unbelievable. You’re still jealous, aren’t you?”

Her voice shook. “Let go of me. Get away from me.”

“No. I want you to explain. Explain to me why.”

She glared up at him.

He leaned down and his breath feathered across her forehead, then down to her ear where he spoke in a coaxing voice. “I can
make
you talk, baby. Is that what you want? If you need my hand between your legs, all you have to do is ask me.”

Before Ginger could form the words to protest, Derek’s hand slid up her inner thigh and under the skirt of her dress to cup her intimately. Ginger’s head fell back against the car window and she moaned without shame. The anxious feeling in her stomach fled, replaced with sharp longing.

How had he known exactly what she needed? She hadn’t even known herself. All night, she’d felt achy and off-kilter. Was this the reason? She’d craved his touch this badly?

Derek’s voice rasped against her neck. “Is that better? I shouldn’t have spanked you earlier when we didn’t have time for more. You’ve needed me inside you.”

His thumb slipped through her folds and grazed her clitoris. Ginger cried out, but anticipating her reaction, Derek swallowed the sound with his own mouth, holding her up with his body.

He spoke against her mouth, provoking her. “Did you like being spanked, beautiful girl? Would you like me to do it harder next time?”

His questions re-created images of the earlier punishment. Every time she’d sat down throughout the evening, she’d been reminded of it. And the reason for it.

That was for the hard-on I’ll be walking around with tonight.

“Yes, but you already knew that.” Her words ended in a shaky breath as he slipped two fingers inside her.

“Good, I like it when you’re honest with me. Now tell me why you’re jealous.”

Her thighs quaked on either side of his hand, showing him without words how badly she needed him to continue his expert torture. Panting breaths,
hers
, filled the silence following his command. She looked into his eyes, staggered by the intensity there.

“
Tell me,
” Derek growled, placing his lips flush against hers, but not kissing her. “I want to taste your jealousy.”

To hell with it.
The words rushed out against his mouth before she could stop them. “Yes! I’m jealous, you asshole! I don’t like her knowing what it’s like to fuck you when I don’t. I hate it.
I hate it!
”

Before the words were completely free of her mouth, Derek threw open the passenger side door, scooped her up in his arms, and deposited her on the leather seat, slamming the door behind her. Then he rounded the front of the car, watching her all the while through the windshield. She barely had time to register shock over what she’d said out loud before Derek climbed in the car and started the engine.

The only sound in the car was the hum of the motor for several moments before he spoke.

“Listen to me, baby. From the time we walk in the door to my apartment, you will have less than a minute before I put my cock inside you. No foreplay. No kissing. There won’t be any time, because you’ve got me strung so damn tight I can barely think straight. I need you to keep yourself wet for me on the ride home. Starting now.” Reaching across the car’s console, he yanked her skirt high on her thighs. “Put your hand between your legs, Ginger.”

Reeling from his bold declaration, it took a moment for Derek’s request to penetrate. He couldn’t be serious. Touch herself in the car? “What if someone sees me?”

“There’s no way I’d let that happen.”

Throwing the car in gear, Derek issued a terse command for her to buckle her seat belt, then peeled away from the curb. They reached a red light at the corner and she still hadn’t moved to obey Derek’s earlier order. His eyes moved over her, scorching everything in their path, prompting Ginger to look down at herself, curious over what he saw. Her breasts, puffy with arousal, strained against the top of her dress, practically spilling out. Bare legs stretched all the way up to her naked lap, which he’d exposed by hiking up her dress.

His breathing roughened from across the car, and all at once, his reaction filled her with confidence and weakened her inhibitions. Suddenly, the soft leather beneath her ass felt glorious. The car’s oversize seat made her feel delicate, feminine, sexy. Knowing how closely Derek watched, her hips moved, tested the feeling of leather against her nakedness. Her thighs pressed together. Slid apart.

Ginger’s eyelids dropped, her head tipped back. She pictured Derek, how he’d looked last night. Shirtless and damp, his arm muscles shifting and bulging as he pleasured her with his hand.

Of its own volition, one hand moved to her thigh, caressing the inside with soft fingertips. Derek made a rough sound in the darkness. The stoplight must have turned green because he cursed, punching the gas to fly through the intersection.

The vibration of the car engine caused the leather to shake against her naked core. Gasping at the sensation, Ginger’s hand glided higher, finally slipping between her legs.

“Good girl. Show me how you touch yourself.”

His voice sounded like gravel and stroked over her like a rough caress. She wanted to replace her hand with his bigger, more skillful one, and told him so out loud.

“
God,
baby. Me, too. Just a little bit longer.”

Using two fingers, Ginger found the place needing the most attention and stroked over it gently at first, moaning at the delicious pressure, then faster until her hips moved restlessly on the seat, begging for release.

“Don’t you dare come, Ginger. Not yet. You’ll come with me inside you tonight or not at all.”

She barely heard him. Release was only seconds away. She could feel the tightening of her muscles, the trembling beginning in her upper thighs and moving higher. Derek’s scent surrounded her in his car, pushing her even closer to the edge.

Suddenly, her hand was gone from between her thighs and being held in Derek’s shaking grip.

“
Enough.
”

Ginger tried to pull her hand free, her breath shuddering in and out. She started to call him every filthy name in the book, but the words died on her lips when she perceived the raw agony on his face. Jaw clenched tight, eyes bright and glazed. His harsh breaths matched hers, echoing through the car’s interior.

Her hooded eyes dropped to his lap, widening at the thick erection pressed against his dress pants. The sight of his arousal made her pulse kick even higher. She reached for him, but his grip on her wrist tightened almost painfully.

“No. If you touch me there, we won’t make it. I’ll have to pull over and fuck you on the hood of the car.”

Ginger nearly begged him to do it. As out of control as she felt, roadside sex seemed perfectly reasonable.

The light changed and Derek burned rubber through another intersection, taking a left turn onto their street once he reached the end of the block. Their building came into view on the right.

He pulled into a parking space behind the structure, threw the car in park, and rounded the car before she’d even removed her seat belt. Ginger’s door was flung open. Brusquely, Derek reached in the car to adjust her dress until she once again appeared decent, then grasped her around the waist and pulled her out with little effort. Her heels clicked as she landed on the concrete.

He placed a firm hand on her back, propelling her toward the building. “Walk.”

“Derek, wait.”

He tensed, but didn’t stop walking. They’d reached the second floor and stood just outside his apartment door before she found her voice. “She can’t hear us. My sister. Please, Derek.”

His hand froze in the act of unlocking the door before it resumed turning the key. With a curt nod of acknowledgment, he pushed the door open and scooped her in his arms.

“What are you doing?” she whispered. “I can walk.”

“Your heels will make too much noise on the wood floor.”

“Oh. Why don’t I just take them off?”

“I want them on.”

Ginger felt a delicious tightening in her stomach and she clung tighter to his shoulders. He marched them through the dark apartment and into his bedroom, then kicked the door shut behind them. Her nerves threatened to reach the surface, but she blocked them out. She wanted this. Wanted
him
.

Derek strode into the en suite bathroom, set her down just inside the door, then pushed her up against it. Ginger looked up into his face and for once, forgot to hide her emotions. He’d adhered to her request without a moment’s hesitation, simply because she’d asked. He would never know how much the small gesture meant to her. No one would hear them in the tiled room tucked in the back of the apartment. He was too busy undressing to acknowledge her gratitude, however.

As he untucked the white dress shirt from his pants, she caught a glimpse of his ridged abdomen before he let it drop. Her breathing roughened when he removed his shirt, exposing his stomach, arms, and chest. Derek had the kind of body that looked capable of inflicting pain and pleasure equally. His scattered tattoos made him look like a barroom brawler who bloodies half the men in the room but still has enough stamina afterward to satisfy two women in bed. His muscles shifted with every breath, like they could break free of his skin at any moment. He intimidated and aroused.

“Strip,” he said.

His tone warned her not to protest. She didn’t want to. Before she lost her courage, Ginger reached around and unzipped the dress, letting it slide down over her hips to pool at her feet, completely exposing her body to him. She pressed her palms against the door behind her so she wouldn’t be tempted to cover herself.

Derek paused in the act of unbuckling his belt, his green eyes darkening until they appeared almost black. Her body readied further under his starved look. “Christ. I wish I had enough self-control to taste every inch of you.”

He pushed his pants and boxer briefs down his legs, stepped out of them, and moved toward Ginger so fast, she gasped. Back pressed against the door, she let her gaze drop to the hand gripping his heavy erection, stroking it from root to head.

“Are you wet enough for me, Ginger?”

Before she could answer, he guided his cock between her slightly parted thighs and through her cleft, dragging the head achingly slow through her wetness. He growled near the top of her head, circling her clitoris with the engorged head. But he pulled himself away just as quickly, making Ginger whimper in protest.