Chapter 26

Stacey’s POV

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“What was that?” Laila asked, raising her brow when I returned back to them, holding Lucy’s hand.

“What?” I acted innocently, leaving Lucy’s hand and sitting in the place where I was sitting before. Lucy chuckled, wiping her hair. “I went to bring Lucy from there because I wanted to save your mate’s life from you guys; otherwise, you would have might kill them for staring at Lucy’s sexy figure.”, I explained.

“Oh! Come on! At least don’t lie in front of us.”, Lucy said, throwing the wet towel at my face. I growled at her for disrespecting me. If she hadn’t been my friend, I would have kicked her ass.

“What am I lying about, huh?” I asked, throwing the wet towel back at her.

“That you are planning to choose him as your mate.”, Lucy said, shrugging her shoulder.

“It’s not like that. Okay!” I muttered and looked at Derek, who was enjoying himself with my friends and my friend’s mate even though he had met them for the first time, unlike Adams, who used to boss around using his Alpha tone. I wondered how did everyone adjust to him because he was totally used to acting like he was out of the place.

‘And I wonder why are you even thinking about him?’ Alicia said, on which I realized what I was doing. I pushed all the thoughts of Adams into the corner of my brain.

“He is down to earth and is really a great guy.”, I heard Ruby speaking.

“Yeah, he is!!” I responded with a smile on my face.

“Ace!! Come on now! Tell us, what exactly is going on between you and Derek?” Laila asked in a serious tone, on which I turned my face toward her. “You are saying that you are not going to choose him as your mate, and you also said that it is nothing serious between you two. But at the same time, you cannot take your eyes off him. I haven’t seen you doing this before to some random guy.”, She asked.

Damn it!

I didn’t know how long I could keep lying to everyone or lying to myself.

‘Both my wolf and I like him, but at the same time, I don’t want to go further because I was scared that what if all these pretended things become REAL.’

“I honestly don’t know, guys. For a moment, any guy can like me, but at the end of the day, when he will realize that I can’t bear his child, then he will obviously leave me because I won’t be able to give birth to his heir. For example, I’m the last heir of my Alpha’s blood because mom and dad don’t have any other child other than me, and being infertile, I can’t give birth to the next generation of my Alpha blood. Well, this is not the end; if I will choose Derek, then there will be no next heir of his family as well. That’s why considering all these things; I didn’t want to think about anything else.” I sighed, running my hands through my hair.

“Okay then!! I will not say another question about it.”, Lucy said, squeezing my shoulder.

“But at the same time, just stay away from him.”

“Noted, Ace.”, She winked. I smiled at her in appreciation because I honestly never wanted to talk about our future part with anyone, not with me. “But you need to stop staring at him, you know, because of the way you are giving him a look. I might have to think that you guys need a room.”, She added.

“Shut up!”

After an hour of gossip! We planned for cooking for us as well as for men who were busy drinking and dancing like an idiot. My friends helped me with the cooking, but the responsibility to cook everything was on my shoulder.

Not that I was complaining.

I loved cooking.

“You know, you should go and enjoy some time with your mate by dancing and singing.”

“Nope. There is still some work left. We are not going to leave us here in the kitchen and go out to enjoy ourselves.”

“Actually, we can do one thing.”, Ruby spoke. “How about we will go over there, enjoy with your mates and friends and send Derek over here? What say, guys?”

“No. You guys are not going to do that. Let him enjoy.”, I warned.

“Fine. I bet he will come here within fifteen minutes even if we do not ask him to come here.”, Saying this, Ruby kept twenty on the kitchen slab.

“II bet he will come here within five minutes!” Laila said, putting fifty on the kitchen slab.

“II bet he will come here within a minute.”, Lucy said, placing a hundred.

I looked at Tania, Sia, Alexa, and others; they raised their hand because they were not sure about Derek coming here. I shook my head, knowing that my friends were betting on such a ridiculous thing.

“What about you?” Lucy asked.

I knew what I was going to do.

Yes! You guess it right.

I wanted to lose the bet. I left from there to grab my purse and brought cash from it.

“I bet that he will not come.”, Saying this, I placed a thousand on the kitchen slab.

‘Unlucky in gambling, lucking in love.’

Once everyone left, I got back to my work, wondering whether he would come or not? Damn it! Lucy was also there; what if he would have started spending time with her? I shook my head, throwing that thought away from my head.

And just like Lucy had expected, I smelt his scent within a minute. I smiled but didn’t turn to look at him, acting like I was too busy cooking, which was almost completed. All I had to do was closed the stove after a while.

“Hey,” He whispered in my ear, hugging me from my back. I smelt the smell of alcohol from his mouth. So was he being this romantic because of alcohol? “Need my help in anything.”

“Nah! Everything is almost prepared.”, I responded.

“Hmm,” Humming a little, he grabbed all my hair carefully and made a bun of it.

“You don’t like me in open hair?”

“Not when it disturbs me from looking at your beautiful face and soft skins.”, He mumbled, brushing her lips over my neck. At that time, I wanted to turn around and kiss him passionately, just like I had done before, but I controlled myself to know what did Derek want? It was me who asked him to start pretending, it was me who kept flirting with him, it was me who also asked to have sex with me, and whenever he had done anything in response, he regretted that later. So, I didn’t want to push him into doing something which he didn’t want to.

“You are not in your sense, Derek. I don’t want you to keep apologizing to me later.”, I reminded him.

“I’m in my sense enough to know that whom I’m holding in my arms, Stacey. And I never drink that much, which my body can’t handle.”, With this, he flipped me off, pressing my body between the kitchen counter and him. He leaned down to kiss me, but I placed my hand between our lips before his lips would have touched mine.

He quickly moved away from me, maintaining some distance between us. I frowned when he did that. I missed the heat of his body already. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what I was thinking.” he started apologizing just like he used to do before. “I should join others.”, he mumbled, shaking his head, running his fingers through his hair. This gesture was really heartbreaking because it looked like he was going to continue this behavior as long as I wouldn’t speak about I feel like whenever he apologized for coming closer to me!!

“Are you really feeling sorry for coming close to me?” I asked, trying to hide the hurt in my voice, but I failed terribly. What did he think of me? It was not that I had threatened him or forced him into any intimacy between us.

He opened his mouth to answer when I beat him, “Just say YES, and I will make sure to cut your both hands if you will ever touch me from the hereafter.”, I said in a damn serious tone.

“I wouldn’t have run to come near you if I would have felt sorry for coming closer to you in the first place.”, he responded indirectly.

“Then why did you just apologize?” I demanded.

“That’s because you stopped me from kissing you. So I thought that I should have asked you before kissing you, or maybe you didn’t want me to kiss you. I had forgotten that we are just pretending, and here is no one in front of whom we have to pretend.”, he said, trying to look anywhere but me.

“God! Derek! I didn’t stop you for that reason. I thought to talk about something first before the kiss but damn it. Everything could wait.”, I said, lunging toward him and slamming my lips against his. Thankfully he didn’t waste much time and kissed me back. He reached one hand up, holding the back of my neck, making sure my lips stayed against his.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing myself against him. I could feel myself getting wet between my legs. I forced my tongue past his lips, pushing it against his, and he kissed me back with the same passion.

He walked us backward, pressing my back against the kitchen counter. Pressing himself against me, I moaned when I felt his little member between my legs. A strong wave of arousal hit my nose. I could tell that he was losing control over his body with every passing moment. We pulled away for a moment to grab some oxygen for our lungs.

“So, why had you stop me at that moment?” he asked while panting softly.

“Because I wanted to warn you that if you were going to apologize again after kissing me or leave me after sex with me or blame Rex for your behavior, then I wouldn’t mind cutting your balls.”

He chuckled before nodding his head. “As you say, but I was literally not going to apologize or blame Rex for the kiss. Not when I wanted to kiss you badly.”, he said, sliding his hands down my back, grabbing my ass. He lifted my feet from the ground and made me sit on the top of the kitchen counter, pushing my legs apart with his knees. He stepped between them, placing his hands on my bare thighs. I couldn’t help myself from whimpering under his touch. He didn’t wait for a single second more and pressed his lips back against mine, kissing me roughly. The kiss became more heated than it was a moment before. I hooked my legs around his waist, pulling him closer to me. Our tips and tongues were fighting for our dominance as our hands started exploring each other’s bodies.

Immediately I pushed him away when I smelt the smell of something burning.

“What happened?” he asked before he too realized something. “Holy shit.”, he cursed and placed me back to my feet. I checked the food, and unluckily it was burnt from the bottom. We both looked at each other, not knowing what to do. All the arousal and lust feeling was long gone. “I’m sorry for this.”, he apologized.

“Don’t be. You are not the only one here to be blamed.”, I said, not knowing what else I should say. But he looked really sad looking at the food. “It’s fine, Derek. I know a lot of things because of which the smell of the burnt food will go.” I winked. “All I need to do is some extra work.”

“And I’m in that mission.”

“No. It’s not required. I can manage.”, I assured him. “You can go outside and have fun.”

“Just because you can manage the things alone doesn’t mean you have to do it ALONE. I’m staying here, and I’m going to help you because just like you said, ‘you are not the only one here to be blamed,’ so you are not the only one whose responsibility is to make the things right.”, he said with determination, leaving no room for argument.

My heart fluttered hearing him. Now, I could see why Adams was so insecure about me falling in love with Derek. He was indeed a gem.

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#TBC