Page 88 of Inevitable Inheritance

Derrick was so stunned that Taylor was able to free her arm from him, and she settled back on her chair. She wanted to keep eating, but her appetite was gone, so she just moved the lasagna around on her plate. All Taylor could see was red.

It was quiet for a long time, Derrick just staring at Taylor, and Taylor playing with her food, getting angrier by the second.

Finally, Derrick broke the silence, “You really think I only want to marry you out of guilt?” he asked softly.

Taylor rolled her eyes, mouth full of her lukewarm lasagna, and said, “Tell me, why else are you going to marry me, Derrick? Oh yeah, I forgot you need a better rep, sorry, it wasn’t about guilt. But we just both agreed that it won’t work to give you a better reputation, so I guess it’s the guilt thing.”

Derrick’s jaw tensed as he looked at Taylor. “Taylor, my father is the one who thought it would save my reputation. That was never my idea. It’s not the reason I want to marry you.”

Taylor forked another glob of lasagna into her mouth and glared at Derrick. “Oh really? So what is it Derrick, the sex?” she asked, her sweet tone laced with sarcasm.

“No, damn it, because I am in love with you!”

Taylor rolled her eyes, “Derrick, you don’t love me,” she informed him.

“Don’t tell me what I feel,” Derrick said to her, almost threatening. “You were always the one who said I should listen to myself, trust myself, that I would always know the truth if I did. So don’t tell me what I feel, because I already know. I’ve had it bad for you since we were kids. I noticed you long before you noticed me. I thought you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and you just looked at me like friend Derrick, buddy Derrick, and it made me so mad. So I sent you away, tried to get you out of my system. But it didn’t work, okay? It made it worse.

“I drank to try and forget you, and it only turned all those girls into you and made me want them so much. I can’t tell you how many times I got slapped for calling girls ‘Taylor.’ God, I wanted you so bad,” he said, shaking his head, “and you thought I was just a friend.”

There was something about the way Derrick looked at her, something about the tone of his voice as he professed his love that made Taylor realize he was serious. She hadn’t seen it before but now here it was, right in front of her and completely obvious: Derrick Fletcher was really in love with her. She had thought it was some daffy desire, just some hope he had to make his need for a wife easier to swallow, but that wasn’t the case. And it jumped her anxiety up to the max.Maybe he is confused, she thought,maybe I can help him see that he is mistaken. “That’s not why. It’s just that I was familiar, and …”

“Stop it with the goddamn psychoanalysis, Taylor!”

“Then why not say something when you found me? Huh? You wanted me so bad, you loved me, why leave me?”

“Because you were happy,” Derrick replied desperately, “and I had made you so unhappy.” Derrick ran his hands through his hair, tugging it, obviously frustrated. Then he looked at her, his eyes pleading, and desperately he said, “I just wanted you to be happy.”

“Your father said you refused to bring me back. He said you wouldn’t tell them where I was,” Taylor said.

Derrick closed his eyes. “Great,” he muttered and then got up and started to pace.

“Look, I know that you feel bad that you found me and now I am here and unhappy. But, Derrick, please don’t mistake lust for love or guilt for love.”

Derrick made his way to Taylor in two strides and gripped her shoulders. “Taylor, I love you,” he said, pegging her with his stare. “I will spend the rest of my life proving it to you. It kills me that you are so unhappy here and that I may have caused it, but I want to marry you out of selfish need for you. It is not about my reputation, I could give a fuck about it. I want to marry you because I love you. The fact that you had to for your company was a bonus, a way to get you to agree. I want to make you happy, I want to give you what you want—that’s why I left you behind, but now I have you. Now you’re mine,” he said, his eyes glittering.

Taylor’s mind spun, could this be possible? “Derrick—”

“Tell me why you went to that club last night.”

Taylor furrowed her brow in confusion. “To make you a hero—to make you look like the good guy for a change.”

“And it didn’t work, right?”

Taylor shook her head.

“Because I am a bad boy, Taylor. I very vindictively brought you back to marry me, to make me happy. I did it because I want you, because I need you.”

“I don’t love you, Derrick,” Taylor said.

Derrick raised his brow to her. “You sure about that?” he challenged.

Taylor felt her blood boil. She did not love him. She had been over the moon for him, but she was a kid. Now she was a woman, and just like she had developed a passion for coffee, things changed. And her crush for Derrick was one of them. She thought—no, she knew, at least she thought she knew—that she had no feelings for Derrick Fletcher. Well, maybe she was slightly attracted to him, but that was physical, nothing more.

“Derrick—” she wasn’t sure what she was going to say.

Suddenly Derrick’s face was close, and he had her face in his hands, pulling it as close as possible. “Taylor,” he said softly, “this is what I want. It is always what I have wanted, and it has always been you. I need you, and your company needs you to do this. Please don’t let me hang anymore. I swear on my life I can make you happy. I will spend my whole life making you happy,” he said, looking into her eyes. He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip and then kissed her softly.

Taylor wanted to push him away, but she was just absorbing everything. And as with every time Derrick kissed her she was absorbing nothing except feelings right now.

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