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 ass**le! I don’t like her knowing what it’s like to f**k 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 c**k 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 br**sts, 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.