Chapter 3

Victoria started to stir as the sun came up and she quickly realized just how tired her body was. She hadn’t spent a night making love to a man in a very long time. It had been fantastic, but she was sore also. Every muscle in her body hurt as she started to move around in the bed.

It wasn’t like she purposely avoided men. But many of them were intimidated by Victoria’s intelligence. It took a very confident man to date a woman who was a Harvard University professor. Unfortunately, those men were hard to come by. Victoria had found herself relegated to dating fellow professors and business professionals in the Boston area. None of which had the flair for excitement that she secretly longed for.

She slipped out of bed and grabbed a clean outfit as she headed to the main house to try and make some breakfast. The morning was perfect and filled with a small amount of dew that covered all of the furniture around the pool. Victoria was sad that she hadn’t had the opportunity to jump in and swim yet, but she figured she would have plenty of time when Drake was out on his dates with the other women.

When she walked into the building she was quickly jolted back to reality as she found Sophia and Allison sitting and talking at the breakfast table. They were both dressed in their workout clothes and appeared ready to head out for a run.

Both of the women were stunningly beautiful. Sophia with her long red hair and voluptuous body. Allison with her similarly long blonde hair and thin model-like figure. Victoria had a hard time understanding how Drake could like women like that and also women like her.

The awkwardness was palpable as Victoria walked in from the pool house, instead of from her bedroom.

“Did he spend the night out there with you?” Sophia asked.

Victoria froze, unable to analyze what the best way to respond to the question would be. Obviously, she didn’t want to lie to any of the girls, but disclosing the intimate information about her time with Drake wasn’t a possibility either.

“Good morning, Sophia,” Victoria said as she avoided the question all together.

“Sophia, I don’t think we want to get into the habit of asking each other what happened during our time with Drake,” Allison said. “You don’t want to have the girls asking you when it’s your day. Do you?”

Sophia seemed extremely annoyed at first but then seemed to soften up a bit.

“Very true. You guys would be too shocked by what I did during my time,” Sophia said snarkily.

Both Victoria and Allison chose to ignore Sophia’s comment. Sophia was a redheaded bombshell and very confident. Victoria instantly felt her self-esteem diminish just by being in the same room with Sophia. Allison wasn’t ugly either, in fact Victoria was pretty sure she was actually a model. Victoria instantly regretted coming into the main house. Not because of Drake, but because of all the other women. She couldn’t imagine that he would pick her over the other women in the house.

At least out in the pool house Victoria could pretend like what she and Drake had going on was unique and special to them. But faced with the reality of the situation and two of the six other beautiful women that were in the house, Victoria did not feel confident at all anymore.

“Do you ladies want some eggs,” Victoria asked.

She tried to put aside her insecurities and be nice to the other two women.

“We were just about to go for a run,” Sophia asked. “Would you like to join us?”

Victoria felt like there was an undertone of sarcasm in Sophia’s voice. Or perhaps Sophia was just trying to get Victoria away from Drake for part of her day with him. Either way, Victoria wasn’t about to fall for it and she politely declined the offer.

“I’m going to stay here and make some breakfast. Thanks for the offer,” Victoria said.

Sophia and Allison got up and made their way out of the kitchen, just as Drake entered the back door. Victoria involuntarily rolled her eyes when the two women stopped dead in their tracks and turned back to Drake. Suddenly they both acted like the sweetest women in the world.

“Good morning Drake,” the two workout clad women said as they went over to Drake and gave him a hug.

Sophia leaned in to kiss him, but Drake turned his head so she kissed his cheek instead. He wasn’t about to get caught kissing Sophia when the other two women were right there. Drake suddenly couldn’t remember the rules that Samantha had given him and he didn’t want to break any of them.

Navigating a house full of women was going to be difficult, especially the emotions that came along with seven distinct individuals. Drake knew how angry women got when he decided he didn’t want to go on a second date with them, he could only imagine what the reaction was going to be by the women that he didn’t choose after the week was over.

“Good morning. ladies. I hope you had a good night of sleep.”

“Yes, perfect,” said Allison.

“Delightful,” said Sophia.

“I hope you enjoy your day; I look forward to sitting down with everyone around dinner time tonight.”

“You too,” the women said as they made their way out the front door for their run.

Both Sophia and Allison were absolutely delightful around Drake. Victoria didn’t see a hint of the personalities she had seen when she was alone with the women. She knew those two were there to play a game and they were going to play it as hard as they could. Victoria didn’t feel like she would be able to keep up with their dirty tricks as the week wore on.

Victoria breathed a deep sigh of relief as the women left and she had Drake to herself again. The moment was a huge revelation for her, though. She certainly wasn’t alone with Drake for the week and she was going to need to up her game a little if she was going to keep his attention and not let his time with the other women pull him away.

“Good morning,” Victoria said as she started to eat a banana.

Her lips moved slowly around it and she was purposely being seductive, but she couldn’t help but smile. Victoria just wasn’t use to being a seductress and it was hard for her to do those things without smiling.

“That banana is making me jealous,” Drake said.

He looked around the kitchen and then pulled Victoria in for a quick kiss. She couldn’t help but smile at his willingness to kiss her in the main house. Especially after seeing how he hadn’t kissed Sophia.

It was strange for Victoria, when she was with Drake he made her feel confident and like he genuinely liked her. But the second she saw the other women in the house all of Victoria’s confidence left her. She expected it was going to be a really long week. The idea of watching Drake with the other women wasn’t something she looked forward to at all.

“Would you like some eggs?” Victoria asked as she put the banana down and pulled the carton of eggs from the fridge.

“I have a chef for that. Let me call him in and have him make us some breakfast.”

“No, no, no. I’m perfectly capable of making my man eggs.”

Victoria gently pushed Drake into the chair at the counter and she got to work making him a delicious omelet.

Drake loved that Victoria had called him ‘her man’ it was a term of endearment that he didn’t usually hear. The connection they had was growing and he liked that Victoria felt comfortable enough to take charge in the kitchen.

Although she looked like she never ate food at all, Victoria was actually a very good chef and enjoyed cooking very much. She just had a high metabolism and burned off everything she ate.

She watched Drake out of the corner of her eyes as he watched her. It was an intense feeling to have his eyes on her and know he wanted her like he had her the night before. She wanted him just as badly. But she really did want to have some conversation with him to get to know him a little bit.

As much as Victoria wanted Drake to just pick her and not talk to any of the other women, she also wanted to know if there was a genuine bond between them or not. It wasn’t worth it to ‘win’ the week, if there wasn’t a true connection between them. Victoria was certainly smart enough to know that the physical connection they had might not be enough to sustain a relationship.

“You look really comfortable in the kitchen,” Drake said as Victoria handed him the omelet she made for him.

“I love to cook. I guess I would even consider it a bit of a hobby for me.”

Drake couldn’t help but look Victoria up and down. She was by far the most petite woman in the house and looked like she barely weighed one hundred pounds. Nothing about her looked like she liked to eat. In fact, she looked like she hardly ever ate at all.

He laughed a little as he looked Victoria over.

“You look like you never eat.”

“I know! But trust me. I do eat. I love to eat. I just can’t seem to gain an ounce of fat ever.”

“Oh, the other women are going to hate you for sure,” Drake laughed.

Victoria knew it was true, though. Many women hated it when Victoria told them she couldn’t gain weight. But to her it was a body issue just like women who wanted to lose weight; unfortunately, it was really hard for other women to understand. Victoria often found herself feeling like the outcast when her friends talked about their weight issues or trying to lose a few pounds.

“Yes, I try not to make comments like that around other women. I understand my issue is unique and not something they are comfortable with.”

“This omelet is delicious,” Drake said as he changed the subject.

He could tell Victoria didn’t feel all that comfortable talking about her slim figure and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable at all. Drake enjoyed being with Victoria and was excited to see what else she wanted to do with their day.

“Thank you, sir. Now let’s talk about my plans for the rest of our day.”

“You mean we aren’t going to stay held up in the pool house fucking all day?” Drake said with a wink.

Victoria was actually perfectly happy with that as an option. She was willing to do whatever he wanted to do with their day. Although her plan to go to the zoo seemed like a lot of fun too.

“We can do whatever you would like. I did get us a private tour of the San Diego Zoo if you’d like to go explore a little bit today.”

Drake’s eyes got wide with excitement at Victoria’s date idea. He had just been talking to a friend about how he hadn’t been down to that zoo, ever. They had asked him for a donation and he was happy to give it but he did really want to go check them out. Ever since he was a kid, Drake had loved the tigers. They were calm, yet able to keep an entire jungle in their control. He often felt like he was a tiger in the world and trying to control all the other animals around him.

“That sounds like a great way to spend the day,” Drake said as he pulled Victoria in again for another quick kiss.

“I read somewhere that you love tigers,” Victoria said with a smile.

“You read up on me?” Drake said with a crooked grin.

“Not in a creepy way. I just wanted to know more about you.”

Victoria felt so embarrassed that she had told Drake she read about him. How embarrassing! He probably thought she was some weird super fan or something. She really had not read that much information about him. In fact, she just remembered the one article where Drake had talked about his love for tigers. She wanted to take the comment back almost instantly after she said it.

“It’s alright. I read a whole file on you,” Drake said with a wink.

“Oh, really. What did you learn about me?”

“Mostly I learned that I don’t pay attention when I read. Because I didn’t see that you were a Harvard professor,” he laughed.

“I feel like I have a bit of an advantage, then. I usually remember everything that I read.”

Victoria couldn’t help but smile as they looked into each other’s eyes. There was definitely chemistry between them and a mental connection. Victoria felt more connected with Drake after only a couple hours than she had felt with her last boyfriend she dated for months. She had instantly become a believer in the idea of love at first sight.

No, she didn’t think she loved Drake, or anything that dramatic, but Victoria did see how love of that strength could be possible when you first met someone. The chemistry between two people was different all the time, but if it happened to be just right when you ran into the man or woman of your dreams; perfection could happen.

“You definitely have the advantage.”

“One point for me,” she joked.

They both gathered up their things and made their way out the front door to a car that was waiting to take them down to San Diego. Victoria had asked the rental company to bring them a fun car; she wasn’t exactly prepared for the car that arrived.

“Wow,” they both said as they stood in the doorway and looked at the car that was there.

“I call dibs on driving,” Drake said as he raised his hand.

In front of them was a 2016 Tesla. Drake was a big fan of cars but hadn’t gotten around to purchasing a Tesla for himself yet. The all-electric sports car was certainly something fun for them to drive down the coast.

“Yes, you are for sure driving. This thing looks like it’s from the future. I wouldn’t trust myself to drive it at all.”

“Let’s get going. I suspect I’m going to want to drive this baby all day long,” Drake said as they both slid into the car.