Chapter 4 – Erin
The ride home was a long one. I couldn’t believe that I had left. It made me wonder if that was going to be considered reneging on my end of the bargain, but I didn’t care. He had got what he said he wanted. Drake had gotten a date from me and even a kiss. The latter was still making my lips tingle a little. Why did he bother me in such a way? It was bad enough when he was close to me, but when we had been dancing and his hands had traveled up my back, there was nothing that I could do to stop it. Me pushing him away was the only thing that I could think of, and it had been a last ditch effort to save myself.
Now I was regretting the move. I wished more than anything that I had let him kiss me and seen where it was all going to turn out. I wanted him, and since it had been so long since my last boyfriend, I was ready to move on to the next step. As soon as his lips had touched mine, there was nothing else that had mattered. Why had I ended it, knowing that it was something that I needed more than life at the moment?
I looked through my purse to grab my phone. I wasn’t even back to the museum yet and I was already thinking about calling him. Maybe I could invite him over for a nightcap, anything to get him next to me and looking at me like that again. When I realized that my phone was not there, there was a minute of worry, but before long I saw it as a blessing in disguise. The last thing I needed to do was to contact Drake and let him know how desperate he made me.
Instead, I went home and shut myself up in the apartment above the place where I worked. It was quiet when I got there. After sitting in the dark for a time, I got undressed and went to bed. I knew that I had messed up and let things go too far, but so help me, I was more upset for stopping it than starting it. The man was handsome and confident, two things that I was attracted to because I lacked both. How many chances would a girl like me get, with a guy like him?
The next morning, when I finally got down stairs and got into my office, I was greeted with several vases of flowers. All of the roses in my office made the place smell heavenly and I didn’t have to look at the tag to see who they were from. I knew that it was Drake who had done it, and I couldn’t help the slight melting of my heart. Maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe he wasn’t just interested in a few moments in bed, maybe he wanted more. I really wished I didn’t have so many unanswered questions in my mind. I wished I just knew where I stood with him.
***
He asked me out the next night, and the next night. We went out for a week straight, and every night I waited for him to kiss me again. I just wanted him to touch me like he had that night we went dancing and he swept me off of my feet. I was falling for the man, but after a couple of weeks of dating him every night, I was starting to think he was never going to make another move. It was driving me so crazy that I almost started a kiss myself a couple of times. It wasn’t in me, though, and instead I just waited for him to want me again. His eyes and face told me that he did, but to my chagrin he never made a play for more. I was starting to think that he was just trying to make me insane, and if that’s what it was, he was doing a very good job of it. I didn’t know what was expected of me, but I did know that I wanted Drake. After he drove me home and pecked me on the cheek, I wondered if I would go out with him again. There was nothing that could be done about it, though. I went home alone and spent another long night thinking of him.
When he called me the next day, I wasn’t as enthusiastic as I usually was. I had spent the last two weeks thinking about nothing but Drake, but it wasn’t doing me any good. Instead of being happy and floating on clouds like I had first imagined, going out with a handsome billionaire was harder than I had thought. He took me to all of the finest restaurants, but he just wasn’t making a move for what we both really needed. Was it all because I had denied him the first time, or had he lost interest?
The idea of it made me nervous, so when he called to ask me out, I told him no. I had to work late at the museum, true, but I knew that I could have gotten out of it if I was so inclined. The fact was that I couldn’t take another night of torture from him. Not the way I was feeling. I figured it was best for both of us if I kept my distance. I didn’t know what I was doing anyways.
***
The museum was dark, and I was starting to think that I needed some lights on so I wouldn’t spook myself. There was nothing else to do, but I hadn’t gone upstairs like I should have. I didn’t want to face lying there thinking of what I couldn’t have, so instead I just started doing some paperwork for the following week. I was up and figured I might as well get something done.
When I heard the sound behind me, it made me jump. I wasn’t expecting the very man I was avoiding to be there.
“Drake, what are you doing here?”
He waved the keys a little and smiled at me. “Thought I would take a look at the place. I saw the lights on and was hoping that you were still down here working. How long are you going to avoid me?”
I looked away from the searing look in his eyes and shook my head to tell him that I wasn’t avoiding him. I was just busy, I assured him. He didn’t believe me, and there was something in his dark eyes that made me pause a little. The look of the first date we had together was back, and I didn’t want to change his mind. I had spent all of this time telling myself that there was nothing going on, but now I thought that there could be again, and it was all I could think about.
My back was against the receptionist desk and the solid wood made me feel trapped in a way. Drake had me cornered, and I thought he was finally going to give me what I really needed. He didn’t stop until he was right in front of me and his hand went up to touch my cheek ever so softly. “Can I kiss you?”
I was surprised by the question and I couldn’t speak, though my head nodded for me. I was beyond the need for a kiss, and I knew that if he didn’t do it soon I was going to come out of my skin. That was how I felt, and there was nothing else that I could do but lean in the last few inches to press my lips against his. I was sick of waiting for him to take the hint. I had waited too long for it, and I was not going to give Drake a chance to change his mind again. He was to be mine, and that was the end of it.
His lips were not as soft as they had been the first time he had kissed me. Instead of being soft and gentle, he was more aggressive. His body pinned mine against the side of the desk. I didn’t even feel the wood digging into my back until he had lifted me up and set me up another foot. My arms wrapped around his neck instinctually, and soon my legs were wrapping round his waist just the same. I couldn’t get enough of him. His hard body was driving me to a point of no return.