Chapter 1

Drake woke up and instantly felt the anxiety of the day. It was the last day of his week with seven women, and he needed to make a decision. After spending the whole week with all the women, he thought he was ready to make the decision but really had no idea what he was going to do.

Having a ton of women in his life was much harder than Drake thought it was going to be. Simply paying attention to each of them and learning about them was exhausting. Drake was almost positive he had all their back stories mixed up together and was afraid he was going to accidently call one of the girls by the wrong name. He was ready for the multiple-women thing to be over and for life to get back to normal with just one woman.

Every one of the women had traits that he admired, and he could see a glimpse of his life with each of them. But the overwhelming decision process was having him second guessing everything. The second he thought he knew what he wanted, then he instantly had no idea again. It was torture. A woman would smile at him, and he suddenly thought she was the one he should pick.

When he had planned out the week, he had thought there would be a clear winner at the end of it. Instead, Drake felt more like there was a clear loser, and it was him. He had to break several women’s hearts. He had grown close to all of the women and knew they had feelings for him. It wasn’t going to be easy to tell them that he was choosing someone else. Drake didn’t want to do it; he wanted to just tell Samantha who he had chosen and have her send everyone else away.

Samantha was a whole different story too. Things were weird between them, to say the least. Drake felt like she was finally giving in to the idea of them being together, but then she pulled away again. Obviously, having seven other women around wasn’t really the optimum time for Drake to be thinking about Samantha, but he had waited for her so long that he didn’t want to miss his opportunity.

Samantha had been so resolute in her idea that she wouldn’t give in to Drake, and she had stuck to that plan for nearly five years. Why was she now giving in to her desires? Drake didn’t know the answer and wasn’t sure he really cared; he just wished she would stop pushing him away and let them have a go at a relationship.

Breakfast was already out on the large table when Drake descended the stairs and made his way to the table. The women were eager to see him, and their faces literally broke his heart. Suddenly, his fun dating experiment had turned into one of the worst dates of his life. He hated the awkwardness of a date when he knew he was going to break it off with a woman and tried to avoid them as much as possible.

“Samantha, could I talk with you?” Drake asked before he even said hello to the women.

She dutifully followed him to the den and shut the doors behind her. Drake knew she was the best assistant any man could have hoped for. She didn’t complain; she was comfortable sharing her opinions, and she made him a better CEO because people liked her.

Samantha was more than his assistant, though; she knew almost as much as Robert did and was much better at interacting with the clients. Drake made a mental note to show her his appreciation when the week was over. She deserved a bonus and a raise for all that she had handled over the last few weeks.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Could I just pick the winner and you could send the rest of the women home?”

The look on Samantha’s face instantly made Drake feel like crap. He knew it wasn’t the best thing to do but didn’t think it was all that bad when he had thought of the idea. Looking at Samantha’s face, though, Drake suddenly thought the plan was a very, very bad idea. She had an expression which was something between rotten eggs and anger.

“What?” Samantha said in total shock. “Why would you even think of something like that?”

“Um, because I don’t want to see their faces when I break their hearts. I thought it was pretty obvious.”

Drake tried to joke, but Samantha really was not interested at all. She was clearly very disturbed by Drake’s plan to just let her do all the dirty work. He thought it was a pretty brilliant idea; sure, it was a cowardly way of doing things, but at least he wouldn’t have to see the heartbroken faces of five women.

“No. Absolutely not! And it disgusts me that you would even think of such a thing. These women gave up their lives for a week to be with you. You’ve had sex with them ...”

“Most of them, not all,” Drake interrupted.

“You can have sex with most of them, or all of them, it’s still wrong Drake. It’s totally wrong. These women care about you, and I’m not going to let you be a jerk to them.”

Drake stood quietly for a moment while he tried to think of any other possible way he could get out of being there and having to deal with his decision. As well-versed as he was in breaking women’s hearts over the years, Drake didn’t want to do it to any of the women who were staying in his house. He had spent a week with them; Drake knew them so much better than he knew women that he randomly dated. It was a much different thing than breaking up with a woman after one date.

“I just can’t stand the idea of hurting them. Can I just keep them all?” he joked.

Samantha no longer saw the humor in the situation, though, as she stared him down. It was obvious she wasn’t in a good mood, and Drake wasn’t making it any better. Normally she laughed a little bit at his jokes, but he couldn’t even get her to crack a smile.

“Do you know who you want to pick?” Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.

The question made Drake pause. After all the work he had just put in trying to get out of hurting the women, he still didn’t know who he wanted to pick. His first option was Scarlett, but he hadn’t even slept with her. It seemed odd that he would want to pick her without even seeing if they had that intimate chemistry. He really did have amazing chemistry with Emily and knew they would have a long and healthy sex life, that was for sure. Drake’s mind spun with visions of all the women in his head. He didn’t know who he wanted to pick.

“I don’t know,” Drake reluctantly answered as Sam looked at him.

“So, all of this arguing, and you don’t even know who you would pick? Drake, you need to make a decision. We can ask girls to leave throughout the day once you are sure they are not the right one. But you should give each of the women a chance to spend some time with you before you make your decision. I don’t want any of them to feel like they didn’t get enough time before you made your decision. Now let’s go eat breakfast.”

Samantha didn’t leave room for Drake to add much to what she was saying, but Drake wasn’t sure there was more he would have added. He resolved himself to having to talk to each of the women at least one more time as he tried to finalize his decision.

“Fine, let’s eat.”

Drake followed Samantha out of the room and to the table where she went right to sitting by Scarlett and whispering to her. Drake certainly wasn’t the type of guy who got paranoid, but the way those two women were going on with each other, he was getting suspicious. They laughed and talked to each other like they were on some sort of sorority trip or something.

“Did you have a nice time yesterday?” Victoria asked Drake as they started to eat.

It seemed like ages since Drake and Victoria had been on their date, but he still remembered the touch of her body very well. Her slim frame had bounced on top of him with absolute delight. That first evening had been so full of adrenaline, Drake and Victoria were both hyped up from it. Their night had been filled with sex and passion, there was no doubting that.

“It was good. But I’m starting to get pretty tired. This whole week has been exhausting.”

“Yeah, it will be nice when we all get back to normal. If you have time later, I’d love to get you alone for a little bit,” Victoria said as she winked at Drake.

Instantly, his body stood at attention as he thought about what some alone time with Victoria might be. The funny thing was, he also started to feel very guilty. He certainly couldn’t sleep with any of the women on their last day there, that would be tacky, to say the least. Drake knew he had to make his decision so everyone could move on with their lives.

“Yes, I’m going to make sure and sit with each of you this morning and this afternoon. I honestly have no idea who I’m choosing yet. You are all such great women.”

Victoria tried to keep smiling at Drake’s words, but he could tell she was a little disappointed that Drake planned to talk with all the women one more time. It was the truth, though; Drake really had no idea who he was going to pick, and he had to at least sit down with each of the women.

“Maybe you should just keep us all?” Victoria said as she joked with Drake.

“That’s exactly what I told Sam!”

“I was kidding.”

“Yeah, me too,” Drake back- peddled.

“You couldn’t handle a house full of women for one week. What makes you think you could handle us for longer than that?”

“Very true; I’d probably pass out from utter exhaustion. My business would go under, and I’d be left a poor man with six beautiful women.”

“Well …” Victoria teased, “how likely is it that all these girls would stick around if you were poor?”

Victoria had just brought up a very interesting point that Drake hadn’t thought about at all. Would any of the women actually love him for who he was, even if he didn’t have money? The one woman that he was sure wouldn’t care was Lauren, she was a surfer. Sure, she had money, but she spent her days at the beach, and he was relatively confident she wouldn’t care if he had money or not.

He also thought Victoria wouldn’t mind either. As a teacher, Victoria would probably have been more comfortable if Drake had less money and lived a little less lavish lifestyle. It was an interesting thought that sure had him thinking about which woman would be right for him. Drake didn’t want to choose a woman who wouldn’t stick by him if he lost everything.

“Well, ladies, how has your week been?” Robert asked in an effort to break the ice a little.

“It was an interesting experiment,” Victoria spoke up after a moment of silence.

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” Cynthia added.

“Yeah, I pictured it was going to be one big orgy,” Emily said.

“I have to say, ladies, this week has been one of the best weeks of my life, and I’m not just saying that because I got to kiss seven beautiful women,” Drake addressed the group, and they all laughed a little.

If he wasn’t going to get out of breaking their hearts, then he was going to make sure they all understood just how much he appreciated them. His view of the women had changed so much over the last week and so had his outlook for the future. What had started as a sexually charged plan to sleep with a lot of women and possibly find one he could date had turned into Drake wanting to find a woman he could keep for the long run.

“I will certainly always remember this week,” Scarlett said, looking at Drake and smiling.

The warmth in her smile instantly drove him crazy. How was it that one woman could make him so wild for her even without sex? Drake felt the chemistry between them as she sat at the other end of the table. He saw how she looked at him; how her eyes wandered to his lips and made him want to kiss her desperately.

Without being overtly sexual, Scarlett was always sexual; it was as if she didn’t try at all and was naturally just a sexual being.

“Oh, my gosh, yes! Like when we were playing poker, and you got naked,” Lauren said as she started to laugh.

Since Lauren and Scarlett were friends, it was funny when she brought up the incident. But Drake didn’t think the other women would have laughed if he had brought it up. The women sat around the table and were cordial to one another, but Drake knew that each one of them wanted all of the others to be gone. At least Samantha and Scarlett had stopped whispering in each other’s ears and had joined the conversation.

“Ladies, I have to say, I think this week went off rather well. It wasn’t nearly the disaster I thought it was going to be,” Robert added.

“I know, I pictured women trying to pull each other’s hair out and slapping each other around,” Allison joked.

“I attribute the success of this week to you women. You all have beauty, class, and brains. You are triple threats for sure. No matter what the outcome is today, I have to make sure you all know how much I’ve learned from each of you and that I will truly remember you all.” Drake stood up and held his glass out. “I’d like to propose an orange juice toast. To all of you, for putting up with me this week!”

“Here, here,” everyone at the table said as they raised their glasses.

“Now, let’s eat some good food, and then we can relax around the pool for a bit this afternoon. I’m going to pull you each aside so we can talk one last time before the end of the day.”

Drake didn’t want to say he was picking a winner, that sounded absolutely horrible. He didn’t know how to word it, but he knew that by the end of the day, he would have narrowed down his choices to just one woman. In only 12 hours, all the stress would be over, and he would be with the one he cared about most. The problem was, he had to clear his mind enough to figure out who that one woman was.