Chapter 6

As Drake woke up, he felt his whole body ache from the last few days. It was dark outside, and he groaned as he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and glanced at his watch. It was nearly nine o’clock in the evening, and he and Sophia had slept almost five hours. It was just what he needed, and he stretched to get his blood flowing again.

“What time is it?” Sophia asked, starting to wake up as well.

“It’s almost nine o’clock.”

“What? No!”

Sophia jumped up out of bed and looked out the window at the party going on down near the pool. She had slept right through all her evening plans with Drake and now it was time for the pool party. She couldn’t hide the disappointment on her face.

“It’s alright. Let’s go grab some food, and then we can do whatever it was you had planned next,” Drake said as he stood next to Sophia by the window.

Drake grabbed Sophia’s face and pulled her lips up next to his. Gently he kissed her and their mouths moved together in harmony.

“Let’s stay here,” Sophia said shyly.

“Anything you want,” Drake said, going back to kissing her.

Sophia didn’t want to give up their time together and loved the way he looked right into her eyes when he kissed her. It was like he was looking into her soul. Not very many men in her life had ever looked so deeply into her, and Sophia really wanted to stay there with Drake forever.

They both looked down at the pool party, trying to decide what to do next.

Victoria looked up from the pool at the two of them and waved for them to come out to the pool. Sophia and Drake waved back. They had been seen, now they had to make an appearance.

“OK, but we can’t stay down there too long. I don’t want to waste our time together,” Sophia said as she kissed Drake gently on his neck.

“Sophia,” Drake said, pulling her naked body closer to his. “We haven’t wasted our day at all. This was one hell of a day.”

Drake leaned down and kissed Sophia. He could tell she was upset about missing out on time together and wanted to make sure she didn’t feel bad about their night at all. It had certainly been a memorable day, and he wanted her to feel that as well.

Their day together had been filled with intimacy and excitement. They bonded and got to know each other; Drake needed Sophia to know he wanted her and would give up an evening with all the other women just to stay with Sophia.

“Let’s stay here. We don’t even have to go down there,” Drake said, falling back onto the bed.

Sophia looked out at the pool and remembered what it was like on the days that she did not have a date with Drake. She had wanted desperately to see him, even if it was only for a few minutes. She wanted to be a bitch and keep the other women from seeing him, but she decided against it.

“Alright, let me get dressed really quick, and then I’ll be down. Why don’t you go ahead without me?”

Drake slipped his jeans and T-shirt on and gave Sophia one last kiss before making his way down to the party. He felt refreshed and was excited to say hi to the other women. Especially Emily, who had slipped out of his bed so early that he hadn’t even had the chance to say goodbye to her.

“Look who decided to join the party,” Victoria said as she greeted Drake near the back door.

“How are you, Victoria?” Drake said with a quick hug.

“I’m doing good. I still have that gift from the sex shop I want to show you some time, you just come see me any time you get a chance,” she said with a smile.

Drake hadn’t forgotten about that sex shop. He still wanted to know what it was Victoria had purchased there. Yet he didn’t imagine that he was going to have much free time for the rest of the week.

Each of the women had become very territorial over their time with Drake, and he totally understood where they were coming from. But it meant that dinner or other events in the evening were getting increasingly difficult to attend. He was glad that Sophia had decided to stay upstairs for a little bit so he could make the rounds and say hi to the other women without feeling bad about it.

His next stop was a straight line to Emily, who he found sitting and talking with Allison. Drake hadn’t spent much time at all with Allison yet, and he was looking forward to having a quick conversation with her before their day together tomorrow.

“Hello ladies,” Drake said, sitting down with them.

“Oh, we were just talking about you,” Emily said as she looked at Allison and her face flushed red.

“Hopefully, it was all good?”

“Yes, of course,” Emily replied.

Drake turned his attention toward Allison for a moment.

“Allison, I hear we have our date tomorrow. Do you have anything special planned?” Drake asked as he gently touched her hand.

Emily watched their encounter and suddenly felt much less shy about what she and Allison had been talking about.

“I can’t tell you what I have planned or it wouldn’t be a surprise. But I can tell you that Sophia won’t be invited,” Allison said as she nudged Emily.

Drake saw that it was pretty obvious that Emily had told Allison about at least part of their night together. He didn’t mind at all. It was actually pretty nice that Emily had a friend in the house that she could talk to about their date. On the other hand, it was also really strange that Emily had told Allison, since their date was coming up next.

But everything about the week in the house was strange. There was no normal way to have a week-long date with seven different women. Drake wasn’t about to worry too much about anything the women chose to say or not say to their fellow housemates over the week they were there.

“I’m excited to see what you have planned,” Drake said, kissing Allison on the cheek. “Would you mind if I talked to Emily for a moment?”

“Oh, of course not. I’ll see you in the morning, bright and early,” Allison said.

Allison knew that Drake was going to be exhausted from all the women waking him up and keeping him up all night. She was perfectly fine with getting a good night of sleep and then seeing Drake in the morning. She also thought it set her up as an understanding woman, which she was, and she wanted Drake to see that.

“Emily, you left before I woke up this morning. How are you?” Drake asked as he held her hands.

“I’m sorry for telling Allison, but I just had to tell someone. I had so much fun last night.”

Drake instantly felt relieved as he saw the smile cross Emily’s face. He had worried that the evening was overwhelming to Emily and she had left because of that. It was nice to see her smile and that she had had just as much fun as he had.

“No worries. It’s your experience; you feel free to talk to whomever you would like. I also expect to read a tantalizing tale about it in Playboy soon.”

“Of course. It will be the first article I write after this week is over. I might even start writing it with some of my free time the next few days.”

Drake rubbed Emily’s hands as he looked into her eyes. He really did like her, but there was still something missing. He had liked all three of the women he had been on dates with so far, but none of them left him sure of his decision. Drake hoped that one of the women would leave him with no doubt about what decision he should make.

“I’m going to go visit with some of the other women for a little bit. You enjoy your night.”

“You too,” Emily said as she watched Drake walk away.

Drake approached the other pair of women sitting together; Cynthia and Lauren. Cynthia had her dark brown hair pulled up into a bun and was wearing a bikini that showed off all of her curves. She was a plus-sized woman, but she had all the right proportions and all the curves that Drake liked. Then there was Lauren. Her bubbly personality shined, no matter what time of day it was. She had platinum blonde hair and green eyes. Drake couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t been giggling.

“How are you lovely women doing tonight? Looks like you have been enjoying the pool,” Drake said as he sat across from them.

It was the first time he felt like he had time to actually talk with some of the women since the first evening and the dinner party. Also, it was nice to get out of his bubble from his day with Sophia and share some time with the other women.

Lauren just giggled and shrugged, but Cynthia looked Drake right in the eyes. She had powerful eyes that really could command Drake’s attention. He was drawn to her and was excited at the prospect of spending some time with her on their day together.

“Yes, we had fun tonight. Hopefully, you did too?” Cynthia said as she grabbed a drink that sat next to her.

“Well, Sophia and I decided to take a bit of a nap because I was exhausted and we just woke up. I’m glad we didn’t miss the whole party.”

“Me too,” Lauren said, grinning from ear to ear.

“What did you two do with your day today?”

Cynthia wanted to make sure the topic of her argument with Emily didn’t come up, so she quickly took control of the conversation.

“We had a fabulous day. All of us getting to know each other and talking about life outside of here. It was great,” she said as she stared Lauren down.

Lauren knew instantly that she wasn't supposed to speak at all about the argument that had happened earlier in the day. But Lauren didn’t really care at all; she figured Drake had much bigger things to worry about than whether the women got along or not.

“How was your day?” Lauren said with a little giggle under her breath.

Drake couldn’t tell if she knew what he had done with Emily or if she was just her normal giggly self. It was hard to tell with Lauren. He had to remember to look in her file before their date so he could get to know her better. Drake suspected she was giggling out of nervousness, but she also seemed like a genuinely happy person.

It was refreshing to be around so many cheerful spirits. Drake was again very proud of the choices Samantha and Robert had made.

Just then, Drake looked up and saw Robert coming out the back door of the house with a stack of papers he handed to Samantha. Robert turned and tried to leave, but Drake wasn’t about to let that happen.

“I’m going to catch up with Robert now. You two have a great night,” Drake said, not waiting for a response before jogging over to catch Robert. “Dude, where are you going? I haven’t seen you in days.”

“I just needed to drop some papers off with Samantha for you to sign later; I can’t stay,” Robert said as he continued to walk into the house.

“You can at least have a beer and a conversation with me.”

“No, I need to go. I’ll see you next week. Good luck.”

And just like that, Robert was gone. Drake had a pit in his stomach and instantly wondered if there was something going on. Robert never acted that way, and it was clear that he was trying to avoid Drake. He needed to talk to Samantha.

Samantha was engrossed in conversation with Scarlett, and Drake paused to watch them as they talked. Both women were oblivious to the fact that he was watching them. He loved it. They laughed and talked with each other like they were old friends. Scarlett seemed very comfortable with Samantha.

“It looks like you two are having way too much fun,” Drake said as he approached them.

“Yes, Scarlett was just telling me about her last date,” Samantha said.

Drake looked intently at Scarlett and her breasts. He couldn’t help himself. The size FF breasts were like beacons guiding his eyes to look at them. He tried desperately to look away, but his eyes just kept going right back to them.

“I can’t imagine you have ever had a bad date.”

“Oh, I’ve had lots of them. The last one was a man from my building. He was an accountant. He started jerking off under the table at dinner,” Scarlett said as she and Samantha both broke out into laughter.

“What did you do?” Samantha asked, tears starting to form as she was laughed so hard.

“I unbuttoned one of my buttons so he could finish faster, and we could leave.”

Drake just sat in awe as he looked at Scarlett and her response. Then he broke out laughing with both of them. Scarlett sure did have a good sense of humor, which was a huge plus for him. At first, he had thought she was a bit of a prude, but he was starting to think she was just a very put together woman who kept quiet a lot of the time. He was eager to see what she was like when they had some more alone time together.

“I better let you two talk business. It was nice seeing you again, Drake,” Scarlett said as she got up.

“I’ll see you tomorrow for breakfast,” Samantha said.

Drake looked at Samantha and raised one of his eyebrows.

“Are you playing favorites?”

“No, I’m coming over to the house to make breakfast with all of the women in the morning. But I do really like Scarlett. I don’t think she’s right for you, though.”

“What? Why not? I thought you picked her?”

“I did. But the more I get to know her, the more I realize your lifestyle is not something that will suit her at all. She’s not out partying and going to clubs. She is all grown up, Drake.”

Drake took offense to what Samantha said, but he couldn’t figure out a way to tell her without sounding like a total hypocrite. Just because he had spent the last few years partying and sleeping around, didn’t mean he wasn’t interested in finding a woman like Scarlett or any other woman from the house that might want to settle down.

Drake didn’t know what settling down was going to look like for him yet, but the whole reason he had all seven women in his house was because he wanted to find that partner that could complement him. He hated that Samantha thought Scarlett was too good for him.

“So, you think I’ll ruin her or something?” Drake said defensively.

“No, I don’t think she’ll like you after your date. I think you will have fun, and I think she’s a wonderful woman and you are a wonderful man, but I just don’t think the two of you are right for each other.”

“I don’t think you get to decide,” Drake said, raising his voice a notch.

“Don’t get mad because I'm honest, Drake. She’s got her life together. She’s not looking for a man to lead her. Scarlett can lead herself and needs a man who can be a partner to her.”

Drake felt his blood pressure increase as he listened to Samantha talk.

“So basically, I’m too much of a loose cannon, and I shouldn’t even bother going on a date with her? Should we just send her home now? Scarlet!” Drake yelled out.

Scarlett turned from her conversation with Lauren and started to walk back toward Drake and Samantha.

“This is exactly the kind of crap that makes me think you aren’t the right fit for her,” Samantha said as she stormed off.

“Yes,” Scarlett said as she sat down next to Drake. “Is Sam alright?”

“I’m sorry, I think I got her mad. I just wanted to say thanks for the story, and I can’t wait for our date later this week.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet of you. I’ll see you then,” Scarlett got up, kissed Drake on the cheek and walked back to her conversation with Lauren.

Drake thought that maybe Samantha was right as Scarlett walked away. Any of the other women would have sat there with Drake until he had to move onto another woman. But Scarlett just kissed him on the cheek and walked away, leaving him sitting by himself. Perhaps she didn’t like him at all and was only being kind and staying until her date.

Victoria eyed Drake sitting along and made her way over to him, but at the same time, Sophia had come out of the house and was also making her way toward him.

Sophia had on a barely there string bikini that got Drake’s attention instantly. The tiny triangles of fabric left very little to the imagination, and Drake unconsciously licked his lips as she walked to him.

Unfortunately, Drake didn’t notice that Victoria had sat down next to him at all. His eyes were glued on Sophia, and by the time she made it to his side, Victoria had gotten up and decided to leave the two of them alone. She certainly didn’t want to be competing with Sophia.

“Did you miss me?” Sophia said as she straddled Drake and started to kiss him.

Drake pulled away, though. As much as he loved to have Sophia’s bikini clad body on his lap, he was very conscious of all the other women that were there. He made a point of only kissing the women on the cheek when he was around everyone. There was no need to make any of the other women feel bad on the nights that it wasn’t their turn for a date.

Sophia took it in her stride, and instead of getting mad at Drake, she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the swimming pool.

“Should we swim?” she said as she started to take off his T-shirt.

“Let me get my trunks on,” Drake said.

“No need for trunks,” Sophia said, untying the top to her swimsuit. “Skinny dipping!” she yelled out and jumped into the water.

Surprisingly, Lauren and Allison were right behind her after they had untied their tops. Victoria, Emily, and Cynthia jumped into the water as well although they left their swimsuits on until they got into the pool and then took them off.

Drake looked back at Scarlett as she sat in one of the chairs. Scarlett softly shook her head back and forth.

“I’ll go if you go,” Drake said.

Scarlett looked at all the girls in the pool and then back to Drake. She wasn’t about to be known as the girl who didn’t participate. So, she stood up and unzipped the sundress she had on. As she walked toward Drake, she took off her bikini top and then slid her bottoms off and threw them at him.

Instead of jumping right into the water, Scarlett stood intimately close to Drake and started to unbutton his jeans. Drake was mesmerized by her and so were the other women. They all stopped and watched as Scarlett slid Drake’s bottoms down to the ground, and then his underwear too.

She grabbed his hand and the two of them stood at the side of the pool together and contemplated jumping in.

“One, two, three …” Drake said before they both jumped into the water.

Samantha watched from inside the house and couldn’t help smiling. She knew that telling Drake Scarlett wasn’t right for him was the perfect way to get him to like her even more. Samantha didn’t want to leave anything to chance, she secretly wanted Drake to pick Scarlett.