Tiana

Getting away from my brother for a couple hours is proving to be quite the task. He’s not letting me out of his sight after watching that video and as annoying as it is to have a sidekick he makes me feel safe.

I finally had to tell him I was meeting a couple of girls from college for drinks and that he wouldn’t want to tag along. He’s not thrilled, but I managed to get away and I’ll be safe with Drake.

I didn’t want to forgive him so easily this morning but when I’m close to him my brain turns to glop and I can’t resist. He was an ass but what he said was true. I fucked up and moved back home at age twenty-five. Embarrassing. And I am a little sassy and fiery, but much more so when I’m with him. I don’t know why it irritates me so much that he thinks he has me all figured out, he doesn’t.

I walk into the diner and the smell of grease and the ‘50s decor take me back to when I was thirteen. My Aunt Marla brought six of my closest friends and me here for dinner on my birthday. She was a good woman who loved Jayden and me like we were her own, partially because she couldn’t have children and because she adored her sister.

Mum and Aunt Marla grew up in Texas where mum met dad. He was traveling from the UK to the US for work. They fell in love, he took her home to London and from the looks of Aunt Marla’s photos they were a perfect match. They married and had Jayden two years later and me seven after that.

I love those pictures. I have sparse memories of growing up and all our pictures were destroyed in the fire. They were good parents that didn’t deserve to be taken so young.

Aunt Marla reminded me of my mother so much that it hurt. They shared the same chestnut hair, delicate nose and almond shaped eyes that could look straight into your soul. After the fire, Aunt Marla vowed to raise her sister’s children the way she knew mum would have wanted. Marla died of a heart attack the year Jayden graduated from college and became an officer. I was sixteen when he was appointed my guardian and we moved here to North Carolina.

Drake is in a booth in the back. I wave at Donna, the sixty-year-old waitress who’s been here since the place opened, and maneuver my way through the tables.

He looks up when I’m almost to him and it strikes me that he never looks at me straight on. He always has his head cocked to one side or the other.

He slides out and stands like a gentleman when I have closed the distance between us.

“Hey, you escaped. You look beautiful.”

He just greeted me as if this were a date. I’m not sure how to take that and it must show on my face.

“It’s a compliment, friends do that. It’s supposed to make you feel good.” His tone is playful.

“I still haven’t forgiven you for being such a dick yesterday so we aren’t really friends.”

“Yes, you have and yes, we are. Now sit down and have some dinner with me, my beautiful friend.”

I roll my eyes and slide into the booth across the well-worn red leather seat.

“You know telling me I’m beautiful all the time isn’t going to work. I’m onto your little game.”

He holds up his hand like a boy scout, “I promise on all things holy that I am not playing games. You are stunning and I like telling you so.”

What am I supposed to say to that? I can’t very well tell him to quit saying I’m beautiful and he’s right, he is forgiven.

“Alright, alright, you’re forgiven and we can be friends. You win.”

He’s beaming when Donna hustles to our table.

“Well don’t you look happy there, Drake. What can I get you, kids, tonight?”

“How are you, Donna?” I ask.

“Oh, arthritis is killin’ me, darling, but you know I’m blessed to be alive.” She’s smiling but her eyes are tired. This is hard work for anyone let alone a woman her age.

“You need to cut back on the double shifts, you work too hard,” Drake says touching her forearm. I’ve never seen a woman her age blush but blush she does, bright pink.

“Oh, honey, you know there’s no good help in this town. My last girl up and quit last week so I don’t have much choice, either I work or we close up shop.”

“You’re looking for help? I was a waitress for three years in New York. It was at a nightclub but I’m sure I would catch on quick here.”

“You offerin’? Because if you need a job you can start tomorrow, I’m worn slap out.”

“Yes, I’m looking for a job, temporarily, of course. I’m only home for a few months but I’d be happy to help. I love this place, it has so many good memories.”

“Bless you, child, come in tomorrow around ten in the mornin’ and I’ll show you the ropes. It’s a cinch, and you’re so darn sweet and pretty you’ll be rolling in tips.”

“Perfect, I’ll be here with bells on.”

“Well, now that that’s all settled I’ll have a beer. Do you want one, Tiana?”

“Sure, sounds good.”

“Okay, two draws comin’ right up.”

She makes her way to the counter, stopping to check on a couple of tables on the way.

“That was nice of you.”

“I need a job and she’s exhausted. Seems like a win, win to me.”

“She’s right you know, you’ll rake in the tips. Do you think your brother’s going to let you work?”

“He can’t tell me what to do. I’m an adult and I need a job.”

“He wouldn’t let you go for a run this morning alone. What was that all about?”

A jolt of anxiety shoots through my chest. Should I tell him what’s really going on or keep lying about spiders? I hesitate, but the urge to be honest with him is impossible to resist when he slides his hand across the table and places it over mine.

“You can tell me, it’s okay.”

I look at his hand and feel his warmth spread up my arm and spill my guts.

“I received another video yesterday morning. I was afraid to open it alone so I had Jayden sit with me when I did.”

He squeezes my hand when I stop. I look up into his eyes that are holding me in his special side-glancing way. I bite my lip and start again.

“It wasn’t what I thought, thank God, it could have been worse. I thought someone had posted those videos to get me kicked off Just Sing. Since they got what they wanted I was going to put all of this behind me and move on.”

“But that’s not the case?”

“No, it appears not.”

“So, what was the video if it wasn’t footage of the bar incident?”

“It was like a warning. First, it said I was a smart girl.”

“Here y’all go, two beers. Now, what can I getcha to eat?” Donna asks interrupting, sitting our frosty glasses in front of us.

“I hadn’t even thought about it, um… I guess I’ll have the club on rye with extra bacon, please.”

“You got it, honey, how about you, Drake?”

“Steak, rare, with whatever vegetable you have available so long as it’s not steamed.”

“Alright, I’ll get that out to you right away,” she says and tweaks his cheek before heading to the kitchen. “Max, gimme a steak on the hoof with the garden and a club on whiskey!” she yells into the pass-through between the kitchen and the dining room.

“Now that’s something that will take some time to learn.” I nod my head in her direction.

“I always wondered why they needed to do that, what’s so hard about saying a club on rye and a steak rare?”

“Diner culture I guess. The Marines have a lot of acronyms, too, you know.”

“True. Back to your story, so this person is harassing you?”

He abandons my hand to take a drink of his beer and I’m not so sure I want to talk about this anymore but he tips his head and raises his eyebrows encouraging me to go on.

“More like threatening me. It was eerie, it had music playing in the background and words flashing on the screen.”

“What kind of words.”

“Things like I know what happened, I’m watching and behave or there will be consequences. It freaked me out.”

“So, that’s what made you scream?”

“Yeah, I guess I sort of snapped. I can’t understand any of this, it’s insane.”

“What do you think this person has on you?”

“I don’t remember most of that night and that’s not like me. I’m scared…”

“You’re scared someone did something to you and recorded it without your knowledge.”

I nod.

“Do you think something like that happened? I mean, was there anything… out of order?”

“No, I woke up the next afternoon in my own bed in my shorts and a tank top with my face washed and my hair in a bun like always. There was one thing, though.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Tiana, I’m safe. I’m your brother’s best friend and neighbor. He would kill me if I said anything about this to anyone. Not that I would ever anyway, I’m a very stand-up guy.”

I laugh softly and sigh.

“You promise not to breathe a word of this to anyone ever? Not even Jayden, I didn’t tell him this part, I knew he’d flip his shit if he knew.”

“I promise, cross my heart.” He makes an x over his heart with his finger.

“I woke up with different panties on. I mean, I had on my pajamas too but I don’t change into fresh panties to go to bed. I shower in the morning and change them after.”

“Were your clothes there?”

“Yes, in the hamper.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. And I didn’t have a scratch or a bruise on me anywhere.”

“Well, that’s a relief. You didn’t call the police?”

“No, I showered and changed and went back to bed.”

“What about your roommate? Did she see anything?”

“No, she doesn’t remember much either but she was awake long before me and didn’t seem to have a hangover. She said the door to our apartment was locked and she hadn’t seen anyone bring me home.”

“May I ask why you didn’t call the police?”

“Yes, you may. I didn’t because I didn’t remember anything and how would that look? I didn’t really have a crime to report.”

“They might have been able to test you to see if you’d been drugged or violated.”

“I think I was in shock and I didn’t want to know.”

“What about pregnancy or STD’s?”

“Suki made me go to my gynecologist the next day, I took the morning-after pill and I was clean so that made me feel even more confident that nothing happened.”

“Suki’s your roommate?”

“Yeah”

“Did the doctor think you’d been victimized?”

“I didn’t tell him what happened. He thought I’d just had unprotected sex with someone I didn’t know very well.”

He’s quiet while he mulls over my bad decisions. I know I should have called the police. I’ve watched every episode of Law & Order SVU but it’s different when it’s you; especially when you don’t remember what happened.

“So now we wait.”

I lower my eyes to the laminate table and trace a water stain left by a glass with the tip of my finger. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He leans forward with his elbows on the table and I look up at him.

“We’re going to be ready for them this time. I have a buddy who can work miracles with computers. He can help you find this warped asshole before they do anything serious.”

“Jayden said something about having my computer looked at too.”

“If you can stop him try. My guy is with the CIA and he has some serious pull.”

“Okay, I’m not sure how I’ll do that without telling him why but I can figure something out.”

“Good girl, now, I’m going to give you some orders. This is very important and it might be difficult, but you need to do exactly what I say.”

He looks very serious, my heart gathers speed and I swallow past a lump forming in my throat. What now? I’m already juggling a possible rape, the loss of an entire night of my life, public scandal and keeping Drake a secret from Jayden.

“You’re going to relax, drink your beer, eat your food and let me worry about this for the rest of the evening.”

I slump back against the booth and sigh. That I can handle.

“Yes, sir, those are some orders I can follow.”

“Good.”

As if on cue, Donna appears and places our food on the table in front of us. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until now. I’ve never been one of those girls who picked at her food because she was eating in front of a man and I’m not interested in starting now.

Donna hasn’t taken two steps from the table before I pick up half of my sandwich and take a bite so big that it’s hard to manage. I chew forever and reach for my beer to wash it down when a group of tween girls comes giggling through the front door.

Donna, serving as hostess, waitress, and cashier shows them to a table near us and I hear their soft-spoken comments about the hot guy in the booth in the back.

“How old are you?” I blurt out when I’ve swallowed my bite.

He cocks his head and narrows his eyes, “Why?”

I lean forward and crook my finger for him to do the same. When he does I jerk my head toward the girls, “Those little girls think you’re the shit.”

A mischievous smile spreads across his face that makes me think all kinds of dirty thoughts all at once.

“That’s because I am the shit. And I’m thirty-seven, eleven years your senior.”

Thirty-seven? I thought he was closer to Jayden’s age.

I snort and arch one brow high at his arrogance and take another bite of my sandwich. He may be cocky but not without reason, he doesn’t look a day over thirty and he’s got the body of a twenty-five-year-old athlete. I’m not about to stroke his ego, though, I think the table full of blushing pre-teens next to us has done a pretty good job of that.

“What? You don’t think so?”

Ah, there is a morsel of insecurity in there after all. Good.

“I never said that,” I say between chews.

“You didn’t have to, and don’t talk with your mouth full.” He continues cutting his steak.

I swallow and ignore his bossy comment not because I don’t have a million sassy comebacks but because it stirred something in me that I’ve never felt before.

It stirred the desire to please.

It’s not like I’ve never wanted to make somebody happy. I got good grades in school to please Jay and Aunt Marla and I worked hard at work to please my boss. I’m a people-pleaser, but I’m not a man-pleaser.

The men I’ve dated in the past didn’t demand respect. They never had a presence about them like Drake does. I could blame it on him being a Marine but I’ve known a lot of Marines. Not one of them made me tingle from head to toe or send my heart racing out of my chest with a parental comment like chew with your mouth closed.

“Sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” He slides his fork past his lush full lips and I think I’m jealous of that damn bite of steak but there’s that bit of bristle that makes me stretch my neck a bit at his choice of words. I’m not going to be sassy. I will not take his bait.

“I’m glad you trusted me with your problem.”

“Don’t make me regret it.” Damn it! Why? Why does my mouth spit things out at the speed of light when my brain is only going 50 mph? I wasn’t going to be sassy.

He smirks as if he knows what he’s done and continues to eat. We make nice and chit chat for the rest of the meal drinking two more beers apiece. Drake’s presence and the alcohol have me feeling more relaxed than I’ve felt in weeks. He puts me at ease and I wish Jayden didn’t have it out for him so I could spend more time feeling this way.

“You’re glowing,” he says after telling a borderline dirty joke that has me laughing.

“I feel good. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to let my guard down and laugh, thank you.”

“The pleasure is all mine, believe me.”

“Are you always this charming?”

“Yes, unless you’re a Marine, then I’m a different kind of charming.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of charming is that?”

“The manipulative, always in control commanding officer kind.”

“Maybe I should enlist.”

His eyes darken and his expression changes from playful to seductive. I’m playing with fire and I need to stop.

“You’d like to be manipulated and controlled? Somehow that surprises me.”

“It does? Why is that?”

“At the risk of ruining what is the best evening I’ve had with someone in years, I’m going to answer that question. You’ve proven on more than one occasion that you are sassy and independent and stubborn.”

“Not always.”

We’ve been here a while, he’s sitting cockeyed with his knee up on the seat and his lean tanned arm stretched out along the back of the booth. His T-shirt strains against his chest outlining his pectoral muscles and I have a flash daydream about peeling it off and exploring every hard ripple hidden under the deep red material.

“Not always.” He repeats my words with interest. “Under what circumstances are you not?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

“Don’t tempt me, sweet girl. I’d love to but there’s no doubt that would push your brother over the edge.”

I roll my eyes but he’s right. We both know it, yet here we sit flirting with each other like he doesn’t exist.

He wags his finger at my mouth, “You’re pouting.”

“I am not.” I raise my hand and touch my pouting lip proving myself wrong.

“You are, and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. If you were mine, I’d do things all day long to make you push that lip out and to see that bit of frustration in your eyes.”

If I were his.

Those four words ignite a fire that’s been smoldering since the moment I first laid eyes on this man, two short days ago. I want him. I want him to throw me over his shoulder and haul me out of here. I want him to manipulate and control me all night until there’s not a pout left in my lip.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.” He slides out of the booth and takes my hand pulling me to my feet. I’m standing in front of him so close I can smell a hint of his earthy cologne and the fabric softener on his shirt.

“Where are we going?”

“Home.”

I deflate faster than tires on stop sticks. He’s taking me home to my brother. It’s probably for the best but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.

He takes my chin in his hand and lifts my eyes to his. “My home.”

My heart flops in my chest and my sex aches between my thighs. His home, so we’re really doing this?

His gaze is expectant as if he’s asking me instead of telling. I nod and he squeezes my chin. The gesture makes me feel like a child and a sex-kitten simultaneously. I follow him out of the diner and down the street in public holding his hand praying no one sees us and blabs to Jayden.

What am I doing? Talk of me having dinner with Drake is probably spreading through the gossip mill as we walk. Like a game of Telephone, every person who talks about it will embellish it a little bit. By the time it gets back to Jay, it’ll sound like my wild night at The Aquarium in New York. They’ll say I was dancing on the diner bar naked grinding on Drake with a martini in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just little towns, ya know? Everybody talks about everybody and this is front page news.” I hold up our linked hands.

“Let them talk.”

“But what about…” He stops and places a finger on my lips.

“Shush.” I’m about to protest again when he pushes me into a dark alley between a clothing boutique and the barbershop. Tucked out of sight, he presses me up against the brick wall, slides his hands down my arms pinning them at my sides and leans in close.

“It’s taking every ounce of restraint I have not to fuck you right here in this alley. I don’t care if people see. I don’t care if people talk. I don’t even care if your brother finds out. He’ll get over it. What I do care about is you. So, let’s stop talking and go to my house and release some of this pent-up energy we’ve been trying to suppress for two days, shall we?”

I nod, because what is there to say? Everything is crystal clear now. The magnetism between us is mutual and we’re going to his house to fuck, Jayden and Jewel Falls be damned.

“Good girl. Let’s go see if you really like giving up control.”

He moves even closer and brushes his lips against mine in the faintest kiss. That one kiss packed more punch than all of Mason’s rolled into one. In fact, Drake has more animal magnetism in his pinky finger than Mason did in his entire body. This is exciting, this is thrilling, this is dangerous.