What? There’s no way he would agree to that. “What’s the catch?”
He smiles.
I knew it.
“When we get to my house, I get to do whatever I want with you for six hours.” I inhale sharply. I’m making a deal with the devil, but it seems like the best deal I have ever been offered.
I hesitantly whisper, “Okay.”
Drew looks at me in confusion. “What?”
How can I tell him this? I don’t want to tell him, but if he tries something like he did last night, I’ll freak out. I can’t explain my fear without explaining the reason. Well, I can, but I know that he won’t let me. “I’m scared you’ll push me too far.”
His face displays shock. “We’ll set up some kind of a word for you to tell me to stop, a safe word. Okay?”
I nod yes as we pull up to the airport. Drew seems so carefree and happy right now that I can’t help but smile. The serious controlling guy seems to have taken a hiatus and been replaced with a funny one. He even jokes with the airport worker as I go through the x-ray machine that he better not be ‘looking at the goods’. The worker doesn’t find it nearly as funny as we do. When we get to the gate, they’ve already started to board and Drew takes my hand as we stand at the back of the line. I look down at our interlaced fingers and want to pinch myself to make sure that this is my life. It amazes me that I can feel so connected to him when we barely know each other. The deal he proposed to me in the car comes to mind and I smile.
Chapter Seven
When the woman checks our tickets and directs us to first class I’m surprised, although I don’t know why I wouldn’t have expected it. Drew seems to only accept the most expensive things. We sit down and the seats are so comfortable.
My phone beeps and I realize that I never turned it off. I look over at Drew to see if it’s okay to answer it now.
“You’re fine. They’ll tell you when to turn them off.”
I check my phone and I have another text from Nicole.
Nicole: Tell lover boy he owes me big time. I didn’t know what to do with your brother’s keys so I just threw them and they had landed in the sink. Well when I snuck upstairs to hide I forgot about them and Christen ran the garbage disposal. Needless to say he is even more unhappy than before.
I laugh out loud, imagining what’s going on in the house right now. As soon as we buckle ourselves in, I turn to face him. “I want to know about your family.”
“Shit, James, you don’t waste any time.”
I laugh. “Considering this will probably be the only time that you will answer my questions, I
can’t
waste any.”
He shakes his head and sighs. “My family is from Calabasas, which is right outside of Los Angeles. I have a younger sister, Maya, who is eight, my mom is your normal stay at home mom, and my dad is a plastic surgeon. I had a pretty normal life growing up, at least normal in my eyes. I’ve been told I led a privileged life because of our money, but my mother never let money affect us.”
I let that settle in. It makes sense to me now why he’s so quick to throw money around. He has an abundance of it, and as a child his mother never let them use their money wastefully.
The flight attendant gives a speech about the flight and all of the safety precautions. As we begin to take off I get nervous, but when Drew reaches over and grips my hand I instantly relax. Once we’re in the air, my nerves even out and I turn to face Drew again. “What’s your thing with control?”
He withdraws his hand from mine and his eyes become cold and distant. “It’s something I need.”
“Why?”
“Because I do.” He won’t even look at me.
“You said I could ask you whatever I wanted.” I can hear the whine in my voice but I really don’t care.
“I said you could
ask
, I didn’t say I would give you the answer that you wanted. I answered your question as far as I’m going to right now.”
I can tell that the discussion is over, but now I’m more curious than ever.
“When was your last relationship?”
He turns toward me, reaches over, and starts to massage my shoulders.
Damn, it feels amazing.
“In high school.” He brushes my hair to the side and kisses the nape of my neck.
“Mmmmm, what made you come up to me that day before the concert?” I rest the side of my head against the seat, enjoying the feel of his hands on me.
He leans close to my ear. “Because you looked so fucking beautiful, but also so damn sad. I was drawn to you and I wanted to know why you were so upset. I knew even when I first walked over to you that day that I wouldn’t be able to stay away from you.”
I feel someone shaking my shoulder, and when I open my eyes people are moving through the aisles. I look to my side at Drew and he’s smiling. “Good morning.”
I fell asleep? How did that happen? The last thing I remember is Drew telling me about the first time we met and massaging my shoulders. Wait a minute. I look at him accusingly. “You did that on purpose. You relaxed me so much that I fell asleep on purpose!”
He plasters and innocent look on his face. “Who, me? Never. Come, let’s go, we’re here.”
“That’s fine. I’ll get you back somehow.” I get up, but before I can move into the aisle, Drew rises and pulls me against him.
“I don’t know how you’ll do that. There is no way in hell I’d fall asleep when I know what’s waiting for me when we get home.” He kisses my neck and pushes me toward the aisle. “Listen, this is LAX and there are always photographers hanging out trying to catch people coming and going. You have to be ready for this. I forgot to bring a hat. Take my sweatshirt and once we pass security put the hood up, okay?”
“Yeah.” I bite my lower lip after I pull his sweatshirt on. I’m nervous for this, even though I knew that Drew had done it many times before.
“Hey.” I look up at Drew. He kisses me on the lips softly. “You’ll be fine.” We exit the plane and Drew grabs my hand. After a few minutes of walking through the terminal I can see the security gate. “Put your hood up.”
I do as he says. After we pass security, I breathe a sigh of relief. No one has popped out at us and we’re almost at the exit. Then I hear the tell tale sound of camera shutters. The reporters are all screaming Drew’s name and asking questions about me. Drew squeezes my hand and it reassures me that we will be fine. We walk through the automatic doors with the photographers still following us. There’s a black SUV waiting at the curb just like the one from the days before.
We climb into the car, and when the door closes, I let out a sigh of relief. Then I remember that we never went to baggage claim. “What about my bags?”
“I sent someone to grab them already.” I relax back in the seat. Once we start driving, my anxiety goes away. I hate those people so much. It isn’t just that they’re always following Drew, but the things they say are so mean and hurtful at times. As we drive through the city, it’s mesmerizing; all of the lights make it look so alive.
We pull up to a gated community and our driver punches a code into the keypad. The gate slowly opens and we drive through the development until we stop outside of one of the most amazing houses I’ve ever seen. The house is a tan color and nearly three stories tall. There are two intricate stone railings that lead up a set of steps to a dark wood door. Drew gets out of the car and then just looks at me and waits. I step out of the car, trying to take in the grandeur in front of me.
He takes my hand and we walk up the steps. My heart feels as though it is pounding out of my chest, even though I’m not really sure why. The driver places our bags inside the door, Drew slips him a tip, and then the door closes and we’re alone. I lean against the wall and look around at the room we’re standing in. The ceiling goes all the way up to the roof and you can see two different floors enclosed by white railings.
Drew stands in front of me and puts his hands on my hips. “What do you think?”
I look at him, unsure of how to answer at first. “It’s so big.”
That’s an amazing answer, Holly. Good job.
“Yeah?” He’s so close to my face, and before I can reply, he kisses me. Our kiss immediately catches fire and he lifts me by my butt and presses me against the wall for support. The sweatshirt he’d given me earlier is quickly pulled over my head. His hands roam across my chest before resting at the top of my shirt and ripping it in half. This shouldn’t surprise me; he’s already expressed a dislike for clothes.
We hear footsteps coming and immediately freeze. “Andrew?” I look past Drew and see a well put together woman standing at the other end of the room staring at us.
“Mom? What are you doing here?”
Mom?! Oh my God. Kill me now.
This is just the perfect situation to meet someone’s mother.
“Drew Drew!” A little girl comes running into the room and Drew curses under his breath.
He quickly scoops up the discarded sweatshirt and shoves it at me. “Put this on, fast.” I do as he says and have it in place just before the little girl reaches us. “Hi, Maya, what are you doing here?” He lifts her into his arms, causing her to squeal.
“Me and Mommy came to surprise you! Surprise.” Drew laughs. His mother comes closer toward us but I can’t even look her in the eye.
“Mom, I wish you would have told me you were coming.”
She clears her throat. “I didn’t expect you to have company. You usually don’t when you’re home.”
My cheeks redden. “Mom, this is Holly, my girlfriend.” There’s that damn word again.
Drew’s mother smiles at me. “Well, as unexpected as this is, I have to say I’m happy to see someone has finally convinced him to calm down. Maya, why don’t we set another place at the table? That way, Andrew and Holly can get their stuff put away.”
Drew places her down on the floor and she runs for the kitchen with her mother slowly following behind her. I lean back against the wall and bury my face in my hands. What a way to meet someone’s mother. Half-naked, pressed against a wall, and about to have sex. She is just going to love me.
“Hey.” I look up at Drew. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that they would be here.”
“It’s okay. I’m going to go put on a shirt, though.” I look around the enormous house. “Where do I go?”
He laughs. “The entire second floor is mine so walk into any door you like. We’ll be in the kitchen, which is straight through there.” He points his finger where Maya and his mom disappeared. Then he leans down and kisses me before turning around and walking to join his family.
I climb the steps and walk to the first door I see. When I open it, the size of the room takes my breath away. It’s absolutely gigantic. There is a huge four poster bed against the wall directly in front of me, off to the side there’s a large couch and flat screen TV, and then there are three other doors which I can only imagine hold things just as nice. I walk over to the bed, place my bag on it, and begin searching through it for a nice shirt.
I pull on a scoop neck sweater and then make my way downstairs. I can hear them talking as I get closer to the room, and even though I know it’s wrong, I quietly listen.
“So you haven’t told her about Sarah?”
Who the hell is Sarah?
“No, Mom, drop it please.”
“Andrew, you can’t just sweep it under the rug. You’ve done that for six years. If you’re serious about this girl at all then you need to tell her.”
I can’t believe this. I need to know what’s going on. Just then I hear his sister. “Drew Drew, I’m gonna go get Holly.”
Shit.
I quietly make my way back to the steps, and when Maya walks up, I pretend that I had just come down. “Hi!” She grabs my hand and I flinch as she leads me into the room with Drew and his mom.
He looks up at me and I can tell that whatever his mom said got to him. I stand next to him and look down at the pizza boxes and paper plates on the table. I smile, feeling more comfortable than I did when I thought it would be a formal dinner. Everyone sits down, and once we all have pizza, Drew’s mom turns to me.
“So, Holly, tell me about yourself.”
I hate questions like this. I mean, how the heck are you supposed to answer that? “I’m in school right now, but I really have no idea what I want to major in. I’m from North Carolina and I live with my two best friends who go to the same school.”
She smiles. “How did you and Andrew meet?”
“We met before one of my shows near Holly’s school.” Thank God he saved me.
“Why were you guys kissing? Kissing is disgusting!” Maya blurts out from across the table. We all erupt in laughter.
The rest of the dinner is nice. His mom asks me a few more questions, but nothing serious, and his sister is absolutely adorable. We sit around talking long after dinner is finished and I love it because I’m uncovering different things about Drew that I never knew. Apparently, he’s had a fear of lighting since he was five and has been playing different instruments since he was six. When he was in first grade, he played The Tin Man in
The
Wizard of Oz
, of which his mom has promised pictures and Drew is
not
happy. I feel like I fit in with them, which is really great.
Maya is yawning and seems like she is barely able to keep her eyes open so Drew’s mom decides it’s time to leave. “It was really nice to meet you, Mrs. Walker.”
She smiles at me. “Please call me Elizabeth, Holly. It was absolutely wonderful to meet you. Andrew is coming home on Monday for Maya’s birthday; I hope that I will see you then.” She goes to give me a hug and I see no way around it so I grit my teeth as she does.
I pull away before she does, feeling like I can finally breathe when we separate. Once their car pulls away, Drew closes the door and gives me a mischievous look. “What?”
He laughs and pulls me so I’m flush against him. “This is going to be the best fucking six hours of my life.”
My cheeks redden, and then I think about how I can get my revenge from the plane ride. “Six hours?” He nods his head against my neck as he’s kissing it. “It’s nine-thirty. We got to your house around five-thirty, and that means you only have two hours left.”
Chapter Eight