Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Six

    Mia rolled over in bed and felt a barricade limiting her field of movement. Her eyes fluttered open. Drake was lying beside her. His eyes were closed as he slept, and his breathing was slow. For several moments, she watched him sleep. She felt like a creeper, but couldn't help it. He looked positively angelic when he was sleeping.

    While looking up at him, she tried to sort out her memories from the previous evening to determine how it was that she came to be in a bed with him. Her gaze started at his beautiful, down-turned eyes, traveled down his jawline where a five o' clock shadow was beginning to grow, and held on his lips. She remembered the feel of them while they were sitting poolside. Beneath the covers, she could feel that she was still fully dressed, which indicated that they most likely hadn't gotten intimate the night before. She raised her head off of the pillow and glanced over her shoulder. Rays of sunshine were pressing against the blinds hanging over the balcony door.

    The sight of the balcony brought back the memory of Drake seated on the patio, singing as he used a Blackberry to pen the lyrics to one of his next songs. She smiled at the memory and settled her head back on the pillow.

    A catchy ringtone sounded from the phone he'd set on the nightstand. He shifted and groaned softly in his sleep. Even though he shifted, his arms remained around her. The ringtone sounded again and he reached up to rub his eyes. He rolled onto his back and stretched out an arm, fumbling around the nightstand for the phone that was ringing. Two phones rested on the nightstand, the gold iPhone and the Blackberry. He lifted the iPhone and placed it to his ear. "Hello?" he croaked sleepily, with his eyes still closed. "Yeah, man. I'm up, I'm up."

    She smiled at the sound of his gravelly morning voice.

    He ended the call and finally opened his eyes. He blinked and a slow smile curved his mouth upward. "Good morning," he greeted, lifting a hand and brushing her hair back from her face.

    "Good morning," she returned.

    "Did you sleep well?"

    "I did, thank you."

    His eyes stayed locked on her face for a long time before he started to sit up. He rubbed his eyes again and muttered, "I'm starving. Do you have time for breakfast?"

    "Do you have time for breakfast?" she returned, pointedly looking at the gold cell phone that was still in his right hand.

    He laughed and pressed a few buttons in his phone. He raised the phone to his ear again. "Room service. Breakfast. The works. Go." He ended the call and carefully placed the phone back on the nightstand.

    "Man of few words," she remarked, attempting to overlook just how sexy it was that a man had the power to give the abbreviated command he'd just given.

    He smiled and turned so he could look down at her.

    "Just so you know, this isn't...normal for me," she told him. "I'm not the type of girl that winds up in a guy's hotel room the first night meeting him."

    "Just so you know, last night was probably the most innocent night I've ever spent in a hotel room with a woman sharing the bed with me," he countered in a deep, suggestive tone.

                                                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Breakfast with Drake was short and chaotic. The kitchen of the hotel suite bustled with his crew. A variety of breakfast foods from room service was laid out on the counter, and they all had their fill. Mia didn't think she'd ever seen people eat as fast as his crew did. Granted, they were hosting a huge concert event that evening, and Drake was performing that evening. She was sure that he probably also had rehearsals during the day. There was probaly a lot more preparation for an event like this than she could even imagine, more that they had scheduled for the day.

    He joked and nudged his crew between bites of food, and did his best to make sure she was comfortable and taken care of. She hadn't known what to expect of his crew. She had half-expected for them to point and laugh at her, and accuse her of doing the walk of shame the moment she emerged from Drake's bedroom, but they had barely paid her any mind. They talked to her like she was a part of the group.

    Chubbs even asked if she would be joining them when they returned to Calabasas. She'd given a noncommittal response to him, at which point he responded, "A lot of people would kill for the opportunity to write with him. And he's at a stage in his career where he doesn't need the help. Be smart."

    Mia mulled over those words while watching Drake eat. A dark birthmark was located on his right forearm, and she found herself captivated by it.

    He caught her watching him as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. He held her gaze and smiled, and everyone else in the room faded into the background. The sounds of his friends' chatter muted. It was just as it had been the day before, with everything else around them falling away. In those few minutes when their eyes locked with each other, they were the only ones in the world that existed.

    She finally understood why he had so many fans. She'd always acknowledged his talent; she'd never doubted that. In addition to his undeniable talent as a rapper/singer/songwriter, he was a beautiful man who possessed a silent but formidable power. His fans had coined a phrase "Drake is life," and for the crew moving around him and bumping knuckles with him, he was life. He was everything.

    After breakfast, he'd guided her to a limousine. He insisted on riding with her to her hotel, an act that she'd found incredibly charming. The word charming summed him up quite appropriately. There was a reason why so many women were rumored to be left in his wake. He was frighteningly easy to fall in love with.

    And I have to find a way not to fall, she thought, because if I join him in Calabasas, our relationship would have to remain strictly professional. I refuse to be messy, and refuse to give drama a chance to interfere with my songwriting career.

    Seated across from him in the limo, however, she watched him gaze thoughtfully out of the window. She had a feeling that not falling in love with him was easier said than done.