Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Twenty-Six

     Drake closed the door to the room Bri was using during her stay here. He took the brief break from the party to respond to a few text messages he'd neglected over the past several hours. Friends, family, colleagues requesting features for their next albums, women across the country who missed him and wondered when he would next touch down in their city. He turned and walked down the hall, towards his bedroom. He flipped on the light switch and sat on the edge of his bed while texting.

    The door to his bedroom opened and Vanessa clung to the doorframe with one leg raised, trying very hard to look seductive. My security doesn't shoot on sight, but some improvements need to be made if she was able to make it up to my room this easily without anyone escorting her, he thought, setting his phone on the bed. "Can I help you?"

    She laughed. "Cute." She peeled herself from the doorframe and entered the room.

    He smiled in amusement as he watched her approach.

    Women were fascinating to him. Since a young age, he'd studied them. He studied them when they didn't even know he was watching. He'd always had an interest in their psychology. Some were perplexing creatures, while others were a little too easy to read. For instance, Vanessa. She was trying very hard to come across as sexy. She was so busy trying, that all of her natural sexiness had long since flown out the window. If she just relaxed and stopped forcing it, it would come to her naturally. Women were naturally sexy. But she was so wrapped up in trying to seduce him, that her attempts were transparent.

    And he wasn't a fan of anything being forced. Anything worth loving, worth fighting for, was not forced; it came naturally. His best lyrics? Came to him naturally, organically. His best friendships? Best conversations? The same story. Natural and organic. Once anything had to be forced, it was never good.

    Vanessa hooked her thumbs in the string bikini stretched across her hips as she came to a stop in front of him. "Why are you hiding from the party?" she asked, sitting on his lap.

    "I had to reply to some text messages," he answered, gripping the edge of the mattress. "I still have a few more to reply to, actually."

    "Are you brushing me off?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

    "Of course not," he said, chuckling. "But these messages are important."

    "I had a nice chat with Mia," she said, running her hands through his damp curls.

    "You did?" he asked.

    She nodded and laughed. "I don't know why, but I got it in my head that she was a girl you were seeing. But she told me how you two are just working together and that's it."

    "She told you that, huh?"

    She stroked the side of his cheek. "Yeah, and it's a good thing she told me. I didn't want to have to fight the bitch."

    He frowned. "Fight her...for what?"

    She snaked her arms around his neck. "For you, silly."

    He stared up at her and the frown on his face didn't budge.

    "You're mine now," she said, as if it was information he should know.

    He slowly lifted his hands and removed her arms from around his neck. "Look, Vanessa..."

    "What?" she asked, the expression on her face turning stony.

    "That...isn't what this is," he said hesitantly.

    "What is this, then?" she asked, leaning away from him.