Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Forty-Three

    Mia woke up long before she opened her eyes. She felt content with Drake's arms wrapped around her. She wanted to keep her eyes closed for as long as possible. She knew that once she opened them, she would have to return back to reality, a reality where they were just two people working together.

    He shifted in his sleep, and at that point she did open her eyes. Stared up into possibly the most adorable face she'd ever seen. She watched him sleep and wished that he wasn't an entertainer who felt the need to stay single. She wished a lot of things.

    His grip around her tightened, pulling her closer. He groaned in his sleep and turned his face into the pillow.

    The urge to kiss him in that moment was overwhelming, but she swallowed it. She closed her eyes again, and not meaning to, fell back asleep.

    She awoke again to the feeling of her face being touched. He was raised up on one elbow, looking down at her and touching her cheek with the back of his hand. "Hi," she said softly.

    "Hi," he returned, smiling.

    "I should probably get back to my room before anyone wakes up," she said, starting to sit up.

    He leaned over and planted an arm on the other side of her to keep her from moving. "Don't go anywhere."

    She settled back down on the pillow, staring up at him. "Shouldn't we get ready to work?"

    His eyes lowered to her lips while she was talking, then back up to her eyes. "The studio will still be there in an hour or two," he told her.

    She bit her bottom lip and returned his stare. "What are you thinking?" she asked him finally.

    "That I could stay in bed with you all day," he replied without hesitation.

    She blinked and lifted her hand to touch his face.

    He lowered his head and kissed her, his arms tightening around her again.

    When they pulled back, she kissed the tip of his nose.

    He laughed and kissed her lips again, this time briefly.

    "Round two?" she asked him.

    While his eyes were intensely locked on hers, he reached down, grabbed each of her thighs, and parted them. With slow, calculated movements, he slid between them grabbed her hands, and raised them above her head. "Round two," he agreed.

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

    "Is this my notebook, or yours?" Mia frowned down at the spiral notebook in her hands.

    "That's mine." Drake walked up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and snatched the notebook out of her hands. "I can tell by the bent corner. Jacking my shit."

    She turned around in his arms and pushed him away. "Stop leaving your shit around for me to jack," she teased back. "I thought you only used your BlackBerry for writing lyrics."

    Noah and Bri exchanged amused glances. Bri lifted a hand to her hip, one eyebrow raised.

    Mia bent at the waist and picked up the notebook that was was still lying on the coffee table. She opened the notebook and realized that the handwriting in it wasn't hers. "That's not even your notebook, it's mine!" she shouted over her shoulder at Drake, who grinned mischievously. She shook her head. "You're so full of shit. Trust me, you don't want this war."

    He laughed and opened the notebook, flipping a few of the pages and looking over the notes. "Hm, nice."

    She walked over to him and reached for the notebook.

    He moved the notebook out of her grasp. "Uh uh, I'm not done."

    She folded her arms across her chest and watched as he read through the notebook. He crossed the studio and went to sit on the couch. She followed him.

    Bri scratched her head and asked Noah, "Am I the only one who feels like I missed a few beats? No pun intended."

    "You're not the only one," Noah told her, chuckling and turning back around to his engineering board.

    Bri walked across the room with her hand still on her hip. "So...you two are awfully cutesy today," she remarked.

    Mia and Drake looked up at her, their faces the picture perfect display of innocence. "What?" Mia asked her. "We're just working."

    Bri rolled her eyes. "I was born at night, not last night. Move over."

    Mia scooted closer to Drake to give Bri room to sit down, and as a result her thigh was pressed against his. Granted, they were both wearing jeans, which was a lot of fabric between them, but she could still feel how warm his thigh was. And the sensation of his leg against hers reminded her of how he'd felt the previous night and earlier that morning. She cleared her throat and tucked hair behind her ear. "So...I was thinking about that line," she said.

    "The 'Success made me want love less,' rhyme?" he asked leaning forward and grabbing a black pen from the table.

    "Yeah. I thought about it and revised some of the words." She found the page in her notebook and slid the notebook over to him. She wrapped her arms around herself nervously while she waited for him to read it.

    He read the words several times in his head, then out loud. Then, he closed his eyes and said the words out loud again, getting a feel for the words. He nodded. "All right. All right, yeah. I like that." He removed the cap from the pen and added some more words to the ones she'd written down. He handed the notebook back to her.

    She took the notebook back from him and read the words. The words he'd written were:

"I WISH I WAS STILL LYING IN BED WITH YOU RIGHT NOW. I'M READY FOR ROUND THREE."

    She lifted her eyes from the notebook page and stared at him, her cheeks turning red.

    "Well?" he asked her, his eyes smiling even though his mouth wasn't. "What do you think about that line? Does it work?"

    She searched his eyes and lowered her eyes back down to the page, pretending to look it over again. "Um, yeah, I think it works," she said.

    He grinned. "40, I need you to queue up Track 4," he called out.

    "Track 4, got it," Noah called back.

    Mia looked over at Bri, who was staring back at her and shaking her head slowly.