Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Eighteen

    Mia rose up on her knees in the bed, lifted her hands, and lifted her hair off the back of her neck. Rivulets of sweat ran down the length of her bare back. She could feel the sweat dripping and even that sensation caused her to feel a tiny bit of pleasure. She turned her head and arched a look over her shoulder at Drake, who sat on the edge of the bed with a hookah pipe attached to his mouth.

    As if he could feel his eyes on her, he angled a look at her while puffing. His lips formed a smile around the hookah pipe. He removed the pipe from his mouth and blew out a series of perfect smoke rings. His eyes were heavy-lidded as they lingered on her curves, before moving up to her face. "You posing like that...is going to be a problem," he said softly, his eyes lowering down her frame again.

    She returned the look, her eyes moving down from his face to his perfectly shaped shoulders, down the length of his back. His back was wide at the top, wide and defined with shoulderblades flexing beneath the dark tattoo ink embedded into his skin. His back started to narrow right above the waist line. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Something about his naked skin drove her crazy. Once she saw it, her hands itched to touch it.

    He smiled at her, then turned and set the hookah machine aside, securing the pipe on a hook attached to the side of the machine. A while back, he had explained that the machine was custom-made for him by a well-respected company. The company had gone so far as to paint the OVO logo onto the machine. The machine was well-crafted, and at times he even brought it with him when he traveled. "So...this slumber party of yours took an interesting turn," he commented.

    "We can consider that the 'Seven Minutes in Heaven' portion of the slumber party," she told him, crawling closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. "Or is it called 'Seven Seconds in Heaven'?"

    "Either way, I lasted a lot longer than seven minutes or seven seconds," he muttered.

    She laughed at him. "I know. I was there."

    "I doubt the ice cream held up."

    "The ice cream is probably completely melted," she agreed. "Which sucks, because I was looking forward to that. But the candy and chips and all of that should still be good." She pulled away from him and moved to the other side of the bed, where she reached down and grabbed for the bags of snacks while lying on her stomach.

    "That pose is going to get you in trouble, too," she heard him say.

    She laughed and lifted the plastic bags from the floor. While holding them to her chest, she settled back against the pillows lined up across the headboard and started rummaging. "You should be picking a movie to watch."

    "Right." He grabbed the remote off of the nightstand and settled beside her with one knee raised.

    She dared a peek beneath the lid of her Ben &Jerry's ice cream. "It only melted a little bit! Most of it is okay." She dug around the bottom of the bag for the silverware Drake had tossed inside.

    He selected a creepy erotic thriller and set the remote back down on the nightstand.

    She cuddled up against him with her snacks resting on the bed beside her. There might not be a feeling in the world more perfect than cuddling with your boyfriend while spooning ice cream into your mouth.

    And watching a movie with this man in particular was always an experience. When a horribly written line was spoken by one of the characters, he'd look down at Mia and mutter, "Really? They wrote that in there?" A moment later, he would add, "I think that may have been the worst line I've ever heard in my life. Like...literally."

    When they weren't watching the movie, commenting on the movie, or teasing each other, she was spoonfeeding him ice cream or trying to sequester the other snacks away from him. After the crazy day they'd had, it felt nice to just relax with him and enjoy a movie with him. She loved behind held by him, loved holding him in return. She laughed at his jokes and cracked some of her own. And for this small blip in time, she could force herself to forget that soon they'd be each going down different paths for the next few months, her with her songwriting collaborations and him with his tour. Fearing and stressing over the future came naturally. It took effort for her to live in the moment and enjoy the time she actually had with him.

    They played footsie while watching the movie. He angled an arm behind his head and squinted his eyes at the screen while tightening the other arm he had around her. She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat and struggling to keep her eyes open. Because although that morning she'd woken up a lot earlier than she was accustomed to, she wanted to milk every drop of time she got to spend with this man.

    He kissed the top of her head more than once and in those moments, she knew he was attempting to do the exact same thing.

    All was right with the world and everything was perfect now. But Mia couldn't help but feel like this was the calm before the storm.