50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter One

    Destiny blinked the sleepiness away and stared up into a face that was not Aubrey's. Her arms were around a man that was not Aubrey. She stared up into Brian's face, with her mouth formed into a small, perfect "O" of surprise. For some reason, her arms were still around him. He felt good in her arms. Solid. But he's not Aubrey, she reminded herself, pulling her arms away from him and lifting a hand. She touched her fingertips to her lips, still able to feel the sensation of their shared kiss. "Oh my God," she whispered, sitting up in bed.

    He didn't budge, didn't speak. The look in his eyes said that he'd been as surprised as she was.

    Which probably means that I'm the one who started this, she thought. Because I thought he was Aubrey. I dreamed about Aubrey, and when I felt Brian, I thought... She blinked back tears and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm...sorry about that."

    "You don't have to apologize," he said, his voice groggy.

    "Yes. Yes, I do." She twisted around in bed and planted her feet on the floor. "I shouldn't have come into your room. I'm sorry."

    "Hey..."

    She looked back at him over her shoulder, trying not to make note of just how attractive he looked lying in bed. Also trying not to notice how plump his lips look right now, because I was just kissing and sucking on them.

    "We don't have to blow this out of proportion," he said quickly. "I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that you thought I was Aubrey."

    She nodded her head. "Yes. I did."

    Disappointment flashed in his bright blue eyes, but he managed to curl his lips into an empathetic smile. "Right. So...we can just forget that this happened, then."

    "Can we?" she asked him, searching his eyes.

    He stared back at her. Whenever his lips moved, they moved to form just a few words, but there were thousands of words that lay in the depths of his eyes. So much more that he wanted to tell her that he felt he shouldn't. When he lowered the curtain and showed her the man he really was, his eyes were so easy to read. He didn't even have to speak; everything he felt was right there in his face. "If you think it's best, then we can just forget this happened."

    "I think it's best," she said, her voice barely audible.

    He nodded as if he'd figured as much. "Okay. Then...I guess I need to get up and start getting ready for work."

    "Yeah, me too," she said, standing from the bed. "Thank you for letting me stay here last night."

    "No problem."

    When she was back in her room, she sat on the edge of her bed and stared into space. Then she raised her fingers to her lips and touched them again, gingerly. She remembered the taste of Brian's lips and knew that forgetting the kiss would be no easy task.

~~~~~~

    Aubrey woke with a start, plagued by nightmares. He sat in his bed and listened, listened for any sounds in his condo that were unfamiliar. There was nothing was silence. These days, he didn't know which to fear more: the silence or strange sounds. Seeing Bridgette's apartment had shaken him up to the point of locking his bedroom door before going to sleep.

    He'd been tempted to send her packing. After all, he'd only agreed to let her stay in his place for a few days. But last night's storm had been especially bad and had lasted a long time. Even with the shrine in her apartment dedicated to him and the indication of her having a few screws loose, he couldn't kick her out when it was pouring outside.

    So what did I do? I returned back to the office, told her that I wanted to check out her apartment to see if anyone was watching the place. I blamed the rain for my delay in getting back to the office. Really, I just lost track of time, staring at my own face in my administrative assistant's apartment. Photos. Photos I don't even remember giving her, photos I don't know how she could have had access to...maybe from my days of being an entertainer. But the photos were everywhere and...she had my picture tacked to her pillow. The apartment had been completely trashed but strangely enough, that had been comforting. It meant that there was the smallest chance she could have been telling the truth about being attacked, the night she'd come to his condo asking to stay. But telling the truth or not, she can't stay here. Not with how she feels about me.

    He completed a quick morning workout and showered. When he got out of the shower, he heard quiet sounds coming from the guest bedroom. She was awake, and would most likely come out of the bedroom any minute. A trademark trait of his was slow, precise movements in most things that he did, but knowing that she was awake caused him to rush in getting dressed. It was no longer acceptable for her to see him shirtless or in any state of undress whatsoever. Not that it had ever been acceptable to begin with, he thought, buttoning up his dress shirt while evaluating his reflection in the mirror. The briefest thought of Destiny flitted across his mind. Wondering whether she was looking into a mirror right this very second, the way he was. Wondering whether or not he would get to see her at work today. He flipped the collar of his shirt up, walked into his closet, and selected a dark silk tie that he slid around the back of his dress shirt collar.

    Once he was finished getting dressed, he sat on the edge of his bed. Lost in his own thoughts and worries and fears. After several moments, he called out, "Hey, Bridgette?"

    "Yeah?" she called back to him.

    "I want us to ride to work together today," he called out to her, adjusting his tie and buttoning the cuffs of his dress shirt.

    She hesitated before responding, and then said, "Okay."

    Quick breakfast with an exchange of a few pleasantries. How did she sleep? Last night was a nasty storm, wasn't it? He apologized again for leaving her hanging without her car keys for so long.

    The ride in the car was a quiet one. Neither of them felt like forcing polite conversation. Twenty minutes into the ride, she perked up in her seat. She'd been gazing out of the window the entire time, but now she turned and looked at him. "This isn't the way to work."

    "It's not?" he asked her casually.

    She frowned. "Where are you taking me, Aubrey?"

    He shrugged his shoulders.

    Another five minutes later, and he was pulling his car into the parking lot of a police station. She grew still in her seat and her eyes widened in fear. "No."

    He unbuckled his seatbelt before turning to face her. "Yes. And you're going to tell them every single fucking thing that you know." The dangerous look in his eyes didn't give her a choice. It was rare that a situation called for him to be quite that brutish, especially when speaking to a woman. But when the presence of an untrustworthy person affected your ability to sleep, you tended to stop giving a fuck about decency and propriety.