50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter One Hundred

    Hungry kisses, eager touches, and mingled moans and groans. Destiny's hands were cupping Aubrey's face. Then they were sliding down to his neck and loosening his tie before removing it completely. Then her hands were on his shoulders, and sliding across his chest, to unbutton the top of his dress shirt. She managed to get five buttons undone before he covered her hands with his, breaking off the kiss. It was painful to break off that kiss. The moment he did it, his lips itched to caress hers again. He turned his head and took a deep, steadying breath. "There will be time for this, baby," he told her when the sound of running bathwater registered to him. "Come with me?" He grabbed her hand and started to back away from her, only turning when she started to follow. He led her into the bedroom, and then the bathroom, and promptly shut off the bathwater.

    Millions of tiny bubbles graced the top of the water. She leaned down and scooped up a handful. With an endearing, child-like glee, she blew the bubbles in the air over the cluster of bubbles in the tub.

    He touched one of her curls while watching her, then turned and walked over to the bathroom sink.

    She whirled around. "You're not getting in with me?"

    "Not tonight," he replied, opening one of the bathroom sink drawers.

    "But...why not?"

    "Because I'll be too busy cooking what you want to eat," he said, grabbing a container of bobby pins. He opened the lid and set both the lid and container on the bathroom sink counter. After plucking several of the large bobby pins out of the container, he returned to her. "Turn around."

    She turned around wordlessly.

    "You still haven't told me what you want for dinner."

    "Umm...pasta?"

    He laughed and started to gather a section of her hair up in his hands. "Are you asking me, or telling me?"

    She laughed, too. "Pasta," she said again, making it a statement and not a question.

    "Good choice. Eggplant Parm?"

    "Mmmm."

    He proceeded to pin her hair up, every once in awhile kissing one of her shoulders. "How was your birthday?"

    "It was nice," she told him. "I really appreciated everything everyone did. I wasn't expecting it."

    "Hard to expect it when you forgot it was your birthday," he pointed out while pinning up another section of her hair.

    "True," she said, her voice soft.

    He rolled his eyes and turned his head. Earlier this evening, he'd told himself that he wouldn't think about anything negative tonight. It was her birthday. All he wanted to do was celebrate her. Changing the subject, he told her, "I want you to just...completely relax. The cooking will take me awhile, so there's no rush." When he was finished with her hair, he held her hand and helped her into the tub.

    Before he could leave the bathroom, she called out, "Aubrey?" Her voice sounded so small, so tiny...as if she still wasn't used to calling him by his first name.

    He turned back to her, holding the edge of the door. The sight of her seated in the tub, nearly engulfed by a flurry of bubbles, was almost too adorable to bear. "Yes?"

    "Thank you."

    He smiled. "Any time, baby girl. I'll get dinner started."

    While cooking, he listened to a blend of Majid Jordan, PartyNextDoor, and The Weeknd. Majid Jordan and PartyNextDoor were a part of Graham Enterprises family. They were family back when Graham Enterprises was known to the world as OvOSound. Throughout the years, they'd carved their own lanes into the music industry. The Weeknd was not a part of the Graham Enterprises family, but Aubrey still considered him family - although technically, these days The Weeknd's label was competition. None of that mattered. All that mattered was how people treated him, how he felt when he was around them. He wasn't around any of the three talented artists as much as he'd like to be these days, but good times were had whenever he was.

    He danced while cooking and had to pause to try to remember the last time he'd done that. A lot of elements of tonight reminded him of another night several years ago, when he was cooking for another woman. His movements froze. Different woman, he reminded himself. Different woman, different time. Everything is different now. Destiny is nothing like Robyn. He finished cooking and portioned sections of pasta onto plates for each of them. He whipped up a quick salad and promptly started to set the table. "What am I forgetting?" he asked out loud. Wine glasses. I might be referred to as "champagne papi," even to this day, but over the time I've spent with her, I can tell she's partial to wine. Wine it is.

    Once the table was set, he poked his nose in the bagged desserts leftover from Destiny's birthday celebration at the office. He cursed under his breath for not grabbing cake and ice cream.

    "Anything good in there?"

    He raised his head and almost forgot to breathe.

    Her hair was still pinned up, just how he'd left it. It looked beautiful like that, and his knowledge on pinning hair up in a stylish way was quite limited. Fresh-faced, in a strapless, floor-length black dress that her bare toes peeked out from. Her hands were demurely clasped in front of her. She stood at the hall entrance, staring back at him probably as intently as he was staring at her. "You're treating me so special, that I figured I should wear something special," she said, looking down at her dress.

    He forgot about desserts, and forgot the fact he should be kicking himself for not picking up desserts that were a lot more acceptable than the grocery store chain goods that were in the bag. He was drawn to her like a moth to a flame, but didn't trust himself to kiss her again. He'd get lost in it. So instead, he linked his fingers with her and led her to the dining room table, where he pulled out a chair for her.

    Her eyes grew wide. "This looks amazing."

    His eyes lowered from her face to her neck. "You're missing something."

    She brought a hand up to touch her neck. "My collar. It's been so long since I've worn it."

    "Stay here," he told her. "I'll grab it for you."

    He jogged to the bedroom.

    "You're still wearing your shoes, and your work clothes and everything," she called to him while he was in the bedroom. "You didn't change at all."

    "I'm good," he called back from the hallway. It had been so long since he'd felt the weight of a collar in his hands. This one felt especially heavy.

    "At least you took your suit jacket off," she commented, staring down at her plate.

    He smiled as he walked up behind her. "At least you helped me to take my tie off," he added.

    She laughed and twisted around to look at him. "Yeah." Her gaze lowered from his face to the collar in his hands. The smile froze on her face. "What...what is...?"

    "Your new collar," he told her. "Turn around."

    Her eyes lifted back up to his. "How much did that cost you?"

    "I'm not sure I'll ever tell you that," he said honestly.

    "I can't...I can't accept that," she said, her voice shaking. Her words said that she couldn't accept it, and the tone of her voice said that she wanted very badly to accept it.

    "Turn around, Destiny," he said. "That's an order. I won't tell you a third time."

    Her eyes lowered back down to the sparkling, multi-layered, diamond choker necklace he was holding. Rows and rows of diamonds stretched across the length of his hands. Swallowing audibly, she turned around in her seat.

    He raised his arms over her head, and lowered them in front of her, bringing his hands back to line the choker up against her neck. When he successfully secured the expensive piece of jewelry around her neck, he leaned down and whispered, "Happy birthday, baby girl."