50 Shades of Drake 5 and 6

Chapter Fourteen

    It didn't take much time to round everyone up and lead them outside of Aubrey's palatial estate. The Los Angeles weather was perfect. The sun's rays were warm and the ocean breeze rolled in from the west. Despite the mansion fulfilling just about every entertainment need possible, it still felt good to get out of the house.

    Candace and Carlos were still chatting behind Destiny as the driver of the silver Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van hopped out so he could open the side door of the van.

    "I call shotgun!" Carlos yelled out, opening the passenger side door.

    "So childish," Jasmine said jokingly, stepping up into the van.

    Destiny tugged down the brim of her floppy, coral pink hat. For their outing today, she'd chosen to wear a chic, floral-print short-sleeved dress and low heels. As she grabbed onto the chrome railing to step up into the van, she inspected the fingers of her left hand. That morning, she hadn't put on the ring. She and Aubrey had agreed on making the engagement announcement when they all returned home for the evening. Wiggling her ring finger, she moved down the aisle of the decked out van, passing her parents who were seated at the very front. She headed to the very back of the van and dropped down into one of the cushy leather seats. Placing her purse in her lap, she looked out of the window.

    Aubrey remained near the base of his front porch steps, wearing one of his trademark fine Italian suits. He had his cell phone raised to his ear. "Yes. This coming week, I will be taking off. I'm going to relax, reintroduce myself to the L.A. area, get settled in. I'll be in the office next week, so schedule a meeting with all of the department heads for that Monday. That's right. Ah...I'm not sure. I'm not in my home office right now, but I can check for you tomorrow morning and get back to you. I'll be out all day today. Yeah. Even though I'll be out of the office this week, just hit me up if you need anything, all right? Sure. You too." He pulled the phone away from his ear and lowered it into the pocket of his dress pants. Then he moved towards the van in long, measured strides.

    Destiny watched him. "The most captivating man in the world is captivated by you," Jasmine had said earlier. It was a sentiment that made Destiny smile to herself as Aubrey boarded the van and provided instructions to the driver.

    Jasmine sat in front of Destiny, and Candace sat across the aisle from her.

    Aubrey walked to the back of the van. His steps came to a halt when he was standing beside Destiny. With a teasing smile, he affectionately touched the brim of her hat. "You look beautiful today."

    "Sickening," Carlos called back to them from the very front of the van.

    Seemingly knowing what Carlos meant by that, Aubrey chuckled low and unbuttoned his suit jacket before lowering himself into the seat across from Destiny.

    The van pulled away from Aubrey's residence and slowly ambled down the long drive.

    Aubrey took them out for breakfast to one of his favorite Los Angeles restaurants. Then he proceeded to show them around the city. "I wasn't born here, wasn't raised here," he'd explained once everyone had boarded the van. "But I don't know...Los Angeles feels like another city that has adopted me. I consider it a home away from home. Like Houston. Like Atlanta. I've spent so much time away from it..." The sentence went unfinished. He stood in the middle of the aisle, staring into space.

    Destiny leaned forward and grabbed his hand. Seeing that he was having a moment, she turned her head and addressed her family. "After the tour, we're going to get a little shopping in and catch a movie at iPic, which Aubrey called-what did you call it?"

    "A luxury cinema," he said, but from the distracted tone in his voice, his mind was somewhere else.

    She gently tugged on his hand.

    He took a deep breath, smoothed down his tie, and claimed the seat across the aisle her. While he did so, he continued holding her hand. "iPic serves gourmet food dishes. Some of the best cocktails you'll ever have. It's one of my favorite movie theaters in the area. After the movie, we are taking in a Golden State Warriors game."

    Destiny smiled at him and looked down at their joined hands, excited for the announcement they'd make later that evening.

    "Basketball," her father said from where he sat towards the front of the van. "My favorite sport. Granted, the Warriors were a bunch of wussies back in my day. They played nothing like how they're playing now."

    Aubrey laughed. "A good friend of mine plays on the team," he said, stroking the back of Destiny's hand with the pad of his thumb. "He is a huge part of why they're playing so well now, in my opinion. It will be good to see him, and a pleasure to introduce him to all of you."

    "Do you play at all?" Mr. Richards asked him.

    A slow smile spread across Aubrey's face. "I dabble."

    "You dabble in dribble?"

    Carlos giggled. "Did Destiny's dad just give Aubrey a bar?"

    The smile didn't leave Aubrey's face as he answered, "I dabble in dribble. Yes."

    "I want to see you play," Destiny told him.

    Aubrey chuckled and his cheeks reddened a bit. "I'm probably rusty. I haven't played in awhile. I don't know if you saw the court out back, but my boys used to play around quite a bit whenever we had down time. I was a beast back then."

    "You're a beast now," she assured him, squeezing his hand.

    He brought his elbow up to rest along the windowsill and ran his index finger along his bottom lip while his eyes were locked with hers. For the sake of everyone around them, probably, he didn't voice his thoughts out loud...but he didn't need to voice what he was thinking for her to know what he would do to her as soon as they were alone.

    She could feel her body temperature rising, the longer she stared back at him.

    His eyes lowered from her face down to her chest, raking over the curves of her body while continuing to stroke his bottom lip. The look on his face said that he appreciated her statement and would enjoy nothing more than showing her just how much of a beast he was, when he had the chance.