Chapter 10 – Olivia
OLIVIA
For months after Drake kissed me at school, we pretended to be together in public and ignored each other in private. The moment the facade was over, he went back to being my friend.
My legal guardian.
Drake wasn’t much older than me, but the law gave him control over my life for the next nine months. What he did in front of the entire school changed my life. Overnight, I went from a nobody loser who’d fallen on her face to the girl everyone wanted to hang out with.
I had friends. Well, sort of. Not that I considered any of the rich kids real friends. They only wanted to use me to get to Drake, and I needed them to survive until the end of the year without being bullied.
For the first time in my life, I belonged somewhere. No more looking over my shoulder or worrying about the cops. Drake made sure I was well-fed, and it showed in my appearance.
Within a few months, I gained fifteen pounds, and my body filled out. That was when Drake noticed the changes and started avoiding me even more.
In the middle of the night, I snuck downstairs for a drink.
I’d had a nightmare, which wasn’t that uncommon for me.
With Tate at basic training and Drake acting weird, I spent a lot of time in my head.
The painful memories of my childhood still haunted me.
Like a vampire risen from the grave, they clawed at the surface of my mind.
I followed the lights on the floor, which lit up as I walked. After the first month of living here, I knew my way around. But Drake had insisted on keeping the program in place. Just in case I ever found myself in a part of the mansion that wasn’t as familiar.
I rode the elevator to the ground floor and headed straight into the kitchen. Guards posted up in the hallways, dressed in suits and armed with weapons on their hips.
In the kitchen, I propped my hip against the marble island and downed a bottle of water. My throat was raw and scratchy from not getting enough sleep. I’d also passed out before dinner and felt the hunger pains stabbing at my side.
Searching through the cabinets, I found a chocolate and oats snack bar and ate it in several bites. It was too late to make a meal. And besides, the chefs didn’t like it when I messed with their stuff. They had the kitchen perfectly organized and arranged as they liked it.
As I approached the elevator, it dinged.
Drake emerged from the Battle Cave, his dark brown hair messy as if he’d been pulling on it.
He wore a blue Superman T-shirt, muscles bulging from beneath the fitted material.
Black track pants hung low on his waist, the shirt riding up his toned stomach.
His eyes looked glassy and tired, and he smelled of alcohol.
If you didn’t know Drake was a prodigy coder and ran a multi-billion-dollar company, you would think he was a model. He could have easily posed for GQ. I would have paid a lot of money for those photos.
Drake halted at the sight of me.
“Hey,” I whispered, unsure what to say. “You okay?”
He nodded, but his expression said another thing.
I approached with caution.
He stayed planted in the same spot, not blinking. When I got too close, he pushed out his hand. “No. Just let me look at you for a minute.”
What the hell?
I thought he was insane.
Drake often lost himself in his work, consumed by his obsessive need to solve problems. After months of living together, I was used to him putting everything and everyone above his health, but he was acting strangely.
His eyes wandered over my breasts spilling out of the low-cut pajama top. He continued his careful inspection of my stomach and traced the apex of my thighs. And he paid extra attention to the shortness of my spandex shorts.
Scrubbing a hand across his jaw, he groaned. “Liv, when did you get so…”
He pressed his lips together, and I wished he had finished that thought. I wanted him to say what was on the tip of his tongue. Most of all, I wanted a repeat of that day at school. Since then, he hadn’t touched me.
In my dreams, Drake closed the distance, threw me over his shoulder, and dragged me to his bedroom. We both felt the connection, the instant spark that scorched my skin whenever he walked into a room.
“Drake,” I muttered.
His chest rose and fell faster.
“Is everything okay?”
He shook his head.
I strolled toward him, and he didn’t stop me this time. “Talk to me. Please.”
He grabbed my hand and yanked me onto the elevator. It was my first time getting invited into the basement, which he called the Battle Cave. He didn’t speak to me, only stared at the wall until the doors opened.
Screens hung on every wall, some extending from the ceiling. An oversized sectional couch filled out the room’s center. Desks piled with computers and monitors rounded out the rest of the space.
“So, this is where you spend all your time.” My eyes widened in awe at the vast space. “Impressive.”
He winked. “This is my sanctuary. Make yourself at home.”
Drake guided me to a bar on the right side of the room. He poured a glass of amber liquid from a decanter and gulped it down in one swig.
To anyone else, Drake seemed put together and much older than twenty-one. He ran a multi-billion-dollar tech company and had everything handed to him on a silver platter. But to me, he was just Drake.
My friend.
My savior.
It was so easy to fall for Drake. But first, he’d have to let me into his carefully constructed world.
After our kiss, he resurrected walls so high that it was impossible to know the real Drake Battle. Yet, I was determined to break them down.
“It’s past three o’clock. Why are you still up and drinking so much?”
He sipped from the snifter and shrugged. “I rarely sleep more than a few hours. My brain never turns off.”
“Can I help you with anything?”
His gaze snapped to me, and a somber expression crossed his handsome face. “No. You need to focus on school. Don’t worry about my problems.”
“Are you intentionally being cryptic?”
“No.”
“Drake.” I sighed. “Tell me what’s wrong. You’ve ignored me since we kissed. And you spend most of your time down here.”
He grabbed his glass and plopped down on the couch, shoving a hand through his unkempt hair. He tilted the Scotch to his lips and drank the last drop.
I leaned against the wooden bar, surprised by his behavior. We didn’t know each other well. Drake was a mystery I wanted to unravel, a puzzle I would probably never solve.
From what I could tell, he didn’t have many close friends. A guy named Marcello Salvatore came over on the weekends with a hot blonde named Sonny Cormac. Sonny was funny and always offered me a ride on his yacht. Drake politely declined for me.
His cousin Cole Marshall stopped by when he was home from military school. Besides those three, we were mostly alone with the live-in staff and security guards. Oh, and Carmella. She didn’t live here but stopped by to give me rides to school and take me clothes shopping.
Drake set his glass on the coffee table and patted the cushion. I inched toward him, and he studied my bare thighs.
Once again, he licked his lips.
Was he trying to be obvious?
I put one knee on the couch, right beside Drake’s hand. His fingers touched my skin, and my body craved more. He peeked at me, those big blue eyes holding me in place.
Drake hooked his arm around my leg and yanked me onto the couch. I fell on top of him, my right thigh spread across his lap. And that was when I felt him. Hard and excited, staring at me like a snack.
Pressing my breasts to his muscled chest, I leaned closer, our lips inches apart. An electrical charge raced over my skin as our eyes met. I straddled his thighs and rubbed up against his growing length.
I had no experience with boys, let alone men. The few boyfriends I had were too shy to take things to the next level. One was a total loser. The low-level drug dealer was more interested in getting high than in sex. That relationship ended just as quickly as it had begun.
Drake cupped my cheek and breathed through his nose. “Liv, we can’t. It’s not right. You’re my ward. Our situation is… complicated.”
“I’m only four years younger than you. The guardianship is a legal formality because Tate isn’t here. It means nothing.”
“Not to me.” He reached for a blanket, tossed it over my bare legs, and shoved me off his lap. “I made a promise to your brother. And I intend to keep it.”
“You’ve upheld your end of the bargain.”
Drake shook his head. “Doesn’t feel like it.”
I sank onto the cushion beside him, careful to maintain some distance. An awkward silence filled the air. I hated the tension, so I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Hey, how about we watch a movie? Maybe it will help us fall asleep.”
Drake considered my suggestion and grabbed one of the many remotes from the coffee table. He clicked a button, and a projection screen extended from the ceiling.
“Why am I not surprised? Do you have a concession stand hidden behind a wall?”
Drake smiled, a real one that reached his eyes. “My cousin has one at his house. Cole has a bowling alley, too. I’ll take you over there sometime.”
“Thank you, Drake.” I slipped my fingers between his and squeezed his hand. “What you’ve done for Tate and me… We won’t live long enough to repay you.”
He shrugged as if his help was nothing when it meant everything to my brother and me. “Knowing you and Tate were out there alone and hungry and probably in danger would keep me up at night. I sleep better with you under my roof.”
I cuddled up beside Drake, and our shoulders bumped.
“If you ever need anything, I’m here. I might not understand all your computer lingo, but I’m a good listener.
I can cook, clean, and do whatever you need me to do.
Anything at all. You can count on me. I’ll be there. So will Tate. Just say the word.”
“Just your friendship. That’s all I need, Liv.”
The boner in his pants was anything but friendly, but sure, I could keep things platonic. Besides, Drake was right to stop before anything happened.
He tapped a button on the remote, and the screen roared to life. “I’m thinking The Dark Knight unless you have something else in mind.”
I laughed. “Batman. Of course. Like I’d expect anything else.”
He tapped another button. The lights dimmed, plunging the room into near darkness. As the movie played, my eyelids fluttered. Overtaken by exhaustion, I yawned and laid my head on Drake’s lap.
He curled his arm around me. “Get some sleep, Liv. Your brother will kill me if your grades slip because you’re staying up late with me.”
I fell asleep to Batman on my screen that night, but the real hero in my story was beside me. Every night after that, we followed the same routine. Movie nights, Sunday dinners, bowling tournaments at his cousin’s house, and late-night swims in his infinity pool.
We did everything together.
Our friendship blossomed into something beautiful. Because of Drake, I had a home and a family. He was my best friend and soulmate. But I would never have him, not with my brother telling him to stay away from me.
Not until I turned eighteen.