Chapter 32
The shrill of my ringing phone from my purse startled us both awake. At first, I tried my best to ignore it as I lived out moments of pure bliss. However, as we recalled where we were, we soon accepted that it was time to retrieve it. It was sure to attract the right attention, and the absolute last thing I wanted to be doing was trying to explain to anyone who came on curiously why Drake Moran was sprawled on top of me and still inside of me.
I didn”t want him to leave, though. So badly that even if this was the price, I was sure that I was somewhat ready to pay it. However, as life goes, the good things had to come to an end, and so he moved, ready to leave. I kept my eyes tightly shut as he got off me, scared that he was going to see more than I wanted him to. So instead, I pretended to be too busy trying to catch my breath and recover, hoping that he would say something.
I was so completely exposed that I didn”t know what to do; however, he soon brought a blanket or a sheet of some sort, and just like that, I was completely protected. I was so grateful and relieved that my eyes came open.
They met his, and I could finally speak.
The minutes passed, and I became so self-conscious that I didn’t know what to do with myself. We were both now covered, but it was as though we had exposed a part of ourselves to the other that neither of us could clearly explain. What had happened on that bed had not been just fucking whatsoever. We had made love. Heart-melting, soul-connecting love, and neither of us knew what to say to the other.
Eventually, though, and thankfully, he was able to speak with coherence, unlike me.
“What are you doing later today?” he asked.
My heartbeat fluttered at his words and the way he looked at me. His eyes looked glassy, almost as though he couldn’t believe I existed and couldn’t get enough.
My confidence rose, my happiness spiked as well, but I kept my face blank. I had to keep myself intact and checked at all times so that I wouldn’t get carried away.
Looking at him, it was so easy for me to lose myself in all that he was and how he made me feel.
“Um…“ I thought about the itinerary that had been given out.
“I think we have some show for later on today,” I answered.
“Not we,” he said, and I wondered what he meant.
”I’m going motorcycle racing in Monticello. I want you to come with me.”
I heard his words, bright and clear, however, for some reason, it took me a while to comprehend what he was asking. I heard motorcycles, but this felt like a … date.
No, it”s not, Miss dreamer. It”s just a chance to spend more time together so he can fuck you.
This made my stomach flutter because whatever it was labeled as, I was incredibly interested. However, this couldn’t happen, right? This was what I had been concerned about? Getting carried away.
“No,” I replied, and his brows shot up at the sudden rejection.
I mean, I tried to get up then, and it was an embarrassing struggle. My body was so weak that it felt as though it weighed like a ton of lead, which I couldn’t quite wrap my head around.
Holding the sheet around my chest, I soon managed to stabilize myself, and then I pulled together what was left of my confidence and looked into his eyes.
“The wedding event tonight is a charity dinner.”
“I know,” he said. “I’ll be there.”
“I uh… I need to be around Aurora to capture her moments.”
He looked at me, and then he went towards a wardrobe in the room. In there, he seemed to dig within his hung pants and then he returned with his phone.
“How about I tell Aurora that she is not to have any moments for the next several hours so you can come to the racetrack with me?”
“No,” I refused, however, he kept tapping away at his phone.
“Drake,” I called; but he didn’t respond, and I panicked. Furious, I got off the bed, stumbling on the sheets. In the end, I almost fell but instead I stumbled into him, but he caught me. I glared up at him, unhappy to say the least.
“What are you doing?” I yelled. “We talked about this!”
“Yes, we did,” he nodded as he stared into my eyes, making me melt; however, the anger had more to do with this now.
“I wasn’t texting her,” I said calmly. “I was speaking to someone else.”
“I,” I said, feeling absolutely ashamed. However, I reminded myself that he was the one that made me jump to this conclusion, so I held my head high.
“Please don’t joke with me like that,” I told him. “This might just be a casual chapter in your life, but it’s the entirety of mine. My career, my fucking reputation”.
“God, you’re so fucking stiff,” he complained. “If I didn’t know how you fucked, I would have been convinced you were carved of stone.”
I glared at him then and started to turn around so that I could leave; however, he held on to my waist, plastering me to his body and refused to let go.
“Stop,” I complained softly. My eyes lowering.
He, however, tried to get my attention, and when he could, he leaned down and kissed me. My entire senses immediately went into hyperdrive, as though they couldn’t help but be drawn to his taste, and by the time he pulled away, I was once again dazed.
He had all of my attention as he stared up at me, and so when he asked once again, all I could think about was figuring out a way for this to happen.
“I have to check in with Aurora,” I told him. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t see a way around it.”
“I do,” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“I’ll tell her I need you to take photos at the racetrack.”
I listened and remained quiet for the minute it took me to process what he had just said. And then I realized what he had just said.
“Wait what? Motorcycle racing?”
“Yeah,” he replied, and just like that, I was ready for him to fuck me once again.
“You ride motorcycles?”
“Leisurely,” he said. “At some point before my business blew up, I wanted to go pro but decided against it. It”s best left as a hobby. I haven’t been able to keep up with it as much as I would have liked to over the past few years, so now that I have the chance, I want to take advantage of it.”
There was no way now that I could say no, even if I wanted to. However, I wanted to be the one to talk to Aurora.
“I’ll tell her myself,” I said. “Is that okay?”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “It’ll be easier if I just handle it.”
“I know, but I’ll feel better, plus it”s more appropriate.”
”Okay,” he replied, and then he leaned down to kiss me once again. Afterwards, he grabbed his clothes and exited the room, leaving me enough time to get myself together. I wished I could fall asleep truly, but the still lingering fear of what we had done got me to immediately gather my things as well and make my escape from prying ears.
As I headed out of the spa, the workers around all stopped to look at me. I could only imagine what they were all saying, but when I recalled the way he looked at me, I decided that I didn’t give a fuck.
I was forced, however, to give a fuck later in the day when we returned to the mansion. Unfortunately, Victoria was in my party despite how hard I had tried to avoid her. She made sure for me to notice that she was staring at me the whole time and talking to others. I knew she was trying to make me as nervous as possible, but with the way things were going between me and Drake, I didn”t think that even if we were found out, I would be incredibly broken.
Especially not after how he had made love to me that afternoon. My only concern was Aurora, and despite Victoria’s obvious gossiping, something told me that she wouldn’t dare defy Drake”s instruction not to run her mouth around the house and guests.
So, I focused my attention solely on Aurora, and as soon as we returned and I had refreshed myself, I headed over to her room. There was a lot to discuss besides my new illicit relations with her brother. For one, I wanted to talk about the major photoshoots that were coming up. I had found some locations so far that gave me the most gorgeous ideas, and I wanted to put them together in addition to what she had asked for. Plus, now that her fiancé was available as well, I wanted to incorporate him into the whole process, and I knew that she would love it.
She was having her manicure done when I arrived. Her face instantly lit up as she saw me, and then she called me over. Wine, sparkling grape juice and pastries had been served, and she’s getting terrified because she couldn’t say no.
“It”s your week,” I told her. “Why would you say no?”
“Well, I bought a dress which was already quite tight, but it was for my previous size. I mean, my initial size. If I eat any more, I”m going to toss the dress away and end up looking like a whale.”
Nodding, I understood, but she was already so skinny that I didn’t think she could look like a whale no matter what she said.
I kept that information to myself, however, since I knew that as a bride, there was no way she was going to listen to or believe what I was saying. So, I moved instead to the topic of her fiancé.
“Since I”m making a special album for you,” I said, “Why don’t I include him as well? I can put some focus on him when you”re not doing anything interesting, so that the feeling will be inclusion.”
“That”s amazing, Evelyn,” she said. “I didn”t really think about him in relation to this since he was never really around, but sure, right. It wouldn’t be complete without him.”
She agreed, and so we got to talking about how to facilitate this when there was a knock on the door.
My heart jumped, even though I had managed to convince myself earlier that there was no need for that. However, only when I saw that it was Victoria did I relax. Aurora, definitely, wasn’t aware yet, but I knew now that it was only a matter of time before she eventually heard what was going on.
I completely ignored Victoria but she, on the other hand, stared at me long and hard, making it quite obvious that she had some beef of some sort with me. It was completely uncomfortable. Aurora, however, wasn’t too keen on her, so she didn”t bother to acknowledge her presence.
Victoria, on the other hand, seemed to have taken me as her new source of entertainment because she stared at me hard, and when I darted a darkly amused look her way, there was almost a sense of disgust on her face. However, she didn”t say a word, not in front of Aurora, and I knew then that she had had no choice but to keep her word to Drake.
It made me even more excited to see him, however, I couldn’t ask what I wanted to with Victoria standing there, so I headed out to the balcony and shut the door behind me. More than anything, what I wanted to ask him was what time his trip was going to start. It was almost 3 pm now, and if he planned to be involved in the dinner later that night, I suspected that he would be ready to leave, so it made me a bit anxious not knowing.
Once again, the dilemma arose as to whether to call him or text him, but since I was in Aurora’s room, I sent him a message. To my extreme delight, he responded nearly immediately, and I couldn’t help my smile.
“4 pm okay?” he asked. I imagined that this was quite late because I didn’t know of a motorcycle track that was close by, but perhaps he had other plans.
“Alright, I’ll confirm with you soon,” I texted back to him. I turned around to return to the room; however, just as I slid the door open, he sent another message.
“Come to my room?” he asked, and my eyes slightly widened. I couldn”t keep the blush off my face even as I put the phone away, and this was my mistake because it gave Victoria the opening that she wanted.
“Is it appropriate to be having personal sexual relations where you work?” she asked me; my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. I stared at her then and found the smug smile on her face.
“Excuse me?” I asked, even as I knew that Aurora had gone unusually quiet and was listening, probably confused.
“Am I wrong?” she asked and nodded toward my phone.
“I saw you blushing and of course I can’t mistake your glow. You must have had an especially wonderful morning.”
Aurora burst out laughing then.
“What the hell do you mean, of course, she”s glowing? Aren’t I glowing as well? We all spent the morning in the spa.”
“You always look wonderful, Aurora,” I said.
“However, that is absolutely not what I am talking about, and Evelyn knows it.”
She looked at me then, drawing the attention of the attendants in the room, and I was forced then to look at Aurora.
She looked surprised and as though she was waiting to counter this. I was fuming, but I knew that she was trying to provoke me into being defensive. I managed to keep my calm.
“No, actually, I don’t know what you”re talking about,” I said. “Would you care to elaborate?”
At my words, she seemed surprised.
The smile on her face faltered, and just like that, the true darkness of who she was and how she felt was completely exposed. Before she could respond, however, Aurora stepped in.
“Victoria, you two are always at each other”s throats. It makes me wonder all the while what happened between you two in college.”
This I absolutely didn”t want to respond to, but I did want to talk to Aurora. However, now was definitely not the right time, plus I wanted to leave, so I simply made my excuse.
“I’ll be back before it”s time to go for dinner, but in the meantime, Mr. Moran invited me on a motorcycle riding day trip of some sort. I’m not really sure about the details.”
Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
“What do you mean he invited you?” She was shocked, startling everyone in the room with her heightened pitch. “He invited you and didn’t invite me?”
“That’s what I was saying,” Victoria said in a low tone; however, Aurora was too amazed and apparently excited to pay her any attention or even hear her.
“When is he going?” She picked up her phone. “How come he didn”t invite me? My fiancé loves motorcycles as well. Why the hell is he using the photographer I invited for his own purposes?”
“He wants you to capture him, doesn’t he?” she asked. “I hope he”s fucking paying you extra? I’m going to be extra pissed at him if he isn’t.”
She spoke so fast and so excitedly that I didn”t really know how to respond. I stared at her and wondered if I should clarify, but then I decided that there was no need to, at least at the moment. I looked at Victoria, and she too seemed stumped. Eventually, though, and to my relief, she took her leave, mumbled something about returning on time, and left.
It was my time to head over to get ready, but I absolutely had nothing appropriate to wear to a motorcycle track. I was excited, though I had to admit, and so I excused myself and headed over to my room.