Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
No, not naked , she realized.
He wore the smallest pair of briefs she had ever seen. Thin, tight briefs. She did not need to wonder if a sock was tucked in them because she knew from experience the significant size of his, ahem , appendage.
His chest glistened with oil. His full, toned thighs were on display. The yummy, masculine happy trail dusted a straight line between narrow hips, like an arrow directing Thea’s eyesight to the briefs and that bulge again.
If this were any other situation, Thea might have dropped her panties and jumped on him—who wouldn’t at a tantalizing sight like that? But the seven strangers, including two holding ring lights and one woman snapping photo after photo of him, gave her pause.
Was he doing some kind of photoshoot in their apartment?
Or was this the start of some insane orgy?
Two women giggled and twisted locks of their hair around their fingers as they watched him from the barstools in the kitchen. That’s what he did to smart women—transformed them into giggly schoolgirls.
Draven made everything feel like high school. Feelings turned on high volume. Every look was worthy of a diary entry. Getting his attention felt holy. Cosmic.
The women giggled louder.
Draven’s hand drifted lower, running over his abdomen and sinking to the waistband of those briefs. Every person in the apartment seemed to gasp. More flashes went off for photos. He teased the camera.
Would he really… Thea held her breath in anticipation. Would he take them off?
The second Draven saw Thea, he dropped the sensual pose and straightened. Sex spell broken.
Limbs loose at their sides, they stared at each other for a moment.
He blushed . His face turning red, Draven yelled at the people and motioned for them to clean everything up and leave. The photographer woman scowled and said something back.
Meanwhile, Thea stood, frozen, by the front door.
Draven grew more and more upset the longer the photo crew delayed packing up the equipment.
With furrowed eyebrows, stern lips, and ticks of his jaw, he watched Thea from across the room, stealing glances at her as he rushed them out of the apartment.
When Draven and Thea stood alone in their apartment once more, his hands were clenched into fists at his sides. Not anger. Embarrassment? The inner turmoil darkening his face pulled Thea forward, closer to him as he stood, still as a statue.
The more distance she eliminated between them, the clearer the glimmering emotion in his green eyes became to her.
Shame.
The sex god—who had a six-pack, thighs like a warrior, a sinful face, and thousands of women begging to have sex with him at each of his concerts—stood before Thea, unable to meet her eyes as she shifted closer to him, and emitted shockwaves of shame.
There was no way cocky, self-assured, and flirty Draven was insecure about his body.
So, why could he not look at her?
He stared at his feet until she reached up and touched his chin. At the slight graze of her fingertips, his face abruptly turned, and they locked gazes.
This close, Draven’s lime and mint scent filled her lungs, making her think of clean bedsheets and all the dirty things they could do in them. He leaned down a bit, so she didn’t have to crane her neck back. He is so tall . How could a man make her feel small and delicate, yet strong and larger than life at the same time?
She quirked an eyebrow and shot him an expression of, “ What’s wrong? ”
Apparently, her silent questioning was too prodding because he looked away again.
She poked a finger into his naked, shiny chest.
He had no reaction other than he seemed to sink inside himself, hiding even further behind an invisible shell. He had never emotionally hidden from her before.
She pulled her phone out and typed a message, “ What’s wrong? Why are you so upset? ”
When he read it, he flexed his jaw and wrote back, “ I told you not to come home until eight .”
“ What? Were you embarrassed for me to see you doing some underwear modeling? ”
More jaw clenching.
“ Draven, I’m sorry I interrupted. I had a long day, and I just wanted to shower and…I’m sorry. I should have stayed out like you asked .”
He took her phone and typed back, “ I didn’t want you to see me like this .”
“ You always walk around shirtless. How is this any different? ”
He huffed and crossed his arms, blocking the view of his stunning chest.
She swallowed and wrote honestly, “ We both know I’ve seen more of you than this . You joked about it. So, what’s wrong? ”
He said something; his lips moved. She held out her phone for him to type. Taking it, he turned and sank onto the couch as he texted.
“ It’s demeaning, okay? I didn’t want you to see me like that .” He handed her phone back, his face cast downward to look at his feet.
How did he think she saw him? Standing in front of his sitting form, she wrote, “ You’re embarrassed because I saw you with oil on your abs? ”
He ran a hand over his abdomen and wiped the grease onto his thigh, gazing down at himself in disgust.
I don’t like this. I don’t like seeing him so sad . Stepping forward, she stood between his legs and touched his cheek as he sat there, glaring at himself. “ Tell me ,” she signed.
He gripped her phone in tense, straining fingers before typing, “ It used to be fun, you know? But now, not wearing a shirt while I drum is in my contract. I make sixty-five percent more if I wear tight leather pants and get my abs airbrushed. The last few times on tour, some reviewers said I was nothing more than man candy that could hold a mediocre beat. Wren and Tomi got an award for their lyric writing, and I got called candy. Something people consume and feel guilty about afterward. ”
Draven paused and hung his head for a moment. “ I wanted to do all this because of the music. At one point, I would have sold my soul to do music full-time. And now… Now, I sell my body. Because nobody seems to want my soul .”
Lightheaded, Thea swayed when she read the last few sentences. Her heart broke into such jagged pieces that it was sure to cause internal bleeding. Nobody seems to want my soul . She wanted to slap him. She wanted to cradle him. She wanted to show him that he was so much more than a body, a sex symbol, a piece of meat. He was Draven .
“ I didn’t want you to see me selling myself for money, Thea. I can’t handle you thinking of me that way. Just shallow and… ”
She cupped both his cheeks in her hands and leaned down to keep intense eye contact between her standing position and his sitting one. Their breathing intermingled, puffs of air that screamed of anticipated intimacy and warmth. Sharing oxygen with him felt better than breathing in her own.
After a moment of mentally shouting at him that he was perfect, she took her phone back and wrote, “ You want to know how I see you, Draven? You are the man who bought me a pink cupcake with a pearl on it and pushed me to follow my dream. You saw me with a black eye and acted like you would burn the world down to protect me. You learned sign language to greet my friends and make them feel welcome in your home. I see a man who is kind, generous, accepting… A man who is dedicated to his art and makes me laugh .”
She squeezed one of his broad shoulders. “ I see a man who knows exactly how I feel—aligned to a stereotype and doomed never to be seen as more. A man begging for acceptance and connection .”
She put her phone down on his thigh, so she could grip his face in both hands again. On her screen, a message glowed, “ I see you, Draven .”
In a sudden turn of events, his hands slid down her back, down, down, and then up, under the skirt of her knee-length dress. He gripped the backs of her thighs and yanked her forward until she tumbled onto his lap.
She was splayed before him. Straddling him.