I could get used to this. I should not get used to this. Even if Drake Rollins was the kind of guy who could and would stick to one girl instead of having an endless parade of floozies in and out of his bedroom, which he most definitely was not, from the stories I had heard around campus for years, coupled with the high profile tabloid flings he had enjoyed since being done with school, there was still one other thing keeping this from becoming a real thing.
And it was a real doozy, too.
Drake was work. He was the guy I had to focus on for the next couple months. Short and unimpressive as it was, I was already fighting for my career, here, and I couldn’t afford to get personally attached and wrapped up in the player I was following around.
There was just too much at stake.
All of these things flashed through my mind as Drake Rollins kissed me like that outside the restaurant, when I should have been thinking about other, more enjoyable things. Like how Drake’s body would feel against me once we got all these clothes off.
Down, girl, keep it together. Yeah, this was just a little kissing back and forth, no harm, no foul, but I couldn’t let it get any further than this.
What was I thinking? Of course there was harm, of course there was foul. This was Drake Rollins kissing me! I couldn’t let this keep going!
But how could I stop? No one had ever kissed me like this, and I clung to him like the first touch of rain on the parched ground after a long drought. There was nothing else in the world in that moment but this kiss and his lips and my lips and his arms around me. Nothing else in the world.
Like all good things, the kiss had to come to an end, if only so we could breathe again and catch our collective breath.
We separated again, each looking the other in the eye as if to ask the other how this was possible, but neither of us spoke.
Drake took the first move and held my hand as we separated further, and I looked down, greatly admiring how my small hand disappeared, enveloped by his, full of muscle and callouses.
They fit well together. If our hands and our lips together were any indication, the rest of our bodies would do the same.
Ugh, Lily Pearson, stop this line of thinking immediately! I smoothed my dress down with my free hand as we walked, trying to think unsexy thoughts and failing miserably. All I could think about was getting his lips on mine one more time.
And then another time after that. Rinse and repeat. Like it should be. No one should ever just kiss once, I liked to think. Or even twice.
“We should talk about what just happened.” The words just came out of my mouth, I couldn’t control them.
“Should we?” Drake looked at me all skeptical. I softened, immediately losing it.
“No, not yet. But we will eventually.”
“Yeah.”
We kept on walking.
“Drake, stop a second.” I paused, holding my step back, and gently pulling Drake to a stop. He turned to me after stopping and cocked his head to the side, a question on his face. “Back there, in the restaurant…”
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t mean to come off like I was attacking you. Like I was attacking your drive or your motivation.”
Drake looked for a moment like he was irritated that I was bringing it back up, like it was already deep in the past to him, but he quickly composed himself. “It’s OK, Lily. I understand where you’re coming from.”
“You do?” My spirits soared - Drake understood and wasn’t mad at me? I did sound kinda hurtful in there, like I was badgering him.
“Yeah. It took me a little while but I just realized you’re looking out for yourself.”
“Huh?”
He smiled. “I may be a football player, Lily, but I’m no idiot, despite the stereotype.”
“Go on.”
“I know you’re in a bind - you need to make this job work if you want to keep covering sports, and I remember from back in school that was your thing. I know you didn’t really want to be covering a has-been,” he smiled, “like me as I try and make your favorite team.”
It was like he knew everything I was thinking. Except the really naughty stuff. I felt myself go read. Did he know the naughty stuff too? Oh shit oh shit oh shit.
“And I know you would refuse the assignment if you could. Since you didn’t, you’re doing this to keep your career alive.” He smiled again, a cheshire grin, and pulled me close to him. I thought he was going to kiss me again, and I got myself good and ready. “So, I realize what you were doing in the restaurant.”
“What was I doing in the restaurant?” I whispered, barely breathing, this close to Drake’s perfect face.
“You were testing me. To see if I had what it took to make it. Did I pass?”
“Y-Yes,” I whispered back, relieved that everything was out in the open.
Drake kissed me again, quick this time, before he moved his head back. “We’re in the same boat, you and I. We both need the other to get what they want in order to get what we want.”
That was a coldhearted way of looking at the situation, even if I couldn’t deny his logic. I didn’t have anything else to say.
“Drake, I have a question,” I asked, out of nowhere. Don’t do this, Lily, let it go.
“Yeah?”