The Drake Unwound Complete Collection Book 9 (17 page)

She smiled more broadly. "Was it wistful?"

I nodded and reached out to take her hand. "Yes, very."

She shook her head. "I've never done this kind of thing before."

I frowned. "What kind of thing?"

"Lived with a man,” she said softly. “Planned to move somewhere with him. Planned to pull up roots and move to another continent."

"You went to Africa with Nigel," I offered.

"Not quite the same thing…"

I chuckled at that. "Not quite." Then I put down my fork and inhaled deeply. "I know this is a huge commitment, withdrawing from your semester, letting your apartment go, coming with me to Nairobi, living with me. Now with the delay, I know it seems like I haven't given you what I promised."

She reached out and took my hand. "You don’t have to feel bad about that at all. Of course, we'll stay here – as long as you want and need. I just want to be with you, wherever that is and whatever we’re doing."

I leaned over and kissed her. "I don’t know what will happen between us, Kate, but I can't imagine doing anything without you."

She smiled. "Me either."

We cleaned up quickly and then I brought out a bottle of vodka and the two shot glasses. Kate followed me to the living room, where we sat by the fireplace. I poked the logs into renewed life and we sat in front of it, the bottle of vodka on the coffee table.

I turned to her, quirking my eyebrow. "Now, Ms. Bennet, I intend to get you
drunk
."

She laughed, and snuggled in closer to me. "Are you sure you want to? You have no idea what kind of drunk I might be. And besides," she said, poking my arm. "As a physician, shouldn't you be advocating for moderation?"

"Moderation in most things, yes," I said and poured two shots. "But in love and when it comes to vodka, there's a time for indulgence."

Then I proceeded to get her drunk, downing shot after shot.

"I'm not much of a drinker," she said after the third shot. "I can't do anything more or I'll throw up. How romantic would that be?"

I laughed and put the bottle of vodka down. "Okay,
okay
," I said. "I'll let you off the hook for now. I really need to relax and forget everything for a while. Doing a scene requires my total concentration and I have to be sober. I felt like getting drunk tonight. I hope you don't mind too much."

"Whatever you need or want, Drake." She laid her head on my chest, and I pulled her into my arms, pleased that she was so willing to let me take the lead.

In the end, Kate and I weren’t very drunk, despite my plan. I did jumble up the words while I sang “House of the Rising Sun” on my karaoke machine, and we laughed so hard, Kate and I both had ears running down our faces.

Kate was reluctant to sing but I encouraged her.

"No, no,
no
," I said, taking hold of her arms and pulling her up. "You have to sing something. What's your favorite oldie?"

She tried to wrestle out of my arms, but I grabbed her from behind and wrapped my arms around her, laughing.

"No escape, Ms. Bennet. You must sing or I'll have to go all Dom on you."

"
All Dom
," she said, giggling when I tickled her. "Oh, all right!” She tilted her head to the side. “How about something by ABBA?"

"
ABBA
?" I said, making a face of mock disgust. "The 19
70s
?
Sacrilege
…" I searched through my songs and found 'Take A Chance On Me.’"

"Here," I said, handing the phone to her. "This is perfect."

"Oh,
God
," she said when the music started and she had to stand in front of me.

I sat back on the couch, and nodded, getting comfortable for her performance. It was good to make Kate let loose now and then. She really was very uptight, which was why submission appealed to her so much.

"Sing."

She did, her voice soft at first, hesitant, self-conscious about performing, but soon she started to dance a bit, swaying to the music as she sang. I wolf-whistled and clapped when she was done and she enjoyed it so much, she sang the next song on the ABBA karaoke playlist. "Fernando."

I took another turn and chose “Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf, acting as silly and theatrical as I could muster and when I was done, we were laughing so hard, we collapsed onto the couch together.

After we calmed down, we listened to one of my 60’s playlists. I kept pounding back the shots, and didn’t even remember falling asleep the first time, but I was warm and comfortable on the couch with Kate lying beside me, her head resting on my chest, my arms around her.

I woke up when she shook my shoulder.

"Maybe you should have some coffee," she said.

I shook my head. "Water." I got up from the couch, pulling her along with me. "And aspirin."

I searched through the cupboard for a glass and almost dropped it in the sink. Kate took over, pushing me gently out of the way.

"Let me do this," she said and poured a glass of water for me, which I drank down while she watched.

"Nurse Bennet, are you taking care of me?" I said, quirking my eyebrow.

"You're lucky it's not Nurse Ratched."

I laughed at that and when I was done, I pulled her into my arms.

"Let's go to bed," I said. "I'm not up to much good so I hope you're OK with us just sleeping."

She slipped her arms around me. "Whatever you want, Drake."

I led her to the bathroom, where we went through our nightly routine. When it came time to undress, Kate helped me after I fumbled with my buttons.

"I'm sorry if you're disappointed that we didn't do our scene," I said, watching her undress me with some amusement.

"Shh," she said, pulling my shirt off and unfastening the button on my jeans. "We have all the time in the world for that. You needed this tonight."

"I did," I said. "But seeing you undress me makes me a bit hard." It was true, but I knew I’d be worth next to nothing in the bedroom department.

"If you ignore it, it will go away," Kate said, a naughty expression on her face. "I seem to recall you telling me that on a fateful night in November…"

"That it will." I closed my eyes when a wave of dizziness struck. "Oh, Katie, I am so
drunk
…"

"You
are
." She led me to the bed and I fell onto it, laughing at my own lack of balance, my eyes closed. I snuggled under the blankets and soon, I felt Kate slide in beside me. I turned and she crawled into my arms and then we lay there in the dark and listened to the sounds from the street.

When I woke the next morning, I felt only half-hung-over. I checked the clock radio and saw that it was about six in the morning. I slipped out of bed and had a quick shower before I went to the kitchen and put on some coffee. Kate loved fresh squeezed orange juice, so I took out a few oranges from the refrigerator and made some, leaving it in a glass pitcher on the counter beside a bottle of aspirin. It was hard for me not to follow my usual routine of getting up early and getting ready for work, even if I had a very light workload.

I checked my email and then saw my guitar sitting there, neglected, and decided to play for a while. I went through a few of my favorite songs, playing softly so I didn’t wake Kate. I was completely absorbed in the music and didn’t hear her get up but I caught sight of her out of the corner of my eye and turned to where she stood listening in the entry to the living room.

She came over and bent down to kiss me.

"Good morning," she said. "You seem no worse for wear after last night."

"Drink plenty of water and take two aspirin," I replied and smiled. "Works every time."

"What are you playing?" She sat down on the couch and watched over the back while I strummed a few chords.

"Playing an old Beatles song I like. Do you want to hear?"

She nodded, an expression of pleasure on her face, her eyes soft.

"I'd love to hear you sing and play. You have a really nice voice."

"I get by," I said, pleased that she thought so. I played around for a moment, tuning the strings, and finding the chords. "It's called,
And I Love Her
."

A classic, I was certain that this song would live on for centuries. It was epic and beautiful, showcasing McCartney’s songwriting skills, although Lennon argued that he wrote part of the song. Written and produced in 1964 at the Abbey Road studio, it was only performed once outside of the studio yet it remained a favorite of Beatles aficionados.

When I finished, I turned to Kate, who had tears in her eyes.

What could I say about that moment? It made me love her even more than ever, if possible. Her tears at the concert showed me that she was deeper than she appeared on the surface, moved by music, preferring classical to contemporary, willing to be different from the rest of her peers. Her tears for my playing was like gravy.

"I
do
love her," I said, choking up. "I love you, Kate. Thank you for being here for me."

She came over to me, blinking back her tears. "I love
you
." She bent down, her hands on either side of my face and kissed me. "Thank you for letting me be here with you."

She left me sitting with my guitar in hand and went back to the couch, her back to me. I knew she was trying to gain control over herself so I strummed the guitar for a few moments, letting her have her moment of privacy. Normally, I’d want to go to her and force her to show me her tears, enjoy them, but at that moment, I felt a need to protect her instead. To give her a moment to recover. Finally, I put my guitar down and brought my coffee with me to sit on the couch beside her.

"What's on the agenda for today?" I said, and then I frowned, remembering she was going to go to the studio. "Oh, yeah. I remember,” I said, a bit sourly. I didn’t want to be jealous of her old friend. I knew I shouldn’t feel threatened by him especially because he seemed like the opposite to the kind of man Kate needed. But still… “You're going to spend time with Mr. 'Hey,
Dude
.'"

Kate nodded. "I want to go work on my canvas for a while this morning, but after that, nothing."

"I can do some work at the Foundation if you're going to be at the studio,” I said and swallowed back my jealousy, “but we should plan on spending the afternoon together."

"Sounds great."

I put my arm around her and we finished our coffee, enjoying a few quiet moments together before our days began.

I stood and watched Kate while she got dressed and fixed her hair in front of the mirror in the bathroom.

"You still look good enough to eat, Ms. Bennet,” I said. “I don’t know if I like you spending the morning alone with a bunch of artist-dudes."

"They have nothing on you, Drake. They're still at that flaky stage of manhood. You know, not wanting to settle down. Looking to hookup with as many women as they can, sow their wild oats. I'm not interested so you don’t have to be the least bit concerned."

"I know," I said and sighed. "Just want to defend my prized territory."

"You and Sun Tzu…" She turned to me and frowned. "Or was it Machiavelli?"

"Both. There's a reason they say all's fair in love and war. Both involve conquering and surrender."

"I already surrendered, remember? The agreement?"

I grinned, my arms folded as I leaned against the bathroom doorjamb and watched her.

"You did. I enjoyed it immensely, even though I'm not so sure you're all that submissive in the end and that's just the way I like you."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

I shrugged. "I don't want a submissive woman. I want a woman who submits in the bedroom. There's a difference."

She nodded slowly. "I like that." She came to me and put her arms around my waist. "I want to submit to you in the bedroom. Outside of it, I want to be strong. Competent. Capable of looking after myself."

"You are. But let me take care of you as well. Everyone needs someone to fall back on when things get too heavy. Just so you know you have me."

"And you have me."

I kissed her, pulling her against my body, doing my best to dampen down my jealousy. It wasn’t so much that I felt Kate would want to have sex with any of them. They were flakes, as she noted. I remembered that age – twenty four or five, insatiable hunger for pussy. It was that they shared something with her that I never could. I had no talent in art and couldn’t draw a stickman so this was something apart and separate from our life together.

I wanted to share everything with Kate but art was one thing I would have to merely appreciate from a distance.

We made a plan that I’d come and pick Kate up when she texted me. She said she’d probably be a couple of hours, no more and maybe we'd do a late lunch.

After I dropped her off, I went to the Foundation and sat with Dave, shooting the shit as men are wont to do at times, especially when I wanted to kill time waiting for Kate to be finished at the studio.

“So where is the lovely Ms. Bennet?” Dave asked as we sat in his office, a cup of coffee in hand. “Finishing up stuff at Columbia? She withdrew from her semester for you. That’s huge.”

“I know,” I said. “I asked her to.”

He shook his head, examining me carefully. “That is so not the Drake I know. You really must be addicted if you’re asking her to come with you.”

“A very pleasant addiction,” I said, giving him a half-grin. The other half of my wanted to give him a punch, but I held back.

“I tried to win her heart,” Dave said, leaning back, propping his feet on the desk, his hands behind his head. “I was persistent but she turned me down each time.”

“She’s not the sleep around kind of woman. You’re the sleep around kind of man. She knew that.”

“She’s spoken to you about me?”

“Not really, but she did corroborate your story of persistence.” I grinned at him, enjoying the expression on his face. “She said you were a pleasant lothario.”

"She said that?” He frowned. “Pleasant was not what I was going for.” He grinned and then laughed at himself. “I was trying to be seductive, but obviously she was immune to my masculine charms.”