A/N: Part four in my Be the One AU series originally called In My Veins on Tumblr. I placed Cordonia somewhere off the coast of France. I did some Googling and reportedly it’s loosely based off of Monaco where French is the official language. NSFW
Jaclyn watched Drake in the driver’s side. His brow was furrowed and he was clearly lost in thought. She wondered if he was thinking of the same things she was. The car ride was quiet, the only sound coming from the faint static of a radio station losing its signal as they drove deeper into the Cordonian countryside.
Up until this point, their relationship was mostly made up of passionate moments in between. They never really established a state of everyday normalcy like other couples. They had incidentally skipped over ‘dating’ and yet here she was, about to move in with Drake. It’s not that she wasn’t sure about him; she was. She had been so sure about going with him on the train, but her stomach somehow instantly felt unsettled when they stepped into his truck and began their journey to his lake house as the reality of their new situation settled in.
She knew she should be excited for this new chapter they were about to begin together. For the first time they could be together freely without anything hanging over them… but that was just it. It was the first time. She hadn’t yet figured how they fit together when they weren’t sneaking around to steal moments with each other. Would they agree on where her things fit into his space? How often did he clean the house? What were his pet peeves? What about finances? Morning routines? Eating habits? The endless questions she should’ve known the answers to before making this life altering decision made her dizzy.
“You alright, Rowan?” He muttered. Jaclyn was sure he could see the growing concern she was feeling on her face. She didn’t hide her emotions well at all. “Yeah, just worn out. We almost there?”
“No. About an another hour. You can nap if you want, babe. I’ll wake you when we get there.” Jaclyn melted at his words. Babe. She would never tire of him calling her that. His tender look soothed her nerves enough for her to close her eyes and drift into sleep.
When she woke, she wasn’t in the car anymore. Her clothes were mostly gone and she was carefully tucked into a warm bed. Propping herself up, she took in her surroundings. Windows scaled the walls around her and she looked out to see a breathtaking view of mountains and endless trees. Sunlight trickled through the clouds into the windows and illuminated the lake just steps from the house. Drake’s home was so much more beautiful than he had let on.
“Good morning.” He smiled at her leaning on the doorframe of the bedroom. “I hope you don’t mind I didn’t wake you last night when we got here. You looked so peaceful, I thought it best to just let you sleep.”
“What time is it?” Jaclyn yawned. “Have you been up awhile?”
“It’s 6:30. I’ve been up for an hour or so. Went for a run and started breakfast. Shall we?” Drake’s hand reached out for hers. “Ugh, even Maxwell didn’t wake me up this early. Can’t we sleep for like 5 more minutes? Come here.” She pouted and patted the spot on the bed next to her.
He chuckled at her pouty face. “Nice try, Rowan. There’s a shirt in the drawer you can wear. I’ll be downstairs.” As soon as he was out of sight, Jaclyn let her eyes drift shut. Just five more minutes.
“And don’t even think about closing your eyes again!” Drake shouted playfully from the bottom of the stairs. Jaclyn snorted at his remark. Maybe they knew each other’s quirks better than she thought. Maybe she was worrying about nothing. Going through his drawer, she picked out a plain white tee and went downstairs to join him.
“Excuse me Drake Walker, I have a bone to pick with you.” Jaclyn sat down at the table and pointed her finger at him.
“What? What did I do?” He looked almost panicked and Jaclyn couldn’t help but be amused that he took everything so seriously.
“You told me this place was nothing special. Just a small little lake house out in the middle of nowhere, Jac. It’s nothing, Jac. It’s no palace.” She imitated him. “You, Drake Walker, are a liar. This place is remarkably stunning.”
Drake let out the breath he had been holding. “Well then… I’m happy you like it… Eggs?”
“Coffee?”
“Sure. I’ll put some on.” He smirked at her request.
“How do you not drink coffee? How do you even function?”
“With ample amounts sleep, exercise and a healthy diet. You should try it sometime.”
“I fully resent that Drake, and will remember this moment the next time you ask me to share my cronuts with you.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “So, what’re we doing today?”
“I have to chop fire wood and do some repairs… no one has lived here in awhile so I’ll need to fix a few things. You should just relax and settle in. Maybe unpack.” He gestured to her bags by the front door.
Jaclyn frowned. “Can’t repairs wait? I thought we could spend today together.”
“Well, if I don’t at least get wood we’re freezing to death out here. Fires have to stay lit somehow.”
“Or, we could make our own heat. I can think of an activity that’ll keep us plenty warm.” Jaclyn hummed seductively.
“You’re killing me, Rowan…” He closed the distance between them and laid a tantalizing kiss on her lips, leaving her breathless. “But I’ve got to find and chop fire wood. Why don’t you drive into town while I do that? It’s only about an hour away. I’ll give you directions. A storm is coming so we should get some extra food and supplies incase the power goes out.”
“Oh… I uh… don’t drive. New Yorkers don’t really drive and Black Creek was so small I walked everywhere.”
“Black Creek? Where’s that?”
“North Carolina. I was born and raised there.”
“Wait… you’re not from New York?” Drake raised his eyebrows in confusion.
“No. I lived there for almost a decade, though.” An awkward silence filled the room and Jaclyn began to feel the nerves that she swept under the rug yesterday creeping through. There was still so much they hadn’t learned about each other and she started to feel once more that her fears they might not work as a couple outside of the court weren’t unfounded at all.
Wanting to ease the weird tension in the room, Jaclyn changed the subject. “How about we go into town together? Afterwards, I’ll help you find wood. Then, you can chop it all up shirtless in the yard and I’ll bring you a hot drink. We’ll re-enact our own poorly written scene in a harlequin romance novel. Sexy ending and all.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively to lighten the mood.
“Okay.” He laughed. “But I’m keeping my shirt on. Can’t have you objectifying me.” He joked.
“You ruin all my fun, Drake.”
Late in the evening, the sky turned an ominous black, a roaring thunder in the distance closing in as Jaclyn watched Drake finish cutting up the last of the fire wood through the window. He looked ruggedly handsome out there and her mind wandered to inappropriate places watching him. Her body wanted nothing more than for him to come inside and completely ravage her, but her mind couldn’t shake the feeling she was left with this morning after their awkward moment at breakfast.
Drake came inside just as the rain began to downpour with a pile of fresh wood. The fact that he had a house completely off the grid that was heated only by log fires was so perfectly Drake it gave her goose bumps. She was enraptured with every part of him, and she wanted to put her budding nerves about them to rest tonight and reassure herself that they were in fact perfect together.
“Hey handsome.” Jaclyn said, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “Whiskey?”
Drake smiled gratefully taking the glass. “Thank you.”
Slowly sipping whiskey, they sat cuddled by the warm fire listening to music for awhile. Jaclyn pressed back into his chest, wanting to feel his presence and remind herself this was their new normal. It terrified her and thrilled her all at once.
“You’re unusually quiet tonight.”
“I’m just tired.” Jaclyn kept her gaze locked on the fire’s flickering flames.
Drake shifted beneath her to get a proper look at her face. She had been acting a little strange all day and part of him feared she was regretting coming here with him. “Something is bothering you, Rowan.” He pressed. “Look at me.”
She glanced at him before darting her eyes to the floor. He always managed to see right through her. “I’m scared, Drake.” Her voice was hoarse. “I’m so scared we did this all backwards and it’s not going to work in the real word. There’s so much I don’t know about you… where you went to school, your favourite food, the first lie you told your parents… things girlfriends should know.”
“Jac, is this about what happened at breakfast?” Feeling embarrassed, she kept her eyes on the ground and nodded her head slowly. “Listen, I know that we haven’t exactly had the most conventional start to our relationship, but I don’t need to know where you went to school to be sure about you.” He reached down to cup her face. “I am so unbelievably certain that you’re the only girl for me, Rowan. I knew it from the first night we met even if it took me awhile to accept it.”
“It doesn’t scare you that we skipped all the normal milestones before moving in together? What if I get on your nerves so much I drive you away? What if you find out things about my past later down the line that change your mind about me? What if we can’t just be normal?” Her chest was rising with each question, panic closing around her throat.
“Jaclyn… breathe baby.” He took her right hand and placed it over his heart. “This belongs to you, and there’s not a damn thing you could say or do that will ever change that. Remember what you said. It’s you and me, forever. There’s nothing you could reveal about yourself that would change my mind about being with you.”
“But don’t you want to know more about me? What if I was an axe murderer before we met?” She insisted.
He chuckled at her. “Of course I want to know more. I want to know everything. Especially where you hid the bodies.”
“Drake, I’m serious.” Jaclyn’s voice wavered as the tears she was trying so hard to blink back began to fall.
“I’m serious too, Jac.” He wiped her tears with his thumb. “We’ll learn the little things as we go. I don’t need to know where you came from or what your favourite colour is to know that I am completely in love with you.”
“What did you say?”Jaclyn blinked, sure she just misheard him.
He sighed softly and pressed a warm, gentle kiss to her lips. “I’m in love with you, Jaclyn. I love you.”
Hearing Drake say those three little words for the first time aloud overwhelmed her nerves completely. Her heart burst as an insatiable spark of desire for him consumed her. She pressed her forehead to his. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that out loud. I love you too. So fucking much.”
An impossibly large grin spread across Drake’s face. Sitting up, he wrapped his arms around Jaclyn tightly. She melted into his embrace laying lazy kisses along his chest; soft at first, then more urgent as she moved up his neck to capture his lips. He relished in the feeling of his lips against hers as her kisses grew more insistent slipping her tongue against his.
Jaclyn let out a quiet moan as he gently rolled them onto the soft carpet in front of the crackling fire and his hands wandered under her shirt, grasping and tugging at her breasts firmly. She pressed her hips to his wanting no space left between them. She could feel his bulge straining against the fabric of his jeans as he rubbed her now taut nipples. Shaking and desperate for him to be finally be inside her, Jaclyn impatiently fumbled with his belt. His hand slid out from under her shirt and gently pushed her hands away. “Patience, ma chéri.”
“How can you expect me to be patient when you talk like that.” She protested. He responded by pushing both his hands under her shirt and lifting it over her head.
“I’ve waited a long time to see you like this. I want to savour every second.” Jaclyn felt her cheeks flush as he removed his own shirt and undid the button on her jeans. “I want to taste you, baby. I need to.” His voice was husky. Jaclyn lowered her hips closer to the ground and kicked off her jeans hastily, taking her panties with them.
“Fuck, Jac.” He groaned, taking her in before burying his head between her legs and parting her drenched folds with his tongue. Her fingers dug into his hair as he worked every inch of her, circling her clit until the heat building between her legs became too much and she lost all control, her thighs pressed tight against him.
“Drake… Fuuuuck.” Jaclyn cried out as she came. She could feel his lips turn up in a smug smile as he moved away from her centre. Unable to take not touching him any longer, Jaclyn took Drake’s hands in hers and shoved them at his belt. “Off.” She growled. Drake stood undoing his belt, letting his pants fall in one swift motion.
Sitting up on her knees Jaclyn lightly danced her fingers down his chest until she reached the waistband of his boxers. Reaching in, she stroked his hard length in her hand before pulling his boxers off him and gently kissing the tip of his cock. Drake’s whole body shuddered as she took him into her mouth inch by inch. “You’re so fucking beautiful.” His eyes rolled back into his head as she moved her tongue against his shaft, sucking harder until he was about to come undone.
“Fuck… baby, stop I can’t… uuugh.” He struggled to find the words as she released him. She looked up at him curiously. “Don’t you want to-?”
“Lay down.” He commanded gruffly before she could finish. “Not before I’m inside you.” Positioning himself at her entrance, he edged into her little by little, stretching her, teasing her mercilessly. He loved watching her writhe in pleasure under him.
“Drake. Please.” She begged, her eyes heavy and half hooded. Sinking his full length into her, he began thrusting a slow and steady rhythm. Her breath became short and uneven as he drove into her, her nails scratching furiously at his back.
“Fuck me harder. I want you come to inside me, Drake.” Her demands sent him over the edge. His thrusts became fast and erratic, pulling himself almost fully out and slamming all the way back into her over and over until they finally found sweet release, coming together while crying out each other’s names in a state of dizzying bliss.
“That was amazing. You’re amazing.” Jaclyn grinned as he let the weight of his body press onto hers, taking a minute to recover. “The feelings mutual… We should probably move.” He said catching his breath. Drake gingerly took her hand and lead them to the bedroom. Jaclyn curled up against his chest under the blanket, tracing lazy circles on his arms as she felt herself start to drift off to sleep.
“Je t’aime de tout mon coeur.” Drake whispered softly in her ear as she closed her eyes. Jaclyn felt chills run through her all over again.
“It’s sexy when you speak French… what does that mean.” She murmured.
“It means I love you with all my heart.” He pressed a soft kiss to the side of her head and gently rubbed her back lulling her to sleep. Drake felt like the luckiest man in the world to be lying here with her.
“Mmm ditto.” Jaclyn crooned sweetly, resting her head on his warm chest just as sleep finally claimed her.