Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Pixelberry and I claim no ownership of them. Enjoy!
“Don’t fucking do it, Walker,” Drake muttered to himself, slamming his fists against the wall of his Shanghai hotel room. “Don’t fucking tell her. Don’t be an idiot. Don’t ruin this poor girl’s life. She made it this far. Just let her be.”
A knock on his door jolted him back into his room.
“Who is it,” he barked.
“It’s just me. Can I come in?” She waited for his response.
“God dammit,” he mumbled under his breath, “Yeah, come in, Johnson.”
She slid her keycard, the one he gave her in case of an emergency, into his door handle. It clicked as she turned the knob.
“You okay? I heard a loud bang when I came out of my room to go get a snack and wanted to make sure you didn’t drop a bottle of expensive whiskey.” Riley shut the door behind her and chuckled before sitting on the loveseat in his room.
“I’d never let that happen.” He shook his head and ran a hand through his chestnut hair as he hid a smile.
“I figured as much,” she chuckled, “so, wanna tell me what’s really going on?”
Drake’s thoughts bounced around his head. What was he supposed to say to her? That she’s the most beautiful person he’d ever laid eyes on? That every time she smiled, his cold heart melted just a little? That she made his life worth finally living? That he wanted her in every way possible, but that it just couldn’t happen? He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry.
“I’m having a bit of a dilemma,” he admitted.
“Anything I can help you with?”
“No offense, Johnson, but you’re the last person I should talk to about it.”
She winced slightly at the words. She already knew, but she came here to hear him say it and she wasn’t leaving until he did.
“Lady troubles, maybe?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
“What’s the problem,” Riley prodded further.
“You know what the problem is, Riley.” He sighed as he sat next to her.
“It must be pretty serious if you just called me Riley.”
“What am I going to do with you? You’re killing me.” He rested his head in his hands. He focused on his breathing to distract himself from her. In and out. In and out.
“What are you going to do with me,” she smirked at him. She shifted her body so she was facing him, her legs resting tight against her chest while her head sat atop her perched arm the rested on the back of the couch. He hated it when she looked at him like that, like she could see right through him. He hated not being able to lie to her when she asked him questions he didn’t want to answer. In his moment of vulnerability he let her in.
“If I had it my way? If I actually had a choice? Throw you over my shoulder, toss you in my truck, leave, and never look back.” He looked up at her to study her reaction. Adoration was smeared across her flawless face.
She was in her pajamas with no makeup on. Her dark green sweatshirt was without a doubt two sizes too big. Her gray sweatpants hung loosely off her body and her socks didn’t match. Classic Johnson, he thought. The only light on in his room came from his bed side lamp. The dim bulb casted a shadow over delicate face, accentuating her cute button nose and high cheek bones and her sleepy eyes staring back at him. The curves of her lips dampened by her tongue as she spoke. She looked so incredibly beautiful in that moment. So unfiltered. No ball gown or layers of makeup trying to hide her imperfections. Nothing to cover her sweet freckles that had barely seen the light of day outside the palace since she got there, or the tiny scar just above her left eyebrow from the time her brother accidentally hit her with a stick, which she told him about one night over whiskey at the Beaumont’s. It was his favorite story about her. It sounded so much like life with Savannah that it made him forget who she was now and wish he could have known her then instead. She was perfect, sitting in front of him in baggy pajamas and mismatched socks with her long, dark hair in a braid.
“So do it,” her voice carried a hint of sarcasm, but he knew she was just serious.
“It’s not that simple,” he shook his head, clenching his jaw. If only she knew how complicated it truly was, but how desperately he wanted to sweep her up and run.
“I’m not queen, you know. I’m still just a suitor. A former suitor? Since Liam is technically engaged to Maddie, I’m not even in the running anymore in the publics eyes.”
“Don’t be a temptress, Temptress.”
“But if I wasn’t tempting I wouldn’t be a temptress.” She playfully tapped the tip of his nose.
“Fair enough,” his lips slightly curved upwards, “you’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”
“So are you, Walker.” She patted his arm.
“Don’t touch me right now.” He said it in a low voice, making the words come out more harshly than he intended. Riley looked at him, her eyes filled with surprise and sadness.
“Why,” she asked meekly.
“Because every time you touch me, my resolve crumbles just a little bit more. And we can’t do it. We just can’t. I’ve been the one keeping us an arms-length apart, and I’ll keep doing it for everyone’s sake. We can’t muddy up the waters even more than they already are. This fucked-up love triangle we’re in is more complicated than you realize.”
“I don’t know, it seems pretty easy to me.”
“Which is exactly what makes this,” he pointed between the two of them, “so fucking hard. It’s because it is easy that it’s killing me. It’s never been easy with anyone except you. Life would just be so much simpler if I could hate you. Hell, even if I could just not like you. But that’s impossible. You’re impossible.”
“Should I go, Drake?” Riley knitted her brows and held her breath.
Drake looked over at her with uncertainty, regret fliting across his face.
“Yes,” he paused, “but I don’t want you to.” He bounced a knee nervously, running his hands down his face and neck. He was fighting a battle within himself that he was dangerously close to losing. Every word she spoke punched holes in his will to keep it together.
“I don’t want to either.”
Riley leaned forward and placed a kiss on his cheek.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
“Don’t what?” She laid her head on his shoulder and his skin came alive under her.
“Just… don’t. I don’t deserve it.”
“You’re the one who wanted me to stay,” she shrugged. He felt her cheeks rise in a snarky smile against him, “and you do deserve it. You deserve everything.”
“Not like this. But… but I always want you to stay, Johnson.” He reluctantly put his hand on hers as it rested on his forearm. She laced their fingers together and Drake felt himself start to relax.
“Well I guess it’s a good thing I’m not going anywhere.”
Riley released his hand and slowly straddled him. Drake took in a deep, shaky breath, staring into her blue eyes. They were crystal clear, not like the last time she’d touched him when they were sipping drinks and reminiscing. This time she knew exactly what she was doing. He planted his hands on either side of his legs, praying they would grow roots and keep themselves there. His fingers twitched into the fabric of the loveseat, knowing if he touched her that it was over. He wouldn’t be able to stop despite how badly he wanted and simultaneously didn’t want to. She placed a hand on each of his shoulders. Drake’s breathing began to quicken, his intense gaze never breaking from hers.
“Damn you,” he huffed at her as he involuntarily took her face in his hands, surprising even himself with the action. “Why are you like this?”
“Charming? Charismatic? Irresistible? Stubborn? Take your pick.”
“All of the above.”
He dropped his hands from her cheeks to the small of her back, his fingers leaving a searing trail along her skin under the fabric of her shirt. Riley leaned forward, her lips stopping barely an inch from his.
“Any of those qualities particularly redeeming for you,” she whispered into his mouth. Drake swallowed hard, taking her words with him.
“All of the above,” he repeated. His own body willed against him as his hands pressed her closer to him, her tight little frame feeling right under his calloused hands. The way the fabric from her clothes slid between them caused his manhood to swell.
“May I?” She glanced down at his lips then back to his eyes, which grew darker with the need for her by the second.
“As if I have a choice,” he playfully used his hands to motion at her body sitting on his before placing them on her backside.
She leaned even closer, her lips now just barely touching his. She could feel his hot breath on her skin.
“Blink twice if you want me to stop,” she teased.
Drake didn’t move.
Riley closed what little distance was left between them, placing a sweet kiss on his mouth. He eagerly returned the gesture, pushing on her backside to bring her even closer to him. She rolled her hips against his and Drake let out a low moan.
“You’re all of me weaknesses, you know that,” he said between kisses, which were beginning to grow more feverish.
“Is that so bad?” She smiled against his lips.
“The worst.”
He moved his mouth to her neck, leaving tender love bites in its wake. Riley gripped the loveseat behind him and rolled her hips deeper against his.
“Stop it,” he breathed into her skin.
“Do you really want me to stop?”
“No,” he said heatedly. He grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head to reveal a delicate pink lace bra. She lost her balance and started to fall backwards when Drake’s hands caught her. She leaned forward and laughed, taking his smiling face in her hands.
“Always my hero,” she giggled.
“I do what I can,” his face slowly felling, “now, where were we?”
“I think right about here,” Riley tapped her neck and gently bit her bottom lip.
“Right.”
Drake resumed his actions, his tongue rolling across the curves of her collarbone. Her chest flushed pink as it gently heaved beneath him. He reached up her back with one hand and deftly undid the clasps of her bra. Riley slid the straps down her arms, throwing the garment on the floor. Drake stopped and looked down at her faultless body.
“I’ve dreamed about this more times than I care to admit,” he ran a thumb over the bare skin on her stomach. “Aare you sure?”
“I’ve never been surer about anything in my entire life, Drake.”
“Then walk with me.”
Riley glanced down at her naked torso.
“I hope we aren’t taking a trip out to the garden like this.”
“Just shut up and come on,” he smiled at her, shaking his head.
She rolled off him and he took her hand, guiding her over to his bed. He picked her up like he was carrying her into a threshold and laid her down across it before taking off his shirt and climbing on top of her. She loved the way he towered over her, easily having a six-inch height and 50-pound weight difference over her small frame. The heaviness of him awakened every inch of her he touched. He pinned her arms down beside her head as he lavished her chest with kisses, taking her perked nipples into his mouth. Riley arched against him as she moaned his name. He moved up to her ear.
“Wanna make it a little more interesting,” he asked in a demanding tone. It teetered more on a command rather than a question.
“What do you have in mind?”
Drake reached over to his nightstand and opened the drawer, revealing a length of rope. Riley scrunched up her face.
“I have it for, you know, for practical purposes. I do a mean sailors knot.” He dangled it in front of her.
“Aye, aye, Captain,” she quipped.
Drake made quick work of binding her hands together. In one fluid motion he removed her pants in such a way that it was as impressive as it was erotic. He plucked off her socks, eyeing her humorously. He undid his pants and let them pool around his ankles. He slowly made his way back to her, his face resting just above hers.
“You want me to fuck you, don’t you?”
The words sent a surge of heat through her body.
“Take me. I’m all yours.” She leaned up and took his bottom lip between her teeth. He groaned as his head fell back.
“Good girl.” He grinned mischievously down at her.
He fell next to her as he ran a hand down her stomach and under the waist band of her lace panties. Riley pulled against her restraints, wanting to reach out and touch his tanned skin. He slid a finger back and forth over her most sensitive spot at a painstakingly slow pace before he dove deeper between her legs, easing a finger inside her.
“Christ, you’re tight,” he panted, shaking his head.
A bashful smirk crossed her face.
As he moved, a warmth began to build up inside her belly. She had been desperate for him to touch her for so long. Since the night at the pool hall, all she could think about was their unfinished business every time he was around. Each second that passed was a second closer to the edge. Just before she was about to come undone he stopped. He took off her underwear and flipped her over so that she was laying on her stomach, hands still bound securely above her. He removed his boxers before kneeling behind her. He used his knees to spread her legs apart, which gave him a beautiful view of her most intimate parts. He ran his hands over her ass, tightly gripping the cheeks with strong fingers. He leaned forward and grabbed her restraints, pulling her up to him. The warmth of his skin pressed against her back. He pulled her arms back and up around his neck, letting the rope set at the nape of it. He slid his hands down her freshly exposed skin. He adjusted his body to fit with hers and teased her entrance with the tip of his member.
“You want it,” he asked her heatedly.
“Yes,” she whimpered.
Drake slowly pushed himself into her, her walls barely allowing it. A small gasp shot into her lungs as she tried to suffocate her cries of pleasure. Once he was fully in, he stopped.
“Are you okay,” she asked between deep heaves.
“Yeah, it’s just…” he chuckled with bated breath, “if I don’t take a second, I’m going to come in about thirty.”
Riley smiled, pressing her ass against him as if to challenge him, sending him deeper into her. Drake let out a moan. She loved hearing him so turned on, knowing she was the cause. He was done for, and so was she. He grabbed her hips and rocked his slowly against her, picking up the pace only when he could tell the resistance around his length was waning. All the sexual tension leading up to this moment had made it all but nearly impossible for Drake to keep it together. Despite his best efforts, within minutes he poured into her. The sound of his breath catching and erratic movements let her know she’d made him unravel, and she soon joined him. He fell forward onto his hand, the other cradling her torso as he took her with him.
“You are…” He trailed off.
“Charming? Charismatic? Irresistible? Stubborn?” She grinned.
“A fucking temptress, and so god damn sexy.”
He kissed her shoulder, still trying to catch his breath, before lifting her arms off over his head.
He laid down on the bed next to her and undid the rope, which left weaved patterns imprinted into her skin. A nice little going away present.
“How long until these go away?” She shook her wrists.
“Eh, about a half hour or so.” He pulled her to him, cradling her back to his chest.
“I probably should stay a little while then, huh? Wouldn’t that cause quite a stir if I left Sir Drake’s room with sex souvenirs.” She giggled as she wrapped her hands over his.
“Unfortunately, yeah, it probably would,” he sighed, knowing she was absolutely right.
“Was it everything you’d hoped it’d be?”
“That and more.”
Riley turned over towards Drake, a sleepy smile on her face.
“You love me, don’t you?”
“I…” She caught him off-guard with the question and he suddenly felt a panic rise up in his chest. It seemed like the hotel walls were starting to close in around him. He got tunnel vision, only seeing her face. “I think I do. Yeah.” He swallowed as if he was trying to take the words back and furrowed his brow. Fuck, now you’re really in trouble, you idiot.
“I know you do. Don’t worry, Drake. Your secret is safe with me.”
“That’s it?” He raised his eyebrows. “’I know’. Who are you, Hans Solo?”
“You would have to be blind not to see that I love you, too, Walker. Why else would I risk my reputation to sneak in here in the middle of the night?”
“Because you’re insane,” he laughed.
“No, I’m thinking more clearly now than I have since this whole thing started. Clearing my name, playing politics, chasing after a person who can’t even acknowledge me in public. None of it makes sense. It’s all chaotic. But you, you feel like home. You make sense. When I’m around you, I don’t feel the need to be someone I’m not. I can just be Riley. Not ‘Lady Riley’, not the ‘American’, just me. Mismatched socks and all.” Riley held up her foot and wiggled her toes.
“You do realize what you’re saying, right? What you’d be giving up? We’re so close to clearing your name, Johnson. You’re being offered a kingdom. All I can offer you is this glorious body and snide comments.” Drake joked, trying to lighten the mood.
“I happen to love your glorious body and snide comments, and all the other things that come along with you. I know you don’t think so, and you hate hearing anything good about yourself, but you’re a pretty incredible person. Wise. Honest. Loyal to a fault. Fiercely protective. Anyone can see what a catch you are, but I’m happy that no one has yet, because then we wouldn’t be here. Laying here together, sneaking around like a couple of high school kids out after curfew. Your willingness to still be here for me, despite everything we’ve been through this far, just shows me that you’re as dedicated to me as I am to you.” Riley paused for a few moments. “I’m going to tell Liam it’s over, Drake.”
Drake shot up in bed, quickly looking down at her.
“You can’t do that,” he shook his head frantically, “no. You- you can’t.”
“Why?” She sat up, confusion riddling her face as she clung a sheet to her chest.
“Number one: you’re speaking from a place of euphoric delirium right now. Number two: if you did that before we clear your name, your face and mine will be splattered all over every scumbag gossip magazine in Cordonia and they’ll drag us through the mud about how not only were you unfaithful with Tariq, but now you’re shacking up with King Liam’s best friend, who has now also betrayed him.” Drake shook his head at himself in disgust, a pained expression contorting his features.
“I didn’t really think about that.” Riley let out an exasperated breath. She was starting to become increasingly frustrated with her love life coming to a screeching halt at every turn, no matter who she wanted to be with.
“Well, at least one of us has to. Listen, the last stop on the engagement tour is in New York. We’re flying out of Shanghai tomorrow and we’ll land there. Maxwell said he has some leads on Tariq’s whereabouts in the states, right? We’ll find him, we’ll let everyone know the truth, and then you can make your choice on who you want to be with. I don’t want to just be a distraction for you because the king’s hands are tied by politics. Wait until this whole shit storm is officially over before we make any rash decisions. Whether we find Tariq or not, this will be over soon, and we’ll talk then.”
“You’re right,” she gave him a tearful nod, “and just so you know, you’ve never been ‘just a distraction.’” She stood up and quickly got dressed as anger started to fill her at Drake’s accusation, the emotion translating to her voice. “Ever since the night in the bar during Liam’s bachelor party in New York, I never stopped noticing you. Every time one of the suitors talked shit, I defended you,” she jabbed a finger at him, “ and every time you walked into a room, you were the only person I saw.” She choked on the last bit of words as they left her. “I came here for Liam, that’s true. And I did love him, and part of me still does and probably always will because he brought me here, and that brought me to you. I can’t erase history. But the more I think about it, the more it’s always been you. It’s always been you looking out for me, it’s always been you who had my back and it’s always been you that I looked forward to seeing. Hell, you even took a bullet for me! Eventually this feeling swallowed me whole. The feeling of needing you around me at all times just to keep me going. Just to keep me grounded and pushing forward when all I wanted to do was collapse. Every time I started to give up, the way you looked at me made me put one foot in front of the other. The more we were together after the press leaked the pictures, the more I threw myself into you and distanced myself from Liam. It was never a distraction. It was as genuine then as it is now. Going through the motions has always been exhausting, Drake.” She defeatedly tossed her hands up in the air. “Sometimes I wish you and I could have met anywhere else. A bar, a party, in line at a grocery store. Or that it would have only been you in New York City that night on one of your midnight excursions and we would have bumped into each other in some serendipitous moment. And yeah, sometimes I think you were right, that I got in over my head. He’s asking me to run a country when I could barely keep up in a bar on a Saturday night. What the hell am I even doing here?”
Riley sobbed into her hands, all the emotions she’d been holding in over the last few months suddenly pouring out of her in front of the only person she knew would understand. He was an outsider, just like her. No matter how hard they tried, this just wasn’t their life. Drake crawled out of bed and grasped her hand, pulling her tight to his chest as she shuttered against him.
“Shhh…,” he whispered into her ear as he stroked the back of her head, “I know it’s hard, but we’ll get through it.”
After a few long minutes, Riley pulled away, shaking her head.
“I have to go. I have to get out of here and go lay down and try to get my head straight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She exited his room before he could say anything, letting the door slam behind her. Drake fell back onto his bed with a long sigh.