Claudia places her bony hand over Cammie’s and I’ll give the woman her dues, her face looks genuinely remorseful.
“I hope everything is okay, I didn’t mean to upset you. I assumed you knew.” Like fuck is that true, the bitch knew Cammie didn’t know a thing.
“Oh, I’m not upset, Claudia. I know now and you can add me to the guest list. I’ll be there, Drake will make it work.”
The thought of Cammie in danger doesn’t sit all that good with me, but fuck me if the new found assertiveness and power Cammie is showing isn’t turning me on.
“Splendid,” Claudia claps, joyfully.
This time, Tommy throws me a glare, I shrug him off and find that this job just got a hell of a lot more appealing having my girl beside me.
I don’t know how it will work yet, but like she said I will make it work. I shoot back my drink in one and raise my hand for the waiter to bring me another.
Claudia kept the conversation going for most of the dinner, not letting us get a word in. As soon as dinner was done and we got the first chance to leave, I had Cammie out of there as fast as I could.
Thinking I was getting lucky when she began taking her dress off in front of me in the middle of the living room, she shocks the shit out of me when I approach her and go to wrap her around me.
“I don’t think so,” she mutters, grabbing for a shirt of the washing pile still perched on the sofa.
“How fuckin dare you keep that from me,” she yells, adding, “We’re meant to be in this together. You haven’t been out of prison six months and you’re already going behind my back.”
She storms past me and into the kitchen. I backtrack and lean against the door frame so she can’t pass me to get out. I was waiting for this reaction at the restaurant, I should have known she would bottle it up till we were alone.
“I was going to tell you but I didn’t want you worrying until you had to, not that you do have to worry,” I clarify.
She turns on her heel and glares at me. It would be terrifying if it weren’t making me hard.
“You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“I’m not worried that you’re doing another job, I know who you are, Drake. I worry about losing you again. That’s why I said I would come with you, I’m not going to risk not being with you if you get caught, or whatever else could happen.”
“Babe, my days of getting caught are done. This job will be my easiest job to date and the chances of me caught are non-existent and that, I know for a fact. You have to trust me,” I plead.
The moment I see her relent and lose her fight, I cross the small space and hold her in my arms.
“You better tell me everything then.”
Chapter Twenty-Six - October 2005
Cammie
“You’re very different these days,” Lorna murmurs, from where she is sitting on my bed.
I stop fiddling with the new dress that arrived earlier this afternoon and turn to face her.
“How so?” I ask, intrigued to hear her thoughts on me.
She shrugs lightly and stares down at her hands, almost numbly.
Frowning, I cross the room and sit beside her.
“What’s the matter, Lor? You’re making me worry.”
“You’ve changed, in a good way though. You’re more in control of what you want and nothing touches you like it did before you met Drake.”
This sounds more like her comparison between our relationships but I don’t say that, instead I say, “Drake makes it possible for me to be that way. With him, I can be who I want to be,” I shrug myself, finding it hard to say what I mean.
She bursts into heavy sobs and I regret opening my mouth. Instinctively, I wrap my arms around her and hold her until the sobs ebb away, waiting for her to tell me what is wrong, because obviously something is.
“I wish Stan was more like Drake. Drake treats you like a God damn queen and Stan, well, he confuses me to the point I don’t know if I’m going left or right.”
I have seen their relationship in play and while the turbulence is enough to make you dizzy, I have seen the way he looks at her and it is with affection.
“What’s happened?” I ask, soothingly.
“I’ve messed up, Cam. Stan is going to go mad and I don’t want to lose him,” she cries.
“What have you done that you think is so bad?”
I have never seen her like this over a man before. Usually, she couldn’t give a shit if things weren’t working with a guy. Things must be more serious between them than I thought.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispers, quickly looking at the closed door.
She needn’t worry, Drake and Stan disappeared out a few hours and have yet to return.
“Why would Stan be mad? He’s the one who put the baby there,” I say, patting her stomach softly.
“That’s true but he told me not to expect babies and definitely not a ring from him. We’re about fun, nothing more than that.”
“What are you going to do?”
I hate that she is scared to death of telling him, it isn’t like she made this baby by herself.
“I honestly do not know,” she sighs, heavily, “Half of the time he pisses me off and I wonder what I’m doing with him. Then the other half, I’m trying not to fall in love with him but failing miserably.”
She begins crying into my shoulder again and I let her. Lorna hasn’t been this vulnerable in a very long time and now that she is again, I feel like slapping some sense into Stan myself.
“You have options,” I say, quietly.
She straightens up and wipes her eyes, her face scrunching up in confusion.
“What do you…oh,” she says, catching onto what I mean.
From her reaction though, I can gauge that she wants this baby. She wouldn’t be this upset if she didn’t.
“No, that isn’t an option,” she says, adamantly.
Relief washes through me and I smile warmly, letting her know that I think she has made the right decision.
“Anyway, you are going to look incredible in that dress,” she smiles, looking at the floor length, black, backless lace dress.
It was chosen by Claudia and is for Claudia’s Halloween slash diamond robbery party. In two night’s time, we will be attending the party that will keep us financially comfortable for the rest of our lives.
Lorna doesn’t know about our plans. She thinks Drake is taking me to an uptown party in a swanky hotel.
While she gazes adoringly at the dress, she holds her stomach, already protecting it from the world.
I push away the memories that still haunt me of the baby I lost and take hold of her hand.
“Don’t change the subject. If Stan doesn’t stand by you then you will still be fine. I’m here for you always, whatever happens,” I assure her.
She will never be on her own.
“This is so fucked up.”
“It’s not as bad as it could be,” I offer, knowing myself how true that is.
The front door slamming shut vibrates through the flat and we jump apart. Lorna viciously wipes her eyes again with her sleeve and I jump off the bed to fiddle with the dress.
“Babe?” Drake calls.
“In the bedroom,” I call back, “Go and freshen up in the bathroom.”
Drake barrels into the bedroom glimpsing Lorna’s tear streaked face before she slams the door closed.
“The dress arrived then,” he notes, eyeing approvingly.
“Yes, Claudia chose well.”
“What’s wrong with her?” he asks, nodding towards the bathroom door.
“I’ll tell you later if you can keep a secret?”
The water runs in the bathroom and I return to sit on the bed.
“Is she running a fucking bath?” Drake asks, lifting his t-shirt over his head, revealing his chest.
“No,” I laugh, “She was upset, she’s washing her face.”
No one but me seems to hear the knocking a
t the front door.
“I’ll get it,” I mumble as Drake continues to re-dress.
The knocking doesn’t stop until I throw open the door and find Stan on the other side.
“Is she here?” he asks, stepping past me.
“Come in,” I mutter, “And yes she is. She’s just in the bathroom,” I tell him.
“Good, we’re all here,” Drake grins coming into the living room, completely dressed in a fresh t-shirt and hoodie.
“We’re going out, all of us,” he informs me.
“Where?” I dare to ask.
“Only down the pub, I thought we could relax before we leave tomorrow.”
The plan is to travel as far as Rothwell tomorrow, stay the night at a bed and breakfast and then travel to the party from there as we can’t be seen in the area, before or after. When Drake and Tommy have the diamond we will be driving straight back to London.
The night began tense and slowly relaxed the more people joined us. Lorna came out of the bathroom to three sets of eyes on her and I wanted to scream at Stan to wake up to his girlfriend wanting and needing him. He sat on my sofa and glared at her until she joined him and he had his arm around her. The Lorna I knew back in the day would’ve chewed his ear off for her not knowing where she stood. This Lorna needs him and I suppose I can relate to that.
To me, Stan should have noticed something was up with Lorna especially when we got to the pub and continually kept refusing alcoholic drinks. He hasn’t.
Drake’s warm breath tickles my neck as he nuzzles his soft lips behind my ear.
“I’m loving life and it’s all because of you,” he whispers.
“Funny, I feel exactly the same,” I smile.
“I love your smile,” he continues, kissing the back of my neck.
“As I do yours.”
“I love your crazy, wild hair.”
Again, kissing along my jaw line.
“There is nothing that I don’t love about you. You are perfect and you’re mine.”
His lips travel from my jaw to my mouth and I do not deny him access. I am far from perfect, I only have to look at my reflection in the mirror to see the imperfections. Drake sees none of this. He tells me I am perfect because that is how views me. I see it in his eyes, I hear it in the way he speaks to me and most importantly, I feel it with the way he touches me.
I deepen the kiss, trying to get as close to him as humanly possible. Every time his tongue caresses mine, tingles shoot across my body, enveloping me in a web of ice. There is never a chance of melting around him because my body is too high on alert and the ever growing need that I can get even closer to him never subsides.
It is a hunger that will never be tamed.
He breaks the kiss and rests his forehead against mine.
“I love you,” he breathes.
“Are you going to tell me what your fucking problem is?”
Drake and I both turn to Stan’s booming voice directed at my best friend.
I’m itching to yell at him but Drake tightens his hold on me. Stan is standing in front of where she sits at our table and there is no room for her to move past him.
“I don’t have a problem, but you will if you fucking speak to me like that again,” Lorna harshly spits, giving back as good as she got.
Everyone in the pub looks our way and the volume of conversations quieten.
“And what problem would I have,” he sneers, almost arrogantly.
Lorna stares at him, half of her looks at him like she is pleading for him to let it go, and the other half is about to blow.
“Come on then, give me a problem, I want to know what it is.” Stan yells at her.
She pushes to her feet bringing her directly in Stan’s face and keeps her voice low.
“I’m pregnant and I’m keeping it. There, deal with that,” she hisses and tries to move round him.
At the last minute his arm shoots out and stops her.
“Is it mine?” he asks, more quietly.
I have seen her angry before but she is about to lose her mind and Drake still won’t let me move.
“This is between them,” he whispers in my ear.
I shoot him a dirty look and turn back to Lorna and Stan.
Before anyone can expect it, she grabs for his pint off the table and chucks the entire contents over him.
“How fucking dare you…you arrogant piece of shit. Get out of my way, now.” she screams.
He doesn’t react to being soaked in beer and moves closer to her.
“You’re having my kid?”
This news is slowly registering and his face softens.
Lorna nods unable to look at him in the eye.
“For real? This isn’t a joke?” he stammers out.
Her chest deflates and she scowls.
“Yes Stan, this is a joke. All day, all I’ve been planning is how I can cause a scene in the pub in front of everyone.”
By this point, the whole pub is quiet and watching. Awkward.
A slow smile creeps across his face and he pulls her into arms. He whispers something in her ear no one else can hear and she surrenders to him and wraps her arms around his neck.
“Then we’ll get married,” he says, more loudly.
Lorna freezes and looks more upset.
“You don’t have to marry me. I know you never wanted to.”
“You are joking with me now,” he mutters, “You’re carrying my baby, you just became the most important woman in the world. We’ll do this properly, me and you together. Marry me,” he implores.
All her worries and insecurities seem to have been for nothing.
“Yes.”
The pub erupts with cheers and Stan kisses her until she pushes him away claiming she can’t breathe.
“Drinks are on me, fuckers.” Stan yells, throwing his arms in the air like he’s won the lottery.
Lorna looks to me and I smile, she’s finally getting her happy after ever.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Drake
“Do you think Stan is okay this morning?” Cammie asks, from the passenger seat.
“He was snoring softly by the time I threw his arse in bed last night, he’s Lorna’s problem today.”
Stan is able to hold his drink, never letting himself get in a position where he can’t defend himself. Last night however, finding out he is going to be a dad and knowing I had his back, he went overboard with the celebrating and found himself unable to walk without my help.
“How long till we get there? My legs are numb.”
I glance at said legs stretched out and imagine them wrapped around my waist. We have been in the car for three hours, leaving first thing this morning on our way to Yorkshire. We are booked into a bed and breakfast that Claudia assured me Cammie would love. Quaint and quiet, she said. And just far enough we won’t be seen in Harrogate but still close enough to drive to tomorrow night for the part.
“Another couple of hours, we can stop for something to eat if you want?” I offer.
“It’s okay, let’s just get there and then I can stretch all I want,” she smiles, teasingly.
I push the pedal down and accelerate harder, the sooner we are there the sooner I can have her.
The drive becomes bland and Cammie’s silence becomes unbearable.
“Hey,” I say, my voice cracking from not talking in a while.
“What are you thinking? You’re very quiet.”
A part of me hopes she has changed her mind about accompanying me to the party tomorrow and the other half feels gutted. If I thought about it for long enough, I would’ve thought there would never be a day when I took her on a job. To have her in such danger, not from the job itself but from being caught and ending up in prison is something I couldn’t live with. I find the opposite though, having her with me makes my blood pump harder in exhilaration more than ever.
“She was scared to tell Stan about the baby, like, really scared,” she murmurs, turning in her seat to look a
t me.
“I should imagine she was, Stan’s never wanted a girlfriend let alone a kid,” I say.
“What do you think changed his mind? He was happy enough last night.”
“I haven’t got a clue, he must feel different with her,” I shrug, not liking talking about my friend.
“Would you be scared to tell me if you became pregnant?”
“No,” she smiles, not hesitating one bit.
I smile back and reach across for her hand. She holds it out and I hold tight, keeping one hand on the steering wheel.
“We haven’t spoken about kids in a while,” I say, watching her as much as I can between driving.
“Well, I don’t think we should be contemplating having children while we’re waiting to steal a diamond,” she laughs.
“Maybe not, what about the future? Do you see us having children?” I ask.
“One day, I suppose. What about you?”
“Of course, only the one. I don’t want to share you too much,” I grin, meaning every word.
Cammie is asleep by the time I pull into the little car park behind our bed and breakfast. We are booked in for two nights but we are only staying the one night. Lighting up a cigarette, I let Cammie sleep a while longer before we go in. No smoking in the rooms now is a pain my arse. All around us is trees and green. Miles and miles of hills and forests.
I can picture me and Cam out here, complete privacy and nothing but us. Flicking the cigarette out the window, I take the keys out of the ignition and run the back of my hand down Cammie’s cheek.
It’s not long before she stirs and her eyes flutter open.
“Hey, we’re here,” I smile.
Yawning, she readjusts herself and takes her seatbelt off.
“How long was I asleep?”
“Not long, are you ready to go in?”
She nods and opens her door. Collecting our bags from the boot, I follow her through the door and it is like we have walked into a ski lodge. Everywhere is dark, mahogany wood. Wood panelled walls, rustic wooden floors and a huge wooden desk at reception.
“Hi,” a chirpy, middle aged woman beams at us, “Can I help you?”
I put our bags on the floor and lean on the desk top.
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