The officer didn’t respond and instead moved the flashlight around the couple and on the ground near them. Lauren saw it at exactly the same time as the officer spotted the condom, but it was too late. He had all the evidence he needed; the condom was sitting on the ground, and they couldn’t argue that they weren’t making love.
“Please stand up and put your hands behind your backs.”
“Officer, there isn’t anyone around. Please, could we pay a fine or something?” Drake asked as he went to pull his wallet out of his back pocket.
“Are you trying to bribe an officer?” the officer said sternly.
It was clear that this police officer wasn’t interested in anything Drake or Lauren had to say. He was going to be arresting them, and that was all there was to it. They could either go with him willingly or cause a big scene, and he could start adding on additional charges.
“No Officer, I was just going to show you my identification.”
“I don’t care who you are or what film you’ve been in. You’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent …” the officer continued with their rights, and neither Drake nor Lauren decided to talk as they walked with the officer toward his vehicle.
The officer didn’t handcuff them, and certainly one of the two of them could have run off and avoided being arrested. But both Lauren and Drake were relatively law abiding citizens, and they followed dutifully to the police officer’s car.
By the time they arrived at the vehicle, there was a female officer there waiting to cuff Lauren after she patted down her pockets. Drake couldn’t help laughing as the female officer pulled the handcuffs out of Lauren’s back pocket.
“What’s in your pocket?” the officer asked when she felt the handcuffs Lauren’s friend had given her.
“Um, handcuffs,” Lauren said embarrassed.
Drake couldn’t hold his laughter for another moment, and he thought he saw both of the officers laugh as well, but they hid it as much as possible. The female officer grabbed an evidence bag and put the handcuffs in there before using a regulation pair to handcuff Lauren.
Lauren could feel the tears building as they put her into the police car with the female officer and Drake went with the male officer. She had never been arrested or had to deal with the police at all. Getting separated from Drake made it all too real, and she felt herself crying before the car door was even shut. Lauren didn’t know who to call or what she was supposed to do. Was she supposed to call a lawyer? She didn’t know any lawyers.
By the time she got to the police station, Lauren was in full crying mode and shaking because she was so afraid. What had been an almost perfect day had just ended in the most horrific way possible. Surely Drake wasn’t going to pick her after she got them arrested.
Lauren was upset with herself for pushing things so far; she was upset they got arrested, and she was scared. There weren’t that many times in her life that she truly could remember being afraid, but being put into a jail cell and having them close the bars behind her would go down in history as one of her most fearful moments.
“Am I supposed to call a lawyer?” she asked the female guard quietly.
“I’ll come grab you in a few minutes to do your processing, and you can call someone then.”
“OK, thank you.”
Lauren continued to cry on the bench in the cell and hardly noticed the other women in the room with her. It was clear they didn’t want anything to do with her since she was sobbing like a child. So they all just stuck to their own area of the room. Lauren tried to get herself together and be tough, but the emotions were just so much for her.
Lauren looked up a few times to see who all was in there with her, and surprisingly everyone seemed pretty normal. She had pictured jail as a place where only scary murdering women went, so as she looked around and saw some normal looking women, it did put her at ease a bit.
Growing up, she had always been the good girl, even when she was out seeking thrills; Lauren didn’t break the law. She wanted to impress her father and make her mother happy. When her tears stopped, Lauren looked around the room again and tried to assess the situation. She needed to call her father. It would be better to call him than it would be to call a lawyer since she didn’t know any lawyers. Her father had always been there for her, and Lauren was confident he would be able to get her out of jail quickly.
Drake wasn’t having nearly as hard a time in his jail cell as Lauren. After getting booked, he quickly got to call Samantha, and she was down to the police station within thirty minutes. The look on her face was priceless as she tried not to laugh when they brought Drake out to get released.
“You’ll need to show up to court on the day noted here,” the officer said as he pointed to a piece of paper and then handed it to Drake.
“Thank you, sir,” Drake said with a serious expression, and the officer turned back toward the door he had come out of.
“Oh, my God, Drake how the hell did you get yourself arrested?” Samantha screamed and then quieted herself down.
It was exciting for her to see Drake getting in trouble. He wasn’t normally getting himself into this kind of trouble, and Samantha couldn’t help thinking that she had one more piece of evidence to secretly blackmail him with. She chuckled to herself at all the crazy dirty things she knew about Drake. But despite knowing all of those things about him, she still liked him. That was a sign of a true friend.
“Where were the paparazzi when I needed them? I could have used some more publicity for my sex life,” Drake joked. “We better get Lauren released too.”
“I’ve already paid the bail; they are getting her now.”
Drake looked at Samantha and had to fight the urge to grab her and pull her close to him. That urge was coming more and more often, and he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to avoid it for very much longer. Something had gotten stirred up between the two of them, and Drake wanted to see where it went, but he knew that was never going to happen.
Sure, he understood that Samantha didn’t want things to get awkward with them at work. But they were both grownups; surely they could navigate a workplace romance without turning against each other. But then Drake thought about all of his previous ex-girlfriends. He wasn’t really friends with any of them, and they were all angry with him. Samantha was probably right in keeping their relationship as friends and business co-workers.
“Thanks for bailing us out,” Drake said as he let a finger graze against Samantha’s forearm.
It was a simple touch, but the jolt of longing that it gave Samantha wasn’t what she wanted to be feeling around Drake. He was off limits. No matter how bad she wanted him, no matter what thoughts went through her head, Drake Leblanc was totally and utterly off limits. But Samantha didn’t move her arm away as she looked toward Drake and smiled. His touch felt good, and for that brief moment, she wanted to feel good.
“Of course, I couldn’t just leave you in here.”
As Lauren walked out of the jail with the officer at her side, her heart sank when she saw the look that Samantha was giving Drake. It was a look Lauren knew very well. It was a longing for him that Samantha had in her eyes. Lauren could understand totally how Samantha could fall for Drake because Lauren herself was falling for him. And so were a half a dozen other women.
“Hey, there she is,” Drake said as he quickly pulled his hand away from Samantha and turned his attention toward Lauren. “I hope it wasn’t too bad in there.”
“Oh, darling, you’re shaking,” Samantha said, noticing Lauren’s tear dried face and shaking hands.
Samantha quickly wrapped her arm around Lauren and walked with her out of the building. It was second nature to Samantha to take care of her friends, and Lauren was no different. Samantha could see that it had been a rough evening for her, and she hated that Lauren had needed to go through that.
“I’m okay; I was just a little scared.”
“God, yeah, I would totally be freaked out.”
&nb
sp; Drake followed the women as he tried to get his mind straight again. Never in all of his business dealings had Drake struggled so much with making a decision. In business, he was decisive and quick. He knew right away what a good decision was, and he made it without hesitating. But his quick decision-making skills didn’t seem to be too helpful when it came to his love life. Love was such a harder thing for Drake to navigate. He wished he could have such a decisive decision-making ability with his love life.
Throughout college, Drake had dated plenty of women, but it was college; there wasn’t an end date where he had to make a decision. Now he did have to make a decision. There were only a couple days left until Drake needed to choose one of these women to move forward with and date. There wasn’t enough time. Drake wanted to spend weeks with each of them. He had loved getting to know them and spending time with each of the women in the house. There was no doubt that he would have asked each of them on a second date, probably even a third. The women in the house were the cream of the crop; they were the elite women of the world and all better than he thought he deserved.
Not that Drake really knew what kind of woman he deserved. But deep down, he didn’t think it was someone as great as the women in his house. Perhaps that had been what had held him back from seriously dating before. Maybe the idea that he wasn’t ready, or he wasn’t good enough to get married and be happy had always been in the back of his head. Drake wasn’t really sure at all anymore. He wasn’t confident in his choices and felt more wishy-washy than he could ever remember.
Chapter 7
As much as Drake wanted to talk with Samantha some more about what was going on between them, he didn’t want to take away time from Lauren. So when Samantha pulled into the driveway and dropped them off, Drake didn’t make a move to talk to her. He needed to finish out his week with the women he had to choose from, and Samantha wasn’t one of them.
“Thanks for bailing us out. You’re a lifesaver.”
“No problem,” Samantha said as her eyes met Drake’s.
She held her gaze on his as she thought about saying something to him. Samantha wanted to tell him she had feelings for him. She wanted to tell him that she thought they should give at least one date a try, but she couldn’t get up the guts. Samantha had made the rules between the two of them; she couldn’t be the one who broke them. Plus, Drake was finally surrounded by women that Samantha actually liked. She would be happy with any one of the women from the house in his life, and Samantha wasn’t going to ruin that for him.
As Drake and Lauren walked up the stairs toward her room, Lauren seemed distracted. She normally had a huge smile, but it was noticeably absent as they made their way up toward her room.
“What’s up?” Drake asked.
She didn’t answer at first. This week was supposed to be about fun and just getting to know each other, but there was something bothering her. And Lauren couldn’t keep secrets very well at all. She spoke her mind when things bothered her, and she was going to have to speak her mind at that moment as well.
“Why aren’t you and Samantha together?”
The words hit Drake hard. It was the same thought that had run through his mind periodically over the years. But he and Samantha had a long-standing set of rules. They were not going to have a relationship. He was off limits for her and she for him. Drake agreed with the rules to an extent. Samantha had pointed out to him that none of his relationships ever worked out, and she was by far the best assistant he had ever had. Drake didn’t want to ruin that relationship, and he certainly didn’t want to hurt Samantha in any way. At the very least, they had become best friends over the years.
“Well, we just can’t. She’s my assistant, and that’s it. Why do you ask?”
“I saw the two of you look at each other. I saw a lot of love in that look. I know I shouldn’t be bringing this up, but I wouldn’t want to get in the way of something if you two had a thing going on.”
Drake tried to laugh it off, but he had felt that loving look from Samantha as well. It had frozen him in place and instantly made him think that he wanted to at least see where things could go between them. Sure, they might mess it all up and end up not being able to work together at all, but that feeling he had around her was hard not to agree with.
“Samantha made the rules a long time ago. She wanted to keep things professional,” Drake managed to say. “And I agree with her. She’s by far the best assistant I have ever had and a really good friend.”
“And you are okay with these rules?”
“I’m a ladies’ man. I wanted her just like I want all women. Women are such beautiful creatures; I can’t help but admire them all. But currently, I’m in a search for my partner, and you ladies are my number one concern.”
“Do you have feelings for Samantha?” Lauren asked as she continued her serious line of questioning.
“Of course, we are friends. She has worked with me for many years, and that’s it. We have boundaries in our relationship, and I’m comfortable with those boundaries. Now,” Drake said as he tried to change the subject, “let’s get you to your room.”
He reached out and grabbed Lauren’s tiny waist and tickled it as she ran away from him toward her bedroom. Lauren’s giggles echoed through the house, and Drake wanted them to hurry and get to her room before any of the other women got to them. The other women would certainly want some of Drake’s time if they knew he was back in the house.
“Hurry, get to your room,” he said as he chased her.
Lauren’s laugh was infectious, and by the time they closed her bedroom door behind them, they were both laughing. Drake held onto her and looked down into Lauren’s eyes. She was such a kind woman. Even asking about Samantha was a kind gesture. Most women wouldn’t have bothered to ask and instead would just spend their day with Drake. It said a lot about who Lauren was that she wanted to know if he loved Samantha. But Drake wasn’t going there at all. He and Samantha had decided a long time before that they weren’t going to let a romantic relationship happen. Even if he had those thoughts going through his head, he wouldn’t give in to them out of respect for Samantha.
“How did my surfboard get in here?” Lauren said with a look of surprise.
Drake just laughed at first, but then realized Lauren was truly perplexed by the appearance of her board. She probably wasn’t used to people taking care of things for her like Drake was. He often showed up at home and had his dry-cleaning sitting out for him or his dinner already made. It didn’t surprise him at all that her surfboard was there waiting for her.
“I’m pretty sure Samantha brought Robert with her to the police station. He must have driven my vehicle home.”
Drake wasn’t positive on how the surfboard had arrived back in Lauren’s room, but it was a likely option. Samantha and Robert worked well together to keep his life running smoothly. They often did tasks that he didn’t even realize they had taken care of until days later. Drake was tremendously lucky to have the two of them working for him.
Over the past week, Robert had taken on the huge task of stepping in for Drake at the business. He was handling all the major meetings and doing a great job. It was more than Drake had ever asked of Robert, and he wasn’t complaining at all. It gave Drake confidence that he could take more time off in the future and leave things in Robert’s hands without worrying about his company.
Drake’s business was like his baby. He had nurtured and grown it over the past decades, and there wasn’t a thing he wouldn’t do to keep it running and growing. But as much as his business had been his life over the past years, Drake did feel a change inside of him and his goals rotating. If nothing else came out of this week, Drake had decided for sure that he wanted to settle down and have a woman by his side. Life was too short not to spend it with a beautiful woman.
“Come here,” Drake said as he pulled Lauren toward the bed.
His lips pressed firmly against hers, and he pulled her hips against his body. The delicate touch of her m
outh on his had Drake’s body reacting with a hard pulsing member. He couldn’t wait to finish what they had started on the beach. His body wanted to feel her naked skin against it so badly that he had to try and slow himself down a little bit.
As Drake moved to take off his shirt, he stepped back and caught the edge of the surfboard, which then toppled down behind him making an enormous noise.
Lauren started giggling as she remembered when she had done the exact same thing and Drake had thrown the door open to check on her. It was a long board, so certainly nothing tiny. She had brought it with her that day because she thought they were going to have time to surf before they ate dinner on the beach. But the Flyboarding had been so much fun they stayed there much longer than she had planned for them to.
There was a knock on the door, and then it flung open without hesitation. Cynthia was standing there and ready to help with whatever emergency had caused the big commotion in Lauren’s room.
“Is everything alright in here?” Cynthia asked.
She looked around, assessed the situation and quickly saw that everything was alright. Drake and Lauren were in the early stages of undressing, and her surfboard must have toppled over. Cynthia smiled, started to close the door but kept her head peeking in at the two of them.
“Yes, we are okay,” Drake said with a huge smile.
“Enjoy your night, kids,” Cynthia said as she shut the door.
Lauren instantly started giggling. It was hilarious to her that she felt like a teenager who was getting caught with a boy in her room. For some reason, Lauren couldn’t get herself to stop laughing. Perhaps the events of the day had just exhausted her, and she didn’t have the energy to make herself stop. But her giggling continued as she slid onto the bed and lay down, rolling around and infectiously laughing.
“Today was the weirdest day of my life,” Lauren said through her giggles. “I hid in an old storage building, made love to a man I hardly know, almost killed myself on a Flyboard, got arrested on the beach, and now I just got caught making out with you ... by the women you made out with yesterday.”
The Billionaire Bachelor - Box Set: The Billionaire's Hunt - A Complete Ten Book Alpha Billionaire Romance Box Set Page 45