by Tay Marley
Pushing through the crowd of bodies, I was covered in other people’s sweat. My feet were fine—I was used to being on them a lot. Albeit, I usually wore more comfortable shoes. But I was managing. Finally breaking out of the thick of the crowd, I noticed that the air was clearer, making me long for the actual outside.
Gabby managed to spot me coming toward her and dashed for me, leaving Tim leaning against the bar. The humid conditions had not been kind to her hair. It had grown twice in size and the curls had gone wild.
“Dallas.” She bounce-slash-stumbled into my arms and giggled with excitement. “Would you hate it if I left with Tim?”
“Wha—oh. Um.” I glanced behind her and squinted. The room was moving. For sure. “I guess not.”
She squealed but it was blanketed by the thudding bass of the music.
“How though?” I stumbled and she stumbled, and we gripped each other’s arms to stand upright. “He can’t drive?”
“No.” she smiled. “He has an Uber waiting. I’ll still split our fare and give you my half. Would you care though?”
It was a huge wait until two; it was just midnight.
“I’ll book another one. It’ll be fine. Come on, I’ll walk you out.”
Outside on the crowded sidewalk, Gabby thanked me, and I snapped a picture of her and Tim getting into the Uber. Then I took a photo of the license plate and waved them off with a proud smile. I made Gabby promise to text me his address. She knew it from when he used to tutor her after school. I felt like she’d be fine, but I still told her to call me when she got there.
I inhaled the fresh, cool air. The sidewalks were packed with people rolling into one another. Saturday night in Cripple Creek was never quiet. Fifth Street was lined with casinos and bars as far as the eye could see. Older men and women were dressed up, smoking, laughing, shouting. The atmosphere was alive and exciting, but I was definitely ready for bed.
I slipped my phone out of my bra—which I knew was super dangerous, but where the hell else would I put it—and opened up Uber to book another ride. I was trying to stay steady and not bump into people until I collided with a tall, firm chest.
I stared up at Drayton as he dragged on a cigarette and said, “What now?”
“Where are you off to?”
“Wherever the hell I want,” I snapped, and stepped around his stupid gorgeous frame. I was being so horrible, and I knew it. But I couldn’t stop. He fell into step beside me, without the cigarette, hands in his pockets. “It’s dangerous to walk alone at night.”
He’s right.
“Leave me alone,” I mumbled, still struggling with the Uber app because I couldn’t see straight. “Go and tend to whatever hopeless bimbo is waiting for your attention.”
“Stop.” He gripped my elbow and spun me around so that we were facing each other. I stared at his angry expression. He inhaled a deep breath, his eyes moving from one end of the road to the other before he looked down at me again. “Forget about what a dick I was. Put it aside for a minute and be reasonable. Let me drive you home? Please?”
“No. I don’t get into cars with strangers.”
I shrugged off his hold on my arm and continued walking, collecting a few shoulder bangs as I went. He shouted through the thrum of crowded chatter. “Fine! Have it your way.”
He was so arrogant and smug and stupid and attractive. That was what made it so frustrating. He was so gorgeous, and as much as I wanted to slap his mouth whenever he said something stupid, I sort of wanted to kiss it too. I had never been so confused, and the thoughts continued to rile me up while I stared at the cracked and littered pavement beneath me.
That was when I noticed that the noise had died down. The streets were emptier. Almost deserted. How long had I been walking? Where was I? There were dark and vacant tall buildings, and now the lights of the casino strip were visible, but distant.
Suddenly, I was yanked into a hard body, a hand came across my mouth, and I was dragged toward a dark, narrow walkway. My blood ran cold and my heart beat so hard that it physically hurt. Rendered paralyzed, fear seized me until the adrenaline slowed enough for my instincts to kick in. Thrashing my body and kicking my legs out, I attempted to scream. It was no use; the sound was completely muffled and there was no one around. I couldn’t break out of the iron hold, and we quickly disappeared out of the public view and into the narrow walkway. The buildings on either side weren’t even apartments; they were industrial buildings that would be empty until the morning. No one would stumble across me, no one would hear me.
My front was pushed against the cold brick wall and tears streamed down my cheeks as I trembled with fear, desperately clutching at any bright idea that came to mind so I could avoid becoming another statistic.
A strong hand gripped my arm and whipped me around while managing to keep one hand over my mouth. My assailant pushed my back into the wall. My vision cleared, and I came face to face with Drayton, who was looking at me with unfathomable anger.
He let go of my mouth and I let out a loud, ragged exhale harsh with gurgling sobs as I clutched my chest and almost collapsed. I was now aware that I wasn’t in immediate danger, but my shoulders rose and fell at a rapid pace in time with my labored breathing.
“What the actual fuck, Drayton?” I snapped, rubbing my cheeks with the palms of my hands. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Do you realize how easy that was for me!” he shouted, his body basically crushing mine against the wall. I could feel his hot breath fanning my face as he stared down at me with glower-
ing fury.
“I don’t think I need to explain how this could have ended if it hadn’t been me,” he said.
“You’re an absolute idiot! You’re the only predator out tonight!” I hissed, willing my voice to stop trembling so that I didn’t sound so fragile.
“You think so?” He laughed, cold and harsh as he nodded toward the end of the alleyway. “Wait for it.”
We waited for what seemed like forever, standing in silence with our bodies pressed against each other. My heart thumped at our close proximity, and I stole a quick glance at Drayton and noticed his expression morphing into frustration. He gestured at the entrance of the walkway and I watched a middle-aged man walk past. His beanie was tattered and stained a nicotine yellow. His oversized parka was covered in an array of holes and I couldn’t help but feel a chill as he searched left and right. He couldn’t see us, though, hidden in the confines of the pitch black.
“He was following you from the moment that you left the club,” Drayton murmured, and I looked up to find him regarding me with a sickened expression. “I got in my car just to beat him here.”
I swallowed hard as the extremity of the situation dawned on me. It might have been a very different outcome had Drayton not shown up, and I was undeniably grateful. I went up on my tiptoes and threw my arms around his neck. He stiffened for a moment but quickly wrapped his arms around my waist and tucked his face into my neck.
“Please, let me drive you home?” He leaned back, his hands remaining around my middle. Electricity surged through my body as his touch drowned out all coherent thought. All I could do was nod. A look of relief flashed across his face as he tucked me into his side and led us out of the alleyway.
“I called the cops and reported that guy for suspicious behavior,” Drayton said. “Fucking sick.”
The drive back to Castle Rock wasn’t horrible. Drayton’s Jeep was dark, with tinted windows, black leather seats, and lots of buttons on the dashboard. Drayton kept his hands wound tightly around the steering wheel, a look of rage still etched on his face. At first, neither of us said a word, but the silence was surprisingly not awkward.
“What’s your brother doing tonight?” Drayton asked, his tone a bit more casual than his posture. We were passing all of the little stores that were close to home. The convenience store. The
laundromat. The burger shack and diner.
“He’s out for the night,” I answered with a curious tone.
What’s it to him?
He nodded and then indicated right instead of left at the next intersection that would have taken me home. “What are you doing? Where are we going?”
“My house.”
“What? No! Drop me off at home,” I said.
“No one’s there to look after you,” he said, the streetlights illuminating his flat stare.
“I don’t need looking after,” I snapped, growing frustrated. I’d been thrilled on the drive home when I realized that I was safe and had saved a large Uber fare. “I am capable of looking after myself.”
“Okay,” he scoffed. “Is that why you’ve been swaying from side to side in that seat for the last hour and a half?”
“Drayton, take me home,” I yelled, slamming a hand on the center console. “This is so stupid. No one’s going to kidnap me in my own home. The only one doing that tonight seems to be you.”
“Would you just shut up and let me look after you! Damn, Dallas, do you have to argue about everything?”
“Look after me?” I shouted, outraged at his logic even though he might have been right. “I’m not a fucking child.”
“You’re coming home with me. End of.”
Chapter 5
The last thing I’d expected to happen on a girls’ night out was to end up kidnapped by the school’s quarterback. I’d yet to determine what his motives were—for the moment, I’d given up fighting him on it.
“You are unbelievable,” I said. Drayton didn’t respond.
I needed to check in on Gabby. She’d promised to send me a message when they got to Tim’s, and they’d left before we had. Drayton didn’t snatch the phone from me or demand to know whom I was texting, so I took that as a good sign. I could have been sending an SOS for all he knew.
We drove past school. The little garden lights hidden in the stones and faux bushes illuminated the sign. It was always strange to see the school at night, so quiet and vacant. It somehow looked bigger without hundreds of students hovering around the grounds.
We drove for another ten minutes and arrived in the classier part of town. Newer houses. Prettier. In Castle Pine Village the streets were tucked away, hidden in the thick of trees and winding roads.
Drayton pulled the car into a gated driveway. He must have pressed a button or something, because the gate opened and closed again behind us. We drove up a narrow, twisted road. Trees rose on either side, and it was pitch black aside from the car’s headlights. And then, among the exquisite greenery, emerged a house like I had never seen before.
It was more than gorgeous. It was sharp, made of multishade white brick, and had so many windows. Drayton killed the engine and I hopped out, still in awe, admiring what he called home and what I would call heaven. I glanced around and noted that the drive dropped off at the edges, descending into more forest. The front of the house was illuminated with spots of light glowing a soft orange fixed into the brick. It was enormous.
“You live here?” I murmured, attempting to absorb it all.
“I guess,” he replied, leaning on the back of the car as he lit a cigarette. I frowned but left him to it. It was his house.
“Would it be rude to ask what your parents do?”
“My mom owns an organic skin-care company, L.E. Skincare.” He took a drag on the cigarette and stared at the ground as he exhaled again.
“Wow.” I nodded. “Is your mom the breadwinner or . . . what does your dad do?”
“This and that.”
I was starting to see he was not one for elaborating, and I wasn’t one for pressing for more details. And then I winced, considering that he might not have a father. And if he did, it might be complicated. I swallowed and hoped that I hadn’t put my foot in it, even if Drayton was an ass.
He sauntered toward the house, dragging on his cigarette, the smoke billowing around him. Even the entrance was outstanding: two steps up to a landing that was larger than my bedroom, concrete urns that were almost taller than me on either side of the door, and a door surrounded by frosted windows that made up almost the entire outdoor wall. There was enough light coming from inside that I could see Drayton stubbing his cigarette out and dropping it into the urn on the left before he turned around and gestured with his head.
“Come on.”
I wanted to. I so did. It must have been gorgeous in there. I folded my arms. “No, you can’t kidnap people. It’s rude.”
“It’s illegal, to be specific.” He came back down the steps and beelined toward me. “But I’m not kidnapping you, I’m looking after you. Stop whining and come inside.”
I refused to flutter over the fact that he wanted to look after me. This was not the real him. He was doing the two-faced thing again.
“No.”
“If you scream”—he grinned and spoke in a low tone—“you’ll piss my parents off.”
His large hands were on me again for the second time that night. He lifted me up and threw me over his shoulder. I grunted at the impact of his solid deltoid in my stomach. There were a few disconcerting things about this situation. First, the dress that I was wearing was far too short for this and the breeze caught my bum. Second, his hands were really close to said bum. Third, I couldn’t admire the gorgeous house when I was upside down.
Drayton kicked open a door after he’d walked up a set of stairs and another few feet. He set me down in the dark, disappeared, and then reappeared when a bedside lamp was switched on.
“This isn’t the spare bedroom . . .”
I was far too drunk to appreciate things. His bedroom was made of neutral tones and soft carpet. A king-sized bed sat in the middle of a wall that stretched diagonally across the room and went around a corner. On the other side of the room was a fireplace, a flat-screen TV above it. Floor-to-ceiling windows on one side revealed the thick green trees outside, offering privacy and enchantment. His walls were decorated with football jerseys and other memorabilia.
“The Cowboys? Not the Broncos?”
Drayton pulled his T-shirt over his head and shrugged. “I wasn’t born here.”
He disappeared around the corner and I heard a door open. When I heard a tap running, I assumed that he had an en suite. I stood in place and continued to wonder how in the hell I’d ended up here. It was messing with me somewhat, but the little buzz inside my bra distracted me.
Yea fune. U jus woke me up. Foodnjght.
I couldn’t help but giggle at Gabby’s message, filled with typos, knowing that she was probably more drunk than I was.
“Here.”
A white piece of fabric came straight for me. My face caught it—my reflexes were a little off—and when I lowered it, Drayton was sauntering toward his bed in nothing but a pair of black Calvin Kleins. His thighs were football-player thick and his torso was so sculpted that it should have been illegal.
He climbed into his bed with a lazy grin, and threw an arm behind his head as he watched me stand there with the T-shirt hanging from one hand, cell phone in the other, hoping I didn’t look as brain dead as I felt.
I snapped out of it and pointed at the door. “There has to be a spare bedroom in this house.”
“Nope.” He grinned. “If you want to sleep on the floor, that’s fine. It just won’t be very comfortable.”
Doubtful. Even the carpet was luxurious. There was a reason that he was insisting on having me here. There had to be. I didn’t know what it was, but I was growing tired, and it was quite clear that he was just as stubborn as I was.
“I want to put it out there,”—I marched past the bed, dropping my phone on the spare side as I went—“that there will be no sex. Just so we’re on the same page.”
“Cheer.” He leaned up on his elbow and gave me a pitiful once over. �
�I don’t want to have sex with you. Hostile isn’t really my type. Besides, I have more effective ways of getting girls into bed that usually don’t require me dragging them into my house against their will.”
“I’m not hostile,” I scoffed, turning the corner to find the bathroom door. I left it open and pulled the shirt over my head before I slipped the dress down my body. I flicked it to the side with my foot as I shoved my arms through the sleeves of the shirt, then kicked off my heels, wincing at the cold of the tile floor on my bare feet.
“I’m annoyed because you’re annoying,” I continued when I returned from the bathroom and stood beside the bed.
Drayton rolled his eyes as he turned his head toward me. I was a little nervous to actually get into his bed without another invitation. As his eyes landed on me, they widened, shifting down to my thighs, where the shirt stopped. But it was momentary, and he quickly refocused his gaze at the ceiling.
“Get in.”
“This is weird.” I hesitated even though he’d said exactly what I had been hoping for.
“Why? It’s just sharing a bed.” He shrugged. “I’m not going to touch you.”
“You’re so arrogant.” I flicked the dark-blue comforter back, exposing his body as I slid in next to him. I couldn’t help the embarrassing intake of air that filled my lungs when I got another view of his sculpted frame. “I wouldn’t touch you either. Ever.”
He chuckled and switched the lamp beside him off, plunging us into darkness.
“Hey, what happened to your friend?” I gasped, remembering that he’d been with someone tonight. “Did you leave him in Cripple Creek?!”
“What? No, of course not,” he scoffed. “He went home with some chick.”
“Oh.”
I rolled onto my side and propped myself up on an elbow so that I could watch and gauge his reaction to my next question. The faint light from behind him outside created a silhouette. “Drayton, why did you bring me here? I would have been fine at home. I’m not that drunk.”