Chapter 4

Drake went back to his room, ignoring the fact that he had left Rihanna alone in the kitchen to run after Nicki, and sat on the floor facing the big window staring blankly ahead.

He hated how much things had changed between them.  She has asked him to leave the room.  Never, in the three years of relationship, she had kicked him out like that.  Sure they had their little discussions but they always stayed until it was solved.  This time it was different; she didn’t want to listen to anything he had to tell her.

How could she even think he didn’t care about her?  When he broke up with her and left a year ago, he did it for her.  He wanted her to be happy and he knew she could never be happy with him; he saw it in her eyes every time she wanted to hold his hand in public but couldn’t or when she wanted to kiss him and he pulled away cause the whole family was there.  He knew that she would’ve done anything for him, she wanted to run away with him and he loved her too much to put her through that.   They had stayed friends, talked on the phone, shared secrets and said how much they missed each other every single day.

She met Kris 4 months after he left and immediately told him.  Kris was perfect for her and after a month they started dating.  Calls became less and less frequent until they stopped completely.  After a while she told him she was getting married; he felt his world crashing down and his heart breaking but he did what he had to do: congratulated her and promised to be there that day.  He gave up hope until the day he received a phone call from his grandpa.  One phone call that changed everything for him, for her…. for them.

He saw her 3 days before the wedding, he wanted to tell her everything but he didn’t, he didn’t want to confuse her and cause her pain and hurt.  She seemed happy with Kris, like she had fallen out of love with him completely, like everything they once shared was now forgotten and buried under this new life she was building up for herself with another man.  That’s what he thought until she came to his room the night before the wedding and asked him to make love to her; the most amazing night of his life, the night when she had whispered “I love you" a thousand times and he regretted not telling her everything he knew, everything their grandpa had told him.  He knew he was going to lose her forever and he wasn’t doing anything about it, even if he could.  Unfortunately, it was too late to tell her now, too late.

He snapped back to reality when he heard a soft knock followed by the sound of the door opening.  Rihanna stepped in and smiled innocently at him.

"Are you ok now?"

"Not really, I’m sorry Rih I’m not going to be a good company right now" Rihanna sat on his lap, almost straddling him.  Her lips connected with his neck.

"Maybe I can help with that" she mumbled against his neck placing small kisses on his jaw line.  Nicki’s words came back to his mind almost instantly, he couldn’t do this; not in this room, not with another woman, not when she was in the next room.  He gently pushed Rihanna off before standing up

"I can’t Rih, not now, not here" she stood up and cupped his face.

"It’s ok hun, I just wanted a goodbye lay" she smirked.

"Goodbye?" what the hell did she meant ‘goodbye’.

"Yes goodbye. Chris called, he wants to see me." she grinned. “He wants to talk things out”

 “And you’re going back to him?” He lifted his eyebrow.

“You know how this is babe”

Drake gave her a quick, tight hug.  He understood her reasons but he didn’t want her to leave, he didn’t want to face Nicki alone. Too tempting, too dangerous. “When are you leaving?"

"In about two hours.  I’m sorry I can’t stay longer." he just nodded. “Sooo…. Tell me… Is that her?"

"Who is what?" Was she talking about Nicki?

"The short girl you were talking to in the kitchen, the one that stormed out and you followed, is that the girl you told me about? The one that you’re in love with?"

"Emm… Nicki??… That’s….She’s my cousin" he managed to choke out

Rihanna laughed a bit “You are not answering my question Drake.  Is she the girl you’re in love with?" he couldn’t help to laugh, she knew him too well.

"Yeah, that’s her"

"She’s beautiful" he nodded again

"Yeah she is" he groaned and headed to the closet taking out his bag.

"Emm.. Drake? What are you doing?" he looked back at her.

"I’m leaving" he avoided her gaze

"What?! Give me one good reason for you to leave"

"Nicki! That’s a perfect reason for me to leave. I…" he looked at her “Rihanna I can’t stay here alone with her, it’s torture!  We already had a falling out and she’s been here for an hour.  I don’t want to hurt her and I don’t want to get hurt.  The only thing I wanted to do when I had her in front of me was hold her and kiss her senseless but then I remembered she has a husband" he raised his voice a little “A fucking husband Rihanna! I can’t be close to her… I just can’t, I don’t trust myself around her." he looked away

Rihanna walked closer to him and grabbed his hands

"Drake, listen to me and listen carefully cause I’m only going to say this once" she squeeze his hands “You are fucking stupid! You can’t run away from her, this is your chance to win her back, maybe not as a lover but as a friend.  Don’t you miss her?" he nodded and looked down

"Then you are staying and that’s final, plus your grandparents asked you to come" she gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning away and heading to the door “Now come on I want to say goodbye to them"

————————————————————————

She stirred in bed and opened her eyes.  It took her a minute to figure out exactly where she was. After Drake had left her room, her grandma had come and they spent half an hour talking and trying to convince her that she was ok. She sat up and glanced at the clock. 6:30 pm.

"Oh God, I slept twelve hours??!" she immediately got up and looked for her cell phone.  22 text messages ALL from Kris.  She opened the last one, it was from about 10 minutes ago.

‘Nicki, please text me back baby. I’m starting to get worried.’

She pressed the ‘reply’ button.

‘I’m sooo sorry, I overslept. I’m ok. You?’ she placed the phone on the night table and searched for the charger. Her phone buzzed.

‘I’m still at work, I’ll call you when I get out’ she left the phone charging and started unpacking the daily stuff and placing them in the drawers.  It was Tuesday so her grandparents were probably at their weekly get together with their friends.

She opened the bottom drawer to store her jeans and found her old swimsuit, the one she had never wore before.  She smiled and remembered the day she bought it over a year ago.

*Flashback* (Nicki’s POV)

"Oh hell no!"

"Come on Nic I bet you’ll look amazing with this" I eyed the bikini he held in his hand.  It was mostly yellow and it had purple crazy patterns “I can totally picture you wearing something like this, besides you don’t own a two piece bathing suit" he smirked

"I’m not going to wear that" I said firmly. 

He pouted “Pleeeaseee??" I hated when he did that, he knew I couldn’t resist that face “Do it for me" he looked around to make sure there was no one we knew and placed a kiss in my lips.

"Ugh! That’s soo not fair Aubrey! You’re manipulating me!" he smiled innocently “Fine, I’ll buy it"

"Yes! Can’t wait to see you!" I pushed him playfully

"Shut up"

*End of Flashback*

She never wore it.  It was way to revealing and after trying it on she decided to hide it.  She took it in her hands and stared at it for a couple of minutes. The pool sounded like a good idea.

Stripping off her jeans, band tee and underwear she put the bikini on.  She walked into the walk-in-closet to look at herself in the full length mirror. It didn’t look bad, although she still considered it was too revealing.  The straps of the bottom part were too thin.  She decided to leave it on and wear some shorts and a t-shirt over it.

Walking out of her room she stopped when she passed through Drake’s.  She felt her stomach twirled at the thought of him with that red headed, sexy and beautiful woman inside the room.  She hurried downstairs and into the pool area, trying to forget about that.  Stopping dead in her tracks at the sight in front of her.  A shirtless, wet and extremely hot Drake.

Fuck.