The Drake Unwound Complete Collection (The Drake Series Book 9)(40)

She came over and bent down to kiss me.

"Good morning," she said. "You seem no worse for wear after last night."

"Drink plenty of water and take two aspirin," I replied and smiled. "Works every time."

"What are you playing?" She sat down on the couch and watched over the back while I strummed a few chords.

"Playing an old Beatles song I like. Do you want to hear?"

She nodded, an expression of pleasure on her face, her eyes soft.

"I'd love to hear you sing and play. You have a really nice voice."

"I get by," I said, pleased that she thought so. I played around for a moment, tuning the strings, and finding the chords. "It's called, And I Love Her."

A classic, I was certain that this song would live on for centuries. It was epic and beautiful, showcasing McCartney’s songwriting skills, although Lennon argued that he wrote part of the song. Written and produced in 1964 at the Abbey Road studio, it was only performed once outside of the studio yet it remained a favorite of Beatles aficionados.

When I finished, I turned to Kate, who had tears in her eyes.


What could I say about that moment? It made me love her even more than ever, if possible. Her tears at the concert showed me that she was deeper than she appeared on the surface, moved by music, preferring classical to contemporary, willing to be different from the rest of her peers. Her tears for my playing was like gravy.

"I do love her," I said, choking up. "I love you, Kate. Thank you for being here for me."

She came over to me, blinking back her tears. "I love you." She bent down, her hands on either side of my face and kissed me. "Thank you for letting me be here with you."

She left me sitting with my guitar in hand and went back to the couch, her back to me. I knew she was trying to gain control over herself so I strummed the guitar for a few moments, letting her have her moment of privacy. Normally, I’d want to go to her and force her to show me her tears, enjoy them, but at that moment, I felt a need to protect her instead. To give her a moment to recover. Finally, I put my guitar down and brought my coffee with me to sit on the couch beside her.

"What's on the agenda for today?" I said, and then I frowned, remembering she was going to go to the studio. "Oh, yeah. I remember,” I said, a bit sourly. I didn’t want to be jealous of her old friend. I knew I shouldn’t feel threatened by him especially because he seemed like the opposite to the kind of man Kate needed. But still… “You're going to spend time with Mr. 'Hey, Dude.'"

Kate nodded. "I want to go work on my canvas for a while this morning, but after that, nothing."

"I can do some work at the Foundation if you're going to be at the studio,” I said and swallowed back my jealousy, “but we should plan on spending the afternoon together."

"Sounds great."

I put my arm around her and we finished our coffee, enjoying a few quiet moments together before our days began.



I stood and watched Kate while she got dressed and fixed her hair in front of the mirror in the bathroom.

"You still look good enough to eat, Ms. Bennet,” I said. “I don’t know if I like you spending the morning alone with a bunch of artist-dudes."

"They have nothing on you, Drake. They're still at that flaky stage of manhood. You know, not wanting to settle down. Looking to hookup with as many women as they can, sow their wild oats. I'm not interested so you don’t have to be the least bit concerned."

"I know," I said and sighed. "Just want to defend my prized territory."

"You and Sun Tzu…" She turned to me and frowned. "Or was it Machiavelli?"

"Both. There's a reason they say all's fair in love and war. Both involve conquering and surrender."

"I already surrendered, remember? The agreement?"

I grinned, my arms folded as I leaned against the bathroom doorjamb and watched her.

"You did. I enjoyed it immensely, even though I'm not so sure you're all that submissive in the end and that's just the way I like you."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

I shrugged. "I don't want a submissive woman. I want a woman who submits in the bedroom. There's a difference."

She nodded slowly. "I like that." She came to me and put her arms around my waist. "I want to submit to you in the bedroom. Outside of it, I want to be strong. Competent. Capable of looking after myself."

"You are. But let me take care of you as well. Everyone needs someone to fall back on when things get too heavy. Just so you know you have me."

"And you have me."

I kissed her, pulling her against my body, doing my best to dampen down my jealousy. It wasn’t so much that I felt Kate would want to have sex with any of them. They were flakes, as she noted. I remembered that age – twenty four or five, insatiable hunger for *. It was that they shared something with her that I never could. I had no talent in art and couldn’t draw a stickman so this was something apart and separate from our life together.

I wanted to share everything with Kate but art was one thing I would have to merely appreciate from a distance.



We made a plan that I’d come and pick Kate up when she texted me. She said she’d probably be a couple of hours, no more and maybe we'd do a late lunch.