Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Lauryn Hill"You'd be like heaven to touch, I wanna hold you so much"

Maybe it's not what she thought. Maybe just maybe the tawny brown arm wrapped around her waist was a hallucination. Maybe the raging headache was a figment of her imagination and the room she was in was Wonderland. Except it was all real.

Sage peeked down at her appearance and sighed, yes she was in a strange bed but she was fully clothed in a pair of oversize sweats and a tee shirt. No wonder why I'm fucking hot, she thought rubbing her left temple.

"Baby, you're fine," a raspy voice was heard to the right of her... from the man beside her, the same one with the arm around her waist.

East knew she was awake when her breathing pattern changed for a good while, from what he could tell she was a pretty steady sleeper. He was infatuated with her and how she moved since she was new, and new was exciting. He ain't ever seen her around the club scene before and he most certainly ain't see a beauty like her, anywhere.

"Where am I?" She croaked. She turned to look at this man who was now fully opening his eyes.

"My room," he reached up because she was already sat up on her side, understandably scared shitless. East's fingers trailed her lips and then caught her chin. Now he sat up facing her, "Look baby, it's too early--"

"I'm scared." Sage recognized him from last night unless her eyes were deceiving her. The truth is she wasn't scared of him, per se, but of getting caught. It looked to be seven in the morning and her parents would be up in an hour or two and she wasn't home. She couldn't just call her driver because he would know enough to get her in the hot seat with Mr. Baglio and would most likely alert her parents.

Sage was shy under his look. She was a shy and introverted person in general, but it didn't help this beautiful man was currently piercing through her with his eyes. East was propped up on his elbow, shirtless with the comforter covering his bottom half.

"Why are you scared? We didn't do anything, baby," He made sure to look at her in the eyes to help solidify the truth, "Talk to me. What're you thinking?"

Suddenly East's ringer went off causing the both of them to turn to the iPhone placed in between them. He ignored it until it stopped.

"Can you take me home?" Sage blurted. Her voice was louder but raspy. Cottonmouth and a headache. Great.

"I'll do anything for you, ma, but promise me one thing?" East leaned in biting his lip. He found himself doing that a lot since his first encounter with her at Diversion.

"What's that?"

"Don't make me have to chase you." He flashed her a grin, but he was serious as could be and somehow Sage felt that in her gut.

****

The gun felt cold under his finger pads as he placed it carefully in his mini safe. The safe was located in the right corner underneath his king sized bed. East knew he had to keep weapons everywhere, even if it wasn't for a business transaction gone wrong. He had enemies everywhere. Whatever was under his bed was complete back up which meant he had at least two times the number of contraband.

David Brewster Jr. was a business man if he had any say in it. He felt that people loved to discredit him because he moved weight and occasionally would off anyone that crossed him, but in the Wall Street sense that was the equivalent to firing someone, right?

As David plopped on top of the bed, he caught a whiff of the young girl from the weekend. He knew she was 18 the most, simply couldn't be older. He was good at reading people very well and putting two and two together. Scared about curfew? Yeah, definite baby, he thought as she hopped out his rolls the day he drove her to her penthouse in the upper east side. It actually didn't bother him that she was young and evidently innocent, he actually preferred it that way. It was refreshing and the short time he knew her he wanted to know more. The main reason being that he got involved with the same type of girls all the time and he was sick of it, for him he saw this run in with Sage as a chance to try something new.

Knowing that she was underage Dave thought about the overall restrictions she might have in her day to day life. It didn't phase him one bit though. He was sharp enough to share her location behind her back the night of the club. It was fairly easy once he saw how intoxicated she was and the fact that they were alone together exchanging numbers. Since the few days that passed he would check into her location every now and then and found she was pretty mundane.

Damn, her parents must keep her on a tight leash. He shrugged and contemplated his next move. Whether it was because she was in high school or her folks are stringent or both, Dave knew he had his work cut out for him if he wanted to see her again. His thumb hovered over her name in his contact list, questioning if he should press call now or later.

Now.

End note: Hola! Y'all, so that picture of the bedroom is Dave's 🤑🤑