Safe With Him (16 page)

Bree stood for a beat and watched Draco walk out of the bathroom.
What the hell is the matter with me
? She was damn near crying and for what? A little bit of blood on a freakin’ sheet? Shaking her head at herself, she moved to the tub to replace the stopper. She felt the water. “Didn’t he say a
hot
bath?” she mumbled and pulled the stopper back out to let the cool water drain out.

“You know…” she started as Draco walked back into the bathroom. “In order to take a hot bath, the water should be…hot.” She smiled at him when he just stood there looking at her.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked her gently as he sat the salts down and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight to his chest.

“Yes, I’m okay. Just a little…uh, I don’t know.” She was standing in his bathroom, in his arms, completely naked. She had never been in a room naked with someone else. Especially being naked and having them naked also. Draco seemed completely at ease with himself, with or without clothes. Her…not so much.

“You wanna explain a little on that ‘I don’t know’ part?” He gave her a little squeeze.

“Not really,” she answered quietly.

He just stood there and silently held her to him. He moved and kissed the top of her head, then took a step back and kissed her forehead. “Fix your bath water, baby. I’ll be right back.” He kissed her lips lightly and walked back out of the bathroom.

By the time he returned, with his boxer briefs back on, she had slipped his T-shirt back on and was sitting on the side of the tub, swirling the salt into the now hot water. He walked to her, bent and kissed the top of her head.

“You look sexy in my tee, baby,” he said with a cocky grin.

“You look sexy without your tee,” she said back, and watched that grin turn into a smile, and damn, that looked even sexier on him.

“Take your bath, woman.” He turned to grab a towel, and then started to roll the towel up. After she got in the tub and sat down, he knelt down beside the tub. “Lie back,” he said as he placed the rolled up towel at the back of her neck. “Now just relax for a bit.” He kissed her forehead, then her lips, then stood back up and turned to the shower. “I’m goin’ to take a quick shower while you boil yourself.” With a wink he disappeared behind the shower wall.

She lay back and ‘relaxed,’ but she also took the time to check out his bathroom. He had said the only room he had the way he wanted was the kitchen, but the bathroom was not just nice, it was extremely nice. Big spa tub to one side that was almost the size of a hot tub. She looked around and ‘yes,’ she found the controls and turned on the jets. “Yesss,” she repeated as the water started pulsating around her. At the other end of the tub was a wall. She knew that on the other side of that wall was a nice size walk-in shower because she had peeked. Across from that was the toilet room. She giggled. Who would ever think to put a toilet in a room all by itself? Then there was the double sink vanity that ran the rest of the length of that wall. Everything in the room was almost brand new, or couldn’t be much more than a year or so old. So, if he hadn’t remodeled his bathroom, closing her eyes, she wondered who did.

Draco walked back around the wall that separated the shower area from the bathtub with only a towel wrapped around his waist. He stopped and just stood there staring at Bree. He could only see the tops of her shoulders above the water, her hair piled up and around her head. She was lying back in the tub, eyes closed, face relaxed, with just a hint of a smile, jets swirling the water around her. She was beautiful. She was his. But she held so much back. She didn’t trust him with her, not all of her, not yet, so he had to change that. He walked over to the tub and knelt down beside it. “Baby,” he whispered to her softly and watched her eyes open as she turned her head slightly in his direction and that little hint of a smile that was on her face turned into a bigger smile for him.

“I love your bathtub,” she whispered to him.

“Yeah, I can see that.” He smiled back at her. “You gonna spend the rest of the day in there?” He teased.

“I think I just might.” She laughed softly.

“And work?”

“Aww crap, yeah, guess I do have to get out…in a minute.” She sighed and closed her eyes.

“What time you gotta be at work?”

“I have to be there at seven, but I usually leave about quarter after six.”

“You got time.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead, then stood back up. “I’m gonna get dressed.”

“Dra,” she called out to him, and he turned back to look at her. “Can I use some of your soap? You, uh…kinda don’t have any here,” she said as he watched her look around the tub.

He walked back into the shower area and grabbed his body wash. “Don’t take baths, baby, got no need to keep soap there.” He walked back to her with body wash in hand. He knelt back down by the tub. “Until now.” He kissed her lips lightly. He stood back up and walked to the bathroom door, turned back to look at her, then uttered softly to himself, “Gonna change that.”

“I
am
going home,” Bree said slowly and firmly yet again. “I need to get ready for work and for the last time I’m not wearing jeans. I can’t. I would get fired.”

“And that would be a problem, how?” Draco shot back.

Bree didn’t bother to answer. After her bath, she had redressed and told Draco that she needed to go home to start getting ready for work. For some unknown reason that he wouldn’t share with her, he told her she didn’t need to go home and she could get ready for work here and just wear what she had on.
Yeah right!
Like she could show up for work in jeans and a T-shirt. So instead of answering him yet again, she just turned around and stomped out of the room and down the steps.

She was halfway across the living room when Draco wrapped his arm around her middle and pulled her back up against his chest. “Damn it! Breezie, stop.”

She whirled around to face him, eyes narrowed. “Didn’t I ask you not to call me that? Repeatedly?” She sneered.

“It’s your fuckin’ name.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I do.”

“What?”

“Baby, I like your name. I think it’s cute. Just like you,” he said softly.

“Just like me?” She jerked her body away from him and ran to the back door.
Just like you
. She felt those words rip right though her heart. She jerked open the door, turned back to him and yelled, “Your twenty-four hours are over. Leave me the hell alone.” She then ran out the door and across the yard just as she heard his security alarm going off.

*  *  *

Draco ran to the alarm, punched in the code, at the same time he pulled his phone out of his pocket just as the security company called. While he explained that it was an accidental alarm and gave them his passcode, he ran across his backyard and into the parking lot to the apartments, all the while keeping Bree in his sights. Hanging up the phone and putting it back in his pocket, he was thinking,
what the fuck just happened
, just as he reached the breezeway and saw Bree going into her apartment. He caught up to her just as she was closing the door and saw the hurt on her face, the tears in her eyes, right before she slammed the door on him.

He walked over to Storm’s door, knocked once, and then walked in. “Storm, I need the key to Bree’s,” he stated when he saw Storm sitting at his table looking at some papers he had spread out in front of him.

“Where’s Ree?” Storm asked, looking up from the paper he held in his hand.

“In there.” Draco jerked his head in the direction of her apartment.

“Then why do you need the key?”

“She’s pissed.”

“Why?”

“Fuck if I know.”

“Draco, Ree just don’t get pissed for no reason. What’d you do?”

“I said her name.”

“What?”

Draco scrubbed his face in his hands, took a deep breath. “Everything was fine and then she said she had to go home to get ready for work. I told her she could get ready at my place, but she said she needed to change. Told her what she had on was fine, but she got pissed, said she couldn’t wear jeans to work, cuz she’d get fired. I didn’t see the problem in that.”

“Damn, did you tell her that? That you didn’t see a problem with her gettin’ fired?” Storm asked.

“Yeah, then she stomped out of the room. When I caught up with her to tell her I’d go with her to her place, she got really pissed before I could say more than stop.”

“That don’t sound like Ree. You sure you didn’t say somethin’ like you wouldn’t
let
her go to her place by herself? For whatever reason the woman hates that shit.”

“No, I didn’t say anythin’ like that. I told her I liked her name, thought it was cute, just like her.”

“What the hell does her name…wait, you know her name? Her
real
name?” Storm asked, but Draco saw the change come over Storm’s face. “How do you know her name?” Storm’s words were tight, and he was holding his body even tighter.

“She told me.”

“She told…
you
?”

“Yeah.”

“She told
you
her
real
name, and you called her that? I take it you called her that more than once?” Storm asked.

“Yeah, a few times, and yeah, she asked me not to call her that,” Draco admitted on a sigh. “But, like I told her, I like it.”

“She hates it, and you used the words, ‘just like you’ to her?”

“Yeah.” Draco sighed, still not understanding.

“Fuck.”

“What?” Draco asked, confused as hell.

“Not up to me to share, but I will tell you this...she fuckin’ hates that name, and when I say hate, I really mean she fuckin’
hates
it. And just so you know, she has good reason to,” Storm said, then turned his head toward the kitchen. “Top cabinet, container marked oatmeal. That’s where she keeps her spare key.” Draco moved to retrieve the key, then as he was just going out the door, he heard Storm. “Make this right with her.”

Draco walked across the hall to Bree’s door, unlocked it and walked in. He saw her sitting on the sofa with her head down on top of her drawn up knees, arms wrapped around them. When he shut the door she must have heard him, because she looked up, and he saw the tears in her eyes. “Fuck,” he hissed at himself as he moved to her. “Bree, baby, I’m sorry. I know you’ve asked me not to call you Bre—by your name. I’m sorry. I never meant for it to hurt you,” he spoke softly as he walked to her and sat down on the sofa beside her. “Will you tell me why?”

“I just don’t like it,” she answered softly, not really looking at him.

“Okay,” he breathed out slowly, wishing she would share with him. “Why don’t you go get ready for work? I’ll wait for you, okay?” She only glanced at him, then away, then nodded as she got up and walked down the hall. He sat back, laid his head on the back of the sofa and stared up at the ceiling.
She won’t let me in. Not even a little bit.
That’s not true
, he thought.
She does when her guard is down. She lets me in then.
Apparently just her telling him her name was letting him in, or, at least, that was what it sounded like by Storms reaction to her name.

He got up and as he walked down the hall, he heard the shower. Pausing only for a beat he went to the bathroom door. “Bree?” he called softly. She opened the door and stood there looking up at him in nothing but a short little blue robe. He stepped into her and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her close to his chest. “I’m sorry, baby, I never meant to hurt you,” he whispered into her hair as he laid his head on top of hers.

“I know. It’s okay,” she whispered into his chest.

Bree felt his hold on her loosen, then he stepped back and looked down at her. She returned his gaze with a small smile. She knew she had overreacted, but just in that moment when he said her name, then…
Just like you
. She wasn’t hearing him, but her mother’s voice taunting her.
He doesn’t know. He didn’t do it to hurt me. He doesn’t know
.

He bent and kissed her lightly. She rose up on her toes as she wrapped her arms around his neck, moved one hand to the back of his head and brought his head back to hers. When his lips met hers she started to kiss him, until he moved his hand to the back of her head, tilted it, and took over the kiss. The kiss was becoming…more, until he jerked his head from hers. She couldn’t stop the sigh that slipped from her lips as he picked her up and walked the rest of the way in the bathroom and sat her on the counter. He parted her legs and stepped in between them. He kissed her again, deep and long. When he broke the kiss the second time they were both breathing hard.

“Baby, why the hell are you takin’ a shower?” Draco asked.

“Because I smell like a boy.”

“What?”

“At your house, your soap, it smells like you. And where that may be a good smell for you, me…not so much.” Bree shook her head negatively while grinned back at him.

“You sayin’ I smell like a boy?” he asked, still grinning.

“Well, no. On you it smells like…well, you. But on me, it smells like a boy.”

“I like the way you smell,” he whispered to her as he kissed her lips lightly, then added, “like the way you taste more.”

She leaned back from him. “Okay, no more smelling or…uh…tasting or I’m going to be late for work.” She started pushing on his chest. His very nice, very hard chest that she knew how it looked without his shirt on, and how it felt under her, and over her and…

“That’s okay with me.” She heard him say, but she had no idea what he was talking about.

“What?” she asked a little breathlessly from where her thoughts were starting to take her.

“Work, baby.” He chuckled. “It’s okay with me if you’re late for work.” She could tell he was trying not to laugh out loud.

“Oh yeah. Work. Right.” She sighed and then he did bust out laughing, and she knew that he realized where her thoughts had started to go. “Whatever.” She narrowed her eyes at him, but she just couldn’t stop the grin on her face. “Go do…something else.” She pushed him back, but this time she pushed his shoulders and thank goodness, he stepped back.

“Okay,” he whispered, still chuckling, then with a quick kiss he walked out of the bathroom.

*  *  *

Forty-five minutes later, Draco walked back down the hall, passed the first closed door, paused at the open bathroom door, but when he didn’t see Bree he continued on to the next open door, her bedroom, and froze. Bree was standing in front of a full length mirror attached to her closet door. She had her back to him, but he could see her reflection in the mirror. From where he stood, he could see the back of her and the front of her…all of her. She was wearing black fuck-me-heels that had some kind of straps that ran back and forth across the tops of her feet then up her ankles and half way up her legs. Legs that were covered in shear black stockings. Another tight black skirt that barely covered her ass—an ass that he knew looked even better out of that skirt. And another one of those damn tank top pieces of shirt that did not cover her stomach and he could see the diamond stud piercing her belly button—
A piercing that had not fuckin’ been there when I had her naked in my bed
—and the V at the neck of her shirt barely covered those perfect breasts that he also knew what they looked like and felt like out of that damn shirt. Her hair, her gorgeous hair, was falling all around her face and down her back.

“Fuck me,” he growled low, but loud enough for Bree to hear, because she turned around to face him.

“Do not start…” she started to say as he stalked to her. Without saying a word, he backed her up until her back hit the dresser.

He yanked her skirt up to her waist and saw the garter belt holding her stockings in place. “Fuckin’ perfect,” he mumbled as he picked her up, sat her ass on top the dresser, yanked her legs apart and stepped in between, then slammed his mouth to hers.

“Can’t be inside you again…yet,” Draco spoke against her lips. “No, my dick can’t be inside you, but my tongue can,” he continued to growl but kept kissing her lips lightly. “Fuck, baby, I’m gonna eat you till you come so hard, all night long, every fuckin’ time you see me lick my lips, your pussy will tingle instead of your belly.” He kissed her, hard but quick. When he broke the kiss, he murmured to her, “You okay with that?”

“Okay.” He heard her breathe right before he dropped to his knees and ripped her panties off and did just what he said he would do.

Draco watched his gorgeous Bree as she came back down. He couldn’t have hidden the grin on his face if he tried. He had done that, given that to her. Nobody else had ever done that for her, and he was going to make damn sure nobody else ever did.
No-fuckin’-body but me
.

“Gonna be late for work, babe, you don’t get your ass in gear.” He kissed her lips lightly, picked her up off the dresser and placed her on her feet, but held onto her until he knew she could stand on her own. It took her a minute or two before she was steady.
Yeah
, he thought. He could do that to her too. He then kissed the top of her head and swaggered out of her bedroom, and into her bathroom to…

Take care of himself
.