Safe With Him (26 page)

Draco moved his arms from around Bree as she stood up with Storm and walked with him to the door. When they reached the door Storm turned to Draco. “Take care of her. Keep her safe…always.”

“Always,” Draco answered huskily.

Bree stepped up to Storm and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t worry, I’ll be safe with Dra.” Draco heard Bree say to Storm and he felt that so deep. Then Storm’s words caught him right in the throat.

“Yeah, Ree, I know. You’ll be.” Storm looked over Bree’s head and stared right at Draco. “Safe with him.”

Bree rose up on her toes and kissed her brother’s cheek. “Love ya always, Storm.”

“Love ya always, Ree.” Storm kissed Bree’s cheek right before he walked out the door.

Bree closed the door behind Storm, then turned to Draco. “There’s something…off.” Sh
e
wondered out loud as she walked back to Draco and right into his open arms. When his arms wrapped tight around her she sighed and held onto him for a beat. Then, stepping back, she looked up at him. “Do you know if Storm is…I don’t know…like a civilian undercover working with the police or something?”

“No. I can honestly tell you Storm is not a civilian workin’ with the police.” Draco pulled her back into his embrace and just stood there holding her to him.

“Then what’s he really up to?” She was mumbling to herself. She knew Storm promised to tell her everything when he came home, but still she couldn’t help but wonder.

Draco took a step back, looking down at her when she looked up at him. “Wanna see the rest of my house?”

“Sure.” She sighed, still a little preoccupied with her thoughts.
Let it go for now.
Draco’s words echoed in her head. She completely trusted Storm and she even trusted Draco, so, for now, until Storm came home, she could let it go, knowing Storm would always keep his word.

Moving one arm to her shoulder, Draco turned with her so she would be close to his side as he started to walk them back across the living room. “Last time we started this, we got distracted. You wanna ever see all of my house, baby, you can’t do anythin’ that’s cute, sexy, or hot as hell, or I may get distracted again.”

She stumbled in her steps. “What?” She giggled. “How was I…distracting?”

“You turnin’ circles in my dining room, cute. You leanin’ over my juke box, sexy. And you sittin’ that sexy ass on my juke box, damn, baby, that was hot as hell. You keep doin’ shit like that, yeah, you’ll never get to see the whole house.” Draco walked across the living room and down the hall to the second closed door.

When they reached the door he pulled her closer, kissed the tip of her nose, then opened the door. “Right now this is just my tool room. Wanna add on to the garage, make part of it a work shop.” He was explaining his plan as she walked into the room that already looked like a work shop, with all kinds of tools and what looked like wooden boards in all shapes and sizes.

“What are you doing with all this stuff?” She walked further into the room, wondering what the tools were used for.

“Most of the wood is left over from the kitchen cabinets. I’m thinkin’ of addin’ some bookshelves in the living room for movies and shit.”

“Kitchen cabinets? You made them yourself?” She looked back at him as he stood in the open doorway, while she wandered around the room.

“Yeah.”

“Wow, they’re beautiful. I had no idea you built them yourself.”

“Yeah,” he shrugged his shoulders, “just some skills I picked up here and there. Between movin’ around so much, in mostly run down places with Mom and Marco, and then later…you’d be surprised what you pick up bein’ in the Army for so long.”

She tilted her head, smiling back at him. “So you’re very multi-talented…in a lot of…
ways
.”

“Bree,” he growled as he stalked to her.

“Yes?” she sweetly and innocently answered, knowing she was being anything but innocent at the moment.

When he reached her, he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her as her hands went to his shoulders and his mouth moved to hers until their lips just barely touched. “Can’t take you in here cuz you might get hurt, but I can strip you naked and toss you on my couch,” he groaned against her lips.

With hands braced on his shoulders, she pushed herself back just enough so he would not kiss her. She knew if he kissed her then she would forget…everything. “Oh no, my bare butt is so not sticking to that sofa. I had one like that once and every time I sat on it with shorts on my legs would stick to it. I had to keep a sheet on it in the summer time,” she blurted, and never skipping a beat, he carried her out of the room and back into the hall.

“You don’t want your bare butt on my couch, don’t be so damn sexy,” he commanded gruffly, as he sat her back on her feet, with another kiss on the tip of her nose.

“This is the guest room and my office, which you’ve already seen.” He pointed at the closed door as he moved down the hall to the third door, opened it and flipped the light on. “Basement,” he stated as moved past her and started walking down the steps. “I just mostly use this as a workout room when the weather is too bad to run outside.”

Bree followed Draco down the steps as he talked. “No dang wonder he’s so freakin’ hot,” she mumbled, not realizing she had spoken aloud until he commented.

He looked over his shoulder at her with that sexy grin. “You think I’m hot?”

“Pffft, like you don’t know already.” She waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “And, Mr. Muscleman, you need to stop listening to me when I’m not talking to you.”

He had made it to the bottom of the steps before he turned to face her. She was just a few steps from the bottom, which put them both at eye level. “You’re so fuckin’ cute when you say shit that makes no sense whatsoever.” He reached out to her, pulling her to him until her body collided with his. He wrapped his arms around her middle, lifted, and her legs wrapped around his waist, her arms around his neck. His one hand went to her butt to hold her to him, his other going to the back of her head, tilting it as his mouth hit hers and kissed her, deep.

“Bree,” he growled low against her lips. “Do you want to see my house or,” he ran his tongue across her bottom lip, “do you want to have more hot crazy sex?”

“Uh…”

“Bree.” He gave her a little bounce with his arms around her.

“What?” she asked innocently. With her hands on his shoulders, she leaned back in his arms, smiling at him. “Hey, you only have yourself to blame.” She moved into him and whispered in his ear, “I think I’ve become addicted.” Then she heard him bust out laughing.

“As long as your addiction starts and ends with me, I’m good with that.” He chuckled as he moved his hands and let her feet fall to the floor.

When Bree was standing again she stepped past Draco and more into the room as she looked around. The basement was just that, just an unfinished basement. The walls were basically unfinished sheetrock. She could see the un-sanded tape and mud used to hold the sheets of sheetrock together. The ceiling was open and she could see the pipes that ran under the upstairs of the house. Even the steel support beams were bare throughout the one big open room.

“Wow! You take your workouts serious, huh?” she asked as she looked around. There was a treadmill and a weight bench, with the round weighs piled close by the bench, as well as a whole set of hand weights that sat in their own racks. It was all pretty much what she had expected to see when he said he used the basement for a workout room, but what she didn’t expect was the huge TV on one wall or the stereo that set against the far wall. He also had another leather-like sofa but this one had a sheet thrown over it. There was other exercise equipment as well that she wasn’t quite sure what the machines were or how they were used.

“Gotta take it even more seriously now.” She turned back to look at him. “Gotta keep up my stamina to handle your addiction.” Draco teased her and winked at her.

“I think you’ve handled yourself pretty well, although…” She paused in her speech as she glided over to one of the steel poles. It was bigger than the standard stripper pole they had at Stripped, but she thought she could still work with it. “I’m having a little trouble…” She wrapped one leg around the bottom of the pole and one hand around it just slightly higher than her head, and then leaned out with the other arm spread wide as she let her body sway back and forth, “remembering all that…
stamina
,” Bree said huskily as her eyes locked with Draco’s.

He ripped his shirt off over his head as he strode toward her, his voice going low. “Then maybe it’s time I reminded you.”

*  *  *

Draco sat on the blanket from his sofa that was spread out on the living room floor, back against the sofa. Bree sat in between his legs, her back against his chest, another big bowl of
snacks
beside them, as they watched
Cocktail
. Apparently when he had told her to pack what she needed, while he called Marco back, movies were a part of that need. And now he was glad that he had bought more of the candy and popcorn for her the same night he had bought her body wash. Just that soft look and that gorgeous smile she gave him when he told her he already had her snacks was enough to guarantee that he would always keep that shit in the house.

He had to admit he was watching her more than he was watching the movie. She was not the sit-still-and-watch-a-movie kinda girl. She liked to interact with the characters as well as imitate their moves. He had seen it that first night when they had watched a movie together, but now, knowing she had probably watched this one more than a half a dozen times, her hands moved along with the characters whenever they were behind the bar. And it hit him, s
he’s studied this movie, their moves, and built a dream from it.
He continued to watch her hands move with the exact timing of the characters on screen.

The movie was ending when he looked over at her stretched out on the blanket on her belly, pillow bunched up under her, feet toward him with that fantastic ass on display. She lay there watching the movie and suddenly it hit him. He
loved
this woman. In the short time that he had known her she
had
become his everything.

When the movie ended she rolled over. “Well, what did you think? Good, right?” She sat up, smiling at him.

“You want that.”

“What?”

“That, baby.” He gave a chin jerk toward the TV. “You want that. Your own place, your own bar, to do with what you want.” He remembered the words she had said to him and he had thought she meant her own house, but now he realized what her true dream was and the reasons she was taking the business classes.

He watched that smile fall from her face as she cast her eyes downward, and with a shrug of her shoulders she gave him a reluctant, “Yeah.”

“Breezie—”

“I know. It’s not much of a dream for somebody who was never supposed to amount to anything other than a stupid slut.” She looked back at him, her eyes shining. “But when I’m at work and sometimes someone will come in that’s had a really bad day—whether it’s a bad break-up or just a bad day at work—and I do that.” She pointed at the TV, then turned back to face him. “Sometimes I get to make them smile and even though it may be for just a little while, I take some of that bad out of their really bad day.” She shrugged her shoulders again and seemed almost embarrassed as she continued her confession. “I kinda like that feeling.” He could barely hear her when she mumbled under her breath, “Wish I’d had that sometimes when things at home were…bad.”

He moved to her, over her, as he pushed her to lie back down and moved her pillow so her head would lie on it and not on the floor. Keeping his weight off her with his forearms, he looked into her eyes. “Bree, that shit your mother spewed at you, it was just that, bullshit. Lookin’ at you, knowin’ you, I have no doubt you could do, be any fuckin’ thing you wanted. And if what you want to do is that,” he jerked his head to the TV, “just so you can take away some of the bad from someone’s really bad day.” He kissed her lightly.

“Baby, that’s the best fuckin’ dream there is.”

Bree woke dreaming of sunshine. She inhaled deep, then her eyes popped open. She lay there for a beat and inhaled again. She wasn’t dreaming. She really could smell sunshine, or the flowers that always reminded her of sunshine. She tilted her head and lying on Draco’s pillow right beside her was a daffodil. A yellow daffodil. She sat up, picked up the flower, and brought it to her nose. When she inhaled again she couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face. She twisted her body to get up so she could go and find Draco, and she froze in mid-twist. Sitting on the table on her side of the bed was a vase full of beautiful daffodils in every phase of blooming, from barely open to all the way into full bloom. They were the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen, and she could feel the tears in the back of her throat when the bedroom door opened and Draco walked in carrying a tray.

“Breakfast in bed,” he announced. Bree watched Draco move across the room toward her. He sat the tray on the…
empty
table on his side of the bed. He leaned down, one knee and one hand across the bed and kissed her lightly. “Hey, gorgeous, you sleep good?”

“Dra.” She could barely speak. “Thank you.” She tried to tell him, but her voiced cracked.

He moved to sit down on the bed facing her, reached out and grabbed her face in both his hands, his thumbs wiping at the tears she didn’t even know she had shed. “They were supposed to make you smile, not cry.”

“They did. They do.” She choked out, then leaned into him, and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close to her. “Thank you. I love them. They’re beautiful. They’re my favorites,” she whispered softly into his neck.

“I know.”

She leaned back, smiling up at him. “I used to pick these when I was younger.” She sniffled, staring at the flower she still had in her hand. “A cup of sunshine,” she mumbled, lost in her memories. Then she looked back up at him. “You know?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“I asked Storm.”

“You asked Storm what my favorite flower was? So you could buy me flowers?” She didn’t understand. “Why?”

“So I could see your gorgeous smile.”

“What?”

“Storm said they made you happy, made you smile.”

“They do, but so do you. Dra, you don’t have to buy me things to make me smile, you just have to be you.”

“Breezie.” He exhaled as his lips crashed into hers and his body smashed into her, pushing her back down across the bed.

A long, long while later, Bree rolled over and grabbed a piece of bacon off the now cold plate that still sat on the bedside table.

“Damn, Bree, that shits gotta be cold by now,” Draco complained to her. “I’ll fix you somethin’ else.”

“It’s fine, and besides, in order for you to fix something else you would have to get up, and I’m not done with you yet.” She teased him as she took a bite out of the bacon.

“Oh yeah? What, you needed a break first?”

“Nope, just giving you time to build back up your…
stamina
.” She barely got the words out of her mouth before he flipped her over and she was splayed across his body.

“My stamina can still rise to the occasion anytime you’re ready.” He countered.

She pushed herself up on her knees, straddled him, then leaned over and snatched another piece of bacon, taking a bite.

“Bree, seriously, stop eatin’ that. It’s been sittin’ out too long to taste worth a damn,” he complained as he sat up, wrapping his arms around her middle as he leaned in to kiss her. When he broke the kiss, he told her, “I’ll fix you somethin’ else.”

“No.” She protested as he started to lift her off of him. “You fixed me breakfast in bed yesterday, and I didn’t even take the time to eat it. Then you did again today. You did that for me…for me, Dra. I don’t want you to think that I don’t appreciate it, because I do. It’s just…just I don’t know what to say. I mean, just saying thank you…well, it…I don’t know, sounds lame…like it’s not enough to express how I feel. How you
make
me feel. No one has ever went out and bought me bath stuff just because, or fixed me breakfast in bed when I’m not even sick. And nobody has ever bought me flowers before. So if eating cold food will prove to you how much I appreciate all the things you’ve done for me, it’s really not a hardship on my part.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Besides, it’s not like I’ve never eaten cold food before.”

Before she could blink, she was lifted completely off of him and plucked back down on the bed beside him, or she would have been beside him if he hadn’t already jumped to his feet. He grabbed his jeans and had them on before she could even open her mouth.

Standing beside the bed, he turned to her, “Never, Breezie, will you eat cold food just to prove a damn thing to me.” He scolded, then yanked the tray off the table and marched to the door, but before he walked out he turned back to her. “Don’t fuckin’ move.” Then he was gone.

Bree sat there, stunned, for a full minute, maybe two. “What the heck just happened?” she asked herself. “I have no idea,” she answered, and decided the best way to find the answer was go to the source, even if the
source
at the moment seemed to be a pissed off male. A very
large
pissed off male. One who, if he wanted, could so easily break her into a million pieces. “Whatever,” she mumbled as she grabbed his T-shirt and her undies, slipped them on, and walked out of the room.

She was at the top of the stairs when she heard the beating and banging coming from the kitchen. And when she was halfway across the living room, he turned to her and scowled. “You don’t know how to follow a fuckin’ order, do you?” He didn’t wait for her to reply as he jerked back around to the stove.

“Not really, no.” She calmly made her way into the kitchen.

“Don’t ever join the military,” he grumbled to the stove.

“Wasn’t really planning on it.” She padded across the kitchen floor and leaned back against the cabinet next to him. “Are you mad at me?”

“No.” He wouldn’t even look at her, just continued to do whatever it was he was doing at the stove.

“But you are mad?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No, Bree, I’m not mad.”

“Then what would you call it?”

He cut his eyes to her, then back to the stove. “Pissed, I would call it fuckin’ pissed.”

“Okay then. Are you pissed at me?”

“No.”

“You’re not mad…sorry,
pissed
at
me
, but you
are
pissed?”

“Yeah.”

“You mind telling me who you are pissed at?”

“Me.”

“You?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“
Why?
” He threw her question back at her with a growl.

“Yes, Draco, why?”

He growled deep, running his hands through his hair as he turned to face her. “Fuck, Bree. Do you really think I want you to do shit like eatin’ cold ass food, just to prove somethin’ to me? I don’t know what the hell I did wrong that would make you think you had to do some shit like that just to show me your appreciation for doing somethin’ as simple as buyin’ soap and shit, or walkin’ into a fuckin’ flower shop and orderin’ some damn flowers.” He took a step back, then turned and started pacing around the kitchen.

A half a beat later he was on a tear. “It wasn’t a fuckin’ complicated maneuver that took strategy plannin’. I found out what you use, walked in the fuckin’ store, told them what I wanted, paid for the shit and walked out. Basically, I did the same with the flowers, except I opened the damn door this mornin’ when they were delivered. And you know I like to cook, told you that, also told you I seen what you fuckin’ lived on at your place. Don’t know how the fuck you look like you do eatin’ that shit, but it’s sure as fuck not happenin’ now. Now, I’m cookin’ for you.”

He stopped in the middle of the kitchen floor. “That’s it, Bree. That’s all I did. I don’t need you to prove a damn thing to me. I
know
you appreciate it.”

He ran his hands through his hair again as he ambled back to her and softened his voice. “Hell, baby…the way your whole face goes soft, the sweet as fuck ‘thank you’ you whisper, and that un-fuckin’-believably gorgeous smile you give to me, I already know.” He finished as he reached for her, grabbing her around the waist to sit her up on the counter. With warm eyes, he leaned in and kissed her. Draco, with his lips still pressed to hers, repeated, “I know.”

“Dra…” He heard Bree sigh against his lips, then he felt the loss of warmth when she pulled her head back, narrowing her eyes at him. “You…you’re…you’re…You’re a freakin’ fireball!”

“A what?”

“A fireball. A hot ball. You know, the candy. Well, that’s you. You’re the sweetest, most alluring, exasperating, infuriating, frustrating, most delectable candy-coated male goodness I have ever met!”

He burst out laughing, unable to help himself. “’Candy-coated male goodness’?” He managed to ask when he took a breath. “Damn, baby, you’re so fuckin’ cute.” He kissed her lips lightly, then deepened it, until he felt himself start to get hard…again…for her. Always her.

Draco forced himself to break the kiss. Stepping back and looking into her eyes, he told her, “Now, I’m gonna fix you somethin’ to eat, and you are gonna eat it while it’s hot.” He took another step back, then another. If he stayed too close to her, he could think of other things he could do for her, and those things didn’t involve cooking. “Any preferences?”

“No, whatever you want to fix is fine with me,” she said to him, then she gave him one of her gorgeous smiles, and he lost his heart to her all over again.

They were sitting at the table, just finishing their meal when Draco noticed Bree looking as though she was lost in thought. He didn’t know what her thoughts were, but he hoped like hell they didn’t involve Storm, at least not right now. When he heard her soft, “Dra?” he looked across the table to her. She spoke quietly, her voice unsure. “Can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything.” Damn, was he digging his own grave? He just did manage to answer her last question about Storm without technically lying to her. He wouldn’t lie to her, not even if it meant breaking his word to Storm.

“Why me?” she timidly asked, then jumped up from the table. “Nothing, never mind.” She grabbed her plate, and practically ran to the sink.

He got up and went to her, placing his hands on her shoulders and turning her away from the sink to face him. “Why you what?”

She looked up at him, then lowered her gaze, taking a breath. “Why don’t you already have a wife, or at least a girlfriend?

“Why am I not married?”

“Yeah. I mean, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.”

He grabbed her hand and tugged her into the living room to sit down on the sofa, pulling her down sideways across his lap. “I had a girlfriend, or what I thought of as a girlfriend. I was fifteen—”

“You haven’t had a girlfriend since you were fifteen?” She looked at him wide-eyed in shock.

He just narrowed his eyes at her.

“Sorry, continue.”

“As I was sayin’,” he started and heard her giggle.
Damn, I love that sound
. “I was fifteen, just moved to yet another school. I met this girl, thought she was so damn pretty. She had somewhat of a reputation, but bein’ new to the school I didn’t know this at first. I talked to her for weeks at school, every chance I got, then finally I went out with her. Right off the bat, she kisses me. Fuck, I was in love or at least for an inexperienced horny-fifteen year-old it was love. Then later that same night—”

“She was your first?” Again, he could hear the shock in her voice.

“Damn, baby, I was only fifteen. What do you think?”

“I just thought…well, you know, with your father and all…” She didn’t complete her thought, but he could guess what she was thinking.

“No, my father was more concerned with…other things than his son’s sex life. Hell, I don’t even think he even thought that much of his own. I know I can’t remember a time when I ever saw him even
touch
my mom. Not a kiss on the cheek, or as much as a caress of her hand, nothin’. Thought that was normal parent shit until we got away from all that and I made a few friends here and there and I saw how their parents acted around each other.”

“Well, it’s pretty obvious that they did do a little more than touch each other…at least twice.”

“Yeah, me and Marco.” He chuckled a little. Then she turned her body, resting her back against his chest, as his arms wrapped around her.

“Okay, finish telling me about your girlfriend at fifteen.”

“It was a Friday when we went out, and by that Monday it was like everyone at school knew what had happened. At first I didn’t care cuz the guys at school were all of a sudden talkin’ to me, then later that day I saw her with another guy.” When she made no comment about that, he clarified. “It was still during school hours and they were in the boys’ locker room…together.”