Safe With Him (29 page)

That’s better
, Draco thought as he watched Bree turn her head to look over her shoulder. She spotted him, then narrowed her eyes and shook her head at him before she turned back around, but Draco didn’t miss that little side smile she had tried to hide either. He watched her continue to talk to the bouncers as he moved through the club and over to the bar where T-Rex was engaged in his own conversation with another one of the four bouncers T-Rex currently employed.

“…like I said, never saw him.” Draco heard the man saying to T-Rex as he approached the bar. “I wanna see the feed. I gotta see how the little fucker got by me.” Draco realized that this was the bouncer that had been on the door tonight.

The bouncer turned to Draco. “Hey, Draco. Look, man, I’m sorry. Is Bree okay? She said she was, but she’s tough on the outside, and I know that stupid fuck freaked her out.” Draco watched as the man glanced over at Bree with nothing but concern before he looked back at Draco.

“Yeah, she’s okay,” Draco answered, then to T-Rex he asked, “She talk to you? Tell you she’s takin’ that vacation time?”

“Yep, had ta bitch me out a little bit first, but thank fuck she agreed,” T-Rex told him, and it took everything in him not to laugh as he turned to leave until T-Rex’s parting words stopped him. “You make extra fuckin’ sure she’s protected or I’m comin’ after you. Don’t give a rat’s ass you a cop or not, somethin’ happens to her…comin’ after you.” T-Rex turned back to the other man. “C’mon,” T-Rex said to the bouncer, “show ya that feed.” That was the last thing Draco heard T-Rex say as the two men walked off, leaving Draco standing at the bar.

Draco looked back in the direction Bree had been and watched her walk toward him. Did she even know how many people cared about her? How many would do
anything
to assure her safety at any cost to themselves? He doubted it. Knew if she did, if she had any idea the lengths people would go to just for her, hell, he didn’t even want to think about what her little brassy ass would do. He did know that it would probably be something that’d scared the shit out of him or piss him the hell off, or more likely…both.

She didn’t say a word as she walked toward him, straight into him, until her head collided with his chest and her arms encircled him as far as her arms would allow. He heard her sigh as he wrapped his arms around her and just held her close to him, felt her melt into him.
Yeah, any-fuckin’-thing
, he thought. “You ready?” he asked her softly and felt her nod. “Then let’s go home, baby.”

              Bree woke with a start as she felt hands grabbing at her. “Bree, baby, you’re okay.” She heard Draco whisper in her ear. She relaxed into his arms when he scooped her out of his truck and held her close to him as he carried her into his house.

“I fell asleep?” she asked sleepily, not even bothering to open her eyes.

“Yeah.” She felt his chest rumble against her face and heard his soft laughter.

She opened her eyes, noticing he was carrying her across the living room toward the stairs. “I’m awake, I can walk.”

“I like carryin’ you.”

With her arms already around his neck, she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. “I like it too.” She felt his arms tighten as she drifted back to sleep.

The next time Bree opened her eyes she felt Draco behind her pulling her against him, and she realized they were in his bed. “I need to take a shower.”

“Shhh, you can take it tomorrow,” Draco stated drowsily as he wrapped her up in him.

“But I smell like work.”

She felt him breathe her in. “You smell like my Breezie,” he whispered, and she felt his body relax around her almost as though just breathing her in was the only peace he needed. She smiled, snuggled down in Draco’s arms, and drifted back to sleep.

*  *  *

Draco woke instantly, knowing something wasn’t right. Bree still lay in his arms, her back pressed tight to his chest. Her head fit just below his chin. She was still asleep. He strained to hear…anything. He heard nothing; no strange noises and no unfamiliar sounds what-so-ever, but he still knew something was off. Then, he felt her, Bree’s body tensed, her breathing was becoming rapid, erratic.
She was dreaming, or…

“No!” she cried out as her body jerked so violently that she jerked herself away from him.

A nightmare
, Draco thought. She was having a nightmare. Draco bolted up right, reached out to her, smoothing her hair from her face. “Bree, wake up, it’s just a dream,” he whispered softly.

“No!” she cried out again, then something so disjointed that he couldn’t understand what she was saying, but he could hear the pain and fear in her voice.

“Baby, wake up. Just open your eyes. You’re safe. Just open your eyes and see me, see you’re safe,” Draco continued murmuring softly to her, but with each word he spoke she became more and more distraught. Her entire body was drawn up tightly he could barely pull her back to him. When he managed to situate her across his lap he again tried to murmur soft words to her, but it only seemed to agitate her more.

“Draaacoooo!” she screamed as though she was calling for him and her body gave another sharp jolt, but this time he was holding her too tightly for her to jerk out of his arms.

“Breezie!” he yelled her name and gave her a quick shake. And finally,
finally
, thank fuck, she opened her eyes.

“Bree?”

“Dra?” She sounded confused. “You’re here?” She seemed completely amazed that he was with her.

“Yeah, I’m here. I got you. You’re okay.” He drew her closer to him and just…breathed. He nudged her up just far enough to look down into her face. “Are you okay?”

“Uh…” He watched her eyes dart around the room. “It was just a dream, only a dream,” she mumbled as though she was reassuring herself. Then her eyes came back to him. “Yeah, umm yes, yes, I’m okay.”

“You had a nightmare.”

“Yeah, but I’m okay. It’s okay.” Again her eyes swept the room. “It was just a dream. Not real, just a dream,” she mumbled again, and Draco knew then that she was trying to ensured herself.

“Yeah, baby, just a dream.” He assured her, bringing her back tightly to his chest. “You wanna tell me about it?”

“Can I…will you…can we lie back down?”

He kissed the top of her head before he lay back down and pulled her down on top of him. She scooted down to where her head was on his chest with his arms around her, and he held her to him.

Draco felt her as she took a breath. “I told you Storm took me to that apartment. After I was released from the hospital, but what I didn’t tell you was…Storm, well, he…he didn’t stay with me. I mean, he came to see me, as much as he could, but he never stayed, not long anyway.”

“Fuck, Bree, you were fifteen. Hurt, broken, and he just left you there? On your own?”

She raised her head, looking him in the eyes. “I was almost sixteen,” she stated fiercely. “And what other choice did he have? If he had stayed with me instead of going back home and pretending he didn’t know where I was…you’re a cop, Draco. What the hell do you think would have happened to Storm? What would have happened to me?”

He knew what would have happened. Storm could have ended up in jail for kidnapping, and Bree, fuck. His Breezie would have been taken back home to that hellhole and that so called fuckin’ cop. “Fuck!”

“Exactly,” she muttered as she lay back down on him. “We didn’t have a lot of options. It was either I stay as far away as Storm could drive in two or three hours, and he go on pretending that I had just run away on my own, or risk the chance of being caught.” She popped her head back up and looked into Draco’s face. “Don’t be mad at Storm. He was doing the best he could for me,” she pleaded.

That was when he realized Bree could feel the tension that had taken over his body. He tried to relax his body and at the same time explain to her. “I’m not mad at Storm, Bree, I’m pissed at the shit you two had to deal with.”

She smiled at him, and he felt himself relax further. She slid up his body and kissed him, and only then with her lips pressed to his was he able to fully relax into her.

When she broke the kiss, with her lips just a whisper from his, she asked, “Are you going to get worked up again if I tell you the rest?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Probably.” He grinned. “But you can kiss me again and make it all better.”

“Okay,” she breathed out against his lips, then kissed him again.

When she broke the kiss the second time, she lay back down and continued to tell Draco her story. “Storm came to see me as much as he could, always bringing me lots of food and stuff. Books and magazines to read or anything else I needed or wanted to help occupy myself with. At first he didn’t come very often.” She again rose up and smiled a little sad smile at him. “It wasn’t because he didn’t want to, but he told me they were watching his every move.”

“No doubt, baby, the little shits were watchin’ him like a hawk,” he agreed with her and kissed her lips lightly before she again lay back down.

“I was there alone…a lot. Still didn’t go outside at all. Storm made me promise I wouldn’t, couldn’t, let anyone know I was there.” He felt her arms slide around him, holding him to her. “I would sometimes have nightmares,” she whispered so low he could barely hear her. She cleared her throat. “Nightmares,” she repeated.

He held her tighter to him. “Like tonight?”

“Sorta,” she answered. She didn’t say anything for a long moment before she spoke again. “Th-th-that cop, the one I told you about, the one who did horrible things to my mother, the one who—”

“Yeah, baby, I know. Don’t—”

“Yes, well, sometimes I would have dreams that he would find me, in the apartment…alone and would do to me what he did to my mother.”

“Bree—”

“I would wake up screaming, scared, so scared, that it wasn’t a dream but real. Scared someone heard me screaming and would call the cops and he…he would…he would come and…and get me. And I was always alone,” she cried, and Draco felt her tears on his bare chest.

“Shhh, baby, you’re not alone now. You’re here with me. I won’t leave you alone.” He consoled her as best he could with words and soft strokes of her hair, her back, anywhere, everywhere he could touch, until her sobs finally slowed and then stopped.

Draco lay there with Bree in his arms, holding her to him as tight as he possibly could without hurting her. His Breezie. His sweet, caring, compassionate, fearless Breezie, was still battling her own demons…silently. He could almost bet his life that Storm had no idea of the nightmares she had. Or the fact that she would wake up from those nightmares only to find herself alone.
How many nights? How many fuckin’ nights did she have to wake from a nightmare alone? Not one single damn soul there to comfort her.

“Dra.” She rose up, crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you starting to get worked-up again?” She didn’t give him time to answer before her lips touched his lightly. “Maybe we could get…
worked-up
together?” she whispered the words against his mouth, then she ran her tongue across his bottom lip before she sucked it into her mouth.

*  *  *

Quite a bit later, Bree rolled off of Draco and flopped back on the bed. “Wow!” She breathed, trying to catch her breath and not bothering to open her eyes. “Does it always keep getting better and better?”

“With us, yeah.”

She opened her eyes, and they rolled to face each other. “Good to know.” She smiled sweetly, then added, “I’m going to take a quick shower.” She moved to get up, but Draco grabbed her around the waist.

“You wanna wait until it’s at least light outside?” He chuckled in her ear as he pulled her back against him.

She couldn’t bring herself to tell him that if she had taken a shower before she went to sleep, washed the smell of work, of the liquor that she could always smell on her off; if she had just washed it all away, she wouldn’t have had a nightmare. It had taken her some time to put the two together, but after Storm had moved her out of that first apartment she didn’t have any more nightmares, until she started working in bars. Most nights when she got off work the first thing she did was take a shower, but as her working hours became longer and longer, some nights or very early mornings when she got home, she was just too tired to even think about a shower and would just fall asleep. Those were the nights she had the nightmares. The only conclusion was that the smell of liquor that seemed to cling to her after work reminded her of her mother.

“Bree?” Draco flipped her around so she was flat on the bed, him over her. “Baby, what is it?”

“Nothing, really, I’d just rather take a shower now.”

He just looked at her, eyes roaming her face, before he jumped up and quickly scooped her up into his arms. “Let’s do this.” He carried her into the bathroom.

“Dra!” she screeched in surprise. “You don’t have to carry me.”

“Already had this talk. Told you I like carryin’ you. Said you liked it too.”

“I was half asleep.” She giggled.

“You saying you don’t?” He placed her on her feet by the shower area, then walked in and turned the water on before he walked back to her.

“No. I mean, yes, I like it, but that doesn’t mean—” He scooped her up again, cutting off her words. “You have to tote me around everywhere you go,” she finished lamely.

He again sat her on her feet, under the shower spray, leaned down and kissed her hard. “Miniera,” he growled against her lips.

She jerked her head back. “There, I heard you this time,” she expressed with glee.

“Heard what?” Draco was looking at her like she was crazy again, but this time she didn’t care. This time she was sure of what she heard.

“What does min-miniera mean? And what language is it?”

“It’s Italian, Bree,” he answered her, but he didn’t sound too happy about it.

He grabbed her body wash and shoved it at her. “Here, wash,” he demanded as he grabbed his and started to do the same.

She started washing, but she wasn’t going to just drop it, like she knew he wanted her to. “What does it mean?”

“Damn, Bree, you said you didn’t wanna learn Italian. Now in the middle of the damn night you want a lesson?”

“Yeah, Dra, I do.”

He stepped under the spray, rinsed the soap off of himself and narrowed his eyes at her. “Mine, Breezie. It means ‘mine.’ Now, can we drop this shit?” He stated it like a question but didn’t give her time to answer before he walked out of the shower, grabbed a towel, and stepped around the corner where she could no longer see him.

Mine,
she told herself.
He called me his.
She smiled at that thought, then hurried and finished her shower.

When she was done she noticed he was no longer in the bathroom at all. She quickly dried, slapped some lotion on, wrapped the towel around her, and went back into the bedroom where Draco was lying on the bed looking pissed.

He had the sheet pulled up to his waist with his hands folded behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. When she stepped into the room he turned his head in her direction and his eyes narrowed. “You done with that Italian shit now?” he growled at her, but she could feel the smile on her face get bigger.

She ran, jumped on the bed, landing on him. He gave a quick, “Uff,” before her mouth slammed down on his.

She broke the kiss and jerked her head back so she could see his face. “You called me mine…yours…mine. I mean, you said mine, to me. You said that to me,” she said in a rush before she slammed her mouth back to his.