Safe With Him (10 page)

“Someone hit you?” Draco growled,
not
dismissively at all. She turned to look into the face of a very pissed off looking male.

“Doesn’t matter,” she said quickly.

“It fuckin’ does matter! Who the hell hit you?” Draco barked as he cut his eyes to Storm.

“It was a long time ago,” Storm said flatly.

“I don’t give a damn when. I wanna know who the fuck hit her! Was it you?” Draco shot back.

“No!” Bree screeched, and Draco turned to face her again.

“Storm would never hit me.” She knew he wouldn’t, no matter how pissed he was at her, and she had, over the years, pissed him off big time. He would never hit her or any woman, not even their mother, and she deserved it a few—okay more than a few—times.

Draco just looked at her, eyes roaming her face before he spoke again. “Who hit you?” he asked again, but it was soft and filled with concern.

She smiled at him. “It was a long time ago. No one you would even know.” She reached out and touched his arm that was lying on the seat of the sofa by her.

“Need to check somethin’.” She heard Storm say but also caught the agitation in his voice. She looked back at him as he was getting out of the chair, but he was looking at Draco. She pinned her gaze on Draco just in time to see him nod once to Storm. She turned her attention back to Storm when he said, “I’ll be back in a sec. You stay there and keep the ice on.” Before she could utter another word he walked out the door.

She looked back at Draco just as he was getting up, but then he moved to her, picked up the ice pack from her back, raised her shirt and kissed just below the bruising that ran across it, pulled her shirt back down and replaced the ice pack. Moved the ice from her arm, kissed just above that bruise, before replacing it. Then moved the pack from her face and kissed her cheek just above that bruise as well. Draco dropped back to the floor where his face would be even with hers, looking her in the eyes. “Bree—” he started but his phone buzzed. “Shit.” He leaned in and kissed the corner of her lips. “Gotta get this.” He stood and walked to the door, looked back at her and right before he walked out, he growled at her. “Don’t move.”

Draco walked across the hall to Storm’s apartment, knocked once on the door, then opened it and walked in to a very pissed off Storm pacing the living room.

“What the hell’s goin’ on with you and my sister?” He erupted but before Draco could utter a sound, he continued, “She’s not like those women you pick up at the bars. She might work at a bar, but she not a fuckin’ bar hopper,” he spat out.

Draco narrowed his eyes at Storm. “I fuckin’ know that,” he growled.

“Then what’s your deal with my sister? You even think about pullin’ a fuck and fly on her, and I will beat the hell out of you. She’s not that kinda girl.” Storm fired back.

Draco saw red; just the thought of anyone merely thinking that of Bree, a bar hopper, a fuck and fly.
Fuck that!
Before he could even stop himself he drew back and punched Storm in the gut. “It’s not like that with her. She’s Bree!” he snarled as Storm bent over gasping for air. “Shit!” Draco groaned, then reached out a hand to Storm to help him stand and walk to the sofa.

When Storm sat, Draco moved to the chair and sat across from him. “Look, man, I don’t know what to tell you. Bree, she’s different. She’s special, and I like just bein’ with her and before you ask, no, I haven’t slept with her. But when I do, I will not be informin’ you ‘bout it. What goes on between me and Bree is between me and Bree. I get you’re her brother, but, man some things,” Draco shook his head, “just not your business.”

Storm looked at him for a beat then two. “Don’t pull no bullshit with her.” He coughed, then took a breath and shook his head before he told Draco, “You bein’ a cop, it ain’t gonna go smoothly with her.” Draco saw him start to grin. “Oh yeah, this is gonna’ be fun to watch,” he mumbled, still shaking his head at Draco.

“Yeah. Have you told her yet?” Draco watched that smirky ass grin fade off his face. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Look, it’s complicated. She’s my sister, and I’ll tell her when the time is right. Right now ain’t that time, not with this shit goin’ on with Hugo.” Storm vowed.

“It’s been years. How you managed to keep it from her this long is a mystery but sooner or later she’s gonna’ find out, and it’ll be a helluva lot better comin’ from you than her findin’ out some other way,” Draco argued.

“I’m gonna tell her. Right after this shit with Hugo is over, I’m gonna sit her down and explain everythin’ to her, but until then you can’t say anythin’ about it. Got it?” Storm stated firmly.

Draco blew out a breath. “Yeah, don’t like it, but yeah,” he reluctantly told Storm.

“You and my sister,” Storm said, shaking his head. “Who would’ve ever thought?” Then he paused, stared right at Draco. “You hurt her, I will have to kick your ass…it’s the principle, seein’ she’s my sister and all.” He declared with that smirky ass grin back on his face.

He may have said it jokingly, but Draco knew if he fucked up with Bree that Storm would, no doubt, kick his ass. But then again, if he fucked up with a woman like her, he would deserve a whole helluva lot more than an ass kickin’. Looking straight at Storm, “If I hurt her, I’ll let you kick my ass,” he answered, then watched Storm nod once.
Well hell
, he thought, that went better than he expected.

“You headin’ out?” he asked Storm.

“Yeah, gotta’.” Storm looked toward the door where the small breezeway separated his place from Bree’s.

“I’m gonna’ stay with her tonight.” Draco confided as he did a chin lift toward Bree’s apartment. “Don’t want her left alone with that asswipe runnin’ around,” he added and heard Storm bust out laughing, then groan as he grabbed his gut.

“Think you might wanna run that by her first?” Storm asked with a smug look on his face. “Seriously, man, if you need to you can crash here.” He advised with a grin.

Draco nodded once. “Now that that’s settled, you wanna fill me in on the rest of it?” Draco said, not looking amused at all.

Bree turned and let the ice packs fall to the floor. Her back was cold, her arm was cold, and her face was freezing. She was so over the ice packs. Getting up and grabbing them off the floor, she walked into the kitchen and tossed them in the sink.

What she needed was a hot shower to wash off the smell of work. Walking down the hall and into the bathroom to do just that, she wondered if Storm would be back before she was done. Didn’t really matter, it wasn’t like he couldn’t occupy himself until she was done.

Draco walked back across the hall to Bree’s. He wanted to talk to her to find out what the deal was with her and cops. He tried like hell to find out from Storm, but he never would say much, other than her having a few run-ins with some ‘not so good’ cops. He figured that much out for himself. So now it was time to find out from the source.

He unlocked her door with the spare key Storm had given him and let himself in thinking she would still be on the sofa. But when he walked in and looked around he didn’t see her, then he heard the shower running. He groaned thinking of her in the shower naked and wet and…
naked
. He felt his dick twitch at just the thought of it. For a second he considered going in there to see if she needed any ‘help,’ but then remembering the bruises, he walked over to the sofa to sit and wait for her to finish.

He did take the time to study her apartment. It was almost exactly like her brother’s or at least the floor plan was like Storm’s. But Storm just had the basic sofa, two chairs, coffee table and two end tables—and now that he was keeping the place clean, you could tell they were just ‘thrown together pieces’ as nothing really matched—but they served their purpose. And that ‘purpose’ hung on the wall in the form of an eighty inches HD TV.
The man definitely knew what was important
.

Bree’s place was nice and comfortable. He looked around
.
She did have throw pillows on the sofa and the chairs and all her shit matched. But there were no flowery curtains or a lot of dust collectors, other than a few pictures of her and Storm that looked to have been taken in the last few years or so. There was one picture, however, that stood out from the rest. It was just an old Polaroid shot of a much younger Storm and Bree. It had been taken as they were sitting side by side on a bench outside a store front, with Storm’s arm around her shoulders. Draco moved to it and picked up the framed picture to get a closer look. At the bottom of the picture was hand written: “Happy 12
th
Birthday, Ree.” He grinned. The sweatshirt she had on looked as though it practically swallowed her, and all of her gorgeous red hair was pulled back in a ponytail at the base of her neck, but a few strands had come lose and fell over her shoulder. He could see the way it seemed to catch fire in the sun light. She was showing that big beautiful smile that was all her. He carefully set the picture back in its place and thought that even at twelve years old you could already start to see the beauty that she would become.

He had to admit her place looked good, not so girly that a man was scared to move or touch anything, just…comfortable, like home, or at least he figured, how home was supposed to feel. He wouldn’t know too much about that. His mom had tried, but moving around so much didn’t leave a lot of time for collecting things or the time to make a place feel like what he suspected a home should feel like.

That was one of the reasons that when he got this job, the first thing he did was buy a place and started making it his. Now he was taking his time turning his place into a home. His home.

So far the only rooms he had completed were the back porch which he had finished closing in and moved the washer and dryer hook-up from the kitchen to the porch. And of course the kitchen…he had that just the way he liked it. Next he thought would be the dining room or maybe the living room. He hadn’t quite decided yet. Right now his pool table sat where a dining table should be. But then again, he didn’t have a dining table nor a real use for one. Hell, the only people who came over were his brother and his wife, Ellie, when he would fix ‘a family dinner,’ as Ellie liked to call them. Still that was only once a week and the kitchen table worked just fine for that. Of course there were the guys, and they came over for the pool table, or the poker table, or the big screen he had in his living room, so really what the hell did he need with a dining room? “Guess that leaves the living room,” he mumbled out loud.

“What leaves the living room?” He heard and looked up to see Bree walking into the living room. She was still wearing the same T-shirt and sweats from earlier but her hair was wet and pulled back from her face, just like it was that first day when she had taken a shower at his place. His breath caught, he wasn’t lying when he told her she was gorgeous. Clean face, wet hair pulled back, baggy T-shirt and sweats, and she was still the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. Even with the bruise marring her face, it didn’t detract from the beauty that was all her.

“My place.” His voice squeaked, so he cleared his throat. “My house, now that I’ve finished redoin’ the kitchen the way I wanted it. I was just thinkin’ which room I should tackle next,” he told her as he watched her walk into the living room and sit down on the sofa with him, turning sideways with her back against the arm.

“That’s your house?” she asked in a wondrous voice. “I mean, you own it? Can do whatever you want to with it?” She made it sound like a dream come true, and honestly, for him, he guessed it kinda was.

“Yeah, I own it.” Was all he said.

“That’s what I want…one day,” she whispered softly as she laid her head over on the back of the sofa in a dream-like state. “Owning my own place to do with what I want, any way I want,” she confessed almost shyly. “I’m almost there.” She sighed quietly almost to herself. Then she sat back up and looked around. “Where’s Storm?” she asked so suddenly that it took him a beat to catch up to her. Not just the change of subject, but her tone as well.

“He had…shit to do,” Draco answered, but Bree could hear a slight hesitation in his voice. Before she could ask, he blurted, “I need to stay here tonight.”

She swallowed hard. “W-what?” she stuttered. Did he mean here, as in
here
? As in spend the night…with her? Did she want that? “Uh…”

He reached out and grabbed her hand, watched as he rubbed his thumb back and forth in the palm of her hand. “Storm knows. He’s got no problem with it.”

She looked at him before she spoke. “To stay at his place? Like across the hall? Like not here-here as in…
here
?” She stumbled the words out.

“Bree, if something happened to you—” he started, then looked back up at her, but she got there first.

“Look,” she began, then stopped and took a breath. “I know we, uh…kissed and I…well I…kissed you too, but that’s, that’s not…well, that’s not like having sex, and I don’t just go around having sex with guys.” She rushed the words out, then took a breath, looking down at his hand holding on to hers, his thumb rubbing her palm. “I don’t go around kissing guys either, but still, that’s not…” She faded off, then looked back up at him when she heard her name.

“Bree.” She caught that sexy grin of his, and she couldn’t help but wonder what sex with him would be like. “It’s not about sex, baby. Not gonna lie to you, I want you, but not while you’re hurtin’. When I slide inside you, that’s all I want you to feel. Me inside of you,” he stated like he already knew it was going to happen. Bree swallowed hard…again, not knowing what to say. How do you answer when it wasn’t even a question? Thank goodness she didn’t have to when he started talking again. “That’s not what tonight is about. Tonight’s only ‘bout makin’ sure you’re safe. I’ll be right here in this room, and you can go to bed knowin’, swear to you, knowin’ you’re safe,” he spoke softly while looking her in the eyes but never stopped rubbing his thumb across the palm of her hand. Then he raised her hand and kissed the palm.

“You’ll always be safe with me.”