Safe With Him (27 page)

“They were having sex!?” She caught on then.

“Yeah.”

“What did you do?”

“Right then, nothin’. Turned around and walked back out. Later I went
out
with her a lot more times,
and
with a few of her friends, before we moved again.”

She jerked up and turned to face him. “Drakon Vittore, you were a teenage boy whore!” When he only grinned at her, she narrowed her eyes. “That was not a compliment! You should be ashamed of yourself, or of your teen-boy-hussy-self.”

He bit back his grin, ducked his head, and gave it a little shake. “I am. I’m so ashamed.”

He held his breath so he wouldn’t laugh again. That was until her next statement. “Well, you definitely had the time to perfect your technique, she mumbled, and he couldn’t hold in his laughter any longer.

When Draco sobered enough to pay attention, he noticed Bree was smiling at him, but she hadn’t been laughing. Instead, she had been watching him. “You have the best laugh,” she whispered softly. “Sexy.” She turned her body back around. “So what happened after y’all moved?”

Draco wrapped his arms back around her. “Basically, more of the same,” he admitted while he gave her a light squeeze.

“So you just continued on with your shameful boy-hoe ways, until when?”

He almost answered her with, “the day I met you,” but thought better of it…for now. Instead, he just told her, “Kinda grew out of the boy.”

“This is true.” She giggled, then grew silent, and he could feel her body tense up. “Is that why you don’t like women in your house anymore?”

“No.”

“No, that’s not the reason? Or no you’ve never had women in your house?”

“I used to, not here, not in this house, but I used to. Would pick up a woman and take her to her place or back to my place, whichever was closest or more convenient.”

“But you don’t anymore?”

“No.”

“How come? What changed?”

He nudged her up, turning her to face him. “You really wanna hear this shit?”

“I want to know you, and this
shit,
as you call it, is a part of you.”

At her words Draco lost the ability to speak. Hell, he couldn’t even breathe. She wanted to
know
him. He flipped her back on the sofa, came down on top of her and kissed her quick, then moved so she was beside him. She grabbed his head and pulled him back to her for another kiss, until he took over and deepened it.

When Draco did break the kiss, he raised his head and looked down at her. At the angle her head was turned and the light shining through the window, he could see a scar that ran from the corner of her eye across her temple, disappearing into her hair. He reached up, rubbed his thumb lightly across it, and then moved his eyes to hers. “How’d you get this scar, baby?”

He watched Bree’s eyes leave his as she turned her head from his touch. “It was a long time ago.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Didn’t asked you when, asked you how.”

He felt more than saw her take a breath. “It was a few days after the first time I had watched
Cocktail
. I was at home cleaning up some.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Mostly it was empty beer and liquor bottles. I was putting them in the trash when I thought I would try what they did in the movie…so I took two of the liquor bottles and just started to flip them around.” She pushed her upper body to his chest, her lips just a breath from his. “It was my first attempt, and know what?” She kissed him gently. “I was pretty good too.” She smiled as she lay back, but once again he watched that smile fade. “Then I missed a flip and the two bottles smacked into each other. Neither broke, but one did crack. Of course at the sound of liquor bottles clanking together my mother came in, saw the empty bottles in my hands, and blamed me for drinking all her liquor.” Draco heard her laugh, but without humor. It held too damn much sadness. “She actually complained about me being an ungrateful kid, stealing from her, and ‘you would think a woman could come home and have a drink’.” Bree jerked up, staring right into his eyes. “
A
drink, can you believe that? She actually said that, ‘
a’ drink
, like she would just have one drink after a long day at work.” She shook her head. “She didn’t work, didn’t cook or clean, didn’t do a damn thing but make mine and Storm’s life hell.” She mumbled something incoherently as she lay back down again. “Anyway.” Draco watched her shrugged it off before she continued. “She jerked the bottles out of my hands, then hit me with the one that was already cracked. It broke and cut me, here.” She rubbed the scar from the corner of her eye and into her hair, indicating the scar was longer than what you could see.

Without thought, Draco grabbed her face in his hand and turned her head so he had a better view of her scar. “Hell, baby, less than a centimeter and that fuckin’ bitch would have cut your damn eye.” All he could think was she could have lost her eye. Her beautiful amber eyes that reflected so much of her, gone, all over some fuckin’ empty bottles.

She jerked her head out of his hand. “A lot of things could have happened, but it didn’t. And Storm came in after she’d only hit me once, got me out of there and to the doctors, who stitched me right up. Now it’s nothing but a small scar.” She looked back at him. “I am fine.” Draco didn’t miss the way she stressed each word, as well as the “drop it” look in her eyes.

He touched his head to hers, kissing her lightly. “You’re a lot better than fine. You, baby, are fuckin’ amazin’.” Then he kissed her again, not so lightly.

When he raised his head, she smiled back at him, then asked, “So are you going to tell me why you don’t like women in your house, or was this your attempt at changing the subject?”

Draco moved Bree as he lay back, pulling her down to lie on top of him. He felt her snuggle in to lay her head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.

“I used to bring women back to my place. Then one night I met this one at a bar and took her back to my place. She gave some excuse about her roommate bein’ sick or some shit like that, her story kept changin’. But I took her back to my place for the night that turned into the whole damn weekend. I didn’t mind…bitch had a body and knew how to use it. But that weekend turned into a week.” He gave her a little squeeze. “Found out later her roommate kicked her ass out for not pullin’ her weight.” He kissed the top of her head, felt her give him a squeeze around his stomach. “Next thing I know, all her shit’s there. She just moved her ass in one day while I was at work. For a while I didn’t mind. It was not so bad, comin’ home after work to a not empty house. And the sex was good too. That was ‘bout the only thing she was good at. She sure as hell didn’t do anythin’ else, except make a damn mess. The bitch loved to throw parties, but didn’t want to clean the shit up afterward. Every night of the weekends and sometimes durin’ the week, another fuckin’ party. After a while, that shit started to get old. Told her that too, and it would last for a week…maybe two…but then I’d get off work and come home to another damn party. Until one evenin’, it was almost end of shift and we caught a case, course I was a helluva’ lot later gettin’ off work. By the time I left, all I wanted was to take my ass home and do nothin’, just nothin’. Instead, I come home to not just a house full of fuckin’ people I didn’t even know, I find this bitch passed out in my damn bed with two fuckin’ guys.”

She jerked up, arms folded across his chest. “Oh my dang, Dra, what did you do?” He could not only hear the shock in her voice, but see it as well as…anger? Was she pissed for him?

Draco grinned at her. “I grabbed hold of the mattress, dragged it with them still on it, to the back door. Dragged it out and around the house to the curb.” Laughing at the confusion on her face, he added, “Trash pick-up was the next morning.” Then she busted out laughing.

“I almost wanted you to say you kicked her ass,
almost
.”

“Never hit a woman, Bree.”

“Yeah, you and Storm have a lot in common.” For a second he held his breath until she finished her thought. “He would never hit a woman either, even when they deserved it.” He and Storm had more in common than she thought. He hated this, fuckin’ hated keeping shit from her, but he gave Storm his word.
Fuck!

“So what happened?” Bree asked, pulling his thought back.

He chuckled. “I went to my car, got my bullhorn and announced,” he grinned at her, “this is the police, you are all trespassing, and anyone who has not vacated the premises in the next five minutes will be arrested.” He laughed, shaking his head. “Damn, baby, never seen so many people leave so fuckin’ fast in all my life.” He watched as her smile grew bigger and bigger until she was giggling, then out and out laughing.

“I would have loved to see that!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty funny, now. Then I was too pissed to think so.”

“I would be too. Did they all leave?”

“Five minutes later I walked back into my empty house, got all the trash up along with all her shit, and took that out to the curb too. Took me four fuckin’ hours, but I had my house back.”

“And not counting Ellie because she’s family, you never let another woman in your home again?”

“Only one other,” Draco grabbed Bree’s ass and slid her body up his chest until her lips touched his, “for a shower,” he said against her lips, then kissed her. When he broke the kiss, he looked into her eyes as he finished...

“Best fuckin’ thing I ever did.”

Bree lay back, eyes closed as the water swirled around her. Lying in Draco’s bathtub, again she asked, “Why me?” Except this time no one was there to answer. It still didn’t stop her from wondering why. If Draco didn’t want women in his house, and truthfully she couldn’t blame him, why did he invite her in for a shower? And now why was he letting her stay? She knew he wanted to make sure she was safe, but was that the only reason? Did he care about her because she was…her? Or was it only because she was Storm’s sister? Storm. She wished she knew what was really going on with him. He had never been unreachable before. Yes, there were times she would text and it would take him…sometimes hours to get back to her, but he always did. So what was he doing?

“Bree.” She heard her name whispered close to her ear. She opened her eyes as she turned her head to see Draco knelt down beside the tub.

“Hey,” she whispered, “I thought you were going to work out?”

“I did, baby. You’ve been in here for over an hour.” He grinned at her.

“Really?” It sure didn’t seem like an hour to her, but then again it was a freakin’ great bathtub.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Yeah.” Then he stood back up. “Gonna jump in the shower real quick.” He walked toward the shower area.

She only nodded in response because she had lost her ability to speak. Draco stood in nothing but a pair of lose fitting basketball shorts that hung low on his hips. His skin covered in a fine sheen of sweat that caused his tattoos to almost…glow. “Damn!” she breathed.

He turned back to her. “What?”

Bree shook her head to try and clear it. “The next time you work out, can I watch?”

He just stared at her for a beat. “You wanna watch me work out?” he asked like he was sure he must have misunderstood her.

She only nodded, eyes roaming over him…all of him. When her eyes moved back to his face she saw him grinning that sexy grin at her. “Yeah, baby, you can watch me work out.”

“Okay,” she breathed out a sigh, then watched as he shook his head and disappeared behind the shower wall.

Draco stepped back around the shower wall with only a towel wrapped around his waist. He looked at the now empty but clean bathtub and figured Bree had finally gotten tired of his tub, or at least for now. He walked into the bedroom expecting to see Bree getting ready for work, but she wasn’t there either. He dressed quickly, then headed downstairs in search of her. He was about halfway down the steps when the security alarm started to go off. Even through the piercing shrills of the alarms he heard what sounded like glass shattering.

“Breezie!” Draco bellowed as he practically jumped the remaining steps and ran toward the kitchen, only pausing a half a heartbeat to notice the front door was closed and the windows still intact. As he was about to run through the open back door he forced himself to an abrupt stop or he would have slammed right into a shocked looking Bree.

“What the fuck?” he growled as he moved back to the alarm and punched in the code while pulling his ringing phone out of his pocket. “Did you open the damn door?” he questioned Bree harshly.

With only a nod from Bree, he spoke to the security company and informed them it was an accidental alarm and that everything was fine, then gave them his passcode while scowling at Bree.

“I’m sorry,” she said as soon as he hung up the phone. She may have said the words but to him she sure as hell didn’t sound “sorry.”

“Bree—”

“How was I supposed to know that that door,” she pointed to the kitchen door, “would have the alarm set and not that door?” She turned and pointed to the back porch door. “I mean, really, who sets an alarm to a door that only leads to more house, and not outside?”

“They both have that security feature on them.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know?” she repeated, sounding disgusted.

“What the hell were you gonna do?”

“I needed clothes for work.”

“I told you to pack everythin’ you needed.”

“I did.” She turned to her bags that were neatly placed under the small table that sat near the dryer.

He stood stock still, partly in shock and partly in relief and watched her pull things from one of her bags, then move that one to get something from the other. She then placed the first back where it was, making sure that everything was neatly placed. “Bree, why the fuck are your bags on the back porch?”

“So they wouldn’t be in the way,” she told him, and Draco thought she might as well had voiced the “duh” he could hear in her tone.

Without saying a word he took a step toward her. “Stop!” she screeched, throwing her hand up in his direction. “When the alarm went off I was startled, and I dropped a glass.” He looked where she was looking to see pieces of glass all around where he would have stepped. He also noticed that she was only wearing a short little robe.

“Don’t move.” He turned to get a broom.

After he made sure all the glass was off the floor, he went to her, scooped her up and toted her back into the kitchen far enough to know she wouldn’t step on any minute pieces that he may have missed. “Don’t go back out there until I vacuum.” Running his eyes from the tips of her toes to the top of her head then back to meet her eyes, he added, “Twice.”

Draco, however, did go back out there, retrieved her bags and took them upstairs and dropped them on the bed. He met Bree on the steps as he was going back down and she was coming up. “Don’t give a shit where you put what, you just make damn sure you put your shit up,” he blustered, then continued down the steps.

Bree came back down the steps after she had dressed for work to find Draco sitting on the sofa watching some sports something or other on the TV. He turned his head to look at her, then as if he had become frozen, only his eyes moved. From her face down to her shoes, then slowly, very slowly, his eyes moved back to hers, taking in every inch of her in between.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he groaned in a way that sounded to her like he hated seeing her dressed the way she was.

Bree turned toward the kitchen so he couldn’t see the hurt that she knew would show on her face and in her eyes. Her work clothes may not be her all-time favorites, but she had dealt with what she had to wear working in bars and clubs a long time ago. She had thought Draco also understood why she dressed the way she was right now. Apparently he had not.

Bree walked into the kitchen, not really wanting or needing anything except to escape the look on Draco’s face. She moved to the refrigerator, opened it and just stood there staring inside without really seeing anything. Then it hit her. She did not need this! She was who she was. He either accepted her, all of her, no matter what clothes she wore or, in this case, the lack of clothes she wore. Sh
e
slammed the refrigerator door and spun around to face Draco, who was moving toward her. He had made it almost to her, but when she had spun around and opened her mouth to speak he froze in his steps. “Regardless of my attire, I’m not a stripper, hooker, or any other label you are trying
not
to stick on me. I am me, just me, and if you can’t accept me in whatever garment I may wear, then you need to tell me now. My wardrobe is not going to change in the foreseeable future. So you need to either get the hell over it, or I’ll leave so you don’t have to subject yourself to seeing me dressed like I currently am.”

“What the hell?” He had confusion written all over his face, then that confusion turned to pissed the hell off. “How many fuckin’ times you planning on throwing that shit in my face?”

“I don’t need to throw it in your face. Your expression and the tone of your voice when I came down the steps and you saw me dressed for work was enough to inform me as to what you were thinking.”

“Fuckin’ hell,” he groaned again as he turned and once again started pacing around, grumbling under his breath.

Bree crossed her arms over her chest, cocked her hip to the side, and tapped her foot while Draco did his pacing. She was getting used to him and his grumpy pacing, but this time she was going to keep quiet and just wait him out.

It took a while, even longer than it normally took Storm. But eventually he turned back to face her only to run his hands through his hair to the back of his neck, then apparently changed his mind and turned to pace some more. She’d annoyed him. Yep, she had seen Storm doing the exact same movements. Come to think of it, T-Rex had done the same thing a few times when dealing with her. Was she really that exasperating? She never intentionally tried to be difficult, but then again she wasn’t the type to cower in the corner either.
Good day. Where would I be if I was that type of person?
she questioned herself.

“Breezie,” Draco complained almost painfully so, bringing Bree out of her thoughts to see him standing right in front of her. Then for a long moment he only looked at her, his eyes roaming her face. “Hear me and fuckin’ get this shit through that gorgeous head of yours.” He stepped closer to her and leaned into her, bringing his face close to hers. “I don’t give a damn what the hell you wear or don’t wear. I do not see you as a stripper, hooker, or any other shit that you got goin’ on in that head of yours. What I see, what I fuckin’ know you to be, is a woman who had a fucked-up childhood, but instead of givin’ into the shit you were dealt, you overcame that and became an incredible woman. You, Breezie, are smart, funny, fearless, and sexy as hell.” He moved his lower body against hers. “So damn sexy, every time I see you, I want you. Hell, I don’t even have to see you, just thinkin’ ‘bout you, and I want you. And, baby, it does not have a fuckin’ thing to do with what you wear, but gotta tell you, you lookin’ like you are now,” he shook his head, as if he needed to not lose his train of thought, “makes my dick hard as a fuckin’ rock. Just lookin’ at you and all I can think ‘bout is how damn good it feels to sink inside of you.”

“Your reaction to me when I walked in the living room was because you wanted to have sex with me?” Bree asked, confused.

“Damn straight!”

“Then why did you seem…mad?”

“Do you see what time it is?”

Bree glanced at the clock. “Oh no! I’m going to be late.” She pushed on Draco’s chest.

“Yeah, that’s why,” Draco grumbled as he turned back to the living room and grabbed her bag and the keys to his truck.

Bree followed behind Draco as they made their way to his garage with a smile she just couldn’t seem to hide. That is until they reached his garage and he opened his truck door for her. The smile that was on her face turned into a frown as she narrowed her eyes at the height of his truck and then turned to face him. “Need help?” He smirked at her with that cocky grin of his.

“Ha, ha, Mr. Funnyman.” She turned toward her car, but had only taken a few steps when Draco’s words stopped her.

“Not takin’ your car.”

“What? Why?”

“Bree, I parked your car in the garage so it wouldn’t be seen. Kinda defeats that purpose if you’re gonna be drivin’ it around.”

Okay, he did have a point there, but still. “And how am I supposed to get up in that thing?” She pointed to his truck.

“You can always hike that skirt up.”

“Yeah, like that’s goin’ to happen.”

“You sure as hell didn’t have a problem hikin’ it up to jump on my damn bike.”

“Well, duh, it
is
a bike!”

“C’mer.” Draco stood in the open door of the passenger side of his truck.

When she reached him he grabbed her around the waist, lifted, sat her butt on the seat, leaned into to her and kissed her quick, shut her door and made his way to the driver’s side all the while shaking his head and grinning that cocky oh so sexy grin.

*  *  *

Draco sat in his truck just watching the parking lot of Stripped fill up. Hell, for a Thursday night they did damn good business. Then again, every night seemed to be good for business. He had dropped Bree off at the back door only after one of the bouncers was standing in the open door waiting for her. Then he pulled back around to the front of the building, parked and now he was just watching. He had talked to T-Rex as well as the bouncers. They all knew what was going on with Bree and the danger she was in.

Draco smiled to himself thinking about T-Rex’s reaction to hearing about Bree’s troubles. The first thing that came out of the man’s mouth was, “And why the fuck you don’t got her tucked safely away in a safe house? And why the fuck you sittin’ around my club when you should be out huntin’?” Then to Draco’s utter shock the man looked him right in the eyes and asked if he needed any help with the ‘hunting and/or disposal,’ because him and his
boys
would not hesitate to ‘shut this place down for some
remodeling
.’ Draco didn’t ask nor did he want to know about T-Rex’s idea of
disposal
or
remodeling
, but it didn’t escape his attention that T-Rex, as well as the bouncers that worked for him, cared about Bree a helluva lot.

When Draco noticed it was getting close to Bree’s break time he exited his truck, walked into Stripped and over toward the bar. Hell, he didn’t need to be at the bar to see Bree, not with her on top of the bar dancing to Jessta James’s,
Made In The USA.
She was strutting that sexy ass of hers back and forth across the top of the bar. Swinging them hips of hers this way and that, never missing a beat of the song. “Fuckin’ hell,” he groaned as he watched Bree
dancing
like she was auditioning for a spot on
So You Think You Can Dance
and her life depended on that two hundred and fifty grand. He made his way to the end of the bar, never taking his eyes off of her.