Fierce- Drake (Fierce Family Series Book 3)

by Natalie Ann

  “Shocker,” he said when she placed it in his hand.

  “Do you ever drink any of them?”

  “Nope. They are there for you.”

  “Aren’t you my sweet boy.”

  He didn’t know it was possible for him to blush at this point in his life but his mother always seemed to find a way to make that happen.

  “It’s only coffee, Mom.”

  “It’s more than that. You have it special for me.”

  “So does Noah,” he pointed out.

  “Not Wyatt.”

  “Wyatt only drinks that strong shit that makes the hair stand up on your head.”

  “He needs to stay awake and alert,” she said. “He says everything tastes like water to him now.”

  “I’m sure it does compared to sludge.”

  He placed her coffee in front of her and went to get the creamer out of the fridge while his was brewing. “So how has work been going?” she asked. “I overheard Ryder saying you’ve been crabby lately. That’s so unlike you.”

  “I’ve never been crabby a day in my life. Ryder is full of shit.”

  “That tone right there says otherwise,” she said, her eyes rising over the brim of her cup.

  “There isn’t anything going on,” he said. “I’m just busy.”

  “Working on a project with Kara. How is that going? Any better?”

  He looked away from her before he answered. “It’s fine. She’s not that hard to work with. I just bite my tongue half the time.”

  Which was really true even if he was trying to tell himself to not let her get to him. Once he realized it was the fact he wanted her and felt he couldn’t have her, then it’d been easier to deal with her at work. Or her idiosyncrasies at work.

  “You know…did you ever stop to think that maybe Kara is just lonely?”

  He coughed on his coffee. “What? Why would I think that? And what does that have to do with work?”

  ***

  Crap, Carolyn thought to herself. Maybe she shouldn’t have come over here with ideas in her head to get involved. But darn it all, everyone was getting a shot at this matchmaking business and she was just sitting on the sidelines. Which was no fun!

  “I’m just saying that your father said she’s new to the area. She’s only been around a year or so.”

  “Something like that. So? It has nothing to do with her wanting things when she is at work.”

  “Sounds like she is just good at her job,” she said, hoping she wasn’t making matters worse.

  “She is good at her job,” he said. “I’ll give her that. Probably the best in that department.”

  “That’s good. Maybe if you keep that in mind you’ll have more patience with her.”

  He looked away from her a second time before he answered. Hmm, something was going on. That was a guilty face if she ever saw one. Or he was trying to hide something from her.

  “I’ve got a lot of patience with her. I’ve never been mean to anyone at work. Not even Kara when she comes knocking on my door with her hand out looking for receipts and other paperwork.”

  “I’m sure you are fine with her. But you let her rile you up, right? Why is that?”

  “I don’t know,” he said and couldn’t look at her again. She was on to something.

  “I’ve seen her before. I’ve met her. Very nice girl. Shy. Pretty too.”

  He looked at her sharply and held her stare. “What are you getting at?”

  “I’m not getting at anything. I just said she’s quiet and pretty. I find it hard to believe she is as annoying as you say.”

  “It’s not her that is annoying. It’s how she does her job.”

  “Which you just admitted she was great at.”

  His shoulders dropped. Bingo! “I feel like you want me to admit something. Why?”

  “Is there something you want to share?”

  “Nope,” he said firmly.

  She knew when to stop. She took a few more gulps of her coffee, then went to the sink and dumped the rest. “I was going to suggest I go furniture shopping with you before Noah comes over to work on your shutters, but I just realized I’ve got something I need to do.”

  “Sounds good, Mom,” he said, smiling. If she wasn’t in such a hurry to tell Garrett what she found out, she’d pinch his arm for being happy she was abandoning her shopping attempt with him.

  The minute she was off of Drake’s street, she pulled over to the side of the road and called Garrett. She was too excited to even talk through the Bluetooth.

  When her husband answered on the first ring, she said, “I think something is going on with Drake and Kara.”

  “What?” Garrett asked. “How do you know?”

  “I just left his place. Every time I brought her name up, made a comment or asked a question about her, he wouldn’t look me in the eye when he answered.”

  “A sure sign he is hiding something,” Garrett said.

  “I know. Right?”

  “The question is, what is he hiding? I haven’t seen them together working on the project at all. And he’s off this week.”

  “I’m not sure what is going on. I decided to walk away before he caught on to me.”

  “Smart move. I’ll see if I can get anything out of him next week when he returns.”

  “You see that you do. And keep me posted,” she said. “I want a hand in this. No more letting me sit on the side and watch you have all the fun.”

  Garrett laughed, a big booming sound she loved so much coming from his lips. “You think this is fun? It’s frustrating to sit back and want to ask what is wrong with these two. I’ve thought of it long and hard and there is definitely some kind of chemistry between the two of them.”

  “Now we just need to make sure they see it too and try to push them together a bit more,” she said.

  “I can only do so much without being obvious. They are still working on that project, but when Drake returns next week, I’ll give a little push on timelines.”

  “That’s my man. I love it when you push.”

  “Are we talking about the same thing now?” he asked, humor in his voice.

  “You know what I’m talking about. And if you want to take a long lunch today and stop home, I’ll show you exactly how much I love it.”

  “You are one wicked woman.”

  “You love it,” she said again.

  “Not as much as I love you.”

  She disconnected the phone and thought to herself, what was so wrong with wanting her kids to have what she and Garrett had for almost four decades?

  Nothing. There was nothing wrong with it and she and her husband were going to darn well make sure all four of their kids got it!

  Comfortable and Casual

  Saturday finally arrived and Kara still had no idea what was going to happen today or what Drake had planned. All he'd said was to be casual, comfortable, and cute. What the heck was that supposed to mean!?

  So after looking in her closet for what seemed like hours, she finally decided on tan shorts that hit her mid thigh, one of the printed shirts that she'd bought with Jade and she'd yet to wear, and her brown sandals.

  She'd switched out her large purse for one of her smaller crossbody ones, then put her contacts in and stared at herself in the mirror.

  Comfortable and casual to her was keeping her hair down even though no one at work had ever seen it that way before. “What do you think, Tyson?” she asked the black cat as it weaved in and out of her feet in the bathroom. He was never far from her side.

  The cat just meowed, then ran out of the room. That wasn’t much help at all.

  Before she could pull her hair back, there was a knock at the door. No time to do anything about it now, even if she wanted to since Drake was early.

  She walked to the door and pulled it open, then had to fight the urge to fan herself. There he was, all six-foot-four deliciousness of him standing there in gray shorts, a fitted navy T-shirt showing off more of his body than was good
for her peace of mind and a pair of casual sneakers. She’d never seen him like this before and was darn glad of it in a way.

  “Look at you,” he said. “Your hair looks good that way. Cute. Pretty. Soft. That’s it,” he said. “You look soft and approachable. Not strict and inflexible.”

  She snorted. “I don’t think I’m strict or inflexible,” she said back. No one had ever said those words to her before. Not even her father who’d had plenty of negative things to say to her face in life. When he was emitting toxic whiskey fumes, which was most of the time.

  “At work you are. Then again, I probably just described the entire finance department, didn’t I? It has to be black and white. No gray. Like your place,” he said, looking around.

  “That’s at work,” she said. “One plus one equals two. If it equals four then it’s wrong. You wouldn’t want me to be wrong, would you? And I told you my place came with white walls and I kept it that way. Come on in,” she said.

  “You did tell me that,” he said. “But the rest of the place is pretty simple too.”

  “That’s me. Simple.”

  “I don’t think you are one bit simple,” he said.

  She’d never been that in life, but it seemed like the thing to say to him just now. “I’ll be right back. I just want to get my purse. You’re early.”

  “Five minutes,” he said before she could move a step. “I didn’t want to be late either.”

  “Not a problem,” she said.

  She turned to walk away and heard. “And who is this?”

  She stopped to look back and saw her cat rubbing up against Drake’s leg while he bent over to scratch his ears. The purring was loud and clear. “That’s Tyson,” she said, continuing on to her room.

  She walked back out and saw Drake was now squatting down to pet Tyson behind the ears. “I have to say his name isn’t lost on me. Not from the oversized paws, and even the divot missing from his ear. Though I’m sure he didn’t take a bite of his own ear.”

  “No. He was a stray kitten outside the building when I first moved in. I felt bad for him and left water in a container and then some dry food a few times. One day he ran between my feet when I opened the door to the building and followed me up here. He’s been here ever since. I managed to get into my apartment without him that night and he sat outside the door meowing.”

  “Which would have driven you insane that other tenants might hear it and get annoyed,” he said.

  He knew her too well. “Yep. I finally let him in, thinking I’d feed him and bring him back outside. But then he grew on me. You like cats?”

  “Not really. We’ve never had one as a pet. I have to say I do picture you as a cat person though.”

  “I think there is an insult there, but I’ll push it off since I’ve only got one and not twenty.”

  He laughed. “I never thought you’d be a softie,” he said as his hand reached out and trailed down her arm. Goosebumps erupted all over her body like lava blowing out of a volcano.

  “What was that for?” she asked.

  “What?” he asked. “The move? My hand on your arm?”

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “We aren’t at work but on a date. I’ve been dying to touch you for weeks. I figured now was my chance.”

  “Is that the only way you planned on touching me?” she said before she could stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth without thought or consequence.

  “No,” he said, closing the short space between them, pulling her close to his body. “I planned on doing this too.”

  His mouth slanted over hers with a blend of heat and power like chocolate and vanilla soft serve on a hot summer day and she was the one melting in his arms right now.

  She held onto his biceps, not knowing what else to do, as his tongue came out and nudged her lips open and then swooped in and claimed her.

  When his hands moved up to slide into her hair, her arms wrapped around his neck and just held on for the ride. What a delicious one it was too.

  She had no clue how long they stood there making out like teenagers in a movie theater, but she would have been fine to continue for a few more hours.

  He’d finally broken the contact and stepped back, then ran his hand through his hair adorably. “Wow. I guess I’m glad I did that now and got it out of the way. Now I know.”

  “What do you know?” she asked.

  “That you annoy the shit out of me so much because I’ve been dying to do that to shut you up.”

  ***

  Drake watched the emotions spread across Kara’s face as he said what he did. Words he didn’t know were going to come out of his mouth, but he wouldn’t take them back either.

  “You aren’t going to do that at work to get me to stop annoying you, are you?”

  That wasn’t what he thought she’d ask. “No. We said we’d keep this private and if I start grabbing you as much as I want to, then it would be hard to do that. Or reaching for you as much as you annoy me in the office.”

  “That’s true.”

  “I was going to ask if you were fine with the kiss since you kissed me back and didn’t want to let go. You even left some marks on my neck, so I guess I’ve got my answer.”

  Her face turned a nice shade of pink. “Most dates entail a kiss so I’m not shocked. I probably would have been more shocked if you didn’t try to make a move.”

  “But we haven’t had our date yet,” he said.

  “True. So why don’t we get to that part? What are the plans?”

  “I thought we’d go to the Duke Gardens.”

  “What? To see flowers?”

  There was a definite surprise on her face. “That was the plan. It’s a beautiful day out, not too hot or overcast. It takes a few hours to walk through them.”

  “You’ve done it before?” she asked.

  “Not fully. Remember, I went to college there. I’ve been around most of the campus the entire time. Plus my cousin Bryce is a professor there too. I was trying to do something different and thought of that. We don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just thought you could use some color in your life,” he said, laughing. “Though you’ve got that pretty shirt on that is full of more colors than I’ve seen before on you.”

  “Another shirt I picked up shopping with your sister. I think the gardens are a great idea.”

  “Are you going to be comfortable enough in those shoes?” he asked looking down at the brown sandals showcasing some pretty pale pink painted nails. She even had lovely feet.

  “Yeah. I’ll be good. I’m ready if you are.”

  She locked her door and they left the building, went to his car and got in. It was a short drive to the gardens. “I thought we could get an early dinner after, then I’ve got one more thing planned.”

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s a surprise. I’ll tell you at dinnertime.”

  “I never expected this of you,” she said.

  “What’s that?”

  “That you like surprises for dates.”

  “I’ve always figured if I was going on a date then I was putting the effort into it. Why bother otherwise? I might as well stay at home.”

  Some of the women he dated over the years loved that. Others didn’t. Some just wanted to go out to eat and drink. Not many really wanted to try new things or do some of the stuff he wouldn’t mind doing.

  Since he’d always been someone to go with the flow, he brushed it off and did what made those women happy half the time. Now that he was older, he knew that life was about compromise. He was sick of being the only one to do it though.

  Where Kara fell was yet to be seen.

  To Settle Down

  The gardens were lovely. There were more flowers than she’d ever seen before. They even had a little gift shop and cafe there, but all they did was stop and get a drink to take with them on the walk.

  “So your father and uncle went to college here too. Anyone else in your family?” she asked.
/>   “Oh yeah. Most of us went here. Noah, of course. We always knew we’d go to the same college together.”

  “Did you room together too?”

  “We did. My parents put the request in, but we weren’t sure it’d be honored. It was though. It’s not that we weren’t outgoing and couldn’t have gotten along with other people. We did. We had other roommates with us at times. We stayed in with two other guys in suites too, but we always stayed together. It was just easier on my parents too.”

  “I want to say I’m surprised you lived here when you live in this area. Why not commute?” She knew she would have if she had that option to save money. There were no options for her back then other than to get the heck away from her family.

  “Noah and I shared a car, so that would be a pain since we had completely different class schedules. My cousin Bryce was here too at the same time. We didn’t room with him though. We could have if he wanted to, but he didn’t and that was fine. My other cousin Sam, Bryce’s older brother, was here two years before Noah, Bryce and I got here. None of us commuted. We were on campus a lot doing other things, but obviously we could go home anytime we wanted to.”

  “I bet you didn’t though, did you?”

  “Actually we did,” he said. “Believe it or not, we still went home for Sunday dinners. I think Sam and Bryce did a lot too if they could.”

  “That’s sweet,” she said. She’d never had a family situation like that and couldn’t imagine it.

  “My mom’s cooking is a lot better than campus food. Not that it was horrible, but there is no place like home either.”

  “Thank God,” she said and grinned. He looked at her oddly and she wished she hadn’t said that or at least said it sarcastically. “So where did Wyatt and Jade go to college?”

  “Wyatt went to Duke too. The same as my cousins Cade and Ella who are the same age as Wyatt and Jade. That was it at Duke. The rest went elsewhere.”

  “That’s enough, isn’t it?” she said. “Where did Jade go? She didn’t want to be with her twin like you did with yours?”

  He laughed. “No. Wyatt always terrorized Jade, but she held her own. Actually he did it to all of us.”