Fierce- Drake (Fierce Family Series Book 3)

by Natalie Ann

  “That’s up to you. You’re driving. It’d be a waste since you paid for the room already.”

  He had paid for Sue’s room too. It was the least he could do. “I’m not worried about it. All we’d be doing is sleeping and then leaving first thing in the morning.” Even if he hated throwing money away, in this instance, he didn’t care.

  “Again, your choice,” Sue said, picking up her glass of wine. He’d have to find out from Noah first if he could get him away from Marie. She’d dragged him out into the hallway after dinner and they hadn’t returned. She didn’t look all that happy either.

  That might work in his favor.

  While the music was playing and Sue was people watching, Wyatt was on the dance floor with his date. One of his brothers was getting lucky tonight, he was sure. Jade had moved over to the table next to them to talk to Bryce’s girlfriend, Payton.

  He figured no one would know if he pulled his phone out. He wondered what Kara was doing while he was stuck here watching all these lovestruck couples or couples that wanted to get away from each other. He figured he fit somewhere in the middle.

  He wanted to get away from here, but only to go see Kara.

  Bet you’re having more fun than me, he typed to her.

  She was fast to reply back and put him in his place. Don’t be rude. It’s your cousin’s wedding. Pay attention.

  Yes, ma’am, he typed back and put his phone away.

  “What has your lips so thin,” Noah said when he returned to the table alone.

  “Nothing,” he said back. “What do you think about leaving tonight?”

  “God, please,” Noah said back to him. There was a silent plea in his twin’s eyes and he knew he’d at least be close enough to stop and see Kara tonight if he wanted to. Of course by the context of her text, he was thinking he might not tell her he left early. She’d probably lecture him again.

  Sexy Specimen

  “What are you doing here?” Kara asked him when she’d gotten up to answer the door. No one should have been knocking on it at eight thirty unless they were in the building. When she looked in the peephole and saw Drake, she yanked it open fast, not even caring she was in a tank top and cotton shorts. She’d been sitting on the couch under a blanket watching a movie.

  “I just got into town from Cade’s wedding. As you can see I didn’t even stop home to change.”

  She could see, all right. He was in a suit that probably cost more than her monthly rent payment and it was making her mouth water. His tie was gone, the first two buttons on his shirt undone too. If you looked up sexy specimen in the dictionary, there would be Drake Fierce staring back at you with a cocky grin.

  “I thought you were staying the night tonight too?”

  “We left early. Noah was having a tiff with his girlfriend. Or his girlfriend was having one with him. We couldn’t really talk about it. Sue, my date, could have cared less. And...I wanted to see you. You wouldn’t talk to me.”

  She laughed and opened the door wider. “With reason. You were at Cade’s wedding. You shouldn’t be texting me.”

  He yanked her forward and claimed her as his. His mouth slanting against hers again and again, her body warming up to the point she thought she might have some sweat on her brow.

  When he stepped back her breath was slightly labored. Talk about a major turn on.

  “What was that for?” she asked.

  “Just been dying to do it. I’ve seen you all week. I’ve watched you flirt with me knowing there was nothing we could do about it in the office.”

  “I didn’t flirt with you. I wouldn’t do that. Totally unprofessional at work.” Even if she wanted to. Had she slipped and not realized it though?

  “Come on. I saw those looks you had. Your eyes on my arms. My mouth. My chest. You were thinking of getting your hands on me too.”

  She had been. “That’s not flirting. That’s looking.”

  He laughed. “Put whatever words on it you want, it’s had an effect on me. Based on your flushed face, it had one on you too.”

  “Maybe,” she said.

  “Good enough for me,” he said, moving into her apartment and sitting on the couch. “Coffee? I could sure use one.”

  Looked like he was making himself at home. “This isn’t the third date,” she said when she walked into the kitchen but could still see him on her couch, petting Tyson who was in his lap now purring. Guessed her cat missed Drake too. It’d only been a week.

  “Nope. But we need to figure that out too. Might as well do that tonight. Remember, we said we’d draw out of a hat.”

  They had said that. She knew what she was putting down on paper.

  She went about fixing the coffee, watching him relax and watch Sixteen Candles that was playing on TV. He seemed right at home.

  “Here you go,” she said, handing him his cup and then sitting down with hers. No need for the blanket she’d had on with the coffee in her hands. It was hot outside, but cool in her apartment. She didn’t always love running the air conditioning, but she wasn’t about to sweat either.

  She’d spent way too much of her life being uncomfortable in the winter or the summer. Freezing in the cooler months, sleeping with layers on and a hat on her head. The heat wasn’t always working, fuel would run out and her father wouldn’t have money to get more right away. He was normally filled with enough liquor to not feel the cold. He wouldn’t care his daughter was in her room under blankets shivering with a cup of warm water she was sipping.

  In the summer, the same thing. The heat would make her sweat through her sheets. The tiny fan in her room not doing much other than blow the hot air around. How many times had she put ice water on a spot on her mattress and laid her face or head on it to cool her down?

  Sometimes that worked. Or maybe it was just a mind trick telling her it worked so she could sleep.

  “How has your weekend been?” he asked.

  She grinned. “It was really only one day, Drake. You were supposed to be home tomorrow.”

  “It seems like a full weekend.”

  “Because you were with family most of Friday and today. I worked all day and just cleaned and did laundry today.”

  “Bet you went and got your groceries too,” he said, smirking at her.

  “Like clockwork,” she said back.

  “Your life is really planned out and repeated into a routine, isn’t it?”

  She frowned. “Yes. It makes things easier.”

  “Control,” he said. “You like having that control. Is it because you didn’t have much as a kid?”

  Not the conversation she wanted to have at all. “Why are we talking about this?”

  “Because I spent the past two days with family. A family I love to spend time with. I watched Noah’s girlfriend have pretty much a panic attack over it. She thinks Noah is wasteful with his money because he drives a BMW and is clogging the environment.”

  “Does she know what you drive?”

  “That’s why he wanted me to drive today. Things are pretty tense with them and he wanted to see her reaction to the family. It wasn’t good.”

  She could imagine. She knew most of his family, had met plenty of them. If Noah’s girlfriend thought Noah was wasteful, she’d imagine everyone together would drive the woman insane.

  “So it was a test of sorts? Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you know my siblings and some of my cousins. You know my parents and my aunt and uncle. You don’t really think that way of my family, do you?”

  He knew she didn’t have the best of upbringings. That she didn’t talk to her parents often. Nothing at all like his family. Was that going to be an issue? It might be best to get this out in the open.

  “Not at all. We were raised differently. You and your family have a lot more than I’ll ever have. I can’t really imagine what it was like in your household, money or not. Just the closeness even. But that doesn’t mean I’m bothered by it.”

  She might be env
ious of it, but she’d never say those words to Drake. He’d probably run for the hills if he thought she was picturing herself in his family. Which she wasn’t. Not really.

  “Good. That’s good.”

  “It means a great deal to you that anyone you are with get along with your family?” she asked.

  “Absolutely. I know people say that if you love someone enough you go with the person you love. But the thing is, I love my family too. I couldn’t shut them out.”

  “I get it. I get along well with those I’ve met in your family. But no one knows me, or not a lot about me outside of work.”

  “You shopped with Jade,” he pointed out. “Not many people shop with Jade. Nor do they live to tell about it.”

  She laughed. “She asked me.”

  “My point. A good point. My sister likes you. My father and uncle do. Ryder does.”

  “Ryder likes everyone,” she said.

  “Very true. You know what I mean. You’ve met my mother and aunt too. Noah even.”

  “In passing. I guess the question is if they’d like me, but we won’t know because we aren’t telling anyone we are dating, right?”

  “For now,” he said.

  She frowned, not caring for the look on his face. “What do you mean ‘for now’?”

  “Kara. I like you. I think you like me. Even if you won’t admit it, your body’s reaction tells me enough. Do you really think if we end up dating for a period of time we are going to keep this secret? Do you know how hard that would be? Nor would I want to.”

  “I hadn’t thought that far in advance. We are just trying to figure out the third date.”

  “Since you like rules so much, let’s make another one.”

  “From the look on your face I’m not sure I’m going to like it.”

  He laughed. “Probably not. But this is important to me. I’ve said it won’t affect our work and I still plan on sticking to that. After one month of dating, we tell my family. Stop,” he said when she opened her mouth. “Let me finish. We don’t have to tell everyone at work. I’m not saying that. I’m saying my family.”

  “That’s the same thing,” she argued.

  “No, it’s not. It’s four people out of a hundred and they won’t tell anyone else in the office. Not if I don’t want them to. Besides, Noah knows.”

  “What?!” she said, standing up and crossing her arms. She had to pace. How could he do that to her when they said they weren’t telling anyone.

  “It’s hard to keep things from your twin. I can’t explain it.”

  “Try,” she said narrowing her eyes.

  “First off, he won’t tell a soul. You have to know that.”

  “I don’t know any such thing,” she snapped back.

  “Trust me, he won’t. He guessed it when he was in the office on Thursday.”

  “How?” she said. “He didn’t even see us together to guess.”

  “You walked by my office. He was talking and I looked up and made eye contact with you.”

  “You smiled at me,” she said. “That smile gave it away to him, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” he said sighing. “He guessed it after. I wasn’t going to lie to him. Sorry, but I just can’t do that.”

  “I don’t like lying to anyone so I’ll give you a pass there. But don’t tell anyone else.”

  “For a month,” he said again.

  She wanted to argue more but knew he was probably right. Besides, it might be hard to hide at that point. At least from his family, knowing how close they were.

  “Okay. One month,” she said.

  He grinned and stood up, reached for her, but she sidestepped. “I’m not happy with you.”

  “I can tell. Would you be offended if I said the heat in your eyes is a major turn on?”

  “I want to be but unfortunately I must be pretty weak because I feel the same way.”

  This time when he reached for her, she caved. “I like that you are truthful about that.”

  She laid her head on his chest. “I told you I don’t like to lie. I’m just twisted up about all of this.”

  “I get that. I am too. You still seem to bring out the worst in me. I never fight and it seems like that is all you want to do.”

  “Lovers and fighters,” she said before she could stop herself.

  “Are we going to be lovers?” he asked quietly when he lifted her chin up to look in her eyes.

  “If we plan on dating a month I’m sure of it.”

  He laughed and kissed her hard and fast. She held on because she had to. She’d never held onto something or someone as hard as Drake and that worried her more than anything.

  Feels Welcome

  Drake was waiting for Kara to show up at his house. Last Saturday, before he’d left, they’d each put a date suggestion into a hat and he told her to pull it out. She grabbed his, which was dinner at his house. He’d cook.

  Little did he know she’d put the same suggestion down, but at her house.

  It just went to show how much they thought alike even when so much of the rest of their lives were complete opposites.

  He had high hopes for tonight but wasn’t holding his breath either. If they did think so much alike then he was praying for a little action in the sheets.

  When his doorbell rang, he went to open it and saw her standing there with a bag in her hand. Not an overnight bag though. Just a bakery one. She’d said she would bring dessert.

  He leaned down to kiss her and then held the door open wider. “You didn’t bake something for me? Here I am cooking dinner for you.”

  “I do better cooking than baking. I can handle brownies just fine, even a cake, but I thought I’d get something better than that.”

  “So what did you get?” he asked taking the bag from her hand. When he pulled the bag away, saw a box and took that out and looked at some pastries in there. A mixture. “Yummy.”

  “I told them to give me one of each in the case. I’m not even sure what half of them are.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “They all look great.”

  “So anything I can help you with for dinner?” she asked.

  “I’m keeping it simple,” he said. “I’ve had chicken marinating all day and it’s on the grill cooking low and slow. That keeps it nice and tender. Then I’ve got potatoes and veggies in a basket on the grill too. I was going to put together a salad in a minute.”

  “Sounds great. How about I do the salad and we can pick at that while dinner is cooking?”

  “That was my plan. It’s a little warm to eat outside. Let me show you around,” he said. “No reason to stand here in the foyer.”

  She blushed adorably, a move he wasn’t sure she had in her. She was always so in control of her emotions. Unless she was ticked at him. Though he had to say he’d been shocked to see her watching Sixteen Candles the other night. He’d even pointed it out to her about the romance of the movie. She’d been quick to say, “There wasn’t anything else on.”

  He didn’t believe it though and started to suspect she was a closet romantic and wanted to play on that.

  “I’d love to see your house.”

  “Dining room to the right,” he said.

  “I see my plant on the table. It looks good in there.”

  He’d replanted the cactus that night and kept it on the new black table he’d purchased. It was a nice pop of color in the room prompting him to go out and get some artwork for the walls that went with the cactus theme.

  “Either I’m really good at guessing the right plant or you decorated around it?” she asked.

  “The room was empty before I got the furniture. Your plant gave me some inspiration.”

  “That’s kind of sweet,” she said.

  “I can be a sweet person.”

  “You can be,” she said. “When you aren’t ready to strangle me.”

  “We seem to be doing less and less of that now,” he said. At least he thought so. They’d even met once more this week and hi
s father had walked in on the meeting to see how things were going, made a few comments and left.

  “For now,” she said.

  “Living room there. I never use that room. Not sure how many times that furniture has even been sat in.”

  “It seems like a waste to have this big of a house if you don’t use it.”

  “I figured I’d grow into it someday. I’ll show you upstairs once we get through the rest down here.” They walked down the hallway where the rest of the house was open. “Kitchen to the right and you can see a bit through the doorway to the dining room. Family room where I spend most of my time.”

  “What’s behind that door?” she asked at the back of the family room.

  “Office. I thought it was an odd placement myself when I first looked at the house, but it actually works. If I had kids someday I could be in there with the door open and still see things out here if I needed to.”

  Thoughts that never really occurred to him much before. Now he was having all sorts of odd thoughts in his head.

  They walked back down the hall. “There’s a half bath right there too if you need it.” Then they got to the stairs and started to climb them. “Four bedrooms up here. Two full baths, one is the master. One of the bedrooms just has exercise equipment in it. The other two have a bed and dresser and not much else. They only get used when my cousins from out of town visit.”

  “Does that happen often?” she asked.

  “Now and again. We’ve got enough room between most of us that our cousins always hop around who they stay with. Ella always stays with Jade, but the rest just go where it’s easiest. Bryce’s place only has one room, so never him. Ryder, Sam, Noah and I have houses with plenty of rooms. Wyatt lives in a condo. Easy maintenance for him and only has two rooms.”

  “Your family is so big and always feels welcome.”

  “Always,” he said. “I told you that is important to me.”

  “It’s nice,” she said.

  He walked to the end of the hall where the double doors to his bedroom were open. “My room.”

  “Very colorful,” she said.

  He didn’t think so. It was a dark gray with blues and greens in different places between his comforter and drapes. “More than white and black.”