Fierce- Drake (Fierce Family Series Book 3)

by Natalie Ann

  “Did you tell them where we were going?” she asked him, some heat in her eyes.

  “Whoa, you are ready to light me on fire,” Drake said. “How could I tell them when you picked the place?”

  Crap, she did pick the place when they left work. “Just rotten luck.”

  “Rotten?” Noah said. “I’m hurt. I’m his twin, you know.”

  She looked over at Noah’s grin, saw Wyatt’s and Drake’s matching it and knew this night was going to be interesting, to say the least.

  “I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”

  “She just wanted to spend all her free time with me and not have any interruptions from my brothers.”

  A snort slipped out before she could stop herself. “Sorry again.”

  “I like you,” Wyatt said, then turned to Drake. “Dude, you are never this wound up tight. It’s entertaining to see, for sure.”

  “Kara is all about keeping me on my toes,” he said.

  ***

  The minute Drake saw his brothers walk into the restaurant he knew he was in trouble. There wasn’t anything he could do about it either.

  Kara was right—it was just plain old rotten luck.

  It’d taken him two days to get her to agree to go out to dinner with him. There was no way he was going to be able to wait until Friday to get his hands on her. She was onto him now since he’d pulled her into the maintenance closet.

  When she agreed earlier today to meet for dinner after work, he’d felt like he’d won the lottery that he never played.

  He’d always thought he was pretty lucky in life.

  He had a great family. A good job he loved. He wasn’t poor, but he sure the hell wouldn’t say he was rich. Not like multi-millionaire rich. His family had the money, he was just earning his now. But he was wise with it regardless of what others thought.

  What he didn’t have the best of luck with in life though were women.

  Come to think of it, none of his brothers did.

  You’d think one of them would have struck gold by now, but instead they were all coming up with coal.

  Except right in front of him was a shiny nugget with her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.

  “I don’t keep you on your toes,” she said. “I just remind you when you forget things.”

  “Same thing,” he told his brothers.

  The waitress came back and took their orders and he knew exactly what was going to happen when his brothers each ordered appetizers, then the most expensive dinners on the menu. He didn’t say a word though; he’d let Kara see first hand what he had to deal with with his siblings.

  And when their empty plates were cleared away and the waitress wanted to know if anyone wanted dessert, Noah asked to hear what there was.

  “How could you have room?” Kara asked. “Where do you guys put all that food? You too, Drake. You didn’t eat that much the other night at your place.”

  Her face turned red; too late she realized what she’d let slip out. He wanted to comment on it but knew better to keep his lips sealed if he didn’t want the stink eye one more time this night.

  “Sometimes I don’t like to stuff myself. Today I had to keep up with my brothers.”

  “Is it always a competition?” she asked the three of them.

  “Nah,” Noah said. “We know I’m the boss. I always get my way. Drake is like the wrapper in the wind, landing on his feet when the breeze dies down.”

  “What does that make you?” she asked Wyatt.

  “I’m the smart one.”

  “Please,” Drake said. “He’s the one that annoys the crap out of us.”

  “I thought you said I’m the only one that can annoy you. Was that a lie?”

  “You actually said that to her?” Wyatt asked. “And they say I annoy everyone. Drake is almost immune to it. Him and Jade. But Jade gets it the worst.”

  “Because she is your twin?” Kara asked.

  “Because she’s a girl and the baby. And my twin. And she’s bossy too. You name it, it’s Jade. It’s not normal in our household if we don’t all watch over the only girl.”

  “She wouldn’t be so annoyed if you just watched over her,” Noah said. “It’s that you prank everyone.”

  “Ah, one of them,” Kara said. “An attention getter.”

  “That’s my girl,” Drake said, and the minute those words were out of his mouth, his brothers stopped laughing and stared at him. Looked like Kara wasn’t the only one putting her foot in her mouth tonight.

  “I think I’m full,” Wyatt said. “You ready, Noah?”

  “Yep. That’s our cue.”

  Drake didn’t say a word as his brothers got up and walked out.

  Once they were gone, Kara said, “Was it something I said?”

  “Nope. That is the norm.”

  “The norm?” she asked.

  The waitress came back and looked confused. “Did they leave? Would you like dessert?”

  “We’re good. They are gone. Just the bill, thanks,” he said, handing over his credit card. He didn’t need to see the details of it.

  “Oh my God, they left you with the bill. They ordered the most expensive things on the menu and left you with the tab. That is horrible.”

  “That’s what we do in our house.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “A rite of passage so to speak. If we see anyone in our family out on a date, we join them and leave them with the bill. We’ve all done it and we’ve all gotten left with the bill too.”

  “I can’t believe you would do something like that.”

  She looked so appalled. “Your outraged face is pretty adorable. And as I said, we do it all the time. Noah and I did it to Bryce a month or so ago when he was out with Payton. Ryder and Bryce did it to Sam when he was dating Dani. I’ve lost track of how many times we all do it.”

  “Do you do it to Jade?”

  “No,” he said. “That wouldn’t be right. We stick the bill with family. We wouldn’t do that to a stranger.”

  “Jade seems like the type to pay for things on a date,” she said.

  “She does. Kind of like you. But we wouldn’t know that for sure and wouldn’t take the chance of her date trying to cover it.”

  “Has she ever done it to one of you guys?” she asked.

  “Not that I know of.” He took the bill, glanced at it quickly, added the tip, signed his name and handed it over. “Ready?”

  Kara stood up. He put his hand on her lower back and ushered her out of the restaurant to the parking lot. They’d both driven over and were now going to go on their separate ways.

  But they were parked next to each other and she got to hear him swear when he saw his car and the words “Wash me” on the hood. He walked around to the side and saw it there, and on the trunk. Damn Wyatt.

  “Your brother?” she asked, grinning.

  “Of course. He knows I hate when people do that to other cars. Now I’ve got to drive around to the car wash with that written on it and everyone will see.”

  “What’s the big deal?” she asked. “It’s just dust and dirt.”

  “I’m the neat one of the family. When we stayed at my cousin Ella’s a few weeks ago I picked up after them. It drives me insane more than it does them.”

  “So this was his way of pointing out your car was dirty when normally you’re a neat freak?”

  “Yeah. Just to get under my skin,” he said.

  “I thought I was the only one to do that,” she reminded him.

  Public be damned, he pulled her forward against his body. Her hips to his, his hands on her waist, his mouth hovering above her lips. “I’m starting to like you under my skin.”

  “I think I like being there,” she said right before she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him one hell of a kiss good night.

  His Family

  The next day Kara felt like she was looking over her shoulder at work for someone to make a comment about her relationship with Drake.

  But
by five o’clock, no one had said a word. No one even looked at her funny.

  Instead she left on time, Drake walking out with her, then pulling out of the parking lot and following her to her place.

  She’d explained to him that was risky. That someone might see them. He’d laughed at her and told her to get a grip. Not everyone left exactly the same time and no one followed another person all the way home to see where he was going.

  He was right. She was acting silly, but she couldn’t help it.

  She’d been in relationships before. Not often, but enough to know when she was being paranoid.

  Moving around as much as she had, she never really felt she could settle down.

  In college, she’d found someone she’d dated for a few years and thought for sure they could make it last. She’d been willing to move anywhere after graduation. She had nothing to go home to. She had no home to go to and had been dreading her future.

  But she and Connor didn’t work. They went their separate ways before the end of the last semester, which of course left her in the air on what to do and where to go.

  She’d been tight with all her money from her loans. She worked as much as she could but maintained her GPA so that she could keep her scholarship.

  When other kids were going out having fun, she was studying, working, or trying to get some much-needed sleep.

  Months before the end of the final semester she started applying for jobs within a few hours’ drive. Any place she could get to and back in one day for an interview.

  Landing a job and starting a week after finals was a blessing. She managed to have enough cash left to secure an apartment, her beat-down old Buick getting her there and back and lasting six months before she had to replace it with another used car.

  But in that time, she’d had a secure job, money put away and used furniture that she was finding wasn’t so bad.

  Anything was better than going where her father was. There was no use asking her mother for a place to stay; she’d tell her she had no room.

  Besides, there was no way she was going back to Michigan.

  In the past eight years she’d moved three times, three different states. Each getting a little further away, each coming with a better job and more security.

  She liked where she was now and hoped to make it her place.

  Whether she made it with Drake or not was yet to be determined.

  She wasn’t stupid enough to think too far in the future.

  All she wanted to do was get through the next few weeks, almost dreading if they made it the month and he was ready to announce it to everyone.

  Not everyone, she corrected—his family. Same thing in her eyes.

  She parked her car and got out, Drake pulling next to her. “Are you sure you want to keep your car out here all night long?” she asked. “It’s not like your garage or even your neighborhood.”

  His silver car was nice and clean today. He must have gone to the car wash last night after he’d dropped her off to get the words left by Wyatt’s fingers washed away.

  Drake paused for the moment, looked around the parking lot full of average-priced vehicles. Nothing in the six figures like his. “I’m sure it will be fine.”

  “It probably will be, but do you want to take that chance?”

  “Are you telling me you don’t want me to spend the night and are using my car as an excuse?”

  She hadn’t been doing that. “No. We can bring it to your place and I can drive you back here if you want.”

  “Or you can stay at my place,” he said.

  “First off. I’m cooking tonight, not you. Second of all, I’m not running the risk of your family walking in at your house.”

  “Only Wyatt or Noah would and they know about you. They’d text first.”

  “Still not happening,” she said. “What if your parents stopped over unannounced for some reason? Didn’t you say your mother did that when you were on vacation?”

  “Shit. Yeah. It’s still not a big deal,” he argued.

  “You said a month. We’ve got a little over two weeks. So the answer is no. You can stay the night here, but I’m not staying the night at your place.”

  “Then here it is because I want to stay all night with you.”

  “We can bring your car home then,” she said. “I’ll bring you home tomorrow.”

  “I thought we’d do something tomorrow too,” he said.

  “You just want to argue with me, don’t you?”

  “Not really. It’s just you won’t take my answer or suggestions without coming back with an answer of your own. Or one that contradicts me.”

  “That’s called an argument.”

  He rolled his eyes at her. “Let’s go to my house and drop my car off, then come back here for you to cook me dinner. The dessert is in my car.”

  “What did you get?” she asked. He hadn’t been carrying anything when they left the building and he followed her right here.

  “It’s a surprise and it’s in a cooler. But I can take it out when we get to my house. I’ve got my clothes already, so I’ll pull in the garage and we can just leave.”

  She got back in her car and followed him to his place wondering why they couldn’t have figured this out beforehand. Then she realized they would have had to talk about it at work where there would have been witnesses.

  Drake had been in and out of meetings all day anyway and he probably didn’t think about his car. She didn’t either until he parked it next to hers and she saw how much it stood out.

  She waited in her car while he parked in the garage, then walked out with his overnight bag and a box. “What’s in there?”

  “I said it was a surprise, but I’ll tell you rather than make you wait. My guess is you’d keep asking me.”

  She wouldn’t. She didn’t get a lot of surprises in her life. Not good ones at least. But she had asked twice, and he wouldn’t know that about her. “It’s your choice. I can wait if you want. It’s just food.”

  He frowned as if he didn’t like her answer. “It’s not just food.” He opened the top up. “It’s monster cookies and brownies from Bryce’s girlfriend’s place. I stopped there on lunch and picked up four of them.”

  She leaned over and glanced. “Geez. I couldn’t eat one of them by myself. Why did you get so many?”

  There were two huge fudge brownies with some kind of frosting and what looked like caramel drizzled over them. And if she wasn’t mistaken the cookies were peanut butter.

  “I can’t resist it. Payton catered the July Fourth party my aunt and uncle had and her sandwiches and sweets were outrageous. I’ll eat them if you don’t.”

  “Why did you pick those kinds of desserts?” Peanut butter cookies were her absolute favorite, but she’d never said that to him.

  “I didn’t really. She only makes two kinds of sweets a day. Different each day. The same with donuts and muffins in the morning. I guess it keeps people coming back hoping for their favorite. Or maybe it’s supply and demand. I’ve heard Bryce say she sells out every day so I didn’t want to take a chance of there not being anything after work.”

  “They look fabulous,” she said.

  “What are you cooking for dinner?” he asked her.

  “Nothing as glamorous as your dinner.”

  He started to laugh. A sound that just warmed up her body like whiskey on a cold night. If she drank. Which she hardly ever did.

  “Marinated chicken and roasted vegetables and potatoes is glamorous?” he asked. “I need to bring you to Fierce so you can taste Aiden’s food.”

  “Not until after our month is up,” she said grinning at him.

  “You are going to hold me to that date, aren’t you?”

  “Of course I am. We don’t know if we’ll even last that long.”

  He looked hurt by her words. “We argue all the time and yet you are driving me to your house to cook for me and then I’m going to get you in your bed and show you how much I’ve been looking fo
rward to this night. So what do you think? Will we make it?”

  “When you put it that way, it makes me sound weak.”

  “Sweetie, I’m not sure there is a weak bone in your body.”

  “That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  ***

  More comments that made him think Kara’s past was a lot worse than what she’d led him to believe.

  Of course she never said much and just what she had was enough for him to realize they were like night and day.

  A drunk father, a mother who worked multiple dead-end jobs and moved around where she could find work but wouldn’t take her teenage daughter with her.

  The fact that you could look at Kara now and not know of that—not even guess it—was testimony to her strength to better herself.

  He liked strong women. He’d been surrounded by them his whole life from his mother, to his aunts, his sister, and his cousin Ella.

  Was that why he was having such a hard time finding someone in his life? Someone permanent?

  Had he always been drawn to weak women? Someone who wouldn’t stand on their own? That wanted things from him or his family? That wouldn’t argue or give her opinion.

  He didn’t think he was dating a lot of women like that, but now he was starting to realize he had been.

  Even as far back as his college days. His girlfriend then wanted what he could give her. She didn’t want to work for anything on her own. And when she got bored with him, or she didn’t get enough, she started to look elsewhere.

  He’d never forget the one time he’d lost his temper and went after that guy in his uncle’s bar.

  Thank God for Brody pulling him back before he did more than land one punch on the asshole hitting on his girl. Of course that guy didn’t know Tami was with someone, but it’s not like he could do much more than he did when they got back to Brody’s place. Tell her off and sleep alone on the couch.

  He’d been so stupid that night. He never asked what his uncle said to the guy and didn’t want to know. Whatever it was, the guy didn’t press charges, which was a good thing.

  Fierce didn’t need the publicity of it and he didn’t need that hanging over his head when he was just starting his career. Nor would he want anything to tarnish the family name or business.