Trusting Drew: Burlap and Barbed Wire

by Shirley Penick

  “Lily, do you want to stay on your hands and knees?”

  She could barely respond she was so aroused. “Yes, I’ve never tried it this way.”

  “I haven’t either, let me know if… well, if you don’t like something.”

  She nodded, and he slid in just a little. It felt different, but not at all bad. She pushed back a little, so he slid in further. He’d gotten the message, so he kept pushing inside, until he was fully seated. He began stroking her and she loved it.

  In a strangled voice he said, “I’ve heard if you go down on your elbows it’s a better sensation.”

  She did as he suggested, and it did feel different. He kept up the long smooth strokes while he reached around and caressed her breasts. Her whole body clenched in pleasure.

  “Faster, Drew, harder.”

  He was obedient to her verbal directions and soon she was flying. High above the earthly plane. He pounded into her a few more times and then came with a muffled shout. Her name on his lips. They both crashed to the bed, boneless.

  Chapter 18

  Lily woke with a big warm man wrapped around her. It was a most excellent way to awaken. He was curled around her back with one hand around her waist. She would have been happy to go back to sleep but this was the first day of sightseeing. She looked to the clock on the nightstand, it was still early enough that they didn’t have to rush, but she couldn’t go back to sleep either. The chocolate pudding was still there, dried out and uneaten.

  She sighed at the waste, she’d wanted to lick it off of Drew, but they’d passed out shortly after the doggy-style sex. That had been fun, she could check two things off her sexual bucket list, well three if she wanted to count the two light smacks to her ass. She decided to wait and see on that one.

  Drew mumbled, “What was the sigh for?”

  “The chocolate pudding, I didn’t get to lick off of you.”

  She was thrilled when he instantly hardened.

  His voice was even rougher when he said, “We can always order more.”

  She turned in his arms and kissed his chin and then his neck.

  Lily reached down and caressed his hardened cock. She gave it a gentle squeeze and then turned to hop out of bed. “Maybe, but we need to get moving this morning.”

  She nearly made it, before he hauled her back onto the bed, flat on her back, and rolled on top of her. “Not quite so quick, young lady.”

  She laughed up at him. “Did you need something?”

  Drew reached over her to the night stand and took the last condom, ripped it open and rolled it on so quick she almost missed it. He slid inside her. “This will only take a minute, Little Miss Tease.”

  Lily clenched her inner muscles down on him as he withdrew. “Yeah, we probably have enough time for that.”

  “You are a vixen,” Drew muttered when they could both breathe again, and their thundering heartbeats had begun to slow.

  She just smiled and turned to look at the clock. With a large sigh she said, “And now we really do have to get going, we need to be downstairs in an hour and a half. Katie, Summer and your brother will be here in forty-five minutes.”

  Drew nodded. “Okay you go get showered and I’ll order us some breakfast.”

  “All right make sure you get some carbs, after all the activity last night and this morning I’m going to need some.”

  Drew bowed gallantly. “As you wish.”

  Lily laughed, grabbed up her clothes and hurried to her room. When she saw the completely untouched bed she had a short debate with herself, and then went over and ruffled it up, so it looked like she had slept in it. She wasn’t ready for the rest of the family to know about her and Drew’s nighttime fun.

  After a quick shower, where she washed away all traces of Drew and his amorous activity, she pulled out the pantsuit she’d chosen for the first day of sightseeing. She’d noticed a bit of beard burn on her inside thighs and a tiny bit on one breast, she didn’t think it was noticeable, but they would need to be careful if they continued the sexual adventure tonight. Maybe she’d have to keep that talented mouth from roving over her body, which was sad, but better than curbing all activity.

  She got out the accessories she would use with the outfit, after Summer came to do her hair and makeup. She was ready in a robe with a low collar when she heard a knock, on Drew’s door. Apparently, he’d clued in his siblings, to tell them to come to his door rather than Lily’s.

  Drew stopped trimming his beard and stared at his reflection. He’d just had a terrifying thought. What if his beard had marked Lily last night. He ran his hand over it, wondering if it could have scratched her soft skin, his beard was softer than if he shaved every day, but was it soft enough?

  He didn’t know exactly what the competition involved but if it was a swimsuit or anything else revealing he didn’t want to cause her to lose. Well they would just have to stop with the nighttime gymnastics. She probably needed her sleep, anyway. Plus, he wasn’t completely convinced they should be having sex in the first place, amazingly wonderful sex though it was.

  How he was going to stop the sexy little fireball from leading him around by his dick, he had no idea, but he had to try. He couldn’t let his lust, no that wasn’t quite right, it was more than lust, desire maybe? Yes desire, he couldn’t let his desire for her ruin her chances in this pageant.

  With that decision firmly in place he resumed trimming his beard. But his brain continued to nag him about how he was going to keep Lily at arm’s length. Finally, he decided to lock that question away for later. He needed to think about her safety, while they were out and about today.

  He turned that over in his head as he straightened his room and tried to remove all traces of Lily spending the night. He pulled out the bag from the waste basket in the room with condom evidence in it and tossed the whole thing into the bathroom trash. Shaking his head, he set the non-eaten chocolate pudding on the room service tray and put it outside his door. She’d clearly had wicked plans for tormenting the hell out of him, and he had to admit he’d have been totally on board with whatever she wanted. Which was why he was going to have to put a stop to all of it, so she didn’t get the upper hand.

  He was relieved when there was a knock on his door, being around other people would help him keep his distance, and head on straight.

  He opened the door to find Cade, Summer, and Katie. He grinned at them, “Right on time.”

  Summer and Katie each kissed him on the cheek, as was their custom, and he waved them toward Lily’s room. “Go on over, Lily should be ready for you.”

  Cade walked in and wandered the room like a caged beast. Drew frowned at his brother. “What’s up?”

  Cade ran a hand through his hair. “Nothing in particular, I just feel out of sorts. Like something isn’t exactly right.”

  “Chase?”

  “He feels the same, we haven’t mentioned it to the girls, but Katie’s been jumpy, and Summer is quiet.”

  Drew nodded slowly. “Lily felt nervous in her room last night and spent most of it in mine. She made me promise to leave the connecting door open. Not just unlocked. Open.”

  Cade sat on the side of the bed. “If it’s all of us…”

  “Yep, better heed the warning. I’m not sure what else we can do, though.”

  “Exactly, hard to fight against a shadow, or even prepare, to fight against one.” Cade shook his head. “If they make their presence known we’ll be on it.”

  “Damn straight. I haven’t talked to Adam or Beau today, have you?”

  “Yeah, Rachel called Summer to ask her to bring something. She said they’re in place at the first location and Adam and Alyssa are at the second.”

  There was a knock on the door and Cade tensed. “Just room service, bro. I ordered plenty if you guys want something to munch on.”

  “We ate earlier but coffee wouldn’t go amiss.”

  Drew answered the door and pulled the rolling cart into the room, after adding a good-sized ti
p and signing his name to the ticket. “Just FYI, I’m tipping room service well, so they want to deliver to our room.”

  Cade nodded. “Buying loyalty. Excellent advice. We will too.”

  Lily called out from the other room. “Did I hear food arrive? I’m starving.”

  Drew grinned at his brother and pushed the cart into Lily’s room. He stopped short when he saw what was going on, Lily was in a short robe that made her legs look longer that he knew they were. She had giant rollers in her hair and Summer was applying makeup. Drew didn’t personally think Lily needed any makeup, but didn’t voice his opinion.

  Summer said, “Let me just finish your eyes and then you can eat while I begin to work on your hair.”

  Lily squirmed. “Fine, but hurry.”

  Summer frowned. “Did you forget to eat last night? No, you couldn’t have I saw a tray on the floor outside Drew’s door that had plenty of plates. The only thing left was a chocolate pudding with only a few bites taken out.”

  Drew tried not to choke or look at Lily, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from meeting hers in the mirror.

  Lily gave him a sly look, and then answered Summer. “I just did a strenuous workout this morning, so I need to refuel.”

  Drew turned his strangled gasp into a cough, and pushed the cart over closer to Lily.

  “It smells fantastic. What is it?”

  “A little of several things since I wasn’t sure what you wanted, but the main dish is a house specialty which is malted waffles.”

  Lily practically slid out of her chair as her stomach rumbled and she moaned. Drew tensed, she needed to stop with the sex noises or he was going to be demonstrating to everyone in the room what those sounds did to his body. He busied himself with a cup of coffee, willing his hands not to shake.

  When Summer was finally happy with Lily’s eyes, she had to jump out of the way, so she didn’t get mowed down, as Lily rushed to the tray for food.

  Katie laughed. “That must have been one hell of a workout.”

  Drew cleared his throat. “I got enough coffee for everyone, and maybe a few scraps of breakfast if Lily doesn’t eat it all.”

  Lily already had a huge bite of waffle in her mouth, so she just rolled her eyes at him. He grinned at her and loaded up a plate for himself, while the rest of them got coffee. Cade had pulled the two chairs with him from Drew’s room, so he went over to sit with his brother.

  Once Lily had some food in her stomach, she sat back into the chair and let Summer continue on her hair.

  Drew looked around the room to keep his eyes off Lily’s legs. There was a pretty aqua pant suit laid out on the bed. He noticed that Summer had used makeup that would complement the color and bring depth to Lily’s eyes. How he knew this, he had no idea, but he could see it nonetheless. The color of her clothes would be easy to keep track of if they got separated, it was a perfect choice.

  He signaled to Cade and they went back into his room, so the ladies could finish up.

  Cade said, “That outfit should be easy to track. It’s an unusual shade of blue.”

  “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, aqua isn’t a real popular color. She’ll stand out, which is both good and bad. We’ll be able to keep tabs on her, but so will anyone else.”

  Cade chuckled. “Aqua? How do you know it’s aqua?”

  “Police training, we can’t go around calling everything blue.”

  “Seriously? You had to learn color names?”

  Drew nodded absently. “Yeah, I hope it doesn’t stand out too much. It would be easy to target from a distance.”

  Cade immediately sobered. “Do you really think someone might take a potshot at her? “

  Drew ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “I just don’t know. Whoever hired dead Ronald clearly has no issues with killing, and they’d given him permission to use lethal force. He told Lily he wasn’t a killer which is the only reason she’s still with us. I just can’t figure out why anyone would care that much.”

  “I hear you, it’s a fricken beauty pageant. Who really cares who the winner is? Well the girls, of course but still, it seems ridiculous to me.”

  Drew paced back and forth in the room. “Yeah, the girls care, their families, and their sponsors might care. The pageant people might, but that seems a little bit of a stretch, why would the pageant people want to remove contestants? We just don’t have enough information to go on. Maybe we’ll learn more at the meeting this morning.”

  Cade nodded. “We can only hope. I don’t think Lily really cares that much if she wins, she’s mostly doing it to honor her friend and the promise she made her.”

  “I agree and if I think it’s getting too dangerous, I will use her friend’s love for her to convince her to pull out.”

  “Good idea.”

  Katie appeared in the door. “We’re ready.”

  “Great, let’s use my door and keep Lily’s locked. She’s got the do not disturb sign on hers and I’m going to do the same on mine. I’d rather have to reuse my towels and have a messy bed than have someone in here.”

  Lily walked in right after he finished that statement and Drew lost the ability to speak. She looked amazing, the pantsuit fit her like a glove and showed off all her assets. Her hair was soft curls and the makeup did indeed do something, he didn’t know what exactly, but she looked incredible.

  Lily clearly noticed he was staring slack-mouthed, because she preened for just a second and then said, “I agree with you, Drew. I don’t want anyone in my room or yours, if we keep the connecting doors open and unlocked.”

  Drew internally shook himself out of the stupor she’d put him in. “You look stunning, Lily.”

  Cade nodded. “You do, you’re going to win for sure.”

  Lily blushed at the men’s compliments. “We’ll see about that. Ready to go?”

  Thank God he’d gotten all his gear on before Lily arrived because he wasn’t sure he would have remembered a damn thing if he hadn’t.

  “Summer you lead, Katie and Cade flank Lily. I’ll bring up the rear.”

  They left the room in a huddle, but waited while Drew put the ‘Do not disturb’ sign on the handle and two tiny pieces of tape on both doors. When they got in the elevator Drew was glad to see it was empty. He put Lily, Katie and Cade with their backs against the wall and he took point in front of Summer.

  The elevator went straight to the reception floor with no stops and Drew thanked his lucky stars for that. When the doors opened he stepped out and did a quick look around, before gesturing the others out, so he could follow them.

  The reception was in a large room with standing tables and a stage in the front of the room. People were milling around, but Summer knew what she was doing and led them to a quiet corner. After a few minutes where they had tried to look casual and probably failed, the event began.

  The cheerful pageant official trundled on stage. “Hello and welcome contestants and friends. We are going to commence with a quick introduction. We’ll go alphabetically by state and you can each come up on stage with your entourage. Introduce yourself and each member of your group.”

  Drew and the rest of them watched closely as each state was called out. When they got to Colorado, no one went on stage. Which started a whispered conversation.

  The MC finally said, “The Colorado contestant has not shown up and we haven’t heard anything from her.” He looked around expectantly and then mumbled. “That’s very unusual, we’ve never had a no-show before.”

  Cade and Drew exchanged a glance. They all moved just a little closer to Lily, Drew saw her shiver, so he placed his hand on the small of her back, she leaned back into it.

  She whispered, “I thought I was alone.”

  “Guess not.”

  They went through the rest of the states until they got to Montana and the five of them stayed in formation to move to the stage. When they reached the microphone, Summer stepped to the side next to Cade.

  Lily took the mic and said
in a surprisingly steady voice, “I’m Lily Smith, Ms. Montana, I have with me Katie—my secretary and life organizer, my bodyguard—Drew, and Summer Attwood is helping me with hair and makeup. You might remember Summer from the popular TV show Training up Heather and next to her is her fiancé Cade. Summer has mentioned that she would be willing to give makeup pointers to anyone who would like some, as long as it’s not everyone at the same time.

  Murmurs could be heard throughout the room and Summer gave the crowd a big smile and a small wave. Having effectively taken the limelight away from Lily, they left the podium to return to their corner.

  The MC got everyone’s attention and the introductions continued. When they got to Ms. Utah, she had a bodyguard with her also. He would see if he could have a chat with the other bodyguard. None of the other girls had a bodyguard, that were introduced as such anyway.

  Nothing else out of the ordinary happened until they got to Wyoming. The candidate for that state said that she was the alternative and that the real Ms. Wyoming was in the hospital from a rather severe accident.

  Another glance happened between the brothers and they closed rank around Lily once more.

  Drew noticed that all the girls with issues so far, were from the Rocky Mountain states. The only one missing was Idaho, he’d not remembered seeing anything unusual in her introduction. New Mexico also had the tail end of the mountains, so it was another possibility, but he didn’t remember anything about her introduction either.

  Drew texted his parents and asked them to see if they could find out anything about the missing Colorado contestant. Then he texted his boss to ask him to look into the Wyoming accident and the missing Ms. Colorado.

  He decided to try to get one of their group close to the Idaho and New Mexico contestants. To see if there was anything unusual about them, when they were up close and personal.

  It looked to him like they had a pattern, but why the Rocky Mountain state’s contestants were being targeted he had no idea. He hoped they could figure that out before anything else happened.