Safe With Him (2 page)

“Wait!” He reached out and grabbed her arm. She stopped and stared down at her arm where his hand—his very large and very warm hand—was holding her. Gently?

“Please let go.” She voiced maybe a tad too breathily. He immediately let go of her arm and his hand fell back to his side.

“I was just gonna offer you my services.”

“Your—excuse me? Services?” she shot back.
What the hell?

“I just meant my bathroom. You know, so you could take a shower.” He looked almost like he was…blushing?

No way, she contemplated. No way in hell this cocky ass cop would ever blush. “Really?” She didn’t believe him for a second.

“Yeah. I actually live on the next street over. My backyard would meet with the parkin’ lot if not for the trees that separate the two.” He nodded his head in the direction of the tree line at the end of the parking lot.

She laughed but it didn’t hold much humor. “Just because I walk around sometimes talking to myself and, at times, I may answer, it doesn’t mean I’m crazy.” She quickly informed him. “Okay, so maybe a little crazy, but I’m not stupid,” she added when he just stood there grinning at her.
That sexy of a grin on a face that looks like that, now that should be illegal.
She couldn’t stop her thoughts.

“What’s stupid about it? You are in need of a workin’ shower, and I just happen to have one or two.” He spoke so smoothly. Did he really think she would do whatever he wanted because he was a cop? Yeah, he probably did. She just stood there, saying nothing, and stared at him. “You could even pay me,” he added.

“Oh, I just bet I could! And let me ask you, Officer Copper, just what
services
of mine would you consider as payment?” She fired back at him, crossing her arms over her chest.

“No!” He jerked his body back a step, evidently shocked, shaking his head. “No, no! That’s not what I meant. I just meant good money, I mean money, no, I mean…” He paused, clearly flustered, and then started again. “I heard you say you would pay good money for a shower. That’s all I meant by it. But I really didn’t mean that either. I was just jokin’.” He finished and again he looked as though he was blushing. “Look, I really am friends with your brother. You can ask him. I’m not a bad guy.” He stopped talking, and then inhaled as if he had forgotten how to breathe all of a sudden.

“Yeah, well, apparently my brother isn’t always the best judge of character,” she stated and turned again to walk away down the breezeway. He fell in step, walking right beside her. She stopped and looked over at him. “You do know stalking is illegal?”

“I’m not stalkin’.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“I’m walkin’ beside you.”

“Why?”

“Because I like you.”

“What?”

“I’m friends with your brother.”

“So?”

“So I thought we could be friends too.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah, friends. And friends help friends out when they need it. So as a friend I’m offering to help you out.”

“And what would you get in return,
friend
?”

“Nothing!”

“Oh yeah, right. Nobody does something for nothing.” Irritated, she turned and again started to walk away, but he stayed right by her side.

“Look.” He pulled out his phone. “Can you rely on your brother?”

She stopped walking and turned to him. “Yeah. He’s ‘bout the only one, and no matter what his living space may look like, I know if I ever need anything I can count on him…well, maybe not a clean bathroom, but anything other than that.” She shrugged her shoulders. “When it counts.”

“Okay, then text him or call him with my phone, and tell him you’re goin’ to my house for a shower.” He held out his phone to her.

She looked at it, then back to him. “Why would I tell him that?”

“See what he says. If he acts as though it’s no big deal, then you know I’m just tryin’ to help out a friend’s sister. If he acts weird in the slightest way, I’ll turn around and walk away and never bother you again.” He held out his phone again, a little closer to her.

“How ‘bout I call and ask him on my phone?” She eyed his phone suspiciously.

“That’s fine too. Either way,” he answered with a smile.

He has to really stop smiling at me like that
, she thought as she looked down into her bag to try and find her phone. At least looking in her bag she didn’t have to look at him. When she looked at his face, and not his uniform, she could almost forget he was a cop. But he was and just like all cops, she knew he had his own agenda. She pulled out her phone, hit her brother’s number and held it to her ear, waiting for him to answer.

Draco watched her as she stepped back to lean up against the wall while she talked to her brother on her phone. He did the same against the opposite wall. What the hell was he doing? He didn’t have women in his house. He didn’t want them there and he had damn near begged her. He should’ve just walked away. He’d told her she could use his shower and she had said no. That should have been the end of it. He should have just turned around and gone back to Storm’s to finish what they had to do and then just head home. Alone. His eyes scanned her from head to toe. Damn! This woman was walking and talking sex. She didn’t flaunt it. In fact, she had on sweatpants and a T-shirt that didn’t hide all those delicious curves, but it didn’t really show them off either.

Stop lookin’ at her like that!
He scolded himself.
Hell, she already thinks you’re after her body. Yeah…no! No, no, that’s not what you’re after. Just helpin’ out a friend, just like you told her. She’s Storm’s sister and Storm is your friend. Hell, if I had a sister I would want someone to help her out if she needed it. Fuck that! Not someone like you, thinkin’ what you’re thinkin’ about her.
He was actually arguing with himself.

He noticed she was eyeing him up and down while her brother said something to her. “Yep, kinda figured that out with, you know, the attire.” He heard her say back and then watched as she eyed his uniform—with disdain? Storm had said she wasn’t a huge fan of cops, but damn if the woman didn’t look like she wanted to burn his uniform, and if he just happened to still be in it…he didn’t think she would bat an eye about it.

Then she straightened from the wall and dropped her phone back into that big ass bag of hers. “Storm said you were okay, but I swear if you try something with me you’ll learn a whole new definition of the term ‘bitch slap’.” She turned and started to walk like she expected him to follow her.

“Is that a threat?” he asked as he tried to hold back his laughter. This woman was about as big as a minute and she was threatening him? Yeah, it was cute.

“Nope, I don’t make threats.” She looked completely straight faced and serious.

Damn, he was in love!
Lust, you idiot! It’s only lust that you’re not gonna do a thing about. She’s Storm’s sister and rule number two, never fuck with a buddy’s sister.
He reminded himself.

“Want me to take that?” He reached for her bag.

She cut her eyes at him before smartly answering. “You think we’re in junior high? You wanna carry my books?”

Bree walked across the parking lot and through the trees to his back yard. She had to be desperate, no beyond desperate, to be going anywhere with a cop, much less to his freakin’ house.

“Yep, you’re crazy and stupid,” she mumbled to herself.

“What?” Draco asked.

Oh crap, was that out loud?
“Nothing. Soooo, are you married?” She didn’t really expect him to be truthful about it.

“No!” He choked. “What the hell made you think that?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “No reason. Just making conversation. So what are you, the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of guy? No conversation required?”

He stumbled in his step and then grunted something under his breath.

“Easy there, weeble-wobble. You fall down from way up there, you may break something.” She smirked at him.

“Nice to know you care.” He flashed that sexy grin at her.

“You break something and I’ll be out of a shower.” She shrugged her shoulders again and watched his grin fade.
Good,
she told herself.
Nobody needs to be staring at that oh-so-very sexy grin. Stop it!
She scolded herself.

“He’s a freakin’ cop. Just look at him,” she mumbled. Then made the mistake of looking over at him where he had just taken a few steps ahead of her, so she got a good view of his back and his backside.
Shouldn’t uniform pants be—not so tight?
She thought to herself, just looking at that firm butt and tight muscular thighs as he walked. “Bet he works out.” She continued to mumble to herself.
Yep, at a gym. A coed gym so he could be all cocky and sexy and— “
Stop!” she hissed out loud to herself.

“Why?” He stopped and turned around to look at her. Okay, so maybe she said all of that a little too loudly.

“Uh…you walk too fast.” She covered quickly.

“Sorry,” he said with another hint of a...blush?

What was that? Did he have the ability to pull something like that out on a whim?
Yeah, he probably did
. It was probably one of his many cocky superpowers that made him think he could get any girl at any time just by flashing that sexy grin and adding a hint of a blush that made him look too dang sexy for a girl’s peace of mind. He just stood there while she took the few extra steps that brought her up beside him. “So. You live alone?”

“Yeah, just me.” He started walking beside her again.

Great,
she thought,
another bachelor pad that will probably look like my brother’s
. “What’s with guys and cleaning? Do they think someone’s gonna sneak in and cut off their balls if they pick up a broom every once in a while?” she grumbled.

“You do that a lot?” he asked as they walked up to his back door.

“Do what?” She looked a little confused.

“Mumble to yourself.” He unlocked the door, then stepped back, holding it open for her.

“Oh…uh…yeah, I guess…sometimes…” she started and then faded off as she stepped into a small, closed in back porch that was tidy and clean. “Must be nice.” She sighed wistfully as she looked over at a set of matching, and very nice looking, washer and dryer.

That was one thing she always hated about apartments. Either you had to use their laundry facilities and pay over the top prices, or you had to cart all of your laundry to a Laundromat.

“What must be nice?” He unlocked another door, stepped through, then stepped to the side and stood facing the wall.

She walked to the doorway, and she could see him punching in a code for a security alarm. “Having your own washer and dryer,” she answered while she looked around a neat and tidy kitchen. It wasn’t big, with the half wall that separated it from the living room, but still it wasn’t what she would call small. Nice, newer looking appliances, not brand new but nowhere near old. Cooking and mixing gadgets and who knew what, all sat on new counter tops that matched the beautifully crafted cabinets. If she had any idea how to cook, she might be able to name some of those small appliances, but the only thing she could point out was the coffee pot. At least she thought that mammoth contraption was a coffee pot, and of course, she definitely knew what the microwave was.

She looked over at him with raised eyebrows. “So just you, huh?” She was suspicious after seeing the orderly kitchen and all that cooking crap.

“Yeah, just me.” He did a chin lift toward the counters. “I like to cook sometimes.”

“Uh-huh, riiight.” She didn’t believe a thing he said, not for one minute.

Draco just shook his head and smiled at her. “C’mon. I’ll show you to the bathroom.”

The living room was right off from the kitchen and then down a short hall she noticed three doors, all of them closed. He walked to the closest, opened it, then walked in. “This is just the guest bedroom and bath. The master’s upstairs.” He nodded his head in the direction of a set of stairs just off from the living room. “Thought you might be more comfortable here than up there.” He finished with a chin lift to the ceiling that she thought meant the room upstairs.

“Do these lock?” she inquired, holding on to the bedroom door knob.

He just looked at her for a beat before he answered, “Yeah, I think so. But then again, I’ve never locked myself up in here or there.” He jerked his head once toward a closed door that she was guessing was the bathroom.

She walked into the room. Other than the futon that was folded up into a sofa, it looked more like an office than a bedroom, with a huge desk taking up most of the room. She moved to the closed door, opened it, and found a nice sized and very clean bathroom. “Yesss.” She sighed aloud. Then turned back to look at him and he looked…pained? But only for a second before his face went blank.

He just stood there staring at her. “Well. Uh…thanks?” she questioned, not sure what he was waiting for.

“You need any help?”

She immediately crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “I knew this was a bad idea! What the hell is the matter with me?” she asked aloud, mostly to herself.

“No! No…I meant do you need anything…like you know…uh…towels, soap, shampoo?” he stuttered.

“Oh. No thanks, got all that covered.” She patted her bag to imply she had everything she needed.

He stood there another beat. “Uh, okay, then I’ll be…uh in…uh there.” He finished with a jerk of his head to indicate back down the hall. Then he turned and strode away.

She rushed over to the door, peeked around the doorway just in time to see him walking into the living room shaking his head, and then she lost sight of him. She shut the bedroom/office door, locking it, then went into the bathroom and shut and locked that door.
Like a lock is really going to stop a cop,
she thought as she got undressed and stepped into the shower, then all thoughts of anything went out of her mind when she relaxed under the best shower she’d ever taken.

*  *  *

Draco walked back down the hall, shaking his head.
What the hell is the matter with me? You’d think I’ve never spoken to a girl before. Hell, man, you had two very fine ones just last night, although they weren’t as fine as the one in the other room taking a shower, all naked and wet and very naked—stop! That’s your friend’s sister. Don’t go there.
He argued with himself.

He walked into the kitchen, pulled out his phone, and sent Velgada a text, letting him know where he was.
If he needs me, I can just leave her a note and walk back over there, then by the time I get back home, she’ll be long gone.
He walked over to the freezer and started yanking stuff out.

When his phone signaled an incoming text, he snatched it up, and read it. “Of course he doesn’t need me,” he mumbled. “Great, now I’m startin’ to talk to myself out loud too.” He continued to grumble as he started throwing things into a pot, then jerked a pan down and added stuff to that as well.

A few minutes later, he ran upstairs to his bedroom to get out of his
Officer Copper
uniform, and he chuckled, remembering Bree calling him that. Five minutes after that, he was back in the kitchen and then he spent the next thirty minutes stirring this and adding that to the pots and pans he had cooking on the stove.

*  *  *

Bree felt…great! She was clean, and she didn’t smell like work any longer and that alone was enough to smile about. She had to admit, though, if only to herself, that that shower head setting with the pulsating jets worked wonders on her tired muscles. “If I could come home every morning to a shower like that, I’d be a happy camper.” She sighed.

In the eight months since she had gotten her job, today was the first day she had actually worked a day shift. She worked nights and liked that. Plus, it freed up her days for studying. But one of the girls that worked both days and nights was scheduled to work today and needed the time off. Bree switched with her, thinking that working during the day wouldn’t be much different than working at night. Boy was she wrong about that! There weren’t even half as many costumers and they tipped lousy. Yep, she decided she liked working nights a whole lot better.

After she tidied up the bathroom and finished dressing and putting all of her stuff back in her bag, she reached for the door knob and then froze.
He didn’t even once bother me, not even a knock on the door to see if I was ‘all right.’
“Wow, now that is a surprise.” She opened the door, half expecting him to be in the room ‘needing something.’ When she didn’t see him anywhere in the bedroom, she was a bit more than surprised.

She opened the door and started down the hall and was immediately assaulted by a delicious aroma. She walked through the living room on her way to the kitchen where she had seen him moving around. “What smells so dang good?” She breathed in and then stopped when he turned to look at her.

“Damn!” she mumbled. He had changed clothes. Now he had on an old pair of jeans that were probably blue once upon a time but had been washed so many times you couldn’t really call them blue anymore. You could—and she would—say they fit really,
really
well. He also had on a gray T-shirt that allowed her to see a little bit of a tattoo on his arm that peeked out of his sleeve when he moved, but she couldn’t see enough to know what kind of tattoo it was. She never really was into tattoos herself, but always found them interesting on other people. She often found herself wondering why they got what they did and what it meant to them. Now, how was she supposed to remind herself that he was a cop if he didn’t look like any cop she’d ever seen?

*  *  *

“Chicken puttanesca,” Draco replied as he turned back to the stove. “I thought you might be hungry.” Great, now he found himself inviting her to stay even longer.

“So you really can cook?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he answered her aloud,
but not for a woman,
he added to himself, still keeping his back to her.
Don’t look at her.
He scolded.
Too damned late for that.
Yeah, he made the mistake of turning around when she had asked what smelled so good.

Her hair was still wet but pulled back away from her face. She had changed clothes. Another T-shirt, but this one fit a helluva lot better and it didn’t quite reach the low waist of her jeans. Jeans that held all those curves.

“Thanks, but maybe I should just get going.” He heard her say, but he also heard the slight hesitation in her voice.

“Stay,” he said just a little too quickly.
Damn!
He could have just said ‘okay’ and she would be out of his house. Dammit, he didn’t want her to leave. Not quite yet. “Really. You got to eat, right? And you even said yourself that it smelled good. Trust me, it will taste even better,” he bragged and just couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

“Well. It does smell pretty good and if it tastes even half as good…” She let what she was saying fade off, so he turned his head to look back at her. She was standing by the table with her back to him, and he got another view of that so damn perfect ass. If he thought it was nice when she was bent over in that car in the parking lot earlier in sweatpants, it was nothing compared to what those jeans were now doing. He couldn’t stop his groan right as she turned around with something in her hand. “How did you get this? It’s not even out on DVD for another week and two days!” She was holding up the DVD he had borrowed from his brother.

“I got it from my brother,” he answered, but when she just stared at him like he had committed a crime, he felt like he needed to explain himself. “You know the video store on Main Street,
ME Movies & More
?” She still didn’t say a word, so he continued, “My brother and sister-in-law own it. Sometimes they get advance copies, but can’t rent them until the release date,” he simply told her and then turned back to the stove. “If it’s a decent ass movie, I’ll borrow it.” He finished quietly.

“Can you—I mean, is that allowed?” she asked, but before he could even respond or ask what she meant by ‘allowed,’ she continued speaking. “Wait…Ellie is your sister-in-law, and Marco is your
brother
?” She sounded completely shocked.