Fierce- Drake (Fierce Family Series Book 3)

by Natalie Ann

  “If they like her,” Drake reminded his brother. “How many times have we dated someone and Mom never made a comment.”

  “Not making a comment doesn’t mean Mom doesn’t like the person,” Noah argued.

  “Really? How many times does Mom ask about meeting someone Wyatt is dating from work?”

  “Never,” Noah said. “He’s always dating chicks for fun. He tells her that.”

  “Which means she doesn’t want to meet them. No reason to get close,” Drake said. “What about Jade’s last boyfriend. Her last serious one a few years ago. What was his name? Cody?”

  “Oh shit,” Drake said. “You’re right. Jade would bring Cody over and Mom barely looked at him, let alone held a conversation with him. When Jade broke up with him, Mom was all about what an ass he was.”

  “He was a douche,” Noah said.

  “Did Mom ever say anything about Marie?” Drake asked. “She’d met her before.”

  “She met her once and then never asked me to bring her to dinner or anything after that.”

  Drake started to laugh. “Oh my God. Is it possible Mom knows before us if a relationship is going to work out?”

  “Who knows? We are all single,” Noah said.

  “But Mom has liked women we’ve dated in the past. You know that.”

  “True,” Noah said. “And how did we get on this topic? Mom has always stayed out of our affairs. She’s nothing like Aunt Jolene.”

  “Thank God,” Drake said. “Even Aunt Diane has always been on the boys about who they dated and wanting to set them up. It’s funny how Sam and Bryce found people completely opposite of who Aunt Diane has always said they should end up with.”

  “All I can say is be happy Mom and Dad let us live our lives. And speaking of that. Enjoy your time with Kara. Go back to being the guy who floats in the wind. Why are you planning so much in advance with her when you never have with anyone else before?”

  “Beats the hell out of me,” he said. But the truth was, he knew. Kara just wound him up and spun him out like no one else ever had. And as much as he hated it, he actually wanted to experience more of it.

  Dig Her Feet In

  Monday morning Kara got to work nice and early and went into her office, booted up her computer, and dove right in.

  Nothing was going to change her routine just because she’d slept with Drake.

  Or that she was waiting to sleep with him again.

  No, not sleeping. Sex. He wanted her to spend the night. Sleep together. Next to each other. Cuddle.

  She wasn’t ready for that. She was actually surprised he was.

  Of course she was using the word cuddle. He probably wasn’t like that.

  And when he got slightly annoyed with her because she didn’t want to stay the night, well, that made her dig her feet in even more.

  It was just the third date. Sure, it’d been almost a month of them “dating” but she wasn’t ready for that sort of intimacy.

  Or maybe she got cold feet because she planned on having sex with him. But what they had was far from sex in her mind.

  It was exciting. It was thrilling. It was mind numbing and body tingling.

  And it was intimate.

  Not that first time. That was wild. That was fun. That was a lot of what she’d hoped for.

  The second time. Drake really took control. He touched and tasted pretty much every part of her body. Nothing escaped his attention.

  When he was done, she felt...softness. Tenderness. Caring. Dare she say she felt loved?

  And that was the deciding factor for her to not stay the night, making the excuse she had to get home to Tyson.

  She looked up when she heard a knock at her door to see Garrett Fierce standing there. If there was heat filling her face over what she’d done with Garrett’s son, she was reaching into the bucket of control and hoping to hell it was full of ice cubes.

  “Morning,” she said to him.

  “You’re always here so bright and early,” Garrett said back. “I like that about you. You’re eager to get to work.”

  “I like what I do. I enjoy working here.”

  “That’s good to know,” he said. “Drake isn’t driving you insane?”

  What the heck? Did Drake tell his father when they agreed they weren’t telling anyone for a month? She didn’t even want to agree to the month but knew she had to give a little. His family meant the world to him and even though she didn’t know where things might go with Drake, she wasn’t going to start off on the wrong foot either.

  “Why would you ask that?” She figured it might be best to play dumb.

  “The budget project Grant and I have you working on. He’s not giving you a hard time about it, is he? I know you two met last week, but I felt he was dragging his feet on it.”

  “He’s fine. He’s been out of town and busy, as he keeps reminding me. I’ve got an abundance of patience when it comes to people who are trying to brush me off.”

  Garrett burst out laughing. “I like you, Kara. Don’t let him brush you off too much. I told Drake when you two were done with getting things set up, I’ll have you meet with Jade and Ryder and a few other engineers.”

  “Why not have me meet with them first?” she asked. “Or I can meet with them the same time.”

  “Drake said the same thing. I told him no. I want it set up with him. He brings in the most, he knows what he’s doing.”

  “He most certainly does,” she said back and tried not to smile, but she lost control and it slipped through. Since she didn’t smile often in the office it might look suspicious if she did with that tongue and cheek reply. Besides, she wasn’t talking about work when she made that comment.

  “I’ll let you get back to work,” Garrett said. “And if I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it again. You’re a valuable asset to our firm.”

  “Thank you,” she said. Then she wondered if she was putting that at risk by dating Drake.

  Didn’t she say she worried that maybe Drake’s family wouldn’t like her? It seemed they did at work at least.

  If she and Drake were still together in a month, she’d find out what they thought of her personally.

  Right now though, she wasn’t going to focus on that. Rather she’d get her work done and wait to see how long it’d take for Drake to seek her out.

  She’d told him they needed to keep their distance at work, but if she knew one thing about him, he wasn’t going to listen.

  And three hours later when she was walking down the hall toward the file room to find some old invoices, she felt someone grab her arm and pull her into the maintenance closet. If it wasn’t for the scent of Drake that she’d recognized, she would have screamed.

  She didn’t have a chance to do anything other than hold on when his mouth landed on hers.

  She was pinned against the wall, his hands on both sides of her, his mouth going to work like it had on Saturday night and there was nothing she could do other than feel her body yielding so easily to him.

  When his mouth left hers, it was only to move to her neck and then her ears. “I can’t believe I waited this long to come to you.”

  “I can’t believe you just did what you did now,” she said, giving him a little shove and coming to her senses.

  “Please. Don’t try to put up a token resistance now,” he said, laughing at her. “I won’t believe it.”

  She dropped her shoulders. No use pretending she didn’t enjoy his mouth on hers. “Why did you do this? I thought we had an agreement.”

  “No one saw me. I was careful. Do you really think we are going to be able to work together every day and not get our hands on each other?”

  “You’re going to have to try,” she said. “I don’t need to be talked about.”

  “No one is talking about you.”

  “Your father was in my office this morning.”

  “So?” he said.

  “He wanted to know if you were driving me insane. I thought you’d told
him. You didn’t, did you?”

  “Of course not. I’ll honor what we say.”

  “Bet you told Noah.” When his face flushed she slapped his chest with her hand. “I knew it.” How could he do this to her?

  “Relax. I told you how it is with us. He came over on Sunday. He drove by on Saturday because he’d broken up with his girlfriend and wanted to talk.”

  “And my car was there?” Why didn’t she think about that before?

  “Yes. The next morning he came in and asked if the coast was clear. I tried to play it off, but I didn’t want to lie. He won’t say anything. Trust me, he won’t.”

  “I don’t have a choice but to trust you.”

  He leaned down and kissed her softly. That tenderness again she’d felt the other night and she needed to get control of this. She couldn’t lose herself this fast to him.

  “Nothing is going to happen. No one is going to find out until the one month is up. The one month from Saturday,” he said. “Because if I really wanted to push it, we’ve been dating almost a month already.”

  She pinched at his arm. “Don’t play those games with me.”

  He laughed. “Damn, I like this fiery side to you.”

  “You’re the only one that brings it out.”

  “Glad to hear that,” he said. “Noah claims I’m always annoyed when I talk about you.”

  “So you are talking about me?” she asked.

  “You know what I mean. I was in a mood on Sunday because you wouldn’t stay the night. I don’t know what the big deal was.”

  “The big deal was someone already saw my car at your place. Imagine how much worse it would have been if it was there all night.”

  “The next time you can pull in the garage. Or better yet, I’ll stay at your place. Friday night, you can cook me dinner and I’ll stay.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to cook for you,” she said, angling her head.

  “It was on the other piece of paper. It’s only fair, don’t you think?”

  “Tyson sleeps with me. He might not like you on the bed there too.”

  “Only one way to find out, isn’t there?” he said. He moved away from her and opened up the door, looked out and coughed. “Hey, Peter, did you catch that game last night?”

  Damn him. He had to get the last word in. At least he gave her a heads up someone was out there. Now she wondered how long she’d have to stay in here before she could venture out on her own.

  ***

  “Did you find anything out?” Carolyn asked him at the end of the day. He’d barely been able to get in the house before she ambushed him.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Well, that isn’t much of an answer,” she said, trailing behind him as he made his way to their bedroom to change out of his work clothes. “Give me details of what you did find out.”

  “Kara was there bright and early this morning like always. I decided to stop in and just chat with her. I asked if Drake was driving her insane.”

  “Why would you ask that? You know it’s her driving him insane.”

  “I don’t know about that,” he said. “But she stilled when I asked. Like there might be another reason behind my question. She even asked for clarification.”

  “Good. That’s good. Do you think they are spending some time together and we don’t know about it? Nah. Drake wouldn’t do that. He’s not one for keeping secrets.”

  “Again, I’m not sure. I said I was asking about the project. She said she had an abundance of patience for people who brush her off,” he said.

  His wife laughed. “Drake does tend to do that when he’s frustrated. So she isn’t one to give up. Even better.”

  “How is it better if it’s only work related? It will just annoy him more.”

  “That’s true.”

  “But then there was something else. I made a comment about Drake knowing what he is doing and she smiled. A genuine one that really reached her eyes—and trust me when I say I don’t see that look often—and she agreed with that statement. There was something going on in her mind. I’m just not sure what.”

  “Did you go talk to Drake?”

  “I tried. Every time I went by his office he wasn’t in it or was on the phone with someone.”

  “So? That never stopped you from talking to him before,” she said, crossing his arms. He loved when his wife got riled up.

  “I didn’t have an important enough reason for interrupting him. This has to be planned out better. Give me time. I’m new at this.”

  “I think I need to step in. He won’t expect it at all.”

  “And what are you going to do? Ask about Kara like you did before? Invite her to dinner and give it all away? I thought you were better than that.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, causing him to laugh. “Why is this so hard? Diane didn’t have this hard of a time.”

  “Because she knew the girls she picked. Or knew about them. You don’t know Kara. Only from the few times you’ve seen her at the office.”

  “Then I need to come in again. I think it’s time I baked some cookies and hand delivered them to everyone.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Have fun with that.”

  “No one will tell me to leave their office. Your staff like it when I bring in goodies.”

  “They do. But Kara isn’t someone to sit and chat with anyone.”

  “We’ll see about that!”

  So Big and Handsome

  “I still don’t think this is a good idea,” Kara said when she and Drake sat down to eat at a pub close to the office. “What if someone sees us?”

  “Then we say it’s a work meeting. I have them a lot. You know that. Would it make you feel better if I charged it to the firm? You can even take the receipt back with you.”

  “No,” she said. “That’s not right.” What was wrong with him?

  “We can talk about work for a few minutes. Then it would be legit. Not that I need anything to be legit. You know that.”

  She did. “That’s not the point. And again, it’s not right.”

  “Fine,” he said. “We’ll do it your way.”

  “We said we were keeping this a secret though. Going out to dinner after work is hard to keep it a secret if we are in a public place.”

  Even if she did cave to this dinner. She saw him daily, and he always made an attempt to walk by her office or show up where she was without her knowing. They texted and talked too without anyone seeing them.

  But there was a part of her that just didn’t want to wait until Friday night to be alone with him.

  “We’ve been out to dinner twice already. And to the gardens and bowling. Or have you forgotten about that?”

  She hadn’t but wasn’t thinking about it back then. Maybe she should have been. Now that she’d slept with Drake it just felt more real to her. More invested.

  “That was different,” she argued.

  “You just like to be contradictory,” he said. “Why was it different?” She looked away, then picked up her menu and focused on that. “Oh. I get it. Because we’ve seen each other naked.”

  “Shhhh,” she said. “Lower your voice.”

  He laughed at her and then stopped suddenly, his eyes staring over her shoulder. She turned and let out a groan.

  “What are you two kids doing here?” Noah asked and then took a seat with their other brother, Wyatt across from them at the table.

  “Sorry,” Drake said.

  “I told you this was a bad idea.” She wanted to grind her teeth. She knew Noah was aware of what was going on between her and Drake, but now Wyatt would know, if he didn’t already. She didn’t know what to believe at this point.

  “Kara, you remember my brother Noah, I’m sure. And this is Wyatt. Have you guys ever met before? Wyatt doesn’t come into the office often.”

  She knew who Wyatt was. It was obvious the three of them were brothers and she’d seen pictures of Wyatt in the office. Not just Drake’s office, but Garrett’s and even J
ade’s. But she had met Wyatt in person at the New Year’s Eve party. A party she hadn’t wanted to go to but was talked into by others in her department.

  Sure, she’d had fun. She’d mingled and stayed until midnight, then had gone home alone.

  Drake was alone that night too. She remembered. Actually, Sam might have been the only one that had a date.

  The more she thought of it, the more she realized that she’d been paying attention to Drake more than she’d let on for months.

  “We met at the New Year’s party,” Wyatt said. “I never forget a pretty face. Have a work meeting?”

  Noah started to laugh. Drake rolled his eyes and answered, “No,” the same time Kara said, “Yes.”

  “Well?” Wyatt asked. “What is it?”

  “You idiot,” Noah said. “Do you really think it’s a work meeting?”

  “No way. Drake on a date with someone he works with? Wow, I thought that was only me.”

  She wasn’t sure what to make of that comment. She knew Wyatt dated women at the hospital all the time. But he worked at Duke Cancer Center. The number of people employed there was massive compared to the close to a hundred people at his father’s firm.

  And since Wyatt was a doctor and spent a lot of hours there, that was probably where his best bet was to find someone to date.

  “Don’t compare us,” Drake said. “Kara will get right up and walk out the door if you do that. I had a hard enough time getting her here to begin with.”

  Noah laughed this time. “Your secret is safe. Damn, I’m hungry.” He lifted his arm and waved the waitress over. “Can we get two more menus?”

  “You’re joining us?” Kara asked, not sure what to make of this. She felt a little outnumbered and almost claustrophobic. It really should be illegal for these three brothers to be so big and handsome. A woman’s heart could take a beating just seeing them all sitting together with identical smirks on their faces.

  “Of course,” Wyatt said. “I don’t get to see Drake often. We called to see if he wanted to come out with us tonight, but he said he had plans. Guess we know what those plans were.”