“Yes, ma'am.” He smirked, right before he closed the distance, his smile disappeared and he melted into my lips.
Drew being Drew, I was waiting for him to make his usual dominant move with every twist and turn of his mouth that sent my mind into another universe, but it never came. He never pulled away. There wasn't a fiery explosion of need or anything that matched up to the rage he'd shown us all just moments before. No picking me up and slamming meagainst a wall or planting my ass on the nearest hard surface. There was nothing but an eerie stillness in him that I hadn't known he was capable of holding before now. As soon as his shoulders relaxed and his body sank into mine, it felt like a new, defining moment between the two of us.
He didn’t need to say the words. The gentle but firm way he was holding me, mixed with the passionate way his tongue massaged mine with such tenderness and assurance was more than enough. He was showing rather than saying. He was making everything palpable again. He was being my Drew.
I meant what I said to him. It was said in the heat of the moment, but that didn't make it any less true. I chose him, and I would choose him every time when faced with this situation. If someone had asked me six months ago if I could see myself in love with Drew Tucker, I was pretty sure I would have laughed at them. But back then, I hadn't known the person behind all those walls he’d put up. Now I did. I knew him and I was smart enough to hold on with both hands, literally and figuratively.
He pulled away from the kiss slowly, his thick, muscular arms circling around my neck and pulling me close where he buried his face in my hair and growled under his breath. I'd never been so relieved to hear that sound, because for me, it was him coming to the realization that I wasn't going anywhere.
Breathing him in, I relaxed against his chest, my hands hooking around his biceps as I lowered my feet flat to the floor and let him keep me upright. The adrenaline that had been keeping me going was waning, and the safety of being in Drew's arms spoke volumes.
“Please, don't count me out when things get difficult orscary.”
“Please, don't ask me to make promises I don't know I can keep,” he breathed back against me.
“I’m not asking for promises. Just remember, as fragile as I look, I’m tough under that. I’ve had to be. All I’m asking is that you don’t give up on me. I can’t lose you, too.”
Drew didn't answer right away, instead lifting his head away from mine as he carefully brushed my hair back and looked down on me. The sound of others approaching the door had him looking over me, before he turned back to assess all the damage that surrounded us. “I'll see what I can do,” he said through a heavy sigh, his eyes darkening as the shame he so obviously felt took over.
I smiled and nodded in agreement. For now that was good enough. I’d bought myself enough time to prove I could handle what was thrown at me. I just had to not think about what I’d lost in that fire and I’d be fine.
Wrapping an arm around his waist and moving to his side, I nodded at the door. It was better we go out there than them come into the kitchen. We needed to come up with some kind of plan, which meant the mess, and the aftermath of it, could wait.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Drew
“Everything alright in here?” Deeks asked, poking his head around the door before giving either of us a chance to move. Even though Ayda was by my side and I’d managed to calm a little, my body was still tensing every time someone made an unexpected move near me.
Running my hand up and down her arm, I nodded tightly towards him, glancing down at her briefly before guiding us both towards the others. There was a part of me that wanted to crouch down in front of her and double, triple check that she knew what she’d just said. But it was all washed away by the look she gave me as she peeked up through her lashes and pulled at my waist even harder.
Ignoring the mess I was leaving behind, I flared my nostrils and took a step out towards the others, pulling in a huge breath to try and regain a sense of power or control.
When we entered the room, there were still three men standing in front of us. Deeks had his hands on his waist, his face relaxed, even though it was clear he was deep in thought. Kenny was twitching. His hands ran up and down over the back of his head and neck a dozen times while I stared at him, and I caught his glance at Ayda, too. Part of me felt almostsorry for the guy. It was obvious he cared for her. I was choosing to see that as a good thing.
Then there was Tate. Tate, who was standing taller than the two of them, his chest puffed out and a new redness to his cheeks as he raised his chin to the ceiling, trying to look down on me while he bounced on the balls of his feet. I’d seen that look before. I’d worn it myself as a kid. That was the look of a boy who was about to turn into a man. That was the look of a child that saw his life through adult eyes for the first time. It was the look of hunger, and all I could hope, as I curled my fingers tighter around Ayda’s arm, was that she was still too shell-shocked to notice it.
“I’d have had more luck getting a newborn to sleep,” Deeks muttered quietly, nodding over to Tate before he rolled his eyes.
“Like I could sleep after that,” Tate grumbled.
“It’s okay,” Ayda said quietly, nodding at her brother in understanding, some kind of silent communication going on between them in little gestures.
“Do what you gotta do, kid.” I smiled flatly.
Deeks moved forward, closing the gap between us and glancing over his shoulder at the other two as he did. When he made it so he was close enough, he brought a hand to his face and rubbed it along his chin. “The others will be here soon.”
“Good,” I responded quietly. “Any attacks on The Hut?”
“Not one. But they had it locked up nice and early. CCTV ain’t showing anything on the streets, either.”
Slowly blowing out all the air in my cheeks, I gave him another small nod and looked up into his eyes, then at the others. Deeks looked tired. More tired than I’d ever seen him, but then so did everyone. Tate looked like he’d gained at leastanother three years since he played on the field that night, and Kenny… Kenny looked about ready to pass out. That was the trouble with adrenaline. It got you so far, and while that shit was pumping through you, you may as well have been Superman. But once it started to roll away, once that buzz beneath your skin started to fade and the tight rush in your stomach eased up, the come down was shit. Everything hurt more. Everything hit harder. The reality of what could have happened sunk in, until all you were left with was a reminder of your own mortality, and a throbbing pain on your skin from where death just tapped you on the shoulder.
“You guys did good out there,” I said quietly. “If it hadn’t been for what y’all did, I can’t even begin to fucking think where we’d be right now. I owe you for keeping each other alive.” My eyes drifted down to Ayda, tucked under my arm. I couldn’t say what I really needed to in front of three men. Anything like that was sacred to her and her alone. I’d just have to wait and bide my time to tell her what was strangling me.
“That’s what brothers do,” Kenny spoke up beside me.
“That’s what brothers do,” Deeks repeated.
