I Know You Love Me (17 page)

Allison never took her eyes off Drew when she addressed her brother. “Stephan, if you don't want me to sell this house when I move, you'll do as you're asked."

"Who the hell is this guy, and why are you letting him dictate orders?"

Allison grinned and ran her fingers down the side of Drew's face. “This guy is your soon-to-be brother-in-law."

Stephan stood before them, mouth agape in disbelief. “No way!"

Drew chuckled, wondering what was going through the kids mind right now. “Yes way. Isn't that right, baby?"

She pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Definitely, as soon as your little problem is resolved."

His little problem wasn't so little, but he refused to ruin tonight. Tonight it was nothing but happy news and kisses. “The judge is working on it as we speak. He'll call if anything urgent comes up.” He looked over Allison's shoulder at her brother. “So that means you keep your hands off her cell."

"Or what? You'll arrest me?"

The pompous, smart-assed answer made Drew want to shake the kid senseless. “Now there's a thought. I
could
do that, couldn't I?"

Stephan's eyes widened in terror as he looked from his sister to Drew and back. “What's he talking about Ali?"

Allison giggled and rested her head on Drew's shoulder. “Drew is the sheriff from the last audit I did. What can I say; he swept me off my feet with his charm."

Stephan stumbled back a step. “A cop. He's a cop? Have you told Mom and Dad yet? They will not like this one bit. You know how they feel about you and that ‘job'."

"They don't have to like it, Kid, as long as they accept it. Now, please get my bags!"

Stephan threw him a dirty look and turned toward the door. “Fine. I'm going."

Grinning at Drew's first victory, Allison started raining kisses up his neck. “Baby, you need to let go so that I can take off my coat and boots."

"Do it later; I want you to hold me now."

Laughing, he slipped his hands more firmly under her ass. “If you let me get comfortable..."

"We'll wind up in bed.” She finished with a grin.

He loved how she finished his sentence, and adored where her mind was. “I wasn't thinking
that
comfortable, at least not quite yet."

Blushing furiously, she slid out of his arms and rested her feet back on the floor. “Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

He was getting used to her quick topic changes. A stronger man than he would have given in and held her until she was ready to be let go. Drew needed a few minutes to calm his own desires before he took her back into his arms. Damned if the woman didn't make him hard just by smiling at him.

"I could use a nice cold beer."

"Then you get comfortable, and I'll get...I'll get you one of Stephan's beers. We can pick up a case tomorrow to replace it."

"Where do you want this, oh Master?” Stephan bowed in servitude, his eyes black as midnight in anger at being forced to do menial labor.

Grinning, Drew draped his jacket over the side of the nearest chair. “In Allison's bedroom, Runt."

"You're leaving when?"

Sitting down, Drew pulled off his boots and set them by the chair before answering Stephan's rude question.

"Not until your sister is all packed and ready to go. Not one second sooner."

"Good. I'll start collecting boxes right away. The sooner you're gone, the sooner things can get back to normal around here."

"Not so fast, Runt; we need to have a little talk. Sit!"

"You aren't my...."

Drew gave him the evil eye, they very same one he gave all his new recruits when they started to mouth off or got too big for their britches. “Sit!"

Stephan sat, his entire body stiff in anger.

"First, you will start showing your sister some respect. ‘Cause if you don't, I'll make sure she sells this place. You've been living off of her charity long enough. Second, I'm hiring professional movers to take care of all the packing and lifting."

Allison entered the room looked from one man to the other before narrowing her eyes at Drew in suspicion. “Sheriff, what are you up to?"

"You mean besides making your life easier?"

"Yes, besides that.” She replied laughing.

"I'm hiring professional movers to take care of all that hard, sweaty work. I'm also getting to know my new brother-in-law. We're having a civilized conversation."

"Why?"

"Must you always be so suspicious of my motives, woman?"

Giving him her no-nonsense look that he'd become awfully fond of, Allison narrowed her eyes at him again. “Yes, now answer my question."

"I want to spend time with you and packing is not my idea of fun."

Allison settled herself into his lap and kissed his cheek.

"Your beer, Sheriff."

"I can't begin to tell you how enjoyable it is to be called Sheriff while a beautiful woman is curled up in my lap."

Stephan had been sulking so seriously, it took him a few minutes to notice that Drew was drinking his beer.

"Hey, those are mine!"

"Bought with my money, Stephan. One more word out of you, and I'll let Drew finish the case without replacing them,” Allison chided with a frown.

Turning a petulant frown on Drew, Stephan crossed his arms and leaned back against the sofa. “This is all your fault! If you would have just stayed away, my life would be perfect right now."

How old is this kid —Five?
Drew wasn't impressed with the attitude he was getting. Allison never let anyone talk to her like that, so why was he getting away with it so often?

"Get used to it, Runt; I'm not going anywhere. Maybe it's time for you to grow up, get a place of your own, a job, a little responsibility."

"So, Drew, about these movers, what exactly will I be doing while they pack and load my things?"'

She was trying to change the subject so that her brother would stop looking at her with mutiny in his eyes. He'd drop the subject...for now.

"We, my dear sexy woman, will sit right here, like this, and you will inform the men what stays and what goes."

Snuggling deeper into his lap, Allison sighed contentedly. “Will they be handsome, these muscular men?"

Drew laughed. “Not a chance. And don't give me that look. Seriously, Allison, do I look daft enough to give myself some competition?"

Allison pouted her lips impishly and ran her finger down his chest. “No, Mr. Linebacker, you don't look daft at all."

Laughing, Drew tickled her sides until she was squirming with laughter. “I'm a quarterback, not a linebacker, you evil woman."

"Okay, okay. I know. It was Jimmy who was the linebacker. I knew that without even being told. He's got the body type for it..."

Groaning, Drew ran a gentle hand over his face in an attempt to get the image out of his brain that Allison had just implanted.

"Do me a favor."

"...more brawn than...."

"Allison! baby, please don't remind me about that, okay?"

"Sorry, what's the favor?” She asked laughing teasingly.

Holding her tight against his chest, he ran his hand up her thigh and under her skirt. “Don't ever mention that night again."

"I much prefer your body to his,” She whispered into his ear, starting to undo the buttons of his dress shirt.

"Ah gross, man, do you two have to do that here?"

"You still here, Runt?” Drew knew the kid was still there. He'd been testing him to see if he'd be rude to his sister or not.

"Stephan, it's my house, and I'll do what I please in it. Why don't you go out...for the night. I'd like to pretend I have some privacy for a change."

"Where am I supposed to go, Allison?"

Allison shrugged. “How about William's, or Nathan's, or Vince's? I mean, you have three guys on the go. Pick one."

Stephan refused to look at her. “We had a falling out."

Laughing, she shook her head. “They found out about each other, didn't they? I warned you not to play games with people's emotions, but what did I know, right? You can go visit our parents for all I care. Just get out of my house for the next twenty-four hours."

Stephan turned angry eyes on Drew. “This is all your fault. Why couldn't you just stay away?"

"A man needs to sleep, Runt, and I haven't had a decent night's sleep since my baby here left. Come to think of it, I'm exhausted. Let's go to bed, baby.” Allison giggled, the sound making him want to get her into bed more than ever.

"Now, Sheriff, you will behave yourself. It's early yet. How about I cook dinner, we can have some wine..."

Hearing Stephan's snort of disgust, Drew turned to face him. “Are you still here, Runt? Do you need help finding the door out?"

"If you two are just going to bed, why should I leave?"

The petulance in his voice told Drew that this boy had never worked a day in his life. Well, that stopped today. He'd talk to Allison about letting the boy find his feet on his own. It was time she let the boy fend for himself. “Who said we'd be in the bedroom?"

"Oh gross...I swear I'll never be able to sit in any room of this house again."

"You don't need to worry about it; we're taking the living room furniture.” He saw the argument in Stephan's eyes before the boy could say a word. “Not a word, or we'll take all the furniture!"

"Drew, honey, what about your furniture?"

"My stuff is pretty nasty, and it's our house now. I want you to feel at home. I'm not attached to my furniture, so I don't mind throwing it away."

"Not the blue chair; that one I want to keep."

"Baby, it won't match...” One thing he'd learnt from being a cop was when not to fight a losing battle. “You're right. I'll move it into the bedroom.” He knew why she wanted to keep it. His baby was sentimental about things. He was just learning loads of interesting information about her today. Things were finally starting to make sense.

"I'm out of here. Call me when it's safe to come back."

Allison ignored him. “Drew, about your bedroom set. Would you be terribly upset if I asked that we get rid of it?"

Drew shrugged. It was time to replace it anyway so he really didn't care other than the fact it was where he first held her in his arms. “Not particularly, but we do need a bed, baby."

"We can take mine—No men have ever slept in it, I swear—or we could go shopping for a new one."

Laughing, he hugged her close. “Let's go check this bed of yours before I decide. Tonight we sleep, tomorrow...ah baby, tomorrow..."

Allison got up off his lap and held out her hand to him. Drew took it and let her lead him into the back of the house and into the bedroom. What he saw there left him in awe of this tiny woman.

A four-poster solid mahogany wood king-sized bed sat dead center in the room. The bed was huge, and he was certainly looking forward to sharing it with her. There were two nightstands, one on either side of the bed, a wardrobe in the corner, and a vanity on the wall by the door that most probably led to the master bathroom. Turning her toward him, he pulled her into his arms and slowly started backing her toward the monstrosity of a bed.

"This will do. No wonder you said your bed was too big and cold."

"My fridge is coming too; yours is falling apart, and Jimmy says..."

"Can we please finish negotiating tomorrow?” At this point he had her firmly pinned beneath him on the bed, his lips tracing a pattern of kisses down her neck.

"What about food? I was going to..."

Drew chuckled and kissed her lips to quiet her. She was babbling nervously. He always did think nervous babble was cute, especially on this woman. “If we get hungry, Sweetheart, we can always order in."

Allison sighed and slipped her hands into his shirt. “I told you that once you got comfortable, we'd end up in bed."

So she had, so she had. Smart woman, his fiancee; she already knew what he liked.

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Drew woke feeling anxious and confused. Opening his eyes, he made a mental note that the sun had set, and the only light in the room came from the clock radio next to the bed. That answered his first question—it was night out.
You know how to handle this, Drew. Just assess your surroundings
.

He seriously hated not knowing where he was when he woke up. When Sam had left him, he'd found himself waking in many a strange place, from strange women's beds to alleys behind the bars in which he'd drunk himself into a stupor the night before. He'd long since come to terms with her abandonment, but every now and then when he had a new conquest, he'd forget where he was.

To keep his sanity intact, he'd stopped spending the night. Most had no issues with that rule, but a few would try to guilt him into staying, thinking if he stayed he'd realize he was in love with them. That had never happened, nor had he ever frequented their beds again after those occurrences.

Then he'd met a fiery little woman who wouldn't give him the time of day and refused to share his bed, and fell head-over-heels. Now he couldn't sleep if she's wasn't in his arms. Jimmy was right; he was a love sick fool.

What woke me?

Closing his eyes, he let his senses wander through the room. Soft bed beneath him, with a warm body over him that smelled slightly of rose petals. A grin lit his face. Allison.

A sound from the other room caught his attention and had him slipping out of bed quietly to investigate. They were supposed to be alone, and he planned to have a very intimate conversation with whoever had the bad taste to break into his woman's house. Especially tonight.

"Drew, what's wrong?"

"Go back to sleep, baby, I just heard some noise. New house, and I'm not sure what's normal yet.” Snuggling against his pillow, she smiled sleepily. Lord, she looked seductive when she did that.

"It's probably Stephan sneaking in, thinking we wouldn't notice."

"Your brother. Right, I'd forgotten all about the runt. Baby, I'm still going to check. I'll never get back to sleep if I don't."

She sat up sleepily, the blanket falling away, revealing her very sexy naked body. He still couldn't believe he'd been able to restrain himself this long with that kind of perfection in his arms, but like her, he'd compromised. She willingly slept naked, and he willingly waited impatiently for their wedding night. The other option was too horrible to even consider.