“I’m good, babe, and I know you like it, I know you like what I can do to you but that isn’t it for you with me and now I know it never was. And for me, you’re you. That meant I needed to engage.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“What?” I whispered.
He kept going. “I did the normal shit, looked into you and I found out Ginger was your sister. I found out you showed too much skin when you went out. I found out you talk to strangers like they’re your best friends. I found out you don’t live in the real world, you live in a dream world where you don’t pay a fuckuva lot of attention to what’s happening around you and you make questionable life decisions and I found out you gave what you have to give only to me. Because of that, it became clear you needed looking after. So I did.”
“I can look after myself, Hawk,” I partially lied. This was true in normal circumstances it wasn’t when I was getting shot at.
“Bullshit,” he replied.
I wasn’t going to fight that, not now, not with bullets flying so I decided to fight something else.
“You didn’t complain about too much skin the other night,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, babe, that’s because your ass was in my ride and on my arm the other night and your focus was entirely on me.”
Hmm. That was a good answer.
I kept at it. “I don’t live in a dream world.”
“Gwen, you took one look at me, decided I was the one, I said four words to you and you took me to your goddamned house and your goddamned bed and didn’t say word fuckin’ one when I kept comin’.”
He had a point there.
Time to retreat.
“I’m hungry and I need to go to the bathroom,” I announced.
His fingers flexed on my neck again when he declared, “Christ, you’re a pain in my ass.”
“Okay, then let me use your bathroom and then your phone to call a taxi so I can go to a hotel.”
He glared down at me and flexed his fingers at my neck again but this time he used them to pull me in and up.
“You say I don’t listen to you but you haven’t been listenin’ to me. We’re gonna ride this wave, you and me, what we got, what we had the night before last, even, fuck me, what we have right now. Don’t think for a second you can give me the sweet taste you gave me yesterday morning and then freak out and think you can cut ties. And while we’re doin’ it you’re not getting filled with holes, kidnapped, tortured and mutilated for your fuckin’ sister, not on my watch.”
I had to admit, that last part gave me some relief and made my belly get squishy. Though I didn’t admit this verbally, I just stared.
He held my stare then he sighed, his hands relaxed on my neck and I was able to move away two inches but that was all I got.
“I’m callin’ one of my boys to get Imperial and then you’re callin’ your father and then I’m callin’ Lawson so he can come here and talk to you about what happened at your house today. What do you want from Imperial?”
I was hungry so I wasn’t going to bicker. And anyway, Imperial was the best Chinese food in Denver. It would be a crime against nature to bicker when Imperial was on offer.
“Sesame chicken and hot and sour soup,” I told him then added, “oh, and crab cheese wonton.”
He stared at me then he asked, “Anything else?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“I’m usually too full to try their desserts so I don’t know if they’re good so if you don’t have a roll of cookie dough in your fridge, it wouldn’t be unwelcome if one of the commandos swung by King Soopers and got some. Chocolate chip or sugar cookie.”
“I don’t have cookie dough in my fridge.”
I knew this. The morning before I’d checked in his fridge and he had yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh fruit, slices of smoked salmon and veggies. It was a wasteland in there. He didn’t even have condiments.
He studied my face while I thought this then remarked, “Babe, it isn’t a punishable offense not to have cookie dough.”
“Maybe not but you don’t have condiments.”
“Ketchup and cottage cheese don’t go real good together.”
I felt my lip curl in disgust then I watched his lips twitch in amusement as his hands at my neck gentled entirely and one thumb stroked the skin under my ear.
“You good?” he asked softly.
“About what? You and me? My living room being a disaster? Or war with Tack which, by the way, I should note, is not my fault.”
“Any of that,” he answered.
“No,” I told him truthfully.
His lips twitched again and advised, “You need to quit bein’ such a smartass.”
“Why?”
He went on like I didn’t speak. “At the same time bein’ so cute.”
“That I’ll agree with, cute is becoming a problem.”
The lip twitch turned into a grin. “You gave Lawson sweet and cute and you gave Tack smartass and cute.” His fingers flexed again and pulled up as his head came down while he muttered, “Lucky for me, I’m the only one who’s got it all.”
“Hawk,” I said when his lips were against mine.
“What?” he asked.
“I need you to feed me.”
“Right,” he murmured then brushed his mouth against mine but when he pulled away he didn’t go very far and his eyes locked to mine.
“Don’t try dodgin’ me again, Gwen,” he warned and I tensed at his tone. “Your friend’s man is a cop or not, I’ll come and get you. You almost got dead today. That’s twice in a week. That shit’s gonna stop and it isn’t Tack who’s gonna make it stop for you. Got me?”
“I’ll quit being a smartass if you quit being so bossy.”
“I see you didn’t take me seriously.”
“I’m being perfectly serious.”
“It’s impossible for you not to be a smartass.”
“Likewise for you and bossy.”
He stared into my eyes.
Stalemate.
Then he let go, took half a step back and dug in his cargos for his phone.
He handed it to me and ordered, “Call your Dad.”
I took it and muttered, “Bossy.”
Hawk sighed.
I flipped the phone open and called my Dad.
Chapter Seventeen
Protect Gwendolyn Kidd Duties
I woke up and I knew I was in Hawk’s bed.
I stretched out an arm and found the bed empty so I opened my eyes and listened. I could hear nothing.
I rolled and looked across the wide expanse of his warehouse to see the sun shining in everywhere. I tucked my hands under my cheek and as I let sleep drift from me, I let thoughts drift in about the night before.
Dad was freaked and Meredith more so. Firebombs were bad enough, automatic weapons ratcheted it up to a new level of bad. Especially when reports came in that my car was at the front of the house and my purse and bag were on the couch “at the scene”. My disappearance wasn’t handled very well and though it wasn’t my fault, I felt badly about it.
What was more than a little frightening about this was that when Cam got the call at dispatch and when she couldn’t contact me, she contacted Dad and Dad immediately got hold of Hawk. Somewhere along the line they’d shared phone numbers and Dad had become “Bax” to Hawk and Hawk had become Protector and Knower of or Go-to-Guy to Find out All Things Gwen to Dad.
I wasn’t sure this was good.
I handed over Hawk’s phone after I spoke with Dad and Meredith and he made a call and gave his orders. These were carried out to the letter and they included more than an order for Chinese. I knew this when commandos arrived and there were three of them. They brought Imperial but they also brought King Soopers bags that when I unpacked them I found had diet cola, diet grape, two percent milk (Hawk only had skim and, seriously, what was the point of skim? – this a thought I relayed to him prior to his call to the commandos), eggs, bacon, lunchmeat, br
ead, a variety of chips, two rolls of chocolate chip cookie dough, two of sugar cookie dough and a plethora of condiments.
Hmm.
They also brought my desk and when I say that I mean they brought my desk – my chair, my desk, everything on it and in it, my computer all the way down to my box of Kleenex. They boxed it all up and delivered it, putting the desk in the opposite corner to Hawk’s, setting the boxes around it but hooking up the computer.
They also brought my purse and, scarily, my two big suitcases. Yes, two of them. Upon inspection I found the suitcases packed carefully and full. Clothes, underwear, nightgowns, shoes, face products, my sweet pea lotion and bath gel and a good selection of makeup. This would have stunned me, the ability of commandos to pack, but I was told by Hawk that Elvira had been activated to do my packing. I wasn’t certain how I felt about an unknown woman going through my stuff but it couldn’t be denied the results were excellent.
Lawson showed and I ate my food while I gave my statement. Lawson didn’t look happy and this had to do with the fact that I’d endured a drive-by, the fact that Tack essentially abducted and detained me afterwards and the fact that he was taking my statement while I was sitting cross-legged in one of Hawk’s recliners in his seating area while spooning up hot and sour soup. How I knew this, I didn’t know, I just knew it.
When Lawson was done, he came to me and bent over me, getting close right in front of a stony faced Hawk.
“Head up, sweetheart, eyes open, stay safe,” he whispered.
“Okay,” I whispered back because I figured that was good advice and because he called me “sweetheart”.
He tucked my hair behind my ear and gave me a smile then he straightened and gave Hawk an unhappy look. Then he left.
I spent the rest of the night sorting out my cell and suitcases while Hawk talked on his phone. I didn’t unpack clothes but I did unpack toiletries and I populated Hawk’s shower, shelves and medicine cabinet with girlie shit.
I didn’t ask if I could do this. He wanted me there, I was going to be there.
Though he also didn’t complain, comment or even give me a look and he knew I’d done it because I had a lot of girlie shit, it was everywhere, and he’d visited the bathroom.
I didn’t know what to make of that so I decided to ignore it and then let it freak me out at random which was when stuff I buried that I should deal with usually freaked me out.
I had twenty-seven missed calls and fourteen texts, all from a freaked out Dad, Meredith, Cam, Tracy, Leo and even Troy. Word had got round about the drive-by. I returned Cam and Tracy’s calls but I shied away from Troy. I hadn’t had any cookie dough and Imperial was good but it didn’t set me up to deal with Troy.
I crashed while Hawk was still on the phone. He was either busy or giving me space and since he had so much of it, that was easy to do.
I woke momentarily when he joined me in bed and curled into me. The instant his arm went tight around my belly and he settled, I fell back to sleep.
Now was now and I didn’t know what to do now. There were too many things to contemplate and just the thought of them exhausted me and I’d just woken up.
I sighed and as I did, my cell rang.
Saved by the cell.
It was on the nightstand, I reached out, grabbed it and I turned the display to see I had a call from Tracy.
I flipped it open and put it to my ear. “Hey babe.”
“Hi, how are you doing, honey?”
She was tweaked and my conversation with her last night didn’t assuage her tweakedness. Then again, most people lived their whole lives not having a friend who got caught in a drive-by then disappeared for hours because she was imprisoned in a motorcycle club’s compound.
“I’m okay, I just woke up,” I told her, shifted and lifted, leaning against the headboard and I saw movement so I looked down the bed to see Hawk at the top of the stairs. Bare chest again. Bare feet again. Track pants again. Eyes on me.
Mm.
“Are you sleeping all right?” she asked.
“Yes,” I answered as Hawk approached the bed.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yeah, honey, I’m sure. Really, like I said last night, I’m okay,” I replied as Hawk made it to the bed then, whoosh, the bedclothes were pulled down.
My body locked in surprise.
Oh boy.
“Are things okay with Hawk?” she asked.
“Um…” I answered as I watched Hawk bend then his fingers curled around my ankles, he yanked me down the bed until my back was to it again then he spread my legs.
Oh boy!
“Gwennie?” Tracy called.
Before I could move a muscle, Hawk put a knee to the bed then he shifted his big frame between my legs.
Oh boy!
“Trace, I think…” I trailed off when Hawk’s hands went to my hips, pushing up my nightshirt and then his head bent and he kissed the skin just above my panties.
My belly lurched in a good way.
“You think what?” Tracy asked then went on quickly without waiting for me to answer. “Okay, I’m going to say it and I know you don’t want to hear it but I’m glad you’re there. I know you’re confused about things but I think this speaks volumes that he…”
She kept speaking but I wasn’t listening because Hawk’s hands kept pushing up my nightshirt and his body was going with it, raining kisses on the skin of my belly and midriff as he went.
“You know?” Tracy asked.
“Um… Trace, I gotta go.” And I did because my nightshirt was under my breasts, Hawk’s hands had spanned the undersides and my nipples had gone hard and tingly.
“Is everything all right?”
Oh yeah, everything was all right. Everything was just fine.
“I’ll call you later,” I told her but it was breathy because Hawk was now kissing me between my breasts.
“You sound funny,” Tracy noted.
“I’m fine, babe, I’ll call you later.”
“Okay, I’ll let you go. Bye, babe.”
“Bye,” I gasped because both Hawk’s hands slid up and both Hawk’s thumbs did a pass over my hard, tingly nipples.
I flipped the phone shut. “Hawk,” I breathed and then he moved fast.
The nightshirt went all the way up, forcing my arms with it then I was free of it. He tossed it aside, his hand slid up my arm, grabbed my phone, tossed it to the nightstand then it came to my face, his fingers at my cheek, his thumb curving around my jaw, he positioned me and kissed me.
Oh… boy.
I was primed for the kiss, way primed, so I allowed it and kissed him back. It sucked he was such a great kisser, which meant I had zero control, but at that point I was not complaining. Not at all.
His hands went down to my hips, over my bottom, down the backs of my thighs pulling and sliding up at the same time until they were behind my knees and then he yanked them high.
I held on, one arm around his back, one hand cupped on his head.
His mouth broke from mine and his lips slid to my ear as I lifted my head and kissed the sleek skin of his shoulder.
“Bet, just with that, you’re ready for me,” he muttered in my ear.
It was an unbelievably arrogant thing to say but he would win that bet.
“Let’s see how fast I can get you to come for me,” he suggested, my body twitched because it was intrigued by this suggestion then his hand slid down my belly and right in.
Oh yeah.
My back arched and a whimper slid out of my throat on the word, “Baby.”
His fingers slid through the wetness between my legs. “Ready for me,” he growled.
Then his fingers moved; they did this in demanding, delicious ways and Hawk proved he could get me to come for him really fast and also really, really hard.
I was in the middle of a very sweet orgasm when his hand disappeared, his body disappeared, my panties were hauled down my legs and they disappeared then his mouth was there.
/>
Oh yeah.
“Baby,” I gasped, my fingers gliding over his cropped hair.
He was good at this because he liked doing it. This was not a chore for Hawk. This was not something to get out of the way or done to gain brownie points. This was something he got something out of, nearly as much as me.
Then he added fingers to the workings of his mouth and tongue.
Yes!
My hips surged up. “Hawk,” I moaned.
God, this was good. It was so good orgasm two shifted in but he didn’t stop, his mouth, tongue and fingers kept right on going so that meant right on the heels of orgasm two, I experienced orgasm three. It wasn’t one long one, no way, it was one long, brilliant, awe-inspiring one followed by another long, brilliant awe-inspiring one.
Totally a superhero.
In the middle of it, Hawk’s fingers and mouth vanished, his body vanished then he was back, my knees were again hauled up and he was inside me.
Oh yeah!
God I loved this. He was strong and that meant he could drive deep, he could go fast and he could do it hard, all of which I liked a whole lot.
His face was in my neck and I wrapped him tight in my limbs.
“Honey,” I breathed.
His hand went between us, finger back to my golden spot and my body jolted.
“Hawk, baby,” I moaned when what his finger and cock were doing to my body rocked straight through that body.
“You gonna dodge me again?” he asked in my ear, driving in with his cock and pressing and rolling with his finger.
“No,” I gasped.
“Promise, Gwen,” he demanded.
“I promise,” I gasped.
His head came up and he looked down at me and when he did, I stared. I’d never seen his face like that in the light. I’d never seen it like that ever.
God… God, but he was beautiful, always but more so with him filling me, pounding into me, touching me, his heavy weight bearing me down, his face dark with hunger, his eyes heated and intense.
God.
It was building again, just looking at him (not to mention all the other stuff).
“You gonna ride this out with me?” he growled.