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Why should I? I’d been leery and hesitant about relationships before because I hadn’t wanted to get hurt again, but Hawk was proving himself to be more than I ever thought.
I wanted openness between us. After all he’d done for me, I couldn’t deny my feelings for him any longer.
So I gave hope a chance.
“She thinks I stole her boyfriend a few years ago, and she’s still pretty resentful about that. So she takes whatever opportunity she can to rub it in.”
I braced myself for all kinds of questions, and you’d think by now I would be more prepared to handle the smoke in his gaze or the steam in his smile. Both burned right through me.
“Did you steal him?”
“I’m no thief.”
He sidestepped around the chair and swaggered closer, robbing the air with every step.
“If you looked at him the way you’re looking at me now, I can see you stealing hearts.”
His direct gaze arrested me, making movement impossible.
My voice was weak. So weak. “And how am I looking at you?”
Gaze sultry, lips tugged upward at the corners, he inched closer. “Like you want to dance with me. Or kiss me.”
My heart pattered. My body floated. I stared—just stared.
I couldn’t deny it. I didn’t want to deny it.
Because he was right about both.
TWENTY-FOUR
ella
The moment quietened.The music shifted to something gentler and more relaxed. Without another word, Hawk slipped his hand around my waist and severed my ability to draw in air.
He held me so carefully, so deliberately. I stared at his mouth again, thinking of the accuracy of his prediction moments before and wondering how to make it happen.
Was he going to kiss me?
We weren’t dancing anymore. He was holding me, just holding me, and yet it felt like so much more.
“You know,” Hawk said. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since Montana.”
“Me neither.”
His head angled as though he didn’t believe me. “You become more and more of a mystery to me the longer we talk.”
“What is it that’s such a mystery?”
If either of us was a mystery, it was him.
“You. Everything about you. Why you were so hesitant about me from the beginning. Why your stepsister felt the need to attack you like she did in front of everyone at the ball.”
I burned under the heat of his attention. It wasn’t only the physical aspects of touch and sight, though those were enough to undo me.
But his verbal interest, the sincerity of his statement.
He wanted to knowme.
