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Hawk rubbed a hand across his chin and stared off. A divot appeared between his brows as he considered. “I don’t know how she would even know anything aboutit.”
“About what?”
His arms lowered and his hand found mine. “Come here. Sit with me.”
He guided me to the leather chair and sat. I wondered about steering the other chair closer, but before I could, he pulled me onto his lap.
He wrapped his arms around me, keeping me close, and burrowed his face in my neck. Whatever was going on here, this news was really bothering him.
“Hawk?” I asked.
“I made a promise in college that I would never fall in love,” he said. “We call it The Pact. That’s the only thing I can think she might be referring to. I can’t figure out how she would even know about it.”
So it was true?
It sounded almost comical, but Hawk acted anything but.
“She said I would get hurt.”
He scowled. The expression added its own kind of appeal to his features. “I’d never let that happen. In any case, it sounds like she’s just making idle, jealous threats.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” I said.
Despite his words, whatever this pact was really seemed to bother him. His body still felt tense.
“Are you sure that’s all there is to it?” I asked.
He stroked my face, and the tension in him eked away. “I’m sure.”
“And what about you telling me you were leaving after Christmas?” he asked. “Was that true? Or was that just a way to keep me away?”
“I’d like to attend school in New York, but I haven’teven applied yet. Christmas was my own deadline because I’d be getting a stipend for my education. I just want to get as far away from the Maluses as I possibly can.”
“So you’re uprooting your entire life?”
I could see how ludicrous it seemed to him as he voiced the question.
“Why not just cut them off? You don’t have to see them here in Westville.”
It wasn’t that simple. I’d be reminded of them everywhere I went. Knowing Pris and Stina, they’d find some way to haunt me, even with ties having been cut.
A new start was better—but I wasn’t sure I could convince Hawk of that right now.
“That’s enough of my drama. What about you?” I said.
I didn’t want to dwell on it anymore.
“I need to talk about something else. Want to tell me about your family? About Christmas? Anything.”
“This is by far one of the best Christmases I’ve had yet,” he said, stroking my spine with tender fingertips. “Stressful but best, too.”
“What’s made it stressful?”
He exhaled and dipped his nose against my throat again, making my body tremble.
“Trying to expand my company. Our fiscal calendar is the same as a regular one, so my department heads wanted to get things moving for the New Year. It’s been good, just really hectic.”
“And what’s made it the best?”I asked.
