AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Prologue
Hawk
~ 5 years ago ~
“But why do you have to leave?” Betty cries, her green eyes wide and brimming with tears, her chin quivering as she does whatever she can to block my escape from this torturous existence I’ve had to endure for too many years. The multitude of dreams I’ve had that would get me shot if I so much as hint at what we were doing in them. The endless, heartfelt talks of her life and dreams, how she wants to travel the world, and me teasingly trying to talk her out of leaving me.
Now I’m the one leaving her.
Seeing her like this, her beautiful, full lips turned downward, reminds me why I do what I do—to protect those like her from the evils of the world outside the walls of the estate she’s called home for most of her life. My sweet, innocent Betty Richardson—my little honeybee—is far too sweet and innocent to look at me with longing in that brilliant green gaze. Though she’s only seventeen, she’s grown into a stunning woman, a woman I can no longer pretend is anything but, especially when she’s wearing a short, short dress that flares up whenever she moves—which is every time I try to get around her—and teases me with a glimpse of her curvy ass.
“Betty, I have to go.” If I stay, I might just bend her over the desk she sometimes hides behind and tear that tiny dress from her frame. If I remain one more night under the same roof as her, I won’t be able to stop myself from sneaking into her room and seducing my little honeybee, staking my claim by burying my cock between those creamy thighs.
“But why?” she pouts, which only makes me harder, the zipper of my jeans biting into my rigid flesh. She juts out a hip, drawing my attention. The dress matches her large, beautiful eyes. Her honey brown hair falls well to the middle of her back and has my fingers tingling to get lost in that thick mane.
She is 100% woman now and I can no longer deny the hunger nearly blinding me with need. Thank god I have to leave before I do something—take something—that can never be undone—untaken.
I’m dangerous, which is why Mr. Grimm has entrusted me as his top enforcer for so long. And I’m good at what I do, one of the best in the business. Now Mr. Grimm’s assigned me to take care of something ugly. It’s going to be messy. Then again, wet work is rarely clean. Up until this point, I’ve stayed by the family’s side, serving them, protecting them. This next job will either make me…or break me.
Hawk Majors doesn’t break, so that only leaves one option.
I never expected to live to see thirty, considering the work I do, but here I am freshly into my third decade of existence and may not make it to see thirty-one, not with the shit show I’m walking into. Mr. Grimm trusts me. I won’t let him down.
It means going dark. Really dark. Only two people know what I’m about to do—Grimm and me. And it’ll stay that way. I’ll be swapping out coasts—west for east—and living in the shadows until it’s done. I’ve traveled the world for Mr. Grimm, always returning to Seattle, always returning to my honeybee. I don’t know if I’ll be able to say the same after this job.
When I move for the door, Betty jumps in front of me, her hands out, and places her palms on my chest. “Stop, Hawk! Would you talk to me? Please?” Her large green eyes blink up at me and the first of her tears break free. Giant drops of liquid pain silently stream down her innocent cheeks, each one taking a piece of me with it. Those tears destroy me and she knows it.
I can’t stand to see Betty cry. She never screams or pitches a fit. No, with her, she remains silent as tears swell in her eyes and burn down her cheeks. And shatter me.
“Don’t cry, honeybee.” I give in and pull her into a hug, which deep down I’m sure was her intention all along. Holding her like this, feeling her tempting curves, the swell of her ripe breasts pressing to my chest, makes my cock so hard I’ll be leaving here with a limp, my body humming with hunger and a need so violent I clench my teeth to stop myself from throwing her over my shoulder and taking her with me.
“Hawk?” she begs in her cute little voice that drives me wild. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I have no choice,” I growl, my voice sharp, edgy. If I’m being honest, I don’t want to leave her, but she sees the world differently than most. She believes in happy endings, of unicorns and butterflies, of meadows full of flowers and paths that lead you down the yellow brick road to the emerald city.
If I take her with me, she’ll see the world the way it really is—full of darkness, of mean bastards like me, annihilating the dreams of the innocent. It will kill the light in her eyes, the warmth in her heart, and I can’t have that. She’s the only reason I haven’t already been sucked into the darkness myself.
She nods as if she understands. I know she doesn’t and love her all the more when she puts up that false bravado. My sweet little honeybee. So brave. Stroking her hair, I can’t help combing my fingers into the honey thickness. She glances up and I snag her hair in a fist, lifting her chin. I have to say goodbye and want something to take with me. Although I already know I’m going to regret it, I gently brush my lips over hers just to see if they’re as soft as they look.
And I lose my mind. I lick her lips open and kiss her deeper, tasting her innocence, feeling it in the way her body stiffens as I give her the kind of kiss I’ve wanted to give her for far too long. A hungry man’s kiss, the type of kiss that should scare her, make her run away with the realization that I want so much more than to kiss her.
Instead of any of that happening, she makes a slight whimper that does odd things to my insides and snakes her arms around my neck. I thrust my tongue inside her mouth, possessing her even more, knowing the mistake I’m making yet unable to stop myself.
As quickly as I claim her lips, I release them and push away, turning from her so she can’t see my cock throbbing against the constraints of my jeans. “Goodbye, Betty.”
The last thing I hear is her whisper, “I love you.”
I ignore the pinch in my chest and never look back.
