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Stephanie melted in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck. He lifted her and carried her over to the chair behind the desk. When he dropped into it, he sat her on his lap facing him. He drew her closer, and she arched into his chest, curling her legs back as she straddled him. His cock was so hard pushing against her pussy. She longed for the jeans that separated them to disappear and let them come together in intimacy.
Hawke ran a hand along her back up to her nape. He cupped her there while he pushed his tongue into her mouth. Stephanie caught and sucked on his tongue before twining hers with his. They both moaned into each other’s mouths, but too soon Hawke drew away. He stared at her as if he never wanted to forget how she looked. Nerves stirred in her belly.
“Hawke?”
“Don’t give in to your doubts no matter what,” he told her.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He touched her forehead with his, drew in a breath, and then let it out heavily. “I just want to be with you without everything else pulling at us. That’s difficult right now. Let me explain at least some things, but I have to do it with you over here.” He stood and sat her in the chair on the opposite side of the desk. “With you on my lap, I can’t think straight.”
Before he could get out of reach, she extended a hand and stroked the front of his pants. She almost shivered at how thick and long he was, aching to see it bare. “If you let me take care of this, we wouldn’t have a problem.”
Hawke’s growl when he caught her hand and pulled it away was animalistic, making her hotter. “This is how you cause trouble, little girl.”
She laughed and bit her lip. All of a sudden they went from a half argument to teasing each other, but she had a feeling the mood would change again until she knew all there was to Hawke’s secrets. A man like him, so quiet and gentle yet strong appealed to her in many ways, but he scared her too because she could lose her heart to him.
Hawke sat down behind the desk and gripped the armrests. His eyes were twin dark spots, but she guessed he focused somewhere off in the distance. “My family isn’t too close. We lived in a less-populated area. School for me in the early years was infrequent. When I reached a certain age, I was let go.”
“Let go?” Stephanie wondered why he didn’t say what the certain age was. She guessed maybe late teens. No way the school would allow a younger teen to just quit.
“My parents let me go,” he corrected, as if he read her mind. “As I said, we were not close. Our kind isn’t.”
“Our kind?”
He continued. “I wandered lost for a while until one of Toron’s people found me and took me in. I grew up here, going to school with Toron. We became close friends, like brothers really. When I became restless and wanted to pursue college and to make money, I moved to New York. I come back regularly.”
She waggled a finger at him. “Was that so hard to share?”
“No.”
A memory played at the edge of her mind, and she sat trying to pull it to the forefront. “Vermont. Wait…when we mentioned Vermont, I asked if you had ever been here. You said once or twice like it was no big deal.”
“At the time I didn’t know if Toron would allow me back.” He came around the desk and stood in front of her. When he caressed her check, Stephanie turned her mouth toward his hand and kissed it. He ran a thumb over her skin eliciting tingles down her back. “You’re who I want, but…I’m not sure how long we have.”
Stephanie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
He hesitated to speak once again, and it drove her nuts.
“Just say it, Hawke! I’m so over the cryptic stuff.”
“The people here are—”
A roar erupted outside the office window, and Stephanie shrieked. “What the hell was that? It sounded like a lion. No, it couldn’t be. Where’s Meechi?” She jumped from her chair and ran for the door. Missing the knob the first time, she grappled for it, and Hawke wrapped a hand around her waist, moved her to the side, and got it open. He rushed out ahead of her, but Stephanie stumbled close behind him. “Meechi, where are you?”
“Right here, Mom,” her daughter called from the window next to the front door. “Look, it’s a lion. Isn’t it cool? Uncle Toron went out to talk to him.?
?
Stephanie strode up behind her daughter. “Uncle Toron? Talk to him? Are you serious?”
Hawke strode to the door and opened it. “You two stay here,” he instructed.
Stephanie frowned. “Like I was going to volunteer to help? No thanks.”
She cocooned Meechi in her arms while staring out the window. A crowd had gathered, among them Toron, from his bearing, and Hawke, by his build and height. The animal stood in the middle of the people, pacing as if it felt caged. She couldn’t figure out how none of them seemed afraid.
While Toron’s voice didn’t reach her from where she stood, she was pretty sure he spoke to the lion. He extended a hand, and the tone of his voice grew sharp. Several people wavered, and quite a few fell to their knees.
