AllFreeNovel
Share Us
To her surprise he hesitated, which was weird since she still felt his hard-on under her ass. Hawke sat her up and then moved her to the couch. He rose and turned away to adjust himself. Stephanie reached out and touched his leg. The hard muscles shifted beneath her caress, but he stirred beyond her reach.
“What’s is it? Did I do something wrong?” Embarrassment descended at the way she behaved. He probably thought she was a slut, especially with her ready to give it up in the living room while Meechi played in the other room. What had she been thinking?
Hawke faced her and dropped to his knees. He took her hands in his and kissed them. “You did nothing, sweetheart, except tempt me past reason. I’ve come to my senses though, and I’m glad of at least that. I want you more than I can say, but you’re in a vulnerable state right now, after what happened with Meechi. I refuse to take advantage of that. When and if we decide to become lovers, it will be because we made a conscious decision to do it.”
She understood his explanation, but it didn’t lessen her embarrassment. “Of course. I should get Meechi to bed and get ready for it myself. I have some planning to do, and I have to put in my resignation at work.”
Hawke touched her hair, but she stood up and walked over to the table where she left her writing notebook. She flipped to a blank page and made notes, the book held close to her face. “When are we leaving?”
“A couple days. Stephanie…”
“It’s fine, Hawke.” She turned and smiled at him. “Everything will be fine. I will make sure of that.”
“Okay.” He didn’t try to approach her again. “Good night. I will call you in the morning.”
Chapter Four
“Hello,” Hawke said and cursed himself for sounding weak. He expected to hear a dial tone in the next instant but instead caught dead air. “I wouldn’t have called if this was about me, or if it wasn’t a matter of life and death.”
A sigh sounded on the other end. “What’s going on, old friend? You don’t sound like yourself. Did you get some girl knocked up, and she’s freaking because she’s birthing feathers?”
Hawke frowned. “So not appropriate for our history.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Toron told him. “One day—no—one minute with my wife in my arms and my little son calling me daddy made up for everything between us. I was stubborn not to call. I thought you would, or that you’d at least attend my wedding when I allowed Sienna to send that invite.”
Hawke gasped. “You knew she sent it?”
“Of course. Sienna wouldn’t do anything without my consent.”
“Do you know the woman you married?”
They both laughed, and Hawke breathed a sigh of relief.
“I thought you needed your space to move on. I certainly didn’t want to dangle her in your face. That would be cruel. Anyway, enough about that, what’s going on? Are you in trouble?”
Hawke scratched the back of his head. Did he dare suggest what he wanted? Toron would call him crazy, and his friend did whatever he thought was necessary to protect his people. Hawke wasn’t exactly one of them. The commonality came with the fact that he was a shifter, but no two animals could be more different than the hawk and the lion.
“I want to bring someone to stay out there, her and her daughter,” he blurted.
“Come again?”
“Here me out, Toron,” he pleaded. Now that he thought of it, he should never had told Stephanie he had a place for her and Meechi before he spoke with Toron. He’d have to do a lot of convincing. “She’s in trouble. Some bad people are after her daughter, and I need a place to hide her where I know she will be safe. Just until I take out those who were foolish enough to come against her.”
“First let’s deal with the fact that there was a softness to your tone when you first started speaking about this mystery woman.”
Hawke cursed Toron for his perception, but he refused to acknowledge anything. “She’s a friend.”
“A friend?”
“Yes.”
Doubt radiated over the phone lines, but Toron didn’t challenge him. “Okay, and who are these people? Shifters? What kind of animal is she? I don’t want our natural enemies in town, tempting everyone.”
Hawke hesitated. Damn it all, why can’t this be simple? “She’s not…uh… Hell, she’s not a shifter, and neither is her daughter. They’re human, but listen, Toron, I need your help. Sutland is the best place for the two of them while I can’t watch over them twenty-four seven.”
“Let me get this straight. You first keep my son from me, and then you disappear for a year and a half—”
“At your request.”
