AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I chew on my bottom lip, and when I say nothing more, Kai finally deigns to look up from his laptop.
“You have your tracker, and you’re more than safe with Hadley.”
I nod. Obviously, I know that. There are probably very few people I’d be safer with.
He stares at me for a moment longer. It’s there in his eyes. This unshakeable pain that I’ve seen before. Is that the reason for all these newfound walls? Did he get scared when things got real with Mel? Something that day spooked him. Everything was fine—better than fine—until then.
I watch him for another moment as he focuses intently on whatever he is working on. “You can talk to me, you know… If you ever need to.”
His eyes dart up to meet mine, holding my gaze before he swallows roughly. His lips part and I hold my breath, hoping—pleading—that he’ll say something.Anything. Give me any clue that this thing between us wasn’t a momentary blip. A fleeting meeting of two souls. For I don’t know if I could bear that.
Perhaps my feelings are born from the trauma I’ve experienced these last few weeks. What I’m feeling may simply be some sort of hero worship. Infatuation rather than true, deep, meaningful emotions, but I don’t think it is. These feelings definitely aren’t one-sided. He might be pushing me away now, but he was as invested in this as I was.
No, I firmly believe what we have is as real as what I have with Hawk and Wilder.
It feels as though my lungs are about to burst as I wait for him to speak, but the creaking of the floorboards in the hall has his lips slamming shut, and he looks to the door as Hawk enters.
“Hey.” A grin spreads across his face when he sees me, making my own light up. I can’t help it. I properly swoon when he’s around. Hawk has always had that ability to make me feel like a teenage girl. Of course, for most of that time, Iwasa teenage girl. One who tried exceedingly hard to hate him, but in retrospect, I think a lot of that hate was me deflecting. It was covering up the fact that underneath the surface-level fear and wariness, I felt in his presence, I actually liked it when he speared me with his lethal gaze and hit me with his sharp barbs.
I got off on sparing with him. Liked going toe to toe with him. Enjoyed walking that dangerous line between love and hate and wondering which side I’d fall on. I still delight in it. Even more so now because he thoroughly works out all that tension afterward.
My skin heats beneath his roaming gaze, and I take a minute to simply appreciate the beauty that is a half-naked Hawk Davenport. He must have been down in the gym, working out, as he’s only wearing a pair of basketball shorts, showing off the vast expanse of his upper body. Broad shoulders that taper to a trim waist, and the phoenix tattoo on his chest a symbol of pride that demonstrates Hawk’s commitment to the people he loves.
I remember being envious of his unconditional love toward Hadley the first time I saw it. I wanted that—someone who is always in your corner, who will always have your back. At the time, I didn’t believe I’d ever find that sort of unequivocal devotion—but seeing the pure adoration in his steely hues, there's no question he’d go to the ends of the earth for me, the same way he would for Hadley.
My gaze roams over his skin, noticing the light sheen of sweat. Every inch of him is downright lickable. I wish we were alone, so I could run my tongue over the hard ridges of his abs and feel the flexing of his muscles beneath my palms.
Spotting the filthy intent in my eyes, he prowls toward me. “Better get that mind of yours out of the gutter, or you won’t be leaving the house today,” he growls in my ear, his voice low enough that only I can hear.
Warning delivered, he steps away, and I instantly miss the heat of his skin against mine.
“Hellllooooo?” Hadley’s voice rings out from the hall, startling me. I was so wrapped up in dirty thoughts of Hawk that I hadn’t even heard the front door open.
“We’re in here,” Hawk calls out, and a moment later, Hadley joins us in the kitchen. She looks killer in a pair of jeans that mold to her thighs and ass, a trendy sweater, and the combat boots she’s worn almost every day since I first met her.
“Hey,” she greets, smiling at Kai and her brother before spinning to me, “Ready to go?”
“Yeah.” I turn my head to look at Hawk, but his entire focus is on his sister, his face set in a harsh mask.
“You’re not to let her out of your sight, Hadley, you hear me?” he growls, his soft tone from a moment ago nowhere to be found. “Eyes on her at all times. I take it you have a knife stored in those stupid boots of yours?”
Hadley’s jaw drops open in fake offense. “That hurts, big brother. It’s like you don’t know meat all. Of course, I’m armed, and Emilia was mine before you realized how amazing she is. So I’m not about to let some whacko get their hands on her.”
Hawk simply continues to glare at his sister, in much the same way as he did four years ago. His cutting glare might be lacking the hatred it once held for Hadley, but it would still have most people trembling in fear before him.
Not that it fazes Hadley, who simply dismisses her brother like he’s an annoying fly buzzing in her face.
I smother a laugh at their antics, and when they both look at me, I raise a brow at Hawk. “Good to see you can still be the same old dickhead you were back at Pac.”
He smirks arrogantly. “You better believe it.”
Hadley rolls her eyes, clearly having had enough of her brother for one day. “The air in here is stifling, let’s get the fuck out.”
“I’ll see you later?” I say tentatively to Hawk.
Gone is his ice-hard glare, his features softening just for me. “Definitely. You’ve got your phone on you?”
I pat the back pocket of my jeans. “Yup.”
