Savage Collision: A Hawke Family Novel (The Hawke Family Book 1) (22 page)

Making my way around the desk toward the door, I look back at him. “I promise I’ll behave.”

His laughing snort is enough response for me to know he knows I am full of shit.

Seriously, what the fuck was she thinking?

My entire body is a mass of tense muscles as we drive toward the address on Florida. What the hell was she thinking, going down there at night? It’s like she has no clue she’s a fucking magnificently beautiful woman and there might be people out there who mean her harm.

When we pull up outside a dark, abandoned factory building ten minutes later, I see Danika standing on the sidewalk next to a man in a black security uniform. She scrunches her lips together in obvious frustration when she sees my car. She probably thought going to Nora meant she could keep this from me.

Not fucking likely.

I roll down my window. “Danika, get in.”

She glowers at me and storms around the car.  When she slides into the backseat next to me, she keeps herself as close to the opposite door as possible. The security officer approaches my window and leans down.

“Your girl here was trespassing on private property. I didn’t call the police this time, but I had her car towed before I found her. You can pick it up from Melvin’s Towing in the morning.”

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate your help.” I shake his hand and we pull away with not a peep from Danika the entire time.

I turn to face her and watch her in profile. Her eyes are narrowed as she looks out the window at the dingy riverside neighborhood. “Care to explain what you are doing down here, in the middle of night, alone?”

I keep my voice as neutral as I can, not wanting to instigate an argument, but needing an answer from her for why she would do something so stupid.

She doesn’t respond. In fact, she doesn’t acknowledge I’ve said anything to her at all.

“Silent treatment?” I ask as we turn off Florida on the way back to my condo.

“Gabe,” she says, her voice perfectly calm and unwavering, “can you please drop me off at my place?”

Oh, I don’t think so.

“No, Gabe, take us home.”

Her head whips around and she gives me a blazing look. “Stop it, Savage. I was doing my job. I don’t need you to take care of me. Haven’t we had this conversation before?”

Swallowing my frustration, I take a deep breath before I respond, “Apparently, you do, and you are coming home with me so we can discuss this without an audience.”

Glaring at me, she slumps back into her seat and then turns her attention back to the street whizzing past us.

I thought the cold shoulder in the car was bad, but the silence of the elevator ride is stifling. Gabe hasn’t said a word and refuses to make eye contact with me. Seems he’s just as pissed with me as Danika. When she storms past me off the elevator and flings my condo door open without looking back, I know I’m in for a long night, and not the kind I had been hoping for.

Gabe pauses outside my door, glancing back at me with a raised eyebrow. “You plan on continuing your lecture when you get in there?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

He leans back against the wall, crosses his arms over his chest, and smirks at me. “Seriously, Savage? Do you not know what you sounded like back there with her? You were like a father scolding an errant child.”

That’s exactly what she said to me last weekend.

“Bullshit, she knows I’m just worried about her, trying to protect her.”

“I’m not so sure she sees it that way. You haven’t been together very long, and I get there is this weird chemistry between you two, believe me. I’ve seen it and felt it, but you can’t try to control her, man. She isn’t Becca.”

Bringing her up is a low fucking blow.

“Of course she isn’t. Why would you even mention her?”

“Because it has been so fucking long since you’ve been with anyone, you seem to have forgotten that not every woman is meek and in need of protection. She was everything Danika is not, and if you don’t realize that and start acting like you have some fucking respect for her, you
will
lose her.”

With another accusatory look, he turns and opens his door, disappearing without another word.

Well, fuck. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

He’s not wrong about Becca. She was always so easy, because she never spoke up, never questioned me, or anyone else for that matter. Until the day she left me, I don’t think she had ever done a single thing for herself because she really wanted it, or needed it. I can’t fault her for ultimately doing what she felt she needed to do. The way she did it sucked. I mean, really, really, fucking sucked. But, in the end, I was stronger because of it; I am stronger, and so is Danika.

Entering the condo, I’m greeted by silence.

Where’s Princess?

I check the kitchen first, with no sign of either of them, and then move to my bedroom.

Nada.

Returning to the hall, I pause and listen for any movement. I return to the living room and look around.

Where the hell are they?

That’s when I notice the patio door is cracked. I make my way over there slowly, until I can see her sitting in the dark on one of the lounge chairs with Princess on her lap.

I slide the door open and approach her with more than a little trepidation.

She knows I’m here. No way she didn’t hear the door, but she doesn’t react to my presence. Princess, on the other hand, jumps from her lap onto mine the second I stop next to the lounge chair facing Danika. She’s facing the water and doesn’t even acknowledge my arrival.

Sliding my fingers through Princess’ silky fur, I take a steadying breath before I start. “Danika, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be such a dick.”

She scoffs, never looking away from the water.

I’m so screwed here. I just need to tell her the truth.

“You may not believe me, but I’m just worried about your safety. That’s it. It has nothing to do with your capability as a reporter. I think you are fucking brilliant at your job. It’s just, I know you have to deal with some unsavory characters at times, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

She finally moves her eyes to meet mine, and I see the anger still lingering there, along with affection, which makes this even worse.

“You have to stop treating me like a child just because you don’t have control over everything in your life anymore.”

I recoil at her words. The truth fucking hurts, and she has managed to see through my bullshit in a matter of weeks. “I’m that obvious?”

Dropping her head back against the chair, she stares up at the night sky and frowns. “Truth be told, Gabe and I had a bit of a talk last weekend.”

That traitorous asshole!

“Oh, really? And what did my so-called best friend have to say about me?”

“Nothing I hadn’t already figured out for myself. I asked him if you had always been like this.”

She doesn’t need to explain what “this” is. I get it. I’m a fucking control freak.

“And what did he say?”

Turning her head back to me, she gives me a sad smile. “He said you got worse after the accident.”

Did I?

There’s no denying I’m demanding by nature. I don’t settle for second best, in anything. I’ll devote any and all of my power to ensuring I get the best out of people, and sometimes, yeah, it makes me come across like a real grade-A asshole. But have I gotten worse after the accident? I don’t feel like I’ve changed, but self-exploration isn’t exactly my thing either.

“Well, if Gabe says it, then it’s probably true. He knows me better than anyone.”

She slides forward in the chair until she is sitting cross-legged in front of me and takes my hand in hers, sliding her warm palm along mine. “He loves you, and he didn’t say much, even though I may have pried…a little.”

I grin at her admission. “Why were you prying?”

A sheepish smile spreads across her face. “Because I wanted to know everything about you.” She stands and reaches down to grab Princess from my lap. After setting her down on the deck, she slides onto my lap and wraps her arms around my neck. “Because I knew I had already fallen in lust with you and I needed to know who you really were, at your core, and he is the best person to ask.”

In lust with me?

I’m not exactly sure what that means or what I’m supposed to do with that.

Her warm breath skates across my ear as her lips skim my cheek. I wrap my arms around her, pulling her fully against me and turn my head to her. “Aren’t I the best person to ask?”

“Probably.” Her reply barely leaves her lips before I cover them with mine. The need to claim her, to prove to her and myself we are meant to be here, like this, overwhelms me. I need her to realize everything I have said, or done, has been because I care about her, more than I probably should at this point.

She responds in kind, curling her fingers into my hair and sucking my tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers. She’s undulating against my very hard dick and moaning in a way that has me almost coming on the spot. I can’t get her off the deck and into my bed fast enough, but as I pull away from the kiss to move to the door, Princess jumps up and shoves her way between us.

I drop my forehead against Danika’s, both of our breaths coming out in short pants. “Shit, she needs to go out.”

She smiles and kisses me slowly before she slides off my lap. “Go quick. I’ll meet you in the bedroom in five minutes. I need to take a shower anyway.”

“Five minutes…then, you are mine.”

Turning back to me from the doorjamb, she grins. “I already am yours.”

My heart somehow manages to make it up into my throat.

Fuck, I hope she means it.

The room is dark when I enter. A sliver of moonlight shining on the bed illuminates Danika’s perfect body—her perfect, naked body.

My cock reacts, hardening while my heart races uncontrollably. I need to get my shit together. We can’t have a repeat of the first night she stayed over.

I’ve managed to avoid the situation again, too afraid of a repeat performance, or should I say non-performance, to even risk letting her get that close again. But tonight, all I want to do is bury myself in here—everywhere.

No matter what I have to do, it’s happening tonight.

I can’t wait any longer. Jerking off just isn’t cutting it anymore.

The moonlight makes her pale skin glow, and she crawls across the bed until she’s lying horizontally across it. While I approach the bed, she never looks away from me.

She grins at me, and even in the darkened room, I can see the desire burning in her eyes. I never thought a woman would look at me like that again, that a woman would ever
want
me like that again.

Thank fucking God for small miracles, or huge ones, in this case.

“Hurry up.” Her whisper carries across the short distance between us, and I realize I stopped moving halfway to the bed.

“Impatient, aren’t you?”

She giggles and rolls onto her back, hanging her head over the edge of the bed and looking at me upside down. “Aren’t you?”

Hell yes!

By the time I make it to bed, she’s back on her stomach, watching me with anticipation. She scoots back onto her heels to give me room to join her, and her breasts sway hypnotically. I can barely take my eyes off them as I climb onto the bed. The heat in her stare gives me goose bumps.

She looks like she wants to devour me and fuck if I’m not ready to let her.

The moment I settle in bed against my pillows, she’s on me, swinging her legs across my hips and straddling me.

I don’t even have time to get my clothes off. She hovers with her lips an inch from mine and stares into my eyes. “You’re going to stop being so overprotective, right?” The heat of her core scorches my cock. She rubs against it and I can’t even pretend I’m not on the verge of coming in my pants.