He’d nearly panicked when her car wasn’t there when he’d arrived. She’d clearly stopped somewhere along the way. Did she have a lover? He hadn’t sensed that about her. He needed to find out, but it wouldn’t matter. His heart had been lost the moment he’d kissed her. Now it was time to claim her. He liked to think of himself as a patient man. He would give her a little time to adjust to the idea of having him in her life.
Then she walked back into the room wearing silk boxers and a matching camisole that did nothing to hide her lush figure.
Mine,
he thought, and gave her a slow smile.
****
Alone in her room, Dani nixed the idea of getting fully dressed. It was two in the morning and she was tired. Hawk needed to go. She put on her peach silk pajamas then brushed her tangled hair, and let LeAnn’s warning to stay away from Hawk play over in her mind.
Getting involved with a suspect was the worst thing a cop could do. All right, so he wasn’t really a suspect in this crime anymore since he hadn’t yet been in the county when Beaker was killed. The I-10 rest area cameras at Atchafalaya confirmed his story of a late afternoon arrival.
Sure, he could have killed Crease to cover up for someone else, but again, he’d barely arrived. Hawk didn’t strike her as a stupid man. He wouldn’t have used a knife so unique that it could be traced or left such obvious clues.
No, she was sure someone was setting him up. The question was why? Had he pissed someone off or merely been a convenient patsy? Setting him up could be a way to get to Julian.
Either way, it didn’t change the fact he was a Charbonnet. And she was a Delacroiux. If there was one thing that could be counted on in Généreux, Louisiana, it was the fact that those two never mixed.
Then she walked through her bedroom door and into the heat of his gaze.
“Danielle,” he rasped out.
She loved the way he said her name. With his West Texas accent it sounded like a caress and tugged something low in her belly. She had just a moment to wonder how she’d left her good intentions behind in her bedroom. Then she stepped closer, took the glass of wine before he spilled it, and twisted her other hand into his shirt.
She pulled him slowly toward her, touching nothing but the knot of material in her fist. He bent his head, and their mouths hovered a scant inch apart. Their breath mingled and still they waited. It was delicious, and she was filled with a sense of breathless anticipation. What would happen if they stopped now? Would they laugh and move on? What if they closed that gap, if their mouths touched, even for an instant? Could they walk away after another kiss? Or would this kiss change everything?
Lips parted, coming even closer, the heat radiated between them. Hawk’s nose tapped hers teasingly, and then he pulled back, just slightly, letting the moment continue to build. The space that separated their lips was no larger than a breath.
Finally, with a sigh, Dani pressed her mouth to Hawk’s. Her kiss was an acknowledgment that at least for this moment in time the passion between them was larger than they were. Dani surrendered to him, and her body melted against his.
Hawk thrust his tongue in her mouth, and she took it, holding it, suckling him before she chased him back, exploring his mouth. Their tongues fought and danced, tasted each other, and promised more. His hands cupped her head, fingers threaded into her hair, and suddenly it wasn’t enough. She wanted more, wanted his skin.
Dani pushed at Hawk’s shirt, sliding her fingers across the velvet skin and through the silky hair that covered his well-defined chest. He pulled away long enough to slip his shirt over his head and then he was back, his kisses covering her face, her neck, her shoulders.
And then he stopped.
“God, Danielle. Wait…hold on,” he panted.
Dani laughed. She was amused to realize she was actually panting, too. “God, Hawk. I think I tore your shirt.”
He laughed, and she loved the way his eyes crinkled at the corners, the whisky-rich brown dark with passion.
“Come on. Let’s sit for minute,” he said and led the way to the couch.
Dani considered her options: sit across the room to keep from touching him, sit next to him and risk embarrassing herself, or give up altogether, straddle his lap, and say,
“Fuck me, now.”
She compromised and sat next to him, but turned so that she was facing Hawk, and draped one leg across his lap. She’d wait to do more until she knew why he’d put the brakes on.
Hawk smiled and put one hand on the bare skin of her leg, and reached for the glass of wine with the other. He sipped then shook his head as if clearing a fog that had gathered there.
“For the record, Detective Delacroiux, stopping you…stopping
us
just now was the single most difficult feat of my life.”
She said nothing, but her fingers trembled slightly as she reclaimed her glass and took her own swallow of wine. When she leaned back to place the glass on the coffee table, his palm slid up her inner thigh and his thumb brushed the hem of her shorts.
“So why did you?” she asked, and her voice sounded husky, even to her.
“Because this feels like it could be important, and I don’t want to blow it with you.” His thumb continued to rub the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. With his other hand, he gently traced his fingers across the top lace on her camisole, then he slid the thin strap off her shoulder, and nipped at the tender skin where her neck and shoulder met.
One hand so close to her aching and swollen breasts, the other flirting with her pussy, Dani forced herself to concentrate.
“What are you saying, Hawk? You don’t want to make love?” Her breath was hitchy as she struggled against the sensations of his hands. He was moving again, drawing closer to where she needed him.
“Oh, yes, I want you, Danielle. Say you want me.”
“Oh God,” she said as his thumb slipped in and then out of her panties.
“I can feel the heat of you, smell your desire. Say you want me.” He swiped with his thumb again, lightly brushing against her lower lips. “Say it, Danielle Delacroiux. Call my name and tell me you want me. Tell me now,” he demanded.
“Yes.”
“No. Say my name. Say you want me as I want you. I want to taste you, to make love to every part of you, to feel your bare skin against mine. Christ, I’m going down in flames for the want of you. Say my name.”
“I want you, Hawk,” she gasped out. “I want all of you, Hawk Charbonnet.” When his thumb slid in her creamy wetness, she moaned.
“Get undressed. I want to see you,” he said even as he helped her slip off the camisole. She raised up and Hawk slid her shorts and panties from her hips. Dani moved to completely straddle a still jean-clad Hawk, the stiff denim riding roughly over her sensitive flesh. She covered his mouth with hers and kissed him deeply as his hands began a slow exploration of her naked body.
Her breasts were hot, swollen, aching for his touch. Dani pressed against his chest and kissed his neck, his throat. Her pebbled nipples brushed against his chest hair, and she swayed with desire. When Hawk cupped her breasts, Dani gasped with pleasure.
“Christ, Danielle, you have beautiful breasts.” His nimble fingers went to work, kneading, rolling, and pinching. Dani dropped her head back and with her position on his lap, it put her breasts right at mouth height.
He pulled one nipple into his mouth and worked it hard with his tongue and teeth. Pressing her breasts together, Hawk ran his tongue along the seam he created then alternated kissing and sucking each breast.
Dani moaned as the pleasure built, coiling in the pit of her stomach, and lower. Her clit felt plump and sensitive, and he hadn’t done more than brush his thumb across once. She thought she would explode if she didn’t come soon. He might still be wearing his jeans, but she realized she could get a quick orgasm by pumping her hips and rubbing along his massive erection. Maybe he wouldn’t notice.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he laughed. “Not without me. And not on the couch.”
In one smooth motion, Hawk scooped her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. He gently laid her on the bed, then with a sexy smile and raised eyebrow, he stood and slowly unbuttoned his jeans. His cock strained for release, and he pulled it out before he slid his jeans over his hips and kicked them off. The sight of him in all his glory standing naked at the foot of her bed was enough to make her whimper.
****
“Please, Hawk,” she begged.
“I want to taste you first, Danielle.” He pulled her to the edge of the bed then dropped to the floor between her knees. He pushed her thighs apart and pressed kisses up one leg, across her mound, and down the other leg. With each pass, he came closer to where he knew she wanted him. He let the soft hair at her juncture caress his cheek while he just breathed in the scent of her.
Christ, she was so beautiful. She had a perfect woman’s body, round and curved, with a layer of steel underneath. She was a siren to him, calling him, enticing him toward the danger of feelings he’d never known.
Hawk lifted her hips, and Danielle’s knees fell open, revealing the dusky rose of her pussy. Long and slow, his tongue lapped at the moisture gathered there. He thrust his tongue inside her, caught her moan, and thrust again. Over and over, he licked her, tasting the uniqueness that was Danielle.
His Danielle.
She reached for him then, trying to pull him upward. “Hawk, I’m so close,” she whispered. “I want you inside me. Come with me.”
Still kneeling between her legs, he rolled on a condom, hissing at how sensitive his cock was. He rubbed the tip in her moisture. She was as ready as he could make her.
Climbing onto the bed, he pressed the fat head of his cock inside her and watched as her eyes widened and her mouth opened on a sigh. Slowly he worked his way in, slipping nearly all the way out before pressing back in. She sheathed him, tight and hot. He rocked his hips, massaging deep inside her, letting them both get used to the perfection of their joining.
Danielle began to move her hips, and he met her thrusts with his own. They pounded against each other, his powerful, long strokes punctuated by soft grunts and moans. She raked her nails up his back and wrapped her legs around his waist.
Hawk propped himself on his hands and looked at her face as he filled her. Her hair was a tangled mass of blonde waves and strands clung to her damp forehead. Black eyelashes fanned against pale skin, and he noticed smudges of tired around her eyes. Then she opened those sexy blue eyes and smiled at him, and his heart lurched.
“Hawk Charbonnet,” she whispered.
It filled him with a sense of power to hear his name on her lips, as if the two of them together were more than either alone.
“A Delacroiux and a Charbonnet,” he smiled, thrusts punctuating each name. “Come for me now, Danielle Delacroiux.”
He reached between them to touch her clit and brought her bucking and screaming against him as they came together.
When they could move, Hawk gathered her in his arms and rolled the two of them over so they ended up sprawled diagonally across her bed. He held Danielle cradled against his chest. He knew she would hear the pounding of his heart. He stroked her back, her arms, brushed the damp strands of hair from her face.
When he could speak, he said, “That was wonderful. You’re wonderful. Wait here.” He gently disentangled himself, disposed of the condom in the bathroom, and returned with a warm washcloth. When she was clean, he wrapped her in his arms once again.
He felt the restlessness, the uneasiness creep into her muscles and knew she was uncomfortable at having him stay, but he wasn’t ready to leave her yet.
“Let me hold you while you sleep, Danielle.”
“I can’t do that,” she gasped. “Mrs. Wiscowski would see you leave.”
Laughing, Hawk asked, “And who is Mrs. Wiscowski?”
“She’s my nosy neighbor. I know I’ve only got a few more weeks on my lease for this crappy apartment, but it’s not easy to find anything else this cheap. I thought I might try one more time to talk the owner into letting me stay at the same rent I’m paying now. But Mrs. Wiscowski would gladly run and tell him I’m having wild sex and keeping a man here if you stay the night.”
“Well, we did have wild sex,” Hawk pointed out reasonably.
“I know!” Danielle grinned. “That’s my point. I might still be able to come up with a cover story. Really big mice or something. Mrs. Wiscowski might not have heard the slamming of my headboard against the wall. And, um…did I scream?”
Hawk roared with laughter now, and Danielle threw a pillow over his head to muffle the sound.
“Stop it! I’m not kidding. Mrs. Wiscowski is good friends with the owner. Actually, I think she might be doing a little more than boiling his cabbage, but that’s not the point. Will you stop laughing?”
Trying to get his breath and sure he was grinning foolishly, Hawk said, “Let me get this straight. You think your apartment is less than desirable, you have a nosy neighbor who would disapprove of me staying the night, and she may be having her own relationship with your landlord. Is that about right?”
Dani giggled. “That about sums it up. So you see why you need to go.”
“Actually, I don’t. Now, you look exhausted. Shut up and go to sleep. I’ll buy you a new place in the morning,” he promised outrageously.
Dani laughed, but when he pulled her back against his chest, she went willingly. Hawk pressed his lips to her hair. “Good night, Danielle. Sweet dreams.”
Tony brushed his hand over his face. It had been a long fucking night, but at least everything was finally in motion. He’d had to dance carefully around Richard and Beau, but they knew they were dealing with the FBI. They fell in line because they wanted Julian as badly as he did. As long as no one contacted his boss, he’d be okay. Once he’d busted the Charbonnets, no one would care how it was done.
He’d been lucky last night. He’d seen Hawk Charbonnet going in to the Delacroiux Pub and decided to keep a loose tail on him for a bit. He’d been shocked to discover Detective Danielle Delacroiux. He wondered what the fuck she was up to. Was she running her own rogue operation? Did she think she could bring the Charbonnets down by herself? Not likely. This was his bust, and he wasn’t going to let some D-shield rookie take it away from him.
She’d had a little dinner with Hawk first, then she headed back to his place, and she sure as shit didn’t go into the living room, because his bugs hadn’t activated. It was a big place, but he was betting she went into Hawk’s bedroom for a tumble to try to soften him up. Fucking women cops always got away with using sex to get what they wanted.
It was no surprise that Junior was trying to keep it cozy with the cops, and he was probably too arrogant to realize he was being played. Finding Dani there smacked of something outside of official channels, but either way, legit or rogue, Tony thought it played perfectly into his hands.
He’d called Beau Delacroiux and roused both him and his captain older brother to demand a meeting. They’d been at it all night, and now he was about to head an operation that would put his career back on track.
****
In the library of her mansion, Evelyn Demetrious paced the floor and thought hard about what she’d discovered. She’d be damned if she’d let Constantine’s extracurricular business dealings interfere with her way of life or her social status. And wives of drug lords ranked low on the totem pole—even in a backwater town like Généreux. “I need you to go back and find the bat. Don’t throw it off the pier, because someone might discover it there,” Evelyn told Gus, her sometime driver, bodyguard, and faithful henchman.
“What in the hell have you done this time, Evelyn?” Constantine asked, as he stalked into the room. “Get out of here, Gus. Let me speak to my wife alone.”
With a quick flick of his eyes to Evelyn, Gus scurried from the room. She wasn’t worried; she knew he’d do as she asked.
“Constantine, don’t you think plausible deniability is a good plan?”
“What am I denying?
“Why any knowledge of how that awful drug dealer came to have his head bashed in just before he fell in the river, of course,” Evelyn smiled sweetly.
“You’re right. I don’t want to know any more. That has nothing to do with me or the deal I’m working with Charbonnet. Keep it well away from us, Evelyn. You know I won’t tolerate anything to do with drugs after what happened with Del.”
Evelyn kept her expression neutral, despite her surprise at Constantine’s words. The emphatic way he said it told her more than any impassioned denial. She’d assumed her husband was involved, but he really didn’t know about the murder. She hadn’t covered up anything for him after all. Then who the hell had killed that ratty little drug dealer? A horrible idea bloomed in her mind.
“Where is Del, anyway?” Constantine asked, as if plucking the name from her thoughts. “I need him for a job.”
****
What to do, what to do?
The phrase repeated in her brain, beating staccato in time with the pounding of her head. She needed help, or Constantine would know the truth. Nicolette had thought about little else since leaving Del at the rehab clinic. How would she explain his absence so nobody would find out about the drugs?
Del was the publisher and managing editor for Global Mandates, a magazine initially conceived to support his uncle’s worldwide shipping business. Over time, Nic had worked side-by-side with Del, expanding the magazine’s readership and advertising revenues, until the once toss away periodical became a standard for international businesses interested in sustainability. Although she was perfectly capable of running the magazine, Constantine would get suspicious if Del didn’t check in daily. Unless there was a good enough reason.
She dropped in the chair and started flipping channels in the luxury suite that she and Del shared in the west wing of his grandfather’s mansion. They never mentioned the old man was also her ex-husband—some things were better left unsaid. She paused on the National Geographic channel as an idea formed. As a cover story, it would be perfect.
Delivering Drugs: A magazine publisher’s in-depth report of the drug trade from the ground up.
She could say Del was on assignment in South America to investigate drug crops and their deforestation of the rain forests. She would assign herself to work the local angle of the drug trade. That way she could keep an eye on the murder investigation.
Nicolette opened Del’s email account and sent a note to Constantine and another to the magazine staff informing them of his sudden departure for a couple of weeks of investigative reporting. Nicolette was in charge of all operations. She signed Del’s name and hit send.
Now, what to do with the bloody clothes and bat?
****
Dani was dreaming. That had to be it. But it was such a delicious dream she refused to let herself wake. A man’s chest was pressed to her back, the front of his thighs tucked against the backs of her legs, an arm draped over her waist. When his lips brushed against her neck, images from last night washed through her.
“Hawk.” She smiled, and relaxed against him, savoring the feel of skin against skin, wiggling her hips against his erection.
“Good morning, sugar,” he said, and she heard the smile in his voice. His fingers began to dance lightly over her skin.
“Oh, is it morning?” she asked, feeling decidedly blurry.
“Not quite yet. I’m afraid I’ve got to leave before I start something we can’t finish right now.”
“Where are you going?” Dani asked, acutely aware of the moisture between her legs.
“Mmm…” Hawk replied, even as he planted another open-mouthed kiss on her neck. “I need to get busy if I’m to find you a place to live outside the evil gaze of Mrs. Wisecabbage.”
Her breath left her in a gasp as his big hand cupped a breast, his fingers pinching a nipple.
“Yes, time for me to go. You wouldn’t want anyone to think something decidedly illicit was going on in here,” he said as he pumped his cock against her ass.
“Exactly,” he interrupted. “Can’t let the cabbage think you had a man in your bed all night. She might get the right idea.” His hand trailed down her belly to twirl the hair on her mound.
“You are so right. If we don’t stop, she might get suspicious.”
When his hand slid between her legs, she didn’t even try to talk. She draped her top leg over his thighs and opened herself to him.
“You’re so wet, Danielle. Are you too sore from last night?” he asked, as he slipped a finger inside her pussy.
“Mmm, feels good,” she mumbled.
“Yes, but I’m afraid we’ll need to keep it at this. I’m fresh out of condoms. Apparently I wasn’t optimistic enough.”
Dani was trying to think how best to respond when his thumb found her clit, and she went blind with need. In his arms, with his body spooned to hers, she felt cherished. With his fingers in her pussy and his thumb rubbing circles around her clit, she felt ravished. This was no two-way street, it was all about her. Her pleasure, her desire, her satisfaction.
Hawk played her body like a fine instrument. The warm velvet of his skin brushed against her, and his unique, spicy aroma surrounded her. His fingers began to pump and glide, stretching her, filling her. When she arched her neck at the overload of sensation, his teeth closed, marking her neck before he kissed away the momentary pain.
He took her higher, bringing her close to the edge then pulling her back, again and again. Her hips moved in time with his fingers.
“That’s it, sugar. Come for me,” he purred in her ear.
The orgasm burst from her, and she shuddered and spasmed around his fingers. Colors danced behind her eyes and his touch made music in her soul.
Never,
she thought in a moment of clarity.
It has never been like this.
****
Christ, never before had it been like this. He’d wanted to bring her a bit of quick pleasure before he needed to leave. Instead, he’d not been able to get enough of touching her, playing her body with his hands. His dick was hard as a rock, but he was somehow satisfied by the strength of her orgasm.
He gathered her in his arms and pulled her to his chest. When he brushed kisses across her nose and eyes, he felt the damp trace of tears. She’d cried.
Without thinking of consequences, without carefully planning each move and countermove, Hawk Charbonnet laid bare his soul. “Please let those be tears of happiness, Danielle. Tell me you are as stunned as I am by what’s between us. Tell me you feel something here.” He pressed a hand to the center of her chest. “Danielle…sugar…don’t let me fall alone.”
A sharp rap at her front door interrupted her words and the moment.
Hawk watched the cop in her turn on instantly. She was armed and at the door, body tensed in preparation for anything.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Dani? It’s Beau and Agent Espinoza. Let us in so we can talk.”
“Just a minute, Beau. I need to get dressed,” she said.
She turned to face Hawk, her finger already to her lips to warn him to be quiet.
She closed the bedroom door and started to dress, grabbing jeans and a shirt at random. “Stay here, Hawk. Please? I can’t explain right now, but will you stay in the bedroom and not let them know you’re here?”
He nodded curtly, hiding the hurt, and sat on the bed to wait.