The other Kings haven’t stopped championing Hawk to her, as if they needed to sell him to her, but she was already sold.
“He’s tough as nails.”
“That kid’s got some serious smarts on him.”
“He’s the best prospect we’ve ever had. That kid’ll be running the club someday.”
Although Hawk isn’t a fully-fledged member of the club, the other men treat him with a respect they don’t afford to just anyone. It’s clear they’re grooming him for greatness. One night, she’d asked him if he would ever leave the Kings. He’d seemed shocked at her question and she’d instantly regretted asking it.
“It’s the only thing I’ve ever really wanted. My whole life has been focused on becoming a King. It’s the only thing I know, the only thing I can be sure of.” He’d said the words so simply, so sincerely that Melissa was left in no doubt. The club is a part of Hawk as much as Hawk is a part of the club. His words had stung a little, that the club would always be the biggest part of his life, that it would be more important to him than anything else, even her. She’d spent a couple of sleepless nights tossing and turning after that conversation, trying to figure out where the hell that left her and her story. But she had already made her decision.
Bright and early on Friday morning she finds herself outside DeVry’s office. It’s hard to believe it has only been a week since he gave her the assignment. It feels like so much time has passed since then. The last time she was there, Hawk hadn’t been in her life, the Kings hadn’t been in her life, and, now, it’s hard to imagine her life without them.
“He said you could go straight in, honey.” Olivia’s kind voice cuts through Melissa’s musings and she nods her thanks at the older woman.
She takes a deep breath and opens the door, steeling herself for the conversation she’s been dreading. DeVry is sitting behind his enormous desk, his eyes red, his suit jacket discarded, with more than a few days’ worth of stubble on his cheeks. He looks worse than he did the last time she’d seen him and absently Melissa wonders how much longer he’s going to be sleeping in his office.
“What have you got for me, Potter?” He doesn’t look at her as he asks the question, searching through a stack of papers on his desk. It doesn’t seem like he got the memo that paper was becoming obsolete.
Melissa takes a deep breath, drawing on her reserves of calm that Clay has taught her to cultivate like a good martial arts fighter. “Nothing.”
DeVry stops what he’s doing and slowly looks at her, as if he thinks that he’s misunderstood. “Say again.”
She straightens her back in her chair, refusing to be cowed. “I can’t write the article on the Kings that you want.”
He leans back against his chair, surveying her with narrowed eyes. “You didn’t get any information? I thought you’d found a way in to the gang.”
Melissa curses herself for the update she’d sent him the morning after meeting Hawk. She’d been so keen to convince herself that all she wanted was to write a good story that she’d told DeVry about finding an ‘in’ to the Kings. “I was wrong.” She swallows the bitter pill. “You want me to write an exposé that paints these men as monsters. I can’t do that.”
DeVry looks at her with pity. “You know that these men are criminals? They’re not Care Bears; they’re an outlaw biker gang!”
Melissa shakes her head. She just can’t see them that way. “I’ve gotten to know them; they’re good people. You said yourself that they keep the violence contained, away from populated areas. I can’t write something that’ll make them out to be the enemy, just to sell more newspapers. You and I both know that whatever I write will just bring more heat down on them from ATF, the Feds, and God knows who else. I can’t do that to them.”
DeVry raises an eyebrow at her. “Them or him?”
Melissa looks at him, her eyes wide. “How do you know about that?”
DeVry just shrugs laconically. “Just a lucky guess.” Melissa doesn’t believe him but she doesn’t get a chance to tell him so. “If you can’t write the story then you can’t write it. We’ll have to figure something else out.” His tone is calm and reasonable, two words that Melissa would never have used to describe her Editor.
“So, we’re good here?” She can’t keep the surprise out of her voice.
“Sure.” He shrugs like he couldn’t care less. “There’s a new skating rink opening, some kids charity thing. I want you to cover it, Olivia will give you the details.” From a groundbreaking exposé that could kick-start her career to a puff piece that only the soccer moms will read in one fell swoop. DeVry waves her away, dismissing her, and Melissa can’t help but wonder if she’s just committed career suicide.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
She has some time to kill before she heads to the rink for her punishment piece, as she’s realized this new assignment is, so she goes to the body shop. It’s time to come clean with Hawk. Melissa had been dreading this even more than her conversation with DeVry. She knows he’ll be angry that she lied to him, but she has to get it off of her chest. She can’t take the guilt.
But as soon as she walks into the shop and sees Hawk’s smiling face she chickens out. He looks at her like she’s the best thing he’s ever seen and she can’t bear to do anything that would change his mind. He kisses her thoroughly, his fingers in her hair. Before, she’d been embarrassed by the Kings’ very public displays of affection with their wives and girlfriends, but it was one of the many things that she was getting used to.
“Hey, you.” He smiles sexily at her, like he can’t wait to get her back into bed despite the fact that they’d only been apart for a few hours. “I didn’t know you were coming by.”
Melissa shrugs, but doesn’t meet his eyes. “I just wanted to see you.”
His eyes narrow for a millisecond, as if he’s sensed that there’s more to what she’s saying than that, but he glosses over it. “Well, I can’t argue with that.”
“Hey, man, can you give me a hand here?” A voice she recognizes makes Melissa’s head snap up.
Hawk rolls his eyes. “New guy,” he says by way of explanation in a low voice to Melissa. “Sure thing, I’ll be right there. You sticking around?” His attention is again back on Melissa with laser-like focus.
Melissa shakes her head, still trying to place the voice she’s just heard. “I can’t. I have some stuff to do.”
“All right, I’ll come by yours later?”
Melissa doesn’t respond, her eyes widening as she looks over Hawk’s shoulder and sees the new guy. It was Wes; Wes, her douchebag ex. He barely looks at her, as if he doesn’t know her and she does a double take to make sure she’s not imagining him. But he’s definitely there. What the hell is he doing in the body shop?
“’Mel?” Hawk moves her chin up so that she’s looking at him. “Everything all right?”
Melissa swallows, fighting the temptation to say that no, everything is not all right, that, in fact, everything is pretty screwed up. She summons the best smile she can manage. “Sure, I guess I’m just a little tired. I’m not getting as much sleep as I’m used to.” She bats her eyelashes at him, her tone heavy with innuendo, trying to divert attention from her weird behavior.
Hawk gives her a curious look, like he knows there’s something she isn’t telling him. Right now, Melissa wishes he didn’t know her so well. He looks like he’s about to say something else when Wes calls him over again. Hawk sighs in frustration.
“Go ahead. It sounds like he needs a hand.” She smiles at him in understanding and drops a soft kiss on his lips before she heads out of the shop, feeling more confused by the minute.
***
The rink opening had been as straightforward as Melissa had expected. But at least it was a welcome distraction from the complications of her day. She paces around the house, wishing Ali was there for her to talk to, but she was working crazy hours at the law office she was interning at. This past week she’d pretty much been sleeping there.
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Melissa keeps on trying to frame her explanation to Hawk, a way to come clean with him that won’t change anything between them. By the time her doorbell rings, she’s realized there’s no such thing. Hawk smiles at her, as she opens the door, making his face even more devastatingly handsome. Melissa feels her stomach do a little somersault, the way it always does when she sees him.
“How’s she running?” It takes Melissa a moment to realize that he’s talking about her Mustang that he’d been working on.
“Like a dream.” It was true; whatever Hawk had done to the car, it was like new.
“We’ll get started on the body work in the next couple weeks. We need to order in some parts.” Hawk had taken the car on as a project; he was making it his mission to convert it from a junker into a thing of beauty once again.
“You know you don’t have to do all this. You have a lot on your plate, with work and the Kings.” Hawk had confided in her that he was saving up to buy into The Shop. It wasn’t something he’d talked to Josh about yet; he was waiting for the right moment, but Melissa couldn’t see any reason why Josh would say no. Hawk was like a son to him and he was also the best mechanic in the place. It made sense.
“I know I don’t have to. I want to. For you.” He leans down and kisses her thoroughly, his hands around her waist. She lifts herself up onto her tiptoes, her arms around his neck, holding on for the ride. He pulls her into his arms and she lays her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, breathing in the scent of his leather jacket, the familiar, comforting smell of him and she sighs deeply, feeling more relaxed than she has the entire day. “Now are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?” He says the words softly against her hair and she stiffens in his arms, pulling away from him.
“You hungry? I can throw something together.” Melissa tries to make her way to the kitchen, but Hawk takes hold of her hand, turning her back around to face him.
“’Mel.” The question in his voice is clear.
She sighs heavily, knowing the time has come for her to come clean. But when she looks up at him, she just can’t bear to do it. “Nothing. I’ve just been thinking that I haven’t seen my mom in a while. She’s been dating this new guy and she really likes him. She wants me to meet him.” Melissa waves vaguely. “I guess I just feel like I haven’t been a very good daughter recently.” Her explanation isn’t a lie, but it’s not the worry that’s been keeping her up at night.
Hawk’s face relaxes and he breathes out in relief. “For a second I thought you were going to say there was another guy.”
Melissa looks up at him in shock. “Why would you think that?”
Hawk shrugs, pulling her close to him, like he’s making sure he hasn’t lost her. “Because you’re amazing, beautiful, the whole package. I see the way guys look at you. It makes me want to punch their lights out.”
Melissa’s heart warms at his words. “Funny, that’s how I think about you when I see all the girls drooling as you walk by.” She looks up at him and sees the way his dark eyes sparkle like black diamonds and her breath catches in her throat.
“So that’s what you’re worried about, your mom?” Melissa nods, her gaze skittering to a point behind his head. “Well, why don’t we go see her this weekend?”
Melissa blinks up at him. “We?”
“Yeah, we as in you and me.” He rolls his eyes at her as if she’s being dense.
“You’d do that?” She feels her heart swell in her chest.
“Sure. I want to meet her; her daughter is pretty important to me.” He says the words in a low voice, his eyes searching for some sign of assent on her face.
Melissa holds her breath, blinking back tears at his words. “So does that mean I get to meet your mom, too?”
Hawk’s expression hardens at her words and she instantly misses the softness that had been there just moments before. “Like I said, things between my mom and me are complicated. There’s a lot of stuff that we’ve never really resolved. She hasn’t exactly ever been a candidate for mother of the year.”
Melissa tightens her grip on his shoulders, making him look at her. “She made you, so she must have done something right. Whenever you’re ready, I want to meet her.”
Hawk looks at her in surprise, as if he had never expected her to say that. “You know, you surprise me all the time. I love the way you see the good in everyone. Sometimes I wish I could be more like that.”
Melissa shrugs. “Maybe if I’d seen the things that you have, I wouldn’t be so Pollyanna about everything!”
“Pollyanna?” Hawk gives her an amused look.
Melissa waves away the question. “Nothing, just something someone told me recently. So, you didn’t answer my question. You hungry?”
The look that Hawk gives her tells her that whatever he’s hungry for it’s not food. “Come here.” He tugs her towards him and dips his head down to kiss her. It’s a demanding kiss, one that tells her exactly what he wants. And if she was under any confusion over what exactly that was he nudges her legs open with his and presses his hardness against her.
“Bedroom.” She whispers the words against his lips when they both come up for air. Hawk pulls her down the hallway and she follows as fast as she can go.
Impatiently, he grabs the hem of her sweater dress and pulls it over her head, leaving her standing in her underwear. “You’re so pretty, Melissa.” He ducks his head down and kisses her collarbone, making her shiver against him.
She grapples at his jacket, shoving it down his arms and his t-shirt quickly follows. She wants to feel him against her; she’s desperate for him. He pushes her against the wall, the ridge in his jeans rubbing against the wetness in her panties.
“I need you, now.” She pulls at the buttons on his jeans, letting them fall over his hips and then his hands are ripping her bra off, freeing her breasts. He weighs them in his hands, rubbing his thumb over her hardened nipples, making her sigh against his mouth as he kisses her.
She reaches down into his boxers and takes hold of his hardness, feeling an answering jolt of heat between her thighs. He kisses her hungrily, as frantic for her as she is for him. His fingers find the slickness between her legs and she cries out at his touch. She’s so turned on that all it takes is a touch from him to turn her body into pure electricity.
He maneuvers them to the bed, settling himself down on the edge and pulling her down on top of him. She straddles him and looks down at his expression as she settles herself on his lap, his tip entering her deliciously slowly. They both let out a sigh as he sheathes himself inside of her. She rocks up and down on his lap, throwing her head back as he takes her nipples in his mouth, licking and kissing them, driving her wild.
They’d dispensed with condoms. They were both clean and she’d been on the pill for years. The skin on skin contact was better than anything she’d ever felt. They’re both breathing heavily, panting as they kiss and nip at each other, their hips pumping as they propel each other towards a shuddering climax. Melissa cries out as fireworks pop behind her eyes and Hawk thrusts one final time, his back stiffening as he reaches his peak.
In the afterglow, Hawk lifts Melissa and lays her down on the bed next to him, covering them both with a quilt. He tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and kisses her forehead before settling her against him, his hand intertwined with hers over his chest. The act is so intimate it squeezes Melissa’s heart. She opens her mouth to start an explanation that she should have gone through with hours before, but Hawk’s breathing is already deep and even. He’s fallen asleep and he’s given her another out.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Before the sky is even light, Melissa slips out of bed, careful not to wake Hawk. She’d been staring up at the ceiling for hours, her sense of guilt making it impossible for her to sleep. She slips on a t-shirt of his that he’d left one day and she’d taken to wearing it. It smelled of him and never failed to comfort her. She heads to the kitchen and pours herself a glass of water, formu
lating the words that she needs to say in her mind. She knows that she can’t let another opportunity pass her by; it isn’t fair to him. As soon as Hawk wakes up she is going to tell him, and she isn’t going to let herself take the easy way out.
She tiptoes back into her bedroom and it takes her a few moments to realize that the bed is empty. The light by her desk in the corner is on and Hawk is standing next to it, his jeans unbuttoned as he stares at something. He must hear her come up behind him. He turns around slowly, holding something up in his hand and Melissa feels her heartbeat quicken. It’s not just the expression of confusion on his face that does it, it’s what he’s holding, her press pass for the Portland Tribune. She must have been so distracted with the conversation she had planned to have with Hawk that she’d just left it lying around when she’d arrived home from the rink.
HAWK: The Caged Kings MC Page 8