Hawk's Way: Callen & Zach

by Joan Johnston

  She groaned. “More, Zach.”

  His mouth captured hers in another kiss, powerful with longing, hungry for satisfaction. Suddenly she had what she wanted, his arms crushing her, drawing her close. Her unbound breasts nestled against his hard chest, and she could feel and smell and taste him.

  Her hands slid around his neck, and she arched toward him to feel the hardness, the strength of him.

  “I have to touch you,” he said, his voice raw with need. He ripped her T-shirt up over her head and made a sound of satisfaction when he caught sight of her naked breasts. He stopped for a moment and put her away from him and took his time admiring her.

  She fought the flush of embarrassment at standing naked before him, and lost. She crossed her hands over her breasts and struggled to hide the panic she felt. What was she doing? What was she thinking? This was insane. They were going to be married in a few hours.

  “Zach, wait. I…we…” She swallowed hard.

  “It’s all right, kid. It’s only me.”

  Her glance shot up to meet his dark eyes. His facial muscles were rigid, his jaw clenched, his nostrils flared. But there was something in his eyes beyond the glitter of sexual need. Understanding? She lowered her gaze, confused by the feelings roiling inside her.

  “I’m being silly,” she admitted in a low voice. She tried for a laugh and failed. She took a deep breath and let it out before she lowered her hands and stood before him in jeans and boots and nothing else. Her body was trembling so badly she thought surely he must have noticed. Her chin came up, and she met his glance for the second time.

  His eyes were dark and feral. Dangerous.

  She fought the need to flee, to save herself from whatever was to come.

  Slowly, reverently, his hands reached out to cup her breasts.

  She hissed in a breath as his callused fingertips brushed against her nipples, causing them to peak.

  “Incredible,” he murmured. “So responsive. So very beautiful.”

  He lowered his head to suckle her.

  Rebecca’s knees threatened to buckle, and she grabbed hold of Zach’s shoulders. She had never felt anything so exquisite. She thought she was going to faint.

  She groaned and pleaded for what she knew not. “Zach, please.”

  He raised his head, and she saw the raw hunger in his eyes. It frightened her, and at the same time left her feeling exhilarated.

  “What is it you want, kid?” he said in a voice harsh with unrequited sexual need.

  That was the problem. She didn’t know what she wanted.

  He started to let go, but she put her hands over his to keep them pressed against her breasts. “Wait, Zach.”

  She had never seen a man want like this, never imagined the things she would feel. The feminine power. The powerful need.

  She was afraid of what was to come. She had never done even this much with a man, and she trembled with expectation and with virginal fear. But there was something greater than the fear. Love. And need.

  “I want you, Zach.”

  An animal sound issued from his throat as he lowered her onto the rug that covered the cool tile floor. He unzipped her jeans and yanked down her underwear before freeing himself. He shoved her knees wide apart and thrust inside her.

  “Zach, wait—”

  But it was too late. She hadn’t realized it would happen so fast. She had underestimated the force of his desire, his hunger to be inside her. He had thought she was experienced and had acted accordingly.

  Rebecca cried out sharply as he took her virginity.

  Zach froze.

  He raised himself the full length of his arms, but remained inside her. He looked amazed and confused. “You can’t be.”

  “I’m not…anymore.”

  “I thought… You’re twenty-three!”

  “Could we discuss this another time?” She lifted her hips enough to make him groan.

  “All right, kid,” he said. “We’ll talk later.”

  Rebecca could see the restraint Zach used to keep his need in check as he moved slowly, gently within her. His hand slid down between their bodies to caress her, and his mouth brought frissons of pleasure wherever it roamed.

  “Your skin is like velvet,” he murmured as his lips caressed her throat. “And your hair…I want to wrap myself up in it and get lost. I think…I think…”

  Rebecca didn’t want Zach thinking, because his thoughts might stray to another woman. She wanted the hungry sexual partner who had been so anxious to have her that he hadn’t even waited to undress himself.

  She began to touch him, tentatively at first, seeking places that would arouse his ardor. She tunneled her fingers into the springy curls that covered his chest and happened upon a male nipple that hardened as her fingertips played with it. She loved the feel of his skin, the hard muscle and sinew so different from her softness. She shoved his jeans down below his hips and heard him grunt with surprise and satisfaction as she indulged her curiosity and learned the shape of his lean flanks and buttocks.

  When her fingers strayed to the area where his inner thigh joined his belly, he tensed. As she caressed him there, he hissed out a breath of air. When she laid the flat of her hand on him he grabbed her wrist and held her still.

  “If you touch me there, I won’t be responsible for the consequences,” he warned.

  Rebecca produced a “cat’s got the cream” smile. And touched him there.

  He gave a harsh groan and found her mouth with his. His tongue mimicked the thrusts of his body. His hand slipped between them, and Rebecca gasped as his thumb found a spot that was particularly sensitive. Her body tightened and stiffened as she fought the sensations Zach was producing with his hand.

  “Let it happen,” he murmured in her ear.

  “I can’t—”

  His mouth took hers in a hard kiss, and she fought to catch her breath as her body tensed. Too much was happening. She felt her body slipping from her control, the feelings too intense to bear. She was reaching now for something, arching into Zach’s body, her hips thrusting in rhythm with his, her mouth open and sounds coming out that would have appalled her had she not been so helpless to prevent them.

  Her tongue met his in a duel of passion, while her hands slid down into the crevice between his legs, driving him over the edge.

  She felt the warm spill of his seed inside her as her body clenched and went rigid. She heard his shout of exultation mixed with her own ragged cry of fulfillment. And then she felt his weight, hot and heavy as he relaxed his body onto hers.

  Her hands slid around him as his head fell into the niche of her neck and shoulder.

  His breath was warm and harsh in her ear, and she felt her own chest heaving with the effort to suck enough air to keep her alive.

  “I’m too heavy for you,” he said abruptly.

  A moment later, he had her tucked against his side on the rug that had bunched beneath them, his leg over hers, their sweat-slick bodies joined from chest to hip, their heads lolling on the cool tile floor.

  Rebecca was basking in an afterglow of wonder, when Zach brought her back to unrelenting reality.

  “It’s time to talk, kid.”

  “What is there left to say?”

  “For a start, it would be interesting to know why you kept your virginity for twenty-three years and then couldn’t wait another couple of hours for the wedding.”

  Rebecca was ashamed to admit the answer to Zach’s query. Quite simply, she had been jealous of a dead woman. She played with the black curls that covered his chest, avoiding a response.

  Zach wouldn’t allow it. He put a forefinger beneath her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. “I’d like an explanation.”

  “There’s a picture of Cynthia in the bedroom,” she said in a quiet voice.

  Zach stiffened. “And you were staking your claim?”

  She peered at him from beneath lowered lashes. “Something like that. Did it work?”

  “Cynthia can’t c
ompete or complain. She’s dead.”

  “Then you won’t mind if I put away that picture on your dresser,” she retorted.

  “Putting the picture away won’t make any difference.”

  Rebecca felt the knot return to her stomach. It didn’t matter whether she removed the photograph because the image of Cynthia would always be with him. So, perhaps it was better to leave it there until Zach was ready to put it away, along with his memories of his first—his only?—love.

  Actually, Zach no longer needed the picture of Cynthia to remind him of her perfidy. Images of her face on the last day he had seen her had been permanently graven in his soul. But he used the photo to remind him that a woman couldn’t be trusted. Looking at Cynthia every day for the past seven years had reinforced his distrust of women and kept him from letting himself get too deeply involved with one of them.

  “Go ahead and get rid of it,” Zach said.

  “You do it. Whenever you’re ready.”

  “All right.”

  But Zach didn’t jump right up and run to the bedroom, as Rebecca had hoped he would. Instead, he said, “How about a shower?”

  “Together?” Rebecca asked, startled—and intrigued—by the suggestion.

  “Sure. Why not?” He was on his feet a moment later and pulled her up beside him.

  They stripped where they were and walked naked down the hall to Zach’s bathroom. Rebecca kept sneaking glances at Zach, admiring his lean flanks, his flat belly, and the genitals resting in a nest of dark curls. As his body hardened in response to her avid gaze, she wondered how on earth he had managed to fit inside her.

  He met her incredulous glance and grinned. “If you see anything you especially like, feel free to help yourself.”

  “I like it all,” Rebecca retorted, chagrined that he had caught her gawking. “But a hand wouldn’t be very useful without an arm to guide it, and if I took a leg, you might have some trouble walking.”

  Zach laughed as he pulled her into his arms and nuzzled her throat beneath her ear. “I can see you’re going to keep me on my toes, kid.”

  “Actually, I think I’d like you better flat on your back…with me on top of you.”

  Rebecca lowered her eyes, amazed at her own audacity.

  Zach shot a surprised look in her direction. “Really? I’ll be glad to give it a try…after we shower.”

  Rebecca had never had her hair washed by a lover, and she was amused by Zach’s playful antics. Part of the excitement in playing with him was the knowledge that at any moment his touches could become caresses.

  When they did, she was stunned by the strength of her response to him. For once she was glad to be so much smaller than Zach. He lifted her legs around his waist as they coupled, easily supporting her for the thrusts that led to the culmination of their desire.

  Then they showered all over again. When they were done, he wrapped her in a towel and carried her to his bedroom. He joined her in his mussed-up bed, where they reminded each other in murmurs that they had to get to the lawyer’s office by three, then promptly fell asleep.

  Rebecca woke feeling warm and safe and realized she was snuggled deep in Zach’s embrace. Then the hairs prickled on the back of her neck. She froze, and her heart began to thunder in her breast.

  Someone else was in the room.

  Rebecca clutched the sheet to her breasts as she sat up. Zach was slower to wake and let the sheets fall where they would as he shoved himself into a sitting position.

  “What is it?”

  “There’s someone in here.”

  Zach looked around the room, then rose and moved toward the door. He looked out into the hall, then shut the door. He walked to the bathroom and checked, then checked the walk-in closet. He came back and stood before her with his hands on his hips. “There’s no one in here but us, kid.”

  “There is!”

  “Want me to check under the bed for green-eyed monsters?”

  Rebecca flushed. “I didn’t imagine it, Zach. There was someone here.” She spotted the picture of Cynthia on the dresser over Zach’s shoulder and froze.

  Zach turned to look at what had caught her eye. He walked over to the picture, braced his hands against the dresser and dropped his head between his shoulders. “I don’t believe in ghosts.”

  Rebecca leapt from the bed, dragging the sheet along with her. “I don’t, either.” But she had no other explanation for her strong feeling that there was another presence in the room.

  He turned to face her. “You don’t need the sheet. There’s no one here but me.”

  Rebecca felt the heat skating up her throat. It was absurd to hide herself from him. He had already seen everything there was to see, and in a matter of hours he would be her husband. And he obviously wasn’t shy about his nudity. She stubbornly tightened her hold on the sheet. “I don’t usually walk around naked,” she said primly.

  He grabbed a corner of the sheet and began to tug on it. “I want to see you.”

  “Not now, Zach,” she said in a whispered hiss.

  “Why not now?”

  Her eyes strayed to the picture on the dresser. The other woman stared back at her.

  Zach reached behind him and turned Cynthia’s photo around the other way. “Does that help?”

  Actually, it did.

  Zach kept tugging until he had Rebecca between his legs. He backed her to the edge of the bed, then turned and sat down and pulled her into his lap. “Cynthia was a part of my past. She’s no threat to you.”

  “You’re still in love with her,” Rebecca accused.

  “She’s dead.”

  That didn’t change what Rebecca had said. It was probably futile to argue the issue with Zach, but she wasn’t willing to concede it, either. “Zach—”

  His callused hand surrounded her nape and drew her head toward him so he could cover her mouth with his. She was still in a daze when he said, “Come on, kid. It’s time to go get married. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be late for our own wedding.”

  It didn’t make much sense to argue with that.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ZACH’S ENTIRE FAMILY WAS waiting for them on the courthouse steps—his parents, his siblings and their spouses and all their children. Rebecca felt a rush of butterflies in her stomach.

  “I didn’t know your family would be here.”

  “Couldn’t keep them away. Mom and Dad didn’t attend either Falcon’s or Callen’s wedding. I’m the last of the Three Whitelaw Brats to get married, so they sure weren’t going to miss this one.”

  “Hello, Rebecca,” Zach’s mother said with a warm smile. “It’s so good to see you again.”

  “Glad to see my son has a little sense, anyway,” Zach’s father said as he leaned down to kiss her cheek.

  Rebecca found herself figuratively enfolded in the Whitelaw family’s embrace. It felt good. It felt wonderful. Here was the family she had missed since her father had died. Here was the warmth and comfort she had been seeking all those years since she had left Hawk’s Pride. She slipped her arm through Zach’s. A man who came from a family with this much love in it couldn’t have forgotten the feeling. He just had to be reminded, and it would all come back to him.

  She suddenly felt a whole lot better about getting married. After the afternoon they had spent loving each other, she had every reason to hope their marriage would be successful. If she was lucky, she might already be pregnant.

  Rebecca was glad, now that she saw how important this wedding was to Zach’s family, that she had dressed for the occasion and insisted that Zach do the same.

  She was wearing a soft off-white buckskin ceremonial Indian dress. It had a lovely pattern of colorful beads across the bodice and was fringed along the hem and sleeves. She wore matching knee-high buckskin moccasins. A beaded headband across her brow held her hair in place. The ceremonial dress had been worn by her mother when she was married, and by her grandmother before that, going back several generations. She had cajoled Zach into donning a
black Western tailored suit with a white dress shirt, bolo tie and black boots.

  Zach slipped a possessive arm around Rebecca’s waist and began herding his family into the courthouse. “We might as well get on with it. Day’s wasting.”

  Zach was surprised at the tightness in his chest and the ache in his throat when Judge Smithers began the legal ceremony. It wasn’t a real marriage; it was simply a business arrangement. He realized now why Rebecca had seemed anxious at the thought of so much family present.

  He was aware of his mother weeping quietly to his left, his father’s arm around her shoulder. He could hear Callen and Sam’s twins arguing over a doll and Callen’s futile whispered attempts to shush them. He saw from the corner of his eye how his brother, Falcon, held his wife, Mara, and stepdaughter, Susannah, close with an arm around each of them, and how Mara cuddled their son, Cody, to her breast. Susannah’s leukemia had been in remission for four and a half years now. Six more months and the whole family could breathe a huge sigh of relief that she had made it past the five-year mark and was out of danger.

  Having family here made what was happening more real. He had wanted the legal ties, but speaking vows to Rebecca with his mom and dad present made his throat close up tight. The surge of emotions was unexpected and unwelcome. He reminded himself that he wasn’t marrying to get a wife, he had merely selected an appropriate mother for his children.

  He felt Rebecca’s hand trembling in his as he slipped a plain gold band on her finger. It dawned on him that his family was liable to raise quite a ruckus if he ended up having to divorce her in a year.

  “You may kiss the bride,” Judge Smithers said at last.

  Zach caught his breath at the look in Rebecca’s eyes when she turned her face up to his. A single diamond teardrop slipped from her eye. Before he could stop himself, he leaned down and kissed the tear away. Then he caught her chin with his hand and tipped her mouth up to his.

  He kissed her lightly and released her, afraid to do more than that, afraid to claim her mouth with his, as he felt the strong desire to do. No sense planting any more false hopes in his family than were already rooted there.