“Uh huh. Bring her. I’ll expect you like when, tomorrow?”
He chuckled. “The weekend.”
“Good. See you then.” She disconnected the call.
Hawke laid his phone down and leaned back in his chair. From Sienna’s attitude, he had no doubt she would clear the way to him bringing Stephanie and Meechi. The question was how to break it to them that the people they would live among were not human.
* * * *
Hawke gripped the steering wheel, tension tightening the back of his neck. They were two hours from Sutland, and still he hadn’t told Stephanie the truth. He was a coward, and that’s all there was to it. Besides, if he told her ahead of time, she wouldn’t come. She would judge Toron, Sienna, and the others without meeting them face-to-face, and that wouldn’t be fair to them or her. Unfortunately, not telling her meant she might consider that he put her daughter in danger sending the two of them to live with shifters. The thought of her hating him because of his decision ripped into his peace of mind just as much.
Meechi leaned over the back of the seat. “Will there be kids my age there, Hawke? Do they have a playground?”
She’d asked him a hundred other questions before, but he didn’t mind. He liked it that Stephanie had introduced them properly after he saved her. Meechi impressed him with her suspicion of his motives when he rescued her. Luckily for him, he managed to pull the entire thing off without her realizing what he was. Even while he intended to let the two of them know about Toron and the others, he had no plans to reveal himself. Not yet.
“Yes, they have kids your age and a playground and a school.” He glanced at Stephanie who dozed beside him. Ever since he stroked her until she came, he couldn’t get her off his mind. He wanted more, and his body strained with desire to have her. If she broke it off with him when she knew the truth he would kick himself for not at least having an intimate experience with her to look back on.
He pulled into a restaurant’s parking lot and bought them lunch. They chatted about what he could share with them regarding Sutland and its residents, and then they were soon back on the road. In good time, they made it to their destination. Meechi pressed her nose to the window and read the sign as they passed. “Only four thousand people live here? Weird. New York must have a billion.”
Stephanie chuckled. “Just on our block alone, right?”
“Ladies,” Hawke announced as he drove onto Toron’s estate, this is where you will be staying. I hope you like it.”
“Cool! A mansion!” Meechi popped out of the car the moment he came to a stop and ran toward the garden at the side of the house.”
“Meechi, get back here,” Stephanie called after her.
“She’s okay. We’ll gather her when we get your stuff inside.”
Hawke looked around at the feminine voice to find Sienna heading toward them. Jamie tripped along beside her. He wiped sleep from his eyes, and Hawke saw when recognition came into the golden depths. “Hawke! Mommie, it’s Hawke.”
The small boy ran across the grass and threw himself into Hawke’s arms, and Hawke hugged him tight. He ruffled Jamie’s hair and took him in. “You’ve grown since I’ve been gone.”
Jamie beamed. “Of course. I’m six now.”
Hawke looked at Sienna and offered a smile. “Hello, Sienna.”
“Don’t hello me, you idiot. Give me a hug.” She threw her arms around his neck, and he gave in.
“Hey, don’t let me have to kill you, Hawke,” Toron said coming up from behind his wife. They locked hands in a shake.
“You could try,” Hawke responded. “Good to see you, old friend.”
“Likewise.”
Hawke stepped aside and reached a hand out to Stephanie to draw her close to his side. “This is Stephanie Martin, and her energetic daughter, exploring your garden right now, is Meechi Ward.”
Sienna swept Stephanie into a hug. “Welcome, Stephanie. It’s great to have you. I hear you’ll be looking for work while you’re here. What kind of work do you do, because I could also use an assistant.”
“I’m a writer.”
Sienna gasped. “A blind writer? That’s awesome.”
Stephanie’s eyes widened. “How did you know? Oh, stupid me. Hawke told you.”
“No, he didn’t. It seems our friend neglected to share a lot of things. We’ll get everything sorted out once we’re inside. Come on. We’ll collect Meechi and get you all some coffee or tea and snacks.”
“Snacks,” Jamie exclaimed. “Can we have cake?”
“Goodness, Jamie, you just ate with Daddy, for Pete’s sake.”
Stephanie laughed, and Hawke watched her walk off with Sienna while he and Toron gathered the bags from the car.
“Wow, now I’ve seen it for myself,” Toron commented.
Hawke hefted Stephanie’s biggest bag from the car wondering what the hell she’d packed into it. Felt like rocks. “You’ve seen what?”
Toron slapped him on the back, the broad grin on his face a bit annoying. “You’re in love. You look at her like you don’t know if you want to eat her yourself or keep the enemy from doing it.”
“Shut up,” Hawke growled. He was well aware that the others sensed Stephanie’s blindness. Maybe it was a combination of the way she moved her head or how she didn’t always look directly at objects to avoid squinting, but he figured it boiled down to them being more aware of their environment than humans. Toron was right although he didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t always school his expression because Stephanie couldn’t see it. “She’s a friend for now. I’m not allowing things to get too serious.”
“You mean until she learns what you are? You have told her now, right?”
Hawke said nothing. He passed Toron and headed into the house. A young man not more than twenty hovered, awkward and more in the way than anything else, but his dark, neat clothing could be considered attire for a servant.
“Uh, sir, can I take your bags?” the young man asked.
Toron frowned. “You should have been outside, Karl. In fact, you missed any number of duties which I will spell out to you later.”
Karl bowed his head and uttered an apology, but the sincerity seemed questionable to Hawke. He appeared to be more interested in running off to get into whatever teens liked to these days.
The ladies strolled in and oohed and ahhed over the house before Toron introduced the butler. “Everyone, this is Karl, my butler in training. He will see to whatever you need. Just ask him, and if he can’t help, he will know where to find me.”
“Hello, how are you?” Meechi spoke up like a little lady. Hawke recognized the pink in her cheeks and the glow in her eyes. “Mom, can we go to our room soon? I want to clean up some.”
“Mom?” Stephanie repeated and glanced at Hawke. Hawke gritted his teeth and glared at Toron. Meechi always called Stephanie Mommie.
Toron chuckled and dumped a boat load of bags in Karl’s arms and shoved him toward the stairs. He clapped Hawke on the shoulder and whispered, “Don’t worry. We’ll watch over your little girl and make sure Karl doesn’t come near her. You don’t need to worry anyway. He’s got a thing for an eighteen year old in town. Now keeping a cap on an almost preteen is another matter. Welcome to the trials of fatherhood.”
“Toron, don’t you think you’re jumping the gun a little?” his wife demanded, several steps away from them.
“What did he say?” Stephanie called out. “How did you even hear them whispering across the room?”
Toron looked at Hawke.
“We’ll discuss it once you’re settled,” Hawke told her and continued up to the room he would occupy, across the hall from the one assigned to Stephanie. Meechi’s bedroom connected to Stephanie’s, which again impressed the girl. Hawke hoped they would continue to love the town and stay until he gave them the all clear.
Chapter Five
Stephanie was not stupid. She could tell Hawke avoided her. He spent all his time with Toron and left her with Sienna. Not
that she minded. Sienna seemed nice, and they connected like girlfriends right off the bat, but she had no idea how long he would stay in town before he headed back to New York. She didn’t admit the truth when he asked, but she would miss him. She guessed after the other night he didn’t really feel the same.
“Hey, you okay?” Sienna asked at the breakfast table.
Stephanie snapped out of her reverie. “I’m okay. Thanks. So why did the guys eat early?”
Sienna rolled her eyes. “Because Toron wanted Hawke to make rounds with him. I think they missed each other.”
“Why did they have a falling out?”
Her new friend fumbled over the explanation, and Stephanie wasn’t sure what happened when she was done. “Anyway, they’ve made up, and somebody’s always needing Toron’s help.”
Stephanie sipped her coffee. “Is he like mayor of the town?”
“Something like that.”
After most of the day spent wondering, Stephanie cornered Hawke in the hall and dragged him toward the door Toron said led to his office. “Mind if we use this a minute?” she called over her shoulder but didn’t wait for an answer.
“What’s wrong, Stephanie,” Hawke asked in that gentle, damn sexy voice he had.
“Don’t what’s wrong me!” She slammed the door and stood in front of it, as if he couldn’t lift her bodily and set her out of the way. She planted her hands on her hips and tapped her foot. “I want to know what you’re not telling me, because you’ve been avoiding me. Before we came here, you wanted to go out every chance we got, and that was before the trouble started. So I want to know if I turned you off the way I acted or what.”
To her shame, tears started in her eyes, and she brushed them away. He reached for her, but she slapped his hand and turned her head.
“You shouldn’t have asked for a date if you don’t like black women.”
Hawke dropped his hands to his sides and then moved back to lean on the desk. He remained silent for so long, Stephanie began to worry. She drew in a shuddering breath and scanned the office. Shapes easily defined as a clutter of books on tall shelves lined the walls. A massive desk took up most of the space, and from the way her feet sank into the carpet, she judged it to be good quality. The air smelled of Toron and the slightest hint of Sienna as if she’d just left it—a subtle flowery scent made to go easy on the sense of smell. Stephanie liked that.
“The issue is not about you, baby,” Hawke said.
She started, not expecting him to speak.
“How do you like Sienna?”
Stephanie frowned. “She’s awesome. We could be sisters. She understands where I’m coming from and how men can be a challenge.” Stephanie compressed her lips and narrowed her eyes at him. He chuckled.
“That’s good.”
Then something occurred to her. “Wait, I get it. You two had a falling out over her, didn’t you? That’s why you’re acting all weird. You were in love with Sienna.”
“How did you…? I mean…”
Stephanie clenched her hands at her sides. “Do you still have a thing for her?”
He stood straight. “No.”
“If you do, you can just tell me. We aren’t involved really, and I don’t want to start caring about a man whose heart is taken. I can imagine how hard it must be for you to be so close and not able to have her. Also, if you think it’s too much to stay, don’t worry about us. We’re fine. Meechi is excited to meet some of the kids here, and Sienna took us past the school. All of it looks so nice. It blows me away that they don’t have a problem keeping it secret that we’re here and not contacting her old school. Is that even legal? Who are these wonderful people? I might want to stay—”
He kissed her.
Stephanie melted in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck. He lifted her and carried her over to the chair behind the desk. When he dropped into it, he sat her on his lap facing him. He drew her closer, and she arched into his chest, curling her legs back as she straddled him. His cock was so hard pushing against her pussy. She longed for the jeans that separated them to disappear and let them come together in intimacy.
Hawke ran a hand along her back up to her nape. He cupped her there while he pushed his tongue into her mouth. Stephanie caught and sucked on his tongue before twining hers with his. They both moaned into each other’s mouths, but too soon Hawke drew away. He stared at her as if he never wanted to forget how she looked. Nerves stirred in her belly.
“Hawke?”
“Don’t give in to your doubts no matter what,” he told her.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He touched her forehead with his, drew in a breath, and then let it out heavily. “I just want to be with you without everything else pulling at us. That’s difficult right now. Let me explain at least some things, but I have to do it with you over here.” He stood and sat her in the chair on the opposite side of the desk. “With you on my lap, I can’t think straight.”
Before he could get out of reach, she extended a hand and stroked the front of his pants. She almost shivered at how thick and long he was, aching to see it bare. “If you let me take care of this, we wouldn’t have a problem.”
Hawke’s growl when he caught her hand and pulled it away was animalistic, making her hotter. “This is how you cause trouble, little girl.”
She laughed and bit her lip. All of a sudden they went from a half argument to teasing each other, but she had a feeling the mood would change again until she knew all there was to Hawke’s secrets. A man like him, so quiet and gentle yet strong appealed to her in many ways, but he scared her too because she could lose her heart to him.
Hawke sat down behind the desk and gripped the armrests. His eyes were twin dark spots, but she guessed he focused somewhere off in the distance. “My family isn’t too close. We lived in a less-populated area. School for me in the early years was infrequent. When I reached a certain age, I was let go.”
“Let go?” Stephanie wondered why he didn’t say what the certain age was. She guessed maybe late teens. No way the school would allow a younger teen to just quit.
“My parents let me go,” he corrected, as if he read her mind. “As I said, we were not close. Our kind isn’t.”
“Our kind?”
He continued. “I wandered lost for a while until one of Toron’s people found me and took me in. I grew up here, going to school with Toron. We became close friends, like brothers really. When I became restless and wanted to pursue college and to make money, I moved to New York. I come back regularly.”
She waggled a finger at him. “Was that so hard to share?”
“No.”
A memory played at the edge of her mind, and she sat trying to pull it to the forefront. “Vermont. Wait…when we mentioned Vermont, I asked if you had ever been here. You said once or twice like it was no big deal.”
“At the time I didn’t know if Toron would allow me back.” He came around the desk and stood in front of her. When he caressed her check, Stephanie turned her mouth toward his hand and kissed it. He ran a thumb over her skin eliciting tingles down her back. “You’re who I want, but…I’m not sure how long we have.”
Stephanie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
He hesitated to speak once again, and it drove her nuts.
“Just say it, Hawke! I’m so over the cryptic stuff.”
“The people here are—”
A roar erupted outside the office window, and Stephanie shrieked. “What the hell was that? It sounded like a lion. No, it couldn’t be. Where’s Meechi?” She jumped from her chair and ran for the door. Missing the knob the first time, she grappled for it, and Hawke wrapped a hand around her waist, moved her to the side, and got it open. He rushed out ahead of her, but Stephanie stumbled close behind him. “Meechi, where are you?”
“Right here, Mom,” her daughter called from the window next to the front door. “Look, it’s a lion. Isn’t it cool? Uncle Toron went out to talk to him.�
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Stephanie strode up behind her daughter. “Uncle Toron? Talk to him? Are you serious?”
Hawke strode to the door and opened it. “You two stay here,” he instructed.
Stephanie frowned. “Like I was going to volunteer to help? No thanks.”
She cocooned Meechi in her arms while staring out the window. A crowd had gathered, among them Toron, from his bearing, and Hawke, by his build and height. The animal stood in the middle of the people, pacing as if it felt caged. She couldn’t figure out how none of them seemed afraid.
While Toron’s voice didn’t reach her from where she stood, she was pretty sure he spoke to the lion. He extended a hand, and the tone of his voice grew sharp. Several people wavered, and quite a few fell to their knees.
“What the hell?” Stephanie muttered. What kind of voodoo did he have that people seemed to fall under its power? She didn’t feel a thing, and Meechi bounced with excitement at the scene. In the next instant, Stephanie pressed her nose to the glass and shook from head to toe.
“Meechi,” she whispered and swallowed several times to wet her throat. “What just happened? It’s not clear, but maybe my mind is making up crazy scenarios that are scaring the crap out of me.”
“Mommie,” her daughter said in awe, enough to forget she had taken up calling Stephanie Mom now. “That lion just turned into a man!”
Stephanie clutched Meechi’s hand and dragged her away from the window. She kept backing up until she hit the wall. She stuttered trying to put together words. What did they need to do? Pack, yes, pack and get out of there. She turned toward the stairs, but the front door opened. She froze, still holding onto Meechi. Pain ripped through her chest as the level of fear rose. The thought of the lion turned man attacking them rooted her to the spot.
“Stephanie.” Hawke’s voice this time held no comfort. He’d lied. He knew he’d lied when he brought them here.
“You said the people are different and that they would take care of us. You grew up here, and you knew. That’s what you were hiding.” She turned slowly to face him, her anger replacing the fear. “Are they all like that? Even Toron and Sienna? What are they, some kind of freaky experiments?”
In Hawke's Eyes Page 4