Ignited

by Suzannah Daniels

  Seren stood up, too, and hugged her. Then, she took the seat that I had just vacated beside Cade. “Y’all be careful.”

  Amber said something I didn’t quite understand and giggled, waving bye to Cade and Seren.

  As we walked through the bar, she leaned her head against my shoulder. “Hawk?”

  “Yeah, babe?”

  “I think I’m drunk.”

  Amused at her assessment, I hugged her more tightly. “Yes, I think you are.”

  Once we reached the cool night air, Amber stumbled across the parking lot. It soon became evident that she was even drunker than I thought she was.

  After helping her into the SUV, I pulled the seatbelt around her and clicked it into place.

  By the time I slid in behind the wheel, she was leaning against the door.

  About halfway home, I heard her say my name.

  “Yes?”

  “I don’t feel very good.”

  “You need me to pull over.”

  “Not yet.”

  “Well, tell me if you feel like you’re going to be sick.”

  “Okay.”

  She was quiet the rest of the way home, but once I helped her from the car, her queasiness returned. I tried to help her along the sidewalk, but she was like a ragdoll.

  She groaned. “Just let me lay down a minute.”

  “We’re almost inside.”

  “I’m going to be sick. Please, Hawk, just for a minute.”

  I helped her sit on the lawn, but she just keeled over.

  Breathing in the cool night air, I stood patiently on the sidewalk, waiting for her to let me know when she was ready to move again.

  As I gazed at the moon, I heard it—the lovely sound of vomiting. I snapped my head in her direction, but it was too late.

  I heard her sniffle. “I got it in my hair.”

  Kneeling beside her, I helped her into a seated position. She turned her head and vomited again. I tried my best to scoop her hair behind her, but it was already wet.

  When she finished heaving, she sat quietly a moment.

  “Better now?”

  “I think so.”

  “Are you ready to go in?”

  “Yeah.”

  I leaned down and scooped her into my arms, and she leaned her head against my chest. As I made my way into the apartment, she remained quiet, one arm safely against my torso, the other one dangling.

  Carrying her straight to the bathroom, I sat her in the floor, flipping the lid to the toilet open, in case she needed to hurl again. I carefully removed her tiara, trying not to pull her hair as I disengaged the combs that held it in place. I slipped her heels off.

  “I think I’m going to die,” she whispered, her pronunciation suffering due to her blood alcohol level.

  I smiled at her, smoothing her hair away from her face. “I won’t let you.”

  “Good,” she whispered. “I won’t let you, either.”

  After removing her jacket, I leaned her forward and unzipped the back of her dress.

  “I’m madly in love with you, Hawk. I don’t want you to die.”

  “Shh.” I pulled the front of her dress down and pulled her arms out of the sleeves. “I’m not going anywhere, Amber.” I knew on some level, maybe a subconscious one, she was terrified of death, of losing someone again that she had allowed herself to love.

  Reaching around her, I unclasped her bra and removed it.

  I paused a moment, trying to figure out the best way to remove her dress. Should it be pulled over her head or pushed over her hips? Deciding that it would be easier to push it down, I supported her weight with one arm and quickly pushed the dress over her hips, along with her panties. When I finally had her naked, I sat her down and propped her against the wall, and then I turned on the shower. After shoving the shower curtain back and removing the showerhead, I turned to lift her.

  “I’m going to be sick again.”

  Quickly helping her to the toilet, I gathered her hair, her body heaving. When she was finished, I flushed the toilet and gently set her into the tub.

  After testing the temperature of the water, I rinsed her hair and shampooed it.

  “I did it for you. Now you’re doing it for me,” she said quietly.

  “What?”

  “I washed your hair. Now you’re washing mine,” she explained.

  “That’s what people who care about each other do,” I said softly as I rinsed off her body, trying to ensure that she was vomit-free.

  “You’d make a good husband.”

  “Does that mean you’re in the market?” I asked, amused by her flow of conversation.

  “Maybe.”

  I grabbed the towel from the towel rack and dried her off the best I could. As she leaned against the side of the bathtub, I tried to figure out how women wrapped their hair in a towel but soon decided that I didn’t have a clue and opted to just cover her hair with it like a handkerchief and gather it underneath.

  It took me twenty more minutes to pull an oversized tee over her head and tuck her into the bed. I put a garbage can on the side of the bed for her and begged her not to try to get up while I went to throw her clothes in the washer.

  After tossing in her underclothes, I checked to make sure her dress was machine washable and threw it in, too. I stripped down to my boxers, added my clothes to the washer, and started it. Then, I went back to check on her.

  Her soft, even breathing cued me that she was asleep, and I was relieved, for her sake and mine.

  I’d been on fire watch the last few weeks. When I was close to Amber, our chemistry was explosive, and while we’d come close on more than one occasion, I wasn’t yet prepared to consummate our relationship. For me, that step would require a serious commitment, and I still held some trepidation about Thanksgiving with her parents. I believed her when she told me that she wanted us to stay together, that she didn’t want to move back to Alabama, but I thought it might be better to maintain things the way they were for now. I’d already done one thing that couldn’t be undone, at least not very easily, one gift that I hadn’t yet shown her. As difficult as it was to wait, Thanksgiving was only a week away.

  Exhausted, I crawled into bed beside her and kissed her temple. “Good night.”

  Chapter 18

  Under Control

  Amber

  I heard groaning. I was trying to wake up, but I couldn’t. My eyelids wouldn’t cooperate, so I silently struggled, trying to force them to open. I didn’t like this feeling. I desperately wanted to wake up.

  When my eyes finally flipped open, it took me a moment to orient myself. I was in Hawk’s bed, and the whole trying to open my eyes thing was one of those weird dreams that hovered somewhere between my subconscious and reality. Relief flooded me when I realized I was awake, but seeing how I was the only one in the room, I knew I’d been the one who was groaning.

  And no wonder.

  I felt nauseated.

  Putting my hand over my forehead as last night’s events flooded my mind, I realized I had a few too many drinks.

  Twenty-one wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

  Or maybe it was the drinking that didn’t measure up. I’d been drunk a time or two in my life but never so drunk, I lost control over my body.

  Realizing I was wearing one of Hawk’s tees and no underwear, it dawned on me that it was fortunate for me that Hawk was a good guy. If he’d been less scrupulous, he could have had his way with me whether I’d wanted his attentions or not, and I wouldn’t have been capable of doing anything about it.

  That was one more reason to drink responsibly in the future, at least when I wasn’t with Hawk. The wave of nausea that was clenching my stomach was a good reason to drink responsibly even when I was with Hawk.

  The bedroom door opened softly. “You’re awake,” he said, looking way too gorgeous. I had a feeling I looked as bad as I felt, which wasn’t enticing in the least.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Like I neve
r want to drink again.”

  He smiled, revealing a flash of white teeth. “It sucks, I know. Been there. Done that. Bought the shot glass.”

  He walked into the room, carrying my bra and panties. “I washed and dried these for you. I have your dress line-drying in the kitchen.”

  Holding my head, I watched him as he laid my clothing at the foot of the bed and walked over to me, sinking down on the edge of the mattress. He cupped the curve of my waist with his palm, his thumb stroking my stomach through the tee shirt. “You want me to bring you some crackers and a glass of ginger ale?”

  Despite feeling like shit, I grinned. “You like ginger ale?”

  “Well, I don’t normally buy it, but since it was your birthday, I thought you might overindulge, so I bought a few things just in case: crackers, ginger ale, some stomach medicine.”

  I reached out and pinched him.

  “Ow!” he exclaimed. “I was trying to be nice to you.”

  “I know, that’s why I pinched you.”

  “Your logic makes no sense.”

  I touched his arm, sliding my fingertips into his sleeve so I could feel his bicep. “You seem too good to be true. I thought you might be a hallucination…so I pinched you.”

  “I think you’re supposed to pinch yourself.” A flicker of emotion crossed his face. “I told you last night that’s what people who care about each other do. As long as we’re together, I’m going to take care of you. No matter what you need.”

  Tears welled in my eyes, and as emotion overwhelmed me, the corners of my mouth began to turn down in a frown on their own volition. I wasn’t sure why I was crying, maybe I was more emotional because I felt so bad or maybe because my heart brimmed with love for this incredible man.

  “Don’t cry, Amber.”

  I dabbed at the tears before they could overflow. “I never thought I could feel like this again.”

  “Like what?”

  I shrugged, my lips still tugging downward from emotion. “So happy. So loved.” Feeling the need to touch him, my fingertips trailed along his cleanly shaven jawline. “So in love.”

  He gathered my hand in his and pressed a kiss across my knuckles.

  “I feel the same way about you. In fact, I have another gift that I didn’t get the chance to show you last night.”

  “You do?”

  He nodded, taking my hands in his. “It’s funny how life can change in a single moment of time. One second is all it takes to completely change our courses. The day of the accident, I just did what came natural for me. You and Seren needed help, and I wanted to help. I had no idea that I would fall in love with you. I guess in some ways I have Gracie to thank for that. If you weren’t so desperately looking for someone to take care of her, I may have never spoken to you again. In one moment, one girl changed my life because of one cat.”

  He held his forearm up, and that was the first time I saw it. “You got a tattoo.” The word, one, was neatly scrolled across his wrist.

  “I wanted to memorialize it because, Amber, you’re my one—the one who makes my heart beat faster, the one I want to spend time with, the one that I want to take care of.” He paused, watching my fingers as I skimmed them just below the tattoo. “Since you’re the one who makes my pulse race—my wrist seemed like an appropriate place.”

  I didn’t realize I was crying until the tears rolled down my face, leaving a hot, wet trail in their wake. I would have never thought it possible that he could make me any happier, but to hear him so eloquently describe all the ones we shared, all the ones that I meant to him.

  It hadn’t been so long ago that I contemplated death. But he was the one who showed me that no matter how bad things get, life is worth living. Even in the darkest times, there are rays of sunshine waiting to bathe us in their warmth.

  “Do you like it?” he whispered.

  I nodded, the corners of my mouth pulling downward again with the emotion that consumed me. With a small laugh, a smile broke across my face. “I love it—almost as much as I love you.”

  He leaned over me, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I was hoping that you would.”

  Wiping away my tears, he continued, “And since you are the one that I want to take care of, and it pains me to know that you’re not feeling well, why don’t you let me bring you some crackers and ginger ale?”

  I squeezed his hand, swallowing as I tried to get a handle on my emotions. “Yes, please.”

  Lifting my hand, he rotated my arm and pressed a gentle kiss to my wrist. “I’ll be right back.”

  Missing his presence the minute he released my hand, I stared at the ceiling, his words the only thing saving me from my misery. It wasn’t long before he returned with a sleeve of saltines, a glass of ginger ale, and a bottle of medicine.

  “Why don’t you try to nibble on a cracker first? If you can keep it down, you might want to try the medicine.”

  He pulled open the wrapper and handed me a saltine. After I managed to eat a couple and keep them down, I sipped on the ale, and he poured me a shot of medicine to soothe my stomach.

  A few minutes later, I decided that I did actually feel a tiny bit better.

  “I’d really like to take a hot shower.”

  “I’ve already laid a towel and washcloth on the vanity. I’m going to eat some breakfast while you shower.”

  The steaming water helped, making me reluctant to get out. When the water became lukewarm, I turned it off, dried myself off, and wrapped the towel around me.

  Heading to the bedroom, I picked up my neatly folded underclothes, thankful that Hawk had laundered them, and pulled his tee shirt back over my head.

  I found him in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal.

  “Did a shower help?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I almost feel normal. Almost.”

  “You want something to eat?”

  I quickly shook my head. “Not yet. I don’t want to push my luck.”

  “You feel like talking?”

  “Sure.” I sat down at the table beside him, my wet hair dangling around my shoulders and leaving damp spots on the tee shirt.

  Pushing the cereal bowl back, he reached across the table and took my hand in his. “I didn’t tell you this last night because I didn’t want it to affect your birthday.”

  My eyes searched his face, my curiosity piqued.

  “Mason told me that a guy came into the bar with a picture of you, asking if he’d seen you.”

  “I’m not worried about them, anymore, Hawk. Not now.” I squeezed his hand. “Now I have you.”

  “So you still believe it’s probably Carey’s parents looking for the ring? Because if there’s something you’re not telling me….”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, Amber. I just want you to know if there’s something you haven’t told me yet, you can trust me. I meant it when I said that I wanted to take care of you. So if you’re in some kind of trouble….”

  I immediately shook my head. “I’m not, Hawk, and I do trust you. I’ve told you everything I know. It’s probably Carey’s parents. I warned you about his mother. The woman’s psycho.”

  “Do you think she would hurt you?”

  “The woman hated me, so would she be mean to me? Absolutely. Would she physically hurt me?” I shrugged my shoulders. “I have no reason to think she would. I imagine she just wants the ring and to have me out of her life once and for all. I thought my mother would tell her what my plans were. Maybe Mom couldn’t get ahold of her. I don’t know, but it’s almost Thanksgiving. I’m going to give her the ring back, and then she’ll be out of our lives forever.”

  For the first time in a long time, I felt like everything was under control.

  Chapter 19

  Lugs Lead Out

  Amber

  The morning we left for Thanksgiving, I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I thought I’d be. I had Carey’s engagement ring packed in its original box and tucked into my purse. I was also eager to see my family
. Even though my spending time away from them had turned out to be a good choice, I’d missed them.

  It was like Hawk said. It only took one second to change the course of someone’s life. My life had already been altered when Carey died, but the very second that I chose to leave home, I was changing it once again. I’d just had no idea that it would lead to Hawk.

  I glanced at his profile as he drove us to Alabama. I loved his profile. I loved his angular jawline. I loved how his hair was so dark, it was almost black.

  He turned toward me, and I felt like I’d been caught staring.

  He rubbed my knee as he focused back on the road. “You doing okay?”

  “I’m better than okay.”

  Smiling, he glanced back at me, his eyes so blue they seemed to glow. “I’m glad.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked him.

  He threaded his fingers through mine. “As long as I’m with you, I’m okay.”

  I lifted his hand to my mouth, pressing a kiss across his knuckles the way he often did to me. My parents had loved Carey because he was a decent guy. They had loved our engagement because Carey offered me financial security that my parents had only dreamed of.

  Part of me was afraid they wouldn’t accept Hawk so easily, not because he wasn’t a good guy. My parents were intuitive. They’d easily be able to tell that Hawk was kind and compassionate.

  But he didn’t make a lot of money.

  And while money didn’t mean much to me, my parents were always striving for more.

  I had no doubt that their need for financial success created unnecessary stress and made them miss opportunities to be happy.

  I desperately hoped they could see how happy Hawk made me.

  It was afternoon when we arrived, and based on my mother’s usual starting time, I figured dinner would just about be ready. Normally, I would’ve helped her, and part of me felt guilty that I didn’t return home sooner.

  As we pulled into the driveway of my parents’ brick home, I spotted a white car that was unfamiliar to me. I pointed to it. “That looks like the white car that followed me that day. I guess my parents did buy another car.”