by Naomi West
He took it and looked down at the baby. “I think I screwed up big time.”
Damian sat down, as if to listen.
“What am I going to do? I want Alexa back, but I think it’s too late.”
Damian’s face fell, as if he understood. He looked over in the direction of her house and reached out a hand. Then he said, in a garbled sound, “Lex!”
Hawk’s eyes grew wide. “What?”
Damian reached again and repeated it. “Lex!”
Hawk put his head in his hands. “Are you kidding me, kid? Your first word is her name? Are you going to hate me forever, too?”
Damian crawled toward the window that faced her house. He banged his little hands on the wall below the window.
Hawk sighed. He had to try one last time.
“Okay then,” he said to Damian. “Are you going to help me make something amazing to win Alexa over?”
Damian clapped his hands together. Hawk picked him up and went into the kitchen.
Chapter 28
Alexa rolled the tape over another box and sat back to take a break. She hated moving. The whole process of putting everything she owned in boxes and taking it from one place to another. To be doing this all over again sucked. And the reason she was doing it made it suck even more. There was a knock on her door and she stood up. She wasn’t expecting anyone. Had the realtor forgotten something?
She opened the door but when she saw who was on her step, her mouth fell open.
“Hi,” she said to Hawk.
“Hi.” He looked around, like he didn’t know where to start. “So, you’re moving?”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. “I thought it was for the best.”
“Do you think you could come see Damian before you go? He misses you.”
“Did you just come over here because you need a babysitter?” Her heart was racing.
“No. I’m not going anywhere. I just thought maybe you’d like to come over for a little while.”
She thought long and hard for a moment. Was he using Damian as a cover? “You didn’t leave him home alone, did you?”
“He’s sleeping.” Hawk pulled the baby monitor out of his back pocket and held it up. “But I do need to get back over there. Will you come?”
Damian was asleep, but he wanted her to come over. Her detective skills pinged and she lowered her eyes, realizing that it was an attempt on his part to reconnect. It was clumsy, and after the way he’d treated her – after the way she’d treated him – it felt like both of them were on unstable ground, balanced on a precipice. Just trying to stand up as everything falls out from under us, she thought absently.
“Okay.” She was just in her sweatpants and t-shirt, her hair up from packing all day, and patted it down.
She grabbed her purse and locked the door behind her. After everything that had happened, she found herself being even more cautious than usual. She followed him into his yard and up to the porch. When he opened the front door, a delicious smell hit her. Steak and potatoes. She stepped inside and saw the dining room table set for two, a candle burning in the center.
He took her hand and turned to face her. “I know I can’t make up for all I’ve done. And we’ve both lied and kept things from each other. I guess we had good reason. But I’ve realized that I like having you around. The things I was afraid of if I ever got close to someone again don’t seem to be happening with you, you know?”
She bit her lip. Her chest was warm with hope and ready to bubble over.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last days. And I guess you’ve decided to move on, literally, and maybe it’s too late. I realize I may have missed my chance to make things right. But I can’t deny the feelings I have for you, Alexa. I’m not perfect, and I’m guessing you know full well what kind of life I’ve lived before this. I’m trying to clean up my act for Damian, keep things straight. And I’d like a good woman by my side, standing with me, helping me raise this little boy into a good man. I can’t do it alone. I’d love for you to be that woman.” He squeezed her hands in his and looked deep into her eyes. “I think I love you.” Then he started laughing. “I’ve never said that to anyone before.”
She laughed, too, and wiped a tear from her eyes. “I know I kept things from you, and I shouldn’t have. And you’re right, I thought I had a good reason to. You came along, totally unexpected, and shook up my world. You showed me how fun life can be. I want a life like that. Not one where everything is by the book and planned and expected. I like being with you. And I know I’ve been falling for you, too. I wanted to sell the house and move because I couldn’t stand to look over here every day and know that I missed my chance at love and a life I’ve only recently started to dream about.” She tilted her head toward Damian’s room and smiled. “I love that baby, and I love you.”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Then he pulled back to look in her eyes. “You really want me?”
“I do.”
He kissed her again for a long while. Her whole body grew warm and she wanted him to take her right there. But he stopped and paused to look at her.
“We need to have a proper date.” He gestured toward the table. “Please sit.”
She took a seat and he served the meal. They ate together, gazing across the table at each other, but it took another long while for them to break the silence, as if they might at any moment wake themselves from a dream.
When they’d finished eating he stood to clear the plates and kneeled down to kiss her hand. “Thank you for forgiving me, and still wanting to be here with me.”
“And thank you for forgiving me. I feel terrible about all the things I’ve done and-”
He put his finger to her lips. “You solved Hugh’s case and sent his killer away. You took a huge drug dealer off the streets. You got Damian back safe and put away the people who took him. You’ve helped me so much. I can let it go that you didn’t tell me everything. I didn’t tell you everything either.”
“No, I guess not. But I knew what I was getting into with you.”
“I know.” He pulled his mouth into a crooked smile. “And I’m grateful that you decided to give me a chance anyway.”
He pressed his lips to hers and this time, there was no pulling away. She wanted him so badly, she wasn’t going to let him stop it. She grabbed his ass and pulled him closer. He was already hard in his jeans and she pressed her hips against him.
“If you really want me to be by your side,” she breathed into his ear, “I suggest you take me right now into your bedroom and give me a reason to stay.”
He moaned in her ear and picked her up as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He carried her to the bedroom but instead of laying her down on the bed he pressed her back to the wall and kept kissing her.
She tugged at his hair and pulled off his shirt. She rubbed her hand along his bare chest and back, feeling every bulge of his muscles as he held her and kissed her gently along her neck. His hands roamed under her shirt and under her bra to play with her nipples. She squeezed tighter around his waist, wanting to feel his hard dick pressing into her.
He picked her up again and carried her to the bed. As he laid her down, he pulled off her sweatpants and panties. He unzipped his jeans and pushed them to the floor as he climbed into place over her. He turned her on her side so he could cuddle up behind her and cupped her breasts and circled his hand around her clit. She was wet with longing already and he rubbed his hard cock between her legs, teasing her as her wetness built up.
He lifted her leg and put it over his and as he positioned himself at her opening and slipped deep inside her she moaned. At the sensation of him filling her, she cried out and almost came right then. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as he moved in and out of her. They started slow and sweet, learning each other by the other’s heartbeat pounding through heat flushed skin. She felt tears running down her cheeks. She never thought she’d feel this again or be this close to him. She never
wanted this to end.
He started to pick up speed and thrusted harder. As much as she wanted this to continue, she couldn’t fight the orgasm much longer. He put her leg down and turned her so that he was on top of her with her leg pinned back so he could penetrate her as deep as possible. He thrust harder and faster and as he cried out and came she felt the pleasure break over her. She dug her fingers into his back and came.
When they had finished, he held her close again, cradled in his arms like he had before. It was the best feeling in the world. She still breathed heavy and her heart was racing. She drifted off in his arms, feeling more content than she had in days.
In the morning, she heard Damian crying. Hawk was still curled around her, sleeping soundly. She peeled his arm back carefully and snuck out of bed. She tip-toed into Damian’s room and opened the door slowly. When he saw her, he squealed and clapped.
She picked him up and nuzzled him to her. He looked up at her, grinning, and squealed loudly at her. “Lex!”
She gasped. He had been making noises for months, but he’d never spoken anything so clearly. What else was he saying these days?
“That’s how I knew he missed you.” She jumped and turned to see Hawk in the doorway, watching them with a deep smile on his face.
“Your name was his first word. He would crawl over toward your house and reach out his little hand.”
“His first word?”
Hawk nodded. “It’s not just me who wants you. We both do.”
“Then I guess I have no choice but to be here forever.”
Hawk came to her and took them both into his arms. “I love you both,” he said and kissed them both. “My little family.”
THE END
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[Bonus #2] Hitman’s Promise: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance
By Naomi West
She’ll carry my baby as payment for her defiance.
I didn’t travel five thousand g*ddamn miles just to get knocked out and tied up by a girl.
As soon as I manage to get out, I’m going to have my revenge.
She’ll pay for this. She’ll pay with her ripe mouth, with her flawless skin, with her obedience.
That’s a promise.
I’m not a murderer – not anymore, at least.
But Rowena Davenport might make me go back to my old ways.
I’m here to bring her father back to the Esposito crime family. Apparently, the old man owes them lots of money.
Just before I can wrap things up, though, she gets the jump on me and chains me up.
Mired in this sh*thole of a basement, it seems like she has the upper hand.
But one look in my eyes and she knows that these handcuffs will not be enough to tame a beast like me.
We make a deal.
I’ll spare her father… in exchange for her.
Now, the sexy scientist is mine to do with as I please.
I drink in the sight of her naked body stretched before me and can’t help but lick my lips.
This will be fun.
But time is not on our side.
The Espositos have caught wind of my little bargain, and they’re far from pleased.
Men are coming now – men with pasts even darker than mine.
If we’re going to make it out alive, Row will have to answer one question:
Does she trust me?
Chapter One
Row
“I think you would like to go dancing.”
I sit up and brush a streak of dirt off my face. Looking up at whoever was just talking to me, I am momentarily blinded by the bright sun. I blink the glare out of my eyes and realize, goddamn it – it’s Stavros again. He stands there in a mostly unbuttoned polyester shirt, a gold chain partially hidden by his chest hair.
I would like to go dancing. But not with Stavros. And probably not the kind of dancing he means.
“No thanks, Stavros.” I smile up at him as sweetly as possible. His brow darkens and I cast around for a reason that won’t injure his fragile ego. Sigh. As a five foot nine curvy redhead, sometimes it seems like I have a Ph.D. in navigating fragile male egos. “We have a lot of work to do around here.”
I motion to the dig site and realize that I’m not lying. We do have a ton of work to do. Piles of dirt are mounded all over, flags indicating layers of excavation whip along in the breeze. And rolling out, beyond, is the acre of land that has yet to be excavated. I see the heads of the other four people on the team, my father’s included, bobbing up and down in their separate pits. It’s been a month since we unearthed the single tomb. The tomb of child. We’ve been trying to keep it as quiet as possible, but we believe it to be the tomb of a very important child.
A moment of eager anticipation rises up within me. And for a second I’m so excited I can’t breathe. All of our work, mine and my father’s, might finally be redeemed. If his calculations were right. If this is the right location. But more than redemption is my bone-deep curiosity. It’s what drove me to archaeology in the first place. I glance down at the single wrist bone I’m unearthing beneath me, at the shards of a three-thousand-year-old water urn spraying out beside it. How did that get there? Why did the pot break? What happened here? Questions burn through me. Questions that I can answer if I study the evidence for long enough.
“You’d rather dig in dirt like child than come to dance club and be woman?” Stavros’s question is like a pin in my balloon. “I can show you how to be woman. You only need real man for that. Not these science boys.” He gestures around to the other archaeologists on my team, diligently working and cataloguing their finds.
Ok, so archaeology is admittedly not very sexy. But come on. Show a little respect here. With that, my patience for Stavros has officially dissolved like a whisper in the wind. I plant my hands on my hips and cock my head to one side, wishing I weren’t standing three feet below him in a hole.
“I’m actually not digging in the dirt like a child. Considering that most children don’t hold two doctorate degrees. So actually, I’m digging in the dirt like a trained archaeologist.”
His frown deepens. But I’m not finished.
“And for the last time, Stavros, this is a registered archaeological site, as marked by the permits and all the rope keeping civilians out. And if you’ve stepped on something important with your tacky pleather shoes, then you’re about to see me lose my mortal mind on you.”
Apparently mentioning his shoes was going a little too far. Stavros narrows his eyes at me. “Careful who you threaten, little girl. You may be smart, but not smart enough to know how this town runs.”
He turns on his heel, deliberately kicking over my little stand of tools on his way out. I roll my eyes at his back and pretend it doesn’t bother me to be threatened like that.
“Would dancing have been so bad, Rowena?” My father stands in the dig site next to me, just his head poking out. He’s squirting water over his hands and face to rid them of the dust that is constantly caked on all of us. His question might sound judgmental to the untrained ear, but I know him. He’s genuinely asking me. My father is an archaeological genius, no joke, but he truly does not understand people at all. “You’ve always liked dancing.”
“Sure, Dad. I like the old, romantic Clark Gable kind of dancing. Not letting some guy rub his halfie against my ass in a dark sweaty basement club with a strobe light and dubstep.”
“Oh,” says my dad as he shrugs and looks around the site. I can tell he’s already stopped listening, he’s thinking about our site again. About the child, Iairos, whose remains we’re hoping to be unearthing any day now. He’s thinking about the whole reason we came to Greece.
# # #
Kennedy
I haven’t murdered anybody in years. But this guy doesn’t know that. He trembles in front of me like a little
girl. Actually, the image of my little sister, Mara, flashes across my mind. All tough in her softball catcher’s gear, crouching over a plate. I realize that saying that this quivering, pathetic mass in front of me is like a little girl is an insult to Mara.
I’m pissed because this dipshit had me running all over France trying to track him down. And then he had me running all over this apartment complex, ducking and diving through the halls while I chased him down. I finally clotheslined him as he scampered past the laundry room and dragged him in here. Now I’m breathing hard, I’m sweaty, and there’s spilled laundry detergent on my new Jordans. Like I said, I’m pissed.
