by LAURA HARNER
Danielle looked up at him and smiled sweetly, and he knew in his heart he had badly misplayed this. He tried to give her a small shake of his head, but his father was already watching the two of them.
As if in slow motion, Hawk watched as Danielle’s hand reached out for his, her eyes alight with the joy of the game. Her words echoed in his head, the portending of some as yet unknown catastrophe.
“Darling, you’re here. I was just about to tell your father our good news.” Danielle turned back to face Julian, her blonde hair whipping back with her sudden movement. “Hawk and I are in love. We’ll be living right next to each other in his new building on the penthouse floor. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Julian turned his cold, black gaze on Hawk. “I didn’t even realize the two of you were close. You just met only a few days ago. Unless this is another secret you’ve been keeping from me,” Julian said lightly, despite the fury in his eyes.
“Not at all, Father. I had no intention of keeping anything from you.” Hawk sat down next to Danielle and put a protective arm around her, squeezing her shoulder. He leaned in and nuzzled her ear, whispering very softly, “Please trust me here—say nothing more.”
He worked at appearing relaxed and confident, despite his fear of what his father might do to Danielle. “I came today to tell you the news of Renaissance Tower and the planned renovation of the Pier District. I hope I’ve made you proud of my accomplishments. Obviously, with this news comes the bittersweet necessity of needing to quit my duties at Charbonnet Enterprises. However, I hope you will take joy in my success and welcome Danielle to our family, as she has agreed to become my wife.”
He leaned swiftly in, apparently to kiss her ear again, and whispered, “Not a word.” Then sitting back, he met Danielle’s gaze, and his breath caught again at her beauty. Not the more classic, model-thin beauty he’d so often favored in the past. Hers was a more elemental beauty, of face and spirit. Everything about Danielle spoke to his soul. It was easy to get caught in the sum of her, the blue of her eyes, her little nose dusted with freckles that made him smile when she wrinkled it, and her full lower lip that just drove him to distraction. Lost in the moment, he leaned in and lightly kissed her.
Julian cleared his throat, breaking the magic that had been flowing between them. Hawk knew she’d felt it too, watched as the flush colored her cheeks. He needed to get her away from here. Christ, he’d been so caught up in the wonderful game of cat and mouse they’d been playing, he no longer knew which of them was the cat. Now, her safety was paramount, and he needed to get his father alone, to make sure he knew that Hawk had plenty of Charbonnet secrets to expose if anything happened to Danielle.
“Sugar,” he said to her. “I promised your mémé that you would come right back when I caught up with you. It seems you didn’t answer all her questions.” He laughed lightly and planted a kiss on her upturned forehead, willing Danielle to please, just this once, follow his lead.
Her eyes were wild, caught up in some emotion he was sure she’d make known to him later, but for now, she seemed to sense his urgency. “Well, Hawk, if you’re sure you don’t mind. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her today. I’ll see you at home, later, right?” she asked and gave his hand a none-too-gentle squeeze.
“I’ll be there before you know it, sugar.” Turning his back on Julian, Hawk mouthed “Thank you,” then pressed another kiss to her pliant mouth. He touched his fingers to her lips, said softly, “I love you,” and then pushed her out the door.
Then he turned to face his father.
“A nice little show, Junior. I do not believe for a minute that you love this…this…this Danielle Delacroiux,” Julian spit.
“Father, I don’t know what you mean. Danielle is my fiancée, I have a new business, and a new place to live. I would think you’d be happy for me.
“Come and sit. Let me tell you all about my new business,” Hawk said, hoping to distract his father from thinking any more about Danielle. His father liked to control things, and Hawk knew the idea of a business grown right under his nose should make him angry enough to shift his focus, at least for the short term.
“I know all about your business.” Julian’s tone was mocking as he continued. “Resurgence, Incorporated. Renaissance Tower. Did you feel the need to tell everyone that you were disowning me in order to become reborn, to flaunt your hatred of me in my face?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Father. It has nothing to do with you or our Charbonnet name. It has everything to do with me and the business I’ve created independent of you and Charbonnet Enterprises. I didn’t much like who I was becoming and thought a change was in order. I began buying companies that needed a second chance and gave it to them. That’s the resurgence I experienced and now provide to others. Fortunately, it also happens to be profitable for me. Very profitable.
“Don’t think everything in my life has to do with you. I’m sorry to leave you in a lurch. I thought I might be able to manage both jobs a bit longer, but I think given your attitude and my new workload, a clean break business-wise is best. I can brief Joel on the legal matters I’m currently handling for you. His team is more than capable of taking over.”
Julian reached for something on the desk behind him. With a flourish, he threw a stack of photographs on the coffee table then turned to pour himself a drink.
Hawk lifted the first photo, surprised his hand wasn’t shaking. The picture was dark and grainy, obviously taken at night and without a flash, but the image was heart-stoppingly clear. Danielle, sitting alone in her car, forehead pressed to the steering wheel. The date and time stamp showed it was from last night.
He picked up the stack and quickly sorted through the remainder of the photos, all taken within the last twenty-four hours. Danielle alone on the pier, alone in the parking lot of the Généreux Police Department, alone coming out of the shelter along the waterfront. Picture after picture of Danielle. The message was clear. Julian could get to her whenever he wanted.
Hawk felt sick but allowed his face to betray no emotion. “I see you already knew about Danielle and me. Why the ruse?”
“Because you lied to me! You built a business outside the family. You have betrayed me!” Julian shouted.
Hawk came to his feet. “I’ve done nothing to you! This is about me, about being my own man. It was what Peter and I talked about before his death—”
“Do not speak to me of your brother’s death! He also betrayed me, yet you continued to speak with him despite my orders he was to be disavowed. Now you build this monstrosity of a tower and buy nearly all of the waterfront property in Généreux and do not think to share in your prosperity?
“You betray me by going behind my back at every turn, and now you rub it in my face by having a liaison with the daughter of my sworn enemy. I forbid you to marry Danielle Delacroiux, and you will return to Charbonnet Enterprises at once. Effective immediately, I will take over the management of Resurgence. Once you have proven yourself trustworthy again, perhaps I will let you resume managing your own little company. Until then, I expect obedience.”
“Or what, Father?” Hawk asked, his voice deadly quiet.
Julian pointed to the spread of photographs in front of Hawk and said, “I have made myself clear.”
“Now let me make myself clear,” Hawk countered. “I have been privy to a lot of Charbonnet secrets over the years, Father. I was hoping we didn’t need to go there, but I will if you push this. Danielle is mine, and you will leave her alone.”
Hawk let his father’s last words wash over him as left the house.
“A sham engagement doesn’t make her family.”
****
On her way to meet Constantine, Dani wondered what in the hell Hawk was playing at now. First, he tells Mémé Lina and Aunt LeAnn about her apartment and then he tells Julian they’re engaged. There was no mistaking the tension in his body when he was talking to Julian and the warning squeeze had been enough. She could feel the fear rolling off him
. Not fear for himself. Fear for her.
Dani gave her head a shake. Hawk was a distraction she couldn’t afford right now. She would think about it when she got home. A shiver passed through her at the word. Home.
Turning her focus to Constantine, Dani thought about what she wanted to tell him. She really had no further questions for the man, just a simple warning. Leave Nicolette alone. He would face the wrath of Dani if he didn’t. She gave a little snort. Okay, she probably needed to make it sound scarier than that. Playing over the various scenarios, she found one that worked for her as she pulled into Constantine’s long and curving driveway.
****
With hands in the ten and two positions and clenched tight enough on the steering wheel to whiten his knuckles, Hawk thought over the afternoon. After his unsettling interview with his father, Hawk had spent the last hour in an intense round of negotiations and was more than ready to go home and pour himself a glass of whisky. It was time to face Danielle. What a strange day it had been. His mouth twitched as he thought about her pouring the water on him and then basically kicking his ass. He had to give her points for style.
She’d been right, too. He had been selfish. He’d been so anxious to bring her into his life he’d convinced himself he was doing the right thing. It was humbling to realize he’d acted the same way his father did. Charbonnet might makes right, Danielle had said. Now he was going to push her again.
When the phone rang, he answered in speaker mode, “Charbonnet.”
“Hawk, Constantine Demetrios. I need to see you tonight. How soon can you get here?”
Hawk felt his eyebrows crawl up his forehead. “That’s quite the summons, Demetrios. I have plans for the evening. I’ll swing by your office tomorrow, if that’s convenient.”
“Dani Delacroiux just left here. I think you’ll want to see me, now.” Constantine broke the connection.
“Goddamn it!” Hawk yelled and slammed his fists against the wheel. “First my father, now Constantine. Well, they can both go to hell!”
With a squeal of tires on pavement, Hawk turned his car around and headed to the Demetrios mansion.
****
Well, well, well, Tony thought as he sat in his little room and listened to the last twenty-four hours of surveillance tapes. He finally hit a gold mine with the bug in Julian’s living room. He’d wondered why the ones in both Hawk’s bedroom and Dani’s living room had gone quiet. He thought maybe they’d been discovered and destroyed. Now he knew better.
Goddamn! That Dani Delacroiux must be a world-class piece of ass to get Hawk Charbonnet to fall so hard and so fast. It made his dick hard just thinking about what she was doing to earn that penthouse apartment. Maybe he could get an invite, look around, and leave another little present.
That fight between Hawk and Julian had been priceless and so enlightening. So Hawk had dirt on Charbonnet Enterprises and Julian was threatening Dani. Nice little standoff. Or was it?
What if one side received a little push? He would be able to use that to his advantage. He needed to think carefully about which Charbonnet he wanted to nudge. All in all, he thought pushing Hawk would be his best chance of getting the dirt on Julian. If he planned it carefully enough, he might get both Julian and Hawk with one good, hard shove.
He picked up the phone and dialed Beau. This was one time he was glad to contact Dani through the chief detective. He could easily make the case that the two of them needed to get in and look around the penthouse as a precaution. He would plant another bug, and then maybe he would be able to see just what Hawk had on Daddy Dearest. Meanwhile, he had a new game to plan.
Chapter Sixteen
An hour ago Dani had been spoiling for a good fight. Now she looked at herself in the mirror hanging above the elegant side table in the penthouse floor’s private elevator and wondered what in the hell she was doing. All day she’d convinced herself what she needed was a long drawn-out argument that would end in her dramatically walking away from Hawk Charbonnet, after making her point. She glanced down at the note in her hand once more, trying to remember just exactly what that point had been.
Danielle,
I need to speak with you about my father. It’s critically important. Please, can we just talk?
Hawk
She ran her fingers lightly over the slanted scrawl, so unlike the elegant handwriting she’d seen from Hawk before. The note was tucked into a bouquet of wildflowers and waiting on the table in the elevator when she’d arrived home.
With a deep sigh, Dani tried once more to muster her anger. Goddamn Charbonnets thought they owned the world. Julian Charbonnet had obsessed over her mother, had concocted one horrific scheme after another, all in hopes of capturing Clare for his own. Julian was a sociopath. No conscience, no boundaries, just a single-minded determination to have what he wanted, at any cost.
Was Hawk following in Julian’s footsteps? That thought, the fear that Hawk was just as possessive, just as obsessive as his father, had been niggling at Dani all day. Was there something much darker behind the ridiculous game of one-upmanship they’d played at her mémé’s and at Julian’s? Hawk wanted her; he’d made that clear enough. He’d said he loved her, but that was for Julian’s benefit. His earlier declaration about falling for her was romantic, fun, and flirty. Moving her personal belongings without her permission was dominating and possessive.
There were just some things a woman couldn’t abide. Tolerating another lifelong case of stalking that put her family in danger was out of the question. The Delacroiux and the Charbonnets were too twisted in their histories, their obsessions, for anything good to come from the attraction between Hawk and her. She needed to do what was right and walk away before she had to shoot someone.
With one more glance in the mirror, Dani wanted to tell herself that this was part of her job. Speaking with Hawk about Julian was what she was supposed to be doing. She’d only taken a shower because it had been a long, sticky day. The clingy little black dress was just the first thing she grabbed from her closet. The makeup and fuck-me heels just went with the dress. Yep, she wanted to tell herself those things, but she didn’t want to lie.
Dani pushed the button to Hawk’s apartment, and the door slid soundlessly open. She found him in the main living room, staring out at the darkness. Still dressed from his workday, he’d tossed his suit jacket carelessly over the back of a leather club chair. His broad back was to her, collar open, and his sleeves were rolled up, revealing powerful forearms. His shoulders slumped, neck bent, head canted slightly downward. He looked so damned tired.
He must have sensed her arrival because his gaze shifted and locked on hers in the reflection of the darkened glass. He turned slowly to face her, his expression one of utter desolation, and his look took her breath away.
Whatever it was that troubled him, the games between them were over for now. He was too raw, too lost. He needed her. Without a word, Dani crossed the room and molded herself to him, and his arms wrapped tightly around her.
Hawk pressed his lips to her hair, and she felt the tremor that passed through him.
“Danielle,” he sighed.
Dani tilted her head back and cradled his face between her palms. She pulled him into a gentle kiss, pressing her mouth to his, offering comfort for whatever was hurting him. The kiss started slow, a touch of lips, a gentle rub, soft and sweet. Then Hawk’s desperation fed the moment and one arm became a steel band around her waist while the other cradled the back of her head. He twisted his fingers in her hair and pulled her head back, positioning her mouth for greater access, and he began to feed, devour her with his desperate need.
He kissed her with his whole mouth, his whole body. Teeth, lips, tongue, he claimed her, made her head spin, while lower, he pressed his hips against her. Dani felt the hard length of him against her stomach. Her knees would have given way if not for the hand splayed across her lower back, pressing her mound to his hard thigh.
The kiss got hotter, her moans mingling w
ith his, their hunger fierce and tinged with something darker. As their hips moved against each other, mimicking their mouths, Hawk spun Dani and shoved her against the window. The cool glass behind her contrasted with the hard heat in front, and threatened to overload her senses. For a moment, her hands hung limply at her sides.
The sudden rush toward an unrestrained claiming was over as soon as it started. Hawk took her face in his hands, then slowly slid them down her neck. His fingers played against her fevered skin, delicately tracing across her collarbone, caressing her shoulders, along the bare length of her arms. He pulled the shirred front of her dress down to reveal her black lace bra. Growling low in his throat, Hawk rubbed rough circles against her nipples, the scratchy lace adding to the sensations threatening to sweep her toward ecstasy.
He drew away from her mouth with a moan, then he latched onto one nipple with his hungry mouth while engulfing her other breast in his big hand. Her body’s response was immediate, the pull from nipple to pussy, a tightening, a quick shudder. She was flooded with moisture and ready to have him inside her. Hawk continued to feed at her breasts, alternating from one to the other, sucking, kissing, lapping, and biting until she was in a frenzy.
“Too many clothes,” Dani gasped out, grabbing for his shirt, fingers fumbling to unfasten the buttons and slide the material off his shoulders. She ran her fingers through the mat of hair that covered his chest and followed the trail lower to where it disappeared in the waistband of his slacks. She couldn’t get enough of the smooth, broad muscles that tapered down to his hard, well-defined abdomen.
A big hand covered both of hers and stilled her frantic movements. Hawk’s voice dropped to a whisky-rough pitch that slid over her nerve endings and pooled heat between her legs. “I need you. Let me make love to you, Danielle. No talking, no fighting. Just loving.”
Eyes that were dark pools of desire looked down at her. Harsh lines of pain and something else bracketed his mouth as he waited for her response.
