by Tasha Black
Hawkeye
Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides (Book 9)
Tasha Black
13th Story Press
Copyright © 2017 by 13th Story Press All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Tasha Black Starter Library
Hawkeye
Volume 1
1. Trinity
2. Hawkeye
3. Trinity
4. Hawkeye
5. Trinity
6. Hawkeye
7. Hawkeye
8. Hawkeye
9. Trinity
10. Hawkeye
11. Trinity
12. Hawkeye
13. Trinity
14. Trinity
15. Hawkeye
16. Trinity
17. Trinity
18. Hawkeye
19. Trinity
20. Trinity
21. Hawkeye
22. Trinity
23. Hawkeye
24. Trinity
25. Hawkeye
26. Trinity
Reconstructed (Sample)
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Tasha Black Starter Library
Intergalactic Dating Agency
About the Author
One Percent Club
Tasha Black Starter Library
Packed with steamy shifters, mischievous magic, billionaire superheroes, and plenty of HEAT, the Tasha Black Starter Library is the perfect way to dive into Tasha's unique brand of Romance with Bite!
Get your FREE books now at TashaBlack.com!
Hawkeye
Soft-spoken Trinity loves her friends and her quiet life as an IT specialist for the police academy. But when three aliens arrive from Stargazer, Trinity’s peaceful existence is disrupted in a big way. And one of the aliens seems bound and determined to excite Trinity’s sensuality as well as the rest of her life. Trinity isn’t looking to become an alien’s mate. But there’s something about him that leaves Trinity feeling off-balance, and it’s not just his big sexy body…
About the Stargazer Alien Brides series (Intergalactic Dating Agency):
Collection 1 focuses on three couples in a small Pennsylvania town, featuring Bond, Rocky and Magnum.
Collection 2 follows the story to a resort in the Catskills where three new couples meet and features Kitt, Remington and Indiana.
Collection 3 continues the adventure with three new couples in a small-town police academy, featuring Lobo, Conan and Hawkeye.
Volume One
1
Trinity
Trinity took a deep breath of fragrant summer air as she headed into the overgrown boxwood labyrinth.
The hedge maze had almost certainly been a showpiece in its time. When she was working in the room above it, Trinity could unfocus her eyes while gazing down at it and almost see the foliage in all its former precision - squared off edges and smooth pathways leading to the sparkling birdbaths and marble animals hidden within.
That was before the monks who had occupied the storied building ran out of men and money and let the landscaping go. She supposed the monk business was less fashionable than it used to be.
Now the monastery was being renovated into the new police academy. The few remaining brothers had gone to upstate New York to join another group.
And Trinity had been contracted by the academy to digitize all the old paper files in the records room and troubleshoot some IT issues.
But when she needed a break from the musty mimeographs, the overgrown gardens always drew her in. Trinity dreaded the day when the backhoes would inevitably come to rip them out and put in more parking or whatever it was the powers that be had in mind.
For now, their impermanence made each leaf and wildflower almost unbearably beautiful in her eyes.
Trinity had just begun to traverse the tangled path in earnest when it caught her eye.
A flame-colored trumpet flower winked at her.
She turned to look but it was merely a drop of water, sparkling like a diamond. It must have caught the sunlight and flashed. Funny, there was no other dew on the leaves or flowers. It was much too warm for that.
She continued, forcing herself to walk slowly and take deep breaths. Another scent had joined that of the loamy soil and lush blossoms. It was familiar but she couldn’t place it.
A cool mist began to swirl around her ankles.
Trinity sped up, taking the turns around the brambles faster than she should since she couldn’t properly see the path anymore. The soft grass beneath her feet swallowed up the sound of her footsteps.
Then she saw it again, another sparkle in the still air.
And another. And another.
At first she told herself it was raining.
But rain didn’t fall so slowly.
No.
The summer sun, just kissing the horizon, was turning thousands of lazy snowflakes pinkish-orange as they swirled toward the lush grass.
Trinity blinked, but the snow was still coming down like a picture on a Christmas card. The flakes dotted the sky, dusting the faces of the cavorting fox statues in front of her.
She ran on, and the snow followed.
She stopped at the center of the labyrinth.
A warm breeze rustled the branches of the scarlet rose bushes that surrounded the patinated sundial, as lacy snowflakes drifted down to anoint it all - roses, sundial, grass, marble benches.
Trinity lifted her own hand before her and watched as the delicate flakes made ivory freckles against her copper skin.
Am I the only one seeing this?
As though her thoughts had triggered it, a figure appeared in the clearing with her.
He didn’t come from anywhere - he was just… there. One moment she was alone in the center of the labyrinth. The next she wasn’t.
It was a man, tall and wide-shouldered and somehow familiar.
“Trinity,” he said, his deep voice caressing her from across the little garden.
Everything suddenly made sense.
It was Hawkeye.
And this was a dream.
It had to be. Because instead of looking away or reciting the pledge of allegiance in her head to distract herself from his sexiness, Trinity was moving toward him, her feet moving of their own accord.
The summer snow storm didn’t matter, nor did the urgent time crunch on the endless yellowed files back in the monastery.
It didn’t matter that she had raised six little brothers and had no interest in nurturing an alien man-child.
Hawkeye’s smoldering gaze was hypnotic. And Trinity would not resist this time. Her heart seemed to beat with the rhythm of her footsteps.
Closer, closer, closer…
The evening bells in the tower above began to ring the hour.
One…
He wrapped his arms around her and she shivered with the rightness of it.
Two…
She slid her hands up his muscled chest. She had never looked at him without wanting to feel his pecs under her palms.
Three…
He cupped her cheek with a massive warm hand, gazed down at her as if she were the most precious treasure.
Four…
Trinity looked into his dark eyes and saw her own face refle
cted back in them, more beautiful than she could ever be in real life.
Five…
He bent to kiss her, his eyes closing at the last moment, lashes brushing his chiseled cheek.
Six…
She felt the warmth of his mouth against hers. Her whole body welcomed the sweet touch.
Seven…
He smelled like a snowy forest. His hands slid down her back, molding her curves.
Eight…
The last bell was clearer, crisper than the tolls that had preceded it. The cool kiss of snowflakes faded.
Trinity kept her eyes shut, but he was already disappearing from her arms.
Please, not yet.
But she could already feel the sheets bunched in her hands, hear the distant sound of the academy training exercises through the open window.
It was eight in the morning.
And she was alone in the suite.
Tears slid silently down her cheeks, and she let them. She had no idea why she was crying. She didn’t actually want to be with Hawkeye. It had been a pleasant dream - that was all.
But the tears fell anyway. There was no one to see them and worry.
Brooke and Veronica would be long gone by now. Brooke to the gym where she taught, and Veronica to the K-9s.
Trinity always woke up alone.
2
Hawkeye
Hawkeye woke up alone and dressed in the solitude of the men’s suite.
When they first arrived at the academy, he and his two brothers had each occupied one of the three bedrooms that surrounded the common living area of the suite.
But, of course, Lobo and then Conan had claimed their mates and moved to private quarters with them.
Now Hawkeye reigned as king in the suite. He could choose the music to play on the radio and leave the windows open all night if he wanted. The first couple of nights had been heaven.
He had never really known the joys of privacy before.
Back in the lab at Stargazer he had been the opposite of alone, living in a large bunk room with many, many brothers. His only times separated from the group had been when the scientists tried to get him to click permanently human without a mate. It was unsuccessful, although quite diverting. However, it hardly counted as real privacy.
And before that, on Aerie, the concept of privacy didn’t exist. He and his brothers and all the occupants of the planet had been gaseous forms, sharing the space equally. They were individual creatures, yet never definably alone.
But here on this planet of fixed objects and physical forms, one was either alone or together.
And there were benefits to being alone.
Unfortunately, his intended mate, the beautiful Trinity, shared his love for solitude.
In his lowest moments, Hawkeye often wondered if this would be the death of their relationship.
Not that he could really call it a relationship. He was certain she was his intended mate, but knew he wasn’t hers.
He wasn’t sure why.
He had caught her gazing hungrily at his physique, which he knew was exceptionally attractive even compared with his brothers’ good looks. He loved that the form he had been given pleased her. He wanted nothing more than to satisfy the craving in those ravenous eyes of hers.
But Trinity herself denied the attraction. Not with words, but with every moment of her slender form, and every exasperated sigh.
She was resigned to help him and she couldn’t resist being kind - that was in her nature.
But Trinity did not want to love him.
It might have hurt his feelings if he hadn’t been half in love with the mystery of it.
He was good-looking, he was kind, he was strong, he was a fast learner, and he cared for her. If the movies had taught him anything, it was that he was the total package.
When he first brought up the problem with his brothers, Lobo had suggested that perhaps she was repulsed by the idea of him being an alien.
Dr. Bhimani had told them this was the likely outcome of a woman finding out their secret and had urged them to be patient.
But there was something else going on - Hawkeye was sure of it. Trinity liked him, and was attracted to him - not repulsed.
His brothers were much luckier in that respect. All of the men of Aerie had acquired special gifts when migrating into their human forms. Lobo could sense feelings. Conan could travel into people’s dreams. Both of these gifts had proven invaluable in the courtships of their intended mates.
Hawkeye looked down at his hands. His gift was a parlor trick compared to them. How was it supposed to help him win the love of his Trinity?
The best he’d managed so for was to keep her computer from overheating. Somehow, he doubted that would be enough.
If it wasn’t a matter of attraction, then there must be something she disliked about the idea of him. And he was determined to get to the bottom of it. Gift or no gift.
Thankfully, he had a good feeling about the day ahead of him.
Until now, Trinity had tolerated his help in her department, and only as unskilled muscle. He had carried hundreds of boxes of files from the admin room of the old academy past the kennels and field and into the admin wing of the new academy.
But today he would be assisting her with scanning and data entry, which meant that instead of spending most of his day on the path between offices, he would spend his whole day by her side.
He checked himself out in the mirror. He had selected the tightest of his t-shirts for the occasion. He noted with satisfaction that it stretched out over his muscles so unsubtly that Trinity could not help but notice.
Invigorated, he took the steps downstairs two at a time and snagged two bottles of mint iced tea from the shelf in the kitchen and threw them in his satchel along with a notebook and pen before heading to the new building, where she had asked him to meet her not before nine.
He smiled at the thought. While all the other women in the household were up at the crack of dawn or before, his sweet Trinity slept until the sun was high in the sky, and napped like a kitten on the sofa in the evenings.
If he could just get his sleepy intended napping in his arms, all would be well with this new world of his.
3
Trinity
Trinity sat on the step outside the new admin wing and looked out over the garden while she drank her coffee.
She didn’t usually arrive early, but somehow this morning she’d been unable to sit around eating breakfast.
It’s not because of him.
But it was definitely because of Hawkeye. She hoped it was mostly because she was unhappy about wasting an entire morning showing him how to help her do something mind-numbingly simple.
And Henderson was in such a breakneck hurry to get her project completed.
She wondered for the hundredth time why she hadn’t been given an assistant if the task was so urgent.
But each time she made a written request it was kicked back.
The first time, she’d been super embarrassed that she’d completed the request form improperly. The error was tiny - a date field left blank next to one of the places she’d had to initial - but she had been determined to be much more careful in the future.
The second time, she was very sure the form was correct, but it was kicked back again on a technicality. Rex, the admin who had given her the form, let her know that Captain Henderson really wanted to see the request on an updated version of the same form.
She had agreed and completed it and then waited two weeks. When she went back to check, they had no record of the form. Rex just clucked and shook his head, telling Trinity that it was a shame, and the form must have been lost.
And so it went with all of Trinity’s requests. Even her request for a hand truck to make transporting all the boxes of files easier had gone unfulfilled. If it weren’t for Hawkeye, she wouldn’t have gotten anything done at all yet. She would still be lugging boxes over.
The mist began to clear in the garden, rev
ealing the shape of the boxwood labyrinth. The warm breeze was just the same as in her dream. Trinity found herself searching the air for snow.
She knew it was only a dream, but she could still hear the echo of him saying her name before that kiss.
“Trinity,” a deep voice said from behind.
She nearly dropped her coffee.
“Hello,” she chirped, leaping up and turning around to see Hawkeye approaching.
Dear lord, he was even hotter than in the dream. His dark hair was a bit too long, which only drew attention to those soulful brown eyes. A black t-shirt stretched to bursting over his broad chest.
Just as she was about to faint with lust, he smiled at her, dark eyes crinkling at the corners.
“Thanks for letting me help today,” he said.
“You don’t have to say thanks. You’re the one helping me,” she replied. “Do you want coffee?”
“No, thanks,” he said. “I’ll keep you company.”
“I was just going in,” she told him. “Come on, let’s get started.”
Somehow, he got in front of her and held the door and she willed herself not to get drawn into orbit around his big warm body as she brushed past him to get inside.
Once she passed the threshold, she stopped to admire the room. It didn’t seem to matter how much time she spent in this space, the little chapel always took her breath away.
