He had no idea how Kathryn was feeling about them or what they’d done when they were in Vegas. They had said multiple times that what happened there was going to stay there, and until now, he had had every intention of keeping that. But now he was going to have to come forward and say something, or she was going to be drawn into the same thing.
But he didn’t know how she was going to react to the proposition he was going to give her, and he didn’t want to ruin anything that he might have with her in the future. There was no telling how she was going to react, and he knew that he was going to have to take the chance at some point. If he didn’t do anything about it now, it could only get worse.
But this was Kathryn, and Hawk believed she was one in a million. She didn’t deserve this.
He had to fix it.
Chapter Eighteen
Kathryn
“Baby, I know that I was harsh, and I hate to see you so upset. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you let me take you to dinner tonight, and I can apologize to you as I should? You are better than what I have given you credit for, and I want to make it up to you,” Dan said. Kathryn rolled her eyes even though there was no way for her father to see her.
He had called her when he had heard that she had gotten home safe, and now he wanted to take her out to dinner. Kathryn’s immediate reaction was to tell him that she couldn’t make it, but at the same time, she did want to go. It had more to do with than the trust fund and the fact she was out of his good graces. She knew that he was the only family she had left, and she didn’t want to fight with him.
So she reluctantly agreed, with the stipulation that she was going to choose the restaurant. Hawk had taken her out to so many places when they were in Vegas that she didn’t want her father to choose something similar. She was in the mood for sushi, and she knew that he would like that, too.
“How about I send a cab your way around seven?” he asked. She once again hesitated, not wanting to make the plans she knew she had to make. With a sigh, she finally shrugged.
“All right, if that is what you want to do, then I will be here,” she said. When she hung up the phone, however, she felt a stomachache forming inside her. She didn’t want to see her father. She didn’t want to open the can of worms she knew they were going to fight about. He would tell her that he was sorry, but by the end of the dinner, he would most certainly have someone else that he wanted her to marry.
Marry. Marriage seemed like such a joke to her now. Ever since she had gotten back into town, all she could think about was Hawk. She couldn’t believe the few days they had shared together in Vegas, and she told herself over and over to let it go and forget about it. Hawk was bound to be on the cover of another tabloid soon enough, and she knew it was going to hurt when she saw him with his tongue jammed down the throat of another barely legal girl.
She had to get him out of her mind, and she wanted to get the notion of marriage out of her mind. She would marry Hawk in a heartbeat if he were to ask her, but she wasn’t going to bring it up, and she knew he would just as soon die as let that happen. He had no interest in settling down, and he wasn’t going to wanted to for her sake—she had served her purpose to him in Las Vegas, and he had served his purpose to her.
They had slaked each other’s lust, and now that they were home once more, they were to let it go. She would go to dinner with her father that night, and she would ward off whomever it was he had in mind now, and that would be the end of things. Life would go on, and she would move on. For all she knew, Hawk already had.
There were no messages from him on her phone, nor any indication from him that he wanted to get together with her for any reason. Sex was sex, and she should be glad that it was great. She still felt sore in all the right places, and she knew that the adventure she had had with him was going to last her a while.
Kathryn just had to get through this dinner.
***
“Thank you. Just charge it to the company,” Kathryn instructed the cab driver when she got out of the car. Her father had sent the cab to pick her up, so she felt comfortable telling the man that she wasn’t going to pay for it, her father was. He didn’t argue the point, telling her to have a good evening and driving off.
Kathryn shook her head. “Not likely.”
She smiled to herself, reminding herself that she ought to be more positive. There were so many things she wanted to say to her father, and now was the chance for her to do so without losing her temper. She didn’t want to make a scene in public, and she knew if he were to call her on the phone to apologize that way, it would certainly end in some kind of an argument.
She walked into the restaurant, holding her clutch in her hand. She glanced around, but it wasn’t long before waiter hurried over to her.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Yes, I am supposed to be meeting my father, but I’m not sure if he is even here yet,” she replied.
“What’s the name?”
“Wellington.”
“Come with me.”
She hurried through the crowded restaurant, following the waiter as best she could with her heels. She had dressed up, wanting to show her father that he hadn’t taken her dignity, though he had cut off the money. Perhaps this would go well, and by the end of the night she would once again find herself in his good graces. Perhaps she would leave here not having to worry about her bills or anything else like that.
Her father was a hard man, but they both knew that they needed each other, and at the end of the day, they were the only ones who could call each other family.
“Right here, please,” the waiter said. Kathryn thanked him, but when she turned the corner, she stopped short. Hawk was not only standing in the restaurant, but he was with her father, clearly arguing with him about something. She ducked down, doing her best to stay out of sight as she crept closer to the two men, trying her best to hear what they were saying without them seeing her.
Hawk was doing his best to keep his voice down, but she could still hear him and her father without getting too close to the table. They were arguing about Vegas, and her.
“I can’t believe you would hire someone to photograph us!” Hawk was saying.
Kathryn felt a knot form in the pit of her stomach.
“How do you know that I hired anyone? You have no proof that I did any such thing. You, Mr. Parker, are a favorite for the paparazzi. I should think that you would be more careful with what you do in public.” He took a drink of his wine, and she thought for a moment that Hawk was going to hit her father. He clenched his fists and pressed them to his sides, clearly doing his best to maintain control over himself and the situation.
“No one knew that I was down there. I don’t make a habit of announcing when I am going out of town on business,” he said. He was biting his lower lip as he spoke, and she felt her heart sink lower.
“Mr. Parker, I don’t know what to tell you. I asked you for a simple request; you are the one who decided to sleep with her. I know that she is beautiful, but I never told you to do that. That is on you. The fact that you got caught in the act is not my fault, it’s yours.” Her father lifted the glass to his lips once more, and this time, she was almost certain he was going to strike the man.
Hawk looked down and shook his head, feeling that the entire situation was ludicrous. But he stood tall once more and crossed his arms.
“I know you are up to something. You knew where I was staying, you knew for how long, and you knew where she was staying as well. There is no way anyone would have wanted to randomly be at her window. You had to have set that up!” Kathryn saw him almost slap his hand on the table, but he stopped himself in the nick of time, clearly not wanting to get kicked out.
“Oh, throw yourself a pity party. You know as well as I do how that girl operates. She loves money above all else—money and herself. I cut her off from the trust fund, and I knew she was going to want to take out her frustration on something or someone. I would rather it have been y
ou than anyone else. You know as well as anyone that you can’t keep your dick in your pants to save your life.” He looked at Hawk with a sadistic grin, and Hawk once again looked as though he was going to snap.
“When you can combine that with the fact she is willing to spread her legs for anyone with a checkbook, I knew that it was a match made in heaven. At least, that is one way I can look at it. You can get mad at me if you want, but do you really think she would have chosen you if you were poor? No! She wanted your money, and still does.” He laughed, and Kathryn felt her cheeks burn with rage. She wanted to say so much, but Hawk started talking again.
“And you think that everything we did was because she wanted the money?” He spoke with an incredulous tone, and the man nodded.
“Of course, it was. She wanted to rebel, and what better way to get back at Daddy and still get what she wanted than to turn to you? Tell yourself what you want, but you have both brought this on yourselves. I pray to God that you had the wits to use protection; the last thing I need is a bastard child out of this whole mess.” Dan laughed once more, clearly doing his best to get a major rise out of Hawk.
What he wanted more than anything was to cause yet another scandal. He knew the demise of the Parker Industries would boost his own economy, and with the way Hawk worked, it would not be that hard to do. He just had to know what to say and how to say it. Give it more time, and he would have this man throwing chair and smashing glasses before anyone could stop him.
Kathryn, however, had heard enough. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and she wanted to hit the table as much as Hawk did. She wanted to throw all the wine glasses on the floor and make a mess, screaming that everyone needed to simply leave her alone in life. She now realized why Hawk had been so into her when they were in Vegas.
There was no way for her to say how or why, but her father had had his claws in him somehow, and she wasn’t happy about it.
“Father? Is there something you want to tell me?” she asked as she walked up. Both men turned and looked at her with the utmost surprise, and Hawk stood up as tall as he could, doing his best to calm her down.
“Darling, what a surprise. You are early,” Dan said as he looked at his watch. She looked from one of them to the other and nodded.
“I can see that, and I apologize that it is an inconvenience. Oh, wait, you don’t care about what is an inconvenience to me now, do you? It’s all about you and your ideas—what you want, not what I want!” She pointed at her father with a menacing gesture, and he sighed.
“And you! How dare you act like what we had was anything special.” Kathryn rounded on Hawk, “Here you are, revealing your true colors. I don’t know what he offered you. Money? Success? Me? It doesn’t matter! I am my own woman, and I am not going to marry you under any circumstances! I thought you were different than that, but here you are, doing what everyone has always done!” She didn’t give him time to speak, nor did she give him any time to respond to her accusations.
“Guess what? I knew you were going to be in Vegas! My plan was to have my fun with you for the weekend and then forget you!”
She ignored the look of shock on his face. In her mind, all men were the same, and she wasn’t going to stand here and let Hawk take advantage of her as she felt he had all week long. If he wanted to work with her father, let him, but he was going to have to do it without her, and her father was going to have to be happy with Hawk and Hawk alone.
She was done with the entire situation, ready to wash her hands of the matter and move on. Love was a joke.
Hawk was a joke.
Chapter Nineteen
Hawk
Hawk paced back and forth in his apartment, thinking about how everything had gone down that night with Kathryn and her father. He hated how much power that man had over her—and how much power she had over him. Though he had always known that he felt love for her, this was the first time in his life he would be able to say that he was truly in love with Kathryn and Kathryn alone.
The thought of ever taking another girl to bed repulsed him, and he didn’t even want to try to think about how he was going to get over her. He had tried calling her as soon as she left the restaurant, and several times since, but she wasn’t answering anything. No text messages, no voicemails, nothing.
Hawk knew that he had made a mistake, and he was paying for it now. He should never have hidden the fact that her father had contacted him in the first place. Perhaps if he had been upfront, she wouldn’t have been so upset with the two of them were arguing about her. He didn’t know if she had any idea about the tabloids, or if she was going to look at them now that she heard them fighting.
Either way, it truly didn’t matter. Nor did her revelation that she’d been planning on using him bother him. He pretty much deserved it.
Hawk didn’t know what was wrong with him. He couldn’t get her out of his mind; he had thought that he was in love before, but nothing that he had felt in the past could even compare to what he felt now. Every time he turned around, he thought of her in one way or another.
Unable to reach her, he decided to go home and think things through. Hawk was smart, and he knew if he were to think about things logically, he would be able to come up with some kind of plan that would prove to her that he loved her. That thought in itself was so foreign to him, he hardly knew how to handle it. Yet here he was.
He felt that he would do anything to win Kathryn’s affections. He knew she was different now than before, and he wished he could prove to her that he respected that. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but he couldn’t if she didn’t answer him.
“Come on, Hawk, think about this. You were just with her for nearly a week straight. Just the two of you with practically no distractions. She had to say something that stood out from the rest. A ring? Not now—not thinking that you are in cahoots with her father.” He rolled his eyes as he spoke out loud. Suddenly, something struck him, and he stopped dead in his tracks.
She had said something to him that stood out from the rest—and if it was something he could give her, she would be bound to give him a second chance. He didn’t know if she would, and he certainly didn’t know if he would be able to pull it off, but he was going to try. Of course, he couldn’t do this alone, and if he was going to make it happen, he was going to have to act quickly.
The tabloid was still circulating around, and it was only a matter of time before Berkshire got involved with it and legal proceedings could begin. With his heart racing, he picked up his phone and called the only person on the planet he could think to talk to, but the last person on the planet he really wanted to.
Cole Parker.
“Cole, I need to ask you a favor, and I really need you to do this for me, man. This is life changing for me, for all of us, really, and I need you to come through,” Hawk was speaking so quickly that it was hard for his brother to get a word in on the conversation.
“Hawk, it’s like ten at night. What the fuck are you talking about?” Cole’s voice told Hawk that his brother had indulged in some alcohol that evening, and he knew he wasn’t going to get far with him.
“Text Blake and tell him we are going to have a meeting as soon as we can, first thing in the morning,” Hawk said.
“Why don’t you do it yourself?” Cole asked, groggy irritation in his voice.
“Because he is mad at me, and you know he’ll prioritize it if you do it. Come on. I really need this from you, man. This is a business decision that is going to change our lives, I promise.” He did his best to keep his voice friendly and casual, but on the inside, he wanted to yell.
“Fine, but you better be there. I’m not going to show up and have you ditch us for whatever reason you decide between now and the next eight hours. Goodnight.” Cole hung up the phone before Hawk had the chance to respond, but that was perfectly fine with him. His plan was going into motion, but if he was going to truly get his brothers on his side, he was going to have to have something
they could see, something that would prompt them to come to see things his way.
He was a businessman, and he knew that it was going to be next to impossible with what he was going to hit them with, but he was going to have to give it a try. That night, he’d realized that the only thing he really wanted in life was to have Kathryn Wellington become his, and the only way that would happen would be if his plan worked.
He pulled out some charts and began drawing on them, formulating the plan in his mind as fast as he could put it down on paper. If this worked, everything would be better.
Everything.
***
“No! All I can say is no, no, no, no, and no!” Blake let the coffee mug hit the table with more force than he should have, and both brothers looked up at him with surprise in their eyes.
“You aren’t listening to me,” Hawk said, “If we buy Wellington out, we won’t have to do a thing. We’ll hand it over to Kathryn, let her take care of it, and reap the profits. You know that this could work.”
“I know that it could, but I also know that you only tend to have bad ideas and mess things up, and I am not going to risk the wellbeing of this company so you can enjoy your little toy for a few more months. What happens when the two of you break up again?” Blake asked. He had his hands on the table, leaning forward and looking his brother in the eye.
“We aren’t going to. Things are so different now. If you had seen us in Vegas—”
“I think more than enough people saw you in Vegas, to be quite honest,” Blake said, interrupting his brother. Hawk felt like they were kids again, and he wanted to shove his brother to the ground and tell him to shut up. Instead, he held his ground and turned to Cole.
“Come on, buddy, you have said yourself that if we are going to escape a scandal, we are going to have to make this look far more deliberate than some kind of one-night stand. I want to marry this girl, and she isn’t going to do that if she thinks that her father is setting her up with me.” He gave his brother a pleading look, and Cole sighed.
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