She shivered, and I saw the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention, goosebumps rising on her flesh.
“Fine,” she said, defiantly. “Then let’s go outside.” With that, she turned on her heels and walked out, forcing me to follow her. The truth was there really wasn’t much forcing--I would have followed my Daisy to the hottest parts of hell.
When we were outside, she started pacing back and forth on the sidewalk, her pretty face in a frown. She kept on mumbling something to herself, so low that I doubt anyone could actually hear her. I leaned against the brick wall beside the front door of the bar and just looked at her. She was so fucking beautiful. I’d seen a lot of beautiful things in my life, things that almost offset the ugliest moments I’d witnessed, but not a single one of them could hold a candle to her. I smiled, thinking about how many fights we would have for the rest of our lives, her livid at me for something or another and me just waiting to hold her and begging her to forgive me. It wouldn't matter if it was my fault or hers, as long as she was in my arms.
I shook the lovesick fog from my head. I knew how crazy it all was, my feelings for her, the fucked up situation we were in, the fact that there were so many people to answer to and the reality that I didn’t even know if we would come out of this alive.
All I knew was that I would risk the world to have her in mine.
She finally looked up from her constant pacing and glared at me. “Well, don’t just stand there, answer me,” she demanded.
I pushed myself off the wall and walked over to her. I couldn’t pull back the smile that was plastered on my face.
“You’d better wipe that smirk off your face, Hawk.”
“Would if I could, but I can’t. You’re too fucking cute when you’re mad as hell.”
“None of this is remotely funny.” The fire in her voice burned low, not as hot as it was moments before.
I reached out and tucked a wild piece of her auburn hair behind her ears. I couldn’t help thinking how it felt like silk or sateen, soft and supple.
“Don’t try to distract me with your stupid tough guy charm.”
“Charm?” I teased, enjoying the soft shade of pink creeping up her chest. “Listen, babe, I’m not trying to distract you, but you need to know that if any fucker thinks he can talk to you like that, he’ll have me to answer to. No one disrespects my woman.”
“Your woman? What the fuck, Hawk? You’ve ignored me for a week.”
“So is that the real reason you’re so pissed at me?”
“No! No, it isn’t. I’m pissed because I just watched you beat the shit out of a man just because he was a stupid drunk. It’s a bar, Hawk. A bar generally houses asshole drunks. I can handle myself, and even if I couldn’t that’s why there are people like Mac around. Have you seen him? He’s built like a damn cement truck!” She yelled, her tiny index finger pounding into my chest as if to drive her point further. I reached out and took that finger and brought it to my lips, placing a gentle kiss there.
“Sweet Daisy. I know you’re capable, but I’m not used to someone disrespecting me, and when that drunk decided to disrespect my woman, he was spitting on me. I’m an old-school kind of guy, I do old-fashioned things, and one of them is beating the shit out of any jackass that thinks he can talk to you like that. The fact is, he’s lucky he still has his face. I’ve busted kneecaps for lesser offences to the family than that--he should be on his knees, thanking me for not crushing his windpipe.”
“Hawk, you just can’t go all gangster like that. It’s not...practical. I escaped that life for a reason, life doesn’t have to be so brutal.”
“I know, I know.” I placed my palms on her shoulders. “I left that part of the life too. That’s why I’m here now, because I won’t take any part in that other side of this life--I’m lucky I have a choice, but a lot of guys don’t. The point is, I’m a savage motherfucker when I have to be, and nobody fucks with what’s mine.”
“Yours?” Her eyes shone with emotion as she gazed back at me.
“All mine.” I confirmed. And just like that, I could visibly see her relaxing. I wrapped my arms around her, cradling her close. Exactly where I always needed her to be. “Now, how about you clock out and I take you home?”
Chapter 7
Izzy
“Cozy place you got here.” His voice hummed over my shoulder as I filled a pasta pot with water.
“Thanks...I think,” I replied, biting down on my bottom lip as I registered the butterflies coming to life inside my belly again. A familiar reaction whenever he was around. “I already have my aunt’s famous pomodoro sauce simmering on the stove, we can eat it just as soon as the pasta is al-dente.”
“I can’t wait to taste it.” His words rumbled through all of me.
I shifted away from him, heading to the pot and stirring the homemade sauce. The air was stifling when he was around. It was thrilling, and annoying. I couldn’t think straight, only visions of his hands on my skin and my body underneath him filled my head.
I was beginning to think he could read my mind, the way his grin tipped up to one side in that charming, crooked way that made my heart leap. And the way his eyes twinkled whenever he caught me staring made my stomach turn flip-flops. I hated that I liked it so much.
“It’s hard to concentrate when you’re looking just over my shoulder,” I whispered.
“Is that so?” He leaned in, close enough that I could smell his warm, masculine scent. A vixen woke inside me with just that one note of Hawk in the air. I sucked in a soft breath, willing my brain to put one foot in front of the other and get me anywhere but here. “I’m good at reading people, Izzy.” He trailed a fingertip up the crook of my inner elbow. “The good ones, the bad ones. When they lie, when they’re scared, when they’re happy, when they’re frustrated.” He dusted his nose along the shell of my ear as he ended, “When they’re turned on.”
“You sound like a talented man.” I shifted against him, my body always so drawn to his. His broad shoulders filling up the space, the way his thick voice seemed to strum every single one of my nerves and left me in a constant heightened state of awareness around him.
It was exhausting, being horny for Hawk all the time.
“Let me show you.” Before I could reply, his hands were at my waist, spinning me onto the counter, seating me, ass first, on the granite and slipping his hips between my thighs.
My breathing hitched, my breasts suddenly tingling with the desire for him to touch me, the peaks of my nipples painful and visibly cutting through my top.
I clamped down on my lips, crossing my arms awkwardly before he caught my wrists and yanked them away.
“Don’t ever hide from me.”
I gasped when his fingers danced under my waistband, the pads of his fingertips resting above the curve of my ass as he yanked me closer to him. He growled when our bodies connected, the length of his thickness centered over the seam of my hot core. I groaned when he slowly rocked into me, his other palm fishing under the hem of my shirt before rushing up my torso to connect with the outside of my bra.
I clutched at his biceps, my lips open and gasping for air as he kneaded tenderly, teeth cutting into his bottom lip and driving me closer to the edge already.
“Tell me how many men have been here before me. I’ll want to kill every one of them for touching what’s mine.”
My gaze hung with his, silence suspending us before I shook my head and looked away.
“Baby.” He caught my chin, forcing me to watch him. “Whatever words come out of your lips next won’t change anything. I know you better than you think, it’s my job to read people, and you’re the most honest and true person I’ve ever known to walk this Earth. I wouldn’t have believed you were out there, that anyone was out there for me, but that’s all changed now. I’m with you, no matter what. I’m not an easy man to love, but I plan on showing you exactly why I’m worthy of yours.”
“Hawk…” I stared up at him, wide-eyed an
d enamored by him. “I... I don’t want you to be disappointed.” I stammered, feeling insecure. He was probably very experienced and here I was, someone who hadn’t ever been kissed. “I’m a virgin, I’ve never been with anyone, and I thought you would hate that--I’m so inexperienced. Who wants to teach between the sheets--?”
“Izzy Main, my sweet, sweet Daisy. Beautiful, gorgeous, girl...it took me too damn long to find you, you can bet I’ll never let go.” And then he covered my lips with his, stroking his tongue against mine and causing a chorus of new sensations to pulse through me. “I haven’t touched a woman in over a decade, not a single woman has even turned my head. And then you happened.”
“Me?”
“Fuck the pasta, I’ve been dreaming of the taste of you on my tongue.”
“R-really?” I stammered. The raw, masculine heat coming off of him sent zaps of primal energy through my nerves.
“And I’ve been wondering if your sweet pussy is the same delicate shade of strawberry red as your delicious lips.”
“Oh-h?” I nearly croaked as his hands lifted my shirt above my head.
“I can’t wait to fuck that pretty look off your face.” He swept the pad of his thumb across my lips with a grin.
“Oh-kay,” I barely replied.
“I won’t stop pleasing you until you’re screaming and dripping off my chin. I’ll work your ripe tits over with my teeth and make you squirm and moan for me, and then…” He swept a finger down the seam of my pants, zaps of fire racing through my center with his defiant touch. “I’m going to sink inside of you, slow and sweet, let you adjust to my cock filling your body, and then I won’t let you forget whose girl you are.”
“But the pasta?” I said before thinking.
“The pasta can wait.” He flipped off the pomodoro sauce. “Right now, I need to taste you”
In one move he lifted me off the counter and turned the boiling pot of water off, before carrying me down the hallway and searching for my bedroom. He kicked open the only door he found that had a bed, and just like that, I was in my bedroom with a man.
Not just any man.
Hawk.
“You smell like heaven.” The words husked past his sculpted lips before he bent and pressed them to the fabric right over my most delicate core. My flaming, throbbing body nearly melted into a puddle of need at his knees.
I didn’t think I could stand anymore, and he must have sensed it because his hands cupped at my ass cheeks, pulling me a little closer to him, his hot breath spread across my heated skin, flaming out in waves of pleasure as my muscles seemed to mold to him.
“I haven’t been able to get you off my mind.” He uttered the words so quietly it was almost as if he resented saying them. Resented having the feelings at all. Being consumed with someone. Well, good. I’d been pretty damn preoccupied too.
I pushed my fingers into his long hair, tugging softly when his eyes cast up my body and caught mine. They glimmered with something, something almost a little haunted, before they warmed and his smile turned up in that cocky grin I’d come to love.
“You’re a fucking angel, and you don’t even know it.” His eyes flared when he stood in one swift movement and hooked his arms under my thighs, hoisting me around his waist.
I clung to him instantly, like I was meant to be there. And maybe I was. For the first time ever, I felt like maybe I was right where I belonged.
“Just one look from you unchains something in my heart. Something painful, something I’ve used like a cage to protect myself.” He laid me down on the bed, his hands searching my skin as if he might find answers to something there. “But there’s no protecting myself from you.” He kissed at the hollow of my neck. “There’s no hiding myself from you.”
I let out a sigh, my nipples hardening to tight little peaks when his hand whispered across my skin.
“And you're so responsive to my every touch.” He purred at my neck, one hand dusting across the bare skin above the waistband of my pants again. “Just my breath on you makes you feel things you've never felt before.” He placed a kiss at the vein throbbing in my throat. “Makes you want things you’ve never wanted.”
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth, afraid of the words spilling past his lips, afraid they might be true. Afraid of what they might mean. Afraid of the honesty that was already laid bare between us.
“Yes,” I hissed, unable to control the feelings raging up inside of me for the first time.
“That’s my girl. Always honest with me.” His hands were at the cups of my bra then, eyes locked with mine as his tongue darted out and licked at the creamy flesh pushing over the cup. His grin grew crooked, that damn dimple deepened, and then he hooked his thumb into my bra cup and pulled. Cool air burned my nipple, causing it to raise and pucker just as his warm lips covered it, his tongue working at the sensitive bud until I was mewling underneath him.
His other hand gave equal attention to my other breast, before he pulled down the cup and drew the other nipple into his hot mouth. It was like silk and fire coming together. I thought I might lose my mind from the overload of sensation before he did the one thing my body had been begging for. And slowly…achingly slowly…his hand drifted down the soft contours of my belly, past my belly button, until finally, he reached my mound..
With measured slowness, he pushed my pants down my thighs, sliding them to the floor before I was nearly naked and a quivering mess under him.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, laid out for me like this.” His eyes ate me up like he was savoring every inch, hovering over my lace panties, my thick thighs that very definitely touched, the dip of my waist, and then back to my eyes again. “Do you have a condom?” His fingers threaded into my hair, his body covering mine as his tongue stroked past the seam of my lips.
I shook my head, unable to form words, my hands latching around his waist and tugging at his shirt. “No, I haven't been with anyone, remember?”
He paused then, the rocking of his hips against mine slowing before he tipped my chin up and forced my gaze onto him. “How could I forget?”
Our gazes held for long breaths before I finally nodded. “I’m clean, I promise.”
He let out a breath before pressing his forehead to mine. I felt his rock-hard erection pressed between us, and I briefly wondered if that was it, if I'd fucked up by telling him, and now I would never get a chance to know what following through with this feeling really felt like. All of it was new for me, and I wanted more. God, I wanted so much more.
“I know you’re clean,” he finally whispered, before his lips attached to mine in a long, slow kiss. “I want you to know what you’re getting into with us. You and me. I’m a complicated man, Izzy.”
His words stole the air straight from my lungs.
“But from the moment I saw you, I knew you were different. Right here and now, I’d give up my own life if it meant saving yours. Don’t ever doubt that.” He caught my gaze again, waiting for a reply.
I nodded, struggling to find the words. “Okay.”
His hand worked at my neck, my shoulders, unclasping my bra and discarding it on the floor, before he stretched above me and pulled his own shirt over his head.
I nearly lost my breath again when the chiseled, washboard abs of his physique were revealed in the dim light. I wanted to run my tongue along every bump and ridge, count them…and then count them again until I knew the angles of his body just as well as my own.
“Hawk…” I murmured, only one thought running through my head on repeat.
“Jesus, I can’t tell you how much I like the sound of my name on your lips.” He covered me then, pulling me into his arms, molding me to him as all the oxygen evaporated between us. “Tell me what you want.”
“You,” I breathed, nearly ready to beg. “I want you.”
His hand was tight at my hip as his other fingers worked his pants down his legs and to the floor. In one swift move, he was covering me, the hard ridge
of his cock pressed between my legs. One finger hooked in the elastic of my panties before he looked up at me with a reckless grin on his face, then tore with little effort.
The pale pink panties fell on the floor, and then his silky cock was pressed against my hot flesh.
I attached my lips to his earlobe, dragging my teeth and causing a shudder to erupt through his body before he inched inside of me for the first time.
My mind grew hazy, my body flooded with his scent and the vindication of his touch.
This was everything. He was everything. This feeling was like being high.
A low groan tipped past his lips when he pushed inside me a little farther, fire burning deep inside when he reached the barrier that made me a virgin.
“Once I have you…” His words came out nearly ravaged. “I won’t go back.”
My heart almost shredded with his words. I knew in that instant that whatever pain this man had carried in his life, it had weighed him down, prevented him from living, maybe even from feeling.
“Never.” My words were a prayer against his stubbled neck.
His eyes shuttered closed, his lips falling across mine as he wowed me completely with his kiss. His hands on my face, his hips pressing into mine, the hard steel of his cock breaking me, and then with one final thrust, he bottomed out inside of me.
Another groan shuddered from his body as his hands worked my skin, his lips soothing away the ache, his thrusts slow and measured. “So sweet, so fucking intoxicating, it breaks my cold heart and puts it back together again brand new.”
His words shook me to my very core, my own lust multiplying as the pain gave way to pleasure. The muscles relaxing, the pinch easing, until all I felt was thick and full and completely taken by Hawk.
He’d stolen my heart right out from under me, before I’d even had a chance to decide if I wanted to give it to him. Wasn’t that the funny thing about love? All too often it chose you, not the other way around.
“You completely fucking intoxicate me, sweet Daisy.” The way he said my name was like a narcotic straight into my bloodstream.
His Mark: A Mafia Romance (Forever Mine Book 1) Page 3
