Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Hawk waited for Lucky to walk into their bedroom before he focused on Desiree and the way she was looking at him. Like she was picturing him in bed with her.
That didn’t sit right with him. Neither did the way she treated Lucky. It wasn’t like his relationship with his brothers. Close. Respectful, even with the ribbing and joking they did with each other.
Something seemed off.
“How was she when you arrived?” He wanted her take on Lucky’s mental health. He needed to know she was okay. Healing. Feeling Safe.
Lucky had been through a lot and he hoped that she was coping okay. He hated to leave her this morning, but he had obligations and he’d gotten back home as soon as he could to spend the rest of the day making sure she was pampered and recuperating.
“She seems fine. Stiff. Sore, I imagine.” Desiree pointed to the TV. “She’s watching another happy ending, hoping she gets hers someday.”
“She will. I’ll make sure of it.” He’d do anything and everything to make her happy and keep her with him.
Desiree gave him a coy smile. “Come on. You can’t tell me this isn’t about the fact that you saved her and now you feel somehow obligated to help her.”
“Obligated.” He studied her face and realized she was serious. “I’m relieved that I found her in time. She’s been a beacon of hope for me for the last two years. Her kindness and caring helped me through more hard nights than I care to count. I can’t imagine my life without her.”
“That’s our Miss Goody Two Shoes.”
“Why do you talk about her like that? I thought you were best friends.”
“We are. Have been forever. But we aren’t exactly alike in a lot of ways. She’s…adorably broken.”
Everything inside him rejected that statement.
Desiree’s snide comment and dismissal of Lucky’s endurance and strength frustrated and angered him.
“Men can’t help but want to help her. Love her.
Even if she keeps them all at arm’s length.
” Desiree took a step closer. “Until you. I imagine the interactions you’ve had passing notes gave her some courage to try with you.
But she’s not ready to jump into whatever you think you’ll have with her.
She’s too good and sweet and kind to let go and really satisfy a man like you. ”
He let her speak, giving her space to show who she really was, because it didn’t seem like she was really Lucky’s friend. More like a frenemy.
“You don’t seem like a guy who wants some passive lover.”
Lucky wasn’t passive last night when she took him in hand in the shower. She was lost in the moment with him this morning, writhing and moaning and tugging his hair as Hawk ate her pussy and brought her to an explosive orgasm.
She’d been beautiful, flying free beneath his hands and lips and on his tongue.
Desiree didn’t know Lucky the way he knew her.
And if Lucky was like that while injured, he couldn’t wait to see her when she was well and whole.
She’d probably kill him. And he’d die a happy man.
Desiree’s hand landed on his chest.
He immediately stepped back. “Don’t do that.”
“What? Touch you? I could do a hell of a lot better at making you burn than she ever could. You can’t possibly be satisfied with those soft kisses.
You need someone wild, free, uninhibited.
Someone who can take you and handle you.
Someone who isn’t afraid of your rough side.
” She purred out the last, an invitation in her eyes.
He did have a rough side. Not that he’d ever hurt Lucky, or any woman for that matter.
He could be gentle like he’d been with Lucky so far in consideration of her injuries.
But he liked getting lost in passion with a lover.
He knew he and Lucky would get there when she was feeling better.
And he knew it would be better with her than anyone else because of their connection, because it was built on all those tender feelings Desiree seemed to think made Lucky weak, or something.
They didn’t. They made her care. Deeply.
And that added a layer of intimacy and trust and understanding that allowed for walls to come crumbling down to expose all the raw emotions and feelings that made it possible to truly let go.
He couldn’t wait.
But he could be patient. For her.
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I’m going to choose to believe that you’re not actually trying to steal me away from your best friend.
Because that would be a really shitty thing to do.
And it will never happen. I’m not a cheater, or so fickle to drop her for you because you think you’re hotter in the sack than she is.
What we have is special. A once in a lifetime kind of thing.
So I’m going to believe that this is some sort of bait you think I’ll take and prove that I’m not good enough for your friend.
” He didn’t believe that for a second. Desiree had a selfish side that made her mean.
He didn’t like it. And he’d protect Lucky from it from now on.
“I am a hundred percent dedicated to Lucky. She’s mine.
I’m hers. From now on, it’s us, so get used to it.
No amount of flirting is going to change it.
And if you try to sabotage what we have again, I won’t be nice, because I’ll do anything to keep her and make her happy. ”
“That’s all I needed to hear.” She played off the whole thing, but she didn’t look happy about his rejection, or even relieved for her friend. Anger lit her eyes before she banked it. She didn’t like to lose.
He dropped it. “Good. Now I have a question for you. How did you get Lucky’s car to her place after you drove her home from the bar?”
The calculation in Desiree’s eyes didn’t surprise him. “I have a friend at the courthouse who did me a favor and drove her car to her place. Why?”
“Who was the friend?”
That coy smile came back. “Just a guy I know.”
“Who?”
She pressed her lips tight. “Someone who has someone who wouldn’t like hearing that he did me a favor.”
He imagined some guy with a girlfriend or wife that was fucking Desiree on the side. She didn’t seem to care about people crossing boundaries and betraying others, so long as she got what she wanted.
She flipped her hair back. “What’s the big deal about the car?”
“It just seemed odd that it was at the house and you’d go through all the trouble to get the car there when you could have just picked up Lucky the next day and driven her to the bar to get her car.”
“Well, I am her best friend, so it was no trouble at all. And I drop off Krystal at school early in the morning, then have to be at work. Lucky gets an early start as well and I wanted to be sure she had her car because she’d agreed to go out with me that night and I know it’s not really her thing.
You know. Drinking. Dancing. Having fun. She’s such a boring homebody.”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“Says the guy who owns a bar.”
“Maybe Lucky will be more comfortable going out with me.” He hoped so. But if not, they could have fun at home.
“Sure she will.” The tone of her voice said she didn’t believe it for a second. “Is that all you needed to know?”
“For now. Jase is still looking into everything.”
“I’m sure one of those guys we were with will probably be arrested soon then.”
He shook his head. “There’s no evidence they spiked her drink. In fact, I’ve watched the footage. There’s no indication either of them came close enough to her glass to spike it. So it must have happened earlier that night. Like right after Lincoln made her the drink.”
“I don’t see how. There was no one close enough to her then.”
He took a chance. “Except you.”
“What?” Lucky stood in the opening to the hallway, her eyes wide with shock by his statement. “Desiree would never do something like that to me.”
Hawk kept his gaze steady on Desiree’s, his heart telling him she might.
Desiree didn’t bat an eye. “Of course I wouldn’t. I love you. You’re my bestie. My ride or die.” That seemed to be laying it on thick.
Even Lucky seemed to think so when she raised a brow at Desiree. “It’s probably going to turn into another one of those things we never get an answer to.”
Hawk hooked his arm around Lucky’s shoulders and drew her into his body. He loved the feel of her against him. “You ready to veg?”
“Yes. Please.”
Desiree headed for the door. “I’m off to pick up Krystal from school. You’re looking better, Lucky,” she called over her shoulder, then opened the door and turned back to Hawk. “Be good to her.”
“Always.” It was an easy promise to make. One he’d keep no matter what.
Desiree sailed out, closing the solid wood door with a sharp thunk.
He held Lucky close and dove in for the kiss he’d really wanted to lay on her when he got home. He slid his tongue along hers, tasting the peppermint tea he kept on hand for Lyric now that she was pregnant and needed it to keep her nausea at bay in the early months of her pregnancy.
Lucky pulled him close, matching the intensity and need he poured into their kiss. She felt so good in his arms. So responsive. So giving. He couldn’t get enough. It would never be enough.
“I missed you,” he confessed again, then kissed her like he’d never get to kiss her again.
Lucky broke the kiss panting. “Missed you, too. You made my head spin.” She held on to his biceps, a pretty grin on her lips. “What were you and Desiree talking about?”
“Your car. She said someone from work helped her get it to your house.”
“That’s nice.”
“You don’t think it’s odd that she called someone up, someone who’s not her boyfriend or family, late at night to move a car?
Lucky grinned. “You’ve seen Desiree. You’ve seen her flirt with your brother. Do I think she could call up someone and sweet-talk them into doing her bidding? Yes. I absolutely do believe it.”
Hawk’s frustration rose. “I feel like she has an agenda.”
“No doubt. She always wants to get her way.”
“And when she doesn’t?”