Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
All men are heroes. They just might need a nudge. ~ The Lady Elks Secret Archives.
Hawk didn’t like surprises, he didn’t like storms, and he sure didn’t like Dawn wounded on the side of the road in a blizzard.
Come to think of it…he didn’t like much of anything these days.
The second the call had come in, he’d jumped into clothes and rushed to his truck. If anything happened to the blue-eyed temptress, he’d cut off his own head.
As he pulled up in front of the Poppins’ farmhouse, he swallowed an expletive at the snow-covered front walk that led up to the sprawling ranch house surrounded by acres of fields and forest. While the storm had been brutal all day, the walk should have about six inches of snow…not three feet. “Where’s Earl?”
Mrs. Poppins gingerly stepped out the SUV. “Inside. The fool hurt his back last week and won’t let me call the boys for help.”
Hawk jumped out of the SUV and hustled to reach for Mrs. Poppins’ arm. As the old lady stumbled in the thick snow, he smoothly lifted her up.
“Oh my.” She giggled and patted his chest, her hand so light he barely felt it. “You are a strong one, Hawk Rain.” A very amusing rosy blush wound just under the paper-thin skin in her cheeks.
He glanced back toward the car and waited until Dawn unrolled her window. “You okay for a few minutes?”
She nodded, her face pale.
“Get in the front and keep the heat running.” He waited with supreme patience for her to exit the car and slide into the front seat. She moved easily and with grace.
Good. She was all right.
Then he carefully carried Mrs. Poppins through the thick snow and into her front vestibule where he reached for the ever-present shovel leaning against a coat rack. The smell of apple pie and lemon cleanser surrounded them.
She twittered. “Oh, Hawk. You don’t have to?—”
He grinned. “Just give me a second, Mrs. P.” He’d given her the nickname at the age of ten when she’d smacked him over the head with a spoon after he’d stolen apples from her orchard. Then she’d promptly baked him a pie and made sure he ate it before sending him home.
Turning, he dug deep into the snow and had the walk clear within a few minutes. The Poppins kids had moved to Billings, and he would give them a call the next morning. They were good guys and had probably just not realized their folks needed help .
Returning to the house, he put the shovel back in place.
Mrs. Poppins leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Take care of our Dawnie, would you?”
“Of course.” He shut the door and strode toward the car to fold into the driver’s seat. Once back on the road, he turned toward the too-silent woman. “How’s your head?”
“Fine.” Dawn crossed her arms over her chest.
“Good.” He concentrated on the road and tried to ignore her scent—all woman, all sweet huckleberry. “Where am I taking you?”
She pivoted in her seat, both eyebrows arching. “Home.”
Ah. He hadn’t been clear. “It’s highly doubtful, but there’s a very small chance you have a concussion, Dawnie. Local rules are nobody stays alone after hitting their head. Choose a place to go.”
“Home.” She ground out the word between gritted teeth.
He hadn’t hauled ass into a freezing blizzard to drop her off alone at home, and the woman wasn’t getting him. Not at all. “You can go to your folks or to any of your brothers’ homes. So choose.” No way was he dropping her at Adam’s.
“No. Take me home.” She hunched down in her seat and pouted like she had when he and Colton had refused to take her riding when they were teenagers.
His temper tickled the base of his neck, so he tried reason. “What’s the problem?”
She sighed. “Listen, Hawk. I get where you’re coming from, but I need to go home. If I run to my family every time something goes wonky, then they’ll never take me seriously. I’m having enough problems.”
He slowed the car over a particularly icy spot. “What are you talking about? ”
Her slim shoulders hunched forward even more. “None of your business.”
That cut a little deeper than he would’ve expected, and he reacted before thinking. “Oh, baby, that is not how this is going down.” The girl had a softness to her that had always concerned him, so he pulled the car onto the shoulder and shoved the gearshift into neutral to better reason with her. “What the fuck is going on?”
Her gaze lashed to his, blue and widened.
“Yeah. I said fuck.” He half turned toward her, his temper unraveling too quickly to tie back up. “You’re all grown up now, singing in a bar, working at the company…and you don’t want your family’s help. So yeah. I’m done holding back.”
He raised an eyebrow and pierced her with a look that had once made a junior soldier nearly piss his pants. So when Dawn rolled her eyes, his head jerked.
She sniffed. “You’re cranky tonight.”
Cranky? Did she just say cranky like he was old Earl Poppins? “Then you shouldn’t have called for my help,” he ground out.
“I didn’t call for your help. Mrs. Poppins did.”
Hawk scratched his jaw. “Yeah. About that.”
“I’m not talking about that. Period.” Dawn leaned back and crossed her arms. “I’m sure she meant to call Colton and accidentally dialed you.”
The woman couldn’t lie worth a damn. Hawk reached out and grasped her chin, slowly pulling her around to face him. “Bullshit.”
Pink rose into her face, and his fingers actually warmed. Two seconds later, his cock hardened. Could he warm her up like that everywhere? His gaze dropped to her pretty lips.
She was too much of a temptation, and he’d never been one to ignore a challenge. To finally be home, to be near her, to have her all but throwing down the gauntlet?
Yeah. No way was he strong enough to turn that off. He couldn’t get the image of Adam squiring her away out of his mind, which was why he’d been tossing and turning when the distress call had come in.
One taste. He just wanted one little taste. So he leaned over and wrapped one arm around her waist, lifted, and settled her ass in his lap.
She gurgled—actually gurgled—and settled against him, her fingers curling into his T-shirt. “Wh-what are you doing?”
He leaned in to make sure he had her full attention. “I’m going to kiss you, and then we’re going to agree which house you’re going to tonight—pick a brother or your folks.”
She swallowed, and her gaze dropped to his lips. “K-kiss me?”
“Yep.” Amusement filtered through him along with lust. She was adorable and sweet.
Her gaze lifted to his. “Wh-why?”
“Because I want to.” Sometimes, it was as simple as that. He’d take a taste, prove to them both that it was nothing special, and then move on.
Even at the thought, he knew he was a liar. For once, he didn’t care. Not right now. Seeing her leave with Adam the other night had created a slow burn inside Hawk that he couldn’t extinguish.
So he leaned in and brushed her mouth with his.
Soft. So amazingly soft.
She murmured something against his lips. What, he didn’t know. But his hand moved on its own to her nape, beneath all that thick hair—pure silk a guy could get lost in forever.
He was tired of fighting, and he was tired of wishing. Most of all, he was tired of wondering. So he held her in place and delved deep.
Heaven. Pure and simple…huckleberry-flavored heaven.
She sighed against him, her mouth opening, her body leaning into his. Her nails dug into his chest, and the small pain ignited something in him. Something new.
Careful to keep her away from the steering wheel, Hawk twisted his torso, shoved the seat all the way back, and smoothly swung her around to straddle him. The second her core hit his pounding cock, he groaned.
She tunneled her hands into his hair, and a soft moan echoed up from her chest.
He’d known. He’d known if he ever touched her, she’d burn him. Dawn Freeze was all in—no matter what she did. Now, she was all into him.
And it felt great.
He released her neck to run both palms down her sides, settling them at her waist. She tilted against him, and the blood rushed through his head and directly south.
Finally, she broke their connection and leaned back. She swallowed several times and then exhaled slowly. “Um, ah, I’ll go to my brother Quinn’s house.”
Hawk blinked.
In the darkness, her luminous eyes glowed. Her tongue flicked her lips, and her panting breath rasped. Her thick mass of hair had been mussed, giving her a look he’d like to see in the morning. With a soft pat to his chest, Dawn scooted off him to settle in the passenger seat. “Okay?”
Hawk let her go, his mind flaring fully awake. “Quinn’s?”
“Yes.” Dawn reached for the seat belt, her gaze on the storm. “Colton and Melanie have babies coming and need sleep. Jake and Sophie already have a new baby boy as well as Leila and Nathan, so if they’re sleeping, I’m not gonna wake them up. So it’s Quinn and Juliet. They’re probably trying to make a baby, considering the rest of the family wants them to, but surely they’re done for the night.”
Why had she stopped? Hawk shook his head. He wouldn’t have pushed it beyond a kiss or two, but honestly? He figured he would’ve had to pull back, especially since she might have a headache. The last thing he’d ever do was manhandle her while she was hurt. “Are you in love with Adam?”
Dawn turned toward him. “ Now you ask that?”
He exhaled slowly to fight both temper and guilt. “Yeah. Now I ask that. You answer it.”
“Man, you’re bossy.” She turned toward the window in what he could only term as a huff. “Mind your own business.”
“Considering my tongue was halfway down your throat a second ago, this is my business.” He put the vehicle in drive and pulled onto the road. “Besides. You’ve always been my business, and you know it.”
“Not anymore. Not since you told me to screw off after Colt’s wedding.” No hurt, only matter-of-factness, existed in Dawn’s tone. Which clearly meant he had hurt her.
“I never said any such thing.” The woman was so dramatic sometimes. “I just said that I was leaving, and when I came back, if I came back, we were just friends.” Truth be told, he would’ve bet against his surviving, and leaving her as a friend had seemed kinder.
Her head turned so quickly her hair fanned out. “Then you should’ve kept your tongue in your own mouth tonight, right?”
That was exactly right, and he knew it. “You kissed me back.”
“So?” She lifted one slim shoulder. “After all these years, I was curious. Now I’m not.”
A grin flew to his face unbidden. She’d always challenged him, and this was just one more poke from the brat. He’d learned his lesson after breaking his arm when she’d dared him to swing past the boulders in Miller’s Pond, and he’d landed hard. “Sure you are.”
Her chin slowly lifted. “You’re an arrogant ass, Hawk Rain. I’m glad we’re just friends.”
For some reason, her temper cooled his. Good thing, too. “I shouldn’t have kissed you, Dawnie.” The girl was smart to stay away from him, and he should be happy for her and Adam. Even though Adam was too old for her. “Don’t be mad at me.”
“I’m not.” She huffed and turned toward her window.
Sure she wasn’t. He sighed. After a good night’s sleep, he’d figure out a way to get things back on track.
They drove through the blizzard to Quinn’s house, a two-story ranch house with newly painted shutters and a wraparound porch. Perfectly spaced Christmas lights glittered along all the eaves. Hawk whistled.
Dawn grinned, peering out at the colorful display. “Juliet really gets into Christmas, and she made my brother fix the lights seven times. Quinn didn’t used to be so patient, right? ”
Definitely not. Quinn and Jake Lodge were the closest thing Hawk had to older brothers, and neither had ever been patient. Their mom had married Tom Freeze and then had Colton and Dawn, and once Hawk’s mom had died, they’d enfolded him like family.
Which was yet another reason he couldn’t date Dawn. Talk about losing everybody if it didn’t work out—which it wouldn’t. Not now, and not until he got his head back on straight and could learn to relax and just enjoy life without looking for a threat around every corner. If he ever could get to that point, which sometimes he doubted.
Dawn opened the door and hopped down to the snowy driveway. “I’ll wake Quinn to let him know I’m here and why. Thanks for the rescue tonight, and I’ll get my rig back from you sometime tomorrow.” She slammed the door and ran for the front porch, her hair catching snowflakes.
Instant silence and suffocating loneliness settled in the truck. Hawk stiffened his shoulders and waited until Dawn had dug in her purse for a key to open the front door. She waved before slipping inside, and he lifted a hand to wave back.
Then, his body heavy, he turned her SUV toward home. He’d need to get a ranch hand out to grab his truck once the blizzard died down.
About halfway home, his phone buzzed. “Yeah?” he answered.
“Hawk? It’s Deputy Phillips. We found your truck on the side of Solstice Road. You okay?”
Only in Mineral Lake did everyone have everyone else’s cell phone numbers. “Yeah, Fred. I’m fine. Dawn Freeze had a flat tire, fixed it, and I drove her to Quinn’s house in her rig.”
“Oh, good. Want me to call Buck out and get your truck towed?”
Hawk slowed down to avoid a chunk of ice in the middle of the road. “Nah, let Buck sleep.” The retired football coach had just recuperated from a triple bypass. Thanks to Dawn’s letters, Hawk was mostly up on the town happenings. “In fact, the spare keys are in the middle console, if you could do me a solid.”
“Sure thing. Jack is with me. We’ll just drop your truck off at your ranch for ya. Quiet night,” Fred said.
Hawk grinned. “That’s mighty kind of you. Thanks.”
“No problem. I hadn’t heard that Dawnie was house-sitting for the sheriff. We’ll make sure to patrol around there at night until he gets home,” Fred said.
Hawk stilled. “Quinn’s out of town?”
“Yep. He and Juliet are taking a long weekend in Billings. Didn’t ya know?” Fred asked.
“Nope.” Which is exactly why the brat had agreed to go to Quinn’s. She had probably borrowed a rig and was halfway home. With a possible concussion. “Bye, Phillips.” Hawk hung up and flipped a U-turn.
He and Dawn Freeze were about to have a discussion about lying and playing games. She might be savvy, but he was pissed.
She should’ve taken the reprieve. He’d tried to be a good guy, tried to be honorable. In fact, he’d let her leave, with his body still on fire for her. If she wanted to throw down such a dare, he was more than ready, and there was no question the woman knew what she was doing. She’d kissed him back, full on, and she’d been breathing as heavily as he’d been when they’d finished .
Her shrug and casual request to go to her brother’s had almost masked the challenge in her eyes.
She knew he was arrogant, and she knew full well he’d pick up that challenge. In fact, he’d bet his last dollar she’d be waiting on her porch. So he could turn around and go home, or he could see just how much of him she could really handle. She wanted to play games? Fine.
He hadn’t lost one yet.