Chapter Nineteen
“You look like shit.”
Considering Hawk wore a tux like every other man at the reception, the insult pierced his jaded ego.
“You know how to make a man feel special, Stevie.”
Chase and Piper’s wedding ceremony had been filled with laughter and tears.
Nick officiated since apparently, he was the one who had signed the real license after the happy couple’s legal marriage took place.
Max stood beside Chase and Alex beside Piper.
Piper was undoubtedly beautiful in a silk wedding gown and flowers in her hair as opposed to a veil.
Only Piper wasn’t the one Hawk could focus on.
The maid of honor wore a similar style of gown, off the shoulder, pulled in at her waist and falling to the ground. Her golden gown matched the class she carried with her wherever she went.
She was the one that had invaded his sleep every night since the wine auction.
Before that, if he was honest.
And the “shit” look Stevie was referring to was due to those hours of lost sleep.
Memories in the form of alarming dreams woke him every morning. Some like they’d always been. He was staring down the barrel of a gun, knowing he wasn’t going to escape the bullet. And terrified that the bullet would miss him and hit her .
It was the her that changed.
“You’re not sleeping.” Stevie’s words were an accusation, not a question.
“I sleep.” Hawk watched the wedding party as the photographer captured the memories of the day.
“You’re having nightmares again, aren’t you?”
Hawk pulled his attention off the Stones and directed it at Stevie.
“You wake up one time pulling a gun out, and you never live it down.”
They’d been on an overnight assignment, and it was Stevie’s watch. His past snapped him out of sleep, and Stevie was the one to have Hawk’s gun pointed directly at her.
“Talking about—”
“I appreciate your concern. But I’m fine.”
Hawk patted her on the shoulder and walked away.
The radio in his ear turned on. “I call bullshit,” Stevie said for everyone to hear.
“What’s bullshit?” Charlie asked from another end of the venue.
Hawk looked back at Stevie and shook his head.
She rolled her eyes and walked away.
“He’s staring at you again,” Nick whispered in Alex’s ear.
They stood close to the cake table, participating in Nick’s favorite pastime.
People watching.
But they weren’t the only ones.
The hair on her neck had been on end all day, and when that familiar heat tingled up her spine, she’d turn her head to see Hawk close by, his eyes locked on her.
“It’s his job,” Alex reminded Nick.
“That gaze does not scream paycheck , it bakes in desire.”
Alex sent Nick a disbelieving scowl. “Did you just say ‘bakes in desire’?”
“I can’t help it.”
“Maybe if you stopped watching Regency era programming on Netflix, it would help.”
Nick waved a hand in the air. “I finished watching it, now I’m reading the books. Women really had it hard back then. Baking in desire was a desired endgame.”
“Being a rich widow was the endgame,” Alex corrected him.
“Exactly ... then they baked with whoever they wanted to bake with.”
Alex laughed at the metaphor.
“Hawk is definitely baking for you.”
Her neck tingled, the feel of his gaze brushed against her skin.
Alex turned just enough that she needed to glance over her shoulder to confirm what she already felt.
Hawk was staring.
Instead of looking away, which he’d been doing most of the day, his lips tilted up.
Nick gasped. “God, how do you get any work done with that going on all day?”
“I’ve seen him twice since the wine auction.
” They’d fallen into a pattern. The days Alex spent working from the estate, other members of the security team were close by.
Hawk used that time at the office to ensure the new system was being installed to his liking.
Then, on the days she came into the office, he was by her side.
Either outside the door of her office, inside on occasion, or across the room.
He was her shadow and impossible to ignore.
The moment in the airplane was never talked about.
In fact, they both acted as if it had never happened.
Only it did.
And Alex couldn’t stop playing their conversation over and over in her head.
“ What kind of man should I say yes to? ”
“ That’s easy. A Viking. ”
“ Someone to lord over me. ”
“ Someone to protect you with their own life. ”
On an especially frustrating night when the words wouldn’t shut up, Alex did a little online research about Viking men. And their women.
Apparently, the Viking men took their job as protectors of their wives and families to a very bloody end. Even though women were considered inferior to men, arguably a societal norm that was still practiced throughout the world, they were treated far better than in other cultures at that time.
If Vikings were still in existence, Alex could easily see Hawk standing among them. Shoulders back, eyes piercing ... a sword strapped to his side. Cuts and scars on his skin as a reminder of battles won during the fights to keep his family safe.
Hawk raised an eyebrow at her from across the room, jolting Alex into realizing she’d been staring at him ... for several minutes.
Nick cleared his throat and huffed one sharp “Ha!”
“Stop.” She tilted her glass of champagne to her lips.
“I don’t understand why you’re not jumping on that,” Nick said.
She glared at her friend. “Some of us think about the morning after, the next day.”
Nick paused, his smile wicked.
Alex knew his next words were going to be scandalous.
“I’m sure he’d have all kinds of energy the morning after and the next—”
“Nicholas!”
Nick chuckled, glanced over her shoulder, and started to walk away. “I’ll just meander over here and give you two a moment to discuss lingering looks and lustful thoughts .” His last words were a whisper.
But Alex heard them and, at the same time, felt the air around her zap.
“Did you need something, Ms. Stone?”
Hawk had started to use a formal title when she was at the office. Maybe to remind them both that almost kissing wasn’t the wisest of choices.
In turn, she used his last name.
She cleared her throat and forced herself to face him.
Jeans on the man were something to behold.
But the tux? He hummed with James Bond vibes.
From the wire dangling from his ear to the weapon she knew he had at his side.
And she was staring again.
He’d asked her a question ... what was it? “Uhm ...”
“Did you need anything?”
“Ah . . . no.”
He waited a breath. “You were staring.”
Her gaze moved to his ear. “Can everyone hear me from that thing?”
“No. I have it silenced.”
“Oh.” Alex kicked herself. Since when was she at a loss for words?
The lights in the room dimmed, and the emcee invited Chase and Piper onto the dance floor.
Alex pivoted to watch her brother and sister-in-law as they held each other and the music started to play.
Hawk moved directly behind her. His warm breath floated against her skin, and his whispered words pressed against her ear. “They look happy.”
Her neck tingled. “They are.”
Hawk didn’t move, not away, not closer. Although closer would be difficult without touching.
“Why were you staring, Alexandrea?”
Her name sounded like a caress. Parts of her body that hadn’t tightened in a long time did so now. Her dress didn’t afford her a bra, and she was sure that if anyone looked hard enough, they’d see how her body responded to Hawk’s words.
What the hell should she say?
She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. “I was thinking about something you said,” she told him honestly.
“Which was?”
Oh, God . . .
“Vikings.”
“What about them?”
She turned her neck but didn’t look him in the eye. That would be a fatal error. “I wondered if you descended from them.”
He hummed with a soft laugh. “You pictured me as a Viking?”
Alex nodded but stayed silent.
Her skin jumped when Hawk placed his hand on the small of her back.
Such an innocent touch, but it made her eyes drift closed to simply capture the moment.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
She let out a tiny gasp as he drew a circle on her back with his thumb.
The emcee invited the parents onto the dance floor, then the wedding party.
At the same time, Hawk’s hand drifted away, leaving her cool and wanting.
“Go,” he whispered, giving her a small nudge.
She wanted to grab his hand, pull him with her. Only that wouldn’t look right, and questions would fly. Questions she wasn’t sure she had the answers to.