Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
Love can’t work without trust—make sure you give and get that. ~ The Lady Elks Secret Archives.
An hour after Quinn had taken the crazy elderly women home, Dawn curled up on the couch, her gaze on the fire. Her fingers played with the soft silk scarf around her neck. It matched her sweater and made her feel more put together. “Have you ever seen a butt plug like that?”
Melanie chuckled. “No. I just wish I could’ve been in the store when they’d gone shopping. Can you imagine?”
“No.” Dawn didn’t want to imagine. Ever. Quinn had taken the ladies home, and Dawn had made a quiet dessert for Melanie, who was having all sorts of aches and pains, probably from laughing so hard earlier. “I wish the guys would get home.”
The sound of a truck finally echoed up the drive .
Minutes later, the door opened, and Colton tromped inside, followed by Hawk.
“We think we traced a private plane to Canada, of all places,” Colton said without preamble. “Meyer headed north instead of south. We lost him there, although I’m thinking he moved on.”
“I guess Zonas was telling the truth,” Hawk said, nudging the door closed. “Meyer is long gone.”
“It makes sense.” Colton shook snow from his hair. “You guys won’t stop hunting him, so why not get a good head start?”
Dawn shivered.
Melanie tugged Colton down to sit on the couch. “Enough of this, guys. We have a right to know what’s going on.”
Dawn lifted her chin and crossed her arms. “Fill in all the blanks and tell us the entire story. Now.”
Hawk eyed Colton and then grimaced. “Meyer was an explosives expert on my first tour. He was a great soldier who discovered a fast way to make money by funneling drugs. I caught him and turned him in. Unfortunately, he was brought home to be tried, and he escaped.” Hawk tugged out a worn picture of three soldiers with whom he’d served. “Meyer is in the middle.” About six feet tall, brown hair, dark brown eyes. “He could’ve done anything and instead chose to run drugs. The guy next to him was a friend of mine who Meyer stabbed. I promised I’d make things right.”
“Meyer put you in the hospital last year?” Melanie asked.
Colton rubbed her belly and shook his head. “No. Apparently that was Meyer’s guys, but not him. He was elsewhere, and we’re not sure where yet.”
Hawk shook snow off his jacket and unzipped it to hang by the door. “Reese hired me eight months ago to find Meyer.”
Dawn frowned. “Wasn’t the government looking for him?”
“Yes, but certain contacts in the government were all right with hiring outside contractors who weren’t, ah, restricted by the constitution. Or laws.” Hawk pushed up the sleeves of his green shirt. “I found him and brought him in, thinking that would be it. But he always was a talented sociopath. He escaped custody and now is on the run.”
Dawn shook her head. “So the guy in the hospital gave you his current location, which led you to Canada, and now he’s gone.”
“Long gone,” Colt said.
“So we’re in the clear?” She focused completely on Hawk.
“I hope so. When I took him in, it wasn’t pretty.” Hawk reached to the side and locked the door. “I’d feel better if we stayed vigilant until we catch him, just in case. I’ve sent a rotation of ten men to watch your folks, five to Jakes, and they’ll rotate tomorrow to watch this place. We have two men scouting outside here tonight. Quinn is working, so Juliet is at Jake’s. We’re covered for now.”
Melanie struggled to her feet, frowning when Colton had to give her a gentle push. “You guys hungry?”
“No. We caught something on the way home.” Colton stood and took her hand. “Let’s get some sleep.”
Melanie turned to Dawn. “Guest room is off the kitchen.”
Dawn knew that, considering she’d stashed the sex toys there earlier. Geez. Her face heated until her cheeks hurt. Besides, her older brother was in the room, and he knew she was going to share a bed with Hawk.
Melanie bit her lip and obviously avoided looking at her husband. “Awkward,” she mumbled .
Colton turned toward the stairs, definitely not meeting anybody’s eyes. “Woman, you’re a pain in my ass,” he muttered, a smile in his voice. “Let’s get some sleep while we can.”
They disappeared upstairs, and Dawn hugged her arms around herself. “Well.”
Hawk didn’t move her way. “Well.”
She swallowed as tension, all Hawk-like and masculine, wandered over and licked her skin. “It’s weird, right? You and me, here at Colton’s.” She started babbling and couldn’t stop. “I mean, we’ve stayed together, all of us, before, but?—”
“Dawn.” The green of his eyes darkened to a hue holding danger. “Come here.”
She didn’t take orders well, if at all, and so when her body kicked into gear, her mind barely had time to catch up before she reached him. She faltered, and he snaked out a quick arm to tuck her into his side. Dawn drew in his scent. Yummy, masculine, and free. She smiled against his shirt. “So. What now?”
Hawk swung her up, smiling at her surprised eek. Dawn filled out his arms nicely, all womanly curves and warmth. The idea, the very idea, that she had to hide out from a drug dealer in order to protect him pissed him off until he couldn’t see straight. So he set it aside, holding onto what mattered.
Dawn Eleanor Freeze.
All woman, all brain, all sass. She was the entire package, and she was smart enough to know it.
But she didn’t know him. Not all of him .
He carried her through the living room and into the guest room, one he’d stayed in more than once. A hand-stitched coverlet, older than them both, covered a sprawling bed that was piled high with pillows. Melanie loved pillows and always had.
Holding Dawn with one arm, Hawk swept the majority of the pillows to the floor. “Now we have a minor discussion, a little argument, and then I’ll make you come hard enough you forget you’re pissed at me.” In a move that made her gasp, he flipped her around and took her shirt and pretty scarf with him.
She landed on her back, eyes wide.
Yeah. He could be smooth. His chuckle matched hers, even as his body began to tighten. Dawn Freeze, in a pretty bra and jeans, spread out on a bed. Two strides took him to the door so he could engage the lock.
Even not touching her, he could see the shiver wind through her sweet body.
“Why are we going to fight?” she asked.
He liked that she made no effort to cover the lacy white bra or her bare midriff. He liked it a lot. “All of the Lodge-Freeze women are taking a nice spa vacation starting tomorrow.”
She blinked.
He slowly began unbuttoning his shirt, waiting for the explosion.
“Who’s payin’?” she asked.
He lifted an eyebrow. “I’m fine footing the bill.” Although Reese had offered to cover the expenses from his company. “So you’re going?”
She rolled to the other side of the bed to stand. Something crinkled, and she shifted to her feet. “No.”
He dropped his shirt to the ground. “Wrong answer.”
She lifted a smooth, very creamy, and delicious looking shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere, and I doubt my sisters-in-law are, either. We’re not the type to run and hide from a fight, Hawk, and you know it.”
His body clenched. “The fact that the fight might come to Mineral Lake is my fault, and I’ll take care of it.”
Color bloomed beneath her fine cheekbones, hot enough to burn, if he had to guess. “You’re stunning when you’re angry,” he whispered.
“Then I’m about to be fucking gorgeous.” She pressed both hands on her hips.
He shook his head. “There you go with that mouth again.” She was amazing, and he really wanted to— His pocket buzzed, and his shoulders stiffened. Keeping her gaze, he drew out his phone and read the text. Then he read it again. “Dawnie?”
“Yeah?” Attitude echoed in her tone.
“Do you have a bag of goodies for me?” He lifted his head, fascinated when red burst across her sassy face. “Dawn?”
She coughed. “Um. No.”
He glanced back down at the phone. “Mrs. Hudson just texted me, emoticons and all, saying to make sure you give me my bag of goodies.” He was hungry, but not for cookies. “Did she bake?”
Dawn’s head lifted. “Yep. She baked. Definitely baked. But Melanie’s knocked up, and we, ah, ate all the brownies. I’m sorry.”
His phone buzzed again, and he read the text out loud. “ She said there’s a brown bag on the other side of the bed.”
Dawn backed away until her butt hit the windowsill, pure panic trembling her lips. “Nope. No bag. Sorry.” Her eyebrows lifted and she jumped for the bed, landing on her knees. “Why don’t we continue the fight naked?”
His interest was piqued right along with his cock. “You first,” he murmured. What was in the bag?
Dawn patted the bed, apparently having forgotten about their fight, although she was fucking gorgeous. “Why don’t you come help me?”
He crossed the room and put a knee to the bed, reaching out and flicking her bra open. Front-clasp bras were the best invention in the last century. She gasped and glanced down. “Not your first rodeo.”
Amusement and desire warmed him throughout. “No.” Grasping her waist, he lifted her until she stood and quickly tore down her pants before settling her on her back.
She chuckled. “Man, you can move.”
“Just wait.” He straddled her, the need to possess trying to silence him. “What’s in the bag, Dawnie?” he whispered.
“Nothing.” Her face flamed again.
Interesting. He leaned to the side, and bright red straps spilling out of a grocery bag caught his eye. “Are those…”
She gasped and covered her face with her hands. “Restraints. Yes. Mrs. Hudson and Mrs. Poppins thought I could catch you if I got kinky.”
He stilled, his mind spinning and then discarding all thoughts of the elderly women and sex toys. “I kinda wish I didn’t know that.”
Dawn lowered her hands. “Me, too. ”
Her breasts were high and full, her nipples already hard. The back of his hand swept across them, and fire licked down his spine to his balls. “I wouldn’t use ties like that.”
She smiled, confidence beginning to shine in her eyes. “I figured.”
He reached for her discarded scarf, enjoying the feel of silk across his hand. “I’d use something much softer for your sweet skin.”
Dawn stopped breathing. His hands, large and formidable, caressed the flowered scarf. Dark eyes, green and fathomless, studied her. His jean-clad thighs trapped her hips on either side, and warmth from his body swelled toward her. “You’re joking,” she managed to croak.
He smiled then.
It was not a sweet smile. Nor an amused one. The curve of his lips promised something…new. “Joking? I am.” He reached for her wrists. “Not.”
Hunger snaked through her with a sharpness that stopped her breath. She struggled, and he easily wrapped the silk around her wrists, drawing up. He had to lean over, his chest brushing hers, in order to tie the material to the iron headboard.
He levered back. “Interesting. I’ve stayed in here a million times, and I never really studied that headboard.”
Dawn tugged and her hands remained in place, her arms over her head, her back arched. Warmth heated between her legs. She couldn’t move. Captured. The red restraints on the floor seemed silly, harmless compared to unrelenting band of silk constraining her.
He ran his hands over her chest, rolling both nipples.
Electricity jarred her, and she moaned.
“What else is in the bag?” he asked.
She tried not to blush. “You don’t want to know.”
“I do.”
She shook her head, her hair flying against the pillow. “Trust me—you don’t.”
He gave her a look and then leaned over to grab the bag, dumping it on the bed. A myriad of sex toys bounced out. “Whoa.” He fingered the butt plug. “Hell, no.” He tossed it over his shoulder and then shoved the restraints to the floor. Eyes gleaming, he grabbed the paddle.
She shifted against him. “You’re kidding.”
He swished it through the air. “Believe me, baby. I’d much rather go skin to skin with your ass.” He threw the paddle aside and it fell to clatter on the floor. “When you feel a sting, it’s gonna be my hand.” His eyebrows arched, and he tugged the plastic package to him and ripped it open. “You ever use one of these?”
Heat filled her chest and rose to her face. “No.” She’d heard of a pocket rocket, but hadn’t used one. “Sorry.”
Squinting, he read the plastic. “Better than anything.” He bent his head and flipped a button, and a narrow cylinder started to hum. “Let’s test that theory.” Moving slowly, he ran the toy along her thigh.
She arched into him, her legs trembling. The ache between her legs intensified. He pressed the tip against her clit, and the vibrations dug in. She cried out.
He left it there, lightly, driving her crazy. More pressure. She needed more pressure. When he moved away, she actually whimpered.
“I can think of something better.” Moving down, he sucked her clit into his mouth.
She exploded, biting her lip to keep from screaming, nails digging into her palms. He licked her, humming in pleasure. Waves bombarded her, crackled through her, forcing her to ride into a white-hot light.
Finally, she came down. Yet she somehow wanted more.
He rolled to the side of the bed, shucked his jeans, and rolled on a condom in such a smooth motion she could only gape.
“Let me free,” she murmured, wanting nothing more than to flatten her hands over his ripped chest.
“No.” He knelt between her legs, positioned himself, and gently slid inside her, inch after firm inch.
Pain and pleasure flared inside her, and she lifted her legs. Her thighs clasped his hips, and she breathed out. “Jesus.”
He reached up and planted a hand over her wrists, holding them even tighter to the bed. Then his other arm hooked around her thigh, holding her open.
She. Couldn’t. Move.
The vulnerability rippled through her on the heels of a craving that tightened her around his cock. He dropped his forehead to hers and started to thrust. She was soft and wet and primed, and she could feel him everywhere. Inside her. Around her. Controlling her.
She shouldn’t like it—she knew she shouldn’t like it.
She loved it. “Harder,” she whispered.
He lifted up and took her mouth, driving her head back. His hips hammered him so deep inside her, she’d feel him forever. It was hard and fast and rough. She couldn’t move and could only take more. More everything.
He slammed hard, and the room sheeted white. She closed her eyes, arching up into him, cascading pleasure tearing her apart. Her orgasm lasted forever, until he finally shoved home and jerked against her.
She panted against him.
Lifting his head, he pressed a soft kiss to her lips. A quick movement had her hands free. With a soft sigh of pure pleasure, she slid her palms over his shoulders, enjoying the warm play of muscle.
He grinned.
A rumble echoed.
Fire flashed and the window crashed open.