Mystery Man (Dream Man #1)(107)

His hands tightened and he whispered, “Don’t do that, babe.”

“Do what? Be an unfeeling bitch in the face of your pain? Sorry, is that not okay? Because, see, the day I was kidnapped and a man was shot protecting me, after a week of dealing with a bunch of really bad shit at the same time you came at me and got me to trust you, you ripped me to shreds Hawk. Firm and unwavering. You tore right through me, leaving me in tatters and you didn’t even f**king blink.”

“And now you know where my head was at and why I did that shit.”

“No, now I know that you saw Tack playing with your f**k toy and you don’t feel like sharing.”

His body froze and his fingers flexed. I could feel his fury but I didn’t care. I wasn’t done. The hurt he inflicted went too deep and I had to protect myself at all costs.

“That’s okay, baby,” I whispered. “There’s plenty of me to go around. But, rules are, you come, you make me come and then you go.”

He didn’t move and I felt his anger beating against me as he held me pinned against the wall. Then suddenly his body relaxed, the anger vanished and his thumbs swept my jaws.

“I cut you,” he murmured.

“Nothing a little cookie dough can’t cure,” I returned.

“Bullshit, Sweet Pea.”

It was then my body went still.

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.

He ignored me again. “We were us for a week, a f**kin’ week, and I cut you deep.”

“God!” I exclaimed pushing against his waist again. “Are you ever going to go?”

He surprised me by moving back. Then he surprised me again by bending and putting a shoulder in my belly and then I was lifted up.

“Hawk!” I cried, pushing against his h*ps and kicking with my feet as he walked me into my room. “Put me down!” I demanded.

He did. He bent, bumped his shoulder, I flew through the air and landed on my back with a bounce on my bed.

I got up on my elbows and opened my mouth to speak or more accurately yell but I saw in the shadows that his hands looked to be at his cargoes.

Shit!

I turned to escape and nearly got to the other side of the bed when I was caught with an arm at the waist and hauled back.

“You’re not welcome to spend the night here,” I informed the room because my back was to him.

He let me go just long enough to flip the covers over us but not long enough for me to make good an escape. Then he curled into me, deeper than normal, pinning me to the bed with his torso, his leg hitched in mine, keeping me secured to him with his arm tight around my belly.

Then he lifted his head and his mouth was at my ear. “Go to sleep, Gwen,” he ordered.

Oh my God!

“Are you high?” I screeched.

His response to my query was to touch his tongue to the skin at the back of my ear then he settled into the pillows and further into me.

He was. He was high. Totally.

“I can’t believe you,” I hissed.

“Go to sleep, babe.”

I strained against his arm but it got super tight so I gave up and repeated, “I… cannot… believe you.”

“Baby, go to sleep.”

I stilled at his use of the word baby because I had to. The slightest movement I knew would shatter me.

When I fought back the pain, I announced, “I’m moving to Boston.”

He chuckled, deep and manly, and I felt his face in my hair at the back of my head where he said, “Babe.”

God!

I tried again. “You can’t stay here, Hawk.”

His arm gave me a squeeze, his head lifted and his mouth came back to my ear. “You’re livin’ in Badass World, baby,” he whispered in my ear. “Fair warning, until I fix what I cut in you, you’re there to stay.”

Oh.

Shit.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I Was Wrong

I woke pre-dawn, I could see a bit of light in the sky and I could feel Hawk’s heat at my back.

Damn.

I scooted out from under him, carefully but quickly, successfully made it off the bed and I grabbed my undies and rushed to the bathroom. I put them on, used the facilities and then walked out, going to my thermostat. It was on a timer and went down way low at night. It wouldn’t kick in for awhile. I turned it up and went to my office. I arranged the toss pillows on the armrest on the couch, lay down and then pulled my chenille throw over me. It would take awhile for the house to heat up. The chenille was snuggly soft and nice to cuddle under while watching TV but it wasn’t exactly ultra warm.

I lay there and my mind was filled with possible strategies of how to get out of my current predicament. I could go to Tack but that might send mixed messages and, anyway, I needed to sort myself out. I could report Hawk to Lawson but I might have difficulty explaining why, after Hawk broke in, I let him f**k me.

Hmm. Not good.

Hawk told me he’d come after me even if I stayed at Leo and Cam’s. Meredith and Dad were back home but Hawk had already proved he could infiltrate their house and would. Troy lived on the seventh floor in a secure condo building but I figured Hawk could beat a security system or scale walls.

Hmm. More not good.

Then, totally against my will, my mind slid to Simone Delgado dying because she loved her brother and was excited to be there when her niece or nephew entered the world.