“YOU’RE ACTING WEIRD,” Nicole told Raoul as she stood in the middle of the family room.
He didn’t look up from the textbook on his lap. “How?”
“I don’t know. You keep looking at the clock.”
As if to prove her point, Raoul glanced at the clock above the fireplace, then shrugged. “I want to know what time it is.”
“Every fifteen seconds?”
He looked at her. “It’s not that often.”
“Close.” She knew something was going on, but couldn’t figure out what. “I’m going to start dinner,” she said.
“I’m not hungry.”
She put her hands on her hips. “If you’re breathing, you’re hungry. What’s going on? You might as well tell me now. I’ll find out eventually.”
His attempt to look innocent failed. “Nothing.” He looked at the clock again, then jumped up. “I’m going to study at Marcus’s house. His parents are home. The number’s on the counter in the kitchen.”
“What about dinner?”
“I’ll eat there.” He bolted past her, heading for the kitchen. “I’ll be late,” he yelled over his shoulder.
And then he was gone.
“Talk about weird,” Nicole muttered, wondering what he was really doing. She doubted it was anything bad, but still. Had she been this strange when she’d been his age?
Someone rang the front bell before she could decide. She crossed the great room and pulled the door open, only to find Hawk standing on her porch.
Instantly her insides sighed in appreciation. Despite their last meeting, which had ended badly, he still looked good. Better than good. He looked deliciously tempting.
“You’re home,” he said, not sounding surprised.
Suddenly Raoul’s odd behavior made sense. “You set me up.”
“In a good way,” Hawk told her as he entered the house. He held up two big bags that smelled amazing. “Chinese food. You haven’t had dinner. We’ll eat, we’ll talk, we’ll be friends again.”
“Is that what we are?” she asked.
“Sure.” He set down the bags and cupped her face. “Hey. I’m sorry.”
Despite her dancing hormones, she wasn’t going to be won over by male beauty and an egg roll.
“For?” she asked.
“Maybe overreacting.”
“Maybe? You plan to decide soon?”
“I overreacted. You were trying to help. I didn’t see it that way.” He kissed her with just enough pressure to make her lean toward him. “Did I say I was sorry?”
“Yes.”
“Did you accept my apology?”
“I am now, because I’m sorry, too. I can be pushy.”
“But cute. So we’re good?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
They went into the kitchen. While he put boxes of Chinese onto the table, she collected plates, flatware and napkins. He opened the bottle of wine she handed him, then they sat down to eat.
“Your point about Brittany is a good one,” he said, which she hadn’t expected. “Maybe I did make the past sound better than it was. Serena and I didn’t set out to do that on purpose, we just didn’t want Brittany to feel she wasn’t special or that she’d gotten in the way.”
Nicole was impressed he was willing to discuss this and see her side. “Maybe there’s some middle ground. A casual story about how it wasn’t all easy and wonderful. Unless it was.”
He shook his head. “We were too young. We got lucky. I had a lot of offers from universities to play football. I’d already picked Oklahoma before we found out Serena was pregnant. Not only did they have a great coach, but the alumni support was extraordinary.”
“Free everything?” she asked, knowing life was different for football gods in a football town.
“Just about. The rules weren’t as strict then. We weren’t handed money, but we had a lot of perks. There was always someone available to babysit when we needed it, so Serena got to come to all my games. Even the away ones. Different families took us on vacation with them. We had access to great doctors and someone was always dropping by with groceries or cooked food.”
“Sounds nice.”
“The guys were great, but it was the wives who kept us going. They were real nice to Serena. But it was still hard. We were away from home. Her parents never forgave or understood what we were doing. They turned their backs on their only daughter. She was sad about that until the day she died.”
Nicole thought about Jesse. Would her sister say she had turned her back on her? Nicole wasn’t sure. She also didn’t know how she would describe the situation herself.
“The worst part for her was the loneliness,” he continued. “The worst part for me was being so damn scared all the time.”
“Scared of what?”
“Getting hurt, mostly. We were on a free ride because I could catch a football better than anyone and then run like the wind. But if I got busted up, it all ended. And then what? I don’t think I took a deep breath and relaxed until the day the check for my NFL signing bonus cleared the bank.”
In some ways she thought of Hawk as larger than life, but in truth, he was just like everyone else.
“You made it through,” she said.
“We did, but I’ll admit there were times when Serena and I were fighting that I wished she’d never gotten pregnant. That’s what I don’t want Brittany to know. About the bad times.” He sipped his wine. “But I do see your point about making it all sound easy.”
“I’m glad.” She leaned toward him. “I wasn’t trying to butt in.”
“I know.”
“I think you’re a great dad.”
“Thanks.” He reached across the table and took her hand. “I’m sorry about what I said about Jesse. That was out of line.”
She smiled. “That’s okay.”
“I guess Brittany is a sensitive topic.”
“She’s your daughter. You feel a real sense of responsibility toward her. Believe me, I understand that. I grew up the queen of responsibility.”
His hand was warm on her forearm. He rubbed her skin.
“Your parents put too much on you. I see that with my guys. If a kid can get a job done, he gets a bigger job. Parents don’t realize that it can go too far.”
She appreciated the understanding. “Sometimes I didn’t mind, but sometimes I hated it. In high school there were so many things I wanted to do but I couldn’t, because I had to get up early to help in the bakery. Mornings are busy. So I couldn’t stay out late. I wanted to go out for theater, but I had to be home after school to look after Jesse.”
She stabbed her chow me in with her fork. “It was awful when my mom left. I missed her so much and I was angry with her, because I knew she wanted to be with my sister more than she wanted to be with us. She wanted to be traveling all around the world and meeting famous people. I think if she hadn’t had Jesse, she would have been gone from the beginning.”
Nicole glanced at Hawk. “The bakery belonged to my father’s family, not hers. I don’t think she ever liked the day-to-day responsibility of the place. It was a constant drain of time and energy and it was never going to make her rich. But Claire had potential.”
She pressed her lips together. “I’m making her sound awful. I don’t mean to.”
“You’re not. You’re telling me what happened. How you were just a kid and you got stuck with too much.”
His words were gentle, as was his tone. She found herself wanting to crawl into his arms so he could hold her and make her feel safe.
Wait a minute. Since when did she need a man to feel safe?
“Nicole?”
“What?”
“Where did you just go?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does. You’re looking fierce about something, and I’m guessing it’s not going to be good if it’s about me.”
“It’s nothing.” She didn’t want to go to the bad place. Not tonight. Not when she had Hawk alone in the house. “At least it could be nothing if you distracted me.”
Hawk’s slow, sexy smile made her quiver from the inside out. “How long will Raoul be gone?”
“He said he’d be back late.”
“Good to know.”
He stood and pulled her to her feet. Their half-eaten dinner still sat on the table, but she didn’t care. Not only did Chinese warm up great, she suddenly wasn’t hungry…at least not for food.
He pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. His mouth claimed hers with a heated desire that stole her breath. His hands moved up and down her back, his body warming hers. It was erotic and familiar and exciting.
“I’ve missed this,” he murmured as he kissed her cheek, then her forehead and finally along her jaw. “I’ve missed touching you and being touched by you.”
“Me, too.”
He licked the sensitive spot below her ear, then sucked on her earlobe. He trailed kisses down her neck, making her wish her T-shirt plunged much lower.
His mouth was hot and firm. She held on to him as the world began to spin.
“I want you,” he breathed in her ear, making her break out in goose bumps. “In a bed, this time.”
“Conventional,” she murmured, wanting that, too. “Who knew?”
He chuckled.
She took his hand in hers and led the way upstairs. Once they were in her bedroom, he stood in front of her, his hands pushing her hair off her face. He stared into her eyes for a long time, as if trying to see past the emotional barriers she always kept in place.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.
Nicole knew that on her best day, she was pretty. While she was sure Hawk meant what he said, she had a feeling it was the sex talking. Still, it was nice to hear. So nice she suddenly felt vulnerable in a way she hadn’t expected or experienced before. She wanted to look away, to hide…what? Not her body. She was more than willing to expose that. Then what? Her heart? Was her heart in danger?
She didn’t want to think about that so she closed the distance between them, put her hands on his shoulders and raised herself on tiptoe to kiss him. She pressed her mouth to his, then touched her tongue to his lower lip.
“Trying to have your way with me?” he asked, his voice teasing.
“Uh-huh. It’s part of my sex-kitten duties.”
“To seduce me?”
“Yes. I don’t think it would be hard. What do you think?”
“That I only look easy.”
There was the light of challenge in his eyes. Nicole studied him. Was he serious? Did he really think he could resist her?
She smiled. “You are so going to melt.”
“Want to bet?”
“Absolutely. Winner takes all.”
“I have incredible powers of concentration. I won’t even know you’re in the room with me.”
She chuckled. “You have an erection and burning desire to make love with me. You’re going to know everything I do and it’s going to kill you.”
He swallowed but didn’t back down.
Nicole considered her possibilities. How best to seduce Hawk? He was going to be expecting a straight-on, aggressively frontal attack. That’s what he would do. But she had a feeling that there were better ways to get what she wanted.
She tugged at the sleeve of his T-shirt. “You’re going to have to help me with this. I’m too short to pull it over your head myself.”
“Sure.”
He tugged off the shirt and tossed it over a chair, then crossed his arms over his bare chest.
She moved behind him and lightly touched his back. “I keep thinking about the last time we were together,” she whispered. “That was pretty incredible.”
“Agreed.”
She pressed her mouth to his spine and licked him. He tensed slightly, then relaxed.
“You have great hands,” she continued. “Probably why you were so good at football. You know what to do with them. Where to touch me, how to touch me.”
“Ah, okay.”
She smiled. He sounded a little uneasy. Good. She was getting to him.
She pulled off her own T-shirt and removed her bra. Still standing behind him, she pressed herself against him, her breasts nestling against his bare back. His hands dropped to his sides.
She took advantage of that by placing her hands on his belly, just above the waistband of his shorts. She didn’t move them, she just kept them there. Possibilities, she thought as heat moved through her own body. It was always about possibilities.
She rubbed her breasts back and forth. Her nipples scraped against his skin, exciting her and she hoped doing something for him.
“I like how you kiss, too,” she continued. “Some guys just want to get to the good stuff. They don’t bother with things like kissing. But not you. You were willing to take your time.”
She moved her hands across his chest. She couldn’t see what she was doing so she had to feel her way. Which was fine by her. She liked the play of muscles under skin, the coolness of his chest hair, the way his breathing hitched when she brushed his nipples.
She accompanied her exploration with little nips on his back, careful to let him feel her breath first, so he would know the bite was coming, could think about it seconds before it happened.
She dropped her hands to the waistband of his shorts and found the button. Slowly, slowly, she unfastened it, then pulled down the zipper. Working by touch, she slid her hand between his shorts and his briefs, feeling the hardness of his arousal. Instead of taking him in her hand, which he probably expected, she lightly ran her nails across his hardness, then rubbed her thumb over the tip.
He shuddered, pulled away, spun toward her and grabbed her. Fire darkened his eyes.
“You win,” he growled before he kissed her. “You win.”
It was the best kind of victory, she thought as his tongue plunged into her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, savoring the teasing, stroking, claiming kiss that burned her to her toes.
He touched her everywhere, his hands moving over her back, her sides, her rear, then up to her breasts where he cupped the curves and teased her nipples.
Seducing him had already gotten her more than halfway along the path, she thought as liquid heat poured into her center. She felt swollen and ready before he’d done much of anything, which meant she was delighted when he undid her jeans and shoved them down her hips.
Her panties quickly followed. Then she was naked and he was nudging her toward the bed.
They fell together in a tangle of arms and legs. Somehow she ended up on top, looking down at him.
“Nice view,” he said with a grin and put his hands on her hips. “Now just a little higher.”
He was trying to move her forward, which she didn’t understand until he slid down on the bed so that he was under her. At the first stroke of his tongue, she nearly fainted.
He couldn’t do that with her on top of him, she thought frantically, even as waves of pleasure shot through her. She was too exposed, too vulnerable.
The second stroke of his tongue had her trying to figure out a way to keep that going while shifting position. The third had her looking for something to brace herself on so she could enjoy the ride.
She’d never done it like that, so she didn’t know what to expect. Didn’t know that the sensations would be more intense. He could move easily, touch her anywhere, use his fingers to rub her inner thighs or slip a finger inside.
In a matter of seconds, she was gasping. She put her hands on the wall, to hold herself in place. He flicked his tongue over her center, then sucked on that one spot. At the same time, he inserted two fingers into her, plunging and rubbing and matching the movements of his mouth.
She couldn’t catch her breath. She couldn’t do anything but go along for the ride and hope he never, ever stopped. Her hips were pulsing, her whole body tense. There was a rawness to the sex that almost frightened her, but in a good way. As if she could really be herself with this man.
He moved his lips against her, faster and faster. She moved with him, straining for her release. He moved in and out of her, drawing her orgasm from her.
“Come for me, baby.”
The unexpected words shocked her and then she was doing as he’d asked, arching her back as the spasms rippled through her, taking her over. Perfect pleasure, again and again, riding him to the end when she was finally still.
She tried to shift off of him, but he grabbed her hips, then eased her down his body.
“Not so fast,” he told her, looking very pleased with himself.
When she straddled his waist, he pulled a condom out of his shorts pocket, then pushed off the rest of his clothes. She moved aside to let him apply the protection, then got back on top.
He was hard and thick and ready, which felt exactly right to her quivering insides. She tensed in anticipation of how he was going to feel as he filled her, then she was easing down on him, stretching as he went deeper and deeper. They both groaned.
She leaned forward and put her hands on the mattress. He reached up and cupped her breasts. Her long hair tumbled down on his shoulders and chest.
“This is a really good fantasy,” he told her as he rubbed her tight, sensitive nipples.
“For me, too.”
“You did a hell of a job seducing me.”
“You were easy.”
“Part of my charm.”
She clenched her muscles, tightening around him. His eyes closed as he groaned. A sense of power swept through her. “You are charming,” she murmured and started to move.
“I’M NOT EATING NAKED,” Nicole said nearly thirty minutes later.
Hawk set the Chinese food on the nightstand. “A little kung pao on your stomach?”
She was gorgeous. Curvy and flushed, and still very naked. Just looking at her made him want to be inside her again.
“Try it,” he told her, opening one of the cartons and picking up one of the forks he’d brought upstairs. “One bite.”
“You’re insane,” she said, but she still stretched out on the bed. “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll deny it with my last breath.”
“I’m not going to be telling anyone.” Why would he want to share something this good?
He scooped up a piece of kung pao and placed it on her stomach, but instead of taking it, he leaned over and kissed her.
“Appetizer,” he said.
“Yummy.”
“It gets better.”
He bent down and took the piece of chicken in his mouth. After biting it in half, he gave her part, chewed his, then licked her belly clean.
She raised herself on one elbow. “It’s not an efficient way of eating.”
“Agreed.”
“It wasn’t horrible.”
He laughed. “Is that your way of saying you liked it?”
“Maybe. Let’s try it again.”
Nearly an hour later, he was dressed and walking out the front door. They’d never gotten to finish dinner beyond those couple of bites in her room. Not that he was complaining. What they’d done instead was much more interesting.
He whistled softly as he closed the door behind him, then came to a stop as he saw Raoul walking up the front steps.
Hawk nodded at the younger man, telling himself there was no reason to feel guilty. Raoul had helped him set up the evening with Nicole. Still, he felt…uncomfortable and couldn’t say why.
“You’re here late,” Raoul said, his expression unreadable in the darkness of the night.
“I am.”
The teenager was in his way. Hawk wasn’t about to move forward until the kid moved aside and Raoul didn’t seem to be in a hurry to do that.
They stared at each other.
“She’s special,” Raoul said, jerking his head toward the house.
“I know. I’m the one going out with her.”
“She doesn’t deserve to get hurt.”
Hawk couldn’t believe it. Raoul was his player. Hawk had always supported him, been there for him. Now Raoul was going to choose Nicole over him?
“You’re out of line,” Hawk told him. “This isn’t your business.”
“You’re wrong. Nicole thinks she’s plenty tough, but we both know that’s not true. You don’t do serious relationships. Nicole is the relationship type.”
Hawk wanted to rewind the last few minutes and get a do-over. Or be the hell out of the house before Raoul came home. This was not happening.
For one thing, he’d done nothing wrong. Where did Raoul get off judging him? Second, how did the kid know so much about Nicole?
An ugly, dark emotion blossomed inside of him. One that had Hawk curling his fingers into fists. He forced himself to relax as soon as he realized what he was doing, but the totally unreasonable suspicion wouldn’t go away.
Why did Raoul care so much? Was there something going on?
Even as he asked the questions, he knew he was being unfair to both Raoul and Nicole. She wasn’t interested in a teenager and Raoul was crazy about Brittany. But the jealousy felt primal. He wanted to take on Raoul, to beat the crap out of him, then pound on his own chest and proclaim himself the winner. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Don’t assume the worst about me,” Hawk said at last. “I’m not playing with Nicole.” Not the way Raoul thought. They had a deal, which had been her idea. He was the innocent party here.
“I’ve seen how the women look at you,” Raoul said. “How available they are. What you did before didn’t matter, but this does. She does. Think long and hard before you take any of them up on their offers.”
“Or what?”
“You don’t want to know.”
Did the kid really think he could take him? Hawk would have laughed if he hadn’t been so damn pissed off. “Where do you get off lecturing to me? What I do in my personal life is my business.”
“Nicole is my friend. She’s taken care of me when she didn’t have to. I’m not going to let anyone hurt her. Not even you.”
Normally Hawk enjoyed a good challenge, but this time there couldn’t be any winners. He was angry and frustrated with nowhere to put it.
He swore under his breath, then pushed past the kid, shoving Raoul harder than he needed.
“I don’t need this crap,” he muttered as he walked to his truck. “Go to hell.”
Raoul didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. In some way, he’d already won.