FORBIDDEN LOVE (13 page)

An hour ago Dani had been spoiling for a good fight. Now she looked at herself in the mirror hanging above the elegant side table in the penthouse floor’s private elevator and wondered what in the hell she was doing. All day she’d convinced herself what she needed was a long drawn-out argument that would end in her dramatically walking away from Hawk Charbonnet, after making her point. She glanced down at the note in her hand once more, trying to remember just exactly what that point had been.

Danielle,

I need to speak with you about my father. It’s critically important. Please, can we just talk?

Hawk

She ran her fingers lightly over the slanted scrawl, so unlike the elegant handwriting she’d seen from Hawk before. The note was tucked into a bouquet of wildflowers and waiting on the table in the elevator when she’d arrived home.

With a deep sigh, Dani tried once more to muster her anger.
Goddamn Charbonnets thought they owned the world
. Julian Charbonnet had obsessed over her mother, had concocted one horrific scheme after another, all in hopes of capturing Clare for his own. Julian was a sociopath. No conscience, no boundaries, just a single-minded determination to have what he wanted, at any cost.

Was Hawk following in Julian’s footsteps? That thought, the fear that Hawk was just as possessive, just as obsessive as his father, had been niggling at Dani all day. Was there something much darker behind the ridiculous game of one-upmanship they’d played at her mémé’s and at Julian’s? Hawk wanted her; he’d made that clear enough. He’d said he loved her, but that was for Julian’s benefit. His earlier declaration about falling for her was romantic, fun, and flirty. Moving her personal belongings without her permission was dominating and possessive.

There were just some things a woman couldn’t abide. Tolerating another lifelong case of stalking that put her family in danger was out of the question. The Delacroiux and the Charbonnets were too twisted in their histories, their obsessions, for anything good to come from the attraction between Hawk and her. She needed to do what was right and walk away before she had to shoot someone.

With one more glance in the mirror, Dani wanted to tell herself that this was part of her job. Speaking with Hawk about Julian was what she was
supposed
to be doing. She’d only taken a shower because it had been a long, sticky day. The clingy little black dress was just the first thing she grabbed from her closet. The makeup and fuck-me heels just went with the dress. Yep, she wanted to tell herself those things, but she didn’t want to lie.

Dani pushed the button to Hawk’s apartment, and the door slid soundlessly open. She found him in the main living room, staring out at the darkness. Still dressed from his workday, he’d tossed his suit jacket carelessly over the back of a leather club chair. His broad back was to her, collar open, and his sleeves were rolled up, revealing powerful forearms. His shoulders slumped, neck bent, head canted slightly downward. He looked so damned tired.

He must have sensed her arrival because his gaze shifted and locked on hers in the reflection of the darkened glass. He turned slowly to face her, his expression one of utter desolation, and his look took her breath away.

Whatever it was that troubled him, the games between them were over for now. He was too raw, too lost. He needed her. Without a word, Dani crossed the room and molded herself to him, and his arms wrapped tightly around her.

Hawk pressed his lips to her hair, and she felt the tremor that passed through him.

“Danielle,” he sighed.

Dani tilted her head back and cradled his face between her palms. She pulled him into a gentle kiss, pressing her mouth to his, offering comfort for whatever was hurting him. The kiss started slow, a touch of lips, a gentle rub, soft and sweet. Then Hawk’s desperation fed the moment and one arm became a steel band around her waist while the other cradled the back of her head. He twisted his fingers in her hair and pulled her head back, positioning her mouth for greater access, and he began to feed, devour her with his desperate need.

He kissed her with his whole mouth, his whole body. Teeth, lips, tongue, he claimed her, made her head spin, while lower, he pressed his hips against her. Dani felt the hard length of him against her stomach. Her knees would have given way if not for the hand splayed across her lower back, pressing her mound to his hard thigh.

The kiss got hotter, her moans mingling with his, their hunger fierce and tinged with something darker. As their hips moved against each other, mimicking their mouths, Hawk spun Dani and shoved her against the window. The cool glass behind her contrasted with the hard heat in front, and threatened to overload her senses. For a moment, her hands hung limply at her sides.

The sudden rush toward an unrestrained claiming was over as soon as it started. Hawk took her face in his hands, then slowly slid them down her neck. His fingers played against her fevered skin, delicately tracing across her collarbone, caressing her shoulders, along the bare length of her arms. He pulled the shirred front of her dress down to reveal her black lace bra. Growling low in his throat, Hawk rubbed rough circles against her nipples, the scratchy lace adding to the sensations threatening to sweep her toward ecstasy.

He drew away from her mouth with a moan, then he latched onto one nipple with his hungry mouth while engulfing her other breast in his big hand. Her body’s response was immediate, the pull from nipple to pussy, a tightening, a quick shudder. She was flooded with moisture and ready to have him inside her. Hawk continued to feed at her breasts, alternating from one to the other, sucking, kissing, lapping, and biting until she was in a frenzy.

“Too many clothes,” Dani gasped out, grabbing for his shirt, fingers fumbling to unfasten the buttons and slide the material off his shoulders. She ran her fingers through the mat of hair that covered his chest and followed the trail lower to where it disappeared in the waistband of his slacks. She couldn’t get enough of the smooth, broad muscles that tapered down to his hard, well-defined abdomen.

A big hand covered both of hers and stilled her frantic movements. Hawk’s voice dropped to a whisky-rough pitch that slid over her nerve endings and pooled heat between her legs. “I need you. Let me make love to you, Danielle. No talking, no fighting. Just loving.”

Eyes that were dark pools of desire looked down at her. Harsh lines of pain and something else bracketed his mouth as he waited for her response.

How could she deny this man? “Yes,” she answered on a sigh.

One arm scooped behind her knees, she was swept up into his arms, and then he carried her to his bedroom. Once there, he let her slide down his body until her feet touched the floor. She stepped out of her shoes, wound her hands around his neck, and pulled him into another heated kiss. Then they fell in a tangle of limbs onto the bed, tearing at clothes, shedding anything that would prevent them from lying skin to skin.

She heard his breath catch as if on a sob, then his mouth was searing hers. His hands moved across her skin, burning with his touch, her hip, her thigh, along the curve of her waist, cupping a breast. He was insatiable, tasting her, nipping at tender flesh, planting open-mouthed kisses across her stomach, pulling the tight peak of a nipple between his teeth before clamping his lips down and drawing her into his mouth.

He stretched along the side of her, ravaging her breasts with his mouth, even as his fingers began an assault on her pussy. A long finger parted her folds, found the moist heat at the center of her, and slid inside. He took her higher, nearly tossing her over the edge, then he pulled her back again, until she thought she would ignite. The pad of his thumb circled her increasingly sensitive bud, and she arched her hips against him, inviting, pleading, demanding that he take her now. Still he teased, prolonging her pleasure, until, at last, Hawk inserted another finger, filling her just as his thumb slid over her clit.

The heat started in her fingertips and toes, and burned inward, every nerve alive with the heat of his touch. Rolling like a firestorm across the desert, consuming her, cresting, ebbing, then igniting again. She was moaning her pleasure, her voice raw, her body shuddering with the spasms of pleasure ripping through her. Even as she came, she demanded more.

“Inside. I want you inside me, now. Fill me, Hawk.”

Hawk climbed up her body and slid his cock inside, filling her and starting the waves of pleasure exploding all over again. Dani gave herself to him, withholding nothing, feeling the power in her surrender.

****

When Hawk carried her to the bedroom, he felt as if he were practically stumbling with his need to have her. Lust slammed into his balls, and his whole body jerked with desire. He ached with desperation to hold her, to know she was safe, to know she was his. His need threatened to drive him to his knees, to beg her to take him and never let go.

He lay beside her on the bed, his mouth covering her breast, tasting the sweetness of her fevered skin against his tongue. Her full breasts swelled and tightened under the ministrations of his lips, his teeth, his tongue, and her pussy flooded with desire. His control was a thin line, threatening to snap at any moment.

Christ, this woman unnerved him, made him dream of impossible things, of love, of forever. He knew he was in over his head, that she wouldn’t be pleased if she thought he was trying to protect her. It was the fear that underpinned his emotions tonight. His father, Constantine, anyone who tried to hurt Danielle was a dead man, because she was his. How could he bear to let her go?

It broke his heart to know that he needed to do just that. He needed to walk away, to distance himself from her. It would be the only way to distract the old men who thought to control him with her as a weapon. He would find exactly the right leverage against each of them to make sure Danielle would always be safe from their threats.

He slid a finger into her hot sheath, finding that spot inside he’d discovered the first time they’d made love, the spot that made her howl with pleasure. When he’d wound them both as tight as he could stand, he slid his thumb over her clit, and felt the first clutch of her orgasm as it gripped both of them.

When she demanded he fill her, Hawk slid home, his cock sinking into her silky heat. He filled her and gritted his teeth against the power of her orgasm, riding it out so he could begin again. She was tight and hot, and she pulled him deeper inside, squeezing with her muscles. The sensation was erotic, tightening his balls, making him feel both weak and powerful as she surrendered her control to him.

Her begging to be filled inflamed him, scorched away the tattered remains of his self-control. He pushed into her, gliding out before thrusting home again. His balls drew up, and still he pounded. Danielle’s hand slid along his sides before her nails dug into his hips, urging him on, harder, faster, deeper.

He was so close, they both were, and yet he paused, prolonging the moment. He looked down at her face, and Danielle opened her eyes to meet his steady gaze. The moment seemed to freeze in time, as though it was so perfect, so fated, that everything from this very instant forward would change, if only he said those words. He knew she’d thought it part of the game when he said them earlier, but the joke was on him, because those three little words threatened to choke him if he tried to hold them in any longer.

The moment felt so right, so perfect, and yet he couldn’t risk telling her, because this was the last time they could be together.

Danielle looked at him, her blue eyes sparkling with passion, as if she too recognized this moment for what it was, could sense the unexpected feelings threatening to overwhelm him.

She cupped his face in her hands as he began to slowly glide in her heat, drawing out her pleasure, his pain.

“I love you, Hawk,” she whispered and her gaze caught his, trapped him, wouldn’t let him go. Then she wrapped her legs around his waist and the pressure at the base of his spine exploded as she drove her hips up and he thrust into her. He drew out, thrust in, again and again, lost in his hunger for her, seeking to take a part of her into him, to hold her words in this final act of loving.

When her eyes closed again in her pleasure, he felt another orgasm take her, and his own pleasure roared through him. He poured himself into her, hot, reckless, murmuring against her neck. Choking on the unsaid words.

When the draining shudders ended, he held her, pressing his lips to the damp skin of her neck, memorizing the fragrance of her, the feel of her against him.

“Tell me, Hawk, was that hello or good-bye?”

He nuzzled at the soft skin just below her ear, not answering. Danielle pulled back and placed a gentle hand on his chest, pushing him back. Her beautiful blue eyes watched him steadily, and he floundered for an answer.

“Danielle, sugar, I don’t know what you mean,” he said, despite the tightness creeping into his chest.

“I mean, Hawk, that was beautiful. I have never felt so cherished in my life.”

“I sense a
but
in there,” he said.

“But I also know something is very wrong. There was an edge of desperation to you tonight. A terrible weight of sadness. Hawk, tell me what happened at your father’s today. I told Julian the same story you told my mémé, yet my telling him really upset you. Then you upped it once again with the whole engagement story. I felt the fear in you. I know it was fear for me.

“I told you I love you tonight, and there are no strings attached. You don’t have to say it back, because I already know. I feel it in your touch, taste the love in your kisses. I can see it in your eyes. You love me, too…but we both know that love isn’t always enough. I was just a kid when my mom left my dad. I don’t know how much you know about the story, because it all happened after you were sent away.” Her gaze dropped, and for a minute, it looked as if she wouldn’t continue.