Page 107 of Restless Hawke

“Can I ask you something?”

My question breaks the comfortable silence that’s finally settled over us after the frenzy, and he shifts slightly under me, tipping his head down to meet my gaze.

“Of course.” His brow furrows. “But why does it sound like I should be worried?”

I grin, ghosting my lips across his strong pecs and feeling him twitch beneath me. “The first time we met?—”

“The bar?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I mean the first time we talked in your room in Monaco…”

Trepidation darkens his eyes. He has no idea where I’m going with this, and maybe I don’t, either.

“Yeah?”

Maybe I shouldn’t bring it up.

It could potentially unsettle this detente we have seemed to have found, the momentary peace before all the troubles of the world beyond this room manage to creep back into our psyches.

But searching his face, I know I have to.

I can’t let what he said go, not when it’s clear he really believed those words when he said them to me back then and probably still does.

“You said something that’s kind of stuck in my head.”

This entire week, after meeting the Hawkes and spending time with them. After seeing how they all interact. It’s been impossible to forget his words. They’ve played on a loop along with the pain in his voice when he said them.

Coen tugs on a lock of my hair, twirling it around his finger. “What’s that?”

I swallow thickly, pushing myself up onto one elbow so I can see his face better, judge his reaction.

Even in the dark, it’s impossible not to see how handsome he is, how in the moment he is, relaxed and dare I say, even happy. Those glittering blue eyes focus on me with all his attention he’s already given me all night.

No one who is this attentive, this caring, this loving with someone he has every right to despise should ever think the kind of things he said.

“You told me you were the spare, that you did nothing with your life while your brother was everything your parents and the rest of your family hoped he would become.”

His eyes darken, gaze narrowing on me slightly. “I guess I did say that.”

I chew on my lip, contemplating how to phrase this.

Maybe it isn’t my place to say anything—it probably isn’t.

After all, despite themanyways we came together intimately tonight, we barely know each other. And what we do know has been based on less than completely honest situations. A relationship—or whatever this is—built on very unstable ground.

He reaches up and brushes the hair back from my cheek, tucking it behind my ear. The feather-light ghosting of his calloused fingertips draws goosebumps across my bare skin, wanting to feel that touch everywhere again, aching for it as much as I am for answers.

“Well, I guess it stuck with me, especially because that certainly isn’t the impression I got at dinner.”

His body tenses under me. “It’s complicated.” A long, slow breath slips from between his lips. “And it isn’t anything I particularly want to get into right now. It would ruin the mood.”

I grin at him and lean in to kiss him gently, letting my lips linger longer than really necessary. Maybe as an apology for the fact that I don’t intend to let it go so easily. “I don’t think anything could ruin my mood right now.”

He chuckles low, dragging me fully across his naked body, his semi-hard cock pressed between us, and almost instantly coming to full attention again. I groan as he kisses me long and deep, but I force myself to pull back, not to immediately give in to the desire to just slide down onto him right now and take him.

I push up and straddle his hips, keeping his cock pinned under my pussy, laying my hands across his chest as I stare down at him. “Your family loves you. And God, there are a lot of them…”

He grins at that, despite the trepidation coloring his gaze.