“This is true,” I muttered, the tears subsiding and I watched his dimples form.
Then they disappeared, his hand left the back of my head so it could move to my face, his thumb sliding along my cheekbone, my jaw then my lips as his eyes followed its path. Then those eyes locked on mine.
“I’m sorry I cut you, baby,” he whispered and the tears that had subsided welled up again and slid down my cheeks and his thumb moved instantly to glide through them as they did. “I’ll do everything I can not to put you through that again,” he promised.
“’Kay,” I whispered back and then my hand went to his cheek and I thought about his Mom’s visit. “And I’ll do everything I can, if you do it again, not to give up on you and be a mean, bitchy, thoughtless, selfish cow.”
His fingers slid back into my hair, he pulled my head back down and he touched my mouth to his where he murmured, “That’d be good.”
Then the touch became a short, light kiss before he again let me back an inch.
“Glad that’s done, Sweet Pea,” he whispered.
I took my hand from his face and wiped my own, agreeing, “Yeah,” but thinking “glad” was a mammoth understatement.
“Though that’s done, we’re not done talkin’,” he told me and the tone of his voice had changed.
I studied him and the look on his face had changed too. No longer gentle, it was firm.
Uh-oh.
“Um…” I mumbled, trying to find words to get out of a talk I was thinking I might not like.
“I’ll remind you you’re livin’ in Badass World,” he declared and I didn’t think this reminder boded good tidings.
“Um…” I mumbled, wondering what was next, however, although wondering, from his look and tone, not actually wanting to find out.
“And in Badass World, even when shit’s unsettled between us, you don’t meet another man on the sidewalk in front of your house and let him touch you and put his mouth on you.”
Oh boy.
“Mo told you,” I guessed.
“Another voicemail I just got.”
Shit.
“He kissed my hair,” I defended myself. “I don’t have a brother but I would guess that would be how a brother might kiss me.”
“Mitch Lawson does not feel brotherly love for you, babe,” Hawk returned.
This was true.
Shit!
“Um…”
“Gwen, you made that sweet call, you told me you were sorry and when you did, you dropped that hand and gave yourself back to me. That means you just entered Badass World for good, you did it on your own and you gotta know there are rules. You stick to those rules or bear the consequences. Understood?”
Uh-oh. He was being bossy and it was kind of making me mad.
“I didn’t throw myself at him and start making out with him on the sidewalk, Hawk.”
He ignored my reassurances. “No hands and definitely no mouth, Gwen, no man but me in the way I get you and your Dad in the way he does. No man. At all. No excuses. Yeah?”
“Hawk –”
“And you don’t jump on the back of a bike unless I’m on that bike,” he went on.