Even though I felt gratitude, I didn’t express it. Instead my eyes slid to the side.
“Babe,” Hawk called when they did and my eyes slid back. “What you said earlier –”
On no. We were not going to talk about earlier. I’d gladly walk barefoot on a bed of hot coals and at the end of that journey take a swan dive into the boiling lava at the mouth of a volcano before I talked about earlier.
Therefore instantly I tried to jerk my neck away and move out from in front of him but he moved faster, pushing in closer, pinning me to the car and his hands came up to cup my jaws, forcing my face tipped to him.
“Babe,” he repeated when my eyes stared at his ear.
Guess I had to talk about it.
“I was making it up,” I lied to his ear. “Meredith is a romantic. I couldn’t tell her how we really are. Not then with Dad there, not privately, not ever.”
“Babe,” he said yet again.
“It’s not a big deal or at least it isn’t now. When you disappear, it will be then. Meredith will be sad but I’ll handle it.”
“Sweet Pea, look at me,” he ordered quietly.
My eyes slid to his.
“I asked to be seated in that booth,” he informed me and I sucked in breath at what he might be saying.
Then I breathed it out on a, “What?”
“Clocked you before you clocked me, Gwen.”
I stared up at him, incapable of speech.
“Saw you through the windows as I was walkin’ up. Your friend was with you and you were laughin’.”
Oh my God.
His head dipped closer and I watched as it did, holding my breath and feeling his eyes burning into mine.
“Still see you,” he whispered.
Oh my God!
His thumb swept my cheekbone then his fingers went back into my hair as his other hand slid down my neck, over my shoulder and around my back, his head came down and he kissed me.
This kiss was with tongue, lots of it, his and mine. It was wet, it was deep and it lasted a really long time.
As usual I was holding on when he lifted his head and my body was quivering in places he could feel and in better places only I could feel and my private places were way better.
“Get to work, Sweet Pea,” he murmured against my mouth, pulled me gently away from his car, bleeped the locks, opened the door, folded in, fired up the Camaro and purred away.
I’d long since lost sight of his tail lights but I was still standing there, a residual quiver dying away, my mind stuck on one thought.
He could still see me laughing.
Chapter Nine
Squishiness
I felt the intense warmth of Hawk’s hand at the small of my back and my eyes opened. I’d been dead asleep and I felt confusion with a hint of excitement before his weight hit the bed and he turned me to him.
Then his arms closed around me, pressed my body the length of his and my confusion cleared.