He was her future, he was her heart.
Lowering his head, he brushed his lips against hers, a sizzling caress that almost caused a moan to break from her throat. She could taste a hint of the spicy essence of his kiss. A taste of lust, need, desire and hunger. A taste that would only fuel her own.
“Soon,” he promised, turning his head until he could brush his lips against her ear. “Soon, mate.” Soon. Tonight. When they stepped back into their home, when they stepped back into the heat waiting to flare between them.
Soon. Until then, she had this. His touch, this dance and the incredible realization that she did indeed have a future.
NINE
It was a night made for lovers. Even amid the party, Christmas cheer, exchange of gifts and laughter, there was an air of warmth and intimacy that bound her to Hawke.
Quiet smiles, the touch of his hand, the knowledge that the sexual need was building inside both of them. When her skin was prickling with awareness and sensitivity, he took her hand and drew her back to Wolfe and Hope where they made their farewells.
Anyone watching them would have known why they were leaving, what would be happening that night. Besides the fact that they were Breeds and they could smell the mating heat, Jessica knew that each touch, each look they stole at each other gave them away.
The drive back to their home was made in silence. The short distance was filled with magic though.
The twinkling of lights, the heated warmth spearing between them. When they pulled into the driveway, Hawke stepped around the vehicle, opened the door and then lifted her into his arms.
She couldn’t speak. Her throat felt closed with emotion when he pushed the door open and, rather than moving upstairs, moved to the living room instead.
Where once the room had been empty, there was now a Christmas tree and a lush silk-covered mattress awaiting them.
The lights on the tree lit up as they stepped into the room. Blue and gold. The entire tree was lit with blue and gold. There were only lights, no ornaments, but at the base of a tree was a small, gaily wrapped box.
“What is this?” she whispered as he carried her to the mattress and eased her to the thick silk comforter that covered it.
“It’s our first Christmas.”
Hawke stared into Jessica’s shining eyes. There were tears there. She stared at the tree as though she had never seen one before, much as he had stared at the first Christmas tree Wolfe and Hope had decorated for Haven’s first Christmas several years before.
There, amid the colors he had chosen for their family—her blue eyes, his golden ones—he watched as she reached out, her fingers trembling, to touch the point of one tiny light. A golden one. His color.
“Hawke.” She whispered his name again, her voice throbbing, as she turned back to him, staring at him as though he had just given her the most precious gift in the world.
He swallowed tightly, his throat nearly closed with emotion. Hell, this was the hardest part to get used to, he thought. So much emotion, when before he had felt so very little. The labs had bred emotion out of the Breeds. The scientists and soldiers beat it out of them, froze it out of them, and in some cases, had killed to be rid of Breeds that couldn’t hide emotion.
Hawke had survived. He had hidden all emotion, often even from himself. He had cared for nothing but the survival of the Breeds as a whole, and once he escaped, he had made certain that the survival of their race was all that mattered to him.
Until Jessica.
Now, staring into the velvety depths of her eyes, he knew that he would die, kill, forsake even his race, for this one woman.
“This is my first present to you.” He lifted the small box from beneath the tree and handed it to her.
The brush of her fingers against his was like fire. He could feel the tremble just beneath her flesh, smell the arousal and the hint of need that filled her. He could also sense the love that poured from her. He had never smelled love before, not in relation to himself.
He could become addicted to it.
Hawke watched as she took the gift from him and slowly pulled at the bow he had tied around the small decorated box. It came loose easily, allowing her to lift the flap open.
Reaching in, she pulled free the angel that was inside. With red gold hair and blue eyes, the porcelain body was finely made. Dressed in jeans and a sweater, feet bare. Behind her back, delicate crystal wings were attached and a glistening halo circled her head.
At her feet sat a great gray wolf, its golden eyes staring up at her in adoration. Finding an artist to create what he had needed hadn’t been easy. The delicate tree ornament had only been finished for a matter of weeks.
“My God,” she whispered, her gaze lifting to his as she cradled the figurine in her palm. “Hawke, it’s beautiful.”
“Not nearly as beautiful as you.” He had to clear his throat before he could speak further. “It’s our first ornament, Jess. Our first Christmas together.”