Hawk: (11 page)

Hawk led Tildy to the dance floor. He pulled her in close and she rested her head on his chest. “Everything okay at home?” he asked her as he tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Would you tell me if it wasn’t?”

Instead of responding
, she tightened her arms around him and snuggled closer. Hawk sighed. Tildy couldn’t lie, but she didn’t want to tell the truth and argue about it either. She was probably used to trying to avoid conflict. He could relate. He’d been trying to avoid a showdown with Garrett ever since he’d shown up at the barbecue. But she was here now, and no one could hurt her. He supposed that would have to be enough.

He held her close
, and she closed her eyes. He figured if he could offer her nothing else, which he couldn’t, then he could at least let her forget for a while. For a while, Hawk forgot too. His difficulties getting Garrett straightened out momentarily faded away.

If Tildy didn’t want t
o talk, she didn’t have to. God knew Hawk didn’t really know how, anyway. He was better at solving problems with his fists, or even with just his intimidating size and demeanor. Words weren’t really his strong suit.

He
was quite enjoying the silence between them, when someone else broke it.

“David!”

He couldn’t help but scowl. He turned to the short, dark haired woman sporting the beauty mark that was now beginning to seem like a mark of the Devil. She wasn’t scowling though. She was grinning triumphantly, as though he were Rumple-fucking-stiltskin, and now he was obliged to take her home.

Tildy lifted her head to stare at the woman who’d interrupted them. “What?” she asked, looking up at Hawk.

Hawk shook his head. “I’m busy,” he told the brunette.

She eyed Tildy. “Doesn’t look like it,” she declared.

“Honey-” Hawk said, irritated.

“Tanya,” she reminded him.

He glared at her. “
Honey
, I’m not interested, okay? It was one time,” -probably more than one time, but why inflate her ego- “and it was nothing.” Tildy stepped back from him, but Hawk refused to let go of her. “Sorry I didn’t make that clear.”

Tanya shot daggers at Tildy and then turned to
Hawk again.

He sighed. “Go,” he ordered.

Tanya was at least smart enough to realize a lost cause when she saw one, and she stormed off toward the bar.

“Does that happen a lot?” Tildy asked quietly.

Hawk shook his head. “Not really.”

“But you date a lot of women?”

Hawk frowned. He didn’t
date
anyone. That was for damn sure, but that didn’t seem like the kind of thing you’d try to explain to a girl like Tildy. He glanced around, irritated with the bar and its patrons. Normally, Maria’s was the only place he wanted to be on the weekends, but now he’d just had enough of it.

“Come on,” he said
, taking her hand and leading her toward the door.

Outside
, thunder rumbled in the distance, and the sprinkle of rain that had been falling all day suddenly came down in a rush.

“Oh!” Tildy cried as the first
of the larger drops landed.

“Run,” he
ordered, grabbing her hand. He pulled her in the direction of his truck, which was parked pretty close by. He thumbed the fob with his other hand as he threw open the driver’s side door and quickly ushered her in, climbing in after her. He slammed the door on the deluge, none too soon it seemed, because they were both dripping. Tildy laughed, and Hawk took down his ponytail and shook it out. She ran a hand through her wet hair.

“I don’t have a towel or anything,” he told her.

“It’s fine.”

Hawk was parked under one of the lot’s lights
, which was illuminating the cab in a dim, gray haze as it filtered through the rain soaked window. Tildy was looking at the storm moving through, but he was only looking at her. Her little green sweater was open in the front, and her damp dress was clinging to her. Tildy was completely oblivious to the fact that her nipples were straining against the fabric.

Tha
t was the thing about Tildy, she was completely unaware of herself. Hawk was dead certain she hadn’t led that redneck on, not on purpose anyway. She wasn’t beautiful, not in the regular sense. Hawk had bedded better looking women. Tildy lacked a certain self-assuredness that the others had flaunted. She (and everyone around her) probably dismissed it as a lack of grace, but, in Hawk’s opinion, it was a lack of guile. Tildy didn’t think of herself as sexy, and so she didn’t act sexy. Or, more importantly, she didn’t use sex to get what she wanted.

She definitely had
an air of innocence about her, the kind that comes from not having seen so much of the world that you were cynical and weary of it. Hawk hadn’t been that innocent in a long time, assuming he’d ever been. He’d killed too many men to see the world the way she saw it. He would bet that most people saw Tildy as naive. He preferred to see her as ‘untainted,’ which made her both intriguing and off-limits in his books. Hawk didn’t know what would happen if he touched her: Would he get clean, or would she get dirty?

Tildy turned and caught him looking. “Hawk?”

“When it lets up, I’ll walk you to your car.”

“You want me to leave?”

He flexed his hands to keep from reaching for her. “No. Which is why you’re going to.”

Tildy reached out and took his hand. She ran her thumb over the knuckle that had cold-cocked the redneck. “You’re always saving me,” she said.

“Because you always need saving.”

Still rubbing his hand
, she said, “I should kiss you. As a reward. That’s what the princess always does.”

“I already kissed you, Tildy.”

She looked up at him. Her brown eyes growing impossibly darker, even in the dim light. “I remember,” she whispered.

W
ith that, Hawk’s carefully constructed control snapped. He grabbed her and pulled her into his lap. He had one arm around her shoulders and the other on her hip when his mouth found hers, and it was better than he remembered.

He kept his kisses soft,
because Tildy was soft. She was soft and clean and far more innocent than he was at her age. He’d already been in the Army four years and finished up one tour overseas by that time.

His tongue glided over her bottom lip, begging for entrance. Her lips parted, taking him in. Hawk groaned at how pliant she was in his hands. She had no idea what these hands had done, the destruction they’d caused. He didn’t ever want her to know.

Tildy’s hands threaded through his hair, and she pulled him closer. Hawk had her settled on his lap, trapping his cock, which was growing harder by the second. His hand gripped the fabric of her dress at the hip. She was so desperate to get his tongue inside her mouth; it had him wondering about the rest of her. Slowly he pulled up the hem and slid his hand along her bare thigh. His fingertips found the waistband of her panties.

When he had first met her, he imagined running his hands through her hair. Now he was getting an X
-rated version of that wish, as he brushed over her soft curls, which were just starting to dampen. He pressed his middle finger against her, parting her. She felt amazing. She probably tasted as good as the summer rain that was beating down on the hood of the truck.

She felt more than amaz
ing. She felt like Heaven. With her eyes closed and her cheeks flushed she definitely looked like-

He froze.

“Angel?”

Tildy’s eyes remained closed and
her breathing heavy. She didn’t seem to have heard him.

“You’re a virgin?”

Tildy’s eyes fluttered open, and she gasped. “Oh! Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no.” She pushed his hand away, righted her panties, and shoved herself off his lap and back toward the passenger seat. Her firm ass grazed his firmer cock and he growled instinctively but let her go.

“I’m sorry!” she told him. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

Hawk shifted a little, trying to find a comfortable place for his raging hard-on. “It’s okay,” he told her.

“No, really,” she insisted. “I wasn’t teasing. I just- I don’t know what happened.”

She did look fairly bewildered. Hawk guessed he couldn’t blame her. He’d only meant to kiss her. They’d both let things get out of hand.

Hawk threw open the door to Maria’s and stomped inside. The look on his face had people scampering out of his way. He headed straight to the table and flopped into an empty chair.

Tex grinned at him. “Back so soon?” he asked. “Did you play Indian Savage and the Prairie Maiden with Tildy in the parking lot?”

“Mark!” Abby chastised.

Hawk turned the full force of his glare on the Cowboy. “Don’t,” he warned. Normally Hawk was up for his friend’s banter, but not at this moment.

Tex laughed. “Oh, so you
didn’t
play Savage and the Maiden. Gee, that’s too bad.”

Slick appeared and set down a beer in front of Hawk. He snat
ched at it and took a long pull then set it down. “You have no idea,” he growled.

Tex cocked his head to one side. “About what?”

Hawk shook his head. “She is,” he replied.

Tex frowned. “She’s what?”

Hawk closed his eyes, trying to will his cock and his temper to settle down. When he felt confident, he opened them again. “Tildy’s a virgin.”

Slick gasped.

Tex’s mouth dropped open.

Caleb paused with his beer half way to his own lips. “Jesus,” he muttered. “Must be like waving a red flag in front of a bull.”

Slick slapped Hawk’s arm. “Hawk Red Cloud, don’t you
dare
!”

Hawk flinched away from the little barmaid. “I wouldn’t!” he insisted. “I didn’t! I put her in her car and sent her home. It just...
got away from us, that’s all.”

“What got away from you?” Easy asked
, pulling up a chair and settling into it.

Hawk just shook his head.

“Tildy,” Tex answered for him, “is as pure as the driven snow.”

Easy’s eyes widened. “No shit?” He turned to Hawk. “Are you sure? She’s 22. Maybe when she said, ‘I’ve never done this before,’ she ju
st meant large Indians in honky-tonk parking lots.”

Hawk shook his head.

“Well, what exactly did she say?” Easy pressed.

“She didn’t,” Hawk replied. “She didn’t say anything.”

“Oh, okay. So you don’t really know,” Easy concluded.

“No. I know.”

Easy turned to Slick. “Can I get another beer?”

Slick reached down and grabbed Hawk’s freshly opened bottle and handed it to the younger man.

“Hey!” Hawk protested. “That’s mine!”

Slick turned the full force of her glare on him. “Not anymore,” she informed him. “You’re in the dog house.”

“For what?! I said I didn’t do anything!”

Slick leaned down into his face. “Then how do you know Tildy’s a virgin?” she asked sharply.

Hawk scowled and looked away.

Shooter shook his head. “Let his fingers do the walking,” he surmised.

Sarah’s head snapped up and she turned her glare on her husband. “Chris!”

The lieutenant instinctively grabbed his beer off the table, out of her reach. “Baby, I didn’t say it was right! Doc, arrest him! It’s clearly wrong to get to th
ird base with 22 year old virgins.”

Caleb took a pull of his beer and considered this. “Well, if I do that, then the Cowboy has to go to a Russian Gulag for
his
crimes.”

Abby’s face turned as red as her hair.

Hawk rubbed his face. “It got away from us. That’s all. Won’t happen again.”

Easy laughed. “Got away from you. Like an angry cobra. A cobra that spits-”

“Don’t. Even. Say it!” Sarah ordered. She turned to Hawk and pointed her finger at him. Despite her small size, he was thoroughly and completely chagrined. “From now on Tildy is-”

“Off-limits,” Hawk finished. “I know. It won’t happen again. Tildy stays a virgin,” he declared, giving his solemn oath.

Tildy put the car in drive, but it took her a moment to let her foot off the brake. She still wasn’t quite sure what had happened with Hawk. It wasn’t anything like her dates with Tate. She’d never kissed someone because she really wanted to or let them into her panties. Truthfully, she’d been so lost in Hawk’s incredible kisses that she hadn’t even realized his hand had traveled up her dress.

Her cheeks burned. Hawk had discovered what she hadn’t given Tate. That had seemed confusing
, because, where Tate was obsessed with having sex, Hawk hadn’t pushed for it. In fact, he’d seemed a little relieved when he’d put her in her car. He hadn’t even kissed her goodbye, but there had been no denying the erection she’d been sitting on just a few minutes before. Hawk had wanted her, but he’d still sent her home.

This
was just as well, she figured. Even if she was willing to sleep with Hawk, the cab of a truck had not exactly been how she’d envisioned her first time. She wasn’t necessarily waiting until marriage, but she was definitely waiting- for something. She couldn’t really say what, but definitely something or some
one
. Hawk might be that someone, but she’d only just met him. Isabel’s sign or no, she didn’t really know that much about him.

Tildy pulled out of the lot, turning on the wipers to combat the rain, which had not let up since they’d first come outside. She put her blinker on and turned left out of the lot, headed for the stoplight at the end of the street. Headlights filled her car’s interior as another of the bar’s patrons followed her out. They were a little too close, but Tildy wasn’t comfortable increasing her speed in the downpour. Besides
, she was going the speed limit. She stayed in the right lane, hoping the vehicle would pass her, but it pulled up behind her at the red light.

When it changed
, she waited a bit, hoping the driver would get impatient and go around her. It partly worked. The driver did get impatient and a horn sounded loudly behind her, making her jump. She sighed and rolled through the intersection.

D
espite the lack of traffic, the car refused to pass. For the next block, then a third, it followed closely. The red neon of a seedy motel to her left spilled across her car’s hood, and the vehicle behind her turned on its brights. Tildy shied away from the resulting glare in the rearview. Unable to see much of anything, she took her foot off the accelerator to let the car slow. Instead though, she was jolted from behind, as her bumper was tagged. Instinctively, she hit the brakes, but the car surged forward again, as she was rear-ended a second time. They weren’t traveling fast, so it was really more of a bump than a collision, but Tildy panicked anyway.

She swerved to the curb and threw her car into park. Despite the heavy rain
, she threw open the door and jumped out. Her father had already had the appointment at the dealership, and, though Hawk’s work was deemed satisfactory, her father hadn’t been pleased at the inconvenience. He
really
wouldn’t be pleased about this.

She hurried through the rain to the rear bumper. The vehicle
, which she could now vaguely recognize as a truck, had pulled over behind her. The lights were still on high, forcing Tildy to look away. She turned to the bumper. It was dented but not much. Still, her father
would
notice eventually. If she weren’t such a terrible liar, she would have considered trying to hide it, at least for a few days. She could claim the car had been hit in the parking lot, while she was at work.

Suddenly
, the high beams disappeared, and the street plunged into blackness. The streetlamp several feet away was weak by comparison. The truck door opened, and the driver got out. Tildy brushed her rain-soaked hair out of her eyes.

“I’m sorry!” she called out above the st
orm. She didn’t know why she apologized except that she was
always
apologizing.

The driver said nothing.

“Let me get my purse,” she said loudly. She turned and moved for the driver’s side door of her car, when suddenly she was grabbed from behind. Lightning flashed as one hand snatched her hair, and the other gripped her upper arm. She winced as she was pulled backward, angled toward the Mercedes, and propelled forward. The sound of thunder overhead muffled the sound of her face smacking into the frame of the car’s rear door. The hand tightened on her hair but let go of her arm.

“I’m sorry!” she cried out again, hoping to placate her attacker.

The hand in her hair tightened, making it impossible to move without excruciating pain. The other hand wrenched up the hem of her sundress. The thin material of her panties tore as they were ripped from her body.