Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Quickly I withdraw from her body.
“Hawk?”
“It’s okay, baby. Let me love you.”
“I think that’s what you were doing.”
I can’t help myself. I thrust into her. Hard, this time.
So fucking hard.
And I pull out and thrust, thrust, thrust…
“Hawk, yes,” she moans.
“I’m fucking you,” I grit out. “I’m fucking you, baby. God, you feel good. You’re so tight. So inviting. So fucking responsive.”
Thrust, thrust, thrust…
“Hawk!” she screams.
And as her pussy walls contract around me and she flies into another orgasm, I follow her into the abyss.
My body convulses, the world around me collapses, implodes onto this bed where only Daniela and I are. Nothing else exists. Nothing else matters.
Nothing else will ever come between this woman and me. I won’t let it.
Emotions overtake me.
I can’t let her go. Can never let her go.
I’ll find the best geneticist in the country. In the world. And if she does carry that horrific gene, I’ll fund every bit of Huntington’s research. I’ll find a cure for her.
I’ll find a way for us to have a child.
I’ll figure it all out.
Because I can’t live without her now.
She turns toward me, her gaze ethereal.
I clutch her to me, inhale the sweet fragrance of her still-damp hair, slide my lips over the silk of her neck.
I imprint it all on my mind—all that is Daniela Agudelo—and I make a silent vow.
I’ll fix everything.
It’s what I do. I fix things.
I’ll find out who’s threatening her and eliminate every one of them. I’ll find her the best physicians available.
I’ll make sure this beautiful, special woman has everything she deserves.
24
DANIELA
I wake up entangled in Hawk’s strong body.
He’s asleep, his breathing regular and shallow. For a moment I just look at him. Move the cool bamboo sheets off him, stare at his gorgeous body.
The muscles, the skin, the hair.
Everything about him is perfection.
His hands are large, with long thick fingers. Even his feet are nice-looking, with square toenails. His calves are muscular, and his thighs…
Then his perfect butt. No wonder he fills out his jeans so well.
I could stare at him forever.
I whisper my fingertips over his shoulder, his upper arm. Just the feel of him sends tingles through me.
I could look at him forever and never get tired of the sight. He’s magnificent. What every man should be, and this is with his eyes closed. His eyes, which are his most perfect feature. Such a sparkling blue.
I slide next to him, spoon him from behind. His warmth seeps into me, makes my nipples hard.
He moans, scooting back a little and then turning to face me.
“Morning,” he drawls.
“Hi.”
“Have you been up long?”
“Just woke up.” I smile. “I was looking at you.”
“Looking at me?”
“Yes. People talk so much about how women are beautiful, but no one ever says men are beautiful. But you are, Hawk.” I cup his cheek. “You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
He closes his eyes a moment.
“Don’t tell me I’ve embarrassed Hawk Bellamy,” I say.
“Nah.” He chuckles. “My looks have been getting me laid for years.”
I punch his upper arm. “I didn’t need to hear that.”
He gets on his side, sears his gaze into me. “If I have it my way, baby, I’ll only sleep with one woman from now until my dying day.”
A shiver courses through me. Is he saying what I think he is?
God knows I’ve been feeling it.
I feel the love—so much love—for him. I was especially feeling it last night, during our lovemaking.
But… I don’t know how to be in a relationship. I’ve never been in one. Most girls my age have had transitory high school relationships, more than one.
But what have I had?
At fifteen, when I was just beginning to discover the opposite sex, discover the beauty of my own body, I was forced into doing my father’s bidding.
He kept eyes on me. If I had tried to sneak out to meet a boy, I would’ve been punished.
“Hawk…”
“I know,” he says. He cups my cheek. “It’s too soon. I know.”
“It’s just… There’s so much I can’t give you.”
He shakes his head. “You can give me everything I need.”
“No, I can’t.” I bite my lip. “Look at you. It would be a travesty not to pass those genes down. And I can’t give you children.”
“We don’t know that, Daniela.”
“Even if everything else worked out, tubal ligation reversal, or if not, in vitro… There’s still the Huntington’s gene.”
“That’s why we’re going to get you tested,” he says.
“Why?”
“Because none of this adds up, Daniela.” He sits up, rubs his eyes. “Your father was a gangster. Not an honest man. Not a good man, given what he did to you.”
He’s right, of course. My father loved to punish me emotionally. What is the best emotional punishment? Tell a person she’s going to develop a disease that will lead her to a slow and torturous death in her thirties or forties.