Page 101 of Filthy Love

“Gia?” The gruff voice said from behind her. She turned her head to see Hawk framed in the door looking at her curiously.

She smiled and felt her heart soar.

Her man.

Oh, they weren’t anything official yet, he hadn’t given what they were a title, but the way he watched her, and tended to her needs, anticipating her wants in the quiet way he did, not to mention how much care he gave to Gia, she was calling him her man.

He’d just have to like it or lump it.

A Marinos never shied from a challenge and this was going to test her limits.

“I’m just having a moment.” She replied as he stepped in through the doorway to fill the bare room with his size. His footsteps echoed and when he was near her skin hummed because she’d become accustomed now to wearing his intense, overpowering stare like a crown on top of her head.

When his eyes were on her she treated it like a precious gift.

A necklace around her neck.

She waited for it now, a junkie needing a fix of Hawk attention and when it came, as it always did, it became a connection of sorts. And one she was unwilling to let go of any time soon.

An idea struck.

Something she wanted to check off her Hawk Bucket List before they departed. She fished in her pocket and scrolled through her phone music. A song started to play. Strings ofOnly Youswelled as she placed the phone on the window-sill and approached Hawk with her pulse throbbing under the echoed room.

“Dance with me?”

His eyebrows did their weird twisty thing making her giggle. He really did need teaching how to go with being romantic. “Please?” She followed offering her hand to him.

Hawk inhaled, yet no rejection came. She could see his hesitancy. The fast rejection about to follow when she placed her hands on his chest and ran them up.

He liked being touched by her. It was powerful to know.

He was a great cat for her affection, almost approaching it like a weary feline would but unable to resist at the same time so he allowed her the freedom.

A moment later he had her tucked into his chest even as he growled something inaudible.

She fit perfectly.

Every inch of her sighed contently.

His fingers flexed holding hers.

And they moved together.

There were no words as they shuffled in sync, finding a rhythm between the music and their aligned bodies.

The music played, bringing memories of her prom and just how much she’d wished it had been Hawk dancing with her that night. She’d graduated years ahead of her peers and attending college two years at that point, but somehow her mom had wrangled it with the principal for her to go to the prom seeing as how she didn’t get one at fifteen. She couldn’t tear her gaze from his, wondered if he even remembered that night. Of how she’d been in her golden dress, hair curled professionally from a salon in town and her makeup flawlessly beautiful and all she could think about was she wished it was Hawk picking her up on his bike and not her teen date, Deacon.

Five minutes before the high-school boy was due to show up in the limo, she’d hidden upstairs in the bathroom and called the number for Hawk she’d stolen from Rider’s phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey … Hi, Hawk. It’s Gia.” She almost said Rider’s sister. Could she sound any lamer? She talked to boys on the phone all the time. But this was different. Hawk was a fully-grown man and the object of all her fantasies. “So, eh, what are you up to?”

“Why you calling me?” He didn’t sound angry. Maybe a hint of curiosity? She looked at her reflection and felt her belly muscles clench.

“It’s my prom. It’s lame really, I know…But I was wondering if you’d take me…”

Dead air was the only reply and for a second, she thought he’d hung up on her.

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