Page 27 of Her Magnificent Mistake
Yes.
All thought was gone, leaving nothing behind but the pleasure of sensation. The pressure, the heat which had laid dormant for so long, now threatened to consume Marcia. Whimpering, she thrust herself closer, catching his lower lip between her teeth and gently tugging until he groaned and wrapped her in an embrace she’d yearned for all these years.
It was a good kiss, was the point.
His lips moved to her jaw, and she tipped her head back tothunkagainst the gazebo support. She felt him smile, heard his little hum of approval, as his kisses moved along her jaw to her throat. His stubble scratched at her sensitive skin and she shuddered, digging her fingers into his sides to hold herself to him, lest she drift away in a haze of bliss.
“Yes, Hawk,” she gasped, arching against him. “Yes!”
He froze.
For five heartbeats he froze, his lips against her skin, his thigh rubbing her core.
Marcia knew, because she could count each of his heartbeats against her own.
Then, abruptly, the murderer she had come all this way to investigate straightened.
He straightened and pulled away, moving his hands to her shoulders, yanking away the thigh she’d been grinding against.
Marcia swayed, gaping, dazed and baffled, blinking up at him in the cold of his absence.
“I shouldnae have done that,” he muttered, turning his head as if he couldn’t even stand to look at her.
And her heart broke all over again.
Well? What do you expect? You twoare notin love,are nota couple. You have not been for over a decade. This is a job.Heis a job. Do not fool yourself into thinking this kiss was anything but a mistake.
Right.
Right. She could do this. She had to do this. She would do this.
She couldn’t afford to lose her head—or her heart—to a murderer.
“Well,” Marcia said as brightly as she could manage, as if her chest wasn’t aching from holding in tears. “What was that you said earlier about needing a friend?”
Hawk’s hands dropped away from her shoulders. “Ye remember that, do ye?” he muttered, turning away.
“Of course.” She should probably touch him, follow him, but there were limits to her acting ability. Right now she needed to just stand here and allow this pillar to hold her upright as it held the gazebo roof. “And I…I have always been your friend, Hawk.”
Up until now, when I am lying to you.Up until that moment, when you broke my heart. Up until the time you decided to kill to get what you want.
He twisted to peer at her, uncertainty in his eyes, and she hid her crossed fingers in the folds of her skirt.
“I…am struggling with the paperwork,” he finally admitted.
Her gaze darted to the table. “The paperwork?”
“Of the estate.” He blew out a breath and scrubbed a hand down his face. “It’s never been my forte—Nay, that’s an understatement. It’s always been a bloody mystery to me, all those columns of numbers and scratchy handwriting. But I need to make sense of it if I am to build Tostinham back into the success it was under my Grandda.”
Well, Marcia knew paperwork. She wasgoodat paperwork. Paperwork didn’t lie or murder or kiss her.
And paperwork was very, very good at revealing secrets.
So she plastered on a cheerful smile she didn’t feel and forced herself toward the table. “Let me help, Hawk.”
CHAPTER 5
By the fifth day Marcia had been at Tostinham, Hawk was certain he was in hell. Purgatory at the very least.
