Page 25 of Hawkeye

Josie caught me staring and took a sip of water. The flush moving over her cheeks told me she knew exactly where my attention had gone, but she didn’t cover herself or shift away. Instead, she placed her glass down and glanced around the kitchen again, gathering the nerve for whatever question had begun tightening her fingers around the napkin.

“Do you make dinner for all the women you bring here?” she asked.

“You’re the first.” I leaned back, giving her the complete answer because she deserved it. “I stopped dating casually years ago. It wasn’t worth the time, and I preferred coming home alone to bringing somebody into a life that didn’t belong to her.”

Josie’s cheeks warmed more deeply, but she held my gaze. “Were you waiting for the right person?”

“I wasn’t waiting for a damn thing.” I let my eyes move over her face, taking in the slight part of her lips and the amber brightening around her pupils. “Then you walked onto our property holding that box like you’d fight an entire motorcycle club for it, and being alone started sounding like a shitty plan.”

Her breath caught, and the dimple appeared despite the emotion softening her mouth. “That was dangerously romantic.”

“It was accurate.”

“Those aren’t mutually exclusive.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” I reached over and brushed my thumb along the tiny dark speck near the corner of her lips. “You’re the expert on old stories.”

“This one is only five days old.”

“Still mine.”

The possessive words sent another rush of color down her throat, but her body shifted closer rather than away. Josie laid her hand over mine where it rested against her cheek, and the gentle pressure affected me more than it had any fucking right to.

“I didn’t come here because I wanted a tour of the house,” she confessed, her voice soft but steady. “I wanted to know the man who lives in it. Not the Black Crowns vice president or the Black Castle COO. You.”

“You have me.”

Her fingers tightened slightly around mine. “I don’t want anyone else, Calder.”

The statement settled inside me with the same certainty I had carried since the first moment I saw her. I didn’t need time to decide what exclusivity meant or whether five days should have been enough. Josie had already become the woman I looked for in every room, the voice I wanted in my ear, and the only body my own had any interest in touching.

Her gaze dropped to my mouth and stayed there. She shifted closer instead of returning to her dinner, her knee pressing against mine beneath the table while the pulse in her throat quickened. I pushed my plate aside and stood.

I held out my hand and waited until she placed hers in it. Josie tipped her face up at me, warmth and hunger mingling in her eyes. I pulled her from the chair and into my chest, closing one arm around her waist.

Her breathless laugh touched my mouth an instant before I kissed her. I caught the back of her neck and took her lips hard, swallowing the sound as her arms slid around my shoulders. Josie rose into me eagerly, every soft curve fitting against the body that had been aching for her since the event grounds.

I tightened my arm around her and lifted until only the toes of her boots brushed the floor. Her mouth opened beneath mine, sweet and hungry, while my cock pressed against the softness of her stomach with enough force to leave no doubt about where the rest of the night was headed.

I carried her out of the kitchen without breaking the kiss, one arm locked around her waist while the other supported the curve of her ass. Josie wrapped her legs around me on instinct, and the warm pressure of her thighs against my hips turned the ache behind my zipper into something close to fucking pain. She clung to my shoulders as I climbed the stairs, her mouth hungry beneath mine and her lush tits crushed against my chest with only thin fabric between us.

I set Josie on her feet beside the bed, but she stayed pressed against me, her fingers sliding beneath the open collar of my shirt to trace the hawk inked across my chest. The delicate touch contrasted with the hunger burning in her eyes, and my restraint narrowed another fucking degree. I undid the buttons on her blouse and tugged it off, tossing it aside before opening the clasp of her bra and letting the straps fall down her arms.

Her first instinct was to fold her arms across herself, but I caught both wrists before she could hide a damn inch. Color spread from her cheeks to the full curves of her breasts while I lowered her hands and held them against her sides. Her nipples tightened beneath my stare, darkening as I watched, and the sight made my cock jerk hard enough to draw a curse from me.

“Don’t cover yourself, baby doll.” I lifted one breast and brushed my thumb over the rigid peak. “I’ve spent five fucking days imagining these. I’m gonna look. Gonna take my fucking time.”

Josie’s breath caught as I bent and closed my mouth around her nipple. She gripped my shoulders, her nails biting through my shirt while I sucked and used my tongue until her body arched toward me. Her nervous words started gathering anyway, a breathless explanation about how she had not expected a house tour to include this much nudity, but the sentence ended when I caught the other nipple between my fingers and pinched.

“There it is,” I growled, lifting my head to watch her face. “Keep talking. I want to hear exactly when I make you lose the words.”

“That seems unfair,” she whispered, but her fingers slid into my hair and drew me back to her breast.

“Never claimed otherwise.”

I used my mouth until both nipples were wet, swollen, and so sensitive that the lightest scrape of my teeth made Josie tremble. Every sound she gave me went straight to my cock, feeding the pressure until I wanted to tear through the rest of her clothes and bury myself inside her. I still took enough time to watch what she liked, because control did not mean moving slowly. It meant knowing exactly where every reaction came from and deciding which one I wanted next.

I unfastened her pants and pushed them over her hips with the scrap of lace beneath them. Josie stepped free with a quick movement, then stopped under the unwavering sweep of my gaze, naked except for her earrings, bangles, and ankle boots. The combination should have looked absurd, but the delicate gold chain around her neck and the colorful bracelets on her wrist only made her seem more fully herself as she stood bare in my bedroom.