“So…you’re a Hawke?”
I swallow thickly, letting that question play in my head for a moment, because it’s a loaded one. They’re as close to me as my family by blood, but I don’t bear the name or look anything like them. That’s something that has always been evident yet never important to anyone in the Hawke brood.
We are Hawkes—by birth or by choice, no matter our skin color or the last name on our driver’s licenses.
“Yes…”
Even though I’ve failed them too many times to count recently, they somehow still trust me to protect their investments. To protect them. Because they love me and have faith in me even when I don’t have any in myself.
“They are family.”
He nods slowly, then shifts to step around me and make his way back to his seat at the bar, but he pauses with his shoulder pressed against mine to lean in until his lips feather over my ear, sending a little shiver through me straight to my core. “The offer still stands. Anytime you want to pin and straddle me again, I’m more than happy to let you.”
My knees waver slightly, and that heat I could see in his gaze rolls over me like licking flames. Though he appears unaffected by this electric charge coursing between us.
Bastard…
Men like him—beautiful and confident, arrogant and cocky—are basically waving a giant red flag in the air.
I don’t need any red flags in my life.
He brushes past me and returns to his stool, sliding onto it and immediately grabbing his beer to down the rest of it. His Adam’s apple bobs with his heavy swallow, and as he sets the empty glass on the bar top, his hand trembles slightly.
Maybe not so unaffected?
It could just be from the adrenaline of the situation, but the way he surreptitiously reaches down and adjusts his cock behind the zipper of his jeans makes me smirk.
I shouldn’t be so pleased by that revelation…
Red flags, Bishop.
Red fucking flags.
Tommy hustles over with a new beer for him. “On the house. I saw what happened. Thanks for the help.”
Hell.
Now everyone’s treating him like he’s a hero.
I can admit, in that moment, maybe he was a bit heroic, but there’s something about him that just doesn’t feel right. That hasn’t felt right since I saw him the night Allegra got sick.
There’s too much power in his body.
Too much strength in his frame.
Too much confidence in the way he looks at me.
A cunning I can see swimming in that blue gaze.
I need to keep an eye on him.
We all do.
That means I might have to play nice with him, even though every instinct I have is screaming to stay away—for both of our protection.
GAGE
It takes all the willpower I possess to stay seated on the stool and not look over my shoulder to see if the stunning woman who made my cock hard by pinning me to the club floor is still looking at me.
