Saving Serena (Hawk Security #1)

Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

Duke

Monday, I woke to find hair in front of me and my arm draped over Serena, with my hard dick up against her warm ass. Something had definitely shifted. For the second time in two days, I’d woken up spooning my woman. Normally, I was out of a woman’s bed before falling asleep for the night, or I kicked her out of mine on the rare occasion I brought someone back here.

How long had it been? Maybe Mary, over a year ago. She was a sales rep from out of town, the two nearby hotels I considered acceptable had been booked, and a hell of a storm had made looking farther afield unappealing.

Serena shifted.

I stilled, liking the tranquility of the moment. This was a completely new experience for me, but oddly satisfying.

Her hand came up to cover mine on her boob and squeezed. “Morning.” She wiggled her ass against my morning wood. “Are you this hard every morning?”

“With you in my life, I am.”

She wiggled again and hummed.

The building phone on my nightstand rang.

I rolled over to pick it up. “Hello?”

“Sir…” It was our concierge downstairs. “A Mr. and Mrs. Benson are demanding to see you.”

“We need to see our daughter,” Lloyd Benson bellowed in the background.

I was tempted to send the blowhard away, but that would only create family friction for Serena. “Give me two minutes and send them up.”

“Send who up?” Serena asked sleepily.

“Your parents.”

She gasped and jumped out of bed. “Crap. I need more time.”

Serena

Naked as a jaybird and with his cock standing at attention, Duke threw me my dress from yesterday. “Put this on and greet them while I get presentable.” He went into the bathroom. Presentable had better not include an obvious erection.

Dad had taken this too far. After yesterday’s blowup at my house, this was intolerable. Instead of the dress, I decided to embody the other word in my tattoo— proud . I was damned proud to be Duke Hawk’s girlfriend. Going into his walk-in closet, I pulled a white button-down from a hanger.

Since Mom was with him, I pulled on panties but not a bra. With buttons open almost to my navel, the look was complete. I was Duke Hawk’s woman, and appearing barefoot in his shirt, in his condo, with unbrushed hair, should make that crystal clear.

I waited by the door, and at the first knock, pulled it open. “Mom, Dad, what are you doing here?”

Mom’s mouth opened in fly-catcher mode. “What are you?—?”

I didn’t let her finish. “Come in.”

Dad’s eyes looked past me.

“I can make coffee if you like.” My man’s voice came from behind me. Always the possessive one, a shirtless, barefoot Duke wrapped an arm around my waist a second later. At least he had pants on, and he wasn’t sporting wood any longer.

Dad ignored Duke. “Munchkin, we’re not staying,” He used his practiced, master-of-the-universe voice.

Mom’s gaze flicked between me and Duke. “Serena, why didn’t you tell us you were attacked last week and had to go to the hospital?”

“Who—”

“Vincent ’fessed up to covering for you,” Dad said before I finished the question.

“I didn’t want to worry you.” I aimed my words at Mom.

Dad looked ready to blow. “That was before Fox was paroled. What’s going on?”

“We’re looking into that,” Duke said.

“Not good enough.”

“Dad, they’re looking into several leads.”

“Is what happened at your house yesterday related to this?”

The creep of increasing demands had begun, and I had to stop the cycle. “That’s between me and my team.”

“Not good enough.” He looked to Duke. “I want to know what leads you have.”

“Sir, I can’t divulge that without Serena’s permission. We’ve already had this discussion. She’s the client, not you.”

I straightened up to be worthy of his words.

“That’s bullshit. She might be your…” He motioned up my length. “I don’t know what. But she’s my little girl, and I have a right to know.” He couldn’t even bring himself to call me Duke’s girlfriend.

“Serena,” Mom pleaded.

Dad grasped Mom’s hand. “We have a right to know.”

Duke let go of me and advanced on Dad. “She used to be your little girl, but now, she is your adult daughter. She is very capable of making her own decisions.”

“Munchkin, you’re coming with us.” Dad hadn’t absorbed a single word Duke or I had said yesterday.

Duke did the unthinkable. He jabbed a finger in Dad’s chest. “You’re not listening. You can’t dictate her life anymore. She’s an adult, and you need to start treating her like one.”

My God, I loved hearing him support me. Before yesterday, nobody had, not even my brothers.

Dad backed up, spluttering, “But…”

Mom’s eyes were angry. “You can’t talk to him like that.”

“We’re in my house,” Duke pointed out. “And I can say anything I like. No disrespect, sir, but you’re not in charge of Serena’s life now. She is. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you both. But you have to respect her right to make her own decisions.”

I couldn’t have said it any better or any more forcefully. I came up and put my arm around Duke. “I do love you both, but I’m staying.”

Dad was positively vibrating with anger. “We’re not done with this.”

A few seconds later, he slammed the door behind them.

I pulled in a breath. “That didn’t go well.”

Duke took me into his strong arms for a hug. “Give it time. It was a good start. He’d lose face if he gave in easily, but he’ll come around.”

“You think so?”

“Absolutely. He loves you so much he’s having trouble letting you go.”

I rubbed his crotch. “How about you help me shower?”

I reminded Duke we were running late, and that saved me in the shower, but I didn’t have the same luck at the bathroom counter when he came up behind me, still wet. His hard cock pressed up against my ass as his hands encircled me and fondled my breasts.

I moaned, watching in the mirror as his hands loved me. Closing my eyes, I reached behind me and stroked his length. “Only if you can be fast.” Could a woman have too many orgasms? I’d have to look that up.

“Close your eyes and stay right there.”

A moment later, I heard the tearing of the condom packet and spread my legs. I couldn’t afford to be late to work.

“Now, watch your tits in the mirror.” He positioned himself at my entrance and entered me with a strong push.

I did as I was told and watched my breasts flopping around as he thrust in and out. Tension quickly built inside me as he drove deep and hit a special spot on the way. The way my breasts swung with his movements was hypnotic as the pleasure built inside me. At this rate, I wasn’t going to last long.

“Holy shit, you feel so damned good.”

As good as it was watching my boobs, when I looked up, I caught the real show. His mesmerized look as he followed the swaying of my breasts was something else, and it amplified the feelings to know I was doing this to him. I added some side-to- side motion, and his smile increased. Yes, watching me was his catnip.

“I’m close…” He groaned as his hand found my clit.

His stroking of my little bud was like hitting the blast-off button, and I quickly came undone with a climax that convulsed around him.

After a few more savage thrusts, he locked up and unloaded inside me with a roar.

While we were making breakfast, I ventured into the danger zone. “Who is Marilyn?” I asked.

Duke paused for a few seconds, then continued dicing the onion.

“You had a nightmare.”

Chop, chop, chop.

“You seemed upset, and I want to understand. My therapist said?—”

“You’re not my therapist,” he snapped. Chop, chop.

“Sorry. I only wanted to help.”

He set down the knife and took a deep breath. “She died. Now, can you please get me the mushrooms?”

Feeling like the biggest jerk in town, I went to the fridge. Nice going, Serena. Ask about the dead girlfriend, why don’t you?

Later, we sat at the table, without another mention of Marilyn, feeding each other bites of omelet while I wished I could take back the question, which had obviously caused him pain. His phone rang. It was Lucas.

“Cobra here,” he answered. “Sure thing.” He punched the speaker button and laid the phone down. “You’re on speaker with Serena.”

“I have Winston conferenced in,” Lucas said. “We have a development in Florida.”

“Hi, guys,” Winston said.

We echoed the greeting.

Duke leaned forward. “What did you get from Rossi?”

“Nothing,” Winston said. “And we’re not going to. She’s dead.”

A coworker had been murdered. My stomach twisted, and breakfast threatened to come back up. I held my mouth and rushed to the bathroom.

Duke

I stared at the cell phone on the counter for a second. Sophia Rossi being dead upped the stakes.

“The circumstances?” Lucas asked.

Winston sighed. “I can’t know for sure until I get the coroner’s report, but she was found in a canal that the Bratva here likes to use, so draw your own conclusions.”

I stated mine. “It sure points to Yaroslavsky’s brother doing the dirty work and getting the intel out of her. And it would explain why he said he couldn’t double-check his information.”

Lucas asked the next logical question. “Any clues in her apartment?”

“It’s all been boxed up and sent to her parents in Oxnard.”

“I don’t like it,” Lucas said, obviously pissed off. “We need access to that.” He sounded a bit like Lloyd Benson.

“It’s in transit,” Winston said. “And unless you want to track down a UPS truck and hijack it, we’ll have to wait until it arrives and ask her parents to take a look through it.”

Lucas grumbled. “Serena, this makes it fairly certain that Rossi left you something.”

“She isn’t here,” I said, looking toward the bathroom. “The news hit her pretty hard.”

“Okay,” Lucas said. “It’s up to her and Constance to do a thorough check of her workspace for that drive.”

“I’ll tell her.”

Serena returned, still a little green, but better. “Tell me what?”

“This means the search this morning with Constance is very important.”

“I understand.”

As we wrapped up the call, I had the feeling we’d missed an important connection.

Mid-morning, after dropping Serena off at work, I sat in my fake lawyer’s office and doodled factoids on a piece of paper.

My phone rang. It was Lucas.

“What’s up?” I asked in greeting.

“You sure know how to make enemies, Brother.”

“Who did I piss off?” It could be either Zolotarev, because I humiliated his son, or Benson, because I supported his daughter against him.

“Lloyd Benson came to see me.”

“Figures.”

“I just turned down an offer of a million dollars to pull you from the Benson case.”

Serena’s father hadn’t wasted any time throwing his weight around. “Is that all?” I joked, even as it turned icy cold in the office. Benson was pissed, and he had the resources to make things pretty damned uncomfortable for me.

“No. Then he offered five million if I fired you.”

Pissed was an understatement, and now I didn’t know which way this conversation was going to go. “And what did you say?” I braced for bad news.

“That you’re not only my best bodyguard but pretty much the fucking best in the business, and using anybody else for his daughter’s protection would be putting her in danger.”

Silently, I took in a deep breath. “Thanks, boss.”

“After all I’ve done for him, he decided to piss me off. I don’t give a shit how rich he is. Nofuckingbody buys me. Now go find Spinelli, and don’t make me regret my words.”

“Copy that.” After he hung up, I stood and paced the tiny office, looking for anything I’d missed so far, but I didn’t get much time to ponder before my phone rang.

“Hi, Mom,” I answered. “How’s Italy?” Mom and Dad were on a cruise, and I’d been checking the itinerary every two or so days.

“Wonderful so far, although the water in Venice isn’t as clean as the movie people want you to believe.”

“I’ve heard that.”

She hummed. “A little birdie told me you’re seeing someone.”

That had to be my sisters, probably both of them.

“Really?”

“And I hear you think she’s special,” she said with a lilt to her voice.

“She is. Her name is Serena.”

“Will you get a chance to bring her to Sunday brunch when we get back?”

Yes was the only acceptable answer in my family. “I’ll need to check with her.”

“Of course.”

She gave me a quick rundown of their most recent stops before handing me off to Dad for a quick hello.

A half-hour later, Constance gave me the bad news—they hadn’t found a USB drive anywhere in Serena’s workspace. She’d even searched the breakroom.

With my doodle pad in front of me, I tapped my pen on the name Leo Gambino. Suddenly, the possible connection that had been bothering me buzzed in my head. I texted Serena.

ME: Call me when you can speak freely.