Saving Serena (Hawk Security #1)

Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42

Duke

After another dose of Advil, a gallon of water, and an omelet with all the hot sauce I could stand, I was sober, and I’d almost conquered the hangover.

Fucking Lucas hadn’t given me much choice when he’d taken all the liquor away. How long would it take for memories of her to fade so I could go back to sleeping in my bed?

Maybe it would be better if I threw this one out and bought another.

The doorbell rang and rang again, forcing me up off the couch. I was so over having my family give me advice that was totally useless. “Who is it?” I demanded. Only my family was cleared past the lobby.

“It’s me.” Serena’s voice carried through the door. “We need to talk.”

At least I had a locked door between us, keeping me from making the mistake of getting lost in those pale-green eyes. “We don’t have anything more to talk about.”

“Yes, we do.”

“No. It’s over.” She was safely away from me.

“Open up, Duke.”

I pulled the pin on the nuclear grenade. “Leave. Ursula’s on her way over.” Then I walked back to my couch. Problem solved.

Serena

He wouldn’t, would he? That was pretty low.

With my stomach churning, I stomped to the other end of the hall—with my best smoky eye makeup, my best push-up bra paired with my sexiest red dress, and my Louboutins. I was dressed for battle, but only if I got to face him. I dialed his brother.

“Hey, Serena, can I help you?” Jordy asked.

“I need you to check a work schedule on Ursula Anders. She’s a flight attendant on SAS. I want to know where she is right now.” Yes, I had done my research on his blonde bombshell ex-whatever she was to him.

“Duke’s Ursula?”

“That’s the one.” My stomach almost revolted. I hated hearing that she was that much of a fixture in Duke’s life.

“Just a minute.” Furious keyboard clicks came across the line. “Her flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm already landed. You know it’s nine hours later in Stockholm, right?”

“Thanks a million, Jordy. I owe you.”

I stomped back to Duke’s door. No more Miss Nice Gal. That didn’t sound right, but so what? I inserted the key and unlocked the door.

“What the hell?” Duke almost fell off the couch when I found him in the living room.

“We’re talking, adult to adult, whether you like it or not.”

He pointed to the door. “I said no. Now leave before Ursula gets here.”

Hand on my hips, I laughed at him. “Don’t try that on me. She’s in Stockholm.”

He didn’t have an answer to that.

“I heard you when you said you didn’t want me to get hurt—and I appreciate the sentiment—but I’m a grown-ass woman who can make her own decisions.”

“We are not doing this. You’re safe. It was fun. It’s over.”

Nothing new in his arguments there. Time for truth telling. “I know about Marilyn. I know you found her.”

His face fell like I’d knifed him. “You don’t understand.”

“Lucas told me everything.”

His teeth gritted in anger. “He had no right?—”

“Don’t blame him. I made him tell me.” A mild lie because I doubted anybody could make Lucas Hawk do something he didn’t want to do. “You told me you’d always be truthful with me, and you lied.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“It sure wasn’t the whole truth.”

He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “I almost died in Thousand Oaks, and the next time, I might not be so lucky. I’m not putting you through that and risking…” He didn’t finish, but his fear was clear.

“I am not Marilyn.” I raised a hand when it looked like he might argue. “I’ve got more grit than that. You have no idea the hell I went through when I was kidnapped by the Fox brothers.”

His brows creased. “You said it wasn’t much.”

“I was afraid to tell you the whole truth.”

He held out his hand, and I had my first victory. “I’m sorry.”

I took it and sat, angled toward him. “They had me for ten days. Ten days in total darkness.”

“That’s why the night lights?” he asked.

I nodded. “Darkness brings back the nightmares.”

“Then why’d you tell me it was only one day?”

I swallowed hard. “Shame. It was ten days of enduring their torture. Ten days of knowing that in the end, they planned to kill me.”

“But you survived.”

“For ten days and nights, I listened to them on the other side of the door.” I sniffled. “Every night, they fucking flipped a coin to see who got me first, and who went second. They tied me to the bed and took me every night, no matter how much I fought. I lied because I didn’t want you to think?—”

He took me into a hug, and I had my second victory. “Baby, the only thing I think about you is how incredibly strong you are.” He rubbed my back through my sobs. “You’re strong like a tiger, not backing down from any fight.”

I snuggled against him. “I didn’t want you to know I was damaged goods.”

“I think Tiger fits you better than Snuggles.”

I nodded. A tiger was bold and proud. “I’m not letting you push me away just because you’re a coward.”

He tensed and pushed me away. “I warned you about calling a SEAL a coward.”

“Or stupid,” I shot back. “And if you think I’m going to pull a Marilyn, you’re stupider than dog shit.”

“Leave.” He pointed. “I don’t think we can be together.” The I don’t think in his statement was enough wiggle room to call it another win.

“You’re worse than my father,” I spat.

“Don’t ever compare me to him,” he shot back with equal intensity.

“You’re trying to run my life, just like him. Serena, do this. Serena, you can’t do that.”

“I don’t mean it that way.” His fists clenched and unclenched. I was clearly getting to him.

“You think you know better than me, and you’re wrong. I love you?—”

“You can’t.”

“I can, and I do. I’m strong enough. You know that tattoo you have? The part of the SEAL code about always getting back up? Well, Cobra, I’m that strong too. You can push me away, but I’m going to be back on your doorstep again and again until?—”

“But I can’t.”

“Okay, sailor, admit to me that you’re a stupid coward then.”

“I warned you,” he growled.

“Let’s call Alice. You told me you can’t lie to her. Tell her you don’t love me.”

“You’re impossible.”

“Read your tattoo. That’s your future. Me getting back up every time you knock me down. Every single?—”

His mouth covered mine, cutting off the rest of my rant.

Snaking my hands behind his neck, I kissed him back, long, deep, and filled with all the love I felt for this man.

He broke the kiss. “You’re impossible.”

“I’m not giving you up.”

“Then I’ll quit the company and?—”

I straightened. “What? And become a grocery store cashier? No fucking way. I fell in love with the take-no-prisoners, badass SEAL doing the hard work others won’t or can’t do. That’s the man you’re meant to be.”

“You’re impossible.”

“You said that. Now surrender, or do I have to throat punch you?”

He sighed. “You mentioned something about banging my brains out.”

Already soaking wet, I ran my hand over the bulge in his pants. “What about your ribs? I could suck you.”

“I can think of a dozen positions that will work,” he said already lifting my dress over my head. “Keep the heels on.”

With the fierceness of a tiger, I attacked his clothes as well, and in no time, we were both naked. His bruises were ugly, and the stitches on the inside of his leg were an angry red. I knelt in front of him.

“No. I want to?—”

“Shut up.” I tugged his cock and brought the head to my lips. “What part of not telling me what to do didn’t you hear?”

His only response was a moan as I took him into my mouth and started working him. Wrapping my hair around his fist, he guided me up and down, almost, but not quite too deep. I wrapped tight fingers around the base of his shaft, following the movement of my mouth.

“Holy fuck, Tiger.”

Cupping his balls, I gave them a light tug as I moaned around his cock. I could see his abs and thighs tensing and backed off. How would we explain to the emergency room nurse that he’d ripped the stitches he’d just gotten?

Pulling my hair, he stopped me. “Stand up, Tiger. I need to come inside you.” He lifted me as if I weighed nothing. He was not as injured as I’d thought.

Wrapping my legs around him, I raked my teeth over the stubble on his neck and clawed at his back. He was mine, and I intended to mark him.

Setting me down, he spun me to face the table and pushed me over in that dominating way that turned me on. I palmed the wood and flattened myself against the cool surface, waiting for him to impale me with Rex. Instead, his tongue licked the length of my folds before returning to my clit.

He forced my legs wider, alternating between fingering and licking me in ways that built a white-hot fire within me.

Then he stood and speared me deep with one long thrust, giving me the fullness I craved. “You’re so fucking wet for me, baby.” He began rapid, forceful thrusts, filling me to my limit. “Baby, you feel so fucking good.”

I craned my neck to look back at him. “I’m wet every time I think of you, Cobra.” Yes, taking me like this, he was my deadly Cobra, my man, my SEAL.

He pushed me against the table with one hand and gripped my hips with the other, powering into me at an increasing pace. In mere minutes, I came apart, a toe-curling orgasm shuddering through me as I cried out his name.

“Fuck, baby,” he roared as he shoved deep and held.

I felt the pulses of his release inside me as his climax rolled over him.

Panting loudly, he leaned over my back. “You and me, Tiger, you and me.”

Later that night, I panted all over again, my heart still pounding from my latest orgasm. I rolled over in the sheets and closed my eyes to enjoy the post-orgasmic bliss.

Our first make-up sex had been raw and feral, the second session energetic, and the third this evening had been slow, languid lovemaking—all of them equally satisfying.

“I have something for you,” he said as he gently cleaned me with a warm washcloth.

I opened my eyes and gasped.

He held open a box with a gorgeous emerald earring and necklace set. “I want you to wear these.”

I levered myself up. “They’re beautiful.”

“To match your eyes. You have to wear them. The necklace has a tracker to keep you safe. Just in case.”

I recoiled. “Didn’t we just have this discussion? You can’t tell me what to do.”

He tensed for a second, then blew out a breath. “I’d like it,” he drawled, “if you’d wear it. I’d feel better knowing you were safe.”

I cocked my head. “I’ll think about it.” I liked being Duke Hawk’s woman, but that didn’t include wearing an electronic leash.

He broke the awkward silence. “Lucas tells me you picked the door lock and almost got away.”

I nodded.

“That’s pretty badass. How’d you learn that?”

“From the master chief Dad hired after I was kidnapped.”

Duke was the first person I’d ever used the kidnap word with.

“Hmm... I’ll have to thank him someday for taking care of you.”

“I think you’d like him. He’s no nonsense.”