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“Damn, you look like an angel.”
She turned around, feeling the skirt of the gown as it flared around her feet, to stare back at Hawke in surprise.
His voice had been pitched low, dark with longing, with an element of need that seemed to cascade through her system.
Dressed in dark jeans, black shirt and boots, with his hair still damp from the shower and brushed back, he looked like a dark angel himself. Sensual, sexual and wicked. A being so erotic that he made grown women melt in shameless hunger.
She had seen that melting more than once. Breeds and non-Breeds alike, women took one look at Hawke’s roughly handsome face, corded muscular body and deep golden eyes, and they wept in need.
“You look damn fine yourself.” She smiled, suddenly nervous, feeling her palms dampen as a surge of sensation seemed to erupt between her thighs.
Wow. The hormonal treatment Dr. Armani had worked up for her evidently didn’t do the job the way it should. One look at Hawke and every feminine hormone in her body went nuts. It was a chaotic mixture of arousal, trepidation and pure excitement.
She couldn’t blame it all on the mating heat. She’d felt this way before he’d ever touched her, before he’d ever kissed her.
She’d talked to Dr. Armani in depth over the past year about mating heat, and she was beginning to wonder if the heat wasn’t just an advanced arousal. An advanced tie. If nature hadn’t simply ensured that those who fell in love were pushed together faster, held together more firmly, to guarantee the survival of this species.
“Ready?” He held his hand out to her. A large, capable, strong hand. Calloused and dark, as though his entire body was permanently tanned.
Jessica moved to him slowly, let him envelop her hand in his and draw her to the bedroom door.
“Did you put the presents in the Rover?” she asked, trying to tone down the nervousness. She hadn’t been to a party in years. Not since her father had finally stopped forcing her to attend the boring little functions he and his friends had staged several times a year.
“The presents are in the Rover,” he promised her. “The breads and desserts are packed snugly in the backseat alongside them.”
“Good.” She swallowed tightly as they moved down the natural wood stairs to the foyer. “You’re certain I should go?”
She wasn’t so certain. She was known as a traitor, no matter the reason. How could any of the Breeds trust her now?
“I’m absolutely certain you should go.” He drew to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, collected the long dark blue and black cloak that went with her dress and drew it over her shoulders. “You’re worrying too much, Jess. Everything is going to be fine.”
“Easy for you to say.” She licked her lips before raking the lower one with her teeth and staring up at him as worry began to tighten her chest. “I couldn’t blame anyone for not wanting me there, Hawke. You didn’t force this, did you?”
The faint smile at his lips was chastising, and just a bit amused. “I can’t force something like this, mate,” he promised her. “If Wolfe didn’t trust you to be there, then you wouldn’t be.”
That was true. She inhaled tightly before straightening her shoulders and forcing in courage for the evening ahead.
She knew Hope, Wolfe’s mate. Just as she knew Faith and Charity, the mates of his closest friends. She also knew Amanda Bear, a former president’s daughter and mate to a Coyote Breed. She’d met Anya Delgado several times, mate to the Coyote Breed alpha. She knew the mates of those who were influential in this world. She had thought they might even be friends.
“You’re worrying too much,” he promised her as they left the house and stepped into the cold night air.
Hawke held on to her as he moved her quickly to the Rover, helped her in and then loped around to the driver’s side. Jessica kept her fingers laced tightly together and held in her lap.
She knew Hawke could sense her nervousness; it wasn’t something she could help. She had always been denied acceptance until she had come here two years ago. During the year she had spent working with the Breeds she had thought she had begun to find that acceptance. Until she had unwillingly, unwittingly, given her father the information he had needed to attack Haven in the worst ways. She had given the location of the alpha’s home, as well as the homes of his second-in-command and his head of security. Locations that were kept hidden for a reason: because their lives were in such danger.
The drive to the entrance of the community center was quick. Hawke drew the Rover to a stop at the large double doors where a young Breed stepped outside and moved to the driver’s side as Hawke stepped out of the vehicle and walked quickly to Jessica’s door.
She took his h
and, allowing him to help her to the paved entrance and draw her inside.
The upper, aboveground portion of the community center was filled with large rooms, a kitchen and various work centers. Belowground, reinforced and nearly impenetrable, was the huge open gathering area.
Joining ceremonies, as marriages were called in the Breed society, were often held there. It was there that mates were rushed if Haven was attacked, and this was where various dignitaries were brought for meetings.
Hawke guided her into a large elevator and keyed in his security code. Instantly the doors closed and they were whisked several floors belowground where they were deposited into a wide hallway where both human and Breed guests were loitering. Several journalists were in attendance, though no photographers were allowed. Breeds highly valued their privacy, no matter their Feline or Canine designations.
“You’re almost shaking,” Hawke accused her softly.
