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Breakfast with Hawke wasn’t stilted, nor did she feel the old anger rising inside her that she had experienced over the past year.
They ate a simple meal. Eggs, lots of bacon for Hawke, toast and her beloved caffeine-rich coffee. After the dishes were cleared away, he helped her into her coat and they left the house.
There were Breeds with shovels clearing driveways around the compound. Others were stringing more lights. There was always something going on at Haven and there were always willing hands to help.
There was never trash on the grounds, there was never disorderliness. The Breeds were oftentimes much neater than their human cousins, and had a much greater sense of cleanliness.
The frigid winter morning was held at bay by the thermal lining of her coat, and if that hadn’t kept her warm there was always Hawke’s arm around her waist as he escorted her to the waiting Range Rover, which had been started with the remote ignition from the house.
Helping her into the all-terrain vehicle, Hawke closed the door before loping to the driver’s side and sliding behind the wheel.
She noticed he wasn’t wearing a coat. Thin leather gloves covered his hands, but other than that he wore only jeans, boots and a dark blue flannel shirt with a T-shirt beneath it.
Breeds didn’t get as cold as easily as their human cousins either, she thought with a twinge of envy.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he shifted the vehicle into reverse to turn around and head out of the driveway onto the main thoroughfare that led through the Wolf Breed Compound.
“I’ll show you.” He flashed her a wicked grin before moving one hand from the steering wheel to grip her hand where it lay on her thigh.
Jessica stared at his leather-gloved fingers as they covered hers and wondered at the warmth that she could feel through the gloves.
It shouldn’t be like this, she thought. After a year without him, a year confined to a cool, boring little cell where she hadn’t seen him, hadn’t heard from him, it sho
uldn’t be like this. She shouldn’t feel these emotions shifting through her, racing in her bloodstream and heating her pussy like an internal fire she couldn’t put out.
“You could just tell me.” Her heart was beating hard in her chest and she had no doubt he could scent the arousal burning inside her.
“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a surprise.” There was that smile again. A crooked upturn of his lips, his golden eyes filled with promise.
She was reminded of those days before the attack on Haven over a year ago, when he would tease her with surprise lunches in the small park behind the communications shed, or with sweets to tease her taste buds.
She hadn’t realized at the time that he had been courting her, and now she wondered how she could have missed it.
“Close your eyes for me.”
She turned to stare at him in surprise as he made the sudden request.
“Close my eyes?” She was actually starting to have fun. “Why?”
“So I can have my way with you?” He waggled his brows suggestively before chuckling, the sound a dark, erotic stroke against her senses. “Just close your eyes, Jess. I promise, you’ll like this.”
She closed her eyes. She resisted the urge to peek, because she loved surprises. She always had.
“What are you up to, Hawke?” she asked again as she felt the Range Rover make several turns. While she had once been pretty certain that she knew where they were, now she wasn’t so sure.
“Just a few more minutes,” he urged her.
With her eyes closed it seemed she could hear a more subtle nuance in his voice. Almost a sense of nervousness. She had to be hearing wrong, she decided. Hawke was never nervous. He was always confident and in charge, never anything less.
“I’ve been working on something over the past year.” He finally cleared his throat as the Rover began to slow down. “While you were confined, when I had spare time, there was something I wanted, something I needed, to do.”
The Rover came to a stop.
“Hawke?” She whispered his name breathlessly.
“Not yet.” His fingers touched her eyes with the utmost gentleness. “I knew you were my mate, Jess. I know it’s hard to forgive me for staying away. I know you’ve been angry, and I don’t blame you.”
She parted her lips to speak, but his fingertips landed on them.
