A Christmas Kiss

TEN

Hawke could smell the lies coming off Jessica in waves. The desperation to make Todd Bennett believe her went clear to her soul. She sounded convincing, and when he snuck a brief look at her face, she looked convincing. His Jess was playing the role of her life and fighting to give him a chance to get his bearings.

The animal inside him was slowly coming awake. He could feel his senses sharpening, his strength returning. His unique Breed genetics were slowly pushing past the barrier that had clouded his mind.

What the fuck had happened? He felt like he had been hit by a two-by-four, but he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell anyone could have slipped up on him that easily.

“I can’t believe whoever gave you the order to try anything this insane,” Jessica continued with a disgusted sigh. “Really, Todd. Didn’t your little attempted assassin inform your group how many times I’ve been out in that forest trying to escape this place?”

There was a moment of silence.

“The group doesn’t know about that,” Todd finally admitted. “I was the one shooting at you.”

“Father would have had you killed if he were still alive,” she spat back at him. “Even he knew not to attempt to kill me. He knew what I was trying to do, he just didn’t agree with it. Do you think he would have risked drugging me if I had been truly totally against it? The drug was only there to give me a plausible escape, not because the damned thing actually worked. Use your brain for a change.”

Hawke felt her move away from the tree as he opened his eyes just enough to focus, to see if his vision had fully returned yet.

The first thing he saw was the porcelain figure on the floor, one tiny crystal wing lying in fragments against the hardwood.

He had to grit his teeth to keep from growling in fury. That had been his first gift to her, a reflection of what he saw in her. His angel. The beauty that could tame the beast inside him.

Todd Bennett was a dead man walking.

“I wish I could believe you, Jessica.” Todd’s voice was filled with regret, with hope. “The story is good, I’ll give that to you. It’s enough to make me want to believe.”

“Then kill me,” she laughed. “Go ahead, Todd. Make the worst mistake of your life. Because when you do, Uncle Craig will reach out from prison and snap your skinny little neck.”

Craig Raines. His arrest had been made so quietly that it hadn’t even hit the papers. Only a few people could have known of his arrest. Jess knew, because she had given the Breeds the information that her uncle and her father both had ties to the pure blood groups.

Hawke felt Todd pause then.

“Craig wasn’t caught,” he said, but Hawke could hear the fear in his voice then.

“Don’t be a fool,” Jessica snapped, and though the tone of her voice was confident, he could feel her fear increase. “Craig was the mastermind behind the plot to kill the Breeds at the Christmas party in Advert just before my release. He was also my contact.”

Hawke was almost ready to move. He could feel his muscles unlocking, adrenaline coursing through his body as he tensed to attack. Just another few seconds. If Jess could just hold on a little longer, distract Todd just a bit more . . .

“I can’t take the chance,” Todd said softly, his voice now filled with regret. “I’m sorry, Jess. I just can’t take a chance on you.”

He was going to kill her.

Jess watched as Todd lifted the weapon, aiming it to her stomach. Damn, that was going to hurt. He was going to make sure that he punished her, whether he believed it or not.

“Uncle Craig will have you skinned alive for this,” she snapped.

“Like the Breeds, Craig will have to figure out who did it first,” he informed her, his smile tight and hard. “Unlike some who are in the society, Jess, I believe that sometimes we have to take every opportunity we’re given to destroy the Breeds. You’re his mate. Alive, you still serve a purpose to the Breeds. Dead, you destroy him.”

His arm stiffened.

Jess threw herself across the room, diving for the floor, thankful that at least he was shooting at her, not at Hawke. At the same time, a vicious, enraged howl filled the house.

The whine of the silenced weapon could be heard a second before his screams. A second before the sound of chaos tore through the room.

Stumbling to her feet, she rushed for her purse, her head lifting as she stumbled on the mattress, her eyes widening at the sight that met her eyes.

Animalistic, primal. Hawke had Todd’s neck in the powerful grip of his hand as he shook him. The weapon had fallen to the floor and Todd stared back in horror at the vision of Breed rage.

Hawke’s lips were drawn back from his teeth, his canine’s flashing in the low glow of the tree lights. A howl tore from his lips again as Breed enforcers rushed into the room. Leading them was none other than Wolfe, his expression a mask of fury. Hawke shook Todd again before throwing him against the wall and burying his fist in the other man’s gut.

The air expelled from Todd’s lungs with a gasp. As Hawke stepped back, he crumpled to the floor, gasping, short cries tearing from his throat as he tried to crawl away.

“Hawke.” She moved to him, her hand lifting, shaking, as tears began to fall from her eyes.

He turned on her then. Golden eyes flamed with his rage and a sob shook her entire body. He had heard everything. He had heard her speak of betraying him, of betraying him further. He had heard the lies she told to distract Todd, lies that would be her death sentence now.

“My mate,” he snarled, suddenly jerking her to him, shocking her with the force of his hold and the snarled demand in his voice.

“Hawke.” She whispered his name through her tears as one hand wrapped around the back of her neck, the other gripping her hip as he jerked her closer.

“My mate,” he growled again. “Always mine.”

Before she could affirm or deny, his head lowered, his lips covered hers and his tongue pushed forcefully between her lips.

Immediately the taste of the mating hormone exploded through her senses. It was richer, spicier than ever before. She could feel the burn almost immediately, the explosion of sensation, hunger and need that lashed through her body and drove her to claw at his chest to get closer.

As though the threat of death had pushed him past reason, he kissed her with a desperation she had never known before, a desperation she returned. Their tongues twined, mated, fought and surrendered in a dance as old as time.

When he managed to jerk back she could only sway against him, dazed and uncertain, as she heard the men behind her, heard Todd’s frightened cries, his breathless accusations against her. The details of the plan she had given him, the plan that had never existed.

“Get that bastard out of my mate’s home.” Hawke turned to Wolfe as Jess struggled to turn in his arms. “I want him dead.”

“Quietly,” Wolfe stated, his dark eyes going between Hawke and Jessica. “He’s bringing some serious charges against Jess already, Hawke,” he warned.

“Lies.” His arm tightened around Jess. “The bastard thought I was senseless from the drug he slipped me at the party. He didn’t give me near enough. I was weak, not unconscious. He lies. He bragged of his part in betraying the Breeds and his connections to the pure blood society that attacked in Advert before Jess’s release. I want him taken care of, Wolfe. Permanently. He knows Jess is my mate. He’s been deceitful enough that he’s put together the information on mating. He’s a risk we can’t afford.”

Wolfe stared back at him for long seconds as Jess watched and fought to catch her breath. She felt as though she were falling, as though the strength had seeped from her limbs the moment she realized Todd was pulling the trigger.

“He’ll be taken care of.” Wolfe nodded before turning back to the Breeds that had restrained Todd. “Take care of it, Jacob,” he ordered his second-in-command. “Quietly.”

Todd would never be heard from again.

She watched as he was dragged from the room, kicking, screaming, begging for mercy.

There would be no mercy, she knew. If he hadn’t tried to kill Hawke, if he hadn’t admitted to being a part of drugging her, of attacking Haven, then he might have had a chance of escaping Breed law.

“I’ll need your report in the morning.” Wolfe turned back to them.

“How did you know?” Jess finally found her voice, her brain. “How did you know to be here?”

Wolfe turned his gaze back to her, his eyes penetrating, as though he could see clear to her soul.

“It’s a tradition,” he told her. “We came to hang a wreath on your door, to welcome your union into the pack. That was when we heard your screams and Hawke’s howls.”

A tradition of acceptance. Her lips parted as emotion swamped her and the events of the day began to clash inside her.

“Hawke, I expect your verbal report tomorrow after you turn in the written report,” Wolfe informed him. “Until then, I’ll clear your house out and leave you with your mate.”

She could still hear Todd screaming outside. It was muted, distant, but the sound struck at her heart and left her shaking on the inside.

He had been a friend. Tonight he had toasted to her union with Hawke; he had smiled and wished her every happiness. Hours later, he had tried to kill her.

The door closed behind Wolfe and his enforcers, leaving them alone as Jess moved, pushed herself from Hawke’s embrace and went to the tree.

Kneeling on the floor, she picked up the figurine that had fallen and touched her broken wing carefully.

“She can’t be fixed,” Jess whispered as another tear slipped down her cheek.

Taking the figure from her, Hawke wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her against him. She watched, silent, as he hung the ornament again, the broken wing sending fragments of light glittering around it.

“She doesn’t need to be fixed.” Hawke’s voice was soft, his breath feathering along her temple as she stared at the wing. “She’ll always remind us of what we survived, Jess.”

She bit her lip and tried not to cry.

“I was lying,” she finally bit out desperately, another sob tearing from her chest. “What I told Todd . . .”

Hawke swung her around, his finger pressing to her lips as she saw the surprising crooked grin on his lips.

“Breeds can smell a lie, mate. Have you forgotten that?”

Her lips parted. Yes, she had forgotten that. In the fear and the confusion, she had forgotten that Breeds could smell a lie.

“You knew?” Her breathing hitched as happiness seemed to flood her. “You knew I was lying?”

“I knew you were fighting to hold on until I could get my bearings.” He touched a tear on her cheek, wiped it away. “I knew you were saving both our lives the only way you could, baby. You didn’t hurt me. I never once believed otherwise.”

ould he love anyone more than he loved her at that moment, Hawke wondered. Pure joy lit up her gaze; sweet heat and unconditional love filled the air around them. She was indeed a mate he could be proud of. One he knew would always walk at his side.

Turning, he lifted her in his arms and bore her back to the mattress.

“I believe we were in the middle of something when that bastard disturbed us,” he stated as he came over her, her arms wrapping around his neck as her lips curved into a tempting, loving smile.

“We weren’t exactly in the middle,” she shot back saucily. “I believe we were just getting started. Don’t go missing steps there, mate.”

He had to laugh at her. She’d always been able to make him smile, make him laugh. She had always lightened his heart even as she hardened his dick.

“I love you, Jess,” he growled, the man and the animal speaking, the primal need and emotion that erupted inside him impossible to contain.

“I love you, Hawke Esteban. With everything I am, I love you.”

His lips covered hers then. Deep, sipping kisses kept them both drugged as they fought with their clothes, pulling them from each other, tossing them to the side, baring their flesh to the stroke and caress of the other.

Her hands roved over his back, her nails rasping over his flesh as she arched against him, urging him with little moans and cries for the possession he couldn’t hold back.

He had nearly lost her. So easily, she could have been taken away from him tonight. How the hell was he supposed to live if he ever lost his Jess? Not just his mate, but his woman, his lover. She was a part of his soul that he knew he never wanted to be free of.

Sliding his hand along her side, he reached the ripe curve of her breast. He cupped the mound in his palm and lifted it, rolled his thumb over the distended peak of her nipple before lowering his head to taste it.

Drawing the tight little nub into his mouth, he suckled at her as though he was dying for the taste of her. Actually, he had been dying before he tasted her. Frozen on the inside, locked in a loneliness he couldn’t bear. For a year he had fought to prove her innocence, fought for her release. And now she was here, in his arms, touching him, arching to him as he touched her.

He moved down her body and relished each broken cry of pleasure as he fought the heated, slick folds of her pussy. Starving for the taste of her, for the heat of her, he licked through the narrow cleft, moaned at the slick essence of her and devoured her. With lips, tongue and sucking little kisses, he teased and tormented her silken flesh. Tasted her until there was no doubt in his mind that he could ever live without her, then drew in the tight little knot of her clit and sucked it, flicking his tongue over it until she erupted in pleasure.

And it wasn’t enough. He could never get enough of her.

He pressed her thighs farther apart, lifted her knees and opened her farther to his gaze.

Soft pink flesh parted, revealing the snug little entrance he sought. Tucking the head of his cock against the fluttering, clenching entrance to her snug pussy, he shifted his hips, moved, penetrated until the crest was pressed firmly inside her.

Tiny eruptions of the pre-seminal fluid jetted from the tip of his cock, filling her, easing the tender, delicate muscles, allowing her to take him without pain, without distress. It increased her pleasure while adding to her natural lubrication and allowing the wide width of his shaft to sink inside her.

Hawke watched as he took her, listened to her excited little cries and knew he wasn’t going to last long. His balls had drawn up tight to the base of his cock, a sure indication that his release was only a few strokes away.

Tunneling inside her slowly, working his way in by small degrees, he grimaced at the building rapture surging through his body.

Sweet and so hot. Her pussy wrapped around his cock like the tightest, most silken glove. Each stroke of her intimate flesh against the crest and shaft of his erection was torturous ecstasy. Sizzling fingers of electric current wrapped around his balls, stroked along his cock and had him gritting his teeth to hold back until he was firmly seated inside her.

Lifting his head, Hawke stared into her lovely face. She was flushed, perspiration standing out on her forehead as the tracks of her tears dampened her cheeks.

“My precious Jess,” he whispered, leaning closer, pressing himself deeper inside her and moved to steal a kiss. “My beloved Jess.”

“My heart.” She sobbed against his lip, and he lost it.

The hitched, breathless quality of her voice tore through him. The devotion, the love in her soft whisper, destroyed him.

Groaning her name, he began to thrust inside her. Heavy, probing thrusts that worked inside her, stroking him past pleasure, past ecstasy. He was surging through sensations that he didn’t have time to make sense of, sensations he had never known before.

His mate. His woman.

She cried out his name and his thrusts increased and he shafted inside her as he held her hip with one hand and braced himself above her on an elbow. His lips moved over her jaw, her neck.

He could feel the intensity rising inside her as well. Her orgasm was coming closer, the sweet scent of it was wrapping around him, urging him to take her fast, to fuck inside her harder. Nothing mattered but taking her, marking her, blending their scents until they were one, until they were bound so irrevocably that they could never be parted.

Gasping moans fell from her lips as his kiss moved to her neck, her shoulder. So close. She was tightening around him. Her legs lifted, wrapped around his hips, her pussy tightened, the muscles convulsing around his thrusting cock.

One thrust. Two. And she exploded. He felt it. Like an eruption of fire clenching around his dick she clamped on him as she cried out his name.

Hawke felt his own release follow hers. His teeth locked in her shoulder, the mark of their mating, as he thrust inside her again and let sensation tear through him.

A growl tore from his throat as he felt his semen jetting from him, filling her. The fierce swelling in the center of his cock locked him inside her, creating another pleasure, another violent edge of sensation that rocked them both.

Hawke fought to hold on to just enough of his senses to relish this, to memorize it, to know every emotion, every sensation that erupted around him. His and hers. Her pleasure, rising so hard and swift she lost her own senses. Her screams of ecstasy, his growls. The lick of fire across his flesh, the feel of her teeth in his shoulder.

Shock almost tore away that last edge of control. She was biting him as he bit her. Two little canines pierced his flesh and she held on for dear life, just as he held on to her.

Held on until the last pulses of pure rapture tore through their bodies then left them to float back to Earth on a peaceful, comforting cloud.

They were fighting for breath. Holding on to each other like the survivors of a storm. Sweat damped their bodies, their hearts raced and Hawke could feel her, heart and soul, wrapping around him.

Lifting his head from her shoulder, he opened his eyes and stared down at her. She was lax beneath him, her breasts rising and falling with hard breaths as her lashes fluttered open.

“You’re my soul, Jess,” he stated simply. He knew no other way to say it. “I lose you, I lose all that I am.”

Her hand lifted, touched his cheek, before her finger fluttered over his lips.

“You’re every breath I take, Hawke,” she said, her voice drowsy but echoing with such love that he felt humbled. “Every breath I take, you’re a part of it.”

They were a part of each other.

Moving to her side, he dragged her coat over them for warmth, pulled her against his chest and let himself believe.

It was Christmas morning, and he held his gift in his arms.

Looking at the angel with the broken wing, he knew that next year there would be another. A perfect one to represent her perfect love. But this one was even more precious for the wing that had been shattered. This one had survived. Just as his own angel had. Survived and still retained its beauty and the essence of what it was meant to be. A reflection of love. Not always perfect, not without trials. But always there, surviving and enduring.

Just as his Jess had survived, endured and loved.

His own Christmas Angel, and he held her in his arms, knew her taste, the feel of her heartbeat, the touch of her body against his.

A true gift from the heavens. His Jess.

His mate.

Always.