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This gives me the roo again, he has another thing co on the ht up to him, and raise up on my knees I poke hi childishly How about giving me a little empathy for what I just walked in on You and I had just mended fences not half an hour before You and I had just shared the greatest of intimacies not five minutes before And I walk in to find her hand in the waistband of your towel? Did you honestly expectless than outrage?"

Hawke is now the one who is taken aback He blinks at me in surprise while red creeps into his face as he realizes the truth of aze now harsh and conde, his on the defensive with ey, but instead he shakes his head His lips curve upward slightly and his eyes twinkle "Goddamn, but we make quite a couple, don’t you think?"

Now I blink at him for just one second of disbelief, and before I can helpfroo around each other He pulls , and kisses me on my shoulder When he pulls back, we look at each other with sparkling eyes and wonder over e’ve found here with each other again It’s old, for sure, but y precipice waiting for the land to just slide out from under you So much still to learn about each other

Hawke picks me up, rolls froet dressed and let o down and officially introduce you to Michelle You’ll like her"

I snort and he laughs again

"Seriously, you’ll like her She’s cool and she’s got absolutely no designs on et her to a hotel for the night and back to the airport toreatly, and I think to ask, "How did she know about me?"

"The tattoo of your name…on my hip She knew you were important to my history"

"You told her about us?" I ask incredulously

Hawke shakes his head "When she asked about who Vale was, I told her it wasn’t any of her business That’s how she knew you were important to me"

Chapter 21

Hawke

There never was a time in my life that I considered a reconciliation with Vale was possible She so thoroughly crushed , naive heart when she told me she didn’t love me anymore I had no choice but to believe her

Without love, there was no hope

Without love, caer

Without love--Vale’s in particular--I decided to concentrate on my career first and foremost Some would call me callous, and that may be true, but I put her out ofto reason with her It never crossed e herthat all has to do with stubborn pride, and I left her behind

It wasn’t intentional on my part, at least I don’t think, to stay away froression At first, I was caught up in the excite with the Titans Wo in so e forprofessional hockey, it’s not easy to foro one further It’s not easy to keep relationships either Case in point--Oliver I let that friendship go because I didn’t have the time to make it work It actually ardless of the way things worked out over time, it wasn’t until last hen she told me the truth about why she did what she did that I considered that Vale could be a , and I’o back to e used to have I wasn’t lying to Vale when I told her that I get why she did what she did If I was in her shoes, feeling abandoned byexperienced a tremendous physical and emotional loss, and then was tolda drastic decision to cut ive it

But it’s definitely not soet Vale has always been ruled by emotion; it’s one of the reasons I think her star shines so provocatively bright It’s what attracted me to her, because she was full of no-holds-barred passion But that is also dangerous It causes impulsive decisions at tiettable pain

But now is not the tiot s to worry about at this very moment

"I’ll see your fifteen cents, and raise you a quarter," I say with a challenging stare leveled at Vale over the top of my cards She raises her lovely eyebrows at me, purses her lips as if she’s shocked by rave consideration She’s so goddaht noant swipe the s with the cards, two cans of beer, and a bottled water, lay her up there with legs spread wide, and devour her

Nice thought and all, except I think it would be aith Max and Garrett in the rooular season away gaainst the Toronto Blazers Bruce Duvall has had Goose and Vale alternate away ga forward to when this poker gaet to see each other almost every day between either her duties with the Cold Fury, or the fact I’ve been fucking her alht for the past week since our "reconciliation," she’s usually jetting out ofto spend too much time away from Dave It’s not that he can’t stay alone, but she just doesn’t want hi ed her out I didn’t quite get that either, because Dave’s no idiot He knows I’h to knoe’re having sex It makes me wonder what hesitations Vale has about our new relationship