Page 59 of Wife Number One

That didn’t mean I didn’t owe the man an apology.

I really had broken his nose. Twice. While Hawk was clearly not a good man, he’d been the one to stitch me up and keep me from getting an infection. At the time, I’d been in shock, and too traumatized to recognize that he’d gone out of his way to help me, and I’d done nothing but be ungrateful in return.

It was something I needed to remedy before I could move on.

Another piece of my past that had to be laid to rest so I could start healing from the traumas I’d experienced.

Hawk had never hurt me.

He was one of the men who’d tried to put me back together, and for that, I owed him an apology and a thank you.

I stood, my legs trembling slightly beneath my weight, my body remembering the feral way he’d shouted at me. I took a few steps toward the closed bedroom door.

“Oh God, I can’t watch,” Rebel said behind me. “It’s like a lamb being taken to slaughter.”

I glanced back at her. “I’m fine. Please, can you go watch Hayley Jade? I know how big this compound is and I don’t want her wandering off.”

Rebel clearly wasn’t happy about leaving me alone with the lion, but she nodded and left the clubhouse.

There was nobody else inside. The room was quiet, apart from the sound of my too-fast breathing.

I forced my feet to take me to the door. I knocked quietly.

“Get in here,” Hawk called out.

I twisted the doorknob and pushed open the door. “Hawk, I…”

A rush of something foreign shook my body like an earthquake, the foreign feeling springing to life low in my belly and spearing through every part of me.

My arms, my legs, my chest.

Other places that were sinful to think about.

Hawk was laid out on his bed, eyes closed, his shirt pulled up to reveal tawny, well-defined abs. The waistband of his jeans was around his knees, his thick thighs bare but for the light cover of dark hair on his skin.

They were observations that barely registered when the main show was his…member. He had it in his hand, hard and proud, the tip glistening as he jerked it.

“Quit fucking standing there, Amber. Get back here and on your knees.”

I didn’t say anything.

Couldn’t make a sound.

Couldn’t move my feet.

Blood rushed around my body in a crazy and unsettling flood of feeling, heat rising in my cheeks and up the back of my neck in embarrassment.

And yet I still didn’t budge.

Hawk opened his eyes.

Then narrowed them. “What the fuck do you want, Little Mouse?”

He didn’t try to cover up his erection. He paused his movements but didn’t unwrap his fingers from his shaft. The tip of him throbbed, tiny beads of moisture spilling over the top.

He stared at me.

I stared at him, unable to move, breathe, or even think, let alone talk.

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