Page 18 of Jumping In
“Taking you off-guard is fun.” Hawk grinned manically. “And I’m really good at it.”
Rolling his eyes, Clint said, “Stop gloating and explain yourself.”
“It’s simple, really.” Hawk shoved two pillows under his head, lay on his back, and pulled Clint on top of him. “I’m a political and managerial consultant based out of D.C. Or at least I was. Gabriel was a close friend of my father’s so when things were going south in his reelection campaign, he asked for my help. I came down here to get the lay of the land and I saw you.”
He combed his fingers through Clint’s hair. “You were at a softball game. Police versus firefighters. I couldn’t take my eyes off you. You were wearing a black Rolling Stones T-shirt that wasn’t tight but you’d been sweating so it was clinging to your chest. I watched you run the bases, joke around with your teammates, and then wave everyone off when they were going for beers, so I followed you.”
“We have a name for that, you know?”
“Falling in love?”
“The technical term is stalking.”
“Tomato, tomato,” Hawk said, pronouncing the word differently each time. “Anyway, you went to the veterinarian’s office to visit your dog.”
“Fluffy,” Clint said, remembering his frequent trips to the vet when his dog was near death. “She’d whelped her pups in a storage shed behind the strip mall off Fourth. A few high school kids set off firecrackers out there and one hit the brush outside the shed and caught the whole thing on fire. She kept going into the building to get her pups out, didn’t stop until every last one of them was safely away from the danger.”
“Brave dog.”
“She is.”
“The receptionist at the vet’s said they didn’t think she’d make it but you insisted they try to save her, footed all the bills, and came to visit her twice a day.” Hawk kissed Clint’s forehead. “I fell in love with you right then. Told Gabriel I was going to wrap up my projects in D.C., put my place on the market, and move here to be with you. He asked me to work for him and that brings us to today.”
“You changed your whole life because you saw me playing softball and have a soft spot for dogs?” Clint pushed himself up to a sitting position and dragged his fingers through his hair. “People don’t do that.”
“Well, I did.” Hawk curled his big hand around Clint’s thigh. “I’ve never felt that kind of pull. No way was I going to ignore it and miss out on something great.”
“I could have been dumb or mean or annoying or straight or—”
“You’re not any of those things.” Hawk sat up and brushed his lips over Clint’s. “You’re wonderful and getting to know you only made me fall harder.”
A part of Clint he didn’t know existed woke up with those words and a longing blossomed in his chest. His heart raced, his lungs burned, and he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to run away or snatch what Hawk was offering and guard it with every part of him.
“Mayor Martinez must have thought you’d lost your mind,” he said as he wondered the same thing about himself.
“Nah.” Hawk shook his head. “My dad did the same thing when he met my mom, so Gabriel knows the drill.”
“Your father met your mom and moved to New York?” Clint remembered Hawk saying he’d grown up there during one of their conversations. He also knew Hawk had a younger brother and two younger sisters, that his family was close, and that he’d had Golden Labs as a child.
“She moved to be with him, actually. My mother’s family is from New York. My father died when she was pregnant with me so she moved back there and remarried. Black’s my stepfather’s name. She gave me my father’s last name as my first name.”
“Your father’s last name was Hawk?”
“Hawk’s my nickname. My father was Bruce Hawthorne.” Hawk raised his hand and pointed around the room. “This was his house.”
“You’re a Hawthorne?” Clint asked incredulously. Not only had the Hawthorne family founded the town, but their charitable endowment still funded a lot of the organizations and they owned a good portion of the land. “I thought the family had all passed away.”
“All except for me.”
“How is it I didn’t know this?”
“Well, it didn’t strike me as important when we were getting to know each other.” Hawk moved his hand up Clint’s thigh to his groin and caressed his balls and shaft. “I hadn’t spent any time here so it doesn’t have anything to do with who I am, just what I own.”
“So on top of being gorgeous and smart, you had a powerful career and tons of money and you decided to move to Hawthorne, New Mexico, to take up with me?”
“Yup.” Hawk wrapped his hand around Clint’s dick. “Best decision I ever made.”
“You’re insane.”
