Melissa wraps her arms around him, holding him in place, listening as their breathing slowly returns to normal. Hawk pulls away slightly so that he can look at her appreciatively. “I wanted to have you on top of this car from the second you walked in here.” His voice is husky, as if he’s just woken up, and that’s exactly how Melissa feels, like in the days that they had been apart she had been sleeping and only now was she fully awake again.
She smiles sexily at him, running her fingers along his stubbly jaw and just admiring the gorgeousness of him, and then her face turns serious. “I never meant to hurt you, Hawk. The thing with the article—that started before I’d even met you. And then when I got to know you, it was like everything else seemed less important. I didn’t tell you about being a reporter because I didn’t want you to look at me differently, for you to feel differently about me.” She looks down, suddenly nervous despite the intimacy that they’d just shared. “I don’t know how to make it right.”
Hawk hooks his finger underneath her chin and lifts it up so that she meets his eyes. “Promise me that you won’t lie to me again. Ever.”
Melissa swallows hard, knowing that she’s promising something huge. But it’s something that Hawk desperately needs. He’s been let down so many times and has had so few people in his life that he could trust. She wants to be one of those few people again. “I promise.”
A slow smile spreads across his lips. “Then we’re good.” He says the three words so simply that an outside observer could have been fooled into thinking that they weren’t significant. The truth was that there was a whole world in that phrase.
Unable to stop herself, Melissa throws her arms around Hawk’s neck and kisses him deeply, transmitting with her mouth all the things that she wants to say. “You don’t know how good it is to hear you say that.”
“I think I do.” He smiles broadly at her, and then his face turns serious. “What about you? Can you forgive me for the way I treated you? I was being an asshole, a hurt, jealous asshole.” Hawk shakes his head, reflecting on how he acted.
“I think I could see my way clear to give you a free pass.” Melissa looks up at the ceiling, as if she’s thinking something over. “But you may have to work a little harder with Ali; she was ready to hang, draw, and quarter you last night.”
“She’ll have to get in line behind Felicia.” He rolls his eyes dramatically and laughs lightly, his eyes soft. “But I’ll try to work my magic on Ali.” He shifts slightly between her legs. “Now, much as this was fun, I think I’d like to do it again in a bed, where there’s less chance of someone walking in.”
Melissa blinks as if she’s suddenly realized where they were and the fact that anyone could have turned up when they were in the middle of it. She flushes at the thought, but she can’t deny that it’s a turn on. That’s when she remembers that it wasn’t just Josh that could have walked in on them. Wes could have as well and that would be worse in so many ways, bringing her to the reason that she came there in the first place.
“There’s something I have to tell you. It’s about Wes.” Melissa feels Hawk’s body stiffen at her words, and she can read his expression perfectly. “Nothing like that.” She waves away the thought that she knows was the first to occur to him. “It’s worse.”
Hawk looks at her, his eyes hardening. “Tell me.”
“The exposé that The Tribune wanted me to write about the Kings…well, it turns out my editor didn’t just send me to infiltrate the club.” Melissa gives Hawk a meaningful look and watches as he connects the dots.
“Wes.” He says the name as if the other man were a sworn enemy, which at this point probably wasn’t completely incorrect.
Melissa nods slowly, gauging Hawk’s reaction and setting a calming hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know how much information he has, but he’s persistent.” She bites her lip, still feeling like she’s part of the problem for the Kings, and she wishes yet again that she had never agreed to write the article. But if she’d done that, then she would never have met Hawk. And that wasn’t even worth thinking about. “What do we do?”
Wes’s expression is one of determination as he pulls away from her slowly and starts dressing. “We call a meeting.”
Melissa follows suit, grabbing her bra and shirt, wishing that Hawk pulling away from her hadn’t made her feel so bereft. “Of the Kings?” Her voice comes out more like a squeak. “If you do that, you know what’ll happen to him, what they’ll do to him.” She plants her hands on her hips, looking at him in shock.
Hawk gives her a look, as if to say that he couldn’t care less what the motorcycle club decides to do with Wes, but he just shakes his head. “We can’t go to the club with this, not yet, not until I know I can keep you out of it.” Melissa swallows hard, as she realizes that although she’s come clean with Hawk and Josh, the club would have more than a few choice words to say to her if they knew she had been planning to write an article on them. She was still very much involved in all of this. Hawk pulls his cell out of his pocket, turning away from her and speaking low into the phone. Just as abruptly, he shoves the iPhone back into his pocket and reaches out to take her hand.
“What’s happening? Who was that?” Melissa takes his hand and lets him lead her towards the front door.
“Josh. We’re meeting him somewhere safe.” Hawk gives her a meaningful look.
“Here isn’t safe?” She can’t help but look around, as if she expects someone to jump out at her.
Hawk lowers his voice and pulls her towards him, speaking in her ear. “Not if the person we’re talking about has a key. We don’t know what he’s planted in here so, for now, we don’t say anything in The Shop that we don’t expect someone else to hear.” He pulls back and looks at her to make sure that she’s understood.
Melissa nods slowly, poised to tell him that Wes wouldn’t bug the body shop, that he wouldn’t know how to, and that apart from that it was unethical and Wes wouldn’t do something so underhand. But if her conversation with her ex from the night before had taught her anything, it was that she clearly didn’t know him anywhere near as well as she thought she did.
“Good. Let’s go.” Hawk locks up behind them and leads her towards his bike, all without letting go of her hand at any point. “And for the record, whatever Wes has planned for the club, it can’t be any worse than me thinking he would do something to you.”
Hawk doesn’t give Melissa a chance to respond, handing her the helmet, which she takes wordlessly. It’s only when they’re riding through the streets that she realizes the significance of what Hawk has just said to her.