Chapter Fourteen

Kathryn

Kathryn slowly opened her eyes, feeling fuzzy in her brain. She rolled her eyes. She hadn’t gotten drunk the night before, but she always felt this way after drinking champagne. She wondered why she had had champagne, then she remembered Hawk had insisted that they order it with dinner for some reason. She was already spending enough money on her miniature vacation that she hadn’t thought champagne would add too much to the tab, but when he insisted that he pay for it, she hadn’t argued.

They’d ended up with three bottles before the night was out and had spent most of the night enjoying each other’s bodies. Kathryn rolled over on her side now, wondering how she was going to feel waking up with Hawk still in her bed.

But her heart fell.

She could see the place in his pillow where he had been lying, but he wasn’t there. The sheets had been thrown back on the bed as though he had just tossed them out of the way when he had gotten out of bed, and she wondered why she hadn’t woken up when he had. She didn’t feel that she had gotten too buzzed the night before, and thought she would have woken up easier.

If Hawk had wanted to slip out of the room unnoticed, then it was possible that he had deliberately tried to leave without waking her. Of course, in spite of herself, she couldn’t help but wonder why he would have left that way. She’d thought they were having a lot of fun together, and though she’d admitted to herself before she even began sleeping with him that she knew it wasn’t going to lead anywhere, she still felt a sting to find that he had left.

She leaned back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, wondering if she should send him a text message or just let it go. Kathryn wanted to think about her time in Las Vegas as a time for her to do what she wanted when she wanted and forget all about everything else. When she got back to New York, she could make some more permanent decisions, but right now, she was going to focus on having fun.

Hawk was known for being wild and free, and it was unlikely he was giving any more thought to what they were doing than he was giving thought to brushing his teeth in the morning. After all, Dana was the only woman on the planet who had managed to convince a Parker brother to marry her, and Kathryn knew it was unlikely any of the others would follow suit. Not that she’d been thinking of marrying Hawk. Whoa. Where had that thought come from?

Just as the disappointed feeling was starting to fade out of her chest, the door to the bathroom opened and Hawk walked back into the room. Kathryn sat up in surprise, looking at him with wide eyes. He had wet hair and a towel wrapped around his waist, and as he walked into the room he smiled at her.

“I didn’t think you would mind if I decided to take a dip in the shower. I mean, I could have gone to my room, but I didn’t want to walk that far.” He walked over to the bed and sat down, and she smiled. She wanted to ignore the pounding of her chest. She couldn’t believe that he was still in the room—that he had spent the full night and hadn’t run for shelter as soon as the light started to peer through the curtains.

“I don’t mind at all. Pretty sure the bill is the same either way. I just had the hotel soap and stuff though,” she said. He chuckled.

“That’s all I have in my room, too. I’ve got standards, but for this price I’m going to take full advantage of all that the room has to offer.” He gave her a look, but she seemed confused.

“Aren’t your brothers paying for the room while you’re down here? It’s strange if you had to pay for the penthouse suite when you didn’t want to come down here in the first place,” she said thoughtfully. He sat for a moment, looking like he was rubbing the fuzziness out of his own head.

“Technically, we’re all paying for it. It’s under the company name and card, and I am told that it belongs to all of us, or I wouldn’t be in this mess anyway,” he said. She laughed.

“It’s hardly a mess when you’re all getting equal and share in the assets,” Kathryn remarked.

“I was doing just fine without any of those assets before Dad died.” He spoke with a rather dry tone, and her face fell.

“What?” he asked, and she shrugged.

“I mean, I have all this debt that I am going to have to pay back. I would take any kind of assets, even if I did have to work for them,” she replied.

To her surprise, Hawk didn’t tease. “I’m sorry. I know you want a job with your dad and here I am with a job just handed to him and acting ungrateful. It doesn’t mean I want to have any part of the company anymore, but at the same time, I feel bad that I hate it so much with you in the situation she was in.”

Kathryn barely had time to absorb the fact that she was seeing actual thoughtfulness and empathy from Hawk, who once upon a time hadn’t known the meaning of those terms any more than she had, when he turned on the bed, allowed the towel to fall open, and revealed that he was naked. She knew that he was doing it on purpose to cheer her up, and she smiled at the gesture. She held her hand out to him.

“Why don’t you come back to bed? We’re on vacation, or at least I am. If you don’t have anything that you have to tend to right away, why don’t you enjoy a few more minutes with me before you have to go?” she asked. He smiled as he climbed on top of the bed heading for her, and she opened the blankets.

He stopped when he was just above her, however, and smiled down at her.

“Hey,” he said. She looked up at him with a small smile, and his own warm smile eased some of the anxiety that Kathryn was determinedly tamping down, refusing to consider ramifications until this vacation was over. “It’s all going to be okay. I promise.”

She nodded. “Of course it is. Things always work out for me, don’t they?”

***

Kathryn pulled on her dress and looked at herself critically in the mirror. Once again, she had spent most of the day with Hawk, only having to share him with anyone else when he was on the phone with Blake. He didn’t mention her being there, and she didn’t know if the other brothers knew that she was, or if Dana had kept the information to herself.

Of course, she was likely to have told Cole, and Cole loved to share everything with Blake. But then, what did it matter? Hawk had asked her if she would like to go with him to dinner, and she had agreed. He told her to put on something that she looked nice in, but that she could also move in.

Kathryn knew just how to dress when she was with Hawk. She wanted to look her best, but at the same time, she knew they wouldn’t be sitting around and doing nothing all night. No matter where they started for dinner, it was likely they were going to end up somewhere on the Strip doing something fun.

She liked that about Hawk. He wasn’t a boring date by any means, and no matter what they were going to call what they were doing right now, she could call him her date for the night—and as such, she knew they were going to have fun. When she finished putting on her makeup, she walked back out to the other room, smiling as Hawk adjusted his jacket in the mirror.

“You look good,” she said with a smile. He looked up with a bit of a surprised expression, as though he wasn’t used to receiving such compliments. She smiled warmly and walked over to her suitcase, pulling out her heels. She loved how strappy they were yet classy. She could make some major moves in those heels, and she figured if Hawk had his way, she was going to need them.

And she was right.

They started dinner on the north side of the Strip. She had always been very comfortable around Hawk, but for some reason, she felt nervous tonight. Everything she did—everything he said—she suddenly analyzed in her mind. Kathryn knew that it was a bad idea – she knew that he was very likely just being nice to her while he was trying to figure out what was going on with the company, but that didn’t change how she felt for him.

Next, they took their excursion to one of the large night clubs. They danced the night away, but Kathryn found it difficult to concentrate and have fun. She felt that she wanted to be closer to Hawk, not in a sexual way, but in a more intimate way. Though she felt that she knew him well already due to their history, she was having a difficult time feeling satisfied with how she knew him now. She wanted to have the chance to talk to him more, to get to know him better.

He had changed, and she wanted to know exactly how—and why. After only an hour at the night club, she told him she wanted to go to somewhere smaller.

“I’m sorry, there was just too much noise going on in there,” she said as they walked along the Strip, heading for a smaller bar. Hawk gave her a confused look, and she smiled, feeling as though he could see right into her very soul. She felt as though she was going to blush, and she fought as much as she could to keep from doing that.

“That’s not like you,” he said, and she nodded.

“I know it’s not, but I just wanted to do something a little quieter tonight. You know, after all we’ve been doing the past couple days, I felt that something a little more laidback might be better,” she smiled, but he looked concerned.

“If you would like to head back to the hotel room, I can let you get some sleep,” he said, but she was quick to shake her head.

“No, no, no, not at all! I don’t know, I was just thinking that we might have more fun if we were to go somewhere a little smaller—you know, we might get the chance to talk,” she said. She thought he would balk at the idea of talking about anything—he certainly would have years back—but instead, he slipped his hand into hers, and they walked together along the Strip. For the first time in as long as she could remember, Kathryn felt as though she was on top of the world.

She was pleased to be the one on his arm, and she felt that everyone who looked at them when they passed was jealous of what she had going on. A perfect figure, a perfect guy, and a perfect night. As much as she hated to admit it, she liked the feeling she was having in her heart. It was scaring the hell out of her, because it was a feeling she hadn’t felt in months or years, even.

She was falling in love, and she knew it.