Chapter Seventeen

Hawk

“Whoa! Whoa! Wow. Wow,” Hawk gasped. He slapped Kathryn’s ass once more and pulled himself out of her, doing his best to keep his footing on the floor. He had her pressed up against the dresser, having climaxed hard inside her from behind. She, too, was gasping as he pulled out, and he could see his white load running down her leg, and though he wanted to apologize, he found it very satisfying.

Kathryn didn’t seem to mind. She grabbed a tissue and began cleaning up, and Hawk laughed as he started for the bathroom. The sex had started as it always did between them—slow at first, then faster and harder until they were both screaming each other’s names. He had thought the night before was going to be the last time he would be able to thrust his cock inside her, but that morning she had woken up just as horny as he was, and they’d indulged in their lust once more.

“I need to call a cab!” Kathryn called out as he closed the bathroom door. He knew she was going to be going to the airport soon, and he felt bad. It was so rough traveling on commercial airlines, especially being the beautiful young woman she was. Anyone who ended up in the seat next to her would either hit on her, take up more room than they ought, or cause her life to be miserable in some other way that he wanted to fix.

He hated the thought of her having to travel like everyone else. And he hated it more that she was going to have to go back to a home without any real assurance of what was going to happen next. As far as he knew, her father still had her cut off from the rest of the inheritance, and she wasn’t going to have any access to the trust fund for any reason.

Knowing Mr. Wellington as he did, it was unlikely that he would ever change his mind with his daughter unless she were to bend to his will and marry the man of his choosing, and quite frankly, Hawk didn’t want her to do that. She was too smart and too beautiful to be married off to someone because he was rich, and he didn’t like the idea at all of her having to go through with it for the sake of producing a male child.

It sounded so old fashioned, and he hated it. They were living in the year 2017 and such things should not exist. But, they did, and there was nothing he could do about it. As he brushed his teeth and shaved, he could hear her on the phone with first the cab and then Dana. Dana would likely be the one who would pick her up from the airport, and he could only hope that she would keep her mouth shut about the things they had been doing for the past week in Vegas.

The last thing Hawk wanted was for his brothers to find out about the way they had been hooking up. If Berkshire were to get wind of that news, he would be the face of another scandal before anyone could think twice. To think of it, the youngest Parker brother hooking up with women in Vegas when he was supposed to be down there on business. The thought of it was ludicrous, but he still didn’t want to deal with it.

Hell, if he hadn’t cared about what his brothers thought, he would have sent her home on the Parker jet. It was much faster, it would be free, and, best of all, it would be completely private. She would be given the first-class treatment without having to share it with anyone. It would be the most ideal situation for everyone, and even better if he could go along with her.

Hawk had always wanted to fuck someone in the air, and now that Kathryn had been in his life again, he imagined what it would be like to do her. His dick was still throbbing with the pleasure of the sex that they had just had, and he didn’t think he would ever be able to get tired of it. There was something so fresh and exciting about her all the time; he could have sex with her multiple times in one night and feel like he was doing it again for the first time in the morning.

Hawk heard Kathryn hang up her phone, and he opened the door. Although he knew that it was coming, he knew it was going to be difficult to say goodbye to this woman. It wasn’t just a goodbye because she was going home separately from him—he was cutting the ties they had started once more in Vegas. It was saying goodbye not to just what was and what they had been having, but what they could have had as well.

It was a life that just wasn’t meant to be. He knew it, she knew it, and both of them accepted it. There was nothing they could do about it, and that was the end of the matter.

***

Hawk flicked on the light to his apartment and sighed. It was good to be home in many ways, and it was even better to be off the jet. But there was something empty about the house that he couldn’t put his finger on. He had spent much of the flight home thinking about the apology he was going to require of his brothers when he saw them again.

He had not messed this up, and he had actually brought about change to the company that was positive for once. There was nothing the papers could have on him—and he could just let all Vegas slip out of his mind. At least, almost all of it. He set his things down and walked through the house, looking at all the familiarity and being glad to be home, but also being unable to place why he was feeling so empty. There had to be some reason, he knew, but he didn’t know what it possibly could be.

Everything was clearly where it should be, and he knew that no one would have been in there in his absence. Sure, one of his brothers might have stopped by to check on the place while he was gone, but there was no reason for him to feel as though something was off. But he did.

Then he realized what it was. He absentmindedly checked his phone. At first, he didn’t know what he was checking for, then he realized—he was looking for a text from Kathryn. He smiled to himself. Of course there wouldn’t be any messages from her, and why should there be?

She was home now, and so was he, and that was the end of it. But deep down inside, he knew he was looking for something from her for some reason and he realized what that was, too. He missed her. The time that he had spent with her in Las Vegas had been fun, but he didn’t want it to end. He didn’t even want to have sex with her at that moment. He just wanted to see her, to hold her, to spend time with her even if they kept their hands off each other.

The apartment felt empty because she wasn’t in it—and to his knowledge, she had never been inside this one. He shook his head, irritated with himself for allowing himself to fall in love with the woman. Through the years, he had thought that he’d been in love with various others off and on, but now he knew he’d been fooling himself. He hadn’t known enough to love Kathryn when he should have, back when they were college kids just fooling around. And now that he did love her, it was too late.

He went to bed, thinking that would help him get her out of his mind, but it only made the situation worse. As soon as he closed his eyes, her face was all he could see. After an hour of tossing and turning in bed, he went back to the kitchen and grabbed the whiskey, taking a few drags off the bottle. He didn’t care what it took—he needed to get some sleep, and dreaming about the woman wasn’t going to do him any good.

Even with the whiskey in his system, he still tossed and turned for an hour before sleep finally claimed him, and he felt some relief. If he couldn’t have Kathryn in his arms, it was some relief to sink into an inky bliss. At least then he didn’t have to feel anything. Not horniness, not loneliness, and best of all, not love.

***

Hawk woke to the sound of someone banging on his door, and he shot straight up in bed. When he realized he was home, he leaned back with a groan. He had only been home a few hours and there was already someone who couldn’t wait to see him, and by the sounds of things, it wasn’t going to be anyone he wanted to see in return.

When the pounding continued, he walked over to the door and looked through the video intercom. Both his brothers stood outside, and he rolled his eyes. With a quick motion, he unlocked the door and both pushed their way inside, closing it tightly behind them.

“What the fuck, man? You had one job!” Cole said as he walked in. Hawk looked at him in surprise, wondering what he could possibly be upset about.

“I know, and I think that I did it quite well, considering. You two bastards thought that I ought to come home, but thanks to me, we have actually landed a better deal than we had in the first place.” He ignored their looks and walked over to the kitchen, pulling out ingredients to make a Bloody Mary.

“Are you crazy? I don’t give a shit about the contract with the hotel! This is what we care about!” Blake stepped forward and slapped the tabloid he had under his arm on the table, patting it with his hand to prove the point he was making. Hawk didn’t look at it, he just laughed.

“Come on, I didn’t do anything when I was down there! You can’t tell me those losers thought that there was a way I could end up on the front of the tabloids, do you?” He shook his head with the same amused smile on his face, but Blake slid the paper over to him.

“Read it, asshole,” he said. Hawk gave him a look and picked up the tabloid, and his eyes immediately widened.

There, on the cover, was a photo of him and Kathryn making out in her jacuzzi. Though it wasn’t possible to see the nudity or that they were having sex, there was no denying who he was or who she was, or that they were at least sticking their tongues down each other’s throats.

“Kathryn Wellington, huh?” Blake sneered.

“You know I’ve always like her,” Hawk said defensively as he slid the tabloid back across the table. Blake laughed as he threw his hands down to his side. It was obvious he was furious with his brother and wanted to hit him, but he was going to handle it with as much decency as he could, considering the circumstances.

“Do you realize that we are on the brink of a scandal with the whole thing that went down with Jones and Perry? Now here you are, lip locked with the estranged daughter of one of the richest men in the world? What do you think is going to come of this?” Cole asked.

Hawk gave him a look.

“You knew she was down there!” he shot back.

“I didn’t tell you to stick your dick in her!” he sneered.

“Enough of this. What happened, happened, thanks to Hawk. Now we are going to try to fix it.” Blake walked back and forth in the apartment, and both his brothers looked at him. Though Hawk was angry with the tabloids—and that he had gotten caught—and the fact that his brothers were mad at him for what he had done, he was curious about how they were going to fix the problem.

He knew that it really would turn into a scandal Berkshire would use against them, possibly as a way to get the company out from under them. They were on the brink of losing the industries as it was; he didn’t want to know what would happen when they got a hold of this.

“So what do you want me to do?” Hawk asked. His tone was a mix of question and defiance, and Blake turned around, looking at him with a dirty look.

“One, I want you to start keeping your junk in the trunk. But, if this is going to work, that is going to happen anyway,” he said. Hawk looked at him with the most hatred he could muster, but both his brothers ignored him. Blake was too busy piecing together the plan.

“Clearly, you are going to have to make this look like it wasn’t you fucking some girl in Vegas. You are going to have to make it look like the two of you have something serious going on, or we are going to end up in the headlines again. And I swear, if we lose the company over this, I am going to have your head,” Blake threatened.

Hawk couldn’t help but smirk at the threat. Though they were adults, they still bickered as though they were children, and there were times he found the situation humorous. Both Cole and Blake ignored him, however, and turned to go. Hawk didn’t bother walking either of them out. He finished making his Bloody Mary, then he walked back over to the bed and sat down heavily.

His mind was spinning. He had had no idea they were down there looking for him in the first place. He had thought if he was going to end up on the front of some magazine, it would be because of some drunken fight he got into when he was in a bar. Not making out with a girl who he had feelings for. He shook his head. This was going to present a whole new set of problems.

He had no idea how Kathryn was feeling about them or what they’d done when they were in Vegas. They had said multiple times that what happened there was going to stay there, and until now, he had had every intention of keeping that. But now he was going to have to come forward and say something, or she was going to be drawn into the same thing.

But he didn’t know how she was going to react to the proposition he was going to give her, and he didn’t want to ruin anything that he might have with her in the future. There was no telling how she was going to react, and he knew that he was going to have to take the chance at some point. If he didn’t do anything about it now, it could only get worse.

But this was Kathryn, and Hawk believed she was one in a million. She didn’t deserve this.

He had to fix it.