The Huntress & the Hawk by Kim Allred

Author:Kim Allred [Allred, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storm Coast Publishing, LLC

Chapter Thirteen

Gaven

* * *

I checked my tie three times before exiting the car to knock on the back door to Masquerade—Maude's private entrance. A high school boy couldn't have been any more nervous. This would be our first official date, and after the amazingly erotic evening we'd share only two nights ago, I seemed to be stumbling over two left feet as I got out of the car and approached the building.

The nerves tingling through me, making my skin feel raw, wasn't just about seeing Maude again. For some inexplicable reason, I didn't mention my son would be at the gallery. As many times as I ran through the scenarios—the excuses—I couldn't seem to divulge what a horrible father I'd been. There it was. The ugly truth. I had failed, and a man just didn't like admitting that.

The heaviness had weighed on me for eight long years. And I'd pushed it down, focusing on nothing but work. But over time, building like a slow-moving landslide, the guilt buried me to a point of suffocation every time I thought about what I'd done to my son.

The transgression seemed even worse when Maude answered the door, and I gazed down at her eager expression. Her sable-colored eyes a mixture of pleasure, desire, and—was that anxiety? I smiled, and my breath whooshed out of me when I tried to tell her how beautiful she was, finally settling on, "You're stunning."

It must have been enough, the rising blush making her glow.

"Come in while I grab my purse and wrap." She stepped back, swinging the door wide.

Did she stumble a bit on her heels? It was so brief, I couldn't tell, but a hesitant awkwardness built. I stopped five feet from the door, not sure what to do with my hands. Good grief, man, pull yourself together. I'd seen, touched, and licked almost every inch of her amazing body.

She threw a wrap over her shoulders, taking the time to adjust it. I followed the line of her dress that hugged her curves and stopped just above her knees, the heels showing off her calves. I wanted to push her down on the closest chair and spread those calves as I explored what lay under that dress. Okay. That sounded more like me. When she picked up an empty glass and flashed those desirous eyes on me, all my troubles slipped away—if only for a minute.

She drank what could only have been a drop or two left in the glass before waving it at me. "Sorry. I seemed to need a bit of courage. I feel like a schoolgirl going to the prom after we've made out behind the bleachers."

I laughed. A hearty laugh that I couldn't seem to stop, and her smile, one that crinkled the corners of her eyes, settled my nerves. "If I wasn't driving, I'd probably have finished off an entire bottle of scotch."

"Thank God, I'm not alone then." She stood in front of me and fussed with the knot of my tie.

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