Lora Leigh: A Christmas Kiss

She should have known Hawke wouldn’t stay away long. The bodyguard he had left outside the house was male. She had noticed both during and after her release that it was a very rare occurrence for a male of either Breed or human persuasion to come around her.

She had female bodyguards. Her doctor was female. Her visitors, namely the alpha’s mate, Hope, or his second-in-command’s wife, Faith. Occasionally, Charity Chance visited, but since the birth of her and Aiden’s son, she hadn’t been by.

She watched the Range Rover pull into the small grav eled driveway in front of the cabin she had been given, and Hawke stepped out. As arrogant as any man could be, as handsome as sin, he stood beneath the falling snow like a force of nature daring the elements to come after him.

Daring anyone to come after him or to oppose him.

He was an integral part of Haven’s security team. He had been an advisor and security leader in the security and communications station where she had worked a little more than a year ago. He had been firm and honest, but he hadn’t always been easy to work with. He didn’t suffer fools easily, and he didn’t think twice about physically throwing out anyone not performing up to standards.

Did he still oversee security there? she wondered. She realized she had no idea what he did now. She saw him driving through the compound often, stopping, talking to the security teams, directing them to different areas or joking with them. Though she realized she hadn’t seen a smile on his face since she had been released.

He had often smiled at her when she worked security for the Breeds. Cautious little half smiles, as though he hadn’t known how to express his amusement with her shy jokes or at her attempts to flirt with him.

God, she had so fallen in love with him, she realized. Those months she had spent working with him, sharing the quiet lunches in the small garden behind the security center, she had fallen irrevocably in love.

He hadn’t kissed her. He hadn’t touched her. He had been courteous, chivalrous. Something she had never known with anyone else. He was larger than life, and the wound she had inflicted on the fragile relationship they had been building had gone deep. In both of them.

She had known, even then, about mating heat. It was hard not to know when working so closely with the Breeds. And she had known the signs of it. It had been building between them. It would have taken no more than a kiss, perhaps a touch, and it would have flamed to life like a wildfire out of control, as Faith had described it.

Faith, Hope and Charity had been brutally honest with her about the mating heat. Despite the fact that she had been called a traitor, they hadn’t held back when she had questioned them about it.

As Hawke walked to her front door, she folded her arms over the thick sweater that covered her breasts and wondered about that. Why had they been so honest with her when she was suspected to be a traitor?

Of course, if she had been convicted of her crimes, it wasn’t as though the world would have had a chance to hear her side of the story. There would have been no lawyers, and no defense. Breed Law was brutally clear. The papers she had signed in agreeing to it had laid it out in succinct layman’s terms. She had agreed to an execution if she ever betrayed the Breeds. And she had signed it, knowing she would never willingly betray them.

She had learned that there was that one little factor though. Unwillingness. The drug her father had slipped into her system had given her little choice.

The front door opened with an air of arrogance and purpose that personified the man that stepped inside.

He carried a bag under one arm. Shifting it in his grip, he turned to close and lock the door.

Jessica cocked her head to the side. More gifts? He had sent her clothes, shoes, boots and coats since her release. During her captivity he had sent her food from her favorite fast-food restaurant, and soft outfits that had kept her warm in the sterile cell in which she had been confined.

He was always sending gifts. This was the first time he had brought any with him.

“We need to talk.”

Her brows lifted as he turned and walked into the kitchen after making the brusque statement.

She followed him anyway, despite the arrogance that had her hackles rising.

Stepping into the kitchen, she watched as he sat the bag on the kitchen table and pulled the contents free. A bag of regular coffee, a six-pack of soda, her favorite chocolate cookies and a small clear bottle of what appeared to be capsules, a drug of some sort.

“What exactly do we need to talk about?” She was almost salivating for that coffee. It was her favorite brand.

“These.” He sat the bottle of pills prominently in front of the enticing caffeine and chocolate-laced goodies.

Her brows lifted again. “And they are?”

“Hormonal treatments for mating heat,” he stated, his expression hard, almost forbidding, as he stared back at her with those odd, yellowish brown eyes. “They’re for the more uncomfortable symptoms. You also need to decide if you want to take the additional treatment to prevent pregnancy.” He pulled another bottle from his shirt pocket and sat it beside the first.

Jessica felt her heart rate increase. Suddenly, it was pounding against her chest, blood racing through her system and need beginning to burn in areas that she normally tried to ignore.

Between her thighs her clit became swollen and her juices began to dampen the folds of her sex. She could feel lust pouring into her system and emotions she didn’t want to face tearing through her mind.

“Have it all figured out, don’t you?” she whispered as she stared back at him. “Whether I want this or not, it’s going to happen?”

He breathed in slowly, deeply. “You’re my mate, Jessica. We both know what that means. I’ve tried to stay away from you. I’ve tried to wait until the time was right to court you, to give you a chance to accept what it means.”

“Time?” She gave a hard, bitter laugh. “I was jailed, Hawke. You didn’t even visit. I’ve rarely seen you since my release. Perhaps you need to figure out exactly what it means to court a woman before you decide to do it.”

His jaw tightened, the muscle bunching almost violently as she watched him clench his teeth.

“I would have given us more time.” He seemed to push the words past his throat. “Before I began to court you, I wanted to ensure your protection, your safety. And your freedom.” He bit the last word out almost angrily. “I wanted you to choose me. I didn’t want to force the heat.”

“And that’s changed. Why?” She almost softened at the words, at the need she could see in his eyes and the fact that, unlike the circumstances of other mates, hers had tried to give her a choice, a chance to turn her back on it if it wasn’t what she wanted.

“Because I can’t find the man that’s been shadowing you since your release,” he revealed.

Jessica froze at the statement.

“What do you mean, shadowing me? How can anyone but a Breed shadow me, Hawke? Especially here in Haven?”

He glanced away for a long second, his lips tightening, before turning his gaze back to her. “Certain factions of the pure blood societies have found a drug that can disguise individual scent for a short period of time. Since your release, we’ve seen signs of a stalker. We can scent his weapons, the fact that he’s male, and his intent to kill. He’s managing to slip inside Haven and get past our security using this drug. And he’s after you.”

Fear knotted in her stomach. Turning away from him, she pushed her fingers through her unbound hair before pacing to the window and staring out into the snow that seemed to fall harder now, faster.