Over the Top

  Amusement filled Dawn’s chest, and she coughed out a laugh. “You surely are, but I doubt any rapists are trolling along this rural road in this storm. Way too cold.”

  Mrs. Poppins sniffed and nearly pressed her nose against the window, looking out at the storm. “If you say so.”

  Straightening her shoulders, Dawn slid from the car and moved to check the back tire. Yep. Flat as a pancake. Must’ve driven over a sharp rock not covered enough by ice.

  She’d been thinking about Hawk and not watching the road.

  Thinking of Hawk…he’d rescue her if she called him. Tempting. Yep. Definitely tempting. But they both deserved better than games, and they were only friends. Just like Adam. Seemed she had several hot, way too sexy men around who just wanted to be her buddy. Freakin’ great.

  Plus, she could change a damn tire.

  So she jacked up the car, removed the old tire, and grunted while securing the new one. Mrs. Poppins watched carefully out the rolled down window, her face pale and pinched. The snow turned to sleeting rain, and Dawn’s face was numb by the time she finished.

  Yet triumph filled her as she tossed the jack into the back of the SUV.

  Country girl all the way. Feeling rather proud of herself, and definitely superior to any woman who needed saving from a silly flat tire on an icy road, she turned to head back to the driver’s seat. Her boot caught a chunk of ice. Her arms windmilled while she fought gravity.

  And promptly fell flat on her ass.

  Her head thunked the metal of the SUV, and her vision swayed. Darkness danced in front of her eyes. Oh shit. Maybe she should’ve called for help.

  She blinked several times, and her vision cleared. Good. Heck, she’d been knocked on the head before. No biggie. Then another pain made itself known in her right hand. Ouch. Cold or seriously hurt? She couldn’t tell.

  Mrs. Poppins scooted out the driver’s side, her galoshes throwing up ice as she landed on the road. “Oh my. Oh my. Are you all right?”

  Dawn wasn’t sure. “I think so.” Scrambling along the ice, she inched her way inside the vehicle with the elderly woman’s help and shut the door before grabbing the phone. Her ears rang, and clouds danced across her eyes. “I’m not sure I should drive.”

  “Oh my.” Mrs. Poppins bit her lip and sat back in the passenger seat again. “I drank three glasses of wine, but I could give it a shot.”

  Hell, no. “I’ll call for assistance.”

  “No. You relax.” Mrs. Poppins grasped the phone and scrolled through her contacts. “I’ll call my Earl to come get us.”

  Dawn stilled. “Um, how about we call my dad?” Earl was a great man, but at this time of night, he’d be into the Scotch.

  “Good idea.” Mrs. Poppins nodded, her concentration absolute. “There we go.” She dialed and pressed the phone to her ear. “Hi dear. This is Bernie Poppins.” Then she waited several beats, nodded, and cleared her throat. “Well, we were heading home from bingo, and I thought Dawn hit a person, but maybe it was just a moose. Anyway, the girl got hurt.” She vigorously shook her head at the response. “No need for an ambulance, but we do need a ride, at about mile marker seven on Solstice Road. Hurry up, young man.” She clicked the phone shut.

  Only Mrs. Poppins would dare call Tom Freeze a young man and order him to hurry up.

  Dawn turned the key in the ignition and set the heat on full. Ahhh. Much better. Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes and tried to thaw.

  Mrs. Poppins poked her in the side. “How’s your head?”

  “Good.” Dawn opened her eyes. “Slight headache, but my vision is fine.” She glanced down at her aching wrist. “I think I’m bruised but nothing is broken. I could probably drive us home.”

  “Absolutely not. I called for help.” Mrs. Poppins’ lips firmed.

  Dawn nodded. She heard what must be her dad’s truck in the distance, and she sat up as he pulled to a stop behind her.

  Mere seconds later, the door was wrenched open, and Hawk stood outside, his green eyes darker than normal. He wore faded jeans and a dark T-shirt, and his shoulder length black hair looked ruffled, like he’d been asleep. The guy hadn’t bothered to grab a jacket, and snow quickly covered his broad shoulders.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She blinked. “Where’s my dad?”

  Hawk stepped closer and brought the scent of darkened forest with him. “Are. You. Okay?” Fire now burned in his eyes, and his jaw worked in what looked like anger.

  Scary. Hawk on the side of the road in an irritated mood was actually kind of…scary. “I’m freakin’ fine. Where’s my dad?”

  Mrs. Poppins twittered. “Oh my. I got the phone numbers mixed up.”

  Dread slithered down to land in Dawn’s abdomen. Embarrassment followed quickly. She turned a look on her companion. “You didn’t.”

  Mrs. Poppins grinned, showing her perfectly spaced dentures. “Oops.”

  Dawn could swear a growl rumbled from Hawk’s muscled chest as he leaned in, his face way too close.

  “Babe? If you don’t answer my question—”

  She turned to face him. A tingle spread through her abdomen, reaching and warming her private parts. Now that was a voice she wouldn’t mind hearing late at night under the covers. Sexy, dangerous, and masculine.

  Unfortunately, also impatient…and sliding rapidly to pissed off, if she had to guess. She sighed. “I’m fine. Hit my head and landed on my wrist. Stop being scary and go away.”

  Mrs. Poppins clucked her tongue. “She didn’t mean that. Must be the head injury.”

  Dawn leaned forward and rested her head on the steering wheel. “I can’t do this. I really can’t take this—not now. Please. No list, no meddling, no mistaken phone calls. Please.”

  Mrs. Poppins patted her arm. “See? She’s delirious.”

  Hawk clasped Dawn at the base of the neck and drew her gently back. His hand was firm and warm, determined. A shiver wandered right down her spine, and his hold tightened.

  Oh man. He’d felt the shiver.

  Then his face was in hers, separated by a mere inch.

  Her breath caught, and the universe stopped moving. Completely. She focused on his forest-green eyes to keep from looking down at those full lips. Don’t look. Don’t look.

  “Head injury?” he rumbled, his gaze penetrating hers. He looked deep, and he looked hard, and the hand at her nape didn’t relent.

  “No,” she croaked out. “Little head bump…nothing to worry about.” Why was it so hard to breathe all of a sudden? If he didn’t back up, she was going to completely humiliate herself and flatten his ass on the icy road. It’d be worth it just to feel that impossibly hard body against hers for a few seconds.

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Blink.”

  She huffed and blinked several times. “I’m okay.”

  “Your pupils look all right.” He leaned in a bit more. “Seeing stars? Blurry vision?”

  “No.” She wanted to burrow into his heat, so she kept perfectly still. “I’ve had a concussion before, and I know what it feels like. This is just a bump.” She’d been bucked off horses her entire life, and she knew she was fine.

  Hawk rubbed the nape of her neck, and she couldn’t help the small whimper.

  That quickly, his face lost all sense of irritation. Something else replaced it…something heated and all male. “Let me see your wrist,” he whispered, releasing her.

  She couldn’t take it if he touched her like that again, so she handed over her wrist.

  He gently clasped her arm and turned it this way and that in the light from the car. “Bruised.”

  “I know.” She gingerly retracted her arm. “I’m fine.”

  “No she isn’t.” Mrs. Poppins clucked her tongue.

  Hawk straightened and glanced around the quiet road. “You didn’t hit a moose.”

  “Of course not.” Dawn shook her head and then winced as pain cut into the back of her eyes. “It was just a flat tire.”

  “Ok
ay.” Hawk rubbed his chin, and then slowly drew her from the car to open the rear door and place her in the backseat. “Let’s take Mrs. Poppins home, and then we’ll figure out what to do with you.” Without waiting for an answer, he secured Dawn’s seat belt, shut the door, and slid into the driver’s seat without missing a beat. Seconds later, he pushed the seat back and drove onto the road.

  Mrs. Poppins bounced happily against her seat belt. “She shouldn’t be alone, you know. Just in case it’s a concussion. Could be.”

  Hawk glanced into the rear view mirror. “She won’t be alone. I promise.”

  Chapter Four

  All men are heroes. They just might need a nudge.

  ~ The Lady Elks Secret Archives

  Hawk didn’t like surprises, he didn’t like storms, and he sure as shit didn’t like Dawn wounded on the side of the road in a fucking blizzard.

  Come to think of it…he didn’t like much of anything these days.

  The second the call had come in, he’d jumped into clothes and rushed to his truck. If anything happened to the blue-eyed temptress, he’d cut off his own head.

  As he pulled up in front of the Poppins’ farmhouse, he swallowed an expletive at the snow-covered front walk that led up to the sprawling ranch house surrounded by acres of fields and forest. While the storm had been brutal all day, the walk should still have only about six inches of snow…not three feet. “Where’s Earl?”

  Mrs. Poppins shrugged and gingerly slid from the SUV. “Inside. The fool hurt his back last week and won’t let me call the boys for help.”

  Hawk jumped out of the SUV and hustled to reach for Mrs. Poppins’ arm. As the old lady stumbled in the thick snow, he smoothly lifted her up.

  “Oh my.” She giggled and patted his chest. “You are a strong one, Hawk Rain.” A very amusing rosy blush wound just under the paper-thin skin in her cheeks.

  He glanced back toward the car and waited until Dawn unrolled her window. “You okay for a few minutes?”

  She nodded, her face pale.

  “Get in the front and keep the heat running.” He waited with supreme patience for her to exit the car and slide into the front seat. She moved easily and with grace.

  Good. She was all right.

  Then he carefully carried Mrs. Poppins through the thick snow and into her front vestibule where he reached for the ever-present shovel leaning against a coat rack. The smell of apple pie and lemon cleanser surrounded them.

  She twittered. “Oh, Hawk. You don’t have to—”

  He grinned. “Just give me a second, Mrs. P.” He’d given her the nickname at the age of ten when she’d smacked him over the head with a spoon after he’d stolen apples from her orchard. Then she’d promptly baked him a pie and made sure he ate it before sending him home.

  Turning, he dug deep into the snow and had the walk clear within a few minutes. The Poppins kids had moved to Billings, and he would give them a call the next morning. They were good guys and had probably just not realized their folks needed help.

  Returning to the house, he put the shovel back in place.

  Mrs. Poppins leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Take care of our Dawnie, would you?”

  “Of course.” He shut the door and strode toward the car to fold into the driver’s seat. Once back on the road, he turned toward the too-silent woman. “How’s your head?”

  “Fine.” Dawn crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Good.” He concentrated on the road and tried to ignore her scent—all woman, all sweet huckleberry. “Where am I taking you?”

  She pivoted in her seat, both eyebrows arching. “Home.”

  Ah. He hadn’t been clear. “It’s highly doubtful, but there’s a very small chance you have a concussion, Dawnie. Local rules are nobody stays alone after hitting their head. Choose a place to go.”

  “Home.” She ground out the word between gritted teeth.

  He hadn’t hauled ass into a freezing blizzard to drop her off alone at home, and the woman wasn’t getting him. Not at all. “You can go to your folks or to any of your brothers’ homes. So choose.” No way was he dropping her at Adam’s.

  “No. Take me home.” She hunched down in her seat and pouted like she had when he and Colton had refused to take her riding when they were teenagers.

  His temper tickled the base of his neck, so he tried reason. “What’s the problem?”

  She sighed. “Listen, Hawk. I get where you’re coming from, but I need to go home. If I run to my family every time something goes wonky, then they’ll never take me seriously. I’m having enough problems.”

  He slowed the car over a particularly icy spot. “What are you talking about?”

  Her slim shoulders hunched forward even more. “None of your business.”

  That cut a little deeper than he would’ve expected, and he reacted before thinking. “Oh, baby, that is not how this is going down.” The girl had a softness to her that had always concerned him, so he pulled the car onto the shoulder and shoved the gearshift into neutral to better reason with her. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Her gaze lashed to his, blue and widened.

  “Yeah. I said fuck.” He half turned toward her, his temper unraveling too quickly to tie back up. “You’re all grown up now, singing in a bar, working at the company…and you don’t want your family’s help. So yeah. I’m done holding back.”

  He raised an eyebrow and pierced her with a look that had once made a junior soldier nearly piss his pants. So when Dawn rolled her eyes, his head jerked.

  She sniffed. “God, you’re cranky tonight.”

  Cranky? Did she just say cranky like he was old Earl Poppins? “Then you shouldn’t have called for my help,” he ground out.

  “I didn’t call for your help. Mrs. Poppins did.”

  Hawk scratched his jaw. “Yeah. About that.”

  “I’m not talking about that. Period.” Dawn leaned back and crossed her arms. “I’m sure she meant to call Colton and accidentally dialed you.”

  The woman couldn’t lie worth a damn. Hawk reached out and grasped her chin, slowly pulling her around to face him. “Bullshit.”

  Pink rose into her face, and his fingers actually warmed. Two seconds later, his cock hardened. Could he warm her up like that everywhere? His gaze dropped to her pretty lips.

  She was too much of a temptation, and he’d never been one to ignore a challenge. To finally be home, to be near her, to have her all but throwing down the gauntlet?

  Yeah. No way was he strong enough to turn that off. He couldn’t get the image of Adam squiring her away out of his mind, which was why he’d been tossing and turning when the distress call had come in.

  One taste. He just wanted one little taste. So he leaned over and wrapped one arm around her waist, lifted, and settled her ass in his lap.

  She gurgled—actually gurgled—and settled against him, her fingers curling into his T-shirt. “Wh-what are you doing?”

  He leaned in to make sure he had her full attention. “I’m going to kiss you, and then we’re going to agree which house you’re going to tonight—pick a brother or your folks.”

  She swallowed, and her gaze dropped to his lips. “K-kiss me?”

  “Yep.” Amusement filtered through him along with lust. Damn, she was adorable and sweet.

  Her gaze lifted to his. “Wh-why?”

  “Because I want to.” Sometimes, it was as simple as that. He’d take a taste, prove to them both that it was nothing special, and then move on.

  Even at the thought, he knew he was a liar. But for once, he didn’t care. Not right now. Seeing her leave with Adam the other night had created a slow burn inside him that Hawk couldn’t extinguish.

  So he leaned in and brushed her mouth with his.

  Soft. So fucking soft.

  She murmured something against his lips. What, he didn’t know. But his hand moved on its own to her nape, beneath all that thick hair—pure silk a guy could get lost in forever.

  He
was tired of fighting, and he was tired of wishing. Most of all, he was tired of wondering.

  So he held her in place and delved deep.

  Heaven. Pure and simple…huckleberry-flavored heaven.

  She sighed against him, her mouth opening, her body leaning into his. Her nails dug into his chest, and the small pain ignited something in him. Something new.

  Careful to keep Dawn away from the steering wheel, Hawk twisted his torso, shoved the seat all the way back, and smoothly swung her around to straddle him. The second her core hit his pounding cock, he groaned.

  She tunneled her hands into his hair, and a soft moan echoed up from her chest.

  He’d known. He’d known if he ever touched her, she’d burn him. Dawn Freeze was all in—no matter what she did. Now, she was all into him.

  And it fucking felt great.

  He released her neck to run both palms down her sides, settling them at her waist. She tilted against him, and the blood rushed through his head and directly south.

  Finally, she broke their connection and leaned back. She swallowed several times and then exhaled slowly. “Um, ah, I’ll go to my brother Quinn’s house.”

  Hawk blinked.

  Even in the darkness, her luminous eyes seemed to glow. Her tongue flicked her lips, and her panting breath rasped. Her thick mass of hair had been mussed, giving her a look he’d like to see in the morning. With a soft pat to Hawk’s chest, Dawn scooted off him to settle in the passenger seat. “Okay?”

  Hawk let her go, his mind flaring fully awake. What the hell? “Quinn’s?”

  “Yes.” Dawn reached for the seat belt, her gaze on the storm. “Colton and Melanie have babies coming and need sleep. Jake and Sophie already have a new baby, so if they’re sleeping, I’m not gonna wake them up. So it’s Quinn and Juliet. They’re probably trying to make a baby, considering the rest of the family wants them to, but surely they’re done for the night.”

  Why had she stopped? Hawk shook his head. He wouldn’t have pushed it beyond a kiss or two, but honestly? He figured he would’ve had to pull back, especially since she might have a headache. That last thing he’d ever do was manhandle her while she was hurt. “You in love with Adam?”