Warrior's Embrace (33 page)

“Only the three of us will ever know...
Elizabeth, you, and I.”

“When you see Elizabeth, tell her I’m
sorry.”

Hawk didn’t want to mention this man’s name
to Elizabeth. He didn’t want her to know that Mark Laton still
existed. But a rational side of him said that there could never be
healing without forgiveness.

“Maybe you should tell her yourself.”

“Perhaps I should.” The color came back into
Mark’s face, and Hawk saw a flash of nobility that would have
attracted Elizabeth so many years ago. “I suppose it would do me no
good to offer you my hand.”

“No. Nothing has changed between us.”

“Perhaps you can answer a question now?
What’s your interest in Elizabeth McCade?”

“That’s between Elizabeth and me.”

o0o

Elizabeth hadn’t seen Hawk in almost a week.
His absence brought memories of another time, another pregnancy,
another man who had also walked out on her.

She entered her front door and carefully
placed her purse on the hall table. That wasn’t fair. Hawk was
nothing like Mark,
nothing.

Taking her time, she removed her jacket. It
seemed that the only way she could hold herself together these days
was to do everything deliberately and methodically. If she held her
life in a tight pattern, perhaps she could keep control.

She reached up and tucked a pin back in her
hair. Loose ends. She hated loose ends.

“Take the pins out, Elizabeth. I like your
hair free.”

Her head jerked at the sound of the voice,
and she spun around. Hawk was leaning in the doorway leading to her
den, looking handsome and lethal.

“What are you doing here?”

“I told you I’d come back.”

He closed the small space between them in
three strides. When he was standing in front of her, so close his
jeans were touching her thighs, he reached up and began to take the
pins from her hair. She didn’t move; she could scarcely
breathe.

When all the pins were out, he laid them
carefully on the hall table, then put both hands in her hair. The
heat from his hands made her scalp tingle.

He didn’t speak, he just stood there staring
down at her with eyes as dark and unfathomable as the bottom of an
ocean. The tingling sensation spread from her scalp to the rest of
her. It was like wildfire. She closed her eyes against its
onslaught.

Hawk knew. She could tell by the tenor of his
breathing and the way his hands tightened.

There was a deep murmuring sound, like
distant thunder in the mountains. Suddenly he lifted her and
carried her through the kitchen and down the cellar stairs. She
could hear the sound of her own heart beating in her ears. Hawk
entered the passageway, and still Elizabeth didn’t speak. Her mind
told her to protest, but her heart said be still.

When they reached the mouth of the tunnel.
Hawk carefully handed her out. His black stallion was waiting. He
mounted, taking her with him, then wrapped her in a blanket that
was draped across his saddle horn. The wind whistled in her ears as
the stallion galloped through the forest.

Hawk was taking her captive.

They rode for a long time, climbing high into
the hills, winding through trees turned scarlet and gold by the
paintbrush of autumn. Elizabeth felt the steady thrum of Hawk’s
heart against her back as she leaned on him.

When they reached the highest point on the
ridge. Hawk dismounted and carefully helped her down. He caught the
edges of the blanket and drew her close.

Hawk cupped her face, tipping it upward, so
their lips were almost touching.

“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted
another woman.” He tenderly traced her cheekbones and the full
shape of her lips. Then he turned her around so her back pressed
against him. She could feel the tension in his body.

“What do you see, Elizabeth?”

“I see a stretch of forest, clean and
beautiful, untouched by human hands.”

“You see your future.”

“Where are we?”

“Deep in Chickasaw tribal lands.” He held her
without speaking for a long while. “I want you to be a part of my
life, Elizabeth. I want these to be your lands too. I’ve already
made you my woman; now I want to make you my wife.”

“The baby—”

“—might have opened my eyes,” Hawk said,
interrupting her. “But he has nothing to do with my love for you,
with my desire to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I can’t.” She twisted around, and there were
tears in her eyes. “Oh, Hawk, I can’t. Don’t you see? Right now
while our passion is still bright and hot... while the idea of
being a father is new to you, you think marriage is what you
want.”

“It is.”

“I
know
you, Hawk, perhaps better
than anyone else. I know the passions that control you.” She turned
away and gazed across the vast reaches of forest once more. “There
will always be a cause that sets you aflame, a battle that needs a
commander. Something inside you would die if you didn’t have those
things, Hawk.” She faced him once more. “I won’t be the cause of
your discontent.”

He cupped her face.

“I’ll change my lifestyle.”

“No.... Right now perhaps you think you will,
but you won’t.” She traced his lips with one finger.

“You’ve given me a lot, Hawk—a beautiful
summer of passion, the courage to take up my place in the community
again, this baby.” She paused, pressing her hands possessively over
her womb. “From now on, my life will be what I make it. I won’t run
away, I won’t shut myself into a shuttered house, and I
won’t
be persuaded by a lethally passionate man on a black
stallion.”

“I want you, Elizabeth. I need you. I love
you.”

“I have never had any doubts that you wanted
me, Hawk. But passion is not enough.”

“Elizabeth...”

“Don’t you see?” She held her hands stiffly
at her side. “I put my trust in a man once. I can’t... I’m not
ready to do that again.”

Hawk walked away and stood with his back to
her. He looked every inch the noble savage as he gazed fiercely out
across his ancestral lands.

“You like to be in control of things, Hawk. I
can’t let you take control of my life—no matter how I feel about
you.”

“How do you feel about me, Elizabeth?”

She drew the blanket around her. Suddenly she
felt the chill of October creeping into her bones.

“I have never wanted a man as much as I want
you. I lie awake at night dreaming of the way you kiss me, the way
you hold me, the way you touch me.” She opened her hands and held
them up to him. “I love you, Hawk.”

“And yet you would deny us a chance because
of
him.”
Hawk stalked toward her and gripped her
shoulders. “I won’t
let
you, Elizabeth.”

“See? That’s just what I’m talking about. You
like to give commands.” She drew out of his reach. “Well, I was a
slave to love once. I won’t be again.”

“I am not Mark Laton.” Hawk’s voice thundered
with anger. “I will never turn away from you the way he did. I have
never lied to you or betrayed you.”

She sucked in her breath, and her face got
pale.

“And I would certainly never deny my
child.”

“How did you know?”

He reached for her hands. “He told me.”

“You’ve seen him?”

“Yes. I flew up to talk to him.”

“You had no right.” She jerked her hands free
and banged them against his chest. “What happened to me was
private. It has nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me.” He pulled
her into his arms and pressed her head against his chest, gentling
her with his hands. “I had to know the enemy, Elizabeth. How can I
ever win a battle if I don’t know the enemy?”

“He’s not
your
enemy, he’s
mine.”

“He’s sorry. He told me to tell you
that.”

“Sorry? Sorry!” She jerked her head up. “Does
he think that makes up for all I went through. He’s sorry!”

“Shhh, shhh...” He held her tightly,
caressing the tension from her body. “It’s over, Elizabeth. The
past is over and done with.”

She shuddered once, twice. The past
was
over and done with. That had been another time,
another man, another child. Gripping Hawk’s shirt, she gazed up at
him.

“Don’t you want to know what happened to the
baby?”

“My only concern is
you.
I had to
know how Mark Laton hurt you in order to know how to heal you.”

“You can’t make up for him, Hawk.” She pulled
herself out of his embrace and walked away. “I was young and scared
and alone. At first I thought about... going to some back-street
doctor. But I couldn’t. It was
my
child. Flesh of my
flesh. So I decided to have the baby. Other women supported
families without a husband. I could too.”

Drawing the blanket tightly around her neck,
she turned back to face him.

“I never got a chance to find out if I could.
I miscarried before anyone even knew I was pregnant. Mark was
spared the embarrassment of having an illegitimate child.”

“I’m sorry, Elizabeth. If I could erase your
past and take away your pain, I would.”

“You can’t. Please take me home.”

“I brought you here for a purpose, Elizabeth.
I wanted to get us both away from a place that had any memories. I
wanted you to see the ancestral lands from this viewpoint. I wanted
you to know the kind of heritage our child will have.”

“You can show the child when he is old
enough. I won’t stop you.” She started toward the stallion. “I’m
leaving. You can stay if you like.”

He caught her around the waist and lifted her
into his arms. “I will not let my child grow up without a mother
and
father, without a sense of family.”

“How do you plan to get me to the altar,
Hawk? By force?”

“If necessary.”

He leaned down and tenderly brushed his lips
against hers. “I want more, Elizabeth, much, much more. But I’m
willing to wait. I’m willing to wait until you can trust me, can
trust in our future together.” He mounted the stallion, taking her
with him. “You will come to me, Elizabeth. And until then, you will
feel my presence, you will know that you are mine.”

“I won’t come.”

She thought he smiled, but she couldn’t be
sure. The dark descended on them as they made their way down the
bluff and back toward home. This time, Hawk didn’t take her to the
tunnel. He rode boldly up to her door and carried her inside.
Before he set her back on her feet, he gripped her chin and forced
her to look at him.

“I took the long way home so people would see
us together. There will be no doubt in Tombigbee Bluff that you are
mine, that the baby you carry is mine. Don’t think I will let you
go, Elizabeth. Every time you look up, my stallion will be at your
door.”

“But you will never be in my bed.”

She thought he was going to kiss her. He
leaned so close, she could see the lights in the center of his dark
eyes, could feel his warm breath fanning her cheek. If he kissed
her there in the hall where they had shared so much passion, she
wasn’t sure she could be strong.

Finally, he released her. Arranging the
blanket around her shoulders, he smiled. “Keep this. I want to know
my blanket covers you at night. “ He started toward the door.

“Wait.” She jerked the blanket off and held
it out, but he kept on going.

Her hand trembled as she released the
blanket. It landed on the floor in a rainbow of color. Elizabeth
started up the stairs toward her bedroom. She was halfway up before
she turned and went back for Hawk’s blanket.

Elizabeth slept with Hawk’s blanket covering
her. When she woke up the next morning, the brightly colored Indian
blanket was the first thing she saw. She lifted it to her face. It
smelled of wool and saddle oil and pine needles and some
indefinable masculine scent that was distinctly Hawk’s.

She got out of bed, folded the blanket, and
put it on the top shelf of her closet. Then she shut the door. But
she couldn’t shut Hawk out of her mind so easily. What was he doing
now? Was he lying in his bed, magnificently naked, or was he
already fighting the battle for his Chickasaw tribal lands?

She went outside and got the morning paper.
The headlines announced the arrival of the U.S. Secretary of Native
American Affairs. “The Chickasaw leader, Black Hawk, will be
meeting with Robert Newton today,” Elizabeth read.

She carried the paper inside and sat down at
her kitchen table to finish reading about Hawk.

The reporter had done his homework well. He
told of Hawk’s long history of clashes with the city government. He
outlined the reforms Hawk had brought about. There was a picture
layout of the new recycling plant that had been built because of
Hawk. There were interviews with various citizens who told how
their lives had changed because of him, how they had become aware
of the world they lived in and the need to preserve it.

Hawk’s brother Steel dubbed him a “Warrior of
the Twenty-first Century.” He called his brother courageous and
noble.

Elizabeth folded the paper and set it aside.
Hawk was all those things—and more. How easy it would be for her to
become star-struck.

She was pouring her second cup of hot tea
when her cell phone rang. It was Gladys.

“Hi, I’m planning a big social outing on this
wonderful Saturday. Shopping and a sinfully rich treat at JP’s
afterward. Want to go?”

Elizabeth started to decline, then thought
better of it. She wasn’t going to become a recluse again.

o0o

They spent most of the morning shopping, then
settled into a booth at the back of JP’s and ordered banana splits.
When Gladys was deep into her whipped cream and chocolate,
Elizabeth decided to share her secret.

“Gladys, I have something to tell you.”