Mistletoe Mistress

'Get up.' Hawk's face was frightening. 'I'm going to teach you a lesson you'll ne

ver forget.'

'No, Hawk, no.' Joanne found she was actually hanging on to his back, her arms tight round his neck, as he tried to haul Pierre up by his jacket. 'Leave him, please; he's not worth it-'

'I'll kill the little rat.'

By the time help arrived a few moments later, summoned by Antoinette who appeared to have gone quite hysterical, it was clear Pierre was very glad to be led away and that threats and intimidation were the last thing on the Frenchman's mind, despite the fact that Hawk had told the two burly security men to hold him until the police arrived. Indeed he almost scampered out of the office, pulling the other men with him.

'You frightened him.' Joanne found she had to sit down very suddenly as the room began to swim and dip.

'I'd have done more than that if I hadn't had you round my neck like a limpet.' His voice was soft, very soft, and possessed a deepness that made her raise her head and try to focus on his face, a second before she found herself lifted up and cradled against his chest.

'Hawk, what are you doing…?'

'What I should have done a long, long time ago.' He marched across the room and into the outer office, past a weeping Antoinette and open-mouthed office staff, not saying a word until they were in the lift and going swiftly downwards.

'Hawk, I can stand-'

'Be quiet.' His voice was almost savage and he was crushing her against his body as though he was frightened to let her go, his heart pounding against the wall of his chest with such force it was shaking her frame.

Once in Reception they passed the two security men and the chastened and silent Pierre without stopping, Hawk shouting a reply over his shoulder as they asked him where he was going.

'But Monsieur Mallen, the police-they will need a statement-'

'Damn the police.'

Hawk carried her over to his car once they were outside the building, depositing her in the front seat as though she were a piece of rare Meissen porcelain, and joining her inside moments later.

'Hawk-'

'In a moment, Joanne.' She subsided helplessly. He drove fast and furiously to a quiet spot overlooking green parkland, before bringing the car to a screeching halt and causing a flock of pigeons to rise in squawking protest. He cut the engine in the same moment and then turned and took her into his arms, ignoring her struggles as he swooped on her mouth in a kiss that seemed to draw her very soul.

'No, no, Hawk…' When she came back into the land of the living from the world of colour and light he had taken her into, she forced herself to try and escape his arms.

'Yes, yes, Joanne.' His tone wasn't mocking; in fact it was painful in its sincerity, his hands moving to cup her face as he stared down at her with the piercing blue gaze that was mesmerising. 'Please, darling, don't fight me.'

Darling? She stared at him, her honey-brown eyes huge. She couldn't be hearing right. 'I…I can't do this, I've told you.'

'Joanne, I love you; I've loved you from the moment I set eyes on you, and I shall die loving you,' he said huskily. 'I don't deserve you, I can never expect you to forgive me for the mess I've made of everything, but believe me when I say I love you.'

'You don't…you can't,' she murmured unsteadily, her ears buzzing as her senses swam again.

'I do, I can.' She hadn't realised she was crying until he caught a teardrop with his fingertip, his hands brushing her cheeks with a tenderness that took her breath away. 'I'm a stubborn man, my love, arrogant, foolish, but when I came home last night to ask you to marry me and you'd gone I got the next plane here.'

'You went to dinner with Victoria Sanderson,' she said shakily, unable to believe what was happening was real.

'No. I refused that invitation days ago, knowing it would be your last night in my home, but I forgot to tell Conchita and when I left so abruptly she just assumed I had gone there,' he said quietly. 'I drove for hours, trying to come to terms with all you had said and my own…my own personal demons. I realised I had been fooling myself, that I had been lying to myself for weeks-months-since the day we met. I didn't want an affair with you, Joanne, I wanted more, much more, than that, but I couldn't bring myself to accept it was love. It made me too vulnerable, too exposed, too much like the next man.'

'If…if that's true, then what made you change your mind?' she asked tremulously, not daring to believe it.

'You.' One word but his heart was in it.

'Oh, Hawk.' As her arms went round his neck their lips fused together in an embrace that brought flames of desire coursing hot and fierce, the world outside the car disappearing as reality became touch and taste and sensation.

'You forgive me, Joanne?' he groaned against the softness of her skin. 'I have no right to ask-'

'Yes, yes, I forgive you.'