“Just a minute, baby,” he urged her. “It was the only way to prove you were no traitor. I knew you weren’t. I believed in you, Jess, but I knew you’d never be accepted by the packs that are a part of Haven if you weren’t proven innocent.”

That made sense. A part of her had even known that, struggled with the idea of it over the months that she had been in the cell.

“I made certain you were comfortable.”

She had been. She’d had warm blankets, home-cooked meals, warm clothes.

“I made certain you weren’t too bored.”

Magazines, books and a television had been brought to her. But even more, sketch pads, pencils and watercolors. Jess loved to sketch and draw, and the tools for that hobby had been brought to her.

“I made certain everyone understood that I’d stand between you and any punishment of death.”

She hadn’t known that.

“I wanted to give you more though.” His voice softened further. “You can open your eyes now, Jess.”

She opened her eyes. Her lips parted in shock. There, by the edge of a mountain lake that she had always loved to sketch beside, sat the vision of a house she had sketched so many times.

The house wasn’t large. It wasn’t ostentatious like the one her parents had once possessed. The cabin-style home blended well with the other cabins in the compound, but with a few noticeable differences.

There was a red tin roof rather than plain aluminum. It was a little larger, three bedrooms rather than one. For the children she had dreamed of having with Hawke. She’d dreamed of two. A boy and a girl. It was exactly as she had described it to him, as she had drawn it so many times.

There was a porch swing on the front porch and areas for flowers along the edge of the porch, and it had been built between the gorgeous oak and pine trees that bordered the lake.

It was breathtaking. Just as she had always envisioned it.

“Hawke.” She turned to him, her lips trembling with emotion.

“I didn’t just know you were my mate, Jessica.” His leather covered hand framed her face. “I knew I loved you. Just as I still love you.”

And he had. Everything he had done, every sacrifice he had made, proved he loved her.

“I never stopped loving you,” she whispered as a tear fell from her eye.

She leaned forward, an irrevocable decision made, one she knew she couldn’t regret, would never regret. This was Hawke. She belonged to him. He belonged to her.

Her lips touched his as his hands gripped her arms in surprise. Her tongue touched his lips as a flare of fear tore through her. What if this wasn’t what he wanted? What he meant?

But it had to be. She couldn’t accept losing him now. She couldn’t accept never having taken this chance.

She licked over his lips with her tongue. As they parted she turned her head, controlling the kiss with experimental passion, her tongue stroking tentatively against his, the spicy-sweet taste of wild lust and desperate hunger exploding against her tongue.

As though the taste of him against her tongue exploded inside him as well, she felt his hand at the back of her head, his tongue pushing against hers as he groaned against her lips and pure erotic need began flashing between them.

Within seconds he had pushed his seat back, pulled her across his lap and taken control of the kiss. His tongue pressed between her lips as she closed them around it, sucking it into her mouth. Her tongue stroked against his, the narcotic taste of him whipping through her system, sizzling through her senses.

The taste of the kiss was as erotic as hell. It was the feel of the kiss, his hand pushing beneath her clothes, the feel of his erection beneath her rear, his tongue stroking against hers. Sensual, sexual. The feel of his body heating against hers, the feel of his heart racing in his chest, his heavy breathing, the deep, dark groan of male need.

It all combined and mesmerized her even before the mating hormone sizzled into her system. She was captivated, arching to him, aching for him even before the sizzle and the heated flames of mating heat began to overtake her.

And then things really got interesting.

SEVEN

Jessica wasn’t certain how they made it into the house. J She remembered him carrying her, his lips on hers, deep, desperate kisses filled with the spicy taste of the mating hormone and the even hotter hunger that had been flaring between them since the day they met.

Love at first sight. And second. And third. And on and on. As though a part of her had known that they were meant to be together, that they were meant for this moment.

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