Dawn Discovered

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Native Dawn series book 14 Hunter and Gina's story
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msnomer68
msnomer68
297 Followers

Native Dawn Series book 14

Lycan Dawn book 3


Chapter 1

Hunter wasted no time getting down to business claiming Gina's body. Ravishing her with wild kisses. With feverish anticipation, freeing the buttons of her blouse from the buttonholes like a child unwraps a gift on Christmas morning. His fingers trembled as they traced a path over her silky skin. Blazing a trail that would take both of them to who knew where. He crouched on his knees between her thighs, crushing the sofa cushion beneath their combined weight. He'd made pretty good progress getting her naked. Oh, she was still mostly clothed. But, that little hitch to his plan would be remedied soon enough. He needed her out of her lacy bra and the silky panties she undoubtedly wore beneath a pair of faded jeans.

Peeling back her layers had taken time and plenty of hard effort. And now, with her beneath him, staring up at him with an expression so hot it stole his breath, it'd so been worth the work. Her body was so eager for everything he had to offer. And like him, she was done with the wait. Was he in love? Hell yeah! This woman had gotten to him in a bad, bad way. And he was more than ready to seal the deal and make her his in every way possible. With her lashes fluttering like butterfly wings and her lips pursed in a tight O of desire, her cheeks stained with a heated blush, and her breaths so soft in an exhale against his skin. He was a gone man and damn happy about it. Wasting no time freeing himself of his t-shirt, wanting nothing but skin on skin contact, his fingers moved to the waistband of her jeans.

Gina stared up at Hunter's magnificent torso. He was in, a word, breathtaking. Layers of finely sculpted muscle rippled beneath smooth bronze skin. He towered over her. Melting her into a puddle of lust with the heated desire far too evident in his dark, glittering eyes. Dawn light filtered in through the sheer curtains of her balcony door, highlighting the planes and sharp angles of his perfect body. She ran her fingers over his tight flesh, tracing smooth lines over his rock hard chest. His chest, his neck, and his belly, like hers, should be riddled with scars. Bitter reminders of all they'd suffered together. But, like her, his skin was flawless.

Weddings brought out the best in people. The reception was probably just now winding down with the rising of the sun. With him half-naked, on his knees between her thighs, staring at her with an expression that was all male, all desire, and filled with promises, she couldn't remember why she'd thought delaying this inevitable moment between them had seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Maybe, she'd mistakenly believed the two and a half hour drive back to her apartment in the city would give her time to clear her head. Maybe, it'd been the crush of Hunter's overwhelming family, the history of everything that had happened between the two of them, the happy smiles of the newly wedded couple, or just too much too soon. Possibly, it was that dance, feeling his arms tight around her and the closeness of him that had her scrambling for cover. After that dance, she'd asked him to bring her home. And without complaint or question, he had. Where did that leave them now? About to do this, about to embark down a path from which there was no way back.

Hunter wanted her with the same consuming, aching need that she wanted him. But, the absence of visible scars on their flesh was enough to make her grapple in the dim light for her blouse and pull it over her shoulders to hide her flawless skin. The vampire blood had worked miracles on their outside flesh. They were healed. But, they were far from whole. Gina's mind began to work overtime, scrambling through the lust filled haze of promised pleasure to bring her sense of self-preservation back on line. She wondered about the scars not quite so visible but every bit as real, scars hidden beneath the surface that might never heal. The ones she'd never revealed to him. And the ones he'd hidden from her. The ones that reflected in his eyes, and that she knew damn well were reflected in hers. They were two very screwed up people. And this...this thing about to happen between them was a disaster waiting to happen. "Hunter."

Hunter sat back on his haunches, confused. "What is it? I thought you wanted this?" Reaching out a hand, he stroked her cheek. She wanted him. Every fiber in his body told him that she wanted him with the same white-hot desire that he wanted her. He thought...well, it didn't matter what he thought. She was the only one that mattered. Gritting his teeth against the pressure in his groin, he scrubbed a hand through his hair and felt around on the floor to find his t-shirt. Pulling it over his head, he sat right and proper on the sofa. Leaving the no-man's land of the middle cushion, stretched out like miles instead of a mere twenty-four inches, between them.

"I do," Gina answered in a small voice. Wincing against the confusion etched across his beautiful face at her rejection. She wiggled to sit up and retreated to the far side of the couch. Avoiding him, she curled up into a protective ball, tucking her knees up under her chin. She looked down at her toes peeking out from beneath the hem of her jeans. Hunter had a way of stripping her bare with nothing more than a glance from his dark eyes. As if he could see past her defenses, deeper into the heart of who she was, down deep into where it mattered the most.

The red polish on her toenails stood out in contrast to the pale white of her leather upholstered sofa. She should have thought this through a little more carefully before she asked him up to her apartment. She should have...there were a lot of things she should have done before she'd admitted everything she had to him. Primarily, it might have been beneficial for the both of them if she'd done a reality check long before ever opening her mouth. "I'm afraid." She confessed. "Of everything."

She'd faked her recovery convincingly enough. Otherwise the well-meaning vampires responsible for nursing her back to health wouldn't have let her leave. Hunter wouldn't have either. She'd lied, about everything, denying nightmares. Hiding her fears behind a well-trained mask of perfect mental health. But, she couldn't lie anymore. Not to him. Half naked on her sofa was not the place for secrets. Between them, there could never be secrets. She worried that if she told him everything. He'd try to talk her into returning to the safety of the compound. Nestled in the heart of miles of thick, dark woods, deeply underground. The compound was the safest place for her and the last place she wanted to be. But, that wasn't her reason for pretending. She feared that he'd feel sorry for her.

Hunter reached out for Gina. Her face was twisted into an expression of worry and trepidation. She didn't resist as he gently gathered her up into his lap and pressed her cool cheek against the warmth of his chest. "Tell me." He ran his hands through her tangled brown hair. Highlighted with hints of gold and platinum, the strands caught the shimmery light of the dawn filtering through her curtains. And the only thing he could think as he ran his fingers through her curls was how the pretty the play of light and shadows were.

She distracted him past the point of good sense. No woman had ever affected him this dramatically, at least not in the last twelve years. And now was not the time to think about that. Gina had a way of working past the hard persona he showed the world. With nothing more than a glance at him from her green eyes and a bat of her lashes, she had gotten to the soft center of him. She didn't put up with his bullshit. Gina had gotten into his head and his heart. She'd forced him to confront his inner demons. She was a fierce little thing. And because she believed he was worth saving, he believed it too. Hunter grabbed a soft throw off the arm of the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders. "I won't judge," he said gently. "I'm in no position to judge you for anything."

"Except for Claire's wedding, I haven't left this apartment since I came back. I tried once. I thought a quick walk to the coffee shop around the corner would do me some good. You know, for practice. I didn't get very far. Made it to the elevator. When the doors closed me in, I lost it. Total panic. I ran back to my apartment and locked myself inside. I didn't sleep that night. I paced circles, checking under beds, riffling in the dark corners of my closet." Gina snickered, "I even looked behind the shower curtain about a dozen times. I'm nothing but a scared little girl. I even threw out all my silverware. For me, it's finger food or nothing for the rest of my life, I guess. With you in the compound, it was all so easy. But here, on my own, it's so hard. I wonder if I'm going to make it."

"Gina, all that is understandable. In time..." His voice hitched when he heard the depth of suffering in hers. He was a fool to think that she was ready to return to the bustling city. How would she handle the crowds and the random brush of bodies on sidewalks below? At his brother's wedding she'd seemed self –assured and in complete control. Twisting him into a knot around her little finger. But, like she said, among friends at the compound, it was easy. Here she was alone.

"Don't placate me. I'm out of time. I have to go back to work. Hunter, I wanted this. I have to deal with it. I just...I don't know how." Hunter rocked her in his arms, pressing her cheek to his chest. The steady beat of his heart against the shell of her ear comforted her. He was alive. He was here. She was alive. Against all odds, they'd survived. She was in love with the dauntless man holding her as gently as if she were made of glass. And she had no idea what to do with it...with anything.

"The nightmares are the worst. I see you chained to that wall. Bleeding. Suffering. Because of me. You came to rescue me, and look what I got you into." Gina trembled against the onslaught of memories. Against the dark hours filled with terror spent in captivity at the mercy of a madman. "I should have died. Dying would have been easier, I think."

"No." Hunter's voice flared in anger. "Don't you ever say that. Ever." He gripped Gina's chin in his palm and forced her green eyes to meet the heat of his stare. Her bottom lip trembled as she trapped a sob in her throat. " I got myself into that jam. Not you. It wasn't your fault. It was mine."

"It was mine. IF I hadn't been so stupid and self-absorbed, I wouldn't have been on that platform alone after dark in the first place. He wouldn't have gotten me. And you would have had no one to rescue. You would have been safe and so would have I."

"And we never would have met. I regret everything that you suffered. But I don't regret my suffering. I was dying little by little every day. I had accepted my death. I welcomed it. I wanted it. I didn't save you. You saved me. You. Gina. You rescued me from something worse than death by that man's hands. You rescued my from myself." Hunter wrapped his arms around Gina's shoulders and squeezed her tightly against his broad chest. "I don't regret one minute of anything that happened to me. How could I? It brought me to you."

"Is that all that there is between us? We're survivors? How long can that last? How can that be real?" She unwound Hunter's arms from her shoulders. Feeling chill replace where warmth had been a few seconds ago. She drew the throw up tightly around her neck, shivering beneath the layers of soft knit.

"Gina, don't shut me out. Not now. Not after everything we've been through. You challenged me to live. And now I'm starting to believe again. Don't turn me away when you've finally gotten through to me. Not when for the first time in over a decade, I finally want to live." He slicked his finger along the curve of her cheek, gently cupping the soft, warm flesh. Gina was so lost, so afraid. He could see it in her eyes.

"I thought I wanted this too," Gina said. Staring at the white walls of her overpriced, trendy downtown apartment, she doubted her sanity at the fact that she'd convinced herself she had ever been truly happy here. She had the clothes. She had the ambition. She had the look and the smile to go with it. She had everything she'd thought she wanted. And when it crumbled down around her. The life she thought she wanted to live reduced to ash. She had nothing of value. And the emptiness of it, the superficial, plastic, transparent truths of her old life had been nothing but an illusion she'd sold her soul to buy.

The truth in his words was tearing her to shreds. Of course, Hunter was always right. Never mixing anything with the truth was his way. She had forced him to confront his feelings. She had stripped him bare. And when she'd finally won, she was turning away. What the hell WAS wrong with her? Reality was what was wrong with her. Reality was hard. Reality hurt. And the fiction, selling her soul for nothing but smoke and mirrors had been far easier.

"I don't know what's worse. That you doubt my feelings for you or that you doubt your feelings for me." Hunter lowered his hand and clinched his fingers into a fist. He wasn't angry. He was hurt. He fought against the old walls beginning to rebuild, sealing off his heart. He didn't want to be isolated. He didn't want to be alone. He wanted her.

"I don't know what to say," Gina said softly. The hurt she caused Hunter crushed her. His voice cracked from the intensity of his words. His fingers flexed, reaching for her. He needed physical contact. Skin to skin. Warm flesh to warm flesh. The tears she held back stung her eyes. His thumb traced her lashes, capturing a saline drop before it spilled over. He balanced the tear on the pad of his thumb, holding it to capture the morning light.

"Don't say anything." Getting up off that white leather sofa was killing him, crossing the room to grab his jacket, and pull on his boots was hell. How he managed to do it and gather up his keys in his fist was nothing short of a miracle. "I won't say coming here was a mistake, because it wasn't. At least you know where I stand."

"Hunter, don't go."

Hunter's lips curled in satisfaction. "Is there a reason for me to stay?" Forcing Gina to confront her feelings was risky. She was terrified of everything. She didn't realize how strong she actually was. She loved him. He knew it. But, it was whatever came after admitting the truth that scared her. Hell, he didn't know what was supposed to happen next. He was winging this whole thing. But, much like the cocky son of a bitch he had the reputation of being. He wasn't about to admit it, especially to her.

"Yes...no... I don't know." Gina was in danger of losing the guy and a large chunk of herself. Grappling for him was self-preservation. But, it was all that she could think to do. If he walked out, he wasn't coming back. "I don't know how to..."

Hunter was on her. Lifting her in his arms. Smothering her with his kiss. Carrying her off to some foreign land from which there was no return. And she could not think of a single reason she'd ever want to come back. She'd had her share of lovers. Movers and shakers of the world she thought she knew. Players that played her and she played in return. What Hunter offered was something more, something different, something that she'd never dreamed would happen to her. Love.

The nagging question was if she had the staying power to make it work and give it an honest try. They'd been through enough tragedy. The last thing she wanted to do was add more suffering to either one of their lives. She had the power to crush him with a word. The power to destroy or to rebuild was hers to wield. "I don't want to lose you. But, I don't want to hurt you either. What if it doesn't work?"

"If we don't try, it won't and we've already failed before we've truly given it a chance. I'm willing to take the risk. A broken heart still beats. A heart that never has never will."

Gina bit her lip and stared up at Hunter. What a fool she'd been to think she could leave everything behind and pick up exactly where she'd left off. She knew too much about the world, the real world. There was no going back to the way things were, not for her, not for him, not ever. She could walk away and he'd let her. There really wasn't anything he could do to stop her. There was nothing to stop her except for her heart. "How do we do this?"

Hunter gently lifted Gina's chin, cupping it in his palm. Forcing her to meet his eyes. Pressing a soft kiss on her lips, he said, as if he actually knew the answer. "Day by day, Gina. Step by step, one after the other. That's how we do this. Just like we always have. One step at a time."

"What's the first step?" Gina asked. Hunter was a man who took no prisoners. He was confident and secure. She wondered if there was a doubting bone in his body, if he was ever uncertain about anything. She melted in his dark stare. Swallowed whole by the obsidian blackness of his eyes. A day's worth of thick, black stubble lined his angular jaw. His broad shoulders dwarfed her narrow frame. He towered over her, so tall she had to tilt her head back to read the expression on his face. He was hot nights and cool darkness. There was nothing soft about him. His black hair, spiked short in a military cut close to the scalp, added to his aura of intimidation. Yet, for his darkness, his heat, and the overwhelming everything that was simply Hunter, she was not afraid.

Yes, he was demanding. Yes, he was pushy. Yes, he was alpha male and anyone with an ounce of good sense would run like hell. But, and maybe, she was lacking in the sense department, because she could not keep away.

"Gina, we've already taken it."

"Ok, then what's next?"

"Pack a bag. Spend the summer with me. I'll bring you back whenever you want. But, I'm hoping you don't." Hunter locked his fingers around Gina's wrist and dragged her into the bedroom. He parked her on the edge of the bed and riffled through her closet. Locating her empty overnight bag, he pawed through her clothes. The woman had no shortage of skirts, blouses, and matching jackets. Power suits for the upwardly mobile. Not for this trip though, for what he had in mind, spiked heels, skirts slit up to there, and silk blouses weren't going to cut it. Finally, at the very end of the rack, he found what he was looking for. Folding the faded jeans and t-shirts, picking through her dresser to pull out shorts and other unmentionable and thought provoking things, he packed her bags.

"You mean you don't want to...?" Gina asked in puzzlement. The way Hunter handled her lacier things, with graceful, careful reverence with those big hands and long fingers of his was almost laughable. She blushed violently. If he kept pawing through her dresser, he'd find more than her underwear. Luckily though, he was a man on a mission. He wasted no time. Off to the bathroom, he stuffed her makeup kit and whatever else he thought she might need into the bag.

Was she really going to do this? Spend the summer with him? What about her job? Not that it was any big shakes. But, it did pay the rent. And her checking account wasn't exactly that far into the black to afford a whole summer without a paycheck. She got up from the bed. She at least could pack her own stuff. He was a guy. What the hell did he know the things a woman needed? But, when she heard the cabinet door underneath her vanity open and the rustle of plastic as he grabbed her other unmentionable items. Pads and tampons, and the rustle of Midol pills in the bottle, she supposed maybe he had this packing thing well in hand. "Hunter?"

A masculine grumble heated her cheeks and made her heart thump wildly. His brown eyes so dark they were almost black, lit with an intense golden glow. He was at her side in an instant, dropping to his knees and kneeling at her feet. Smoothing his hands along the curves of her calf, his voice so gravelly and tinted with desire and his fingers so damn coaxing, she quivered in the wake of his touch. "No, I want to. I really, really do. It would be an honor to make love to you. But, I can wait. I'll work my way into your heart first. And then when you're madly and irrevocably in love with me. Then I'll secure my invitation into your bed. It won't be for one night, Gina. When this happens with us it will be forever."

msnomer68
msnomer68
297 Followers