Chapter One

"Hawk, you must come home. It's Jade's eighteenth birthday and you must be the first dance, in place for his late father." Alicia, his mother, sounded agitated. Her voice was trembling. He could imagine her twirling the phone's cord round and round as she spoke.

"I'll come home but not on Jade's birthday. Next month. I'm due for vacation next month." And that was a maybe. He didn't come home ever since he went away. Even when his mother's husband died.

He couldn't come home...

Hawk sat more comfortably as he looked at the sky outside his window. He did not see the clouds. He was looking in his mind. He saw Jade for the first time. Sixteen, at that time.

He could feel the familiar stirring of his body so he straightened on his chair. His other hand rearranged the items on the table. The papers on one side. The pens on the other side. Then move around the things once again. He was not seeing them.

"Ma, I can't leave my work. There are problems… Surely, her first dance is not that important—"

"It is important to Jade. She just lost his father. She's been dreaming about this party for ages and now that—"

It was his turn to interrupt. He closed his eyes. "Call her uncle."

"Her Uncle Jorge is paralyzed. Heart attack. It runs in the family, h-heart attack." His mother replied with a sniffle. "I don't know who to call now. It's just for one night. Can't you do it?"

Damn! Hawk felt like a bastard that he was, hearing his mother weep silently.

"I don't ask for your help often, son. Just this once… Oh, how I missed Jon!" Jonathan had been her husband for almost two years before he was gone without fuss. Just a chest pain and a groan.

The two women in Jon's life was still missing the older and kindly man.

"Okay," he sighed brusquely. "I can get a red-eye flight back and forth."

"Oh, really? Thank you, Hawk. Thank you, son." Alicia sounded so relieved he felt a cad for refusing in the first place. "The party's at seven in the evening. Try to arrive at six."

"Where?"

"At the house. Your old room will be ready when you arrive," Alicia said it as an afterthought. "Bye!"

Hawk pressed the 'off' button. He opened his eyes with a snap. He was suddenly bombarded with images. But the memories wouldn't stop…

Long flowing hair that fell down to her hips. Black as midnight. She was looking down but when she glanced up, she seemed snared. She remained staring.

At him.

Chocolate eyes. Hot, swirling chocolate eyes. A man could drown in them gladly.

She seemed mesmerized as she stared unblinkingly at him.

Hawk couldn't hold her gaze a bit longer. He could feel himself getting a hard-on. His whole body was on fire. Goosebumps crawled all over his skin.

'Dammit, this girl is going to be my stepsister!' His mind argued silently but fiercely to his wayward body.

He willed himself to look at Jonathan Henriquez, his stepfather-to-be. The man was stocky and shorter than his slender mother. Hawk took after his unknown father, tall and heavily muscled.

"Jonathan, good to see you," he greeted the older man. He refused to call the man 'dad' or 'uncle' because they were not related by blood.

And he was thankful. Because he didn't want to add incest to his sins. He was lusting after the daughter, for chrissake!

"Same here, Hawk. I'd like you to meet my unica hija, Jade. Jade, here's Hawk Luna."

He just nodded his head towards the girl.

But the girl had other ideas. She ran towards him and embraced him tightly.

"I never had a brother. I'm glad you're older than me!"

Hawk felt her soft body like a shock that jarred his system. He was paralyzed for a second.

His hands, large and callused, held her slim arms and pushed her away. He felt scalded. He took a few steps backwards.

"Uh, sorry… Did I hurt you?" Jade asked innocently.

Jonathan butt in to rescue Hawk. Or Jade.

���Hawk's been to a slight accident. He's not up to your signature embraces! Ho ho!" Jonathan pretended to misunderstand Hawk's slight wince. "Hijo, please bear with her. She is just sixteen. Ho ho!"

Hawk didn't see anything funny. His firm mouth remained unsmiling. His eyes were expressionless but inside he was seething.

Jade looked at him warily. Her smile was tentative but still sweet. Her lips were dewy. And oh-so kissable…

The first time he felt an intense desire for a woman, it was to a sixteen-year-old girl—and in front of his mother and her father. Life was a sucker!

Hawk forced down his feelings, leaving him wooden and cold to his parent's betrothal.

"Don't you like Jon to be my husband, son?" Alicia asked worriedly when they were alone.

"Of course, I do," he replied quickly.

"Then why the cold shoulder?"

"I'm just tired. Don't worry, Ma. The wedding shall happen tomorrow." He kissed her troubled brow. "I'll just take a good night's rest. This bad mood should be gone in the morning."

"Okay, son." Alicia wished him a baffled goodnight. It was early yet.

But the mood did not improve when morning came. Jade dominated his dreams. He woke up several times through the night, breathing hard and sweating profusely. He was naked. Even the thin sheet was abrasive to his skin.

He dreamed of Jade, also naked. Her soft, unclothed body rubbing his hard body sensuously. Her lips, smiling sweetly, as they slowly opened over one nipple. It was exquisite. Her tongue swirled, dipping as though to taste his skin.

He heard a loud groan. Rough and guttural. And he was not surprised when he woke up moaning while clutching the bedcovers tightly. His back arching as if the kiss was really happening.

"Damn you, Jade," he growled harshly. "Damn you…"

Hawk rolled and buried his wet face onto the pillow. He moaned once again when his shaft burrowed onto the rumpled sheet. He was trying to calm down his raging libido. His whole body was afire as though he was suffering from malaria fever.

When his trembling abated, he got up and took a warm shower. His imagination, which had gone wild, imagined the water to be Jade's hands caressing his skin. He turned down the water temperature at once.

Hawk had gone to his mother's wedding, feeling morose and looking haggard. He could not smile even if someone pointed a gun at his temple.

But Jade was insensitive. She sat beside him and leaned close to whisper. "Does it hurt badly?"

He frowned at her. Did she have to rub it in? His body was hurting from unfulfilled lust.

"What?" he whispered fiercely.

"The little accident you had." Her eyebrows squiggled up and down. She looked at his body curiously.

Hawk squirmed but only in his mind. He remained unmoving, hoping his suit coat hid his hard-on.

"Yes!" he hissed. He wanted to crush her in his embrace. He wanted to kiss her lips senseless. He could almost taste her sweetness in her breath.

He closed his eyes. Not wanting to see her. He might lose control.

"Oh, Hawk, I'm sorry." Jade snuggled at him. Her young breasts rubbing against his arm. There were two layers of cloth, his white polo and dark grey suit coat, but he could feel the suppleness of her flesh.

His eyes snapped open, aghast. Was she really naïve?

"Could you just move away from me?" He gritted between his even, white teeth.

"Why?"

He swallowed as he improvised. "Because… I hurt my arm…" He sounded breathless but didn't care. She must move away from him.

Jade almost jumped away from him. She paled as she looked at his arm. "Oh! I didn't know. Silly me." She clapped her hands to her luscious mouth. Her chocolate eyes stared at his arm. "Does it hurt much?"

Hawk released his breath slowly. "Just don't touch it."

'Don't touch me.'

Jade didn't bother him anymore. She would say his name softly to catch his attention. He knew she was itching to pat him but stopping at the last minute.

"Look at Mommy Alice! She's so beautiful. I'd love to wear her wedding gown at my own wedding!" She exclaimed when the ceremony drew to its end.

Hawk looked at his mother. Alicia was pink-cheeked and red-lipped. Her eyes were starry, full of love, as she gazed at her groom. Jonathan was gazing back at her tenderly.

"Come! Let's have our picture with them!" Jade was careful to hold his hand. Her small hand looked smaller when their fingers clasped together.

'Just holding her hand was heaven,' Hawk thought. His fingers itched to caress the center of her palm but remained unmoving. He could not waken her desire because he could not douse her fire…

He turned his head to look at her, his eyes half-closed. Jade Henriquez was off-limits. She was his stepsister. And she was just a young girl.

Jade stared up at him. She was tall for a girl but still her head just reach his wide chest. Her body was willowy under the white, sleeveless dress. She moved like a lanky lad, clumsy and gauche. She would be slim and elegant in time.

But he should pass the opportunity to watch her turn into a graceful swan…

Hawk had accepted an overseas assignment. He was free from obligation to his mother. She had married a fine gentleman. Jonathan would take good care of her.

Within a month, he had arranged his transfer to the Middle East.

"Ma, I'll call as often as I can. Don't worry about me," he said to a tearful Alicia. "You won't feel alone anymore. You have Jonathan and Jade now."

"My baby… Why do you have to go abroad? You have a good job here."

"I need adventures. And I'm not a baby anymore." Damn, he was twenty-five!

"I know, I know, but you're still a baby to me."

Hawk sighed his exasperation. He could understand his clingy mother. There were just the two of them when her parents died from a plane crash.

"Alicia dear, let Hawk forged his way to the world. I'm here for you now. Let me take care of you," Jonathan crooned to her.

He smiled tightly at him. "Thanks," he mouthed.

"Hawk…" Jade called to him.

He schooled his expression before facing her. "Yes?"

"You will call me, too?" She requested in a small voice. Her deep brown eyes looked at him dolefully. Her lips pouting as though ready to give him a kiss.

Jade was following him around the house when he was at home. She would ask him everything under the sun. She was feeling like a little sister to a big brother with him. While he lusted after her…

"Course," he replied carelessly. His hands tightening to both bags he carried. "Goodbye."

Hawk walked away without looking back.

And now… he must face his own nightmare!

He stood up and looked out the window. It had been two years. Maybe the lust was not there anymore. Maybe the desire he felt for Jade had faded in time.

'Maybe...' he whispered despairingly.