“Oh, wonderful. I’ll get my cake ready.” Grams stood and took my plate to the sink. “New guests always require the good china.” She clapped her hands, completely giddy, flying toward her curio cabinet sitting in the corner of the kitchen.
“Um, no. Don’t do that, Grams. It’s late, and my guess is he’s gonna want to just go to bed when he gets inside anyway.” If I could even get him inside.
Grams turned back around, four small white plates in her grasp. “Everyone loves my wacky cake, Summer. And it’s still warm. That’s when it tastes the best.”
I stood and moved next to her. “I know. It’s just that there’s no need—” The front door slammed shut, cutting me off. I turned to find the seat at the kitchen table where Grandpa had been sitting empty. “Shit.”
“Dear, don’t cuss.” I faced my grams again, her frown suddenly replaced by a conniving smile. The corners of her eyes twitched as she pressed a free hand to my cheek. “It’s unbecoming of a young lady looking for a new suitor.”
Dear God. What had I gotten myself into?
Five
Niyol
The pounding wouldn’t stop.
Boom, boom, boom.
Slowly, I opened my eyes, reaching for the Glock in my pocket that wasn’t there. All these years later and my instincts never failed.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
“What the…?” I sat up slowly, eyes narrowed out the window. Standing on the other side of the glass was… “Santa?” I jammed both palms into my eyelids. Obviously, I was hallucinating.
“Get up. There’s cake in the house for you,” the old man yelled.
I reached over to turn off the car, then opened the door a crack. “Who’re you?”
“The owner of this house.” He lifted his chin, eyes narrowed. “And Summer’s grandpa.”
Two shadows behind him caught my eye from the porch of a huge white house. It was Summer standing next to some old lady.
“Fuck,” I whispered under my breath and pushed the door open the rest of the way, nodding a greeting at the old man.
“You don’t talk, boy?”
I shrugged, following him up a winding sidewalk.
“It ain’t polite not to answer your elders.”
“I talk fine.” I swallowed.
“Good. Because when you meet my wife, I expect you to hold a better conversation with her than you do me.”
Damn. This man gave me running for asshole of the year. I liked him already.
Summer stumbled over a step on the porch, eyes flitting between me and her grandpa. The lady, who I assumed was her grandma, stayed inside the doorway, stance cautious as she grinned from behind a screen door.
“I’m sorry,” Summer whispered as I walked past.
I kept my voice low as Summer’s grandpa stepped inside the house first. “I told you I’d sleep in the car.”
“I had every intention of letting that happen.” She tucked some of her hair behind her ear and glanced back over her shoulder before looking at me again. “But they saw you out here and wouldn’t let it go.” She bit down on her bottom lip—a move she’d been doing a lot. I followed the plump curve of her mouth, the way those teeth sunk into the flesh, completely and utterly distracted by thoughts of doing it myself.
Not a good idea, motherfucker.
I looked away and cleared my throat before uttering, “It’s fine.” Being inside a house like this made my skin crawl. Too homey. Too nice. Too unfamiliar.
Before I could head in, Summer touched my shoulder. “Please be nice. It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen them and…” She blinked those aqua blues, trailing off into a world I couldn’t help but want to know.
My shoulders fell at the thought of her having demons like me. New Niyol made a rare appearance as I dug my fingers through my hair. “Hey.”
Something in my stomach leapt when she looked at me—expectant, fearful, curious.
“Yeah?”
I blew out a slow breath. “I’ll be nice. Promise.”
Slowly, Summer smiled—a smile I didn’t deserve. She was too sweet for the likes of me, and damn if I didn’t want to corrupt her, new life goals be damned.
With a shaky sigh, she mouthed, Thank you, and skipped ahead. I dipped my head back, eyes to the sky as I slammed the door on my thoughts again.
“Welcome to our home, you strapping young man. My name’s Peaches.” The grandma—Peaches? —slapped her palm against my back as she shut the door behind me. “I think you’ll do just fine for my girl.”
“Uh…” I scratched the back of my neck as she led me through their living room. “I’m actually going to stay in Summer’s Range Rover tonight.” I jabbed my thumb back toward the door, stopped, then stuffed my hands into my pockets. “Just feel more comfortable out there is all.”
Summer, now standing in the entryway of the kitchen, stiffened at my words.
Her grandma, on the other hand… “No, you will not. There is a perfectly made-up bed for both you and Summer to share upstairs. I’m not that old-fashioned, you know.”
Summer spun around and grabbed her grandma’s hand. “Grams, no. I told you. Niyol and I are not—”
“You know what?” I stepped between Summer and her grandma, the RD who loved corruption coming to the forefront of my mind. “I do think I’ll stay inside now.” I winked at Summer, finding her pink cheeks now even pinker. Then, because I couldn’t help myself, I backed up and wrapped an arm around her waist, fingers grazing the warm flesh of her hip just under her shirt.
Consider it payback for all the talking she’d done so far.
Her grandma’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she pressed her hands together beneath her chin. “This is just wonderful.”
That was a first. An old lady, thinking I was wonderful? Fuck. I wondered what she’d think if she knew that, inside my black duffle, I carried a knife the size of my forearm for protection. And that was only because I couldn’t get my hands on a gun before I left town.
“Cake’s all served up and ready,” the grandpa called from the kitchen.
Grinning from ear-to-ear, Peaches headed toward her husband, patting Summer’s cheek along the way. When they were both out of earshot, Summer pushed me away.
“Are you insane? Grams is going to have us married and cursing us with pregnancy juju by the time we’re out of here tomorrow.” She glared up at me, those blues shimmering with barely checked rage. Her reaction only made me smile wider—made my cock twitch a little too.
“You wound me, Princess.” I lowered a hand to my heart and grinned, deciding to play a game. If her grandparents thought I was her soon-to-be Prince Charming, I’d play the part, no problem.
She stabbed the back of my wrist with her finger. “I’ll do more than wound you if you don’t watch it.” And then she was off, her tiny shorts catching my gaze, and damn if I couldn’t look away.
Six
Summer
Last night was the worst. At least the part after Niyol came inside. Grams was being ridiculous, asking us how long we’d been together. Niyol didn’t even try to correct her; too seduced by her wacky cake to even acknowledge anyone’s existence.
He was a traitor. A total man. You put a little good food in his stomach and he succumbed to anything and everything a woman wanted, especially the sixty-six-year-old kind.
After we finished eating, I headed upstairs to take a shower, ignoring Niyol’s rumbly voice and boisterous laugh. He had my grandparents eating out of the palm of his hands in a matter of minutes, and it was the strangest, most unnerving thing I’d ever encountered.
Exhausted from the drive, I had plans to head straight to bed when I was done with my shower. Yet when I got to the room Grandpa had put my stuff in, I noticed the extra bag on the floor… and the big body already asleep in what was supposed to be my bed. Grams hadn’t been kidding when she thought Niyol and I should sleep in the same room together.
I thought I’d fallen asleep on the floor, but when
I opened my eyes this morning, I found myself buried under a blanket on the bed instead.
Nervous energy kick-started my heart when I rolled over. I blinked, letting go of a breath when I found the spot behind me cold and empty. Had I been sleepwalking? Because there was no way Niyol would have put me in bed with him willingly.
I slipped out from beneath the sheets, the pull and promise of coffee drawing me toward the kitchen. But when I went to open the door, a voice from the hall gave me pause. With careful ease, I pressed my ear to the wood and listened.
“I don’t know if you’ll get this message. But we need to talk, Maya.” He paused. “I’m out of prison and I’m coming to California. I’m hopin’ you’ll let me stay with you.” He sighed, sounding incredibly defeated for a man with so much grit. My throat grew tight with empathy, all my bitterness from last night slipping away. I’d known he held a softer side than what I’d encountered so far. It was what made me want to keep trying to get to know him.
He was Emily’s stepbrother, a guy who was a little broken, but needed some tape to fix him right up. A sad man was truly no man at all—that’s what my father used to say. Not because they were any less of a person, but because they needed someone to help them feel un-sad. I could be that person for Niyol temporarily. If he’d let me.
The door whipped open before I could step back. I fell to the floor with a groan, hands braced out at my sides. A lightning-sharp pain shot up my tailbone and tears instantly welled in my eyes. Pain tolerance was the one thing I lacked.
“Jesus, Summer, what are you…” Niyol froze, dark eyes narrowing as he held my gaze. Quickly, I wiped my damp eyes before he reached forward to help me stand. He dropped my hand away, rubbing a palm against his jeans.
“I…” Ass on fire, I brushed off the back of my sleep shorts and blinked up at him, my equilibrium still out of whack.
His brows furrowed. “Were you spying on me?”
Swallowing hard, I took a step back, stopped short by a wall. “I wasn’t spying, per se. At least not on purpose. I just needed to go to the bathroom and accidentally overheard you talking.”
That dark scar by his lip was more pronounced up close. My fingers twitched against my thighs with the strangest urge to touch it—an urge that needed to stand right down. His nostrils flared, as though he was smelling something, surely not me. A natural reaction had me inhaling too, and the scent of soap and menthol filled my senses. Clean, masculine, and one-hundred-percent Niyol.
My gaze dropped to the ends of his hair as droplets of water fell onto his massive shoulders. Massive shoulders which were encased in yet another black tee.
“The bathroom is that way.” He pointed toward the en-suite door to his left, eyes still narrowed.
“Who were you talking to?” I asked, because, apparently, I was a glutton for punishment.
“Nobody you know.” His rough voice crackled through the air, angry and vicious, yet filled with a tinge of regret and sadness too.
I shivered. “Are you in trouble?”
His eyes darkened at my question.
I held up one hand. “Sorry. Just… ignore me.” I shook my head and moved to my left. He followed, a hand landing next to my head on the wall. He didn’t trap me in, but clearly, our conversation wasn’t over.
“You don’t need to spy on me,” he said. “If you’ve got questions, ask them.” His words were the most civil things he’d said to me since we’d left Lisa’s house. Yet at the same time, I could feel the tension between us, his dark anger most of all. I wasn’t sure if he was mad at me or the world more.
“For the last time, I was not spying,” I scoffed, folding my arms between us, needing the barrier. “I was just wondering why you were talking in the hallway when you could talk in here. Or outside.”
He licked his lips, eyes darting quickly to my cleavage, then my face. My throat grew warm, as did my cheeks. It was the first time he’d looked at me like I was something other than a pain in the ass. And I liked it way too much.
No more men, Summer. Remember that.
“I didn’t want to wake you. That’s why I didn’t talk in the room.” He paused, rubbing a hand over his mouth before leaning forward and caging me in, his hands pressed against the wall along the sides of my head.
I blinked as the scent of his aftershave caressed my nose. Holy hell, he smelled good.
“And I didn’t want your grandparents thinking I was running off or hiding shit.”
That was actually quite… respectful. “Oh.”
He cocked a brow. “Why does it matter where I talk anyway?”
I dropped my arms and our chests brushed together. The heat coming off him was nearly asphyxiating as my shoulders grazed the wall. Raw man-power emanated from his body, and I shivered once more, hating how the single brush of his dark shirt against my tank top made my insides tingle.
This was how it always started for me, my body overtaking my mind. Blinded by a pair of gorgeous eyes and pretty man-lips, I was in serious trouble when it came to hot dudes.
Two years of my life I’d wasted on Landon. The only reason I’d found out he’d been cheating was because I’d caught him in the act—literally on the desk in his office one afternoon. Week after week, he’d been coming home, smelling like cheap perfume, and I’d been too much of a freaking idiot to recognize the signs. Too blinded by thoughts of a happily-ever-after most of all.
Had I not discovered the truth, then I would’ve been walking down the aisle soon, in the five-thousand-dollar dress I’d burnt to a crisp in my fireplace just last week.
Therapy had never been so expensive.
I shook my head to rid the memory. “It doesn’t matter. And again, I’m sorry for listening in like I did. It won’t happen again. I respect others’ privacy. Trust me.”
He nodded once, but didn’t respond, nor did he look convinced. Thankfully, the anger in his eyes simmered a little, though the replacement wasn’t much better. Smoldering, dark, and everything I wasn’t expecting. My breath caught a little, nipples tightening against my tank.
Good Lord, I needed to get laid. Self-imposed-ban-on-men, say what? Maybe I had this ban all wrong. Maybe I needed to screw my ex from my system. I could almost bet that Niyol would be amazing at taking the itch away. He had a certain dominance to him, edged with a bad-boy sex appeal, and would no doubt give me the ride of my life if I asked him to.
On the other hand, fantasizing about the giver of any of my future orgasms being a man I was going to be trapped inside a car with for the next week or so was probably not a good idea. Plus, he was a law-breaker, and from the sounds of it, hung up on someone else… though a man in love with one woman shouldn’t have been looking at me the way Niyol currently was. Like he wanted to taste me, touch me, bend me over the very bed I’d woken up in…
His tongue snuck out of his mouth and something shiny caught my eye as it clicked against his teeth. Distracted, not thinking of anything but the sudden ache between my thighs, I whispered, “You have a tongue ring.”
He nodded. “I do.”
The longer he stared back at me, the darker his eyes seemed to grow. They were black holes of unnerving nothingness and everything at the same time. My heart raced uncontrollably in my chest and dampness coated the back of my neck from sweat. Since when did it get so hot in here? I shifted from one foot to the other, but all that did was cause his leg to graze the sensitized space I was dying to get relief from. He tipped his head to the side, studying me like a puzzle. One he was fighting against figuring out. Before I could make the decision for him—before I could jump in his arms and wrap my thighs around his waist—he dropped his hands away from beside my face, pressing them to my hips instead.
“When did you get it pierced?” My voice was a whisper, the breath grazing my lips like tiny fingers.
“Twenty-first birthday present to myself.”
I cleared my throat. “Did it hurt?”
“No.”
Unconsciously, I arched
my hips against his, one, slow push and pull. At my movement, Niyol’s breath seemed to catch, and the sight of his already dark skin flushed even more.
Power washed over me at the sight, a sudden urge to bring this hardened man to his knees suddenly my biggest need in life. So, again, I arched my hips, loving how his eyes shut, how his lips parted too. Loving the low growl in his throat. Wild. Uncaged. A beast ready to explode.
In the process, my thong grazed my clit, sending delicious shockwaves through me. I gasped at the sensation and he reopened his eyes. A new look surfaced there in his gaze, one which sent goosebumps dancing over my arms.
Desire. Need. Lust.
It spurred my next question. “Are you pierced anywhere else?”
A full-wattage grin lit up his face, dark with promises of pain—the good kind. Pair that grin with the heat in his eyes, and I was ready to eradicate my sudden celibacy for one simple shot at this man. One orgasm would be more than worth any consequences. I was sure of it.
“You interested in finding out, Princess?” He arched one brow, teasing. Niyol knew exactly what he was doing, and I could tell he was enjoying it. But instead of taking advantage of what I silently offered, he took a step back, his hands dropping away and ending the heat.
I let go of a breath, realizing just how wrong this was.
I had to be rebounding. That’s all. Because there’s no way on earth I’d ever find myself being drawn to a man like Niyol Lattimore as something more than eye candy. He was a bad man who’d done bad things, with his very bad… tongue? No, no. Not his tongue. His tongue was far from bad. In fact, that tongue was killer sexy and—
God, I wanted him against me again. I wanted to be kissed by those full lips. Touched by those large hands. On my breasts, between my thighs… Who was I kidding? I wanted to experience the bad side of life in the form of a man who’d likely been to the deepest, darkest depths of it.
Most of all, I wanted that tongue in my mouth.
Her Wild Ride: An addictive, steamy biker MC romance suspense novel Page 4