“Go away, Chester,” I say.
“Why do you say that, whore?”
One of my male co-workers makes to intervene. I lift a hand, halting him.
“You are a small man,” I say, taking a step toward him. We are near the counter, but there are no customers except him just this minute, and the other customers sit around the tables at the other side of the café. I glare into his face, showing no fear. Because, I realize with a shock, I am not afraid. Too much has happened since we last met for me to be afraid. I am a mother, I am the president of the Tidal Knights’s fiancé. I have outgrown him. “You are a small, petty man, and you do not frighten me. If you ever put your hands on me again, I will take those goddamn hands.”
I growl the last words. Chester takes a step back, shocked.
“Now get the hell out of here,” I say. “Let me get on with my work.”
He waddles now, instead of swaggers, out of the café.
A few minutes later, Kade walks in.
“I’m taking you for a ride after work,” he says. “Don’t worry. I’ve already cleared it with Terry.”
He smirks at me. I kiss him on the cheek, and then say, “You’re planning something.”
“Maybe I am.” He kisses me on the forehead. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
Epilogue
Kade
I take Lana to the plot of land I’ve been saving for this past year. It’s green, and fresh, and new-looking, acres of land set within what looks like some fantasy landscape. In the middle of it sits a trailer I had Earl tow down here earlier today.
Leading Lana by the hand, I take her to the trailer. Then I let go of her hand and stand off to one side. This past year, damn . . . I’m closer to Lana now than I’ve ever been to anybody, even Duster. And my son . . . Well, he’s Duster, too. My son has changed everything. My son has changed the way I see the small things and the big things. I’m still the president, I still have Tidal Knights in my veins, but I’ve got a real family now.
A fiancé, a son, a life.
“What’s this?” Lana asks after a moment.
“It’s a trailer.” I grin at her.
She rolls her eyes. “I can see that. But why are we looking at it?”
I wave a hand at the green field, the outcrop of trees off to one side. “I own this plot of land,” I say, “and I’m going to build us a house. Just there, next to the trailer.” I indicate the spot. “The trailer’s for the meantime. For me, you, and Duster. For our family. I think it’s about time we had a proper home. Both of us started in a trailer park. Maybe it’s only right we return to one, if only for a little while.”
Lana dances across the grass and jumps at me, wrapping her legs around me and kissing me passionately.
“Did I tell you?” she says, as I hold her up, as lust surges between us.
“Tell me what?”
“I finished my book. But you’ve ruined that.”
“How’s that?”
She wriggles out of my grip, drops to the floor, and takes my hand.
“Because now I have to change the ending, silly.”
She giggles, and I laugh, and she leads me by the hand toward the door of the trailer.
THE END
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Books by Kathryn Thomas
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Raw Torque: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Gravediggers MC) (Mean Machine Collection Book 2)
We did it his way – rough, ruthless, and raw.
The choice was mine: get beaten, or get broken?
But then the outlaw swooped in and decided for me.
I didn’t ask to be rescued, but he doesn’t give a d*mn.
I’m at his mercy now.
AIMEE
I thought I knew how to survive.
But that was before they caught me and tossed me to a gang of violent thugs with two options:
Beg for their forgiveness on my knees…
Or pay the debt with my blood.
I didn’t ask for a savior, and I sure as hell didn’t expect it to be Breaker.
But he’s not fooling anyone.
He didn’t save me out of the goodness of his heart.
He saved me for himself.
Saved me with those strong hands that leave me gasping for more.
And when I hear his harsh voice whispering, “You’re mine now…”
I have no choice but to believe him.
BREAKER
I break beds at night, and hearts in the morning.
But when I saw her surrounded by those animals, something in me snapped.
Watching over some chick isn’t the kind of thing I do.
But Aimee was something else entirely.
A spitfire with a body begging to be tamed.
A smart mouth I wouldn’t mind wrapped around me.
She thinks I’m a monster.
But this monster’s her only chance of survival out here.
And I won’t stop until I make her MINE.
Raw Need: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Padre Knights MC) (Mean Machine Collection Book 1)
I need him to take me, even if he breaks me.
There’s no fighting that raw need, that pure desire.
But I fell for him, and when he left, it broke me.
He’s back now, ten long years later.
And he won’t rest until I’m his again.
ALI
I knew from the start that he was a bad idea.
There was a little voice inside my head, echoing everything that my parents and my students and my friends and everyone I’d ever known was telling me.
He’ll hurt you.
He’ll break your heart.
He’ll leave you broken and alone.
But there was another voice, too.
Deeper and rougher and far more persuasive.
It was Alejandro’s husky rasp, whispering in my ear…
“You’re mine now.”
And he only had to look in my eyes to see that that’s everything I ever wanted.
He broke me out of my good girl shell and showed me what the world looked like.
What it REALLY looked like.
On the back of his bike, with the wind in my hair and his leather jacket hot from the sun in front of me…
I was free. Really and truly free.
And then it happened – everything they promised would happen.
He hurt me.
He broke me.
And he left me all alone.
ALEJANDRO
I’ve dreamed of her every night for ten years.
None of the endless club girls I’ve had since I left home have compared to the one kiss we shared.
But I had to leave.
I had to become a man.
I’ve done that and then some.
I’m become a man that no one on earth would dare f**k with.
My scars, my tattoos, the outlaw motorcycle club patch on my leather kutte all tell the same story:
I’ve killed before and I’ll do it again if I must.
And death is the reason I’m back in my hometown.
There’s a war simmering on the horizon, one that will threaten to tear everything apart and slaughter everyone I once loved in the crossfire.
Including her.
Ali.
The girl I left behind.
I came back for her most of all.
But she has a life now – a home, a job, a fiancé.
I don’t give a damn.
She’s been mine from the moment I first kissed her.
And I’ll fight this war all by my godd*mn self if it means getting her back in my arms.
I want her.
I need her.
And I’m not gonna stop until I have her again.
Rebel’s Property: A Motorcycle Club Romance
(Satan’s Martyrs MC) (Claimed by Him Book 5)
He put me back together… just so he could break me again.
He saved me in my darkest moment.
But it was only for his own savage pleasure.
I should’ve run away when I had the chance.
It’s too late. Because now, I belong to the rebel.
HOPE
I was reaching my breaking point when Killian came into my life.
There was no hiding what he is—a beast.
A rugged, savage beast.
A beast who plays hard.
Who takes control in ways I never knew I wanted.
In ways I never knew I needed.
I have to be careful around him.
But when he leaves me gasping for more…
When his words make me shiver at what’s to come...
I realize that I don’t want him to let me go.
Not now.
Not ever.
I want him to own me for good.
KILLIAN
The outlaw life has made me numb.
Once upon a time, I was a fiery, vicious biker.
Ready to ride ‘til midnight and fight ‘til dawn.
I loved everything about the club:
The patch with colors that terrified any man who dared think to challenge me.
The tattoos and muscle that brought willing females flocking to my bed.
The money that flowed in like a godd*mn waterfall.
It all made me feel like a god.
But lately, I don’t feel much of anything.
My brother is finally out of prison.
I should be happy.
But instead… I’m numb. Unfeeling. Uncaring.
Until Hope walked in.
Something about her wakes me up again.
Maybe taking the curvy girl for a ride will rekindle the flame that used to burn so brightly inside me.
But it turns out that she’s far too innocent to be a part of my world.
She isn’t ready for this:
The drugs. The violence. The darkness.
But once you go biker, you never go back.
And I don’t care if she wants to run screaming for the hills.
I’m gonna do what I always planned on doing:
Pinning her to my bed.
Pressing my lips to her ear.
And telling her her grim new reality:
She’s mine now.
Forever.
Reaper’s Property: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Valley Reapers MC) (Claimed by Him Book 4)
Breaking her will be my masterpiece.
I like tattoos, whiskey, fighting, and f**king.
She’s too pure and innocent for my world.
But as soon as I had a taste of her perfection, I knew:
I won’t rest until I own the rest of her.
HAZEL
The bad boy biker caught me in the shadows, and I let him into my life.
My art was my safe house, but he turned it into an inferno.
There was no reason to believe him.
But then he wrapped his hands around my wrists, crushed me to the bed,
And made me plead for more.
I can’t struggle or move.
Can’t help but nod every time he presses his bearded lips against my ear and growls,
“I own you now, darling.”
LOGAN
I didn’t mean to bring my nightmare to her doorstep.
She wasn’t cut out for the outlaw life.
But that all changed when I tasted her.
Consumed her.
Made her the fiery sun at the center of my universe.
Now, a lunatic is blaming us for his shattered life.
He wants us in the ground.
He wants to steal her away.
But no one takes anything from me.
Not without a fight.
And I plan on fighting real f**king dirty.
Brute’s Property: A Motorcycle Club Romance (The Blazers MC) (Claimed By Him Book 3)
She’s mine to use as I please.
That was the deal.
Her body in exchange for her brother’s life.
But now that she belongs to me…
I’m gonna use her ‘til she can't take it anymore.
REV
It’s a savage pleasure to have a woman at my bidding.
To know I own every damn piece of her.
And it’s all mine for the taking.
For the squeezing.
For the biting.
For the f**king.
It didn’t have to be this way.
She could’ve just let me go about my business.
But that would’ve meant seeing her brother dead on the floor, with my bullet in the back of his head.
She wasn’t ready for that.
So she did the only thing she could:
She took his place.
But I wasn’t about to put a beauty like that in the dirt.
No, this one was coming home with me.
She’s my property now.
JENNA
I knew my brother was in trouble.
I just didn't know that he was in six-foot-four, two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of tattooed biker hitman trouble.
I can try and ignore Mark's drug problem all I want.
But there's no ignoring the chaos it's brought to our doorstep:
A killer sitting in the living room...
With a loaded gun aimed square between my eyes.
I'll do anything to protect my brother from the drug dealer hell-bent on ending his life.
I just didn't expect to have to protect myself from falling for the weapon sent to destroy him…
But I’m his from the moment he sees me.
Bad Boy’s Property: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Lost Disciples MC)
He tied me down and took me like he owned me.
I’m not his property. I refuse to be.
But the bad boy biker isn’t giving me much choice.
The harder I try to escape the MC life…
The harder he pins me down and owns me.
NATASHA
My father is dead. And now the monsters are coming after me.
I didn’t know what to feel while I watched my father’s body get lowered into the ground.
Part of me was devasted, of course – no daughter should have to bury her father.
But part of me couldn’t help but be relieved.
Because I want no part of my dad’s criminal empire.
I just want to be left the hell alone.
His enemies, his allies, all of them – get away from me.
But Griffin won’t take no for an answer.
I’ll admit it – I let him get too close.
That was my mistake.
But it might have been a fatal one.
Because Griffin will never be content with just one kiss, just one touch.
He won’t stop until he’s consumed all of me.
And the scariest part of all?
I don’t want him to stop.
I’m dying to see just how far the bad boy can take me.
GRIFFIN
I’m everything she never wanted.
I’m tatted and mean.
I’m rugged and ruthless.
I’m a leather-bound, inked-up son of a b!tch who seizes what he wants and doesn’t let go until I’ve gotten every bit of pleasure I can wring out of it.
And that includes her:
Natasha.
The delicate little princess.
She says she just wants to leave everything behind and run from her father’s legacy.
But the outlaw world is not so easy to get away from.
Us bikers cling to what we want.
And I want her.
I want her to beg me for release.
I want her to moan my name into the rafters.
I want her to realize that I own her body, her mind, her heart and soul.
Above al
l, I want her to see the truth:
She’s my property now.
Biker’s Property: A Bad Boy Biker Baby Romance (Chrome Horsemen MC)
He put a baby in my belly just to prove he owns me.
NICOLE
I’m a take-no-sh!t kind of girl.
I’ve made my own way in this world.
And I damn sure don’t need a man to tell me what to do.
Raw Speed_A Motorcycle Club Romance_Tidal Knights MC Page 17