FLASH (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 15)

by Samantha Leal

  “You have a damn nerve!” the petite blond with pretty blue eyes spat.

  “I don’t follow!” he said, releasing the redhead’s hand and turning warily to face the other little dynamo.

  “You made her cry! Again!” the woman spat angrily.

  No prizes for guessing who ‘she’ was.

  “I, um, I know. I was actually on my way to her now”

  Both women immediately aligned their bodies in front of the lift, effectively blocking his path.

  “Why? So you can torture her some more over some useless piece of trinket?” the redhead asked.

  “It’s not useless. My mother gave it to me with her last dying breath,” he protested automatically.

  Silence.

  “I was actually on my way to see Sage and apologize for behaving so dreadfully,” he said, encouraged by their silence.

  The redhead threw her head back and laughed harshly. “Well, good luck finding her. She left last night!”

  His heart skipped a beat. “Left? For where?”

  “Parts unknown! She wouldn’t talk to anyone, which is all your fault!”

  Raven felt every last trace of energy drain out of his body and he slowly sank to the floor, his back against the wall. How was he going to survive losing her? Would she even be back?

  As though she had read his mind, the blond said, “And she took a year’s worth of clothing with her when she left, so good luck finding her!”

  “And for the record, Sage only took that useless piece of trinket because we dared her to steal all the cash in a stranger’s wallet. She took your watch instead and never sold it!” the redhead flung over her shoulder.

  With a shake of their collective heads, both friends disappeared back into the lift, muttering audibly about insensitive men who deserved to be strung up, hung drawn and quartered.

  She could be anywhere in the world! How would he find her, he wondered.

  Well, how did you find her the last time? his mind wanted to know.

  Galvanized into action, he raced for the lift and dashed downstairs to the lobby. He hailed the first cab he saw and headed straight for the airport. He would look at the cameras.

  The moment the taxi pulled up at the airport curb, Raven flung a few notes at the cabman and dashed into the terminal, his head swinging around wildly. He grabbed the first security man he saw and shoved a thousand dollars into his palm as he demanded to see the cameras.

  “Whatever for? Someone pick your pocket?” the man asked as he hurriedly pocketed the money.

  “I need to find someone, my…wife! She left in a huff and headed here and she could be halfway around the world. I just wanna see what flight she boarded.”

  “You say she was pissed?” the man asked musingly, staring off into the distance.

  “Yes!” Raven affirmed impatiently. If he could just find out what plane she had boarded, he could jet on his private jet and be waiting at her destination airport by the time her plane landed.

  “This…wife, she wouldn’t happen to be blond, somewhat chubby, with sad brown eyes would she?” the security man asked.

  “That’s her! You saw her! What plane was she on?”

  “She’s right over there,” the man said, nodding toward the waiting crowd.

  Raven turned slowly and felt his stomach flip upside down; Sage sat a few feet away, weeping openly into her handkerchief as though her heart was broken.

  “Now, if you had anything to do with the way that poor girl’s weeping, mate, then it’s a good thing she left you,” the security man informed him huffily before swanning off with his nose in the air.

  * * *

  Sage was certain this was what it felt like to be a homeless hobo. She had packed up almost her entire belongings and now she just sat at the airport confused. She had wanted to go to Spain, back to where it had all started and just put things in perspective, but now… She missed her flight and she couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.

  Someone sank onto the seat beside her, but she kept her eyes focused on her palms, refusing to look up. She didn’t feel like chatting and if this idiot couldn’t tell then

  “I’m sorry,” a familiar voice said quietly.

  Sage’s shocked eyes flew to his face. Raven! Her stupid heart did a happy jig until she sternly calmed it down and glared at him with all the hatred in her heart.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she spat.

  “I never meant to hurt you. I was hurting myself. I felt used and stupid and I lashed out. I was wrong.”

  “Go to hell!” she spat and sprang to her feet to leave. He wouldn’t let her.

  His hand clamped about her wrist like a manacle and then he dropped to his knees, his eyes trained on her face. Everyone turned to look at the pair of them, the waiting crowd giggling as they obviously waited for some romantic proposal.

  “You’re embarrassing me!” she whispered furiously, trying to tug her arm from his grip. It was no use; it might as well be a handcuff for all the give it had.

  “Then sit back down. Please, Sage.”

  She slowly sank back onto her seat and he released her wrist, but he remained kneeling.

  “Sit,” she ordered furiously, her face suffused with embarrassed color.

  “I can’t. I don’t deserve to. I have been an ass. I shouldn’t have said what I did, especially because it wasn’t true. I was hurting, so I guess I just wanted to hurt you back.”

  Sincerity blazed back at her from his eyes and she relaxed a little against her seat, feeling some of the hurt gradually seeping away just like that. The man had a scary power over her.

  “I was wrong, Sage. I I love you,” he admitted quietly. “And I guess I just felt you took that watch to make some money, but you never sold it after two months. That alone told me it was a keepsake for you. My mother gave me that watch before she died and that’s all it was to me; of sentimental value. But now I realize I would cast a thousand of it away before I would lose you. I want to hear you laugh again and hear your soft cries as I ”

  The elderly gentleman seating beside them cleared his throat loudly and ruffled his newspaper.

  Sage giggled, unable to help herself at the look of exasperation on Raven’s handsome face.

  “Why don’t we get out of here?” he suggested.

  Sage shook her head, smiling happily at him, “You said you love me?”

  “With all my heart.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re you, and because I can’t help myself,” he told her softly.

  Tears sprang to her eyes again; this time, tears of such joy that her entire face glowed with it.

  Seeing the tears, Raven held her fingers in his and asked quietly, “Will you make me the happiest man on earth, Sage, and be my wife?”

  Now the tears were falling down her cheeks unchecked, her heart thumping in her throat as she stared at him in shock.

  “Please,” he whispered when he thought she was hesitating.

  She wasn’t hesitating; she was speechless.

  “There is nothing I want more than to spend the rest of my life with you; to have you in my arms and to have you as the mother of my children. You do want kids, right?”

  Sage nodded happily, her hand going protectively to her midriff.

  “Say yes, Sage. I don’t have a ring right now, but I swear the minute we get out of here, I’m going to get you the biggest, honking diamond I can find!”

  Sage dissolved into laughter and threw her arms around his neck, loving him as he slowly rose to his feet, taking her with him. She leaned back in his arms and grinned at him, “Yes I love you, and yes, I’ll marry you.”

  He leaned down and took her lips in a kiss so infinitely tender that it would have melted her into a puddle right there if his powerful hands hadn’t been holding her up.

  When he lifted his dark head, she smiled at him, “And about those kids, how do you feel about twins?”

  He grinned happily, “Well, if it’
s twins you want, I hear we have to make love at least thrice a day to get twins. I’ll be happy to oblige you, ma’am,” he said, leerily.

  She laughed. He really was something else. “Slow down tiger. Before you start rotating the mattress in your mind, I’m already pregnant. Twins!”

  His heart skipped a beat against her chest and then he grinned, looking happier than she had ever seen him as he said, “I must be the luckiest man alive.”

  No, Sage corrected inwardly as she hugged him tightly. She was the luckiest woman alive, she decided, as her eyes shut.

  THE END

  Wealthy Famous Hot and Mine

  Katrina Bliss

  Copyright ©2016 by Katrina Bliss. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter 1

  Erin, to the displeasure of her family and now her best friend Alicia, never liked the beach. Even as a child, she had always been a mountain person. To arrive at a compromise with Alicia, they picked a cabin at the foot of a valley, beside a lake, as their vacation spot. Not that Alicia accepted it as much of a compromise.

  They were sitting in rocking chairs on the balcony of the cabin with a view of the mossy green, serenely quiet lake before them.

  “Isn’t this charming?” Erin asked and took a sip from the steaming mug of hot chocolate she had been cradling in her hands. She saw Alicia roll her eyes. “What? What now?” Erin asked, shaking her head.

  “Where are the waves? The half-naked chiseled men showing off their torsos? The frozen margaritas and the sunscreen lotion? This is for middle-aged people, Erin!” Alicia drained her own hot chocolate into her mouth and sighed. Erin couldn’t help but smile, her best friend had always had a knack for drama.

  “You haven’t even given it a chance yet, Alicia. We’ve been here exactly what? Ten hours? And you’re making it sound like we’ve been stuck here forever. Besides, I’m nursing a broken heart and should be made to feel warm and comforted.” Erin pouted her lips. If Alicia knew how to exaggerate her misery, Erin had a few of her own tricks up her sleeves. Alicia sprang up from her chair and lunged towards Erin to give her a tight hug.

  “I’m sorry, cutie. Forget I said anything. You’re right, we need to concentrate on you.” She had crouched down beside Erin now and the two girls exchanged smiles.

  “I hope you haven’t been going through the messages again, Erin?” Alicia straightened her back, stood up and tightened her wrap around her shoulders. Erin sighed and shook her head.

  “No, I haven’t been doing that. I’ve taken the battery out of my phone and hidden it at the bottom of my suitcase.” She watched Alicia make her way back to her rocking chair and settle down.

  “How does that help? You’ve not exactly hidden it from yourself if you know where it is.” Alicia reached for Erin’s mug of hot chocolate.

  “No, but in my moment of weakness, having to take all my clothes and stuff out of the suitcase to reach the battery will give me enough time to calm myself and change my mind.” Erin allowed the mug to slip out of her hands and rubbed her palms together. If the temperature dropped any further, the caretaker of the lodge promised that the lake would freeze over. Erin secretly wished that would happen. She wanted the lake to freeze, for translucent icicles to drop down and then freeze mid-way from the pine tree leaves around them. She was hoping that the bitter cold would numb her heart and muscles and stop herself from physically aching.

  She hadn’t realized when Alicia had reached out and was gently rubbing the side of her arm. She threw her friend a gentle thankful look.

  “Thanks for coming, Alicia. I really do appreciate it.” Her voice squeaked as she spoke and she saw how Alicia flinched. Neither of them was accustomed to Erin being the one in need of support and comfort. They had been friends since Kindergarten and Alicia had always been the one to throw a fit, cry over the men in her life. Erin was the stoic one.

  “I really hate him. I hate Steve. If I see him I’d ̶ ” Alicia was spitting the words out and Erin interrupted her.

  “Forget it. Let’s just not talk about it.”

  “But we need to talk about it, Erin. The guy cheated on you, had been cheating on you for several months. You can’t just pretend that you’ll be able to distract yourself from it for the rest of your life.” Alicia was still drinking Erin’s hot chocolate.

  “I just don’t want to talk about it now, that’s all.” Erin couldn’t keep the annoyance out of her voice. She knew Alicia was trying to help, was trying to be a friend but she didn’t want to turn into a cranky cry baby.

  “This is exactly the reason why you end up going through old messages and emails. Because you’re not venting.” Alicia handed the half empty mug of hot chocolate back to Erin and stood up from her chair.

  “Where are you going?” Erin was predicting a dramatic quarrel between the two of them. A day would never be complete if they didn’t go through one of these.

  “I’m going to have a long hot bath, drink some wine and then try and persuade Ms. Carter to light the fire. I’m freezing out here.” Alicia was already halfway back into the cabin. She held the door open with her other hand fixed on her hip.

  “You coming in?” she asked Erin, but only got a shake of the head in response.

  “Just don’t stay out here too long. Come find me soon?” She sighed as she went inside and Erin grinned and drank some of the remaining bits in her mug. Despite their differences and their quarrels, there was nobody else she was more comfortable with than Alicia. In fact, Erin had always believed that if they hadn’t met in Kindergarten and she hadn’t punched a boy in the face when they were six because he was teasing Alicia, they might have never become friends. They were the opposites in school and everybody around them wondered what kept them together. The skinny blonde Cheerleader and the geeky nerd with the braces who always aced every exam, including the surprise ones.

  Erin was smiling to herself as she thought about their friendship through the years, subconsciously grateful that she had something else to think about rather than Steve.

  “Sorry, is someone sitting here?” Erin was jolted out of her thoughts by the voice of a man she had not noticed had now joined her in the balcony. She looked up to find him hovering over the chair that Alicia had been sitting on, her discarded wrap was still lying on the seat of the chair.

  “No, please go ahead. My friend was but she’s gone in now.” Erin spoke too quickly, slightly embarrassed to be caught in the middle of deep thoughts. How long had he been there? Had she been smiling and rocking herself like a fool this whole time?

  She watched as he picked up the edge of the wrap with one hooked finger, like it was something that could infect him with a fatal viral disease. He held it away from his body as he walked the short distance with it over to Erin’s side and then gently flung it over the back of her own chair. She wanted to laugh, just the sight of him made her want to burst out laughing.

  He was incredibly tall, for starters. Erin wasn’t the tallest girl she knew, but she was certain that this person was at least half a foot taller than Alicia…who was the tallest girl she knew. The lower half of his face was covered in a rough salt-pepper beard and his dark hair was scruffy and brushed back, away from his forehead. Only his temples betrayed a slight smattering of grey. She watched as he quietly settled into the rocking chair, a leather-bound book in his hands. She couldn’t quite tell his age, although he was most certainly older than her. He was in a warm plaid shirt and baggy jeans. If he wasn’t a fellow guest at the cabin, he most definitely was a local carpenter or lumberjack. Her eyes fell on his thick wrists and the way the muscles on his shoulders tensed as he started flipping through the pages of his book. She wondered if he had single- handedly built the cabin himself.

  “Are you a guest here?” she aske
d, interrupting his flipping and he looked up at her with slanted eyes. His dark green eyes contained a flicker of annoyance which silenced her, she immediately decided she would leave him alone.

  “Yes,” he replied and went back to reading his book. Erin looked away from him and out towards the lake. She didn’t want to worry about how rude and unfriendly the man was being, she had her own worries to keep at bay. They should have been taking up all her energy.

  “How long are you staying here?” his voice was deep and thick. It was almost like his voice boomed as it bounced off the walls of the mountains that surrounded them. She cleared her throat before she spoke. He was glaring at her, although the question from anybody else would have been a friendly innocent one. Coming from him, it made her slightly nervous. She wanted to give him the right answer, although what would be the right answer to bring a smile on his face?

  “A fortnight,” she said and only now realized that she had been nervously cracking her fingers. His gaze had fallen on her hands and she stopped doing it. In her mind, she thought that he took awfully long to respond and allowed too much silence to ensue between them.

  After a few seconds, he grunted and Erin wasn’t sure what kind of a response that was.

  “And yourself?” she asked him but he had gone back to reading his book again.

  “A month, maybe longer. I’m undecided,” he said, without looking up at her again. Erin sat back in her chair and began rocking herself gently, for the lack of anything else to do. When the chair creaked after a few minutes of silence, he looked up sharply, as if angered by the sound. Erin stopped rocking. For a second, she felt guilty for disturbing his reading and an instant later she was furious. Why would he make her feel guilty? She was as much a guest at the cabin as he was.

  “Ms. Carter must have lit the fire inside by now. It might suit your reading needs better,” she snapped at him and he looked up, their eyes met. She held his gaze, even though her heart continued to pound and she wanted to look away embarrassed. He had a knowing look on his face, she was certain that he knew she was trying to make a jab at his impolite reactions to her presence.