by Ryan Michele
“Crazy situations are our specialty,” said a man with dark hair, a playful grin, and a jagged scar that ran from his eye to his ear. “I’m Phoenix.”
“Good to know,” she said, appreciating his humor.
“Crazy is your specialty, anyway,” the blond man next to Phoenix said. She recognized him from being at the garage earlier. “Hey again, Andi. I’m Maverick.”
She enjoyed their camaraderie, seeing now why Jagger had described them as a family. Hell, they seemed more like a family than her own since her parents and older brother disapproved of her work so much that it was almost painful to visit them. And God if what’d happened today wouldn’t just affirm their views of what she did.
A man with dark hair, ice blue eyes, and tattoos on his throat gave her a nod. He didn’t joke around the way the other two had; he just gave her his name. “I’m Caine.” She wasn’t sure she was going to be able to remember all these names, but she’d definitely remember those unusual and world-weary eyes.
The next man stepped forward. He was tall with longish dark hair and a face that was almost harsh, but his words were kind when he spoke. “I’m Dare. You need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll get you through this.” His patch indicated that he was the club’s president.
“Oh, Haven’s Dare?” she asked, remembering that Haven mentioned the name earlier. A few of the men immediately started laughing and hassling him, and Andi felt terrible for saying the wrong thing. Dare flipped them all off, unleashing another round of laughter. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be. I am one hundred percent Haven’s, and these guys are all assholes.”
She grinned, and the rest of them introduced themselves in turn. Ike, Meat, Bandit, and Tank, whose size matched his name. Andi felt like she’d maybe fallen through a rabbit hole into a new world.
“Pretty much just say ‘hey you’ and any of them will answer,” Jagger said at her side.
Andi chuckled, and it didn’t escape her notice that the other guys seemed interested in how attentive Jagger was being towards her. She was interested in it, too. And liking it. At least not everything in this new reality was bad. Not bad at all.
“So, what’s the plan?” she asked Jagger.
Caine was the one who spoke. “We’ll do a sweep of the house, set up some security systems for you, and keep a few guys here at all times until this is resolved.”
Wow. Andi didn’t know what to say, so she simply handed over her keys and let the Ravens do their thing.
Inside, she showed everyone around, and then she went to the kitchen and got drinks and snacks to set out. Food never hurt anything, she figured, and anyway, keeping herself busy would give her something else to think about. And the guys seemed to appreciate her efforts as they grabbed handfuls of pretzels or chips and cans of soda as they did what they had to do.
Which included reinforcing the locks on the basement door of her little rancher, adding window sensors, and installing motion-triggered lights in the front and rear of her house.
“Cameras focused on all the exterior doors?” Phoenix asked Caine.
The man nodded. “I also want one pointed down at the street. Let’s see if we have anyone driving by with any sort of regularity.”
The thought raced shivers down Andi’s neck.
But all the while, Jagger stayed at her side. “They’re pros at this. You’re in good hands,” he said, echoing Sergeant Martin and coming up behind her as she stood at the kitchen counter refilling one of the snack bowls. His hands settled on her hips, and somehow in the midst of the whirlwind of activity and despite some unnamed threat, arousal flooded through Andi’s body.
“I know I am,” she said, peering over her shoulder at him. Those dark eyes blazed at her. This time, she was the one to initiate the kiss. She turned in his arms, and he pinned her against the counter. And suddenly she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in this man. In any way. In every way. The rest of the world be damned.
Jagger’s fingers raked into her hair as his tongue tasted her. She felt the penetration as if it’d happened elsewhere on her body, which explained why she got wet from his kiss alone. “Jagger,” she rasped.
He pulled back from the kiss and nailed her with a stare. “What, baby?”
This whole day had her coming apart at the seams. The accident, the puppy, the flirting, the fear, the feeling that being with this man was so damn right. Maybe it didn’t make sense, but that didn’t make it any less true. “I need you.”
“Fuck.” He claimed her mouth again, his cock hardening against her belly, driving her need harder, hotter. “You can have me. Any way you want.”
She was a wound-up mess by the time the Ravens cleared out another half an hour later. Outside, motorcycles revved like thunder in the night, so loud that her windows vibrated. And then they all rolled out.
Jagger closed the front door and turned to her. “Caine’s gonna surveil the house from a distance so nothing seems out of the ordinary if someone comes by who’s been keeping an eye on the place. He pulled my truck into your garage.”
Andi nodded. “But you’re staying?”
He looked her up and down, his dark-eyed gaze absolutely on fire. “I’m staying.” And then he was stalking across the room to her and getting right up in her space. Right where she wanted him to be. “You still need me?”
Her breath was shaky when she released it—not from nerves, but from anticipation. “More than I’ve ever needed anything in my life.”
She wasn’t sure whether he moved first or she did, but they were suddenly all over each other. His mouth claiming hers. Her hands shoving off his jacket while his hands went to the button on her jeans. She went for his shirt next, forcing them to break the kiss as he helped work it over his head. And holy wow, Jagger was lean and hard-bodied, rugged and masculine, and inked in too many ways and places for her to track just then. They stumbled backward toward the hall kissing and touching and moaning, and leaving a trail of clothing in their wake.
By the time they stumbled into her bedroom, they were both bare to the waist, both of their jeans hanging open. Jagger only parted from her long enough to close the blinds, which was the first time she saw the enormous tattoo of the Raven Riders’ insignia on his back. It moved with his muscles, as if the raven was alive and watching her. And then Jagger paused and looked at her from across the room. “God, you’re fucking beautiful.”
She pushed her jeans over her hips and stepped out of them, leaving her in a pair of black boy shorts and nothing else. “You make me feel beautiful when you look at me like that.”
“Like what?” He closed the distance between them slowly, purposefully, like he was the predator and she was the prey.
A thrill raced over her skin. “Like you want to devour me.”
And then he was right there, running his lips up her neck as his palms settled on her ass. “And what if I do?” he rasped into her ear.
“It would be exactly what I want, too.”
“Jesus, woman, you’re like a dream,” he said before his mouth slanted over hers again. His fingers slipped under her boy shorts until he was pushing them down her thighs. And then he went to his knees and peered up at her. “I want my mouth on you.”
Nodding, Andi gasped as this big strong man grabbed her by the hips and buried his face against the juncture of her thighs. The first stroke of his tongue against her clit made her cry out his name, but he didn’t give her a second to get used to the feel of him. Pushing her stance wider, he ate her like he was starving. His fingers dug into her hips and ass. His tongue licked and penetrated. His mouth sucked until the room spun around her. Andi was moaning and gasping and trembling as sensation gathered and tightened low in her belly. She braced a hand in his hair, and when he groaned his approval, she tightened her grip and urged him on, pressing his head more firmly against her. Understanding what she needed, he went at her hard, sucking and flicking at her clit as if commanding her to come.
He lowered her into his lap and kissed her like his mouth hadn’t yet had its fill. And Andi wasn’t complaining. Not one damn bit.
“So fucking beautiful, baby. You come for me so good.”
“I want you to come for me,” she said, her voice breathy and soft.
“Yeah? Don’t you worry about that. Because we’re just getting started.”
Jagger looked at this gorgeous woman in his lap, cheeks flush from the orgasm he’d wrung out of her with his mouth, smiling at him like he was somehow worthy of everything she was giving him. Maybe he could be worthy if he kept his promise to her. And, damnit, he would do everything he could.
And what he was going to do right now was give her the pleasure she needed to make it through the rest of this day and forget that something was looming somewhere out there in the darkness.
He lifted the both of them to their feet and held her until she was steady, and then he toed out of his boots. Fishing a condom out of his wallet, he winked at her before he dropped his jeans and bared himself.
Andi’s gaze was heavy lidded and hot as she drank him in, and it made his cock even harder. “Fuck, baby, the way you’re looking at me.”
“I want you inside me, Jagger.”
Her words drew him to her again. “How do you want me?”
“There’s no way I don’t want you,” she said with a sexy smile.
But he wanted her to say what she wanted from him, what she needed from him. “How do you want me now?”
She licked her lips and let the words fly. “Bend me over the bed.”
“Yeah? Fuck, yeah.” He kissed her and walked her to the bed, and then bent her over the bottom corner of it. The position spread her legs for him, laying her out so fucking perfectly. He made quick work of the condom, and then he was lining himself up with her opening and sinking deep.
Both of them groaned at the sweet fucking intensity of it.
“Christ, you’re perfect,” he rasped as he got deeper and deeper until she’d taken him all. “Jesus, baby, feel that.”
“God, Jagger, it’s so good.” Her words were filled with a desperation that went right to his balls.
He started to move in her then, his body exploring hers, his senses hyper-focused on her sounds and movements and reactions. He wanted to wring every ounce of pleasure out of this moment for her. Coming down on top of her, he braced a hand by her shoulder and kissed her neck. “What do you need to come again?” he asked, his hips working on a slow grind in and out of her.
“Harder,” she whispered. “Harder everywhere.”
The words turned his blood molten as he gave her what she needed. His hips slapped against her ass on deep, punctuated thrusts. His hand went to her hair and gathered up a thick fistful that he used to pull her head up so he could kiss her. Just once. His thrusts were too fast now for them to hold the kiss, so he released her hair and braced his weight against her lower back, holding her down right where he wanted her.
“Harder?” he growled.
“Yes,” she cried. “Yes.”
“Put your hand between your legs for me.”
When she did, he gave her what she asked for. The force of his thrust moved the bed, but he couldn’t care when she moaned his name in that pleasure-drenched way. So he gave her his hardness again. And again. Until she was babbling and moaning and rocking her hips against her hand and his dick. His orgasm was barreling down on him, a freight train he wasn’t going to outrun, but he wanted her to get there first. He wanted to feel her coming all over his cock.
On the next stroke, he brought his hand down on her ass.
Andi’s whole body arched up off the bed and her body clamped down on his. “Jagger! Oh God!”
“There it fucking is,” he gritted out as her muscles fisted around his dick so tight he nearly saw stars. And then there was no holding back his own orgasm, especially when she scissored her fingers around where he was gliding in and out of her. “Jesus fuck, Miranda, I’m coming in you, baby. I’m coming so fucking hard.” His whole body jerked as the orgasm wracked through him, leaving him wrecked and boneless and more goddamned sated than he’d ever felt in his life.
Their panting breaths were the only sounds in the room—
Except that wasn’t true, was it?
Because for the first time in nearly a year, he heard music in his head. The rhythm was set to the beat of Andi’s heart that he could hear where his head rested against her back. Runs were inspired by the wild curls of her hair spilling all down her arm. Something in a major chord with a fucking hopeful feeling to it.
But even though she’d given him back the miraculous gift of his music, his hands didn’t itch for a guitar like they usually did when his mind filled with inspiration. Because he had the flesh-and-blood inspiration in his hands. And she’d given him every reason to hope that he’d get his music back after all. Back for good.
“You’re fucking amazing, Miranda,” he said as he eased off of her. “Are you okay?”
She crawled further onto the bed and rolled onto her side. “That was…wow…way better than that cake.”
Jagger laughed. He threw his head back and laughed like he hadn’t done for months. Andi laughed, too, and fuck if the music of it didn’t light him up inside.
He disposed of the condom in the trash can and then he came to her and crouched down at the side of her bed. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She grasped one of his hands and played with his rings. He wore matte black bands on his thumb and middle finger on his left hand, and on his pointer and ring finger on his right. Each one had a slightly different shape. “These are sexy,” she said. He’d worn them so long he barely paid them any mind anymore, but now he was never fucking taking them off.
Jagger grinned. “Yeah? Not half so sexy as you laying there looking so damn satisfied.”
Andi smiled. “Your fault.”
“Baby, I’ll take the blame for that any damn time.”
“Stay with me,” she whispered, those blue eyes filling with a different kind of need now.
The words and that need grabbed ahold of his heart. Just reached right on into his chest and grabbed on tight. “Just try to get rid of me.” He winked.
And it made her smile again. Fuck, that was happiness right there, knowing something he did could make a woman like Andi light up.
They made quick work of turning off the lights and using the bathroom, and then they crawled into bed together still naked. Jagger opened his arm and Andi pressed up against him, her face against his neck, her arm over his chest, her thigh across both of his. And fuck if Jagger didn’t feel claimed by the way she held him. She might not have meant it that way, but it was clear his body wanted her to.
Fuck.
There was so much to figure out, and not just between them. There was this faceless threat out there somewhere, coming for what was his. And nothing was certain as long as that was true. But, goddamnit, it was possible they’d never find out who tried to hurt her. And what then?
“I’m so grateful for today, Jagger,” she whispered against his neck.
His gut clenched. No, he had to find the sonofabitch. He had to keep Andi safe. “I told you, don’t thank me until we know you’re safe.”
She shook her head. “I don’t mean that. I mean I’m grateful for you. For getting to know you, for getting to be with you like this.”
He pulled her tighter against him, like something might take away this incredible thing they’d somehow found. Just let them fucking try. “Aw, baby. I’m in deep in this with you. And I feel the same damn way.”
Andi peered up at him. “The rest we’ll figure out?” she asked.
He kissed her, hoping like hell he wasn’t
making a promise he couldn’t keep. Because, Christ, he’d die trying. “Yeah, baby, you better fucking believe it.”
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed meeting Jagger and Andi! If you’re new to the Raven Riders series, it starts with Ride Hard, a scorching hot romance about an older man and a virginal younger woman. Will the secret that protectee Haven Randall is keeping from the Raven Riders MC destroy the trust and heat developing between her and Dare Kenyon, the club’s president?
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Read the Raven Riders Series:
Hard As Steel
Ride Hard
Ride Rough
Ride Wild
Ride Dirty
Ride Deep
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Creed & Mia by M. Robinson
1
Mia
“Your husband is such a barbarian,” Camila, Dr. Aiden Pierce’s wife, who became a part of the family, teased over the phone.
“Yeah… he’s always been that way. It’s actually one of the things I love the most about him. Creed doesn’t care who you are or what you think about him, he’s going to be an asshole to you regardless.”
She laughed on the other end as I finished up cooking dinner. Mixing in the enchilada sauce the way she’d advised.
“Harley Jameson never stood a chance,” I added, shaking my head. Thinking about all the times my husband guarded our fifteen-year-old daughter, like it was his sole purpose to ruin her life.
Just last week they were going back and forth about her wanting to wear a pink bikini.
“But, Daddy… every girl is wearin’ two-piece bathin’ suits.”
He took one look at the bikini in her hands before he snatched it away.
“That’s just a fuckin’ string!”
“You’re ruinin’ my life!”