by Anna Lewis
She took his hand and shivered at how cold he felt. “Lucas…” She murmured, her voice thick with unshed tears, “Lucas, hold on. We’ll get you through this.”
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, voice barely a whisper. “I should have trusted you.” His breathing was labored and he was so, so pale. He trembled, his hand shaking in hers and Maria felt panic cut through her like a knife.
“No, no, it’s okay. It’s okay.”
“You were amazing.” He managed a smile. Then his eyes fell shut and his breathing slowed. Maria felt panic overwhelm her and she fought the urge to grab him and shake him until he opened his eyes again.
“Lucas?”
Nothing.
“Lucas!”
By now most people had filed out, bikes revving and driving away. It was organized, the tents being packed up, the injured being left, tended two by one or two people, the aftermath reduced to some charred ground, damaged bikes and bloody men.
“I’ll handle the PR,” a man beside her murmured. He had dark, serious eyes. “I’ll also handle the police. You just worry about Lucas.” His eyes filled with worry for a second, but only for a second, before he turned and moved through the carnage.
They must have had a plan, for raids, for things like this. That must have been why everyone fled so quickly. It was so organized, like they were expecting to be attacked. Maria could barely focus on anything but the feel of Lucas’s hand.
When the ambulance arrived, she refused to leave his side. She huddled in the back of the ambulance while they stemmed the blood flow and stabilized him. She trembled with fear at seeing Lucas so quiet and so still. He was strong, confident, wild.
He wasn’t like this. This was so wrong. Maria felt the tears well up in her eyes and she fought them back with all her might. If she lost him, she didn’t know what the hell she would do. He had become everything to her in such a short amount of time.
The trip to the hospital was hell, everything moving either too quickly or too slowly. The hours waiting for him to wake were even worse. She stayed with him through the night, arguing with the nurses to be allowed to stay. They asked her no questions—everything was handled, just as the shifter had promised.
It wasn’t until the following morning that Lucas stirred. Maria’s eyed widened, her heart catching in her throat. Hope leapt in her soul and she held his hand tighter.
“Lucas?” she whispered, barely daring to believe.
Then he shifted and coughed and his blue eyes opened wide.
“I love you,” she blurted out, and before he could reply, she kissed him. It was gentle and sweet and everything that their previous kisses were not. Maria wished that it would last forever, and when they finally broke apart, Lucas was smiling, a tired, genuine sort of smile.
“I like the wake-up call.”
Maria laughed and it was like the bubble of anxiety in her chest had finally popped. And as she sat there in the hospital, holding his hand, she realized that the dull lump of misery in her chest was missing.
She finally felt whole.
* * *
The wind blew through Maria’s hair and she gripped the handlebars for dear life. Lucas was behind her, his hand encircling her and stroking her breasts through the fabric of her shirt. Maria moaned, wriggling her hips and backing up into him with a gasp.
Her head was spinning and she felt lighter than air. Lucas was all healed up now, and the club was back and stronger than ever. She’d been accepted as one of them easily, even though she was a human with a dragon hunter past.
Maria gasped with pleasure as Lucas undid the buttons of her shirt. She heard him chuckle as he realized that she had no bra on.
“Naughty. I like it.” He grasped her breasts in his hands and she moaned with pleasure.
He tweaked her nipples and Maria thrilled at the air that brushed their skin. Out here on the side of the road, anyone could see what they were doing. It both thrilled and terrified Maria and she was starting to learn that she really loved that mix. She panted for breath as he lifted her skirt and pulled down her underwear.
She stepped out of it easily and bent over a little more, wriggling her hips suggestively as she moaned, “More, Lucas.”
“With pleasure,” he groaned into her ear. Then he was pushing inside of her, his girth filling her and making her head spin. She groaned with longing as he began to thrust. Her head spun, her body trembled, everything seemed to hum with pleasure and excitement.
Everything was falling into place. Her boring life was behind her, as was her life in shadow and dark mystery. Here there was light and action, adventure and a man of passion who swept her away, mind, body and soul.
She shivered as he increased his thrusts and she had to hold on tighter to the bike to try and keep her balance. He moved harder and faster and the friction against the seat made Maria’s head spin. It was all consuming, overwhelming, breathtaking.
She gasped with pleasure, moaning as he teased her skin. She breathed in his scent, felt his breath on her neck, and the heat inside her overwhelmed her. Pleasure tingled through her every pore, blinding her to everything but the feel of Lucas.
Maria’s climax hit her hard and fast, making her shake and shudder with pleasure. It overwhelmed her, flooding her core, making her gasp for breath as she was blinded by the feeling.
Lucas climaxed soon after, and she heard him groan into her skin, felt him shudder and hold her tight. It was perfect, blissful, overwhelming. Maria sunk onto the bike and Lucas did the same. It was a long while before either of them dared to move.
Lucas shifted first, helping Maria adjust her skirt and do up her blouse. She panted as she caught her breath, turning and doing up Lucas’s belt. He grinned at her and tugged on his shirt, sweeping her into his arms.
Maria felt like she was about to melt, shivers running through her body. He leaned in and kissed her, chaste and sweet, “I love you, Maria.”
Everything was perfect. Just as it should be.
THE END
= Bonus Book 4 of 11 =
Forever Yours
16th September 2016
Another day, another dollar, I thought morosely as I forced myself out of bed. My head hurt like hell, I had an ache pounding right through my whole body, so much so that it actually took me a few moments to realize that I wasn’t in my usual surroundings. My crappy apartment had somehow transformed into one of the much plusher staff rooms at the hotel where I worked, bringing all the memories of the previous night crashing back over me.
I had staggered home after an extremely long shift at the same place I’d worked ever since leaving high school, just to find a burst pipe in my apartment, and water everywhere. Absolutely everything was damaged and I was nowhere near in the right frame of mind to tackle it. I was far too tired, I’d done my usual housekeeping shift, followed by an unexpected stint in the bar, and all I needed to do was go back to sleep.
It had seemed like a really good idea to come back here for a bed at the time, but now waking up here made me feel totally claustrophobic. It was one thing to know that I’d stayed in the same town my entire life, that I hadn’t moved on in the ten years after school, despite my so called ‘potential’, but to have to actually live here for a while was on another level entirely. I didn’t need reminding that I was still ‘just a housekeeper’. Maybe I should’ve been a track star, that was what everyone always thought I would become, but my running dreams had died on the last day of high school, and that was the end of that.
I hated my apartment, but I was going to have to get the plumbing fixed sooner rather than later. Being there was much better than being here. One night was just about my limit!
I grabbed my cell phone and put in the call to the local handyman right away. I knew Luke well, he was another one of the guys who stayed behind here when everyone else left. The only problem was I couldn’t really compare our lives; he was happy, married, in love, I was just... existing. He seemed pleased to still be here, whereas to me
it was as if my life was left in limbo, that I was in a bubble that I couldn’t seem to pop.
“Hey, Luke,” I murmured sleepily into the handset the second that he answered. “I’m really sorry, it’s Jenna Smee. My pipes have burst again, only this time it’s wrecked everything. The bathroom and the kitchen are totally flooded. I didn’t even have the heart to check the rest of the place. It’s probably a real mess, I’m so sorry.”
“Okay sure, I know where the spare key is,” he replied, proving just how often I needed him for things. “I’ll take a look today, see what I can do.”
“Thank you, you’re a lifesaver.”
I clicked to end the call with relief flooding through my system, before spotting the time on my phone screen. Shit, I was going to be late if I didn’t get a move on! I was supposed to start work in fifteen minutes, I wasn’t even going to have time for a shower. I would just have to chuck on the uniform I was wearing yesterday morning and get the hell on with it. It was all right, people didn’t pay any attention to the staff anyway... especially not the housekeeping. I could get away with it, just the once.
I checked my appearance in the mirror before I burst from the room, shaking my head in disappointment as I left. I’d barely had time to run a brush through my hair, never mind put any makeup on! This was going to be a day of keeping my eyes fixed on the ground. If I didn’t make eye contact, no one would look at me.
Come on, just get on with it, I scolded myself. The sooner this shift is over, the quicker I can get back home. The sooner I can get back to normal.
I raced through the hallway to grab the cleaning cart from the cupboard, my face heating up with stress the whole time, but before I could get in any of the rooms, my radio buzzed which could only mean one thing. The boss needed me, and once she saw me looking so disheveled I would have a lot of questions coming my way.
“Jenna, can you come down to the reception desk, please?”
Oh God, Deana had said please, that meant she was with someone important, someone I really didn’t want to meet. “Yep, sure,” I replied with a shaky voice. “I’ll be right down.”
I was torn between taking a second to sort myself out and rushing right down to find out what was going on. In the end I decided that being late was going to be the bigger crime in Deana’s eyes, so I gave up and thundered down the stairs. As I got near the bottom, I could see Deana smiling, and the back of a man’s head. My mind whirred, trying to recall any meetings that I should’ve known about, but my brain drew a frustrating blank. Too much was going on in my life at the moment, I couldn’t think of anything.
“Erm, hi,” I said nervously, focusing only on my manager. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes, of course, Jenna. I don’t know if you remember me saying that the new owner is here today?” I nodded, even though I had absolutely no recollection of that conversation. I wasn't even sure that I'd been informed that someone else was buying the place! “Well, he’s here now. Adam Martin. Do you mind showing him to his room? For now, he'll be in staff room eighteen. And then once you've settled in, I will show you around myself, Adam.”
My heart stopped dead in my chest, I felt a dizziness overcoming me, the floor almost fell away completely. This couldn’t be real, could it? This had to be another Adam Martin, there was no way that I could see him ever again. Especially not looking like this, this was a nightmare ‘bumping into the ex’ scenario. And if it was him, then he was living here too. Now I needed to get out more than ever before! I could not stay in the hotel knowing that Adam was here, especially with him as my boss. Not that it was going to be him of course...
“Oh right, sure,” my voice was raspy now, my emotions floating to the surface. I had to still be sleeping, this was some sort of nightmare. I couldn’t even begin to cope. “Okay, Adam, would you like to come with me? I’ll take you wherever you need to be.”
My heart raced liked a jack hammer as I spun around and ran my eyes up his body. At first I was convinced that it couldn’t be him, this body was entirely different to the boy I once knew in high school, but as our eyes connected, and I saw that familiar sparkling green, shock jolted through my system. It was him, of course he didn’t look exactly the same. Years had passed, I had changed too, but still it was a little stunning. I actually couldn’t believe it.
This was Adam Martin, the boy I thought my whole future was shaped around, standing in front of me, staring at me with as much shock in his eyes as I felt. The limbo that I’d been surviving in shattered around me, leaving me cold, alone, and very vulnerable. For the first time in a very long time, I had no idea what was going to happen next, and that scared the living hell out of me. I’d never been so terrified in my whole damn life.
“Erm, yeah, sure,” Adam finally coughed, deciding to take the same route as me, even if I hadn’t exactly chosen it. It seemed that for now we were going to act like strangers, until one of us braved cracking the ice. “Please, show me around.”
As I walked him towards his temporary living arrangement, everything inside of me was freaking out. Things had been boring in the last ten years, but steady. Steady was good. Now, for some inexplicable reason, Adam was back in my life shaking everything up. When he left I assumed that I would never have to see him again, and that was the only thing that helped me to get over the heartbreak.
Mind you, it only took one little glance for me to realize that maybe I wasn’t quite as over Adam as I thought I was. If I couldn’t do it in a decade, without him here, how the hell was I going to manage it with him in my face every single day?
Bleep, bleep.
I glanced at my phone as discretely as I could manage, spotting Luke’s name.
‘Hi Jenna, I’ve just been to check your pipes and it’s a big job. It’ll take a few days for the parts to come in, is there anywhere you can stay?’
Shit, now I was going to be stuck here, living in the same building as my ex-boyfriend, the one who got away. Could this day get any worse?
* * *
9th May 2006
“You don’t have long now, you know?” Sara, my rebellious best friend drawled, popping her gum loudly in my direction. “Do you really want to leave school knowing that you only ever stared at Adam from afar?”
I glanced back over at him, my hot heart racing like crazy in my chest. Adam Martin was my dream guy, the one I spent my every waking moment fantasizing about. Of course he would never notice me, we didn’t run in the same circles, he was cool and popular, he spent his days with the other rich kids, whereas I hung out with other jocks just like me, but that didn’t stop me from creating the most beautiful relationship between us in my mind.
“I know, but what am I supposed to do?” I sighed sadly. “He’ll never go for someone like me, not really.”
Tiana, the incredibly beautiful, well developed for her age, cheerleader slung her arm over his shoulder, as if to prove my point. He was the hot, muscular, popular boy who could have anyone he wanted, whereas I was the invisible girl who was only ever noticed for her running records. Adam went to parties, drank alcohol, and kissed girls. My high school experience was one of training and homework. I wanted to succeed with running, but I also needed to have another skill in case things didn’t pan out in the way that I wanted them to.
I knew I was being smart about my future, but my hormones couldn’t help themselves from desperately screaming out for the boy who would never see me.
Adam was the most typical tall, dark, and handsome boy ever, and on top of that he had actual dimples, and emerald green eyes that pierced right into your soul. My look was far more plain; long, mousy blonde hair, boring brown eyes, and a lean, slightly gangly body. There was nothing about us that matched. Still, I wanted him.
“Don’t you get it?” Sara chuckled loudly. “This is the carpe diem time, you need to act on your feelings now before you never see him again. So what if he says no, what does it matter? You’ll never see him again anyway.”
For a second, I allowed m
yself to dream about that moment. I pictured myself being bold, standing up, stalking across the lunch room to speak to him. I imagined shoving Tiana to one side and declaring my feelings... but even thinking about it was hard. It filled my body with a hot, intense shame that I wasn’t sure would go anywhere.
“No way, I can’t,” I stammered, scraping my chair backwards. “There’s just no chance.”
“You can’t spend your whole life being shy and afraid,” Sara wasn’t about to let this drop, however obvious I made it that I really didn’t want to talk. “You can’t go off to college being so fearful of life. You need to break free now so you can totally reshape yourself there.”
“Oh yeah? Is that what you’re doing?” I hoped that I could switch the subject up, taking the spotlight off of me. “Are you reshaping your future?”
“You know me, I don’t give a shit about what anyone else thinks anyway.” She stalked into the bathroom, and I followed closely behind, intrigued as to what she was going to say next. Me and Sara both loved sports, that was how our friendship had formed, but that was where the similarities ended. We were definitely a case of opposites attract, which worked well. She completed me in ways that I didn’t even know I needed completing.
“Yeah, I guess you never have,” I smiled wryly. “So you don’t need to change.”
“Oh no, I will,” she grabbed her eyeliner from her bag and thickened it up even more, giving her eyes that signature thick look. “I’m going to be even wilder than before.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at me. “We never really get invited to the parties here, but when I’m in college I’m going to be the one holding them! I want to be the center of all the social activities.”
I cocked my head to one side and stared at my reflection in the mirror. It was difficult to picture myself as anyone other than the person I was right now, but it felt impossible. I couldn’t really see anything past high school, I couldn’t imagine myself as anywhere other than here.