by Andrea Rose
I took my first step toward him, clutching my bouquet to my chest. I didn’t have a father to give me away. He’d left while I was still in elementary school, which either was because of, or had led to my mother’s addiction—I’d been too young to tell. Only a few distant relatives had come in his stead, and as much as I appreciated their support, I wasn’t about to let my uncle’s third cousin walk me down the aisle. Like everything else in life, if I was going to do this, then I was going to do it alone.
A certain solemnity hit me, just for a moment. I wished my mother could’ve been here, and Jenny—or at least, the versions of them I held so near and dear to my heart. In my mind’s eye, they were always sober, happy, and at peace, always living the best days of their lives. Nothing could have made this day any more perfect except for their smiling faces beaming at me from the pews. I felt a pang of regret sting my heart as I envisioned them doing just that.
I couldn’t let them bring my moment down. Nathan and I had decided back in that shitty Peachtree Overlook apartment that there was no use in hanging on to ancient history. We couldn’t change what had happened back then to either of us, but we could certainly change our futures.
That was what I was moving toward now, I realized: my future. My heart swelled as I began to step toward him in time with the music, tears brimming in my eyes as I let go of my guilt. I walked away from the ghosts of my mother and Jenny, and I reached out for Nathaniel Hale.
With every step, the one that followed seem to come even easier. I walked past the rich and the famous and the row of cameras capturing the event for the evening news. A real Cinderella tale, they’d say: a pretty detective from the Bronx finding her billionaire prince. They’d talk about how lucky I was.
And they’d be wrong.
Nathan Hale was the lucky one. He’d found the woman who could love him for all of his strengths and all of his flaws—of which there were many, I reminded myself with a grin. He’d found someone who could satisfy his most secret desires and make his dreams come true.
That was why I was marrying him. I was doing this because every single day, he made me feel like I was worth all of this. Every challenge we faced, big or small, every danger we’d overcome and every dollar spent—I was worth it.
And I couldn’t have loved him more.
His eyes sparkled with the same tears I was holding back as I stepped up onto the platform. The priest said the words that would bind us for all eternity, but I wasn’t paying attention. My whole world consisted only of the one man who had become a bigger part of it than I had ever anticipated. When Nathan whispered his “I do,” it barely even registered. My reply was just as simple, the two words slipping out breathlessly and effortlessly from my lips.
The priest closed his book. I could hear the smile in his words as he said, “You may now kiss the bride.”
We collided, the world melting away in that moment as our lips made their first contact as husband and wife. Everything around us was simply a farce. The fairy tale wedding, the dress and the church and the pretty faces—none of it mattered. The only real thing was this, our love and passion. Nathaniel Hale belonged to me, and I to him, and as our kiss stretched on and on, I was in no hurry to return to reality.
Everything else could have gone to shit. The church could have burned down around us, for all I cared. This was perfection, and nothing could ever compare.
“I love you, Sandra,” Nathan said, his lips finally parting from mine.
“I love you too,” I whispered in reply, smiling as I stared into his glittering eyes. “Now, can we get out of here before these cameras see things unfit for broadcast?”
“What about everybody else?” Nathan said, glancing past me at the crowd as if he hadn’t noticed them before.
“We’re in Paris,” I replied, laughing. “Let them eat wedding cake.”
Everyone in the room erupted into cheers as Nathan lifted me from the floor, my billowing white dress pouring over his strong arms as he carried me to the doors at the side of the cathedral.
“Well, don’t just stand there,” Nathan shouted over the noise. “Grab some champagne and enjoy the party!”
The room cheered again as we burst through the doors and into a short hallway leading to a sunlit path. Cold wind bit into me again, now infiltrating from beneath my dress as Nathan carried me outside the church. I shivered in his arms, but quickly found myself thrust into the backseat of a long, black limousine that was waiting for us. The heated seats immediately brought relief to the chills sweeping through me.
Nathan just stood there at the door, letting the cold in as he stared at me, my legs awkwardly kicked up over the seat. I leaned forward, grabbing at his tie and pulling him in through the door, laughing as the chauffeur closed it behind us. Nathan tried valiantly to get the blacked-out divider up as the amused driver looked on. The window was closing too slowly as I ripped at Nathan’s belt, straddling him in my dress and lowering myself around his raging erection.
“Slow down,” he chuckled. “We have all night and if you’re not careful, we’ll have a baby with French citizenship...” He gripped me and moaned, shuddering as our bodies once again came together, though this time felt like it meant so much more than the last.
“You didn’t marry a slow girl,” I playfully replied, rocking my hips and driving him deep within my yearning body. He grunted softly, his hands gliding up my back to pull at the laces holding my bodice in place. “Besides, a marriage isn’t official until you consummate it.”
“What is this, the sixteenth century?” Nathan said, laughing even as I drew myself against him and worked his throbbing shaft with every ounce of my being. The sensation of his cock slipping inside drove me wild. The fire between us only flared brighter as we explored our newly formed marital bonds.
“Just make love to me, Nathan,” I told him, placing my hand gingerly on his cheek. “No witty comments. No stupid grins that you can hide behind. Take me like it’s the very first time. Make me yours all over again.”
We reveled in each other’s passion, basking in the knowledge that we would be together forever. A love like this didn’t come to an end. Though I didn’t say it out loud, I knew in my heart that not even death could separate us.
I moved on top of him, steady and slow, gasping as he finally freed my breasts from their fabric prison. He buried his face between the swollen mounds, carefully kissing and touching, gingerly lapping at my sensitive nipples until they hardened under his tongue. For once he was letting me have control. It was how I knew that I really had him. He had finally surrendered to me as much as I had to him.
He tugged dress up and off my body, revealing my pregnant nakedness. He moaned, watching me ride him ever so slowly. I dug my nails into his shoulders and pressed my forehead against his, on the verge of collapsing as my new husband drove me to the brink of orgasm.
“I love you,” I breathed, shivering as a telltale current jolted through me, heralding my impending orgasm. I bit my lip, looking lustfully into his eyes. “I don’t think I can hold back, Nathan…”
“Don’t,” he commanded me, “You don’t ever have to hold back with me, Sandra. I love you. And that’s never, ever going to change.”
I let myself go, staring out the window at the streets of Paris as our bodies blended into one. I knew this wasn’t the end.
This was only the beginning.
Is this the end? ALMOST! I have one LAST surprise for you! My friend Nikki Wild has allowed me to include a copy of SAVED BY THE BAD BOY, her bestselling motorcycle club romance! I hope you love it as much as I did!!!
Bonus 4: Saved by the Bad Boy
I have one last surprise for you!
1
It was thirty minutes after I stopped hearing movement from Daddy’s bedroom that I pocketed my phone, whipped off the covers, and crept back out of bed.
Project: Wayward Teen was a go.
This wasn’t my first rodeo in sneaking out of the house. I’d already picked the
right clothes, favoring black jeans, a dark shirt, and an all-black pair of Converse sneakers.
Quietly, I slipped into the clothes in the darkness of my bedroom. I didn’t need anything but my little wallet, my phone, and my keys – and the keys were dangling downstairs anyway.
Thinking ahead, I’d already packed the wallet in the jeans. The phone had helped keep my boredom down while I’d waited for Daddy’s fatigue to set in. He’d had a busy evening on shift, and I knew he’d be sleeping hard tonight.
Which made tonight perfect for this.
With nimble reflexes, I slipped down the hallway, avoiding the creaky floorboards right outside the bathroom door. Further down, I slipped past the end table and the vase on top, unwilling to let a brief bump of the hip, or shattering clay, announce my little rendezvous beneath the stars.
My footsteps took me down the staircase, hooking around towards the front door. There were a few tricky floorboards here too, and the acoustics were painfully good in the open floor plan of the downstairs.
As silently as possible, I snagged my keyring from the hook by the door, listening for any evidence of Daddy near the top of the stairs.
Nothing. The coast was clear.
I carefully turned the lock, slipping outside and locking the door behind me. I hesitated near the door, listening against the panel for any movement from inside.
When nothing happened, I exhaled a thick breath of relief.
Turning and strolling down the driveway, I found myself wondering what Mom would have thought if she’d still been around to see me now.
I had been really young when she passed, too young to particularly remember her. Outside of her smiling face, gazing down upon me from portraits in the house, I had very little in the way of memories when it came to Mom.
Naturally, that made Daddy cling to me harder, since I was now all that he had left. He was a stern but strong father, but very, very strict.
Of course, as I glanced over at the weather-beaten Crown Victoria car in the front driveway, I knew that this wasn’t the only reason why he was so careful about keeping me on a tight leash.
My father was the local sheriff, working his way up through the force for the last twenty years.
And there was no way he was going to be okay with his little girl sneaking out in the middle of the night… Especially if he knew where I was going.
You might say that I have a problem… and his name is Hunter.
My particular problem comes roughly six feet tall and built with powerful muscles. He had the short and thick wavy hair I loved, a seductive little chuckle, and handsome blue eyes.
The kind that could never lie to you…
Slipping into my little beaten-up Hyundai coupe, I pressed my keys into the ignition and turned. The engine cranked to life, and I quickly pulled back through the driveway and onto the streets of our neat, suburban subdivision.
I always loved how our community looked at night. Passing under the streetlights, I glanced over clay-colored landscaping with its bits of desert shrubbery.
This place was pretty nice, all things considered. We lived in a good part of Phoenix, although it certainly helped to keep the local neighborhood safe when you had the local precinct’s Sheriff living across the street.
I wasn’t sticking to the nice parts of town. Not tonight… My little moonlight excursion was taking me about thirty minutes away. I was heading towards the seedy center of the city, the kind of place no self respecting good girl would find herself so late at night.
My phone remained quiet the entire time I drove, which was a pretty good sign to me.
The last thing I needed was Daddy waking up in the middle of the night and realizing I’d gone…
I saw the sign for the strip club perched a couple of blocks over. Despite all the work the city had done to improve its downtown image, the club had survived, neon pink sign and all. The parking lot was usually full of motorcycles which intimidated the locals and kept them out… People were probably waiting for the day the whole building would be knocked flat and replaced with yet another Starbucks.
But I knew that was never going to happen.
For public appearances, an investor who spent most of his time out of town owned and technically operated the strip club. He kept a couple of managers on the premises, and the girls were well taken care of for their efforts. He was keeping the whole thing afloat with an old inheritance.
The truth was a little different.
There was no investor. No mysterious and wealthy benefactor. Look beyond the parking lot and the big pink sign and you’d see the huge roll-up garage that butted up to the back of the building.
The strip club nothing more than a front for the local biker gang, a dangerous group of criminals known as the Devil’s Dragons MC. They were the guys who ruled the local roost, and most of the city’s illegal activities gave a quick nod to them.
It helped that their leader, a ruthless criminal known only as Eduardo, had made plenty of his rivals disappear. The lowlifes that remained gave the Devil’s Dragons the respect they demanded.
Just the thought of Hunter involving himself in that world made me grimace. He hadn’t told me much of why he’d done it…
I knew it had something to do with his sister. She disappeared a few months back and the police had done nothing but file a report and tell him they were very sorry. Hunter turned to the biker club for help and, and whatever terms he’d offered in return, they agreed.
His sister was brought home four days later. She looked like she’d been put through hell…
She probably was, if the rumors about where she was taken were true.
I feared that he’d joined them in payment.
Maybe I can talk some sense into him, I thought to myself. Surely, Hunter will see things my way.
Daddy opposed the Devil’s Dragons for all of the obvious reasons. He wasn’t exactly a big fan of Hunter either, and the second he caught wind that he was joining the ranks of those infamous criminals…
Yeah, lets just say a swift ban on Sarah-Hunter contact was very quickly enacted. I had to promise daddy that I’d never, ever see Hunter again.
But true love doesn’t have to resort to such stupid promises, does it? I was going to go see my man and save him from whatever trouble he was squeezing himself into.
And that was the end of that.
I pulled into the parking lot, ominously passing an entire fleet of motorcycles. The entire goddamn club must be here, I thought to myself.
Parking my car, I crept out and walked past the line of bikes. My first impression had been wrong. There were way too many motorcycles here… I stopped counting around thirty.
Half of them looked out of place. They were dressed different from the others with blacked out engines instead of the chrome I’d come to recognize.
Are there two clubs inside?
I might not have been a cop myself, but I knew trouble when I saw it. I’d grown up around enough law enforcement to know something big was going down tonight.
That didn’t matter. I was past the point of no return. Hunter was inside, and I needed to see him.
I swallowed my apprehension and continued onward, passing around the side of the building and to the very front. I paused and allowed myself to be repulsed by the exterior décor for a moment.
Bright pink neon signs flashed in my face, offering all sorts of lewd decadence and fun times inside.
Yeah, okay, I mumbled to myself.
Glancing around quickly, I spotted a few people ambling around on the pavement. It didn’t look like any of them were paying any heed to me, although I knew that I could never be too sure.
I was ripped from my thoughts. I’m spending too much time loitering around outside, I realized. What if somebody sees me out here and tells Daddy?
Steeling myself, I reached for the doorknob and pushed myself inside, totally prepared for the rest of the night ahead.
Spoiler alert: I was really fucking unprepared
.
2
As I pressed into the building, my eyes immediate drew to the surprised hostess. I recognized her as one of the previous year’s graduates; I think her name might have been Chastity. Tall and lithe, she played up her excessive perkiness in the workplace with accent ponytails. She stepped out to try to head me off as I came in.
“Sarah! We weren’t expecting you tonight–”
“Where’s Hunter?” I asked immediately, cutting her off. I didn’t mean to be rude. I needed to see him, and I just didn’t have the time for this.
“They’re in the back,” she answered involuntarily, then scoffed at herself for the slip. “Now’s not a good time, though. I can send word for you if you’d like. Can I get you a drink of water or something – wait! – You can’t just…”
It was too late.
The moment that I processed her answer, my beaten-up Converse sneakers were taking me around the edge of the club and towards the private rooms.
I crossed down a hallway, glancing into open rooms and throwing a couple of doors open. I interrupted a couple of private sessions by mistake, choosing to apologize and close the doors again as I continued onward.
Chastity had just about caught up to me in her heels when I threw open another door, slamming into a tall, broad chest… not Hunter’s chest, but that of an older, gristlier stranger.
I peeled my face from his leathers, staring up at the distinctive patch of a long red dragon with great, curled goat horns, coiled through flames.
The emblem was immediately recognizable.
It belonged to the Devil’s Dragons MC.
“Lost, little missy?” An ancient, dusty voice growled. I stared up into the thick, scraggly beard of the biker, and into the curious but stern eyes gazing down upon me.
“I… I’m looking for Hunter…” I murmured.
“Hunter, looks like yer girl’s here,” he groaned loudly, turning to face the rest of the room.