GRIPPED (Romance Mystery & Suspense Box Set)

by Abbott, Alex

  Connor looked at the floor, then back up at Justin with tears running down his cheeks.

  “Please don’t do this brother.”

  Justin cringed at the word ‘brother’ coming out of Connor’s mouth. He took the barrel of the gun and placed it on Connor’s forehead.

  “You can’t do this!” Connor cried. “You have to take a vote.”

  “We already did,” Justin said as he pulled the trigger. A large chunk of Connor’s skull flew to the back wall of the auto shop. Connor slumped in the chair, the ropes holding him upright. Justin placed his gun back into his pocket and left to collect Ginger, Aaron and Lily.

  The club disposed of Connor’s body deep in the Forestry. Blood was washed away easily since the killing occurred in the auto body’s wash room where the crew washed vehicles after performing body and paint work.

  In the following weeks Detective Winters asked about Connor, but no one had seen him. Of course he had his suspicions, but without a body, there was nothing he could do. He wasn’t sweating it however. While he was a law abiding citizen, he wasn’t sure he himself might not have taken things into his own hands if a member of his family had been slaughtered then dumped like Amy. But, his department would have to keep an eye on the club, especially if they were heading into vigilante justice.

  One night Justin had a dream. Amy and Big Red were walking in a field of daisies, Amy’s favorite flower. They were dancing and laughing. The sky was a brilliant blue yet stars shown like diamonds in the heavens. Suddenly Justin awoke with a smile on his face. He knew in his heart Red and Amy were at peace. He looked over at the woman lying in his arms. He was going to make her his old lady and more importantly his wife. It was time to shake off the dreadful past and look forward to a promising future.

  END

  ***

  Read the next book in the Our Wicked Ways series:

  Damaged (Motorcycle Club)

  About the Author:

  C. C. Davenport lives with her husband and two Akitas at the edge of a woods brimming with activity. She loves sitting on her porch and dreaming up stories filled with romance and mystery. If she isn't reading a true crime or mystery novel, she can be found frolicking in Las Vegas or shopping for bargains.

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  AMAZON

  ***

  Billionaire Games

  By Bella Grant

  BOOK ONE

  “If I had known then what I know now, I never would have let you go in the first place,” he said, looking deeply into my eyes as I-

  “So, what do you think?” Sara’s voice once again cut through the silence. Brooke sighed heavily before closing her book.

  “I think you keep talking to me while I’m trying to read.”

  “I mean about the site.”

  Brooke rolled her eyes emphatically. “You mean SugarSexyDaddy.com?”

  Sara glared at her. “Don’t call it that. I’m serious, what do you think?”

  Brook shook her head. “Not interested.”

  “Why not?”

  Brooke opened her mouth to answer but was so completely overwhelmed by strong feelings of distaste for the whole situation that she didn’t even know where to begin. She struggled to get her thoughts in order for a minute before finally blurting them out. “It’s shady.”

  “It’s a reputable-“

  “It’s a site that is aimed at hooking young, dumb, pretty shells of women up with loser old men who just happen to be well-off.”

  “They’re respectable, wealthy men who are not all old-“

  “For some mail order bride scheme-“

  “You don’t have to marry them.”

  “-without even getting to see each other’s faces. Which makes it even shadier than a normal mail order bride scheme.”

  “Would you just relax? For like a second even, just stop being so cynical about everything and give this a shot.”

  Brooke sighed again. She felt better after her little rant, but she would have felt even better if Sara had agreed to drop this particular topic. They had been talking about it on and off all week, and she was more than ready to be done with it.

  “You know how I feel about dating sites.”

  “This isn’t just any dating site. This is the most exclusive dating site in the whole world, and I really don’t want this subscription to go to waste. Please? You know I’d use it myself, but I’ve got Jason.”

  Brooke groaned. She knew when Sara was desperate enough to use the word please, it was something she wasn’t going to get herself out of. Sara had won a one month subscription to some dating site that sounded (in Brooke’s opinion) incredibly shady. Apparently one of Sara’s friend’s at work had used it and found herself a fiancé in the first week and now they lived on an island together somewhere.

  “And I’ve got no real ambition to fall in love with a billionaire.”

  “What about a real ambition to quit your job?”

  That was something that definitely interested her. She couldn’t lie about that. She had always hated her job with a passion, and ever since the new manager had taken over, it had gotten worse and worse. Now not only did she have to deal with crappy hours and crappy pay, but she had a vindictive, perverted asshole trying to look up her skirt whenever he called her into his office.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Even if it worked out and I found some millionaire husband, I’m not sure how comfortable I am letting a man take care of me or pay for all my stuff.”

  “You’d get comfortable with it in the spa that you owned.”

  Brooke couldn’t help but laugh at that, and Sara joined in, a wide smile breaking across her face. “So you’ll try it?”

  Brooke was resigned to the fact that she was going to lose the argument. “Yes. One month. And if I don’t meet someone in that time, you promise you’ll let this go?”

  “Yes,” Sara answered, giving her a look that Brooke knew all too well. She would agree to anything if it was going to get Brooke to sign up for this. She supposed she could deal with quitting the site when the time came.

  “Fine,” Brooke said.

  “Yay!” Sara squealed, throwing her arms around her friend and hugging her tightly. “I’m so excited about this. You’ll finally be able to bring someone on our double dates!”

  Brooke was about to object that she more often than not had a date for when Sara and Jason wanted another couple to hang out with, and that Sara was the one responsible for all of those horrible love matches, but was cut off after “Well, I-”

  “And you’ll finally be able to stop reading those cheesy romance books!” Sara said, gesturing to the book that Brooke’s finger was still closed in, holding her place.

  “Sara, this is your book. You know how I feel about rom-”

  “This is just so exciting!”

  Brooke closed her mouth and let her friend finish raving. “So you’re going to set up your profile tonight, right?”

  “Well-” Brooke couldn’t think of an excuse fast enough to get out of having to set up her profile, and before she knew what was happening, her friend was making plans for the two of them to work on it together so it didn’t come across as “overly cynical,” Sara’s exact phrasing. By the time Brooke had been dropped off at her apartment, she felt far too exhausted by the interaction to fully grasp what it was she had agreed to.

  She loved Sara. She really did. They had been friends practically all their lives, having met each other back in grade school. But they’d grown older, they had become more different, and even though she still loved Sara like a sister, Brooke sometimes found her exhausting to be around.

  She didn’t understand what the appeal was in romance, or in dating at all for that matter. As far as she could see, the best case scenario was finding someone that she could
maybe stomach for the rest of her life well enough to get married, and the only upside to that was that she’d finally get to quit dating and Sara might stop harassing her. She supposed that objectively there was some appeal in finding someone to satisfy certain needs in her life, but it didn’t seem like her life was so empty that she needed romance to fill up that much of it. She figured she’d be perfectly happy with a couple extra hobbies and maybe a vibrator.

  The sex was another thing that Brooke didn’t really understand. Yes, it felt good to orgasm. Really good sometimes. But it wasn’t something that her whole life needed to revolve around, and her sexual needs were something she felt more than comfortable taking care of by herself. These were all things that baffled Sara, who had been dreaming about her perfect wedding since she was a little girl. Her compulsory need to drag Brooke into all of her crazy idealistic drama was just too much sometimes.

  Brooke sighed and sat down at her desk, glancing at her computer. It was an older laptop she’d bought a few years ago. It might not be the fastest or most up to date, but it had served her well and she never had any real complaints about it. It had become, in a lot of ways, like a companion who stayed by her side as she struggled through everything. She looked at it intently, feeling almost guilty that she was about to use it for evil.

  Dating sites were the worst of all in her opinion. Something about them felt very unnatural to her. She had become a bit of a skeptic when it came to romance, but she hadn’t always been that way. Like so many other girls, she had dreamed of her true love, imagining every aspect about him and their relationship and their life together, and not a single part of that dream had involved the internet. She felt like there wasn’t a lot of romance in that type of situation. She supposed now that she was thinking about it, the lack of romance was really not something that should bother her, and she did her best to take some comfort in that.

  She decided that the best thing for her to do would be to spend some time relaxing since her Friday night was now going to be spent on this pointless, and in her opinion, stupid endeavor. She decided to draw a bath for herself and do her best to take her mind off of the whole dating site thing. She used a liberal amount of bubbles and bath salts as the hot water poured into the tub. As she waited for the water to rise, she idly flipped through the romance novel Sara had given her, but eventually set that aside also. It was far too mushy for her taste, and given what she had agreed to she really didn’t want to invite any more romance than necessary into her life right now.

  Soon her bath was ready and she sank in, closing her eyes and letting the warm water wash away all of her stress. It felt amazing, even if the tub in her apartment was tiny and she felt a little cramped in it. Baths were one of her favorite things, and perhaps remained one of the only girly things about her.

  She closed her eyes, and before she knew it, she was lost in the deepest parts of her mind, the scenario playing out carefully in her head.

  “Tommy,” she whispered, her body shuddering with anticipation. “Tommy, wait.”

  Her boyfriend reluctantly pulled away from her, his hands still resting at her sides, gripping the bottom hem of her shirt and holding it in place just below her breasts. “What is it?”

  “It’s just that I’m a little nervous.” Brooke was completely flustered, something that was all too common whenever she was around him. “You know this is, well, it’s going to-” she faltered with the words, unable to get them out. He knew where she was going, though.

  “This is your first time?”

  She felt the color rising into her cheeks as she nodded.

  “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Brooke,” he whispered gently, leaning over her once more. She could feel the heat of his body and an unfamiliar moisture between her legs. “You’re a beautiful girl. You’d be stupid not to save yourself for someone who deserves you.”

  She blushed even deeper at that, liking the way he made her feel. His compliments felt better to her than any other compliments in the world.

  “I’m not that young,” she argued, embarrassed. She may be naive about the ways of sex, but she didn’t want him thinking of her as a child. He was only her senior by two years, but two years seemed like a big difference in high school. It also didn’t help that his advanced placement classes meant he was technically three grades above her, making him a senior when she had just started her freshman year. She was overly aware of the distance between their ages and worried that it might make him lose interest in her at any point. She had read enough teen fiction to know that the freshman almost never gets her senior crush.

  “Shhh” he whispered. “It’s not a bad thing. You are young. And you’re smart, and you’re adorable. Don’t be ashamed.”

  He kissed her again, pressing himself closer to her as his hands pulled her shirt up over her breasts, exposing her bra to him. He broke the kiss long enough to slip the shirt over her head, but when he tried to resume, she turned her head. She was now down to her underwear. It was a matching set - black thigh-high socks, black bra, and black cotton panties. It was the sexiest underwear set she owned, and she had worn it for this occasion, just for him, but now that he was looking at her wearing it, she felt childish. He wasn’t going to be impressed with something so simple, she thought, her mind suddenly panicked and in overdrive. He was probably used to dating senior girls from his own grade who would probably dress a lot sexier than she ever could. In that moment she wouldn’t have blamed him for thinking of her as a child.

  As if reading her thoughts, he turned her face to his. “You look beautiful,” he told her as he ran his hands over her stomach and sides, exploring all of her contours gently. She moaned, feeling her body getting ever warmer at his touch. She wanted this to happen, more than she had ever wanted anything. She had never felt anything this strongly before, not even with him, but she knew in that moment that she wouldn’t be satisfied until he was inside her. All the same, she had her doubts.

  “I know how to do it so it won’t hurt, if that’s what you’re worried about” he said, noticing that she still seemed reluctant. “I promise to be gentle.”

  “It’s not that,” she explained shyly. “It’s just that, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve never done this before. I’m afraid that it won’t, that I won’t be-”

  Again she was unable to finish the sentence, but just like before, he understood her meaning, and she was grateful.

  “No one is perfect their first time Brooke. But it will be fine. I’m right here to show you what to do, to help you. We’ll do this together. Even if it’s not the best, I’m sure we’ll get lots of practice in in the future. We’re dating, Brooke, and we’re going to continue dating for a long time.”

  His words finally put her at ease. This was just like she had always dreamed. She had fallen in love young, and she was lucky in that he loved her back. She trusted him completely, and she was eager to take the next step. She knew that he was the one for her; this wasn’t just some dumb high school romance. They really cared for one another. Things were perfect, just like she had always imagined they would be.

  She nodded, smiling up at him as he kissed her. Something about the way he spoke to her sent tingles running down her spine. She returned the kiss as he put his hands once more on her breasts, kneading the flesh softly. She moaned softly as he did.

  She quickly fell into a state of bliss in which time had no meaning; it was over far too soon. When he finally pulled away from her, though, it was only for a moment, and she knew then that it was time. He straightened himself into a sitting position on the bed and smiled at her warmly before gripping the waistband of her underwear and pulling them down her legs.

  It was awkward at first as she tried to find a position that would allow him to slide off the garment more easily, and eventually settled for sitting up as well, her legs bent at the knees just a little so that they could be manipulated more easily. When the underwear was gone, she felt exponentially more exposed and knew what would come
next. He reached gently around her back, fumbling with her bra clasp for a moment. She fought the urge to cover herself and helped him with the last step of undressing her.

  His hands lingered momentarily on her breasts before he pulled away. Without him touching her, she felt the most exposed so far. He drunk in the image of her, completely naked for him for the first time, before standing to remove his boxers.

  Brooke watched with anticipation, and it felt as if a thousand little butterflies had started to flutter around inside her stomach. She looked away as he let them fall to the floor, suddenly afraid again. She had never seen him naked, she had never seen any man naked, for that matter, and she suddenly felt once more like a child, inexperienced and a possible disappointment.

  She could feel his weight on the bed and before she had enough time to think through her next move, he had placed a hand on her cheek, guiding her head gently so that she was looking at him again. He didn’t say anything this time, spoke no words of comfort, but there was no need for words. His smile was all the reassurance she needed, and after that, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to her.

  His fingers dug into her soft flesh as he caressed her, laying her back down on the soft sheets. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him deeply and tugging at him, wanting him with an urgency that she had never felt before. He slid a hand between her legs, finding that she was already dripping and eager for him. He positioned himself, and with one careful thrust he was inside her.

  The pain that she felt initially stung, and she wanted to cry out, but the sound caught in her throat. He pulled away from her. “Did I hurt you?”

  She was going to say that it had hurt because it had, but it had not hurt as much as she had expected, and before she could find her words the pain had been replaced with a burning, deep inside her, a burning that she needed him to take care of. She shook her head. Whether he believed her or not, she didn’t know, but he kissed her again, lightly at first but with a passion that escalated quickly. He pulled out just a little, slowly pushing in again, and Brooke was delighted to discover that he had not made it all the way in on his first thrust. He eased himself inside her more and more, stoking the fire that burned deep in her belly.