by Sam Crescent
“We’re going to need to narrow this down,” Blake said. “Mandy was very specific. Two types of men.”
“I get that, but men do shit for different reasons. Desperation comes in many different forms, and can be for a variety of reasons.” He was totally beat on this. “Any other news?”
“There’s been a call out for a woman meeting Mandy’s description.”
Jamie sat up. He didn’t like this, not one bit. “What kind of a call out?”
“Someone has put a reward for Mandy to be delivered dead or alive. Once they have her, you’re given an address to deliver her,” Blake said.
“Lewis doesn’t know this?”
“No, and I don’t want to warn him either. This has consumed his life. All he’s wanted is to get that girl safe, and I can’t say that I blame him. We can’t even imagine what she went through, and you know what, I don’t want to. What I want to do is put the bastards to ground that still pose a risk to her. The reward is for five million.”
“Holy shit. That’s fucking high.”
“Because she knows shit, and has been helping us. We’ve got to keep her safe. Everyone but Lewis knows. Providing they stay on that island, they’ll be safe. No one knows where they are, and I want to keep it that way.”
“What if they find out?” Jamie asked. No one knew the location of Lewis’s island, only that he had one and it was his dream place. Unless someone really wanted to know every little detail of Lewis’s properties, there wasn’t an easy way to find it.
“They better not. We’ve got a job to do. Russ wants Lewis to have a break. We all know he won’t take one if he feels there’s a threat. He’ll do the work here, and try to keep an eye on Mandy. He can’t do everything,” Blake said.
Jamie understood. Sometimes it took friends being a little manipulative to help those closest to them.
Lewis needed them, and they would always be there for him.
****
“There’s no sign of her anywhere, sir.”
Elijah looked at the file he’d been given and was pissed off. The men he employed were fucking thick. Mandy wasn’t going to be on the streets like some little whore, nor was she going to be anywhere she knew they were. She had been his greatest success. Even now, he recalled seeing her skipping outside of her house, her hair in two pigtails.
Chubby as well.
A fighter.
He’d watched her for a year, learning everything about her, so when he called her over to him, she had started something she probably didn’t even realize.
At first, he’d intended to sell her to the highest bidder. Children went for a lot of money, but again, they tended to be quite dangerous.
She’d fought like a little hellcat in the beginning. He’d given her challenges and she’d disappointed him, but most of the time, he’d been proud of her.
Then of course he discovered after all the years together, she had betrayed him. Helped those who would take from him what was his.
He’d not been able to live with that.
She should have been dead.
Elijah had left her broken, bleeding, and on death’s door. Only, death hadn’t come for her. He was sure of it.
She had been rescued, and before then, he was getting more and more reports of girls being freed. His men being killed or locked up. It had taken him a long time to suspect it was Mandy. He should have known, but he’d been too fucking full of himself to believe the bitch would cross him. No matter how many times he’d beaten her, she’d not fallen, not like he’d believed.
The only person besides himself and his closest allies who knew how he worked, how they all worked, was Mandy. His little submissive slave. It was getting harder for him to conduct his business. Mandy knew everything. She’d witnessed everything, and he needed her head, and that fucking MC dead.
She was working for them.
She was helping them.
That was fine.
One day, she’d screw up, or the people she was with would screw up. She’d belong to him once again. If she thought her first time with him was a nightmare, he’d make sure she went to hell and back before he allowed her to die.
Just the thought of everything he was going to do to her put a smile on his face. Anticipation was something he relished.
****
Lewis finished reading the line of poetry, and Mandy pretended to snore.
“It’s supposed to be romantic and sweet.”
“It’s boring. How can you read that stuff and not laugh?”
“Because I like poetry. I find that it relaxes me.”
“It’s a bunch of bull that a lot of real old guys wrote to help get a girl into bed. It’s dull.” She rested her head against his knee.
“You’re just not opening your mind to it.” He stroked some hair out of her face and smiled down at her. “What don’t you like about it?”
“It’s boring. I mean seriously, it doesn’t even rhyme, and all poetry should.”
“There is just no pleasing some women.” He twirled one of her dark curls around his finger, teasing the length. “What do you like then?”
“I don’t know. I like reading a good book with a great deal of romance.” He snorted. “You can snort all you want to. There’s nothing wrong with reading romance. I love it, and you’ve just got to ‘open your mind to it.’” She used his words against him.
Lewis smiled. “Then I’ll give it a try.”
“You really should.” She looked up at him and smiled. “This is nice.”
“It is. I’ve not known peace and quiet like this in some time.” He’d spoken to Cameron, and completed several of the contracts she needed him to sign, and of course looked through for possible problems. There was no way he’d ever be able to remain on this island indefinitely. He was missing the small things at the moment. The traffic on his way to work. Taking the elevator to his office. The guys at the club.
What he did enjoy about being on the island was his uninterrupted time with Mandy.
“What are you thinking right now?”
“That I love being here with you. I miss the club and work. It’s rather strange some of the things you miss.”
“I know. I actually miss heading to college. Sitting in class, listening to him talk about everything and nothing. It’s relaxing in a really weird way.” She reached up, taking hold of his hand and locking their fingers together. “Please tell me you’re at least relaxing.”
“I’m relaxing. How could I not?” They had been here a couple of days, and he’d enjoyed every single moment with her. They got up, enjoyed breakfast, then took a long walk down the beach. He’d try to read poetry to her, or think of something else to do.
When he was working she either went to the pool, or he found her at the beach looking out at the ocean.
He’d find himself just watching her.
Lewis had lost count of the number of times he’d looked out of his office, or simply drifted off, and imagined her being sitting there, watching something.
“I want you to relax. The guys do as well.”
There hadn’t been any update from them either. No phone call, nothing. He didn’t know what was going on, and he hated that.
“Tell me about the club.”
“The Billionaire Bikers?”
“Yes. Talk to me, tell me everything.”
“I’ve already done that,” he said.
“Do it again. I want to hear absolutely everything.” She sat up and crossed her legs. It had been a couple of years since they had found her, and she’d put on some weight since then. When they’d first rescued her, she’d had to spend a lot of time in the hospital to recover the beating from the broken bones, internal bleeding, and then afterward, she’d suffered from memory loss. Lewis didn’t know how long it was after she had gotten her memory back before she told him the truth. At the time she’d been so frail, so weak, and now she was strong, fuller, curvier. Since then, she’d been helping them every single step of the way whi
le also trying to get her life back on track.
Lewis noticed the fullness of her body and the smile that she rarely gave out to anyone else, but was always doing for him.
She was nearing thirty years old. Most of her young life had been taken from her.
He rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear his mind.
“I’d become friends with Russ first. We had seen this club rolling through the city, and both of us loved our bikes, and he knew that I was trying to find you. It was the Chaos Bleeds crew, and this was a few years back. They just rode without a care in the world. After a time, we found other men of similar wealth, and with similar backgrounds. Most of them came from nothing. They knew about my family, and I told them about my wish. About helping women that had been taken, and after we’d been formed for a couple of months, and we’d enjoyed our fun and fleshed out the club, I told them about you. They wanted to help. Our wealth combined was out of this world. Most of them had come from the streets, the foster system. We’d all been pushed to one side, and tried to be manipulated at some point in our lives. Now, we wanted to stop those who would do that. Who’d silence the weak and the innocent. To a couple of the guys in the club they’d say it was just about getting the women, or riding the bike, or having a lot of fun with the title MC. They love screwing with other men, and I have to say I find it a lot of fun as well.” This made her laugh. “We’re not your bare-knuckle fighters on the streets. We don’t even want to take credit for what we’ve done. All we want to do is help people, and to do that, we have to be on the front line for it all. We have to get our hands dirty, and not one of us is afraid of doing that.”
He’d told her this story in the hospital while she’d been in a coma, then afterward when her memory was gone, and then when her memory had come back.
“Why do you love hearing that?” he asked.
“It fills me with hope, Lewis. That maybe when you’re listening to what you say, you’ll see all the fantastic things that you’ve done. You’re not a monster. You’re not like those men who took us. You can’t save them all, but those that you can save, it makes you a hero.”
“I’m not a hero.”
She sighed. “The men who fought in battle, who come home with medals. Do you think they would rather have their fallen instead? The one thing I’ve learned from my life experience is that you can’t save them all. You can try, and you can blame yourself so easily. But there are those that don’t blame you. There are women and girls tonight sitting at home, in the comfort and safety of that home, thinking of you and your club. The people who didn’t give up on them. To be a fighter in this world, Lewis, you need to see the good that you’re doing. Nothing else.”
****
Mandy hoped that she was getting through to him. She wanted him to see that no matter what, he wasn’t to blame for the people he couldn’t save. He was always putting everyone else’s problems on his shoulders, and he shouldn’t.
If Lewis wasn’t careful he was going to work himself into the ground, and then he wouldn’t be able to help anyone at all.
She patted his hand. “I’m going to head to bed.”
Getting to her feet, she made her way upstairs. Entering her room, she went straight for the shower. She removed her clothes then climbed into the stall, allowing the cool spray to soak her overheated skin.
When they had been in his apartment, she had found herself becoming more attracted to him as time went on. With Lewis reading poetry to her, and just the magnetism of the man, she couldn’t stop thinking of him as a man.
Should she want someone after the life she’d had?
Lewis wasn’t just any guy, though. He was the guy she had always wanted. The man of her dreams. The person she’d thought about even when life got a little too tough for her. He was the man who’d saved her.
All in all, he was her hero in more ways than he could even imagine. She didn’t know how to tell him that truth, though.
Lifting her face to the spray of the water, her body felt overheated. Her breasts felt heavy as did her nipples. Just touching them, she felt sensitive, needy.
Hearing him talk about the club usually helped her to deal and to focus.
She shouldn’t be having sexual fantasies about Lewis. They were not here for that. They were here for a vacation and some protection while the club discovered the leak, and the problem.
Resting her hands on her neck, she closed her eyes and tried to ignore the need rushing through her body, begging for attention. Slowly, she let one hand fall from her neck down over her breasts. Just the touch to her nipple and she bit her lip to stifle her moan. She couldn’t handle the rush of pleasure, and she reached out to rest her hand against the tiled wall.
She was panting as if she’d run a marathon, and her heart was racing wildly.
Keeping her hand on the wall for balance, she cupped her breast, feeling the weight of it in her hand, stroking the palm against her nipple.
The pleasure rushed to her clit, and she moaned as heat flooded her pussy. Stroking her fingers down her stomach, resting on her pussy, she opened her eyes. She’d not touched herself in a very long time.
Not felt like a woman in a lifetime.
Slowly, she slipped a finger between her folds, and when she found wetness, she felt ecstatic. Arousal was something that had always been foreign to her. She’d never experienced the rush of pleasure, the warmth, the arousal. Everything in her life had been about faking it.
Pushing a finger within her, she drew it back to play with her clit.
The hand resting on the wall turned into a fist at the unexpected pleasure a simple stroke could make.
Closing her eyes once again, she thought about Lewis. Everything else in her mind was pushed to one side, and she thought about him and his rather rough fingers.
The way he was gentle with her. She got a rush out of his touch, just by the way he touched her arm, or would tease her hair. She loved his hands on her.
In her mind, she changed what they were doing. She was no longer fully clothed but standing before him completely naked, waiting for him to make the next move. Within seconds he was naked. It was her fantasy after all, and Lewis shouldn’t be clothed. He moved toward her, gripping the back of her neck and tilting her head back, slamming his lips down on hers, claiming a kiss that was so fierce, filled with such pent-up passion. She imagined the way he pulled her close and pressed her against the bed. His hands moved down her body, spreading open her thighs.
He’d tease between her legs, and she watched as he licked his finger, tasting her.
He kissed down her body, moving between her legs, keeping them open as he tasted her, flicking his tongue back and forth over her clit, drawing each little ripple of pleasure from her. She stroked her clit, feeling the sudden build of pleasure, wanting it more than anything else.
She slammed her palm flat against the wall and gasped as she hurtled over the edge. Her orgasm rushed over her, shocking her with the force of it so that she pressed her thighs together, trapping her hand there as well.
The water fell down her back, and slowly she opened her eyes. She felt … serene, beautiful, and oh, so relaxed. Moving her hand from between her thighs, she rested it against the wall, trying to focus on something, anything.
Her body was alive.
She wanted Lewis.
Her feelings for him had only deepened, but what could she do?
How could she tell him what she wanted?
Could he even be attracted to her after knowing what happened?
Even as she had hope, there was no way it could work—or could it?
She washed her body and hair, then climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body. After placing her clothing in the laundry basket, she left the bathroom and entered her room. Standing in front of the full-length mirror, she stared at her reflection.
There were marks from old scars, and memories from her past. She stared at them, and where once she would have been ashamed to look at them
, she no longer was. This had been her past, her nightmare. She’d survived.
Would Lewis want her, though? She didn’t want to ruin their relationship, as she adored him. Adored was too subtle a word. She loved him, mind, body, and soul.
She’d do everything in her power to keep him safe.
Was there a way she could ever be enough for him?
Chapter Six
“Checkmate,” Lewis said.
He watched as Mandy scrutinized the board and shook her head. “Chess is lame.”
This time he couldn’t help but laugh. Whenever he outsmarted her, Mandy would always make out the game was wrong, or it was boring. She was a very bad loser, but he also found that utterly charming.
“What else would you like to play?”
She crossed her legs, and his gaze was drawn to her body. It was a warm, sunny day, and they were sitting outside. She wore a one-piece bathing suit in a rich blue color. In the past couple of days, she’d actually begun to tan. With each passing day, he’d seen a smile on her lips, and what he hated most, he was starting to really see her.
He loved Mandy. There was no denying that. She’d been his obsession for a long time, and now, when he looked at her, he felt desire.
Was he allowed to feel desire after knowing what she went through?
“I’m going to take a swim in the pool,” she said, gathering her hair up into a ponytail. He stared at her neck, wondering if her pulse would rush if he kissed her there.
The desire he was feeling wouldn’t go away. His cock began to harden, and guilt ate away at him.
Mandy was a very beautiful, very sexy woman.
“Are you coming for a swim?”
“I’ll join you in a minute,” he said.
She nodded, and he watched her go, his gaze drawn to her full, rounded ass.
You shouldn’t be thinking those things.
He’d been able to put any kind of attraction to the back of his mind. Between work and the club, he didn’t have to worry about his feelings for Mandy. But being alone together on an island, he couldn’t handle it, and was finding it really difficult to focus on anything else but how damn good it would be to have Mandy in his bed.