by Leah Wilde
On the outside Julius knew he looked calm, cool, and collected. They both knew better. Julius could look as cool as a winter lake right before he pulled a trigger. It was what had always made him a good enforcer, and a good club member. He knew how to shut it all away and pretend like he was fine. He knew better than most what it meant when you lost control. He had the scars on his back to prove it.
“You shouldn’t have sprung it like that on me. If you wanted your daughter to become my old lady, you should have given me some kind of head’s up.”
Riley took his time crawling into his bed. Julius waited.
“Could be that I didn’t think about it ’til I saw y’all two wrestling with that mutt in the front yard when she pulled up.” Riley smirked.
“Bull.”
Riley pulled his covers over his skinny legs. His arms shook with the effort. It was a sad thing to see a man who Julius used to think of as a mountain become a sand dune. He was wasting away, and nothing short of a miracle was going to stop it from happening. Silently, Julius was praying to all the gods that had ever had a temple.
It wasn’t that Julius didn’t think death wasn’t coming to everyone, it just seemed to be coming too soon for Riley. Julius wasn’t ready to put the old man in the ground.
It wasn’t just the emotional craziness of losing a person who had meant a lot to him for the better part of his life. It had more to do with the fact that everyone seemed to agree that when Riley died, it was going to be Julius taking over. Hell, for the past six months he had basically been running the daily operations. It wasn’t hard. Move guns or electronics from point A to location B, and shake the local businesses for protection money, keep the right palms greased. That was the easy part.
It had all pretty much been easy until Caine stuck his nose into their territory. Ashland was Hellhounds territory, and everyone along the western seaboard knew it. Julius didn’t know what wild hair had crawled up the Cuban’s backside but it was causing more problems than he wanted to deal with.
Then they had gone and attacked Kelly. Everyone knew Kelly Forster was off limits. She wasn’t part of the game. She wasn’t a criminal; her record didn’t even have a speeding ticket on it. She didn’t take part in any of the business. So what had that bastard been thinking?
“That’s some face you got going on there,” Riley said. “You gonna tell me what that’s about?”
“Thinking about bashing in some tatted up Cuban face.”
Riley chuckled appreciatively. “You’re gonna have to table that for the moment. You are gonna have a lady to think of.”
It took a great deal more control to not yell this time. “Riley, you know I got nothing but love for you, but I think this is a stupid idea. This is…this is like ten kinds of stupid.”
Riley’s head slumped back against his stiff medical pillow. “You’re ten kinds of stupid.”
“Don’t play with me like this, Riley. I’m not an idiot” He managed to keep his voice steady, but barely. “Tell me. Just friggin’ tell me what the hell made you think that hooking me up with Kelly, with your goddamned little girl, was a good idea.”
Riley did nothing but incline his head. It was a slow movement, but it had that kind of weight to it that someone only got when they knew they had all the right on their side. Julius had seen it from time to time and he knew he couldn’t fight it.
“You’re right. It’s my little girl and I am asking you to take care of her.”
“Exactly, man, she’s your kid. She’s—”
“All. I’ve. Got.”
Each word was a bullet, fired right into Julius’ guilt. All his careful cool calm shattered. He grabbed the closest thing to him, a long empty cigarette tray, and threw it across the bedroom. It didn’t even give him the satisfaction of shattering. It just made a dent in the wall and clattered to the floor.
“You finished?” Riley asked.
Julius let out several impressive curses before he slapped himself down in the chair next to the bed. “I don’t wanna get married. I don’t wanna be anyone’s man.”
“I get that.”
“Riley, you know what my life was like. You know what my father was.” His eyes were fixed on the dent he had caused in the wall. Yeah, it was a wall and a cigarette tray, but what if one day it wasn’t? What if one day it was a pretty girl’s face, or even a kid. “I don’t want to be that.”
“Your father was a mean damn drunk,” Riley snorted. “And you are nothing like him.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Who better than me, kid?”
Julius raked his hands through his hair and set his palms against his eyes. “You know how it was for me.”
“Yeah, kid, I do. I also know that same shit’s been following you around since you were a kid. And I also know that it’s gotta stop. In no time at all you are gonna be putting my president patch on your cut and you know what that means.”
“It means I gotta step up.”
Riley snorted and shook his bald head. “Easy words to say, Jules. But what does that mean.”
“Apparently it means I gotta marry a hot blonde who hates me, hates you, and hates everything I do with my life.”
Riley nodded, already beginning to drift off. “If your wife doesn’t hate something about you, shit, man, you are doing something wrong.”
Julius left the old man to get some sleep and wandered the house. It was a good deal nicer than the trailer his family had. How they’d managed to shove four adults and twice as many kids into a double wide, he’d never know. It was all held together with hunting, whiskey, and rage.
What was he going to do, pass that on? What happened the first time Kelly nagged at him to give it all up? He remembered clear as day what his dad used to do to his mom when she came at him with everything he’d done wrong. It didn’t seem to matter what words she’d used or how right she was, his father would haul off and knock her around.
Julius found himself in front of the liquor cabinet. It wasn’t locked, it wasn’t like there were kids about, and it wasn’t like Caesar had a taste for top shelf whiskey. Julius plucked a bottle up and poured himself two fingers before knocking it back, enjoying the burn that went from his tongue to his belly and then everywhere else. He took another two and then wandered back down the hall.
He was standing in the doorway to his room before he remembered that she was sleeping there.
She looked like an angel. He knew lots of guys said that about chicks, but when it came to Kelly, it was true. She had that long blonde hair with just a little curl. Her face was all these soft angles that had just a hint of pink to keep her from looking like a piece of copy paper. She was beautiful in an untouchable, unstained way, and here Riley was shoving a piece of crap like him at her.
And she’d said yes.
He cursed and swallowed his second drink. The burn shook him all the way down to his toes.
Kelly Forster said she’d marry him. That was the craziest part of it all. Yeah, sure, it was said in frustration, but it had been said. He hadn’t expected that. Moreover, he certainly hadn’t expected to feel good about it.
He shook his head and wished he hadn’t left the bottle in the living room.
She looked good. Even in that ugly sweater and ill-fitting jeans she looked like a million bucks, which was too expensive for him to put his ugly hands all over. No, no, marrying the collegiate princess was a bad idea for a million reasons.
A small whine drew his attention away from the girl and down to a mutt.
“Go on,” Julius said, motioning with his chin. “No need for us both to be sleeping on the couch.” Caesar needed no more encouragement. He prowled into the room and jumped up on the bed. Half asleep, Kelly rolled over and wrapped an arm around the beast. She made a small sound that made his stomach do a flop as she curled into a tighter ball.
She looked small. It struck him hard. When she was up and moving around and shouting at everyone she seemed twice as big and ten times as tough.
Her dad had the same quality. It gave a person a certain kind of glow that you wanted to follow and protect.
He could protect her a whole lot better sharing that bed with her. It was just a little too easy picturing climbing into that bed and wrapping himself around her like a snake. Would she be the kind of girl who whimpered and trembled, or the kind who moaned and demanded more?
He was a snake. Julius felt his pants go tight where they had no business doing so, followed by a wave of disgust.
“Shit,” he snapped, and shook his head. Firmly, he shut the door behind him.
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Books by Leah Wilde
BEND ME: A Dark Romance
HOW FAR CAN I BEND HER UNTIL SHE BREAKS?
She looks like she’s innocent, but I know better.
I know what kind of dark desires are lurking beneath the pretty white teeth and the glistening eyes.
I know the heat surging below her perfect skin.
It is the same heat, the same darkness that’s rising within me.
Like recognizes like, and she’s drawn to me, just like I’m drawn to her.
The trouble is, the slightest touch is strictly forbidden.
The world we live in demands that we honor its strict rules.
Life as a mafia prince has always meant obeying the code.
But now that I’m in charge, the code can go to hell.
I’m going to take what I want.
I’m going to break what I want.
I’m going to make her scream – whenever I want, however I want, for as long as I want.
Prepare yourself, darling.
In the playroom, I make the rules.
Tortured by the Biker: The Bandits MC
IT’S A FINE LINE BETWEEN PLEASURE AND PAIN.
GAGE
If you want justice, you call the cops.
But if it's revenge you're after, don't dial 911.
Call me instead.
I crack skulls, spill blood, put bad people in the dirt where they belong.
I work in the darkness so people like you don't have to.
It's not an easy task, but I'm the only one cut out for it.
Still, I can't help but wonder if it's making me a bad man.
It's making me want things.
Things I have no business touching.
Like her, for instance.
I want to ravage her.
To break her innocence like a windowpane and cut my fingers on the shattered edges.
It's an ugly world, and she's too perfect for it.
It's time I taught her what I learned a long time ago:
There's pleasure in the shadows, too.
FIONA
I met the Devil once.
I was just a little girl, but he had no mercy.
He tried very hard to hurt me.
I was lucky, though – I got out.
The others didn't have such good fortune.
Since I escaped that nightmare, I've tried to put it behind me.
To live in the light.
Help others, do good, mend wounds.
Stay away from the evils of the world.
But then Gage Preston came knocking.
He's the last man I want to see.
Everything around him is chaos and suffering.
But he won't take no for an answer.
And the more time I spend around him, the more I'm coming to see the hideous truth:
I want the pain.
I want the darkness.
I want him to show me what he knows.
Ruined by the Biker: Heaven’s Outcasts MC
I WAS PURE – UNTIL HE PUT A BABY IN MY BELLY.
I didn't ask for this.
Not for the heartbreak. Not for the violence.
I certainly didn't ask to be my father's daughter.
Rules, rules, rules – that's how he lives his life.
I just wanted to know what freedom felt like.
So I took a ride on the wild side.
I went to a dangerous place, and I left with a dangerous man.
He took me in his arms and pierced me to my core.
Over. And over. And over again.
I could have died happy right then and there.
To be rocked like that – consumed, devoured – was the freedom I was looking for.
But I got something else, too. Something I never expected.
I got pregnant.
Now, my world is crumbling.
My daddy and the father of my baby are at war with each other.
People are dying.
Buildings are burning.
Tears and blood are flowing like rivers.
And in the middle of it, I'm standing here, desperate for something I never imagined:
I'm desperate to be ruined by the biker – just one more time.
Wed to the Biker: Hellhounds MC
I’M STUCK AT THE ALTAR WITH MY WORST NIGHTMARE.
All I ever wanted was to get out of this life.
No more bikers, no more leather, no more crime.
But being the daughter of an MC president means that trouble is never far behind.
When I’m attacked by a mysterious man on the eve of my final semester in college, I know exactly where to go for answers:
Back home to dear old Daddy.
But going back there gives me more than I’d bargained for.
Before I can stop it, everything is going wrong.
Betrayal abounding.
Enemies approaching.
Cancer devouring my father’s body.
And when he dies, he leaves me with one last gift…
A marriage I never asked for.
Now, I’m gazing through a white veil at a hulking, tattooed brute of a man.
He looks like he wants to eat me or break me, whichever comes first.
And yet, part of me wants him to claim every inch of my body…
I just wanted a normal life.
But there’s no such thing as normal when you’re wed to a biker.
Claimed by the Biker: Forsaken Ones MC
HE WHIPPED ME, CHAINED ME, KEPT ME, CLAIMED ME.
It was a mistake from the beginning.
I never should have been here.
The stakes were too high, the penalty for failure far too steep.
But I didn’t have a choice.
I was a slave to my boss, and this was my golden ticket.
A diamond worth millions.
Shimmering, glistening, sparkling…
In the vault of the most dangerous man in the entire city.
I tried to use sex as a weapon, a Trojan horse to sneak my way inside.
But Hawk Renner is no fool.
He saw right through me.
He let me in – and that is when everything truly began.
He took my body to the depths of pain and the heights of pleasure.
Showed me what he was capable of – what we were capable of.
Time and space lost all meaning.
There was only his touch.
But now, a storm is brewing, tearing us apart.
It might cost me my life,
But there’s only one thing I know for sure:
I can’t go back now that I’ve been claimed by the biker.
RIDE ME: A Dark Romance
I'm going to ride her until I have what I want.
The look on her face when I kicked in the door was priceless.
Another day, another time, I might've laughed.
But not today. Not now.
There was business to take care of.
Ivan, my former business partner and mob boss extraordinaire, had tried to have me killed.
I'd survived the hit, but now, there was a Russian hitman locked up in the basement of the Kings of Hell clubhouse.
I need
ed someone to translate.
That's where she came in.
Julia Danvers, professor of Russian history and linguistics.
At first glance, I thought she was prim, proper, a porcelain princess in an ivory tower.
But every layer I peel away reveals something more.
Skin I want to stroke.
A body I want to squeeze.
A mouth I want to force wide open while she moans beneath me.
She doesn't belong in my world.
She's far too fragile.
But she’s coming with me…
Whether she likes it or not.