“You told me that first night. You really don’t remember some things, huh?” he asks chuckling.
I shake my head. “Thank God you aren’t a serial killer,” I say seriously.
He laughs harder. “You had turned your phone on after our last game of pool and put my number in it, but you wouldn’t give me yours.” He smiles. “You were going to leave the party with Blake and Jackie but then decided to stay with me.”
Hmm. Everything makes sense now. “So what made me decide to stay?”
“I guess it was my charm,” he says with a smile, and I laugh.
“Guess so,” I agree before I close my eyes and enjoy the warmth of his body against mine.
“So tell me something about yourself,” I say after a few silent minutes.
“My name is Erik Dashling,” he says, and I let out a little laugh. I at least know that much. “I go by Dash. Because I hate the name Erik and the name Dashling makes me sound like a fucking pussy.”
“No it doesn’t.” I playfully slap his hard muscular chest. “I like it.”
He looks over to me with a serious look. “You would.” He then looks back up to the ceiling. “I’m twenty-two. An only child.” He smiles. “I have a tendency to do my own thing, which has gotten me in trouble more times than I can count.”
“What kind of trouble?” I ask.
“The kind that gets you put behind bars,” he says with no shame.
I sit up and look down at him with my eyebrows raised. “What kind of trouble do you get into?” I ask wondering if my father knows this. He takes his team and drivers very seriously. I mean, it’s his life.
He smiles as if he’s reading my mind. “Nothing too bad. I’m a little reckless I guess you could say.”
I let out a breath as I lie back down beside him. “That’s nothing.”
He turns onto his side and places a hand under his head to prop it up. “Really? You make it sound like you’ve been a little reckless as well.”
“No. It just wasn’t as bad as I was thinking,” I say with a smile. He reaches up and pushes my hair off my face. “You make me feel reckless,” I confess.
He frowns. “How so?”
I try to shrug it off, hating that it even slipped out. I go to roll over but he gets up and straddles me, pinning me to the mattress. “Tell me,” he whispers, leaning over.
“I feel like we’re breaking all the rules.” My dad wouldn’t allow this to happen, and he sure as hell would kick Dash off the team if he knew.
“We are,” he says placing a kiss on my neck. I arch back giving him easier access. “That’s what makes it so much fun.”
I try to ignore the feeling that tells me this won’t last much longer. “Well at least when it’s over you will still be able to race.” But I will still see him.
He pulls away and looks down at me with a frown. “What are you worrying about? What did you mean by ‘when it’s over’?”
I shake my head, not wanting to tell him, but he is persistent. “Please. Don’t be afraid to tell me anything.”
I let out a sigh. “My dad…”
“I’m not worried about your dad. Will he threaten to kick me off of the team? Probably. But will he? No. He was right when he said I’m the best at what I do. And I will prove that to him. I’m valuable to him just as you are valuable to me,” he states.
I smile at his words. “You wanna keep me around, huh?” I ask with a playful smile.
“More than you know,” he says before he gets a big smile on his beautiful face. “Let me take you for a ride.”
I laugh. “That’s the corniest thing I’ve ever heard,” I say as I lift my hips, rubbing myself against him.
He chuckles. “No, I really wanna take you for a ride. On my bike.”
I lift my head up enough to look at his clock sitting on his night stand. “It’s four thirty in the morning,” I say with a frown.
“And?” he asks arching a dark eyebrow.
“Where would we go?”
He leans down and places his lips on my neck. “You’re right,” he whispers against my skin. “We can go later.” With that I smile and allow him to take me on the kind of ride that I had in mind.
EPILOGUE
RODGER
Done!
I smile after reading the text message. I once again hide in plain sight as I sit at the track. I watch Tabatha and that fucking idiot Erik Dashling speak to her father. His mouth continues to move as he gestures to the black motorcycle parked in front of him. He’s been at it all day. Trying to figure out what the bikes needs in order for him to be Mr. Knight’s newest addition to the team. I don’t know what Johnny sees in the motherfucker! The guy is a legend. He has hundreds of men lined up to race for him and he picks up this sorry bastard.
Tabatha and I have been broke up for a little over a week now, and I’m tired of begging her to come back to me. She will fucking learn to listen to me. I could have killed her when I watched her with Dash the first night she met him. Batting her eyelashes and sticking her ass in his face while she kept pressing ignore every time I called, eventually just turning her phone off. She had no fucking clue I was even there at his party—but she only had eyes for him. I even got me some action that night and the next morning. The bitch was too hung-over to even know it was me fucking Valerie the following morning.
I was so pissed at her that I almost just said fuck it. But my dad had found out about her night with Erik and said it made me look like a fool. A failure. Made me look like my woman was going around town cheating on me. How would that make a future senator look? Especially since our breakup hadn’t gone public yet. He told me to get my shit together and do what a man needed to do!
In order to do that I had to allow them some time together. Tabatha was hard to crack the first time. But my father had never been prouder to see me take such a strong woman and make her fully submit to me. My dad once told me that my mother was nothing like that for him. She came from poverty. All my dad had to do was throw money at her and pamper her and she did whatever he wanted. Still does. I knew I was going to need leverage with Tabatha. And Dash is going to be that leverage.
She gets my attention as she hands him his helmet. He places it on before jumping back on the bike. The bike roars to life and he takes off down the track. She turns to her father and smiles brightly at him and I fist my hands down by sides. She looks so happy. It’s annoying. A woman like her needs to be kept under a man’s thumb. She’s beautiful, I’ll give her that, but women who know that are selfish and demanding. They need to be reminded that they need a man to survive. And I’m that man for her.
My eyes narrow as I see the shirt she has on. Written across the front is DASH in silver letters. It looks like she bought some glitter and made the damn thing herself. Things may be getting more serious with them than I thought. Good thing I had a very good reason for coming out to this track today. And that text message I got guarantees she will be crawling back to me. Just like I told her she would. Damn, I love being right!
I can just see the Breaking News Report while I lie in bed later tonight—Track incident... I’m not stupid. I can’t kill anyone. Then what leverage will I have? But every time she fights me, I will make someone suffer. And she will suffer as well.
The end
Keep an eye out for book two. Coming soon!
For more information about the author and her books, visit: her Amazon author page. Or email me at st.author@yahoo,com to be put on my mailing list for updates on releases and upcoming projects.
Shantel is a Texas born girl who now lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her high school sweetheart, who is a wonderful, supportive husband and their four year old little princess. She loves to spend time cuddled up on the couch with a good book.
She is the Amazon Bestselling author of the Undescribable series and is currently working on her fourth book Unforgettable, which is set to release September 23rd. She considers herself extremely lucky to get to be a stay at home wife and
mother. Going to concerts and the movies are just a few of her favorite things to do. She hates coffee, but loves wine. She and her husband are both huge football fans, college and NFL. And she has to feed her high heel addiction by shopping for shoes weekly.
Although she has a passion to write, her family is most important to her. She loves spending evenings at home with her husband and daughter, along with their cat and dog.
Acknowledgments
First I would like to thank Jenny Sims, my wonderful editor. I love you to pieces, girl. Thank you for all the help. I truly appreciate it.
I want to thank, Jenni Moen for making me such a beautiful cover. Love you woman and thanks again.
I want to thank my wonderful blogger and best friend Casey Peeler over at Hardcover Therapy. You have been with me since the start and I would be lost without you. I love you so much and thanks for always being there for me.
So many blogs were are involved in this anthology and I want to thank all of you.
I have met some amazing authors that are in this anthology with me such as, Abigail Lee, Casey Peeler, Kasey Millstead, Morgan Jane, Nina Levine, Vicki Green, Dee Avila, and Rebecca Brooke. I want to thank you lovely ladies for this wonderful opportunity. Love you all
I want to thank my awesome street team, Shantel's Erotic Entourage. I love these bitches! This lovely group of ladies are awesome at pimping and making me laugh. It’s amazing how you can become so close with someone when they live halfway around the world. These girls are my sisters, and I love them very much.
To all of my family who has spread the word about my book and shared my author page; I’m very lucky to have such a supportive family. I love them all.
And last but not least, my readers. Thank you for taking a chance and wanting to read my books. I hope that you all love them as much as I do.
Steele
A Bad Boy Biker Novella
By
Vicki Green
Fighting to stay alone
The need to be loved
Alone. He wants no one, needs no one, but himself. In need of money, Steele Ryker finds a bar in a desolate area in the desert and secures a job as a bartender/bouncer. The biker bar fills him with the fights he craves and the women to fill his lonely nights until.... She walks in.
Kallie Pearson is out for one thing, a good time. She’s bored of all the normal guys, the normal hot spots and finds a bar that holds just wants she’s been longing for.... Danger.
What she doesn’t know is just how much danger it holds.
Acknowledgements
To my amazing Editor, Kathy. You have been with me since day one and I cherish our friendship.
To my girls, Faith and Katrina, you’re always there for me and I am truly thankful to call you my best friends.
To my family, my husband Dean and our two sons CJ (Charles) and Cole, you’ve always supported my writing journey, put up with my constant ‘pot luck’ nights for dinner, the endless hours of my tapping away on my keyboard and the time away for me to attend signings. I am so lucky to have your love.
To my readers, without you I would still write because it’s my passion but it wouldn’t mean as much. Thank you for all your support.
Chapter One
I left the last town in a hurry as the police were showing up at the bar, again. Fuck! Why can’t I find a place where no one cares, where no one wants to know my business and where no one wants to get all up in my face? Maybe there isn’t such a place, or maybe I just haven’t found it yet. After five years of traveling, I’m getting tired of it. Oh, I love riding my bike, ain’t nothing like it, but I just wish I could find a place for a while. It’s not like I’m old or anything. Twenty five is not old. Fuck! I’m having too much fun working at bars, letting off steam in good ole fist fights and the women? Damn! The women are plentiful. Two bad things about that. One: Have to get tested a ton to make sure I stay clean. Two: Some want to hook their long fingernails into me and try to be my woman. That…. Ain’t gonna happen. I’m an age old story. Parents kicked me out when I was seventeen because I couldn’t conform to their standards, their rules, and shit, they didn’t care anyway. And I don’t do girlfriends! There was no love lost. Love. Ha! There was never any love.
Ah, finally a sign. I slow down as I pass and smirk.
Booneville, Arizona
Population 625
Another great small town. What the hell? I don’t have anywhere else to go. I keep my speed slow as I head off the ramp and follow the signs into town. It only takes about ten minutes until I’m in the heart of the town and look around at the various buildings. Well, they have a few of the standard fast food places. That’s always a good sign. Coming up to a four way stop I slow down and stop. Once I rest my boot down on the concrete I look over to my left and see a sign.
SAGE BAR
DANCING AND DRINKING NIGHTLY
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
Hmmm, the live entertainment could be live bands or live girls. I wonder which it is. I turn left, keeping an eye out for this bar until I see a wooden building coming up on my right, looks like a gravel parking lot in front and around it and as soon as I reach it I pull in. There are only two cars in the parking lot, way over on the left side, so I pull up beside them and set my boot down on the rocks as I shut off the engine. Once I’ve moved my leg over the seat and kicked the stand down with my boot, I quickly pull out a smoke from my jean jacket pocket, lighting it and then pull a huge drag. Been wanting to quit this nasty habit, but sometimes it can be my only companion. After taking a few more drags, I stomp it out with my boot against the gravel and look around to see that most people do the same out here as there are smashed butts all over the place. I walk up the three wooden steps to the long wrap around porch and up to the wooden double doors. I see the big closed sign in the window on the door on the left. Since there are a couple of cars here I take the chance and knock on the door hard. I’m hoping those cars weren’t left here last night because the asshole owners were too drunk to drive. I wait a couple of minutes and knock again. About ready to give up, I turn and start down the steps when a door opens.
“We’re closed. Come back at eight.”
“Uh….” The door slams, and I shake my head slowly. With a grin on my face I step back up and knock on the door again. The door opens abruptly and the same woman, brown hair up in a bun on top of her head, low cut shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, stands there. If I had to guess I’d say she’s in her mid-forties, but not bad looking, kind of rough around the edges.
“Did ya not hear? We ain’t open until eight,” she says slower as her eyes look down the length of my body and then back up again until they reach my eyes.
“Yeah, I heard. I’m looking for a job.” She smirks and then looks me over again and then crosses her arms over her chest, raising her ample cleavage up a notch.
“What can you do?”
“I can bartend, be a bouncer, whatever,” I reply with a smirk.
She seems to stare at me for a long time and then smirks again. “You running from the law? You wanted somewhere? I don’t hire no wanted men on the run. It may not look like much to you but this is a good place and I don’t want any trouble.” My eyes squint at her, and then I shake my head slowly.
“I ain’t running from nothing except my past but no law.”
She sighs and then looks down at my chest. “Take your jacket and the shades off, let me get a look at ya.”
What the fuck? She raises one of her eyebrows, and I roll my eyes. I take off my shades and then remove my jacket and hold it in one hand. I just stand there while her eyes roam up and down my arms, then down at my waist and up my chest. “You seem fit enough. Work out?”
“I do, when I can. Look, is this a strip club or something ‘cos I don’t….” She laughs. Laughs. Like throws her head back, her arm holding her stomach kind of laugh. I frown, turn and start to walk down the steps. “I don’t need a job that bad. There’s more towns out there.”
“A
w, no wait. Wait!” I stop and turn my head, my boot on the last step, and she stands up straight. “My bartenders and bouncers sometimes exchange duties and so I need some strong ones but also they gotta look good for the lady customers. If you’re still interested, come on in.” She opens the door wider, and I stare at her for a moment, then walk back up the steps, putting my jacket back on and pass her through the doorway and begin to wonder what in the hell I’m getting myself into.
“This is Joe. He’s my old man but thinks he’s God’s gift to women. Joe this is…. Didn’t get your name?” She rambles as she walks to the bar, sitting down next to a man who looks to be her age, in a black leather vest over a tank top and black jeans. She points to the chair beside her, and I sit down, a little reluctantly.
“Steele. Steele Ryker.” Joe nods at me, and I nod back then look back at her.
“Names Charley and I’ve already heard all the jokes about being a guy’s name. It’s short for Charlene but I’ve always been called Charley.” I give only a small smile. I’m not wanting to get to know anyone, let alone be their friend. I just want to make enough money to get by and be alone. “Well, do you wanna work or what?”
“Yup.”
She smiles and leans her elbows on the counter. “Gotta place to stay?” I shake my head, slowly, look over at Joe and then back at her. “I got single cabins down the road a piece. They ain’t much but they have a small kitchen, fridge and microwave. The TV has cable, there’s a couch and a chair. There’s only one bedroom, with a double bed and one bathroom. The two I got empty I keep clean and Joe here keeps them fixed up so there’s no leaks in the roof, and a nice porch swing out front.” Hmm, sounds like a better place than I’ve stayed at in a long time.
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