by Ava Ashley
“So it is all okay?” I ask. “There will not be a war? We can come back? No one is after us anymore?” I cannot believe my good luck. After all the stress and after all the complications along the way, to have everything fall so perfectly into place now is unbelievable.
With good reason.
“You can come back, my daughter,” my dad says. “And there will not be a war. You will be able to live the rest of your lives without hassle.” He looks Cooper up and down. “Now, call off your man. Make him burn it. Now.”
Cooper slowly pulls his cellphone out of his pocket, but hesitates before dialing. “I can trust your word? No bullshit? There will not be a war and you’re not killing any of them? Savannah will be fine?”
“You have my word,” Flint says. “A man is only as good as his word.”
Cooper looks at me to see what I think. My father is not necessarily a nice man. In fact, many of his enemies would say that he is decidedly not a nice man. But if there is one thing that is really important to men in motorcycle clubs, it is their honor. I nod.
Cooper dials his phone. “Hi.” There is a pause as he listens to the guy on the other hand. “Uh-huh. Burn it.” There is another pause. “Yes, right now.” Another pause. “Okay, thanks, man. See you soon.”
Cooper hangs up and slides his phone back into his pocket.
“Let’s go,” I tell Cooper. I can’t believe it’s all over. I can’t believe it’s all going to be okay!
But when Cooper gets up, two of daddy’s thugs grab him.
“Daddy!” I yell. “You gave your word!”
“I did,” he answers, calm as can be. “And I will keep it. There will be no war. You, Wolf, Lily, and Nate will be safe. But I did not promise not to punish Cooper for his disrespect against the Santos motorcycle club. That is not in my power to promise. He has taken your virginity and the motorcycle club board alone can decide to accept dishonor.” He gives a bark of laughter, his eyes cold and mirthless. We both know that will not happen.
“What is my punishment?” Cooper doesn’t flinch as the men visibly tighten their grips on his arms.”
Flint steeples his fingers and leans back in his armchair, spreading his knees further in an obvious alpha male display of dominance. “For taking Savannah’s virginity as an outsider to all the motorcycle clubs, Cooper will be taken to an isolated area and put to death while the entire board of both clubs watches. As Savannah grew up knowing, she must marry someone from a motorcycle club. By taking my daughter’s purity while unmarried, you have stained her. No self-respecting man in any decent club would want her now. The Santoses do not accept that kind of dishonor, or any kind of dishonor. You must be punished to show that we are not to be disgraced. She cannot live a respectable life, so you cannot live a life.”
“NO!” I cry, clinging to Cooper. “Daddy, you can’t! I love him!”
“I can and I will,” Flint says, harshly. Then he puts a hand up to his head and massages his temples, like I am giving him a migraine. “Savannah, we have no choice. Those are the rules and the board will not stand for the dishonor. You are not a part of any motorcycle club, Cooper, and thus you cannot marry my daughter and, because you tainted her but cannot marry her, you must die.”
My world goes dark as I lose consciousness and crumple to the ground.
When I come to, I am lying across the couch, with Nate, Lily, and Wolf huddled around. Lily is crouched on the ground, fanning my face while Nate has a hand on my wrist, taking my pulse, and Wolf paces back and forth around me, looking concerned.
“She’s awake!” cries Lily, jumping up.
“Where is Cooper?” I sit up so fast that the world spins and I almost pass out again, but I the discomfort barely registers. “Where is Cooper?” I scream frantically, looking around as I shakily get to my feet. Flint, Salvador, and Cooper are gone.
“Calm down!” Wolf pushes me back down, “Cooper is okay. For now.”
“Where is he?” I yell. I don’t believe him. Flint declared that he is going to kill Cooper, and if Flint decides that he wants to kill someone, whoever his proclaimed target is is already as good as dead. I once saw my dad shoot a mouse in our kitchen with a handgun, just because he felt it would be an inconvenience to go down the street to the drugstore for a normal mousetrap. I have no doubt he would take Cooper out just as nonchalantly. I feel like I just had everything I ever wanted dangled in front of me and then snatched away from me in the most cruel way possible. I would rather die than have Cooper die because of me. If Cooper is dead, I may as well be. “Did they kill him? Did they kill Cooper?” I start sobbing uncontrollably.
“Savannah, calm down!” Wolf sounds exasperated and probably a little overwhelmed in the face of so much emotion. His totally stoic personality provides him with really little material to pull from in this kind of situation. Luckily, Lily steps in.
“There’s no immediate need to panic,” Lily says. “Cooper is at a board meeting with Flint and Salvador. He is alive. They will not kill him...” Lily trails off, her tact catching up with her, but the unspoken ‘at least not before you see him again’ hangs heavy in the air between us.
“A board meeting?” I ask.
“Cooper proposed a fight,” Nate explains, bouncing from foot to foot in that way that he tends to do when he is really excited about something. “They want to kill him because he can’t make an honest woman out of you, right? He can’t marry you and make everything alright because he isn’t a part of a motorcycle club and you’re Flint Santos’s daughter, right? Well, he proposed that he gets a chance to fight the best fighter in the Santos motorcycle club. If he wins the fight, he gets to be an honorary member of the Santos motorcycle club and can take your hand in marriage. If he loses, he will honorably accept death. And they get a show out of it, so everyone wins. Though, you know, he won’t really have much of a choice about the honorably accepting death bit, since he’ll have his guts smeared across the ring if he loses. And Sid ‘Maneater’ Johnson didn’t get that name for nothing. Oh, yeah, it’s going to be a good fight!” Nate’s eyes gleam with excitement for the sport of the match but I do know Sid “Maneater” Johnson, named that for his habit of taking a big bite out of his opponent’s flesh after defeating them, and my temporary relief evaporates in less time than it takes to blink. I feel like I am going to be sick.
Lily notices me turning green and elbows Nate. “Nate!” she scolds. “A little tact, please? This is her love that you are talking about!”
Nate catches himself. “Sorry,” he mumbles sheepishly, rubbing his stomach on the side where Lily elbowed him. “It’s just going to be a good fight, that’s all. Fighting is my thing! Can you blame me?”
Lily glares at him. But I can’t bother to spare a thought for Nate’s lack of tact. Every time I get any good news today, it is instantly negated by something that is at least equally as bad as the good news was good.
Chapter Nineteen
Cooper
“So you slept with Flint’s daughter, you dishonored everyone in the Santos motorcycle club, and you risked causing us a deadly war, the likes of which we haven’t seen in years—all to get your rocks off?” The man, sitting on Flint’s right-hand side on the long wooden table says all of this in a flat, monotone voice, his eyes narrowed and fingertips resting against each other contemplatively.
“I love Savannah Santos and I ask that you allow me to prove that I am worthy of being in your motorcycle club and marrying your daughter.” I speak directly to Flint, though I know there needs to be a majority vote from the board to allow me to fight for the chance to be an honorary member.
“Why should I let you do this?” asks Flint. “After you have disrespected me and my men like this? Why shouldn’t I staple your balls to your legs, rip your dick off, and make you eat it while you bleed to death? Eh? ‘Cause I don’t know, boys, but that’s sounding pretty good to me.”
I know he is trying to intimidate me. And I know that if I so much as flinch, that’s exactly wh
at will happen. But Savannah is counting on me to make things right so that we can be together. So I stay completely straight-faced, as if the idea of being castrated doesn’t faze me, and answer him simply, directly, and as a man.
“What is done is done and can’t be undone,” I say. “Sure, you can rip my balls off and watch me bleed out, but then you’re still stuck with a huge fucking embarrassment for your whole motorcycle club. That, and a shamed daughter for you.” I say this directly to Flint. “Who will be a reminder day in and day out that you failed to keep control of your household.”
Flint growls and pushes his seat back, getting up. I speed it up a little, getting to my point.
“Or...” I say. “Or you can let me fight your toughest guy. If I fuck him up, that’s a fucking honor to you—your daughter marries the new strongest fighter in your club and your legacy goes on and gets even stronger than before. Your son is already marrying Salvador’s daughter, uniting your motorcycle clubs, but you can have the upper hand if you have the stronger motorcycle club with me in it. And worst case scenario, you get to see me get killed on stage in front of everyone. Isn’t that better than just ripping my balls off? Enjoy the sport of it.”
“A sportsman? Ha!” Flint laughs, the anger passing from his face. “What do you say men? Give ‘Veni Vidi Vici’ the chance to die in the ring?”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing the ‘Maneater’ bloody that pretty-boy face.” The man sitting at Flint’s right side leans forward and rubs his palms together with a spirit of malice. A few of the other men chime in with sounds of agreements, harsh laughter, and taunts under their breath.
“There you have it,” Flint says. “Tomorrow, you will fight the Maneater. If you manage to defeat him, and not die in the process, you can join the Santos motorcycle club and marry my daughter.” Flint laughs uproariously.
Somehow, I am not quite as much in the mood for laughter.
The very moment that I come back out into the room where we left Savannah recovering from her swoon with Nate, Wolf, and Lily, Savannah leaps up off of the couch and runs to me, throwing herself into my arms.
“I’m sorry!” she sobs. “Baby, I’m so, so sorry!”
“Shhhh,” I murmur, stroking her hair. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“But it’s everything I was afraid of,” she sobs.
“There won’t be a war,” I say.
Savannah shakes her head. “No, and that’s great and I know I am being selfish not to be thrilled because of that alone. But, Cooper, I can’t lose you! I can’t live without you. I love you.”
“Shh,” I murmur. “I love you, too. And you won’t lose me. I am going to be fine. I am going to fight a guy, become an honorary member of your dad’s motorcycle club, and then you will be all mine. Forever and ever and ever.” I wipe away her tears and give her a kiss, right there in the middle of the room.
Savannah doesn’t look reassured, but she also knows that we don’t have any other choice.
And I am not going to let her down.
Chapter Twenty
Savannah
We are allowed to spend this last night together, since I am already ruined and, as far as Daddy is concerned, Cooper will die the next day. To make sure we don’t try to run away, we have to stay in Daddy’s mansion, where all exits and entrances are tripped by wires and guarded by goons.
So I am back with Cooper, in the very same room where I grew up. At this very moment, we are standing inches from the big, fluffy bed where I slept. If I wasn’t terrified for Cooper’s life, this would be really hot.
But fuck it. At this point, the least I can do is give Cooper the best night of his life tonight. Hopefully, the good feelings will help him feel even more confident in the ring tomorrow, even though confidence doesn’t seem to be a problem for him, and he will have that extra edge to take down the Maneater.
I take a step closer to Cooper and put a hand up on his chest. “I love you, baby,” I whisper. I rise up onto my tip-toes, put my other hand behind Cooper’s head, and pull Cooper’s face down to mine. I come closer to him, just a centimeter or two from his lips, and stop there, to make him feel the anticipation. “I am yours. My body is yours. Do what you want with it—I want you.”
Cooper doesn’t need to be told twice. He lifts me up, wrapping my legs around his waist and backing me up against the wall. I wrap my arms around his head, feeling his cock stiffen in his pants and press up against me. The need grows deep in my abdomen, filling me with longing, and my sex starts to warm up in sweet anticipation. My body yearns for the pleasure that will fill me when Cooper yields to the mutual desire and gives me the satisfaction that we both want so very much.
“I’m going to be there for you,” Cooper murmurs between kisses, his breath hot on my neck. “I am going to be here for you today, and tomorrow, and the day after that, and all the days beyond until we are both old and gray. And then I will still be there for you.”
‘I love you,” I reply. “And I trust you, and I am grateful that I have met you.”
“No matter what happens tomorrow,” Cooper whispers, looking me straight in the eyes, “I, too, am glad that I met you and have had the chance to be with you. I will never regret that.” He kisses me again. “But I will not let you down.”
“I know,” I breathe, and pull him as close as possible. “But right now, I want you to take me, deep and hard. I want you naked, and I want you to use me for your pleasure.”
“You want me in you, huh?” Cooper whispers into my ear, his breath hot and close. My grasping fingers go straight for his belt, pulling it open to get to his button and fly underneath. I pull his jeans down and slide the boxers down after, freeing his erection. He expertly undresses me in just a few moves and then my bare flesh is pressed against his.
“Ohhh,” I moan with pleasure as he slides his erection between my legs, rubbing along my wet pussy all the way up to my sensitive clit and back down again. Then he does it again, and again, and again, picking up speed as the pressure builds within me. He bends his head, taking a nipple into his mouth and caressing it with his tongue. With his other hand, he teases my other nipple, stroking and caressing and playing with the tip. All the while, he continues to slide his erection up and down between my legs, exciting me so much that he brings me to the point of no return within moments. I dig my fingers into the bare skin of his back as mine arches with the satisfying release of an earth-shattering orgasm that sends stars before my eyes, leaving me completely disoriented.
My world is still spinning in the best possible way when Cooper takes my face in his hands and kisses me, deeply and passionately. “I am going to take you now,” he growls in my ear, “my woman.”
Then, without further warning, he pulls on a condom, throws me back on the bed, and thrusts his stiff cock deep into me. He is completely uninhibited as he gives in to our shared longing and lets the desire take us farther and harder and deeper. Together, we give in to the thrill of the passion and let it speed us toward the ultimate satisfaction. With my back arching and sex pulsing, his body heaving above me, we reach sweet release in rapid succession. I come first and he comes right after, my screams of the sweetest satisfaction mingling with his moans of pleasure.
Then he collapses on top of me and my body buzzes with the after-effects of multiple orgasms and the security of his warm, safe weight on me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cooper
I get up at six to go on a warm-up run before the fight. The fight will begin at noon, but first I need to warm up as thoroughly and strategize as completely as if my life depends on it.
Incidentally, it does.
When I call Vlad to let him know about today’s fight, he immediately offers to come prepare me.
“Dude, it’s six a.m. I don’t expect you to jump out of bed and come across town to prep me for this match,” I say.
“Don’t even think about it. There is no way I’m not coaching you.” I can hear things rustling in the backgroun
d. It sounds like Vlad is getting dressed or preparing something. “I am your coach. I coach all your fights. Now, who are you fighting?”
“Uh...” I think back to yesterday’s talks with Flint and the board. “The guy’s name is Sid ‘Maneater’ Johnson. Know anything about him?”
There is silence from the other end of the phone for a few moments. After a couple beats, I start to wonder if the call dropped. “Hello?”
“I’m still here,” Vlad says. He sounds worried. “Yeah, man, I know Maneater. He used to fight in your league back in the day, but got kicked out a year or two before you got into fighting.”
“Kicked out?” I raise an eyebrow, sitting up on the edge of the bed. “What do you mean kicked out?” There are very few things that can get you permanently kicked out of the league. Even juicing or killing a guy in the ring won’t do it.
“He killed five guys in one season in the ring and concussed another so bad that the guy is a freakin’ vegetable now.” I can pretty much hear Vlad shaking his head over the phone. “Irreparable brain damage, man. It’s no joke. And do you know how he got his name?”
“No,” I say. “How?”
“There’s rumor that he’s some kind of cannibal,” Vlad says. “I don’t know if that’s the truth, or if he just does it for the shock appeal, but he has this nasty habit of taking a big bite out of his opponents after defeating them. He chews it up—literally chews up some other man’s flesh—and swallows. It’s probably just the ultimate ‘fuck you’ to his opponent, but even if it’s all just for show, it takes some kind of seriously sick man to eat a part of another human. I dunno, man...”
“Then I guess we better get started,” I say.
“I’ll see you at Hudson Park in fifteen,” Vlad says.
“Great, see you then.” I hang up and go get dressed. Savannah is still asleep, her beautiful face as angelic as ever, when I slip out. I’m stopped before I get to the front door, of course.