When he finally collapsed into her arms, she held him, looking past his shoulder at the ceiling, an unbreakable smile on her face.
Oscar rolled off her and she snuggled into him, not wanting to be far from his overheated body. After a long time, their breathing coming easier, she said, "So that's sex," her voice breathy and excited.
"Yes," he replied with a nod, complete satisfaction in his tenor. “That’s sex.”
She purred and snuggled closer, feeling his arm wrap around her back and shoulders, pulling her close. "I wouldn't change a thing."
***
Three years later Rosie ran up and down the beach with Danny, laughing and chasing after grunion. She was no longer his teacher, but she was his step-mother, and Danny was doing much better at math.
The whole Pitch Wheels club was at the bond-fire. The laughter and cheer was contagious and embracing.
The wedding, now almost two years ago, was nice, full of people who were genuinely happy that she and Oscar were binding their lives together. Buddy was his best man.
She wasn't sure, after learning what Danny's mother did to Oscar, that Oscar would ever marry her. Not truly. But he surprised her on their first anniversary together with an engagement ring and the request that she move in with him and Danny, full time. "It's been a year," he told her, "and I want you more, not less."
Rosie accepted both offers with celebratory sex.
Girl talk with Kathy, Buddy's wife, has given rise to fruitful information for the bedroom. Kathy was so open and willing to share that at first it embarrassed her, especially when she pulled out a dildo and told Rosie it was time for her to learn how to give head. Rosie, however, got over it long enough to discover a few things that drove Oscar wild, and she did love making him wild.
Oscar's art career was continually rising, and his tormented soul continued to produce amazing works. She held him, loved him, sexed him, but never strove to change him.
Below are some of Ellen Graves' other works to enjoy! Tap the covers for a sample
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Crossing the Line
Kristin Fletcher
Growing up, Joanna Kraig had one goal in life: escape. More than anything, she wanted to escape the seedy side of town she grew up in and the endless string of equally seedy boyfriends her mother brought home. There was always some new guy warming her mother’s bed and, as she got a little older, threatening to warm hers.
She met James when she was beaned with a stray baseball from a pick-up game taking place in the vacant lot next to their adjoining back yards. She went down like a sack of rocks and was dazed for a moment. A hand reached down to help her up, and she went from dazed to dazzled. The sun filtered down through his sandy brown hair like a halo. Bright emerald green eyes looked back at her in concern as he helped her up. For a moment she thought he was an angel.
“Are you okay?” he asked, looking genuinely worried. At 12 years old he was her age, and not really interested in girls. But something stirred inside him as he peered into her ocean blue eyes. He took her to his house, gathered some ice in a towel, and gently held it to her forehead. She sat perfectly still looking at him with wide eyes but somehow managed to mumble a thank you.
From that moment on, they were friends. They were apart so rarely, people found it difficult to think of one without thinking of the other. He was the only person she’d ever known that wanted out as much as she did. They shared their dreams and swore to each other that one day, they’d get out.
They both did—each in their own way. Joanna went to college and then to the police academy, and James joined the Army. It was the first time since they’d met that they were apart for more than a few days. They promised to stay in touch, but it turned out that the one thing that could break their close bond was the Army. Since parting ways, she hadn’t heard a word from him.
Joanna went to college on a scholarship/work program and discovered it was difficult finding the time to come home. When she did finally make a visit for Christmas, she found James’ house empty and for sale. Joanna asked her mother if she had received anything from James. She got a vague reply of, “No, I don’t think so.” Bewildered and hurt, she thought he must have moved on. That he must have left his childhood, and her with it, behind.
Now, six years later, she was in the middle of a police raid holding a gun on him and yelling, “Up against the wall!”
“Long time, no see, Warner,” she whispered in his ear as she frisked him for weapons. Damn, he felt good. He’d filled out nicely in the intervening years—his tall form still lean but more muscular, more defined. She inhaled his familiar scent as she swung his arms back to cuff him. Her mind drifted back to the last time they were together, when they’d expressed their love in soft caresses and heated whispers. She had given herself to him heart, body, and soul in a night of ecstasy she had been unable to match since. Heat flashed through her and headed south just from the fleeting memory. She shook her head to clear it as she led him out to her squad car.
The parking lot outside the Free Vipers Motorcycle Club headquarters was bathed in strobing blue and red lights. All in all, the raid had been a bust. They found none of the cocaine they were looking for, but took the few members that were there in for questioning. Someone was bringing drugs into their small town.
Joanna opened the back door of her unit and attempted to help him into the car. He turned at the last moment, his emerald green eyes meeting hers. “Looking good, Kraig.” He smiled his crooked, cocky smile and ducked into the back seat without her help.
Joanna slammed the door shut and walked away from the car for a moment in an attempt to compose herself. She was practically wet just from frisking him. Half a dozen years go by, and she still reacts to him like this. Anger at being his abandoning her still simmered under the surface, but she wasn’t prepared for desire to come bubbling back up to confront her.
James watched her walk away, admiring the sway of her hips as she went. He had instantly begun to respond when she frisked him and his thoughts had gone back to the last time they were together. The night they had given themselves to each other. Remembering the warm embrace of her body, it was a struggle just to keep himself in check. He couldn’t let her pat-down discover the physical reaction she elicited from him. But he did have to wonder if she was always so thorough.
He was still pissed, and more hurt than he would admit even to himself, that she dropped him so easily when she went to college. Not a word from her all the way through boot camp or any of his additional training. He wrote to her regularly, once a week, and he never received an answer. When he was deployed to Afghanistan, he gave up.
He had carefully walled off his heart and never let another woman in again. The stab of pain he felt when he realized who had him up against the wall surprised him. It surprised him, and quickly morphed into desire when she frisked him. Just thinking about it now sent his blood galloping southward.
He watched her confer some other officers then turn and strut back over to the squad car. Damn, she was a vision when she walked and even her kevlar vest couldn’t hide her luscious curves. She had grown into a woman in the intervening years and if anything, she was even more beautiful now than when he had last laid eyes on her.
Joanna yanked the driver door open and slid behind the wheel. She met his eyes in the rear view mirror and said, “Unless you have something to say about this raid, I don’t want to talk.”
“Fine.” he growled, “I don’t have anything to say to you anyway.”
“Nothing to say to me! You should have plenty to say to my. Like ‘I’m sorry’ for one thing.”
“Yeah, right. I think I liked it better when we weren’t talking.”
“Fine.”
She pulled out behind the police wagon and tried to just concentrate on driving. It was a hard thing to do when every time she checked her rearview mirror, she met his eyes once again. Angry emerald green eyes that had once looked at her with desire and even l
ove. Why was he so angry? She was the one who was left behind!
Chief Erickson and two other officers questioned the club members while Joanna filled out paperwork and studiously ignored the green eyes boring holes in her back from the holding cell. She filed her reports and gathering her things headed out the door for home. Her shift was over nearly 2 hours ago and she was exhausted. She didn’t realized that those same eyes narrowed with annoyance as she left without a backward glance.
A sigh of pleasure escaped her lips as she sank into the bath. She tried to wash away the memories of James that were crowding out her rational thoughts. She had missed him these last 6 years. Through the anger and the hurt, the bottom line was, she missed him.
As she luxuriated in the hot bath, she found it impossible to keep her thoughts from a steamy August night 6 years earlier. She and James were in his living room splitting a six pack and making out on the couch. It wasn’t the first time they’d been alone in his house, but tonight was different. Tonight she was going to let him do all the things she had stopped before. Tonight she wasn’t going to say no.
Something in his kiss told her he understood as she relaxed and he molded himself against her. She could feel every hard muscle and every soft touch more acutely than ever. Her mouth was pliant against his as she parted her lips allowing his tongue free rein to tease her own. Grinding her hips against him, Joanna revelled in the freedom of letting go of her restraint as he slipped his hands under her shirt. The warmth of his fingertips sent a shiver up her spine even as heat spread out from her core.
Just the memory of that night sent her hands on a slow journey down her breasts. She lightly rubbed the flat of her palms across her nipples teasing them into stiff peaks. Closing her eyes, she imagined James’ tongue and lips in place of her hands. A slight smile played across her lips as she remembered his light kisses trailing down her stomach, in light, feathery touches.
Just from the memory of his lips, wet and soft, kissing her lips open, Joanna could feel a ball of anticipation unwind. She desperately tried to imitate that feeling with her own fingers now, that feeling of his tongue sliding over her, exploring every delicious fold before settling on her clitoris.
Her fingers danced in the warm water as she immersed herself in the memories. The first tentative strokes of his tongue had sent a jolt of pleasure rocketing through her body. When Joanna moaned her approval he gave himself over to the pleasure of discovery and the silky sweet flavor of her. Her fingers entwined in his hair in the past as one hand gripped the side of the tub in the present. So engulfed in her memory was she that she cried, “Jimmy!” when she came in great shuddering waves of release.
Laying back in the tub, she enjoyed the afterglow as it rolled down her body radiated out to her fingertips. She hadn’t had such a strong orgasm since...well, since that night actually happened. Not even her last boyfriend brought her such satisfaction as her own fingers and memory had brought her now.
It was kind of sad when she thought about it. A memory, a ghost, had just made her feel more alive than she had in years. Now if only she didn’t want to clobber the guy who made that memory with her. She was still pissed that he left her behind so easily. It had been like losing a limb when she lost him and the phantom pain haunted for years. Now, when she was finally, really moving on, he pops up in a drug raid.
She got out of the tub and into bed telling herself that all she needed was a good night’s sleep. But sleep didn’t come easily. Laying there, watching to shadows on the ceiling, her mind kept wandering back to James. Why did he have look so good, even better than six years ago. He had filled out in all the right places, replacing wiry limbs with lean hard muscles.
But what had really gotten to her was looking into his eyes. Nearly the same, maybe a little more world-weary than high school, but she saw the same man behind those ridiculously green eyes. He was still her Jimmy. Maybe.
The sky outside her window was beginning to lighten with the false dawn as she finally fell asleep. At least today was her day off. She could sleep as late as she wanted.
***
A relentless pounding on her door dragged her reluctantly from sleep. She squinted bleary-eyed at her clock. Noon. Well, she guessed 6 hours was going to have to be enough. That didn’t mean she had to be happy about it.
“I’m coming!” She yelled as she belted a short robe over her narrow waist. “Stop knocking for crying out loud!”
She yanked to door open ready to be downright cranky with whoever was on the other side. Her irritation quickly turned to surprise when she was pushed inside and pinned against the wall. She looked up into familiar eyes for a brief second before catching her assailant behind the knee, throwing him off-balance. In the next moment she was sitting astride him pinning his arms to the floor.
“What are you doing here, Jimmy?” she hissed.
He smiled and bucked his hips throwing her off, reversing their positions in the blink of an eye. Now he straddled her and said, “You know, you’re still the only one who calls me that.”
“Get. Off. Me!”
“No, I want answers and I’ve been waiting six years to get them.” His face was serious now as anger clouded his eyes.
“You want answers! I’m the one who deserves answers!” She spat out at him, “I’m the one who was left behind!”
“You’re the one who did the leaving sweetheart.” He stood and pulled her up with him. “I enlisted, served our country, and I never heard from you again.”
“No, you enlisted and I never heard from you again.” She met his eyes and matched the confusion and hurt in them with equal measures of her own.
“Wait, you never heard from me?” He said in disbelief, “I wrote whenever I could; at least once a week, sometimes more”
“I never got your letters, I never knew where to contact you. My mother said you never wrote.” Realization slowly dawned on her. “But then, she never liked you. She thought I was better off without you.” Her voice caught and the horrible truth became clear. “Oh God, I don’t believe it. All this time…”
“That bitch! I’ll swear, I’ll kill her!” His eyes lit up with anger again.
“Too late, she died during my first year in college.” Her throat closed at the thought of the mother she loved and hated in equal measures. “Car accident.”
“Sorry.”
“Yeah me too.” Then, coming to her senses she said, “You can’t be here. You’re facing drug charges.”
“No, I’m not. The clubhouse was clean.”
“How is that possible?” She was incredulous, “All roads lead to that clubhouse; to the Vipers.”
“Yeah, not interested in talking about that. I’d rather talk about you, me and your free afternoon.”
“But how did you know…” Was all she got to ask before his lips covered hers with a kiss so fierce, her knees buckled. He held her up, his hand on the small of her back and crushed her body to his.
Feeling his need and passion in that kiss sparked a chain reaction within her. A fire was rekindled that she thought had been banked forever. This feeling, this ardent desire that had been living so quietly inside her for the past half dozen years, was reawakened and rapidly growing.
She surrendered so completely to that kiss. It was like coming home. She moaned against his mouth and he picked her up, took a step forward hesitating, before following her pointing finger to the bedroom.
He dropped her gently onto the bed and stripped his jacket and shirt off, kicking his boots aside at the same time. Joanna propped herself up on her elbows to meet his kiss once again as he leaned down to untie the belt to her robe. She was still wearing the short, blue nightie she had donned after her bath and he looked at it in appreciation before tugging it up over her head.
He stood again, sweeping his eyes over her nearly naked body as he hastily undid his belt and stepped out of his jeans and boxers. She drew in a sharp breath at his perfection. Her eyes wandered over his sculpted chest and well defined
abs. She couldn’t help herself when she allowed her eyes to drift lower. She sat up and moved to the edge of the bed licking her lips in anticipation.
She heard him take a shuddering breath as she met his eyes briefly before reaching out to touch him. She ran her thumbs lightly over the ripples of his stomach and leaned in to place soft kisses just above his navel. Her hands now sweeping gently over the curves of his buttocks.
Sliding her hands back to his abs again she began caressing him again, her touch as light as a butterflies wings. Slowly, she felt her way down to the prize she sought, and cupping his balls, she slid her hand up his shaft. She began slowly, squeezing his cock tighter until she was rewarded with a drop of precum. She looked up into his eyes as her the tip of her tongue flicked out to taste him. He drew in another shuddering breath as she closed her eyes to savor the salty sweetness of him.
Runaway Ride: Alpha Bad Boy Biker and MC Romance Box Set Page 28