“He could hire others.”
“From what you said, he is a bit of a wimp and he’s just been bitch slapped.”
“That might just make him angrier.”
Dirk touched her cheek. “If so, he’d look in Canada too. Audra, in case it hasn’t occurred to you, the world is a dangerous place. All you can do is be strong and clever, and try to hang out with strong and clever people.”
“If he’s still pissed he’d come after all of you.”
He smiled. “You think he isn’t after my skin, all our skins already? And it isn’t like we don’t have plenty of enemies on our own. I can turn that around—if you hook up with me your ex is not going to be the only enemy you have to worry about. You’ll inherit mine. And we aren’t talking about buying a house in the burbs and settling down. You’d be running with The Chosen Few; the club doesn’t run from trouble in this troubled world. It’s not safe. If you are willing to accept that, then adding him into the mix of people after our asses is no big deal.”
Once again she was impressed with what a giant step it was from her old world into his. “I suppose not.”
“Riding with a club isn’t for everyone, but then neither is Canada.”
The life might be every bit as dangerous as he said, but she was learning it was also exciting. No matter what happened at the end, spending her life riding on the back of his bike with her arms wrapped around her man could make up for a lot of the crap the world dished out. And at night, she’d have him. Slowly she’d get to understand him. And maybe they would create a strong bond that would help them both. And what the fuck would she do in Canada.
“Okay, but why do you want me?”
He shrugged. “Damned if I know. I tried not to care about you, but the way things are, if you insisted on going to Canada I’d have to follow and make sure you got set up right. Then I wouldn’t want to leave because I want to be with you.”
She liked the honesty. He wouldn’t pretend, except that the idea of a relationship scared him. “Then maybe I should give you a chance and save putting all those unnecessary miles on your bike.”
“Even if I wanted to let you go, I’d have to deal with Greg nagging me like an old woman about how I blew off the best thing that ever happened to me. That’s a lot scarier than thinking your ex wants to kill me.”
“It’s nice to know your motivation is pure love.”
He pulled her close and kissed her. “I want you to be my old lady. I want you there when I get off my bike at night. I want your warm body in my arms. I want you sharing the ups and downs of this out of control existence. I want to fuck you until you can’t move.”
She had her arms around him and pressed her face to his chest, sniffling. “Yes,” she told him. “Yes.”
* * * *
She went to the hospital to tell Greg about the proposal.
“So you want to be his old lady?”
“Yes.”
“You guys are right for each other,” he said. “He’ll protect you as much as anyone can, and love you. With you around, he has a chance to find his way slowly back from his dark place. It won’t be easy,” Greg said. “Trust doesn’t come easy to him. Neither does optimism.”
“Being cheerful after what’s happened, where we are, isn’t the most sensible reaction.”
Greg had laughed. “Well, who said any of this was sensible?”
Greg was right. Loving Dirk was not sensible, but it was real. “Charming.”
“Look, he is nobody’s white knight, but I know he wants you and wants to share adventures with you. Life is dangerous and we sure as hell don’t get out of it alive. So all you can do is face the dangers squarely, and try to kick ass. You two doing that together can make it a hell of a lot more fun. You are in for one hell of a ride.”
She looked at his flushed face and realized what effort had gone into this impassioned speech. He was sincere and in her heart she knew what he meant. If you weren’t in denial, fear, confronting danger brought an adrenaline rush. There was a bonding when you lived with someone outside the boundaries of the straight world.
“Well,” she said, smiling. “There’s also the fact that I don’t have a better offer.”
Greg laughed. “I guess not.”
EPILOGUE
It was warm and sunny. Sitting around waiting made Dirk itch to be traveling. Looking at Audra made him want to take her in his arms and make love to her. But he was doing that. They’d just done that, and now they lay together, gazing into each other’s eyes.
Wrapping his head around the idea that Audra knew him as well as anyone ever had, and that she loved him, was taking some getting used to. The idea seemed fragile, delicate. But Dirk wasn’t the nurturing type. No, when he thought something might be faulty or weak, he stressed it, tested it to see if it would hold.
“What is it?”
She seemed to read him all too well. “Greg’s out and he and Chris are heading home.”
“You want to go back?”
He shook his head. “I need some road time,” Dirk said.
She smiled. “You’ve got a bike. Let’s take a spin.”
Laughing, he dressed and she threw their few belongings in a backpack while he checked out.
She got on back behind him and put her arms around him. He kicked his bike to life and as they roared away her body resonated to the thundering of the engine between their legs and the pounding of Dirk’s heart under her hands. A blacktop highway swirled beneath her as they rode out of the city and up into the hills. Near the summit, he took a side road that led to a clearing that overlooked the city where he stopped. When he switched off the motor, the world seemed deathly silent.
By then it was dusk and the sun sank behind them as they got off the bike and walked to stare down at the city. Belo, a haze hung over the city and as she looked lights began to wink on one by one as the darkness grew.
Dirk stood behind her hugging her. Then he let his hands move lower, to undo her jeans. She leaned back against his muscular body, feeling as safe as a person could feel in an unsafe world and trembled with joy when his warm hand slipped inside her jeans to stroke her pussy and make her writhe with pleasure. He was feeling up his old lady as they looked out over the world.
“We could go to Mexico,” he said.
Her breathing grew ragged. “He’d look there.”
Dirk shrugged. “If he looks, he’d have to look in Spanish. Makes it harder.”
She tried to laugh but his fingers playing with her made her short of breath. “Does it now?”
His fingers moved faster inside her and his other hand was under her shirt, fondling her breast. Darkness was wrapping them and he was arousing her, building an incredible excitement in her body.
“Course it does. Everything is harder in Spanish. Unless you’re Mexican. Besides, they don’t have elk there.”
“Is that important?”
“Very.”
He nuzzled her neck sending more tingles through her and then she was coming, her internal muscles squeezing his fingers, wetting them with her pussy juice.
She moaned and turned to face him, tipping her head up, opening her mouth as he kissed her. The touch of her soft lips reassured him.
“What about Greg?” she asked.
“We can send him a postcard. If he wants to he’ll come down.”
“Perfect,” she said, letting her mouth stay open in a seductive pout. Then she put her hands on his chest and blew him a kiss before slowly sinking to her knees and letting her hands slide down his body. When they reached his waist, she slowly undid his pants. He was hard and she freed his cock, stroking it, admiring it. Then she took it in her pouty mouth, sucking him, tasting his rigid flesh and sending a world of pleasure rushing through him. He rested his hands on her shoulders and moaned. Everything she did seemed to please him. That she wanted him, that she would do this for him told him she was the right one. She put her hand under his balls and cupped them, exciting him more.
&n
bsp; He quickly came in her mouth, making her choke lightly, but she swallowed and smiled up at him. “I’ve always wanted to go to Mexico.”
He reached down and took her by the arms and pulled her to her feet. “Since when?”
“Since I decided I wanted to be your old lady. Since I decided I belong behind you on that bike riding wherever you want to go. Elk or no.”
“You’re going to be a hell of a biker bitch.”
END
***
Thanks for reading Cursed. Up next you’ll find Greg’s and Luc’s stories in Wrecked and Disgraced. Hope you like them!
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Nessa
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***
Bought
(The Goldenhearts Series: Book One)
By Molly Thorne
I’m not like this.
At least, that’s what I like to tell myself.
At first, everything was clear to me. The impulse that moved me was strong, sharp and pristine. I wanted to destroy this man.
But now I feel confused and guilty. Nothing makes sense anymore. Have I failed? Am I the target now? Or is it just that he has become a different kind of target? My motivations are muddy, my hate has lost its temper and now I don’t know whether to slap his face or fall into his arms.
He’s dangerous, to be sure. A cold, calculating man; his despicable actions warrant all the hate I can muster. But he’s also able to say the sweetest words...
* * *
Lara Everwood faces a dilemma. Her father is lying in a hospital bed, victim of a man who’s set out to take the work of his whole life. She knows the name very well: Theo Lambert, eccentric billionaire, playboy, traveller, alpha male, owner of an economic empire, and general asshole. Lara has a plan: she needs to get close to him, work with him, to find a way to make him pay for what he’s done.
But as her plan comes to fruition and she gets to know the bad boy a bit better, things start to get complicated. Is she getting too close? Why is she suddenly not to sure about what she must do? What makes her dream about Theo punishing her when she knows just how bad he really is?
Lara is discovering the hidden side of the monster, and deep inside, she’s hoping to find a heart of gold. But at the same time, Theo is coming closer and closer to discovering her own secret, her web of lies. And this is a dangerous thing.
Will Lara be able to exact her revenge? Is her father condemned to lose it all? Can Theo show that there is something of true value below all the layers of wealthy jerk? Will he end up discarding her as he does all other women? What will be the price to pay after being BOUGHT by him?
This is a romantic novel with no cliffhangers and a happy ending.
BOUGHT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. HERE NOW • 2. THEO • 3. HOSTILE INTENT • 4. THE CALL • 5. WORKING FOR THE ENEMY • 6. A LESSON • 7. DANGEROUS • 8. MARCUS • 9. VANINA • 10. THE PINK SAND • 11. A RELUCTANT GOLFER • 12. BOUGHT • 13. AWOKEN • 14. ASSETS • 15. THE FRIEND ZONE • 16. THE WAY OF THE SHARK • 17. THE LOCKET • 18. THE PILL • 19. THE DATE • 20. TRICKS OF THE TRADE • 21. EATING GHOSTS • 22. HERE NOW
1. HERE NOW
I’m not like this.
Or, at least, that’s what I like to think.
When this all started, just a few months ago, everything was clear to me. The impulse that moved me was strong, sharp and pristine. Hate, revenge, justice. There was a target, and I was set on hitting it at the exact center, destroying it. Destroying him, for my target was a man.
Now I feel confused and guilty. Nothing makes sense anymore. Have I failed? Am I the target now? Or is it just that he has become a different kind of target? My motivations are muddy, my hate has lost its temper and now I don’t know whether I want to slap his face or fall into his arms.
He’s dangerous, to be sure. A cold, calculating man who’s built his success on not being afraid of using people and then discarding them; his actions warrant all the hate I can muster. But he’s also able to say the sweetest words... and there is also the matter of his imposing presence, his features, his eyes, all of what he offers to the sight and the touch.
Am I falling under the spell of a demigod? How could I surrender myself to this powerful man when I despise him so much? And yet, there’s no way to deny it: I can’t find the strength to even want to harm him anymore. I just crave for his sweet caress.
He’s bought me, as he’s bought everything else he’s set his eyes upon. I should be striving to get free from him. But I don’t want to be free. Deep inside, I just want to be his.
It’s all kinds of wrong, I know. Especially in light of how he treats women. But it can’t be helped.
At least I have a consolation: one way or the other, this will all be over very soon.
* * *
I was surprised when the call came, even though Callie had assured me that it would definitely come. It was as inevitable as death and taxes, she said. Powerful men never let this kind of chance slip. They take what they want, as soon as they can. In this case, she was talking about me.
“It’s a job interview,” I objected. “He’ll be thinking about what I say and my qualifications. He probably won’t even register me physically. I bet he won’t remember my hair color.”
“Trust me, honey, he will. And then he will want to have you sitting near his office every day. He’ll make the call,” she assured me.
Callie had come up with the plan herself. She had been working for Theo for just a few months, and she had figured out some things about him. For starters, she knew that he liked to work closely with beautiful young women. But she had dug deeper into this knowledge. And she knew that he specifically wouldn’t be able to resist a woman like me, if I played the part well. I was his type, apparently.
So, when I told her about my father’s company and what Theo was doing to him, she started thinking about it. A couple of days later, she came to see me with the news.
“There’s an opening,” she said. “This is your chance. How about being Theo’s assistant?”
I jumped at the opportunity. I understood that assistant was an intentionally vague term, and what Theo really wanted was to have a young attractive woman beside him at all times, more than someone who’d help him manage his appointments and obligations. Handsome billionaires rarely need to do this kind of thing to get company, and this was certainly not his case, but every man has his weakness, and Theo’s was pretty brunettes with big eyes, sharp brains and long legs. I fit the bill perfectly.
Of course, I couldn’t tell him who I was —not at first, anyway. I’d have to pose as someone else. I’ve never been one to live in deception, but extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary actions, and my father was lying in a hospital bed.
“Just be sure to dress appropriately,” Callie said. Then she leant closer and whispered: “Appropriately... to kill.” She winked at me, and both of us laughed.
2. THEO
He doesn’t have a clue who I am, but I know all I need to know about him.
That’s what I thought as I sat still in a couch on the fifty-second floor of the Lambert Tower, waiting for Theo Lambert to appear. It was the top floor, the King of Hearts: Theo’d had them all named from a deck of cards, each floor decorated according to their suit. The top floor was white and red, and the elevator buttons and other details were shaped as hearts.
It was appropriate enough for the moment, I thought. Everything hinged on that moment, and I had to play my cards well. More accurately, I had to play myself as a card. I’d have just a few minutes to catch his eye and secure a position that was close to him. If I did it correctly, I’d become his right hand. Then I could do whatever it took to annihilate him.
I’d been sitting there for a while
, turning my attention to the sober red-on-white decoration of the room, and letting my mind wander into dark thoughts. I must smile, be courteous and agreeable, I thought... but in truth, I wanted to kill the man. He thinks I’m here for a job, but I’m here to try to stop him.
No, not to try. I’m here to stop him, I thought. I must.
Theo Lambert: eccentric billionaire, playboy, traveller, alpha male, owner of an economic empire, and general asshole. If everything went according to plan, I’d become his right hand in just a few hours.
I told myself silently the words I had spoken in front of the mirror countless times. “I have what it takes” (which meant that I had a very, very revealing dress and a smile that had already taken a thousand victims). “I have it. My name is Lara Everwood, and I cannot fail. I must do this. I must do it for dad.”
Just like half the women in town, the business magazines (and some general magazines too) were in love with Theo Lambert. They used to publish pieces about the way he’d risen to the top, hard and fast, without ever stopping to take prisoners. His strategy was to be growing always, with no mercy and making zero compromises. He’d beat one competitor after another, and if he couldn’t, he’d move their spot in the list for a future new attack. This applied both to business and love. He never really lost. The narration invariably went from his riches to his wits and from there to his looks, since his attractive features were what had put him in the spotlight after all. Other billionaires tended to be more reclusive, but he couldn’t. How could he, if he had the face of an angel and the muscles of a wrestler? (Not by chance, perhaps, most of these articles were written by women. It was easy to see that they had a hard time being objective and impartial.)
What all those magazines conveniently left out was the long list of victims that his tactics left squirming on the ground. People who’d worked hard all their lives to build a business, only to be struck by his mighty blow and end up empty handed, bleeding metaphorically as Lambert absorbed or destroyed everything they had built, sometimes in a whim.
I Need A Bad Boy: A Collection of Bad Boy Romances Page 84