Having a man like Ranger on top of her was like nothing she ever could have prepared for and as he maneuvered her and bent her into the right position so he could hit her deepest and darkest spots. She knew what an expert lover her was and that she wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer.
She screamed Yes! As he thrust inside of her again and she tumbled over the edge. Her orgasm cascaded through her entire body, making her shake from the top of her head right down to her toes. She convulsed beneath him, her hips bucking and her heart racing.
She was in such a mess of ecstasy that it was too much of a turn on for him to ignore and within moments, Ranger too was exploding inside of her, his cock twitching, and he filled her with his hot seed.
“Fuck!” he gasped as he collapsed down on top of her.
Their two bodies were slick with sweat, but he held her there beneath him, looking into her eyes and kissing her gently on the lips.
He didn’t have to say anything. His eyes said it all.
Nicole brushed his hair away from his face and held him, staring into the feature she loved the most. The eyes that had won her heart.
She smiled.
“And I wasn’t expecting that,” he whispered as he kissed her again.
“Really?” she said with a wry smile.
“Well… okay, maybe a little,” he said with a smirk.
“I’ve been thinking about it for days, I just barely dared admit it, even to myself.”
“I know the feeling,” he said.
They lay together and couldn’t take their eyes off each other. A new, more permanent part of their bond had been forged, and now Nicole knew for sure he wasn’t just going to be part of her crazy arrangement.
In Ranger, she had found someone who had saved her in more ways than one.
And she was going to save him too.
13.
When their bags were packed the following morning and they were waiting at the foot of the drive by Ranger’s truck, Nicole couldn’t believe what twists and turns their weekend away as fake fiancés had taken.
She had thought when they had left campus that by the time they returned late on Sunday, they would have been at each other’s throats. Instead, they had fallen in love.
Nicole’s mom was gushing over Ranger, holding his arm tightly as she walked with him to the car, telling him what a wonderful young man he was and to make sure that he visited again soon.
“We will,” Nicole smiled as she watched them over her dad’s shoulder as she gave him a hug goodbye.
Ranger hadn’t gone so far as to ask him for his permission to marry Nicole, and it didn’t bother her in the slightest. Suddenly, the money was the last thing on her mind even though it was what had brought her and Ranger together in the first place.
“Study hard,” he father said as he held onto her shoulders looking her eyes.
She didn’t know where her nerve came from, but she knew it was now or never. She couldn’t and wouldn’t use Ranger as an excuse for her to try and coax her trust fund out of her parents sooner, and now she knew what she had to do.
She took a deep breath and braced herself.
“I know you’ve always wanted me to be a lawyer, dad,” she began, her heart pounding and her voice wavering, “but I’m not going to be.”
She said it so sternly and matter-o-factly her dad looked at her as if he wasn’t even sure she had said it.
She shrugged, and she noticed Ranger clench his teeth.
“I love you both,” she said. “But I want to open my own design studio, and that’s what I’m going to be doing once finals are over.”
Her parents looked at each other and Nicole wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but she knew that she had to stand her ground.
Her father breathed in deeply and nodded his head.
“You know something, Nicole,” he said genuinely. “I always thought that you were still a kid, out there in the world with no clue of what you were doing or where you needed to be, but this weekend has changed all of that.”
He smiled and looked at her emotionally. Nicole’s heart was racing so hard, now she wasn’t the one who was sure if she had heard him properly.
“You’ve found love, sweetheart, and that’s more important than any career.” He sighed. “I just want you to be happy.”
She could barely believe her ears.
“But…” she stammered, “you’ve pushed and pushed me to study law, even when I told you my dreams.”
“I know, and we should have listened,” her father said. “I’m sorry it’s taken us so long.”
Nicole felt her jaw sag and felt as if it were going to hit the floor.
“We’ll support you in whichever way you want to go, darling,” her mother said as she approached and wrapped an arm around her.
“We’ll even help you get started somewhere, and then if it doesn’t work out… well, then you know where the family business will be.”
She was gob-smacked. Of all the outcomes she had churned over in her mind, this was certainly not one of them.
“But… and… my trust…?” she whispered.
“You don’t need to worry about that,” her dad smiled. “We’ll help you with everything. The money is yours, Nicole. You can do with it whatever you want. We were just waiting to see some maturity from you, and well, this weekend I’ve seen such a dramatic change, I barely recognized you. Ranger has clearly had a very positive impact on your life.”
“But the new clauses?” she asked.
“They can be changed,” her dad smiled as he shook her playfully by the shoulders.
She looked at Ranger, then back at her parents. She had gone there with an objective, she had gone there to trick her mom and dad into thinking she was in love so that she could convince them to give her the money, now two things had happened. She had gained what she had initially wanted, but she had also gained so much more because she hadn’t tricked them. Her feelings were real.
The second was she had fallen for Ranger.
Ranger really was the one.
She hugged her parent’s goodbye and held onto Ranger’s hand as he helped her into the front seat of the truck, closing the door behind her. He climbed into the driver’s side and started the engine. They both called goodbye out of the open windows.
Her parents waved at them and wrapped their arms around each other. Clearly love was in the air. Ranger and Nicole had brought a special mix of energy back to the house, and they had been an inspiration to them too.
They pulled out of her perfect neighborhood and headed back toward the city. She reached down and let her hand slip into his as he held the stick shift and sang along to the stereo.
They had entered the weekend as strangers, but they had fallen in love. They had played and pretended at being together, and somehow, against all the odds and the bickering, they had found something deep and true.
Ranger looked down at her and smiled and she shifted across the seat, curling into the nook of his arm.
“We’ve got some explaining to do when we get back and see Sarah,” he laughed, and Nicole giggled too.
“She’s going to be so confused,” she smiled.
“Your folks were nothing like I thought they were going to be,” he said. “In fact, they’re not too different to my own family.”
“Am I forgiven for having a privileged upbringing now then?” she joked.
“I never even really held it against you,” he said with a smirk. “Did I not mention I’m a complete jackass when I flirt?”
He raised his eyebrows as he looked down at her and she slapped him playfully on the arm.
She pouted “You were mean.”
“And it worked.” He grinned.
She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek as they drove on.
It really was true when people said that your life could completely change overnight.
Nicole had gone back to her parents’ house with a pipedream and a vague hope that she would b
e able to fulfil her destiny.
Now, her whole world had opened up and she the opportunity to start the career that she had always wanted. Not only that, she had her dream man by her side.
He may have been completely different to her, but opposites really did attract.
The preppy princess and the lawless biker.
Together forever.
In love, and ready to start life’s great journey by each other’s side.
There really was no bigger adventure than this…
She looked up at him and he smiled down at her before she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
They drove on towards dusk.
The only way was forward.
And the only place they were heading was home.
THE END
Collections
Stonybrooke Shifters
CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA DADDY
Leela Ash
Copyright ©2017 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1.
“Come on, Gabe, she was gorgeous! And totally into you!”
“Luke, I told you to stop. You know I’m not interested.”
“It’s been years since Molly passed, man, you’re going to have to move on sometime! She’s dead! You have to get over it sometime,” Luke said, scoffing. “Are you just never going to fuck anyone else or something? Because that’s pathetic bro.”
Gabe’s hackles rose and he turned his furious gaze to Luke. He was tired as hell of his friends harassing him about moving on and finding another girl. Molly had been the love of his life. They had known each other since elementary school, for Christ’s sake. He didn’t want to move on.
“All right, man, I get it,” Luke said, raising his hands and shaking his head miserably. “I’m just trying to help you out. Jeez.”
“If you got it, you wouldn’t keep bringing it up,” Gabe growled. “And tell the same to everybody else. They think they know what’s good for me? Well, they don’t. They don’t know a fucking thing. So just drop it!”
“You’re way too sensitive about this. I’m serious. You have to move on or you’re going to be a crusty old sex-deprived man.”
Gabe stood abruptly from the table in Maurice’s diner, where he and Luke had just finished a meal together, and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt.
“Whoa, easy man!”
But there was nothing easy about losing his wife, and the little asshole was going to find that out the hard way.
“I’m going to settle this like a man,” Gabe growled. “Because you’re not good enough to see my wolf form.”
A small crowd gathered at the sound of Gabe’s raised voice.
“Ready?” he said darkly to Luke.
“Can’t we just talk about this?” Luke asked, shifting nervously. There was no way he could match Gabe and both of them knew it. He was lucky he wasn’t interested in fighting in his wolf form.”
“I’m done talking.”
Gabe held Luke’s eye until finally, the man nodded.
A few swift blows to the face and Luke was writhing on the ground, his face bloodied.
“Never bring up my wife to me again,” Gabe spat. He left Luke to foot the bill, which seemed appropriate considering the enormous pain Luke liked to inflict upon him, telling him to just get over the loss of his wife as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do.
Now that Molly was on his mind, Gabe checked his watch. The flower stand on the corner should be open by now.
Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Gabe stalked down the sidewalk toward his house, where the vendor on the corner had set up shop.
“Morning, Frank,” Gabe said, pulling out his wallet.
“Good morning, Gabriel,” Frank replied, handing a crisp, perfect red rose over the stall. “This is the nicest one today.”
“Thank you, Frank,” Gabe said. He rarely spoke the phrase with such conviction, but whenever it came to getting the best rose of the day from Frank, he meant it. Only the best for his wife, whether she was alive to see it or not.
“Of course. Molly was a lovely woman.”
Frank rarely mentioned Gabe’s wife; maybe the pain from his conversation with Luke was still etched on his face. Whatever the reason, though, Gabe felt a brief moment of comfort and a heavy pain re-entering his chest.
“She was.”
The truth was, Molly had been beloved by the entire pack. Even wolves from packs from miles around had been touched by her sweet disposition and the grace with which she carried herself. She was always working to make Stonybrooke a better place. It had been a community tragedy when she had lost her life in a car accident just shy of her fortieth birthday, and since then, Gabe had been completely lost.
He had spent his entire life with Molly. She had been the best thing about him. Gabe had started out rough and tumble; a hard ass with sharp edges that made everybody on edge as soon as he walked in the room. It was funny just how opposite he and his wife had been. She had been beloved, and he had been feared.
But she had softened most of his rough edges, and given him a reason to focus on bettering his life instead of giving in to bouts of anger that sabotaged his efforts. She had helped him to build his business into the success it was. Without her, he would have nothing. She had meant everything to him. Nothing could ease the pain of losing Molly.
“See you, Frank,” Gabe said, trying to tear his mind away from his pain.
“Take care of yourself, Gabe.”
Gabe turned the corner and walked down the sidewalk until he reached the comfortable two-story house he bought with his wife all those years ago. Molly had been a school teacher; a woman who had reached out and changed the lives of everyone she touched. They had struggled financially for the first couple of years of their marriage, until both of them had gotten more established. They had been through the hardest times of their lives together, having met and bonded so young. But she had left him alone for the hardest part of it all.
“For you, sweetheart,” Gabe said softly, laying the rose on his mantle in front of Molly’s photo once he got inside the house. He stared at the perfect features of her face; the gentle slope of her nose and the deep brown of her captivating eyes, pain and then anger rising in his chest.
“Who the hell does Luke think he is, anyway?” Gabe mumbled to Molly’s photo. “He thinks a man mates with a woman like you and can just move on when he loses her. He probably hasn’t lost anything in his entire life.”
He grew silent, half expecting her to speak back. Little moments like that were unbearable, and he felt more alone than he had in a long time.
Gabe took a deep breath. He had to get out of there.
“I’ll be home soon, honey,” he said, the futile, hollow ring of his words striking him sharply. He would have done anything to have her there with him again. And Luke and all his buddies would probably be waiting for the rest of their lives to see Gabe move on. Molly just wasn’t the kind of woman you “moved on” from.
As far as he was concerned, he was going to spend the rest of his life alone. His heart belonged to his wife, and that’s all there was to it.
2.
“Hey, baby, you’re looking real good today. When are you coming by my dorm?”
Valerie Waters gritted her teeth and pushed through the crowd of shifter boys blocking her way in the halls of Stonybrooke University.
“Oh, come on! You’d change your tune if you knew how powerful we are.”
“I highly doubt that,” Val mumbled.
She was getting sick of these jokers. They had been giving her shit for the past three semesters; they had first noticed her in their philosophy class, when she had been stupid enough to speak up in class and gain the praise of their professor.
&n
bsp; Ever since then, they had been hounding her about the same time every day, waiting outside the classes they knew she had in the Stevenson Hall. It was really getting old, but there was nothing she could do about it. They hadn’t done anything really serious. They were just an obnoxious group of guys who didn’t seem to want to rest until she agreed to sleep with one of them. And that was never going to happen.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going? Ren, here, wanted to ask you out on a date!”
“Ren’s not going to ask me anything!”
She ignored their cries of protest when she walked past and refused to look at them, making her way into the lecture room and finding a seat as far away from the door as possible. They lingered there until the professor arrived, then went on their way. It was stressful having to avoid them, and truthfully, she didn’t have any clue what their fixation with her was. She probably looked like an easy victim.
And truth was, she had a hard time feeling very confident. She had run away from the foster care system when she was about sixteen years old. Fortunately, Val was intelligent enough that she received the credits she needed for her diploma early. From there, she had gone to college, paying her own way and working her ass off at three jobs to be able to do it.
But that had gotten too overwhelming for her, so now, at twenty-three years old, she was going back to school to finish her degree.
Thing was, she had fled her home state and headed out west, until she found herself in Stonybrooke. She didn’t have a lot of money, and had just barely managed to get an apartment in a rundown complex that most people made fun of. The owner was one step above being a slum lord, but only because when she had complained about there being no heat that winter, he had dropped off a space heater for her. Not only that but the place was infested with pests; rats and roaches and every once in a while, she was pretty sure she had seen a bedbug. But she invested all her money into keeping the place as clean as she could keep it, and she had faith that once she finished her degree, she would find something better.
RANGER (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 19) Page 10