by Ryan Michele
Laughter catches my attention. It’s because it’s Deke’s. A deep, low rumble, but it’s there.
He’s here with his family, laughing. I can’t ask for anything more than that, besides waking up every morning in his arms.
We were lucky in the house department. I didn’t even fight him on the purchase. I just made sure the inside was nice and a home. A real home. That’s what I wanted out of this. A place that we could grow. A place that reminds me of a time when my parents were alive. And a place to give us both peace. We found it.
This room filled with people who love my man, who care about me, is what life’s about. My family left me because of a twisted woman. I’ll never have my mother and father back, and missing them will be a daily occurrence until my last breath. But being surrounded by the Ravage MC fills a part of me that’s been a void for so long.
Deke has given that to me. He has pulled me into his life through the ups and downs, continuing to stand by my side. He’s given me so much, and I’ll spend my life giving back to him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rylie’s tits bounce up and down as she rides my cock hard. I grip her hips, not needing to help her, yet unable to stop myself. She moans, grinding down on me, swiveling her hips and driving me to the brink of coming.
I flip her, taking control, pumping inside of her repeatedly as she claws at my shoulders. Then she explodes, wrapping so tightly around my cock, she milks me.
“Love you,” she says breathlessly.
Every damn time she tells me this is a fucking blessing. Hearing her, feeling her, touching, tasting her—everything about her is my miracle. Time with her, I will not waste it. Ever.
Looking over at the clock, I say, “Need to get to the clubhouse.”
“Thought you weren’t workin’ at the shop today?”
My job at Banner kicks ass. I’m back to workin’ on cars, trucks, and bikes, in my element. While I liked being behind a desk sometimes, it’s nice to be in the thick of things. My employment there went on and off the rails with everything that happened, but now, I’m there full-time, plus some. I wouldn’t change a damn thing.
“On clean-up duty.”
“Gross,” she groans.
She’s not wrong. Last night was a hell of a bash at the clubhouse, for no other reason than to celebrate. Prospecting for the Ravage MC has its ups and downs, and this is one of those downs, but it’s part of it all.
Being in the fold is an experience all its own. The way they have my back, give themselves freely, as I do the same—it’s beyond fantastic.
Each day, I gain more respect with the brothers. And each day, I wish I would’ve made different choices. But what’s done is done.
“Right. Sooner I get shit done, the faster I can get back in bed with you.”
“Okay,” she replies sleepily.
Drunk sex with Rylie is top notch. We’ll be replaying that many times to come.
***
“Bike,” Cruz orders as I come out of the now sparkling clean bathroom.
Fuck, I just brought the hose in and sprayed the walls down. It was beyond disgusting. But last night was a celebration, one that I wouldn’t have missed for the world.
“Why are we here?” I ask my father as we pull up to the lake, the one place on this fucking planet I never want to see again. I almost lost my woman here. Almost lost my entire life. I have no need to ever be here again.
The brothers walk to the banks, forming a line as they look out over the water.
My gut tightens, remembering the fear of not being able to get to my woman. Not being able to help her. Seeing her body lying on the ground, lifeless. All of it.
My heartbeat picks up as I take a couple of steps forward.
“They’re gone. Bottom of the lake, where they fuckin’ belong,” my father says.
Relief floods me at knowing the two assholes who tried to take my woman are no longer on this earth.
“Know you’ve got a lot of shit goin’ on. We get settled, big party at the clubhouse.”
That right there is love. It’s a type of love I thought I’d never have, yet they gave it to me.
“What’s goin’ on?” I ask.
Cruz just looks at me and lifts his chin to the door.
I move out of it and see the brothers all lined up. My father has a smile on his face.
“Today, we ride,” Cruz says, slapping his hand on my shoulder.
When I was a kid, this is all I thought about, and now it’s finally happening. Four years of hate and anger have turned into this moment. I’ll put in my time as a prospect, then I’ll wear the Ravage MC cut until the day I die.
I load up, head to the back of the line, and have the best fucking ride of my life.
Life is filled with decisions. Those decisions have consequences. The ones I made cost me years away from my family. It’s all time I can’t get back. Now, though, I live each day respecting each second I spend with them, knowing how it feels not to have it, and never wanting that again.
Finally getting in life what I desired for years—the cut, the club, family, and a rock-solid woman—there isn’t anything more a man could ask for.
Bonus Austyn
Bound by Vengeance (Ravage MC Bound Series, Book Three)
* * *
Guilt.
Hate.
Anger.
Fear.
All these emotions are a dangerous concoction.
Too bad every single one of them runs through my veins, just waiting to break through.
I refuse to let him win.
I refuse to be the woman I’ve been for the past few months.
No more.
Revenge will be mine.
* * *
Bound by Vengeance preorder available now:
http://authorryanmichele.net/bound-by-vengeance-preorder
Be the First to Know
Want to keep up to date will all my books?
* * *
Join my Newsletter: HERE
* * *
Join my Reader Group: Ryan’s Sultry Sinners
About the Author
Ryan Michele found her passion in bringing fictional characters to life. She loves being in an imaginary world where anything is possible, and she has a knack for special twists readers don’t see coming.
She writes MC, Contemporary, Erotic, Paranormal, New Adult, Inspirational, and other romance-based genres. Whether it’s bikers, wolf-shifters, mafia, etc., Ryan spends her time making sure her heroes are strong and her heroines match them at every turn.
When she isn’t writing, Ryan is a mom and wife, living in rural Illinois and reading by her pond in the warm sun.
* * *
Join my Reader Group: Ryan’s Sultry Sinners
COME FIND RYAN:
www.authorryanmichele.net
[email protected]
Other Books by Ryan
Ravage MC Series:
Ravage Me
Seduce Me
Consume Me
Inflame Me
Captivate Me
Ravage MC Novella Collection
Ride with Me (co-written with Chelsea Camaron)
* * *
Ravage MC Bound Series
Bound by Family
Bound by Desire
* * *
Vipers Creed MC Series:
Crossover (co-written with Chelsea Camaron)
Challenged
Conquering
Conflicted (Coming soon)
* * *
Ruthless Rebels MC Series (co-written with Chelsea Camaron):
Shamed
Scorned
Scarred
Schooled (Coming Soon)
* * *
Loyalties Series:
Blood & Loyalties: A Mafia Romance
* * *
Raber Wolf Pack Series:
Raber Wolf Pack Book 1
Raber Wolf Pack Book 2
Raber Wolf Pack Book 3
*
* *
Standalone Romances
Full Length Novels:
Needing to Fall
Safe
Wanting You
* * *
Short Stories:
Hate to Love
Branded
* * *
Novellas:
Stood Up (Billionaire Up Romance)
* * *
www.authorryanmichele.net
Thank you for reading!
* * *
Excerpt of Challenged (Vipers Creed MC#1)
Challenged (Vipers Creed MC#1) ©Ryan Michele 2016
* * *
Prologue
* * *
My head filled with a cloudy, dense fog that I couldn’t shake. Even with my eyes open, a filmy haze covered them, making everything blurry. Voices were muffled, as if I were under water, sinking. I thought I recognized one, but I couldn’t tell for sure.
Too hard to think.
I attempted to pull my arms up, but they were immediately halted by something. The hard, cold, heavy attachments clinked like metal. Even straining to move them, my muscles were so weak, so lethargic I couldn’t. I tried my legs, and the same thing happened.
A hard surface pressed against my back as the cool air of the room cascaded over my skin, my nipples, my stomach… Oh God, was I naked?
I opened my mouth, wanting to scream as deep panic set in. Unfortunately, nothing came out except air. Even that took more effort than I had in me.
Placing the pieces of the puzzle together, I couldn’t make heads or tails out of anything.
Heat at my side had me turning in that direction, only to see a fuzzy, black figure. I squinted then blinked, trying to get the focus to come back, but nothing. Not a damn thing.
“Hello, darlin’. Welcome to hell.”
* * *
Chapter One
Trix
* * *
A lump gathered in my throat settling like a rock, hard and brutal, sucking the wind out of me. My hand slightly twitched as I dialed the number I never in a million years thought I would call. I switched the phone to my other hand in an effort to shake out the trembling, because nervousness wasn’t an option. Trix Lamasters would not turn into some twit who couldn’t think straight over one phone call. Being a shrewd businesswoman, I’d learned from the best not to let shit get to me, how to compartmentalize things and deal.
I swallowed hard, moving the lump from my throat to settle into my gut like a boulder. As I focused, my breathing evened out. The thick steel in my spine could handle anything life threw at me, including this call. Including the man who would be on the other end of the line.
The green button stared back at me, my finger hovering over it. Then I pressed it and pulled the phone to my ear just as it started ringing.
One ring … two … three …
“What?” was barked through the phone line with a male’s voice tainted by harsh impatience.
“Can I talk to Cade? Shit.” I stopped myself. He wasn’t Cade anymore. I needed to remember that a lot had changed. “I mean, Spook. Is Spook around?”
Silence.
“Hello?” I pulled the phone away from my ear, looking at the bright screen, making sure the call hadn’t dropped. Nope, the little numbers in the corner were still counting away. I pressed it back to my ear, waiting a few beats.
“Who wants to fucking know?” His tone turned gruffer, almost as if he were a protective watch dog of Cade’s, and nothing or no one got past him.
Watch dog or not, I wasn’t about to get eaten.
“This is Trix Lamasters. I need to speak to him.”
More silence, not even a breath or noise in the background.
“Hello?”
His voice came over the line right as I intended to speak again. “Stop fucking saying hello. I’m here.”
Hell, maybe someone pissed in his Wheaties this morning, his attitude having nothing to do with me. Or maybe it was just him.
I slapped my hand to my forehead as the word dumbass rang in my mind.
“Sorry, I thought the call dropped.” Now I apologized to the rude man? Get a grip, Trix.
“What do you need with Spook?” The guard dog didn’t give me an inch. Nevertheless, he didn’t need to know my business.
I needed a diversion.
“Can you just get a message to him to call me?”
“Babe, either tell me what you need, or nothing fuckin’ gets to him.” His tone turned flat and resolute.
“Fuck,” I muttered then heard him chuckle. The damn man needed a bone before he played. Asshole. “An employee of mine has been seen at your clubhouse. I need to talk to her.”
“Call her,” he quipped.
“She doesn’t have a phone,” I retorted, feeling the fire burn in my veins.
“Not my problem,” the man sneered. From his attitude, I knew he would have no problem hanging up on me right now, never telling Cade I needed to talk to him. Good thing I dealt with assholes on a regular basis.
“Look, the bitch owes me money.” Anger raced through my body. I let it be heard through each clipped word.
He let out a deep laugh that was almost intriguing if he weren’t a jerk. “You may as well kiss that cash good-bye.”
My pride had other ideas.
“Fuck no. I want what’s owed to me.” I sighed, needing a different tactic. “Look, can you just give Spook my name?” He would either call or he wouldn’t, but maybe that would get the dog to want to nose around. Maybe curiosity would get him to spread my name at least.
“This is gonna be fun. Hang on.” The man must have covered the mouthpiece with his hand, because everything he said was muffled except for him calling Spook’s name. That, I could hear clearly. My adrenaline spiked at the thought of Cade coming on the line.
“Yeah?” a voice I recognized from my dreams said into the phone. The deep, raspy tenor had grown over time and slithered down my spine all the way to my knees, giving them a slight tremble. It took only one word to make my stomach flip.
Fuck, I knew this was a bad idea, but I wasn’t that girl anymore. He would not have power over me. I wouldn’t allow it.
I paced my small living room, needing the movement to get my knees back in line.
“Cade? It’s Trix Lamasters.”
“First, the name’s Spook. Second, who?”
That one kind of stung. Alright, more than stung. It tore another hole in my already battered heart was more like it. The asshole didn’t even remember me, but what did I expect, being one in a sea of many? There was absolutely no reason I would have stood out to him.
“We went to school together,” I tried.
Silence.
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, hoping divine intervention would give me the gift of patience or a gun. Neither came.
“Whatever. I get you don’t remember me, but you have one of my employees there. I need to talk to her. She owes me money, and I need it back.”
“Trixie Lamasters.” I could hear the devilish grin as his words snaked over the phone. Not going to lie, my pussy quivered.
No one called me Trixie anymore, because once upon a time, he did and I had loved it. After he abruptly left my life, taking the one thing I could never get back, I refused to let anyone call me by that name. Never again would I allow the hollow feeling that name represented to seep through me. Now, hearing him after fifteen years, the vault of memories opened wide, something I did not want to happen. I didn’t want to feel, yet each recollection of the past bombarded my mind.
“Long time.”
I paused mid-step as a flash of younger Cade hit me. Shaking my head clear, I continued to pace through my living room.
“Yeah, very long. Anyway, you have a woman there by the name of Nanette King. Can you hand her over to me?”
I wouldn’t let the smoothness of his voice draw me in like it had all those years ago, reducing me to a pile of teenaged mush. Strictly business, I told myself, because business I co
uld handle.
“How do you know she’s here?”
“I had her followed, and it led to you.”
I guessed he didn’t like the fact that I had found her that way, judging from the muttered curses that followed. Each word made me smile. I had a payroll of people who worked for me now, and some little twit-fart would not run off with my money. That wasn’t how I operated my business.
Nanette had fallen off the radar. Cade’s club happened to be the last place she was seen; therefore, I had to call him. I may as well have strapped zip-ties around my wrists, locking them in place.
“First, if she’s at the club, there’s a reason. Second, bitches here don’t go by their real names, so I don’t know if she’s around, because I don’t know a Nanette. Third, you come to the clubhouse, and we’ll talk.”
Business was business, but my heart spiked at the thought of seeing him again.
Cade’s club, Vipers Creed MC, had been in Dyersburg for years. Even before I came into this world, their presence had been well known. This town had tales, but these days, the Vipers were mostly known for Creed’s Automotive where they made custom bikes and cars in their own little world located on the outskirts of town.
I’d hoped to avoid a meeting since I couldn’t see any point to it. I wasn’t in the mood for a high school reunion. The past needed to stay there, locked up tight.
“I’ll describe her to you. Tell me if she’s there, and I’ll send someone over to get her,” I declared, trying to veer him from this path.