Claiming Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy Book 2)

by Nikki Wild

  “Doesn’t that mean another fight?”

  “Not with Rev in charge… He’ll let me retire. Besides, I can’t keep being the fucking enforcer if I’m afraid the next fight might take me back to sixth grade english…”

  I could see there was more he hadn’t told me yet. Something hidden behind his eyes.

  “And… The doctor ran some tests on Wednesday…” he starts.

  My stomach lurches. Shit. It isn’t over, is it? It can never be over for us.

  “Are you okay?” I ask quietly.

  “They ran the tests on you, Lucy…”

  I clam up, my whole body going cold.

  “Hey,” he says noticing my change in mood. He combs his fingers through my hair and watches my eyes closely. “It’s okay… The doctor says you’re gonna be a mommy.”

  Chapter 30

  10 Months Later…

  Rebuilding a life isn’t all that easy.

  I open my ranch slider of the cozy one-bedroom house that me, Landon and our sweetheart baby Daisy now call our home. It’s not quite Baddock, but Westminster, California is still a coastal town thirty minutes from Jethrow with plenty of nearby hiking trails, open roads and pre-schools. A place where we can be our real selves.

  I’m Lucy Palermo and I’m in love with Landon Ellers, the best man to ever crash into my life.

  I rest a big bowl of potato salad on the outdoor table that Post Officer Hernandez made for us. If he was this good around the kitchen, maybe Billie didn’t make such a bad choice after all… I take a second to survey the spread of food ready to feed all the folks arriving for the special one-month birthday of our precious little baby.

  “Billie! Can you bring out the punch, please?” I shout inside.

  “Sure, baby!”

  Billie stumbles behind me and cheekily pats me on the butt. “I can’t believe this is the same house you two bought… Landon is one talented handyman. When are you expecting him home?”

  “Shouldn’t be too long,” I say. “He sometimes gets a little lost in his work.”

  It was true… Now that he’d left the club, Landon had decided to open up his own workshop. With a loan from Garret and Rev, he bought an old garage five minutes away from Big Sal’s and officially opened Ellers Automotive.

  “Come here, baby girl,” Billie says, taking Daisy from me.

  Hernandez is working the barbecue as Landon appears from the side of the house, muscles glistening, shirt slung over his shoulder and his face dirtied in black smudges. I gawk for a minute while he shakes Hernandez’s hand. Then he walks right up to me and lands a huge kiss on my lips. I swoon in his arms just like I always did.

  “You’re all sticky!” I giggle and pretend to push him away. He won’t let me, picking me up.

  “Get a room!” Billie shouts.

  “Maybe we will.”

  “Well hurry it up, because everybody’s gonna be here soon,” Billie says.

  We both move into our brand new bedroom, decorated with a forest green feature wall, black faux fur blanket and a big banana leaf plant. There’s a painting on my wall— One of the many I’ve finished since finding Landon again. It’s the girl. Well, it was the girl. She’s under there somewhere, beneath some layers of paint after I started her all over again.

  “She looks good in here,” Landon says, moving in behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. “You like her?”

  “I love her.” I watch the painting’s bright eyes as she floats above a huge ship in a dress that splays out across the canvas in light blues and golds and silvers. She’s full of motion, hope, and inspiration…

  My hands search for the comfort of Landon’s neck and I grip him tightly as we nuzzle each other. My shoulders relax slightly when he’s finally in my arms after each day.

  He squeezes me even tighter. My fingertips brush at his stubble, building speed and ferocity as we caress each other and grow more lustful for one another. Our chemistry is desperate and electric.

  “Think we have time?” Landon says with an open smile.

  I can read him like a book. I need no further invitation and nod excitedly. My head falls backward so his lips can meet my neck. He picks me up so that I can wrap my legs around his torso. Our tongues encircle one another’s and I’m pressed hard to the back wall. His strong fingers frantically feel underneath my skirt to my panties. I was ready for him the second I saw him out in the yard. He shifts them aside with a low, pleasurable growl and guides the tip of his cock inside me. A deep moan escapes my own throat and I kiss him harder to stifle the cries.

  “Harder,” I whisper into his mouth, my body becoming alive with his touch.

  He thrusts his thickness deeper and deeper. It’s as beautiful, desperate, passionate as every other time. I can’t let this feeling go that if soul mates existed he was mine. I feel more whole with him inside of me, near me, holding me.

  My eyes roll up to the ceiling and Landon lets his teeth drag roughly along my neck, tugging my hair back roughly.

  “Fuck,” she breathes. “Harder, baby, harder!”

  He’s filling me so roughly my whole body jolts in staccato rhythm. I collapse into the nook of his neck to take him even deeper, my fingertips penetrating deeper into his flesh so deeply I damn near draw blood — but neither of us back down. Landon’s strength, his knowledge of what turns me on, builds me higher and higher pounding me rhythmically toward a height we can’t breach too much longer.

  “Oh, God! I love you so fucking much, beautiful,” he breaths warmly into my ear.

  I crash beneath the feeling.

  Waves of my orgasm pulse around Landon’s length and he releases his load into me. He fills me, holds me, kisses me, and whispers sweet nothings into my ear. I rag-doll into his arms as he lands us carefully onto the edge of the bed. My cheeks blush to a soft rose as my climax subsides and we laugh nervously at each other. It’s like that with us sometimes— We wonder why we were allowed to find this connection.

  “Lucy, I have something to ask,” Landon says climbing off the mattress to crouch in front of me and lift his pants up.

  “What’s up?”

  A gentle caress pushes some sweaty hair from my forehead then he cups my cheek. “You are so damn gorgeous, darlin’.”

  “Baby, if this is about you getting that new TV, I told you we have to wait a few…”

  Then he falls to one knee.

  “Lucienne Palermo,” he starts.

  “N—No…” I start crying. Then I look away then back at his most sincere stare on me.

  “Lucienne Rose Palermo. You are my strength, my constant, my every good memory. I’d relive all the pain in my life if it meant spending one more second with you by my side.”

  Then he pulls a green velvet box from his jean pocket. I forget how to breath.

  “I want to be there for you, to protect you, to promise you truthfully, from the bottom of my heart that you will always be safe while I exist and it’s my one wish to live out that existence with you by my side, helping each other through the good, the bad, and whatever else we have yet to face. Lucienne Palermo, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

  There’s a long pause as I hold my hand up to stop him for a minute. I inhale. I need to remember this feeling.

  Everything is good.

  Too good.

  I’m okay. We’re okay. We’re okay forever.

  I fall into him, convulsing with happy tears, our faces damp from more than just the afternoon heat. I’m in awe, speechless, screaming ‘YES, YES, YES!’ in my head but I can’t let it out. All I can do is suck in air in disbelief and gasp like an idiot.

  “Is that a yes?” Landon asks through a chortle.

  I nod ferociously and hold out my hand to him. He somehow manages to slip the ring onto my shaking finger. I never knew this much joy could be possible. I look down at my hand, at the beautiful purple crystal that looks to have all the stars contained within it from the light of our room’s chandelier being refracted within it.


  “I love you, Lucy.” He catches my face and kisses me deeply until I soar so high I don’t think there’s a possibility of coming back down.

  “I love you. I love you!”

  I never knew life could be this good. More than that, I never felt like I deserved it.

  Me and Landon make it back outside. Billie brings Daisy over to us but before we take her, I hold up my left hand up. Billie’s eyes go wide until she shrieks then Jessa does too. Daisy looks at them in awe and giggles herself. Landon takes his daughter in his arms to receive the rest of the congratulations from the party attendees.

  It’s hard to feel okay being this happy, I think as I watch my world now; This life, these people, my girl, that boy.

  Growing up you come to realize that people make mistakes so huge you don’t know how you’ll ever get through them. I’d made plenty of my own and resigned myself to the fact that I couldn’t be forgiven for them, that I deserved to be punished. But us humans are blessed with a beautiful toolbox of how to find hope again; Time, courage and forgiveness, brothers in arms when it comes to matters of freeing ourselves of heavy hearts.

  The rest of the group give me and Landon their blessings. We shed happy tears. We drink champagne. Our sweet little Daisy keeps giving us that cute, gummy smile she always does. We bask in this random, loving support system we’ve all found together here somehow. Each one of us have all made our mistakes but, as much as we shouldn’t forget them, we can be forgiven of them when time allows.

  Landon and I hold our baby between us, desperately squeezing each other, laughing through the kisses, knowing how we both feel.

  I feel this lightness that surrounds me…

  Now I’m safe…

  Now I’m happy…

  And here I stand…

  Saved by the bad boy and him saved by me too.

  You’re STILL not done! Turn the page for one last bonus, Saved by the Bad Boy!

  You are the reason I write.

  -nikki

  For a limited time, EVERYONE who signs up to the WILD LIST will receive a free exclusive romance novel from Nikki Wild that you can’t find anywhere else!

  The Wild List will send you exclusive updates from Nikki Wild and you can be among the very first to receive part 3 of the Taking Beauty series!

  Click here to subscribe now!

  Novels by Nikki Wild

  Bad Boy Fighters:

  KNOCKOUT (A Bad Boy MMA Romance)

  Bad Boy Bikers:

  ROUGHNECK (A Dark Biker Romance)

  Saving Landon (A Bad Boy Biker Romance)

  Saved by the Bad Boy (A Devil’s Dragons Biker Romance)

  Pride and Pregnancy (A Devil’s Dragons Motorcycle Club Romance)

  Rough Rider (Outlaw Kings Motorcycle Club)

  Hard Rider (A Bad Boy Biker Romance)

  British Bad Boys:

  Royal Prick (A Bad Boy British Romance)

  Arrogant Brit (A Bad Boy British Sports Romance)

  Rock Hard (A Bad Boy British Rockstar Romance)

  Played (A Bad Boy British Romance)

  Bad Boy Rockstars:

  Double Treble (A Twin Rockstar Romance)

  Illicit Behavior (A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance)

  Rock Hard (A Bad Boy British Rockstar Romance)

  Bad Boy Stepbrothers:

  Lust (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance)

  Richard (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance)

  Bad Boy Billionaires:

  Taking Beauty (Book 1 of the Taking Beauty Series)

  Claiming Beauty (Book 2 of the Taking Beauty Series)

  Owning Beauty (Book 3 of the Taking Beauty Series)

  Pretend Married (A Billionaire Romance with a Twist)

  Protect And Serve (A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance)

  Part I

  BONUS NOVEL: Saved by the Bad Boy

  A DEVIL’S DRAGONS MOTORCYCLE CLUB ROMANCE

  For a limited time, EVERYONE who signs up to the WILD LIST will receive a free exclusive romance novel from Nikki Wild that you can’t find anywhere else!

  The Wild List will send you exclusive updates from Nikki Wild and you can be among the very first to receive part 3 of the Taking Beauty series!

  Click here to subscribe now!

  Chapter 31

  It was thirty minutes after I stopped hearing movement from Daddy’s bedroom that I pocketed my phone, whipped off the covers, and crept back out of bed.

  Project: Wayward Teen was a go.

  This wasn’t my first rodeo in sneaking out of the house. I’d already picked the right clothes, favoring black jeans, a dark shirt, and an all-black pair of Converse sneakers.

  Quietly, I slipped into the clothes in the darkness of my bedroom. I didn’t need anything but my little wallet, my phone, and my keys – and the keys were dangling downstairs anyway.

  Thinking ahead, I’d already packed the wallet in the jeans. The phone had helped keep my boredom down while I’d waited for Daddy’s fatigue to set in. He’d had a busy evening on shift, and I knew he’d be sleeping hard tonight.

  Which made tonight perfect for this.

  With nimble reflexes, I slipped down the hallway, avoiding the creaky floorboards right outside the bathroom door. Further down, I slipped past the end table and the vase on top, unwilling to let a brief bump of the hip, or shattering clay, announce my little rendezvous beneath the stars.

  My footsteps took me down the staircase, hooking around towards the front door. There were a few tricky floorboards here too, and the acoustics were painfully good in the open floor plan of the downstairs.

  As silently as possible, I snagged my keyring from the hook by the door, listening for any evidence of Daddy near the top of the stairs.

  Nothing. The coast was clear.

  I carefully turned the lock, slipping outside and locking the door behind me. I hesitated near the door, listening against the panel for any movement from inside.

  When nothing happened, I exhaled a thick breath of relief.

  Turning and strolling down the driveway, I found myself wondering what Mom would have thought if she’d still been around to see me now.

  I had been really young when she passed, too young to particularly remember her. Outside of her smiling face, gazing down upon me from portraits in the house, I had very little in the way of memories when it came to Mom.

  Naturally, that made Daddy cling to me harder, since I was now all that he had left. He was a stern but strong father, but very, very strict.

  Of course, as I glanced over at the weather-beaten Crown Victoria car in the front driveway, I knew that this wasn’t the only reason why he was so careful about keeping me on a tight leash.

  My father was the local sheriff, working his way up through the force for the last twenty years.

  And there was no way he was going to be okay with his little girl sneaking out in the middle of the night… Especially if he knew where I was going.

  You might say that I have a problem… and his name is Hunter.

  My particular problem comes roughly six feet tall and built with powerful muscles. He had the short and thick wavy hair I loved, a seductive little chuckle, and handsome blue eyes.

  The kind that could never lie to you…

  Slipping into my little beaten-up Hyundai coupe, I pressed my keys into the ignition and turned. The engine cranked to life, and I quickly pulled back through the driveway and onto the streets of our neat, suburban subdivision.

  I always loved how our community looked at night. Passing under the streetlights, I glanced over clay-colored landscaping with its bits of desert shrubbery.

  This place was pretty nice, all things considered. We lived in a good part of Phoenix, although it certainly helped to keep the local neighborhood safe when you had the local precinct’s Sheriff living across the street.

  I wasn’t sticking to the nice parts of town. Not tonight… My little moonlight excursion was taking me about thirty minutes away. I was heading towards the seedy center o
f the city, the kind of place no self respecting good girl would find herself so late at night.

  My phone remained quiet the entire time I drove, which was a pretty good sign to me.

  The last thing I needed was Daddy waking up in the middle of the night and realizing I’d gone…

  I saw the sign for the strip club perched a couple of blocks over. Despite all the work the city had done to improve its downtown image, the club had survived, neon pink sign and all. The parking lot was usually full of motorcycles which intimidated the locals and kept them out… People were probably waiting for the day the whole building would be knocked flat and replaced with yet another Starbucks.

  But I knew that was never going to happen.

  For public appearances, an investor who spent most of his time out of town owned and technically operated the strip club. He kept a couple of managers on the premises, and the girls were well taken care of for their efforts. He was keeping the whole thing afloat with an old inheritance.

  The truth was a little different.

  There was no investor. No mysterious and wealthy benefactor. Look beyond the parking lot and the big pink sign and you’d see the huge roll-up garage that butted up to the back of the building.

  The strip club nothing more than a front for the local biker gang, a dangerous group of criminals known as the Devil’s Dragons MC. They were the guys who ruled the local roost, and most of the city’s illegal activities gave a quick nod to them.

  It helped that their leader, a ruthless criminal known only as Eduardo, had made plenty of his rivals disappear. The lowlifes that remained gave the Devil’s Dragons the respect they demanded.

  Just the thought of Hunter involving himself in that world made me grimace. He hadn’t told me much of why he’d done it…

  I knew it had something to do with his sister. She disappeared a few months back and the police had done nothing but file a report and tell him they were very sorry. Hunter turned to the biker club for help and, and whatever terms he’d offered in return, they agreed.