A Love So Hard (Aces High MC - Charleston Book 2)

by Christine Michelle

  There were pings coming in on my cell every few minutes, but it was my turn to drive so I couldn’t see what they were. CJ, on the other hand, was all up in my phone and judging by the goofy grin on his face one of the girls was sending pictures of our grandbabies. We’d be heading back to South Carolina soon to see them ourselves, but we promised ourselves six months of touring the country as a honeymoon, and we were only four months in. I wanted to stick it out, see the country, and experience life with CJ. I also wanted to go home and snuggle those babies.

  “That’s it!” I finally yelled when he had the audacity to coo at a picture. That’s right, my big, tough, burly biker man was cooing like a woman at the pictures that were coming in. Damn him. “I’m pulling this rig over!”

  CJ glanced up from my phone and laughed. “Hit the next truck stop, babe. We’ll gas up and I’ll take over for a bit. He leaned in and kissed my temple and then tucked back into my phone to ooh and ahh over our grandbabies without me again. I had to try to focus on finding a truck stop, because wouldn’t you know it, the next three exits didn’t appear to have one. I growled and CJ glanced over again. “Patience baby. Take exit 330.”

  “Take exit 330,” I mocked to which he just shook his head and laughed. He was so damn handsome when he laughed. Those deep blue eyes of his sparkled and that made them seem bluer, then there were the lines that had been gradually deepening out from the corners of his eyes. Those too made the butterflies in my tummy go wild just like they had the first day I laid eyes on him when he was still just a teenage boy. I swung our motorhome into the slow lane, preparing for our exit in ten miles so I wouldn’t have to fight to get over. All the while I was lost in memory.

  When I was a young girl I dreamed of a love that would last a lifetime. I knew what my parents had was not the lifetime kind of love I wanted for myself. If I was being honest, some of what CJ and I had experienced over the years, I could have done without, though I now knew that everything came with a balance. We wouldn’t be where we were today if not for the things that had brought us here. The good, the bad, the tragic, they all played their part. Still, when I looked at my man, my soul glowed with the love that I felt for him even after all this time. That wasn’t right. It glowed especially because of all of our time together.

  I had grown up religious, the type where my mom forced me to go to church every Sunday so that she could gossip about all the women there and what their men were up to anyway. I guess that’s why I hadn’t stuck with it as an adult or forced church on my kids. The thing was, the older I got, the more years I got with my man, the greedier I got too. I found myself wanted to believe, hoping beyond the normal amount of hope, that when our time came there really was something else out there for us where we could be together. Not only did I hope that because I needed with my every breath to see Toby again, but because 20 years, 30 years, whatever time we had left on this earth, it would never be enough.

  “Babe, you’re about to miss our exit,” CJ called out to me. I took the exit a little sharper than I knew he liked, but he didn’t say anything. I also knew he was watching me.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, sorry babe, just lost in thought.”

  “Whatcha thinking about?”

  “You, time, everything,” I answered with a shrug of my shoulders.

  “That sounds like a lot,” he commented.

  “It is. It is a lot, and yet I don’t think it will ever be enough.” The look he gave me as I pulled the motorhome up to a fuel pump said he got my meaning perfectly.

  The fact that he took his seatbelt off and climbed over almost into my lap to kiss the stuffing out of me said he definitely got my meaning. The fact that I started hearing cat-calling and whistling from outside of the camper triggered me to pull away. I glanced anxiously out the window and there, standing by a shiny new Harley Road King Special Touring Motorcycle in orange and black was Merc and Tiger Lily.

  “Oh my God!” I yelled cause CJ to flinch back. He probably didn’t enjoy the eardrum piercing decibel I reached. I started shoving at him to get him off of my lap, and I could still hear Merc and Tiger Lily laughing from outside as I did so. “Move, move, move!” I shouted at the man as I smacked at his chest. The same chest that hadn’t put his kutte on since we left on this trip. He hadn’t retired it completely, but this trip was about us, not the club. He made sure I knew that, and stuck to it.

  Before I could manage to get out of my seat, no thanks to the stubborn ass of a man that held me there, the couple in question had come around to board our land whale and then my man finally got the hell out of my way. I ran right into the arms of both Merc and Tiger Lily. “What are you guys doing here?” I asked, truly elated to see them.

  “We thought we’d crash your road trip party.”

  “What about the club?” I asked.

  Merc smiled down at me. “I turned the gavel, and my patch, over to Deck a couple weeks ago.”

  “What?” I shrieked. “No one told me!” Then I turned to my husband. “Did you know this?”

  He shook his head. “Not until about two hours ago when this asshole kept pestering us for our location.”

  “We asked the kids to keep it a secret for a bit so that we could get out here to surprise you. Would have done sooner, but we had to take a night to crash. Riding is a bitch when you get older. My ass was so sore you’d think I was sitting naked on a mattress when a Navy ship rolled into port after being at sea for nine months, if you know what I mean?”

  We all stared at Lily, stunned by that little description until we fell into hysterics. “Bless your heart, girl, but I have missed you!” I choked out through my laughter.

  “That’s a good thing, because I missed you too and by the time we are finished the next couple of months on this trip together, we might not like each other very much.”

  “Not possible,” I admonished her and then we were hugging a gain.

  “Gonna go get Merc’s hog loaded up and fill her up, baby,” my husband informed me. He didn’t need to because I wasn’t paying him any attention. I had my friend here to fill me in on my grand babies now. He would take a back seat for a few hours, or the driver’s seat, actually since it was his turn.

  “I can’t believe you guys have actually stuck with it all this time,” Lily finally said to me after we went through all the pictures the girls had been sending and the videos that Lily had stored in the cloud of playing with the babies.

  “It’s been worth every minute. The only down side was this,” I told her as I shook the phone at her. “I missed out on all those play dates.”

  “You didn’t miss out. There will be plenty more when we get back. What you got was much needed, and definitely well-earned time with your man.” She sighed then and leaned back, stretching her back and popping her neck. “We would have been out here sooner, but Merc was having a hard time letting go. You were lucky in that respect, I think. CJ was ready to go. Merc had to be convinced.”

  “You should have just reminded him how old he is,” I teased knowing the guys could hear us now since the window near where they were pumping gas was open.

  “I did, honey, and then he proceeded to show me he wasn’t too old to take me over his knee, then from behind, then on the kitchen table.” We both dissolved into a fit of giggles as we heard Merc bragging outside.

  “Lesson she won’t soon forget,” we heard him inform CJ.

  That was the moment it really sunk in. This was our retirement, and it symbolized letting go of the club in our own way. Not that we wouldn’t still be involved in the way that the older crowd often was. It would now be us sitting in the background to tell the stories of the old days and pass on some wisdom to the new generation that they most likely would overlook while trying to learn their own lessons. I was one hundred percent okay with that too. It was our time to let them take over and for us to take the back seat and enjoy watching how things played out. We would get the time to enjoy each other in a way we never had be
fore, without all the stress and weight of the day baring down on us. Life was good. Life was sweet. Life was what we were making of it, and darn it… We had enough of her shitting on us, so now, we were making life our bitch.

  “Love you baby,” CJ told me as he hopped back in our ride after securing Merc’s bike and filling the tank.

  “Always, my love,” I answered back.

  The Princess & the Prospect

  Aces High MC – Charleston Book Three

  Coming summer 2019!

  Anna

  I was three weeks past my seventeenth birthday when I first saw him running like a dog, as prospects do, during a family club function. I knew he was far older than me since he’d served in the Army with my brother-in-law, Deck.

  He was definitely too old for me in the eyes of everyone else.

  I knew the rules, and I’d be breaking too many of them for this not to be trouble.

  He was a prospect, making him off limits.

  I wasn’t even 18, making me off limits.

  I was also a club princess, daughter of the Vice President of Aces High - Charleston Chapter. That, more than anything else, made me off limits.

  Still, I watched and waited for the moment when I could make myself unforgettable to him, because my heart had no limits, and it wanted Joker.

  Joker

  Prospecting for the MC was turning out to be a tougher gig than I had originally imagined. I wasn’t exactly known for taking blind orders well, or taking shit from anyone in my life, so undergoing prospect hazing was trying my last damn nerve. The never ending line of patch-chasing females was sure to make the discomfort worth my wait. Then again, I wasn’t one to do easy conquests either. The shy cutie that had been staring at me all night from the corner seemed like just the challenge my worn down soul needed.

  She was a challenge all right.

  Nearly cost me everything in the end.

  Now, I’m stuck with a liar, an old lady, and one crazy-ass impending shotgun wedding. If only I could turn off the feelings that accompanied all of that.

  The Other Princess

  Aces High MC – Charleston Book 1

  Available Now!

  I was eight years old when I found out I had a father. It was the same day I held my dead mother in my arms while praying her life wasn't really over.

  I was dropped into the middle of a new family not long after that. My dad, his wife, and their two kids to be exact. My new brother was ten years old and my sister was five. It doesn't take a genius to figure out I wasn’t supposed to be there.

  My family ended up bigger than that though. My dad was a member of the Aces High Motorcycle Club. From the very beginning I was ostracized because of who my mother had been. The daughters of club members were generally known as MC Princesses. My little sister was one. My title was a bit different, and proved that my mom's sins would always be held against me. I was The Other Princess.

  My family, both by blood and MC ties, did wrong by me so I walked away from them. That was until he came home from the Army.

  He tried to fix everything.

  He tried to win an unattainable heart that had shut down years earlier.

  I would know since it was my heart he was after.

  He didn't realize it would take a miracle.

  Secretly, I hoped I could still believe in miracles.

  Angel Girl

  S.H.E. – Book #1

  Available Now!

  I was born Jamie Murdock, an MC Princess in the Aces High Motorcycle Club. At 17 I was promised to one of the club members. At 18 I ran.

  The MC life was in my blood though, and years later I found myself with a new name, running my own club full of tough, smart, beautiful women who happen to love the open road as much as the next guy. Everything was fine with my new life until it wasn't. It took seven years, but he found me again, and nothing would ever be the same.

  JoJo

  S.H.E. MC – Book #2

  I just want a place to call my own, friends I fit in with, and the job I love to remain mine. The only problem with getting what I want happens to be that I wasn’t born equipped with a penis. Men don’t want me working on their cars or bikes simply because I have breasts instead. Never mind that I’m the best damn mechanic in a 200-mile radius.

  Even my own dad killed me with the “man clause” in his will when he died. Sure, I was given his shop, but it would revert to my brother’s name in six months unless I get married to a man who can run the shop beside me. That’s hard to do when the last man I dated ran out on me to do his own thing while I cared for my dying father. The women of S.H.E. are my only saving grace, and even they can’t save me from losing everything.

  Then there was the man waiting in the wings for me to lose it all. I couldn’t help wondering if the strength my dad wanted behind me was just a little bit of Steel.

  Dancing With Danger

  Aces High MC – Dakotas Series #1

  Available Now!

  What do you do when your husband, an ex-NFL running back, is trying to have you murdered?

  You get kidnapped, run, dance in questionable strip clubs, and stay under the radar while trying to survive.

  That is exactly the path that I took, only in the end, it lead me to a motorcycle club in the Dakotas and to a family I never knew I had. I don’t know if they can keep me safe or sane, especially after meeting their VP - Rage. I do know it’s time to stop running, and to start living again.

  Redemption Weather

  Aces High MC – Cedar Falls Series #1

  Available Now!

  When I married Walker Smithson it was the happiest day of my life. My family was there, we had a bright future ahead of us, and the world was ours for the taking.

  Then the storms started coming.

  First, there was the one that took my family.

  Then, there was the one that took my husband.

  Moving to a new town, new state, and a new life was never on my agenda until I couldn’t take the ghosts, both living and dead, that haunted my every waking moment in the town I’d been born to, grown up and always thought I’d die in after living out my happily ever after.

  I’d been wrong about my life before.

  Wrong took me to Cedar Falls, West Virginia and left me on the doorstep of the same motorcycle club that had failed me before.

  It took me to a place where my future was waiting for me.

  If only the past would let go of us so that we could be happy.

  If only tragedy and storms would stop following in my wake.

  If only the weather would turn, so my happy could commence. If, for once, wrong could prove to be absolutely right.

  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

  Aces High MC – Dakotas Book Two

  I was sent to South Dakota with a tattoo artist, biker named Tango in order to keep me safe from whatever mess my brother had gotten himself into this time.

  Tango was a stupid name for a tough biker who was supposed to be able to protect me. How was a man named after a dance supposed to do anything to keep me safe?

  Stupid name. Sexy biker though.

  Lucky for me, I had been dead wrong about pretty much everything.

  Wrong about his name.

  Wrong about his ability to take care of me.

  I wasn’t wrong about how sexy he was though. My perpetually soaked panties were all the evidence anyone needed that Tango could dance all over my body any time, anywhere if only I was all that he wanted.

  Unfortunately for me he seemed to be in a weird relationship with his buddies Whiskey, Fox, and their girl Amy. No way was I signing on to be the lettuce in that screwed up sexual sandwich.

  Nope. Nope. Nope.

  I might need protection from an entire MC, but I did not need to share my man. Ever. Then again...

  I’d been wrong about everything else so far.

  Maybe I was wrong about this too.

  The Infinite Something

  T.I.E. Book One

  Av
ailable Now!

  I thought I could fall in love with an up and coming rock star until he betrayed me. The lying, cheating, scheming piece of crap bassist for my brother’s band destroyed my faith in men.

  Funny how another musician saved me from humiliation, became my best friend during my internship with his band’s tour, and ended up winning my heart despite the fact that I had sworn to never go there again.

  Too bad things couldn’t stay so simple. One jealous ex-girlfriend, one crazy infatuation later, and I became public enemy number one. Then I waited to see if he would remain my savior, or prove that I was right the first time around… You can’t trust a rocker. Why the hell had I done so twice?

  He was the reason for the second chance, and my reason for everything that followed.

  *Note: The Infinite Something is over 100k words, a stand-alone book (future books in the series involve other people) and is intended for adult readers due to strong language, sexual situations, and some violence.

  The Infinite Beat

  T.I.E. Book Two

  Available Now!

  Chelle

  I was a stowaway, on tour with a rock band. We were supposed to be on tour with them legitimately - my brother as the bass player for the opening act - Seduction and Sacrifice - and me as their merch girl. Then my brother's band imploded, and they lost their spot. We lost our jobs, our apartment, and almost all hope before he managed to get us on with the road crew.

  I pretended to be one of the guys in order to go unnoticed. It worked until he saw me, saw through my disguise, and then changed my world.