“I think I need those eggs now. I officially worked up an appetite.”
I bring the tray back up to the bed, chuckling. Just then, there is a loud knock on the door.
Her eyes widen, fear written on her face.
“Ranger,” a voice calls from the other side of the door. “There’s an emergency!”
8
Ruby
Fear runs over my skin as Ranger walks to the door. I pull the sheet around me, bracing myself for something bad.
But when Ranger opens the door, the man in the doorway stands rigidly. Whatever he’s about to tell Ranger isn’t going to make him happy. “What’s this about, Killian?” Ranger asks.
The man looking back at him, tattoos running over his arms and neck, is shaking his head. “The roof of the garage is busted through. The rainwater was too heavy, I think.”
“Shit,” Ranger says, grabbing his boots. He looks back at me. “I’ll be back, okay? Just headed down to the garage on the other side of the parking lot.”
“Okay,” I say, nodding as he leaves. The moment he is gone, I get out of bed and carry the cookie tray to the kitchen table, sheet wrapped around me. I pour a second cup of coffee and then peek out the window, watching Ranger and Killian head to the garage.
There are a few men already there, pulling motorcycles and other equipment from the garage. But it’s more of a mechanic’s shop — the sign overhead reads HEARTLANDS GARAGE.
The men set to work quickly, opening up the big garage doors and working on getting the water out. They use tarps to patch the roof — I’m guessing a short-term solution to a bigger problem. But they are all working together, and there is something heartwarming about it, a group of men working on a common goal.
Wanting to be useful myself, I dress in the blue sundress — this time wearing my bra and panties — and slip on my sandals. I find a set of sheets in a cabinet, and make the bed fresh, then I do the dishes from breakfast, tidy up the studio, and braid my long hair, grateful there is a hair tie on my wrist because it’s basically all I have to my name. Everything else went up in flames yesterday.
I look at Ranger’s cellphone on the bedside table, tempted to call my sister, but I don’t know his passcode. Besides, I don’t want her to worry. I want her to hang onto hope for as long as possible. Calling her before I have a plan for us both won’t do her any good. Besides, my father could very easily answer, and I don’t know how easy it is to trace cellphones. But the last thing I want is Slider showing up here, forcing me to go home.
My heart is pounding just thinking about it — and I need fresh air. So, I step out of the apartment and walk across the parking lot to see the work the guys are doing up close.
The men Ranger spoke with at the bar last night give me a nod, and one of them shouts to him. “Your woman’s here.”
The words start a stirring in my heart, and I can’t help but feel pride at the thought of being his woman.
Ranger jogs over to me and wraps me in his arms. “Hey, beautiful.”
I smile up at him. “Everything going okay?”
He nods, giving me a kiss, not caring who in the world sees us. It’s like he is staking his claim, his territory, and my whole body swells with emotion. I’ve never felt so good, so seen, so wanted in my life.
“Yeah, I have a buddy with a construction crew. They will be over later to patch the hole. And we have squeegees and mops for emptying the garage of the water. What a mess though, right?” We survey the scene and there are at least a dozen motorcycles in the parking lot, big toolboxes on wheels, and basically anything that could be dragged from the garage is drying in the sun.
“Thankfully 90 percent of the shit in there is metal.”
I nod. “Need any help?”
“You could go in the bar and see if T-Bone, the line cook, needs any help. He’s getting breakfast ready for everyone.”
Biting my bottom lip, I betray how nervous I am to walk in there. Ranger must notice. “You’ll be fine. He’s nicer than he looks — promise.” Then he pats my bottom and sends me on my way. I look back over my shoulder and smile. He is watching me walk away.
T-Bone gives me a big smile when I enter the kitchen and there are a few other women with him. “Ranger sent me to help,” I announce. “I’m Ruby.”
“I’m Stella,” a woman with long black hair says.
A woman with curly brown hair sticks out her hand for me to shake. “And I’m Roxanne. We bartend here. We’re with the MC.”
I frown. “The MC?”
Stella and Roxanne share a look. “Yeah, honey, the Heartlands Motorcycle Club? The crew your boy Ranger rides with?”
I nod, trying to catch up. “Truthfully, I don’t know anything about MCs. I just met Ranger last night.”
“Well, Ranger’s the Road Captain,” Stella says. “Means he organizes all the runs.”
“I see,” I say slowly, taking it in. “I didn’t realize it was a whole organized club. I feel a little over my head, to be honest.”
T-Bone grunts. “Sounds fancier than it is. Really just a bunch of men who are rough and rowdy.”
“Hey,” Roxanne frowns. “That’s not true. Troy’s cleaning us up.”
Stella laughs. “Then what are you still doing around here?” The women laugh and my eyes widen, not in on their jokes.
T-Bone must sense my struggle because he hands me a package of bacon. “You know how to fry up some pork?”
“That is something I can handle.” I may not know much about bars and bikes, but I do know how to cook. T-Bone notices and soon we are flipping flapjacks, scrambling dozens of eggs, and the whole kitchen smells like bacon.
“Look at you,” he says, handing me a cup of coffee once the breakfast is finished. “I think you’ll fit in here just fine.”
Stella and Roxanne raise their eyebrows, though. T-Bone notices and laughs. “Don’t be jealous just because you’ve wanted to sink your claws in Ranger for the last year.”
Stella laughs, shrugging as she mixes a pitcher of bloody Marys. “Fair enough. I guess the best girl won.”
“Oh, I didn’t win anything. I just met him.”
This time it’s Roxanne who laughs. “Oh sweetheart, Ranger has never once taken a girl to bed in the time I’ve known him. If he slept with you, it means you won his heart, believe me.”
Just then, the men from outside file in, talking loudly, grumbling about it being too damn early, then grinning as T-Bone and I carry platters of food to bar tables we’ve pushed together. Beers are poured and coffee is served, and we all sit down. I realize it’s Sunday morning. But no one bows their heads. No one says grace.
Instead, the men dig into the food and as Ranger rests his hand on the small of my back, thanking me for helping with it, I realize this moment right here is what I’ve been praying for my whole entire life.
9
Ranger
The next few days pass in a blur. Not a bad blur — a good one. A blur of firsts as Ruby and I get to know one another on every level. She hands me wrenches as I lower myself under my bike. I stand outside the dressing room when I take her to the shopping center to buy herself some clothes. We make love in the shower, on the kitchen table, on the floor. We kiss until our lips are swollen and we fuck until she’s got rug burn on her knees.
It’s goddamn bliss.
When we wake up on the fourth day, I ask if she wants to go for a long ride.
“That sounds perfect.” Soon enough, she has a backpack filled with sandwiches and chips, and we’re on the road. She’s in a little sundress, this one short and pink, and I know she isn’t wearing any panties.
How do I know? Well, my girl lifted the hem of her dress before we left my apartment to tease me.
I told her it wasn’t fair and she just said she wanted her pussy bare as she rode on the back of my bike. “The vibrations get me all horny, and so wet, Ranger.”
I growled in her ear, squeezed her cute ass, and off we rode.
The sun
shines down on us and the light breeze is the perfect balm. When we descend Hollow Oak Hill, a valley spreads out before us, and a big lake shines bright at the basin. Ruby squeezes my back. “It’s beautiful,” she breathes.
“It’s Hollow Lake,” I tell her. “Crystal clear water.”
When we get off the bike, it feels good to stretch our legs, and we’ve found a secluded spot with a big willow tree overhanging the water. “Is that a rope?” she asks, pointing to a tree branch.
I grin, already pulling off my shirt and kicking off my boots. “Looks like it. Wanna jump in?”
She laughs. “I didn’t pack a suit.”
I look around, no one in sight. “Have you ever skinny dipped, Miss Ruby?”
She sets her hands on her hips. “What do you think, Ranger?”
I laugh, picking her up off the ground and swinging her around. “I think you’re dying to get out of those clothes.”
She licks her lips. “I think you’re a bad influence on me,” she says with a smile as she lifts the hem of her dress.
“That’s not what you were screaming last night.”
She laughs, loud. And so do I. My girl was coming so hard last night, so loud, that the bed broke. Literally — the headboard came clean off the back.
“Okay, so maybe I have a naughty streak previously undiscovered.”
She lets her dress fall to the grass, and I pull my girl into my arms. God, her skin is hot and so damn kissable. But before I can explore every inch of her, she is jumping away, moving over the grass toward the willow tree.
“Careful,” I call after her, but she just laughs.
“I may have grown up sheltered, but we were allowed to climb trees.” She takes hold of the rope and swings across the clear lake water. The higher she reaches, the faster my heart beats — but then she lets go, dropping into the lake with a crash.
When her head pops up, she’s laughing, her eyes as bright as the water, and she is calling at me to get in.
I follow her lead and grab the rope, swinging into the water. It’s a shock at first, how cold it is, but then my body gets used to it, relishing the contrast to the beating summer sun.
I swim to her and she wraps her body around mine. My feet touch the ground and I kiss her cheeks, her nose. She’s laughing, and so am I. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so free,” I tell her. “You make me feel so alive, Ruby.”
He eyelashes flutter, her freckled cheeks washed clean. “It’s like I was waiting my whole life for you.”
“You have me now,” I tell her.
“You think it’s real?”
Her question catches me off-guard. “Hell yeah, I do. I love you, Ruby.”
It surprises me when she doesn’t say it back. I have no doubt in my mind how I feel about her, for us. But her hesitation says more than I am prepared to handle.
“You don’t feel it?” I press.
“I feel it… I just…” She wraps her arms more tightly around me. “I may have grown up in the church, but I don’t have much faith in forever. In love.”
“Do you have faith in us?”
She swallows. “I feel like the other shoe is gonna drop, Ranger. That I’m gonna wake up and you’ll be gone.”
I tense, the water growing cold. “When I finished my time with the Army and heard my favorite bar was looking for a manager, I took the position. Joined the Heartlands MC shortly after. Been here a year now and haven’t looked back. I’m not going anywhere. The question is, are you?”
She slips from my arms, dipping her head under the water, and when she comes back up for air, I see that her eyes are filled with fear. “I’m scared of this being too good to be true. Of you being too good to be true, Ranger.”
I grab her hand before she can swim away again. “I love you, Ruby. Have faith in us.”
“I want to,” she says, running her hand over my chest. “But I don’t even know your real name. I don’t know your plans for the future. I don’t know anything.”
“That’s not true,” I tell her. “Don’t minimize this because you’re scared.”
She wraps her arms around my neck and I lift her up, her legs wrapping around me too. I carry her from the water and lay her down on the blanket we brought. I lean over her, memorizing her bare skin, the rise and fall of her breasts, her belly button, her creamy thighs. “Before you came into my life, I hadn’t slept a full night in years. I was haunted by things I’ve seen, things I’ve done. And then you came along and I could rest. In your arms, Ruby, I found peace. I love you. And you don’t need to say it back. But you do need to know it’s the goddamn truth.”
She swallows, pulling me toward her. “Before you, I didn’t think… didn’t believe men like you existed.” Tears fall from her eyes.
“I’m real, Ruby. And I’m yours.”
She doesn’t say she loves me, doesn’t promise me forever. But she kisses me deeply, hard. She pulls me close, opening her legs and offering me what she is able to give. Maybe not her whole heart, but a piece of it. And I take it with open arms.
I make love to Ruby the way she deserves, the way she craves, the only way I know how — with all of me.
My cock is hard for her, and I ease open her tight little cunt, my fingers opening her sweetness until it’s nice and juicy, ready for me. She arches her back, those big tits bouncing, her nipples pointed to the sky. I kiss them, tasting her perfect nipples between my teeth, my cock raging with want as I finger her nice and good, her pussy squeaking with pleasure as I flick her clit, her whimpers turning to full-on moans.
I dip my mouth to her opening, needing to taste the cream of my lover. My beard tickles her and she laughs, pushing my head deeper against her cunt. God, she loves it when I devour her. She better get used to it. Because this isn’t changing. Ever. She is mine now, and soon enough she will feel it the same way I do.
This is real.
“I love you,” I tell her, my cock pressing into her. Filling her up until she is gasping.
“Don’t stop,” she begs, threading her fingers through my hair, kissing my neck, my ears, holding onto me as if for dear life.
I make love to her, the pair of us coming in unison, like it was planned that way all along. And maybe it was.
I hold her in my arms as we finish, searching her eyes for whatever she is holding back. I found her caught in the rain, and that single storm seemed to wash my pain away.
But she’s still caught in those clouds. Wrapped up in something I can’t quite see.
I hold her tight, knowing whatever it is she’s scared of, I’m even more scared of losing her.
10
Ruby
After making love under the willow tree, we dress, then fall asleep for hours. With the warmth of the day surrounding us. I wake in Ranger’s arms, but he is still sleeping, and so I watch the water, thinking about the words he offered so freely — I love you.
Can he really? Is that how true love works?
Wouldn’t know the first thing about it… all I know about relationships is what I saw modeled at my father’s church. Women who were taught to be quiet, the men who kept them under their thumbs… boys growing up to be men just like their fathers. Daughters growing up to be servants to their men. It may be a modern era for the rest of the world, but for the small slice of earth where my father’s church thrives, the community is tight-knit and holds their values close.
Too close.
And my father wanted to build another wing onto the church. Slider was willing to pay for it.
He was a man who ended up at my father’s church after claiming he had found God. He wore the right suits, memorized the right scripture, but I saw the way he looked at me — like he wanted to devour me.
And not in the welcome way Ranger does.
Slider would corner me in hallways, not threatening exactly, but warning me how to behave, telling me what kind of wife he wanted. He’d tell me that when he had me, he would never let me out of his sight.
It made m
y skin crawl, my throat go dry. Lydia got the same creeped out vibe from him — he always looked a bit too long at us, as if plotting something.
I shake at the memory, and it startles Ranger awake.
“Hey, you okay?” he asks, kissing my cheek.
I tell him about Slider, not wanting to keep secrets from him.
“I couldn’t marry a man like that, who saw me as his property. Not his partner. I’m going to go to the city,” I explain to Ranger. “And once I get a place set up, I will go back for my sister. She needs a stable home, a safe home.”
Ranger cuts in, “You can bring her here.”
I hesitate, not wanting empty promises.
His eyes turn dark. “You’re really leaving?”
“The plan was always to go to the city and get a place set up for Lydia and me.”
Ranger frowns. “So you’ll go, just like that?”
“Well…” I bite my bottom lip. “I can’t just stay in your apartment. Roxanne said I could work nights at the bar and make some cash—”
“You aren’t working in the bar. You can’t.”
I lift my eyebrows. “What do you mean, I can’t?”
“I mean no woman of mine is working there.”
I shake my head, incredulous. “Are you seriously telling me what I can and cannot do?”
“You really want to work there?”
“No, I want to make meals and wash clothes and have a simple life, but I don’t have a choice. I have to make money, Ranger. I have to get to the city. For Lydia.”
“We all have choices,” he says coolly.
“Easy for you to say.” I stand, shaking out the blanket and packing up the bag.
“So that’s it? Conversation over?”
I swallow. “You’re just like him. You think I’m someone you can order around.”
RANGER: Heartlands MC Page 4
