by Lane Hart
“Nolan,” she starts. “I’m scared, and I don’t know what to do! I can make it out on my own with the new name and all. I know that, I do. But I don’t want to leave you! Last night…seeing you again, it’s been the only time I’ve been happy in years. Not being with you scares me more than anything else.”
“Then don’t leave!” I shout at her. “I gave you a choice, remember?”
“Well, I didn’t like them!” she yells back, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t want you to kill anyone. I don’t want you to sacrifice anything else for me. Maybe…maybe I could kill Leroy.”
I snort at that.
“What? I could do it! I know how to shoot a gun.”
“I don’t doubt you could put a few holes in the big bastard,” I tell her. “There’s just not a chance in hell that I’m going to let you do it, though. It’s not pulling the trigger that’s hard, baby; it’s letting that shit settle into your soul, knowing it’ll fester there for the rest of your life.”
“And you think I’m going to let you take on that burden on top of everything else you’ve done for me?” she snaps. “No fucking way! Come up with another plan. Anything else.”
“Marry me,” I blurt out.
And while I’m not entirely sure where the words came from, Rita’s response is the last one any man wants to hear.
She laughs.
Loudly.
Until she realizes I don’t find it funny. “You are joking, right?”
“I know we haven’t seen each other in years,” I admit. “And that we didn’t know each other very long back then. But I’m guessing that if you had known I was in prison, you would’ve waited for me to get out. And if you had, I would’ve wanted to marry you as I walked out a free man again.”
“Nolan…” she starts, but I interrupt her to finish what I want to say.
“You’re beautiful and so fucking sweet. But best of all, you take on giants, literal and physical ones, to protect the people you care about. You lost your parents when you were barely grown, and somehow it made you stronger. You gave up your life to raise your shithead brother, sending him off to college even though you never got the same chance. And then, with Leroy, you were willing to be with the big son of a bitch just to keep him from tearing me apart one limb at a time.”
“It was my fault he even knew your name and wanted to hurt you!”
“Do you really think I gave a shit that you sicced him on me? Why do you think I showed up that day I followed you to the grocery store? I wasn’t angry. How could I be when I realized that I was still the first person you thought of when you needed help? No, I was pissed because I thought you knew I had taken the fall for your brother and wanted to use me again. But I still showed up! I couldn’t not show up to make sure you were okay. Don’t you get it? I will never stop worrying about you.”
“Never is a long time,” she replies softly.
“Yeah, it is,” I agree. “And it would be a lot easier on my troubled heart if I could see you with my own eyes every day to make sure you were okay.”
“Marrying me probably won’t stop Leroy.”
“Maybe not. But he respected the fact that you were married before. And it would make you mine. For better or worse.”
Rita throws her head back and laughs again. She tries to slap her palm over her mouth to stop the lovely sound to no effect. More giggles leak out. Fuck, if it’s not hell on my ego, but I love hearing it anyway. “I’m sorry,” she says. “It’s just, you’re crazy! You’re telling me that after all my brother put you through, you’re willing to risk your life for me on a daily basis. This feels like a cruel nightmare where I’m going to wake up and I’ll be back in my shitty apartment alone, getting ready for another fourteen-hour workday, Groundhog’s Day all over again.”
I’m not entirely sure, but that doesn’t sound like an adamant refusal.
“Do you want to be with me or not?” I ask in simpler terms.
“Nolan, why do you think I came back?”
“Answer the question,” I tell her since I want to hear her say it. “Do you want to be with me?”
“Yes,” she answers without hesitation. “I just don’t know why…”
I stop her from questioning my motives again when I grab the sides of her face, covering her mouth with mine, shoving my tongue past her lips. She kisses me back just as hard, giving as good as she’s getting.
“We’re going to stay here tonight,” I tell her against her lips before I pull back to see her face. “Then tomorrow, you’ll find a dress, and I’ll figure out the rest, okay?”
Rita’s blue eyes that were glazing over with lust before start to clear. “Are you sure? Leroy…”
“I don’t ever want to hear his name from your lips again,” I tell her. “You hear me? Forget him. He kept his hands off of you when you told him you were married, right?” She nods in agreement. “Then he’ll have to respect the fact that we are or face the consequences. I’ll gladly do anything to keep you safe, no matter what.”
“Okay,” she whispers. “If I wake up tomorrow and this wasn’t a dream, I’ll marry you.”
“Good,” I tell her, closing my eyes with a sigh of relief.
Rita’s lips brush mine softly, making my knees go weak because I want her so much, but mostly because she said yes. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to feel her mouth on mine every day for the rest of our lives.
Last night, I would like to think that I treated her like a gentleman for the most part instead of ravaging her the way I had thought about for years. But right now, I’m so raw and desperate for her that there won’t be anything left in me but the savage.
By the time I open my eyes again, the buttons on the front of her thin dress have been ripped apart so that Rita only has to give a roll of her shoulders for it to fall from her body. She wasn’t wearing a bra because the top of the dress was so tight, which means nothing but a lacy, white thong is all that covers her. I yank them down while forcing her backward. We finally hit something solid, the wall, so hard that Rita gasps.
Since her hands never falter in trying to get my cut off, I assume she’s not hurt too badly and get to work undoing my belt and jeans.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rita
While last night was mostly spent remembering, reconnecting with every inch of each other’s bodies, tonight it’s more of an urgent, violent need.
There’s probably going to be a bruise on my back tomorrow, but I already know it’ll be worth it as Nolan’s hands grab my thighs and hike them up to his hips. He pins me to the wall with his hard cock filling me completely after the first hard shove. I was so wet and ready; he didn’t meet any resistance. My only complaint is that I want him deeper inside of me even though there’s no more room for him.
He’s fucking me so frantically that our mouths can’t stay pressed together for more than a second. Nolan’s lips graze my parted lips occasionally, our pants and moans the only sounds either of us can make until his hips shove forward and he freezes.
“Shit,” he gasps. “No condom.”
Oh crap.
“I’m on the pill,” I tell him in a rush as I let my walls squeeze around his shaft, making him groan before his hips return to the same punishing rhythm.
The unfortunate reminder of why I went on the pill in the first place is an unwelcome guest to this party. After the first time a biker working security decided I was on the menu whether I knew it or not, I took a Plan B and got a prescription along with a STD test. He wasn’t the last one to pull me down on his lap where a little unwanted surprise was waiting for me.
Never again.
A sob escapes me, knowing Nolan won’t ever let any of them touch me again.
I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him closer until my face is pressed to his neck. “Don’t stop,” I whisper, welcoming each and every inch of him inside of me. “Don’t ever leave me again.”
“Never, Cherry Pie,” he growls against my ear without ever waver
ing in his desperate pounding. His wet kiss on my neck sends a jolt of pleasure straight down to where our bodies are joined. “You’re mine now, baby. Say it for me. Say it!”
“I’m yours. Only yours,” I say with another sob.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I force everything in the past to disappear so there’s nothing but the here and now with Nolan – his body moving in mine, giving me pleasure, chasing his own like he’ll die without me.
The crazy man wants me to be his wife.
And that sounds so damn nice. I really hope it’s not too good to be true.
Nolan
As soon as Rita’s body tightens around me, I lose it, spilling my seed inside of her, the pulses so intense they almost hurt before they let up.
Never before have I been inside a woman without a rubber. Now I know what I’ve been missing.
Jesus.
Even if she wasn’t on the pill, I know I would have to have her like this again, the consequences be damned.
“That was…so good,” Rita says, echoing my thoughts.
“And you wonder why I love that you’re so tall and voluptuous,” I mutter as I rest the side of my cheek next to hers, still catching my breath. “If you were any smaller, I would’ve plowed right through you. Only you can take my cock the way I like to use it.”
“So good,” she repeats, this time it’s more slurred. “No one else…ever again.”
“No one else,” I agree, then pull back to look at her face when I ask the next question. “You okay with that?”
Her eyes are nearly closed, her face flushed from her arousal, so fucking beautiful.
“Absolutely,” she says. Then so softly I barely hear her, she adds, “Promise me.”
“I swear I’ll never want anyone but you, baby.”
I kiss her cheek and feel her shaking her head.
“No. That I won’t have to…with anyone else again. No more assholes at the club.”
“Jesus, woman,” I say once her words finally sink through the afterglow, making my chest ache and my fists clench. “I’ll kill anyone who even thinks about touching you. That’s a promise you can take to the bank.”
“Thank you,” she says, and then she giggles. “I can’t stand up yet.”
“I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you,” I assure her. After toeing off my shoes and kicking off my jeans, I pick her up and carry her over to the sofa in my arms.
“No! I’m too heavy!” she exclaims right before I lower her to the cushion.
“Hush,” I tell her as I stretch her out on her side and lay down in front of her. “If you hadn’t worn me out, I would carry your ass upstairs. Give me a minute to recover.”
Rita laughs. “It’ll take more than a minute for you to find the strength to carry me up those steps.”
“You’ll see,” I tell her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Now, baby, tell me the name of every man who made you do something you didn’t want to do.”
“No,” she says, her voice stronger, less slurred now that she’s had time to recover from her orgasm hangover. “It’s over and done. They’re not worth it.”
That’s what she fucking thinks.
One way or another, I will figure out who touched her, and then they will fucking pay.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nolan
“I’m going back to the club,” I tell the guys at the meeting table. “Oh, and then I’m getting married tonight.”
“What the fuck?”
The same version of the question is asked by all the Kings.
“First off, why are you going back to that shithole club?” Roman asks. “Because Rita’s staying and she won’t be safe with them alive?”
There’s no judgement in our president’s question, just curiosity.
“Yes, she’s staying. Mostly, though, I have to go back because I found out last night that…” I grind my teeth together, unable to find the words. Saying it aloud is like making it real. Even though I know it already is real for her. “I need to talk to some of the dancers and other waitresses to see if the Rebel Henchmen have been fucking them against their will.”
“Jesus, man,” Hugo says.
“Even your girl, Rita?” Verek asks.
I give a nod. “Someone did. More than one, if I had to guess. But Rita won’t give me any of their names.”
“It’s not much, but I can give you Tessa’s therapist name and number,” Verek replies. “It’ll be a start for her while we bust heads.”
“No,” I snap at him. “I mean, the therapist is fine, but I’m going alone for this part.”
“Like hell you are!” Abel declares.
“A group of us will draw too much attention,” I explain. “And I have a plan for how to explain the dead bodies I’ll leave behind.”
“Look,” Roman starts. “I understand not wanting to take the whole crew to the club or whatever, but any King who wants to come is coming.” When I open my mouth to protest, he holds up his palm to stop me. “We’ll scatter but at least stay in the area in case shit goes sideways. That won’t fuck up your plan, will it?”
“I guess not…”
“How confident are you that this plan of yours is going to work?” Winston asks.
“I’d say a seventy-percent chance it works out like I hope. If so, there won’t be any blowback on the Savage Kings. Not even a little. So, the less you know, the better.”
“Fine,” Roman agrees, and the rest of the men at the table nod their heads in agreement.
“Abel and I are going with you,” Hugo says. “We’ll do what you tell us to do, but you’re not going anywhere alone.”
“Okay,” I agree. “I think the prospects should stay with Rita, if you all think they can handle themselves.”
“I don’t see why not,” Roman agrees. “If we’re in Cape Cartwright keeping the Rebel Henchman busy, then she should be relatively safe back at the house, right?”
“Well, that’s the thing. She was going to go into town today and try to find a dress.”
“A wedding dress?” Cannon asks. “You’re serious about marrying a woman you just picked up two days ago?”
“Yeah, I am,” I answer, my tone not leaving any room for argument on that one.
“More power to you,” the twin says as he shakes his head. “Hell, Madison would probably love to go shopping with her. The woman’s had a wedding magazine hiding in her briefcase for weeks like she’s afraid I might freak if I see it. She doesn’t think I’ll ever pop the question. Just goes to show how much she knows – I had a ring made for her before the issue was released!”
“You’re joking,” Conrad, the other blond twin, asks, looking even more shocked when Cannon shakes his head. “So, when are you going to do it?”
The previously notorious playboy shrugs nonchalantly even while his fingers keep drumming nervously on the table. “I don’t know. Just waiting for the right moment.”
“Bullshit!” Conrad exclaims with a chuckle. “You’re nervous!”
“If she’s got the magazine, then she isn’t going to say no,” Verek tells him confidently.
“Yeah, I’m not worried about her saying yes,” Cannon explains. “I just think she’ll put the wedding off until the next mayoral election.”
“Holy shit!” Winston laughs. “You’re in a hurry to tie the knot too!”
“Whatever,” the twin huffs. “Not as big a hurry as Nolan apparently!”
“Hey, now, I’ve been waiting to be with this woman for over five years! It’s not just a spur-of-the-moment idea.”
“I get it,” Roman says. “It was that long before I ever got a chance to speak to Charlotte. I was already falling in love with her before we officially met; she just didn’t know it yet.” He grins at the memory before turning to me and saying, “I bet she would like the whole wedding gown shopping thing too, something to take her mind off the pile of negative pregnancy tests.”
“It’ll happen, man,” Winston tells our president. “You just
gotta stop treating it like a military mission for a few weeks and stop stressing.”
“Jesus Christ,” Marcus grumbles, slumping down in his seat and pushing it away from the table. “The entire meeting has turned into all you pussy-whipped motherfuckers talking about women and babies. Can we get back to talking about the ass kicking before I grow a vagina too?”
Everyone laughs at him when no less than five middle fingers shoot up in his direction — no, make that six, since Winston gives him both hands because he’s got a kid and a wife now.
While there’s still so much bullshit still up in the air, I can’t help but feel lucky knowing that, as long as I survive the day, I’ve got an amazing woman to go home to tonight and every other night.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rita
“Rita, meet Charlotte McNamara, Roman’s wife, and Madison Monroe, our city’s mayor and Cannon’s girl,” Nolan says, introducing me to the beautiful blonde and classy brunette as soon as they walk into the clubhouse.
“Hi, nice to meet you.” I reach out and shake both of their hands.
“Since they know the town, they offered to go, ah, dress shopping or whatever with you today,” he explains.
“You aren’t coming with me?” I ask him in surprise.
“Nah, I’ve got some MC shit to handle and more wedding plans to make. Besides, it’s bad luck to see the dress before the I dos. But I’ll see you tonight in the gardens?”
“Yes, definitely,” I agree since that’s where we decided to have the ceremony.
Nolan pulls his wallet from his back jean pocket, the one attached to a chain so it won’t go flying out when he rides his bike. He removes a credit card and holds it out to me. “Here.”
“No, thanks. I still have the cash you gave me.”
“Take it and use it,” he insists.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“Yes!” he says. “Buy whatever you want. No limit.” I start to protest, but then he reaches around and tucks the card into my back pocket of my jean shorts, then grabs my ass. “You only get one wedding, right?” he asks as his amber eyes lock on mine, making me understand the deeper meaning of the question. He wants to know if I really think this can work between us.
