by Xander Hades
Frank and I got back out to the ATVs and head out. We found the logging trail in a couple of minutes, heading to the left in the opposite direction of the fire, but with all the smoke, it wouldn’t be too long before it was here.
We meandered our way down the mountain as quickly as we could go, which means to say, not very quickly at all. Sticks and branches scraped my legs, leaving welts and bruises.
Travelling down the road was a lot harder than I imagined. Logging trails are not known for their upkeep. Behind me, I heard the falling trees, the wind whipping up, and felt the heat from the fire not that far away. I began sweating with worry and wipe the ash out of my eyes.
Is this it? Trapped in the smoke and flames with no way to leave. Is how my life is going end? Then the thoughts of Elijah. Just thinking of him sent my heart flaming and pounding in my chest. What is he going to do?
Probably say I told you so, I thought to myself. And grinned. That’s exactly what he would do, stubborn man.
I coughed as the smoke got heavier. We have the hardhats, which made me feel a little bit better with everything flying through the air and the ash, but we don't have any respirators to help us get through the smoke. I worry that our ATVs won’t be able to handle it either.
The smoke was so thick I couldn’t see in front of me, but I heard Frank in front of me. As I round the corner, I heard a tremendous crash from the lead ATV .
“Frank!” I yelled. A moment later, I saw him on the ground. Not from the fire but from the crap in the road. Looked like he went over sideways. Frank rocked back and forth on the ground next to his ATV. I stopped mine, turned it off and ran to his side.
“Frank, Frank, where are you hurt?”
He looked at me.
“From what I can tell, everywhere.”
I checked Frank over for damage. A definite broken leg. Internal damage I’d never be able to see without an xray and there was no need to worry him about that right now. Just like you would with any creature I worked to save, I grabbed the supplies I needed off of my ATV.
I wished I had my truck, which was still sitting in the parking lot full of first aid supplies, and squished like a pancake. I went back to Frank’s side and splinted his leg. When I was done, I went back over to my ATV and got a couple of bottled waters
“Hey, Doc, you need to get going. You get down this hill and send help.”
I sipped on my water, which dribbled down my chin mixing with the ash covering us both.
“I'm not going leave you, Frank, so just save your breath and hope that one of the transmissions went through.”
I coughed as breathing got more difficult. I listened to the wind blowing through the trees as Frank patted my leg.
With the nature serenade of a roaring fire and dropping trees came sounds in the distance. Sounds that scared me and gave me hope.
Chapter 14
Elijah
Bryce wasn't joking when he said this logging road was nearly impassable. Stones and dips, as well as the damn washboards, made this road trash as we had to go pretty slow to keep from wrecking the bikes. We’re wore our cuts and skull masks covered the bottom of my face to keep out the smoke and debris.
We decided to leave everyone else at the motor club. It didn't make much sense to bring everybody along the road that was narrow, smoky, and had all the attributes of being the worse place at the worse time. And they had families.
The only family I had was up there in the mountains.
The smell of the smoke, fiery roar through the trees and all around is what makes wildfires so scary. It’s one thing seeing the flames against a night sky from a distance. Romantic almost. Big difference to be caught between the smoke and the flames on the ground with a wildfire eating acres just a mile or so away.
Smoke was getting thicker and thicker and I worried about whether my bike could make it through. Man, she’s never given me any trouble so there’s no use worrying about it now. However, given how my luck has been going for the past day, I figure that Lady Luck has probably taken a hiatus.
Bryce came up next to me, wheel to wheel.
He shouted over the bikes. “Got a couple more miles we should be up there pretty close to the ranger station.”
He looked over at me.
“You good?” He gave me a questioning thumbs up in case I didn’t hear him. I nod in the affirmative. I checked down next to me to the empty spot where my sidecar normally is and I was glad Gareth wasn’t out on this ride.
Into the straightaway going wheel to wheel, the ground’s pretty rough, but all these years on the bike make it not as difficult as it could be for Bryce and me. As we hit a less smoky area, I see an ATV up ahead on its side and a solitary person on the ground.
My heart’s in my throat and I can barely breathe and not just from the smoke. We get closer and kicked the bikes. I run over to see to see who’s laying on the ground. Frank.
He looks up at me. “About time you boys got here.”
“Where’s Quinn?”
He pointed over his shoulder and I saw her coming back down the road. She stops, her eye wide. I pull down my skull mask.
The smile she gives me crushes me and she runs into my arms. I brush my thumbs on her cheeks, rubbing the ash away.
“Babe?”
She nods. “I’m good. I’m more concerned about Frank. He broke his leg.”
She sees Bryce and smiles.
“Sis,” he says and gives her a hug.
“Take me home, baby,” she says. “And don’t tell me you told me so.”
I smiled at her and kissed her ashen hair. She coughed. I pulled a bandana out of my cut. “Put this on and we’ll get you to the hospital.”
She shook her head at me. “I’m fine. I just want to be with you.”
Bryce gets Frank up on his bike. We spin around in the midst of the crashing of trees and the roar of the fire not too far behind us. Bryce gets a bandana out for Frank to cover his mouth and he heads out first with the injured man.
I felt Quinn wrap her arms around me. I leaned back and yelled to her to hold tight and she did. It felt good.
Bryce and I spend the next hour getting off the hill as fast as we can and as we head home, I look behind me to see what looked like the lights of hell fast on our wheels.
Epilogue
Quinn
The hot water sprayed on my face from the rainfall showerhead. Beating the ash and the grit from the fire down the drain. Elijah had taken his while the women all fussed over me and Bryce had taken Frank to the hospital.
For all the noise of the shower, I heard Gareth scratching at the door and Elijah pacing as he waited for me to get done. When a man that big paces, the whole house shakes.
I shut the shower off, dried off, put on a nice clean pair of jeans and a white shirt and went out to him.
Gareth bombarded my poor ankles with licks and Elijah wrapped me up in his arms.
“Listen,” he said, after he had rained kisses on my lips leaving me wanting for more. “I know it’s late, but I really want to take you somewhere tonight.”
Intrigued, I shrugged. Nothing like a bit of death-defying moments for me to want to do whatever my baby said. He picked up Gareth and carried them over to his room.
“Gareth’s not coming with us?” I asked him.
“Tonight, I want you all to myself,” he said.
“I'm not so sure I want to go with you,” I said teasingly. “What if I’m in the middle of nowhere and I need my Prince charming?”
To my surprise, he laughed, “Shut up, woman,” picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
He carried me out to his bike with the laughter from the men we’d walked by and the cheering of the women. He put me down on the saddle.
He leaned over me. I could smell his clean scent. Tickly feelings started down low for me. I reached up to him, but he stepped back.
“I’m taking you someplace that’s important.”
“Alright,” I said. “I'm game
. But I want a kiss first.”
He leaned his massive frame down to me and fiercely held me in arms as his lips ravaged mine. He sighed and pushed back. It was evident, as I viewed him up and down, he was as moved as I was.
“It is and never will be “just a kiss” with you.”
I smiled as he got on the bike in front of me and I wrapped my arms around him.
We traveled, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes, coming close to the ranch.
“Are we going to see, Mike?” I asked.
“No, someplace else. It’s close by.”
We passed the turnoff to Cougar Creek and kept going another mile or so down the road til we got to a dirt road. Elijah headed down for a short distance until the road ended at a park area by a lake. Very solitary. It was beautiful with a firepit, a couple of logs, and firewood already out.
He got off the bike and lifted me back up on his massive shoulders. He plunked me down on one of the logs. He started setting up the fire.
“Fire? Really?”
He nodded to the lake and then the treeline. “The trees are far away and the water is right here. We’re not having a bonfire.”
“Oh, something romantic?”
He grinned over at me. I regarded the area we were in. So quiet, but not in a bad way. Peaceful. I heard the water from the lake lapping at the shore a few feet away. I closed my eyes. A couple of moments later, I felt his hand on my leg.
“This is where I would come as a child to get away and clear my head. Found it when I was about fourteen. I think Mike knew I would head up here as he always keeps it stocked with wood.”
“So calm. It’s like the world is so far away.”
In the distance, I could see the fire raging on the mountain top and wondered about the elk. I had faith, it had found its way. Like I’m finding mine. Seeing them the glow in the sky miles away, the flames weren’t half as scary as they were when you were in them.
He turned back to the fire making and I walked to the lake. I turned, watching him work.
I asked, “Do you have any marshmallows? You know a campfire is no good without marshmallows.”
“A girl after my own heart. In the rucksack.” He pointed to the bike.
He not only had marshmallows, but he also had those collapsible fork tongs so I was able to stick two marshmallows on and get them ready for the fire.
“You know campfires were one of my most favorite things growing up,” I told him as he came and took the tongs from me.
“Really?” He stuck the tongs in the fire, getting the marshmallows all gooey.
“One of the lasting memories I have of my dad. He would take us camping outside Minneapolis. Go hiking and fishing up there for weekend. Think it helped him be who he was for the MC.”
I grinned at the memory. “My mom and him, they were all over each other. And we always had marshmallows.”
He presented me with a marshmallow, black and flaming. I blew on it and ate it.
I sat down on the log near him. I looked up at this amazing man. A man who drove through a wildfire to come save me. This man, who makes my heart sing, who would never allow anything ever happened to me. He would cherish me till my dying day.
If this is what my mother had, if this was how it felt for her to be around my father, this is something I don’t want to give up. I would break my promise to her for this man.
“Elijah?”
He finished the fire and walked over to me.
“I love you,” I said.
Another Epilogue
Elijah
As soon as she said those words to me, I melted. I swallowed the marshmallow slowly so I didn’t choke. I felt molten and hot inside. I leaned down wrapping her in my arms and kissed her. She tasted sticky and sweet. It wasn’t a rock the world kiss that we normally shared together. It was to let her know that I felt the same way one and felt like I was coming home.
I picked her up, she wrapped her legs around me, and I carried her over to my bike. I sat her down on the saddle, so I could have an easier way of touching her everywhere. Where she was all right there in the palms of my hands.
I pulled her shirt over her head, amazed to find her braless. I leaned back. She was beautiful. A Venus on my bike. She reached her hands over and pulled my cut off.
As she pulled the tank top over my head, her body picked up the radiance from the fire, orange and yellow, as if she was glowing from the inside.
She leaned forward and took one of my nipples between her teeth.
“Damn, baby,” I groaned.
My jeans were already getting too tight. I slipped them off.
“Going commando, are we?”
She reached down and grabbed me, stroking me with her hand. I didn't think I could get any harder than that. I was wrong.
I picked her up and held her in my arms, with her legs around my torso, and I straddled the bike. I had her sitting in my lap, close enough that I could feel her and not be in her.
I pushed her red hair out of her face and nuzzled her neck, leaning her backwards as my lips went lower and lower, grasping a nipple in one hand, tweaking the other a little with my fingers. I heard her moan.
With my free hand, I slid it between us, feeling how slick she was. With two fingers, I entered her and felt her move her hips against my legs. I moved my finger faster, sucked her nipple harder, and felt her clench down on my fingers.
She called out my name. “Elijah. Elijah please.”
I picked her up and very gently put her down on me. Slowly, ever so slowly as she was so tight I lowered her. It took just a second for her to get used to me, wrap me all up in her warmth. I held her away from me so I could watch her face, the ecstacy I saw in it.
There was no place to put her legs, so I put my hands on her hips and moved her up and down, up and down, faster and faster. I felt her tensing into the rhythm, leaning backwards against my hands, arching her back, calling out my name.
In that second, the oceans broke free of me, filling her over and over again. As the tide went out, she leaned her head against my shoulder, fitting together much like a key in the lock. She wrapped her legs around my back and mumbled against my neck.
“What did you say, babe?”
She just smiled and shook her head.
Once we were finally able to move again, I lifted her off of me, reached into the rucksack and grabbed a couple of blankets and walked us naked over to the fire. I laid her down on them and went back for our clothes. I picked up my cut and as reached her, a box fell out of the inside pocket. She leaned over and picked it up.
“What's this?” she asked. I reached over and took it from her. Feeling tender, probably due to the fact that I was buck ass naked. I knelt down in front of her. My Eve to her Adam.
“I love you, Quinn Hopson. I don't want to be without you. I can imagine a world or a life for me that does not have you in it.”
“I thought you wanted an ol’ lady?
I shook my head.
“No, I don't want an ole lady. I want a wife.”
At first, I thought I'd said something wrong. She shook her head no and a lone tear came out of her eyes. I guess she saw concern etched on my face and she held up her hand.
“It’s good, Elijah. So good. Yes, definitely yes.” I took the ring out the box and placed it on that finger. She was mine and I was hers. She held it up to the fire.
“Black Hills gold,” I told her.
She then reached over and pulled my body against hers. Her warmth fueling my fire. She pressed her naked little body against mine. Her lips found mine and, though spent a few moments ago, my passion rose again.
We spent the rest of the night competing with howls of the wild wolves, entertwined with each. I felt a calling to be with her. Only her.
Always.
The End
The Legacy
A Mafia Bad Boy Romance
I never wanted this, but now it’s all mine.
The business. The Legacy. The Bride.
As the second son, life was supposed to be easy.
No responsibilities,
No ties,
No pressure….
Until my father and my brother died
Now all of this is mine – including Deanna.
Our marriage will cement the legacy our parents bled for
Unfortunately, Deanna and I had a history
One that didn’t end well
With a wedding on the horizon, and a war brewing in New Orleans
I’ll have to move fast to tame and protect my bride…before it’s too late
Click Here to download The Legacy Now!
Author’s Note
Thanks for reading my MC novella “Tamed”. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
By the way, I’m Xander Hades.
I write about alpha bad boys who had fallen hard for their women. Mafia, Bikers, Fighters, …yea you get that. The tougher they look, the harder they fell. These beasts knew no bounds when it comes to protecting what’s theirs.
Check out my Facebook Page if you don’t want to miss my upcoming new releases.
