by Naomi West
Patrizzio is here.
Wordlessly, his three children move toward one another, banding together as a unit. They are knit together and strong. They’ve only become stronger in the last few years. They share a few quick hugs before Alessia moves back to me. She takes A.J. from me, settling him on her hip. Her other hand finds mine and we grip one another’s fingers. Our love zipping through our touch just the way it always does.
I look around at the people on the patio. My family. My heart. This is my life in bright technicolor, filled with more love than I ever thought possible.
“Well,” Dante says as he moves across the patio. “I suppose we should let him in.”
And we do.
THE END
(One more gift…) DARK SEDUCTION: Millennium Mayhem MC
By Naomi West
Felice thinks she’s using me, but she doesn’t know the first thing about what that means.
I’ll show her how it feels to be used.
To be touched and teased and bent over my knee, moaning for release.
It’s twisted. It’s wrong.
But I’m going to have her anyways.
FELICE
What they don’t tell you about a fall from grace is that it hurts like hell when you land.
I had everything – the perfect fiancé, the perfect best friend, the perfect life.
Then it all collapsed.
That rat bastard cheated on me and left my heart in flames.
So I took his car and clothes to the middle of the desert and set the whole mess on fire.
Eye for an eye, right?
And just then, right on cue, another opportunity for revenge rolled up on the back of a growling motorcycle.
Pierce Normandy is everything my ex-fiancé is not.
He’s rugged.
Cruel.
And sexy as hell.
I’ll use him to make my ex jealous.
It’s just a fling – nobody plans on falling in love.
What could go wrong?
PIERCE
I was a king.
President of a motorcycle club that no one in their right mind would dare f**k with.
I had women, riches, and the loyalty of every single one of my brothers.
Except for one.
My second in command stabbed me in the back and framed me for a murder I didn’t commit.
I had no choice but to leave it all behind.
I come across an angry little rich girl in the desert.
She looks like she’s got problems, but I’m not one to pry.
I offer her a ride back to her house, and in exchange, she gives me a place to stay for the night.
But Little Miss Priss thinks I’ll be the next tool in her revenge plot.
Think again, honey.
I’ve been used once.
I’m not going to let it happen again.
This time, we’re playing by my rules.
Chapter One
Pierce
Pierce leaped across the threshold of the warehouse’s only open door, listening with horror at the sound of Gunner’s voice coming from behind him. Gunner was still laughing as Pierce pumped his muscled legs, trying to put as much distance between himself and his former friend as possible.
He’s trying to set me up, Pierce realized, his muscles quivering as he pushed himself harder and faster across the grass. This whole thing was a motherfucking setup.
As his bike came into view, Pierce threw himself forward, his legs wobbling with weariness. Only the knowledge that the police would be right around the corner drove him harder. He refused to serve time for someone else’s crimes and that meant getting the hell out of Dodge. Right now.
Once at his bike, Pierce threw himself over the seat like a cowboy leaping into the saddle and was off, his tail lights a blur in the autumn night air. Cop sirens spun wildly in the distance, setting his heart pounding. Pierce turned off his headlights and pulled off the road to drive through an open field, his tires complaining as he slipped and slid over the hard-packed dirt. He prayed to whatever god would listen that he didn’t hit a hole or a stump on his way over the unstable land.
His heart thundering unsteadily in his chest, Pierce listened at the sirens grew steadily closer. Blood thundered through his veins, his body filled with adrenaline. Any mistake now could be fatal. Any instability in the ground he rode over could throw him from the bike, a thought that filled his whole body with terror. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he stared forward, looking fruitlessly through the darkness for any signs of obstacles.
This was such a stupid idea.
But it would be worth the risk for a chance not to spend the rest of his life rotting in jail. He couldn’t. Not when his people needed him. Not for something he hadn’t done.
Although he was leader of the Millennium Mayhem Motorcycle Club, he knew he would have to leave his people without a leader for the time being. At least until I figure out a way out of this.
Soon the sirens faded off into the distance, and Pierce breathed a little easier. Getting out of the dirt, he found a new road to travel. He slipped out of the grass and back on a highway, heading west. Not knowing where he was going, Pierce set a cruising speed right at the speed limit, unwilling to risk any brush with the law.
Because Pierce knew they would soon be looking for him.
# # #
Felice
Felice stared down the burning pyre of her ex’s things, her eyes streaming tears.
Cheating asshole deserves to be set on fire along with his stuff. Along with the woman who I thought was my best friend.
Now, Felice was entirely without friends. She felt a bit like she was lost out at sea in a storm. A lump formed in her throat as she glanced down at her cell phone, lit up with several messages both from Clay and Jennifer. She didn’t want to look at either right now, though she had an idea what they had both had to say.
Clay is already angry that I took his prized Rolls and wants to know where it is; Jennifer is apologizing to me for the 400th time, stupid ex-best-friend bitch. “I didn’t mean it, I never should have touched him, blah blah blah.”
“Fuck you both!” she screamed, throwing Clay’s keys into the firestorm before her. She thought that setting the whole thing ablaze would make her feel better, but instead Felice just felt worse, emptier. Mindlessly tossing her beautiful, long locks of blonde waves to one side, she turned away from the blaze, feeling the heat of it press up against her back.
I should have saved this for the cameras. But instead her anger had driven her out into the middle of nowhere, her heels sinking into the loosely packed sands to try and burn away her own pain. The TV producers would have loved the ratings from this kind of scandal.
But Felice didn’t want this on TV. Maybe we can recreate the scene later if my reality show can afford another Rolls.
More than anything, she wished she’d never walked in on her boyfriend and her best friend; she couldn’t get the image of them fucking in Clay’s bed out of her mind. She wished she hadn’t screamed so loudly. She wished she hadn’t confided in her brother, Matt. His words still burned like fire under skin.
“You’ll be crawling back to Clay in no time, little sis,” he said, his stupid face smiling with wicked thoughts. “Clay has you around his little finger, like a ring.”
Punching him in his broad chest, Felice shook her head. “No, I will not. That prick is nothing to me.”
Matt didn’t even move an inch when she hit him. “Half a mill says you’ll be licking his boots before this is all over.”
Shaking with anger Felice jammed a finger into his chest so hard, Matt actually winced. “Half a mill that asshole will come crawling back to me first.”
Burying her face in her hands, Felice felt her heart shattering, breaking into a thousand pieces. She couldn’t swallow around the tears, couldn’t breathe. Everything seemed to have gone up in flames along with the Rolls, including her ability to think clearly.
I can�
��t believe I made that bet with Matt. But of all my regrets, she thought, warily looking up from her manicured hands, the worst is that I have no way home. I would normally call Jennifer, but… That thought squeezed her heart, pain lancing through her whole body.
Tears slipped through her mascara, painting lines of despair down her perfect skin. She stood there and cried for a long time, her feet throbbing and her heart hurting. The only sound out there in the desert was her wracking sobs in the cold, night air.
Until another noise joined it. The low rumble sounded like nothing familiar, and Felice looked up from her tears to see what had interrupted her grief. A light came quickly around the bend, the thrumming sound resolving into the purr of the engine. Hurrying to the road, still sobbing, Felice leaned over the asphalt with her thumb out, hoping to attract the attention of whoever was out this late on this road in the middle of nowhere.
Much to her delight, the motorcycle pulled off the road. Felice backed up, hoping to keep the worst of the desert dust off of her white Dior pencil skirt.
Walking toward the vehicle, Felice called to the rider as soon as he turned off the engine. “Hey, can I get a ride? I’ll give you a hundred bucks.” The rider turned to her, and Felice almost fainted at her good fortune.
The rider got off of the bike, his tall, muscular body moving like a hunter’s. His brunette buzzcut matched the beautiful hot chocolate color of his eyes. Everything about him, from the sun-kissed tan of his skin to the black lines of his tattoos peeking out from the edges of his t-shirt set Felice’s body aflame. His deep-set eyes watched her, his expressive mouth looked very happy to see her. Felice’s eyes traveled up and down his body for a second, and she had to close her mouth to keep from drooling.
Lucky for her, Motorcycle Man was hot.
Chapter Two
Pierce
Pierce ran his eyes over the pretty little blonde thing he’d found in the desert, a smile cutting across his chiseled face. He could see the story here, as plain as if she’d written it out for him. The flaming car, the mascara streaks down her perfect cheeks, and the vixen out in the middle of the desert with no one around to come pick her up.
This looks like a scene from a movie; it can’t be real. The cheating lover who drove this beautiful woman must have been blind; never in his life had Pierce ever seen anyone so perfect. What idiot would cheat on a beautiful thing like this?
“Did you hear me?” the woman said, her perfectly sculpted brows furrowing in confusion. “I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you take me home. I’ll even buy you dinner,” she finished, desperately. Wincing, she even added “Please,” after a long moment of silence between them.
Pierce had a feeling she didn’t often use the word “please.” Perhaps her being a brat is why she was cheated on. He sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. Days into his journey, Pierce was short on cash and dangerously low on gasoline. He wasn’t sure how far San Diego was from here, but he was pretty sure he couldn’t get there on the fumes currently in his gas tank.
At the talk of dinner, his stomach grumbled loudly. I also won’t make it there on the nothing left in my stomach.
Without the aide of his credit cards, Pierce had no money left. And the police would find him in seconds if he attempted to use any of his cards now. They would be looking for him after what Gunner had done, after what he’d framed him for.
“Guess I don’t have much of a choice.”
“Fine, but I need gasoline; how far is your house?” he growled, his fingers running through his short, black hair.
Those pretty brows knitted together. “Ten minutes maybe?” she said, sounding unsure. “There’s a gas station on the way home, though. We can stop and fill up your ride.”
“Alright then, come on.” Pierce had a feeling he would come to regret helping this spoiled valley brat, that somehow she would get him caught. But he had no choice. He needed the money so desperately, he knew he had to play along. Hopefully, he would be able to leave before this woman figured anything out about his past.
Hopefully, the gas in my bike is enough to get us to the station. He got astride his bike, turning the engine on. It came rumbling to life, the vibrations soothing some of the aches in his saddle-sore legs. Three days since I left. Three days of straight riding on back roads. I need some real sleep.
Rubbing at his eyes, Pierce looked back at the woman. She looked down at the bike with too-wide eyes, then back up at him. She seemed to come to some agreement with herself, gathered up her courage, then hesitantly got on the back of the bike. Her hands wrapped tentatively around his stomach, holding on very lightly like he might break.
Smiling wickedly, Pierce pulled away from the desert sand, rocketing forward. With a cry, the pretty girl locked her hands around his waist, her hands clutching him in fear. He laughed, but the sound was lost in the rumble of his thundering engine.
# # #
Felice
“Amazing,” Felice whispered as they stepped off of the bike. Never in her life had she ever felt such exhilaration. There was something beautiful about the open road on a bike. The purr of the engine between her legs, the feel of the wind through her hair. It was like driving one of the convertibles, but even more freeing and wild. “Perhaps I’ll have to buy myself a bike and find someone to teach me to ride it.”
But that would never be able to recreate this first time; something about wrapping her arms around sexy biker man’s body made this trip a thousand times better. She could still remember the thrill of running her fingers over his muscled stomach, of having the heat of his body seeping into hers through their clothing. Just thinking about it was enough to light a fire in her belly.
She ran her manicured fingernails through her white-blonde hair, trying to get out the worst of the tangles and put her hair back into some sort of order.
He looked up at Felice’s house with wonder, his eyes widening. “Do you work here or something?”
“Ew, no,” she said, snorting indelicately. “This is my house. Well, it’s my main house, anyway.”
Turning back to her, the biker looked her over, his eyes filled with a newfound respect. “I see.” He shut his mouth around any other comments he seemed to want to make, swallowing them down. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like the rest of the money you promised so I can get back on the road.”
“Sure thing; we’ll have to go inside so I can grab the rest of my cash. Why don’t you join me for a drink?”
He frowned but followed without a word. Felice was intrigued. Is this whole tough man thing an act, or is he really like some kind of hardcore biker gang guy? A thrill of mixed fear and excitement shivered over her skin at the thought. She wanted to ask him about his past, but he didn’t seem the type to divulge secrets to anyone, much less a stranger he just met on the road a half an hour ago.
She took a deep breath, opening her mouth to ask a question when her phone rang, interrupting her. Felice answered it without thinking. Wincing, Felice prayed it wasn’t Clay. She couldn’t stand the thought of hearing her ex’s voice right now.
“Oh my God, Felice. Don’t hang up.” It was Jennifer. The second worst person in the world.
“You calling to push the knife in a little harder?” Felice asked, her voice like ice. “Or are you calling for something work related?”
“He didn’t tell me,” Jennifer said, tears in her voice. “I didn’t know it was Clay; you know we’d never met before. He didn’t even tell me he had a girlfriend.” Her best friend’s voice sounded lost, desperate. “He even gave me a fake fucking name, brought me to his house. He didn’t even know you and I knew each other.”
For a long time, Felice sat in silence, tears slipping down her cheeks. She kept swallowing, but the tears seemed to block her throat. Clay is even more of an asshole than I ever suspected. I hope he rots in hell. How many other girls has he tricked with a false name?
Taking a deep breath, she finally said, “Okay, Jenny. I believe you. But I also don’t want to
talk to you right now. Okay?”
“Okay,” she answered, sounding tentatively happier. “Will I see you at work tomorrow?”
“No,” Felice answered, tears in her eyes as she hung up the phone without saying goodbye. She turned to her visitor, who had listened to the whole conversation without a speck of emotion on his beautiful face. “How about that drink?”
Chapter Three
Pierce
The bombshell was crying again, but whatever conversation she’d had on the phone seemed to make her feel a little better. Her heart still seemed to be breaking, and that made Pierce wanted to break whoever did this to her in half. He wasn’t sure what it was about this woman that made him so protective of her, but he winced away from analyzing that too hard.
