Pride and Pregnancy (A Devil's Dragons Motorcycle Club Romance)

by Nikki Wild

  She was referring to the covered painting under my arm. I’d protected it with my life all the way here, and I unsheathed it before her, balancing the bottom edge against the top of my sandal as I held the huge piece up.

  “My… my gods,” Gloria Van Lark murmured. Even Paulette’s cold smirk dropped, and she adjusted her spectacles to gaze at the artwork. “When did this happen?”

  “I painted this yesterday afternoon, after our discussion,” I answered her.

  Gloria composed herself, but was unable to wrench her eyes from the artwork. “This is magnificent, Riley. This is exactly the standard of art that I expect for my galleries. I can tell you right this moment that Spinnoc would benefit tremendously from including this piece… it would appear that my faith in you wasn’t misplaced after all. Like mother like daughter… If you can emote creations on this level, then you have all the makings of an extraordinary painter.”

  “I appreciate the vote of confidence,” I told her.

  She finally tore her eyes free and smiled at me. “Well, Riley… traveling light, I take it? No matter. We have everything that you could possibly need at the Foundation. Why don’t you go ahead and say your goodbyes to your associates here? We have a long flight ahead of us, and I’ll need to secure proper handling for this piece.”

  “Actually, there’s something I need to say first,” I responded in the kindest voice I could muster.

  “You’d better make it quick,” Gloria remarked, checking her watch. “We’re pressed for time. What is it, Riley?”

  I thought back to every ounce of happiness that had ever happened to me – tender times with my foster parents, my friends, my time with Lex Lambert – and I summoned up the biggest, sincerest smile that had ever crossed my face, just as they peered over my shoulder.

  “Fuck you.”

  37

  Lex

  “Actually, there’s something I need to say first,” Riley told Gloria Van Lark as I walked up.

  At least, I assumed that was actually her… I’d never seen the woman myself, but she did look like a rather self-assured, self-absorbed old woman.

  Gloria checked her watch quickly, looking rather irritated. “You’d better make it quick. We’re pressed for time. What is it, Riley?”

  Riley paused, lost in thought for a moment. I had considered hanging back for a few minutes and watching how this played out, but the aeroplane delays had already made me late enough as it was…

  I walked up to her side, and her friends – the skittish thin one, and her Japanese friend, Reiko – glanced over at me with hushed tones. I smiled with a finger to my lips, preparing to surprise her.

  Sure, this was an interesting moment to choose, but I’d gotten there as quickly as I could, and I intended on supporting her when she–

  “Fuck you.”

  My hand clasped onto her shoulder right then, and I froze out of complete confusion. What the hell did she just say?

  Riley glanced up at me in equal surprise, and a large smile spread across her lips. “Lex,” she murmured. “You came after all. I was so afraid you wouldn’t make it.”

  Gloria Van Lark looked impassive at best, but the stoic woman at her side bristled in anger.

  “Excuse me… what the hell did you just say to Madame Van Lark?” The woman indignantly requested, her eyes becoming two blackened pits of coal beneath her spectacles. “How dare you speak to her this way, you ungrateful, impetulant disgrace of a–”

  “You ruined my childhood, you miserable old bitch,” Riley turned to Gloria. “You offered this same fucking deal to my mother, and she took it… She walked straight out of my life forever.”

  “I helped your mother blossom,” Gloria replied calmly. “She deserved to have her gifts recognized by the world. She needed someone to guide her. She was weak and impressionable…”

  Gloria tilted her head thoughtfully.

  “I had no earthly idea that my pupil’s progeny would grow to be such a talented and… dare I say it, fierce young woman,” Gloria commented. “I would have approached you years ago if I’d had the faintest clue… We can certainly make up for lost time.”

  “You don’t seem to get it,” Riley told her. “I’m not going with you.”

  “Nonsense,” Gloria rebutted. “You couldn’t possibly throw away this opportunity. Without my representation, you’ll be dust in the wind, child. I’ll find and train another to fill the hole you would have occupied. You’ll be cast aside to rot while a worthy inheritor to the art rises in your stead. You don’t truly want that, do you?”

  Riley crossed her arms. “I think I’ll take my chances.”

  “She’s a damned good painter,” I chimed in. “With the right people behind her, she’ll rise with or without you. If I can get your attention, then I think I can certainly draw the right sets of eyes across the art community, wouldn’t you say?”

  Riley smiled my way. “There are other curators at other world-renowned museums. I can certainly knock on other doors.”

  “Not if those doors remain closed to you,” Gloria Van Lark replied. “I can personally see to it that you are locked out of every reputable museum in the world. You’ll struggle to have your art displayed in anything more elegant than a cheap motel lobby.”

  “Is that a threat?” Reiko chimed in.

  “Absolutely,” the old hag replied. “I suggest that you take the opportunity while it remains available… or else I will end your career, right here and now.”

  “You miserable old fuck,” her other friend responded – what was his name, Connor? “You would go out of your way to destroy an artist just because she turned down the chance to be forced into abandoning her life to come live under your thumb? You’re not asking her to sell you some art – you want her to give up everything and come stay with you for, what, how long?”

  “A decade, bare minimum,” Gloria replied without a moment’s hesitation. “Perhaps even two, given her age. It really depends on her stamina. You’ll be able to paint round the clock with zero distractions…”

  “I will absolutely not join you,” Riley told her in the darkest tone of voice I’d ever heard out of her. “You are a wicked, evil woman, preying on young artists dreams and locking them away from the world… but how? How has nobody come out against you yet?”

  “Nobody who has ever been offered my representation has turned me down. I’m offering you something beyond simple measure. A future you can only begin to imagine.”

  “Then call me the first,” Riley replied. “The first to turn you down.”

  Gloria Van Lark and her proxy exchanged a meaningful glance, and then turned back to regard us coolly.

  “Very well then, Riley,” the elderly woman responded. “You are lucky that I’m booked throughout the rest of the year… but I highly suggest that you make the wisest use of your time for the next five months. Find a new field. I’m afraid painting isn’t in your future…”

  “Get out of my fucking sight, you miserable old fuck,” Riley smirked.

  “Charming,” Gloria answered, descending down the steps between us. She paused to look Riley hard in the eyes.

  “You have searched for me for so long, haven’t you? Many artists have, and many will continue to do so for years to come. I am afraid, my dear Riley, that you will come to regret this day.”

  Riley didn’t say a word, and so the two of them stepped into a taxi and left the scene.

  “Well… that was tense,” Connor replied with a half-hearted chuckle. “Jesus. What a complete cunt…” he turned to Riley. “What are you going to do now?”

  “I have absolutely no idea,” she muttered. “I’ll figure something out.”

  “So, what’s that?” I asked Riley, indicating the covered canvas that she was holding close to her chest. “I haven’t seen that since I walked up…”

  Riley looked embarrassed for a moment, but revealed the painting to me.

  I was completely taken aback.

  “It’s… it’s…”<
br />
  “It’s you,” she quietly told me.

  The painting was unmistakably me. It was a portrait of me striking a football with my ankle, volleying around a player who dared to try to stop me. I was dressed in my Manchester United attire, from several years back…

  It was the proudest game of my life.

  “I looked you up, finally,” Riley offered. “I searched for the highlights of your career. This game looked like the one that the British public loved the most, and one particular moment near the end…”

  “I remember it fondly,” I told her, feeling my chest swell with pride. “This moment happened in the last fifteen seconds of the game. It’s right when I scored the winning point and led us to a close but decisive victory… and it’s the game that finally put me on the road to the National team.”

  She smiled softly. “It’s for you.”

  “I love it, Riley,” I whispered, pulling her up into my arms and planting a firm kiss on her lips. When we pulled away, my eyes were full of love, and my heart was burning with passion for this wonderful, amazing woman. “And I love you.”

  “I love you too, Lex.”

  The other two shared a meaningful glance. Reiko stood a little closer to Connor as they turned away to allow us the moment.

  I pressed my lips to her crown as I remembered one important detail…

  I reached into my pocket and removed my phone, holding it up to the light. With a flick of my thumb against the screen, the microphone app stopped, and I saved the recording as Gloria Van Lark, Evidence.

  “I need to make a quick phone call,” I told her, kissing Riley on the cheek. “Can you wait here for a moment?”

  “Absolutely,” she groaned, sitting down on the stairs. “I don’t think I have the energy to do much of anything else right now…”

  “I’ll be right back,” I smiled reassuringly.

  Wandering away from the group, I stepped over to a nearby column and pulled up my contacts. Within a few moments, I had Jess on the line.

  “Lex! How did it go?”

  “It was… not quite what I expected,” I commented dryly. “Listen, I have something fascinating to share with you.”

  “Oh yeah? Whatcha got?”

  “An opportunity,” I smiled. “It would appear that Gloria Van Lark has a thing for scooping up promising young artists and giving them a classic case of Stockholm syndrome…”

  “What?” She exclaimed. “No kidding!”

  “Yes… I was intending to record Riley’s big moment in accepting Gloria’s deal, but what I wound up with is…” I paused, choosing my words carefully, “far more interesting.

  “Jess, you’re one of the most talented publicists I’ve ever heard of, and you’ve sharpened your teeth on keeping my nose clean in the eyes of the British public. You’re skilled at representing me… and I don’t know a soul who could do a better job than you.”

  “You flatter me,” she replied warmly.

  I could practically hear her smirk across the phone line as she anticipated my next words:

  “I’m offering you a chance to do the complete opposite… how would you like to help me take down the most legendary art curator in the world?”

  38

  Riley

  When Lex told me what he had in mind, the only thing I wanted to do was drag him to my bed, rip all of his clothes off, and make love to him.

  So that’s exactly what I did.

  His strong, powerful hands slid along my thighs as he left a trail of kisses along them, working his way towards my sex. Instead of stopping there, he lifted his lips to press against my stomach, tenderly caressing the area.

  I slipped my fingers into his hair as he continued to worship my skin, licking a curving trail up towards my chest. My nipples, so recently pleased by his lips, stood just as erect as ever as he took one into his mouth with a satisfying smack of his lips.

  “Oh god, Lex,” I murmured with satisfaction as he boldly maintained eye contact with my half-lidded gaze.

  I squirmed beneath his touch as he continued to ply my body with pleasure. His tongue deftly stroked my puckered nub, the teeth grazing lightly and tugging at the tiny, pink peak. I held his head close as he pleased me, every last lap of his tongue against my nipple causing a new shudder in my mind…

  His palm squeezed against my other breast, the fingers outstretching across the supple flesh. He pinched the other nipple between his digits, rolling it slowly, tugging upward, and I exhaled a surprising little moan.

  “You like that, hmm?” He asked confidently, already knowing the answer as he released my peak from his teeth.

  “Mm-hmm,” I nodded quietly.

  “Not very convincing,” he grinned wickedly, before diving back down to slip his mouth over my breast, sucking in my nipple once again. I felt his tongue gliding across the peak and moaned with delight, my arms squeezing his face down against my flesh even tighter.

  He pulled back afterwards, running his fingernails down my sides as his face disappeared between my knees.

  “Much better,” I heard him chuckle, before he shouldered my thighs and lunged down towards my sex.

  “Lex… fuck…”

  His soft, cocky chuckle rolled over my exposed, wet pussy as his tongue married itself into my folds. I valiantly tried to keep my hips down against the sheets, but his deft maneuvers were too tastefully sinful for me to maintain my composure for long.

  With my fingers wrapped in his hair, my palms pressing down against his head, I coerced him to burrow down deeper. Lex’s fingertips dug into the flesh of my thighs as he held them braced around his head, pinching into my skin and eliciting only more rapturous moans from my lips.

  “You are way too good at this,” I sighed contently between mindless moans.

  He only chuckled again, lifting his face just enough to slip his tongue against my aching clit.

  I felt my body quiver with delight. The pressure was so good, and he was so great at what he was doing…

  Mindlessly, I released my grip on his hair, clutching at my breasts, or the bedding, or whatever I could get my hands on. I alternated, clenching onto anything that would help me writhe in pleasure beneath the expert flicking of his wet, stiffened tongue.

  Lex varied the movements and pressures against the bead of my passion, finally slipping away to kiss along the insides of my thighs again. I yearned for more, needed more, but he knew just how much teasing I really needed…

  And that’s when he grabbed my legs and effortlessly pulled me down the bed towards him, his eyes wild with lust.

  “I need you, Riley,” he murmured huskily as he planted the head of his cock against the lips of my wet, hungry pussy. “I need you so badly…”

  “I need you too, Lex,” I nodded with primal, lustful intent. “Please, just fuck me…”

  He rolled the crimson head along the lips, exciting my nerve endings but unwilling to push in where I needed him. All the while, he kept his sexy half-smirk across his lips, one eyebrow rising to mock me.

  “Dammit, you’re such a tease…” I groaned.

  “Only because I know you love it.” He winked, holding his massive scepter still against my sex, daring me with his eyes to argue.

  “Oh god, do I…”

  Before I could register the movement, he was pushing deep into my chasm now, his huge cock eagerly taking ground deep within me. I was already starting to adjust to his mammoth size from our weeks of sexual encounters, and I was able to take more of him in on the first go…

  “Oh fuck, Lex… god, I can’t believe you haven’t already torn me apart…”

  “Honestly, I can’t either,” he grinned mischievously, but his own lustful gaze told me that his mind was already starting to melt with feral, animalistic need.

  He wouldn’t be coherent for long.

  Then again… neither would I.

  His hands clenched down onto my shoulders, pinning me beneath him as he slowly rocked his hips against mine. I knew how to relax myse
lf against him now, letting in another inch with each wet, tender thrust, until he was finally hilting himself against my pelvis.

  “Like a glove,” I murmured softly.

  “Like an oven,” he groaned in correction.

  His clear, wanton satisfaction only spurred me on, and I felt my arousal reach new, incredible peaks. I was now meeting his rolling hips with gusto, craving his flesh against mine and his body within my own more and more…

  Lex growled with electric, crushing bliss as he rocked against me, his body dropping to steady itself against my own, but not heavy enough to crush it. He supported himself on one elbow as he pressed a palm against the headboard, keeping me trapped beneath his mighty, rippling muscles.

  I loved the weight and the pressure. Just enough to let me easily breathe, but not enough to crush or discomfort me.

  My hands rolled down his back, fingernails scratching down into the flesh. His lustful groan of approval only spurred me on, and I slipped my ankles over his calves and clutched onto this magnificent, sexy man with every drop of strength in my body.

  …Well, until his penetrating thrusts drove me wild a little too long, and I felt the building pressure of an incredible orgasm. My moans evolved into something greater, something feral, as I clenched against his body and felt every inch of me seize up in anticipation.

  “Oh god, just like that,” I begged. “Harder. Faster. Please, Lex, don’t stop… don’t… don’t…”

  As the blinding climax struck my mind and released every ounce of tension within my body, I came with enough force to knock the wind out of my body.

  Lex slowed for a moment, taking the instance to regain his breath as I sank down into the bedding in complete elation. Before I could get too comfortable, though, he was swinging me around onto my knees, facing away from him.

  “Ooh... a bit rough, are we?”

  He growled in my ear, nipping the lobe and earning a shudder down my spine. As he prepared to mount me from behind, I placed my palms against the headboard, throwing him a sexy little lip-bite over my shoulder.