by Ava Grace
He took over the task, making quick work of it then dragged the jeans down his thighs so that his impressive cock sprang free. I reached for it instinctively and slid my hand down the smooth, hot length.
He groaned, returning his mouth to mine, hungry and demanding then pressed himself against me so that my hand was trapped between us. He grabbed it and moved it out of the way.
“You feel that?” he said as he moved his hips slowly, his cock moving between my wet folds.
“Yes,” I whispered, my back arching, guided by instinct alone. “I want it, Coop. I want you.”
“He reached between us and grabbed his cock, pressing the tip of it against me, but instead of pushing it inside like I wanted, he dragged the head of it up against my clit, up and down, slow and steady.
“This what you want?”
“Oh, God.”
I threw my head back against the pillow, my hips wriggling and writhing as he moved his cock up and down with a slow, steady rhythm. “Yes.”
Blood pounded in my brain. The more he rubbed, the more my knees began to tremble. I reached down and slid my hands around his ass and squeezed his cheeks, trying to pull him closer, needing more. I wanted him to thrust inside me, but he kept driving me insane instead with the slow steady movement of his cock against my clit.
I squirmed beneath him, trying to change the angle of my hips to get him to enter me, but he made a tutting sound and continued what he was doing regardless.
I couldn’t take anymore.
My body melted as I succumbed to my need and let him take me where I was desperate to go.
The involuntary tremors of release began, at first around my groin and the base of my spine before they radiated out over my entire body. I couldn’t control my cry of delight as the sweetest orgasm I’d experienced rolled over me in wave after wave of uncontrollable pleasure.
It was only when I was lost to the euphoria, my mind floating somewhere above my body that Coop thrust his cock inside me. His hardness was electrifying, intensifying my orgasm until I thought I might pass out from the sheer bliss of it.
As Coop moved inside me, my breath came in an exalt of surrendering moans. I lifted my hips to meet each of his thrusts then wrapped my legs around his thighs and held on tight as his passion increased in intensity.
Soon, we were a mass of writhing limbs and thrusting hips and cries of delight. I’d written off my first time with Coop as a fluke, but this time didn’t only equal it, it far surpassed it.
I savored every possessive kiss and every rough touch of his hands and I begged him for more.
It didn’t take long until Coop was slamming his hips against mine in an almost punishing manner, his cock stroking deeper and harder than ever before. It was the most exquisite thing I’d ever experience and I knew, right at that moment that I would never get enough of him.
All too soon, Coop roared above me, his fingers biting into the flesh of my thighs with a bruising force and as he stilled his hips, he emptied himself inside me until he was spent.
After we’d taken a moment to calm down, we collapsed on the bed beside each other, a little dazed and a lot sated.
I ghosted my fingers over the tattoo of a pin up on his arm. “When did you get this?”
“The day after we slept together,” he murmured.
That brought me up short and I stilled the movement of my fingers. He looked over at me with a frown.
“What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Everything’s perfect.”
Coop reached out and linked his fingers with mine ane we laid there relaxing for some time.
I wished we could stay like that forever.
But we couldn’t.
It was time to face the day and all the unpleasant tasks that came with it.
I was late getting into work, but thankfully, my boss was cool about it.
As I walked through the door to the store, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face and it stayed in place for the rest of the morning and only slipped when I got around to the difficult task of calling Jackson.
I thought it would have been too gutless to tell him that I didn’t want to see him anymore over the phone so I arranged to meet him that afternoon for coffee at the little coffee shop in the middle of town. I often went there on my lunch breaks because they sold the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich I’d ever tasted. Their pastries were pretty darn good too.
However, on this occasion, after my boss had closed up the store for the day and we’d said goodbye, I wasn’t thinking about their grilled cheese sandwiches or their pastries, I was thinking about what I was going to say to Jackson.
In retrospect, I wish that it hadn’t come to this. Because Jackson, for all intents and purposes had been an experiment, a test to see if I was ready and able to move on from the feelings I had for Coop. Unfortunately, I’d failed that test miserably, but I could only hope that I hadn’t hurt Jackson in the process. He deserved to be with someone who didn’t view him as a crash test dummy, but someone who saw him as their everything. And I was confident that he’d meet that person, given time. How could he not? He was amazing. He just wasn’t for me.
With all those thoughts swirling around my mind, I walked up the main street towards the coffee shop. Fall was settling in thick and fast so the late afternoons were already starting to get dark. I lived for the summer months so I hated when the nights drew in too early during the day. I didn’t like to be cold, either and the temperature had already dropped enough that I needed a coat. I wrapped it more tightly around myself and quickened my pace.
I stopped to chat with a couple of people who asked me how my mom was doing, but I was making good time. I’d arranged to meet Jackson at five forty-five and it had only just gone five thirty. I knew what I was going to say to him and my speech thankfully didn’t include any clichés like it’s not you, it’s me, although technically, that would have been true.
“Excuse me, have you got the time?”
“Sure,” I said, glancing distractedly at my watch.
I already knew the time of course, but it was a kneejerk reaction and one that would prove to be costly. Because when I was looking down, something blunt and heavy struck me across the back of the head and everything went black.
Chapter Thirteen
Coop
Each time the door to the bar opened, I glanced up expecting it to be Faith. But she still hadn’t shown. Where the hell was she? Faith had called me earlier in the day to say she was meeting Jackson for coffee at a quarter to six, but it was nearly half past now and there was no sign of her. How long did it take to drink a cup of coffee and tell the dude that she wasn’t interested in him?
An uncomfortable feeling settled in my stomach like a lead weight. What if she’d changed her mind and decided that Jackson was her guy after all? I wouldn’t let her go without a fight, that was for damn sure.
I trusted Faith, but I came perilously close to marching up to that coffee shop regardless. I had to find out what was going on. I gave it another minute but I couldn’t stand it any longer. I rounded the bar at the exact same time that Jackson strode into the room with a face like thunder.
Crap, that conversation was about to be awkward.
Jackson walked right on up to me and I swear he was considering whether or not to throw a punch.
“If she chooses you, then that’s her decision,” he fumed. “But she could at least have the decency to tell me that to my face.”
I scowled at him. “What the hell are you talking about?” I looked over his shoulder for Faith. “That’s what she came to do. Where is she?”
“I don’t know!” he shouted. “She didn’t show.”
It was as if everything around me froze.
I could hardly breathe through the sudden ache in in my chest.
“Fuck!” I roared, wanting to slam my fist into something.
My heart was in my throat.
I grabbed my cell phone then dialed Faith�
�s number, but the call went straight to voicemail. Then I dialed her mom’s number.
“Hey, it’s Coop,” I said when her mom answered. “Is Faith there?”
“No, nothing’s wrong. It’s my mistake, she must have told me she was going to Andrea’s place. Yeah, see you soon.”
When I dialed the third number, my hands were shaking.
“Ethan.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again and forcing the words out of my mouth. “Faith is missing. I think Owen has got her. Yeah, I’m at the bar.”
I hung up.
Jackson’s eyes were wide with horror and something else that came pretty damn close to fear.
“You think my brother has her?”
“If he harms a single hair on her head, I swear on all that is holy, I’ll ring his Goddamn neck! Fuck!”
I swear, I was ready to commit murder.
And I would have done it, gladly, to have her back safe and sound.
I pulled up another number on my phone.
“Luke, Faith is missing. Can you call your sister to see if she’s with any of her girls? Yeah, thanks.”
I ended the call.
“She’s probably with Violet,” Jackson said, but he didn’t look convinced.
I paced around the bar a couple of times then poured out two shots of Bourbon and handed one to Jackson, before downing the contents of my glass in one.
I paced some more.
A few moments later, Ethan strode into the bar, closely followed by Luke. Luke had barely finished telling me that his sister and Violet were together and hadn’t seen Faith since the night before, when they too walked into the bar.
I needed to do something.
I felt useless and impotent just standing around doing nothing.
“What the hell is going on?” Violet asked at the same time that Libby and Mason walked in and came rushing over to our group.
“Any news?” Mason asked.
I shook my head.
The swell of pain in my chest was beyond tears, but I felt them try to rise in the back of my throat regardless.
I could only imagine the desolate look on my face because Mason patted me on the arm and said, “We’ll find her.”
I met his gaze and nodded dumbly.
He was the only one here who knew—the only person who had experienced the same crippling loss of someone he was in love with.
We’d both watched the light fade out of Caroline’s eyes.
We’d both experienced the same pain—the grief had been so intense that on occasions, I thought it might swallow me whole.
Violet got in between us. “Coop, you need to tell us what’s going on. Now.”
I opened my mouth and I told them what was going on.
When Ethan’s cell phone rang, he stepped away from our group to answer it. After a short while, he hung up the call and came over to us.
“Rick has got Owen,” he said. “He’s meeting us outside in five.”
I closed my eyes and prayed for the strength not to kill him, at least until we found out where Faith was and I’d got her back home.
Luke, Mason, and Jackson followed Ethan and me out into the parking lot to wait for Rick. The deputy pulled up a couple of minutes later then opened the back door of his cruiser before pulling Owen out into the lot.
I walked over there as calmly as I could.
“Now, Coop, let me do the talking,” Ethan said.
Like hell.
“Where the fuck is she?” I asked as soon as we reached them.
Ethan glared at me.
“Where’s who?” Owen asked dumbly.
I grabbed the front of his shirt. “I’ll knock your goddamn lights out if you don…”
Ethan ripped my arm away then turned me to face him. “Be cool,” he said. “If you threaten him, he’ll have us by the balls.”
“I didn’t hear anyone threatening him,” Rick said.
“Me either,” Luke said.
“Or me,” Mason added.
“I didn’t hear anything either,” Jackson said.
While Ethan muttered a curse, Owen stared at his brother in wide-eyed surprise. “What the fuck?” he said. “What happened to sticking up for family?”
Jackson got up close to Ethan’s face. “You’re no brother of mine.”
“Where is Faith?” I asked, losing my patience with him.
“I don’t fucking know,” he replied, meeting my gaze with ease.
Shit.
He was telling the truth.
He didn’t have her.
Panic rose in my chest anew.
Where was she or more importantly, who had her?
“Who did you tell about me and Faith?” I asked.
Jackson’s head snapped in my direction and he glared at me. “The fuck?”
“Answer him,” Ethan said. “And I’ll think twice about arresting you on a number of drug charges plus attempted murder.”
Owen’s eyes went wide. “Attempted, what? I haven’t done shit.”
“Who did you tell?” I shouted.
Owen shrank away from me.
“Ryker,” he said. “I told Ryker.”
Oh Jesus.
This was bad.
Panic clawed at my chest, wrapping its icy fingers around my throat as if trying to suffocate me.
Ryker would hurt her to get back at me.
He wouldn’t think twice about it.
As Rick manhandled Owen into the back seat, I caught sight of the fear in Ethan’s eyes.
Luke wore a similar expression.
“We’ve got to find her,” I said. “He hates me. He’ll…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence.
Ethan scratched the back of his head. “Where would he take her?”
“I don’t know.” I swallowed down the bile that had risen in my throat. “I don’t fucking know.”
“Look, this is Ryker we’re talking about,” Ethan reasoned. “Think of the things you know about him.”
I pulled at my hair in frustration. “He doesn’t live here in Creede anymore,” I said. “As far as I know, he doesn’t have a place here. And he wouldn’t ride in a cage so it would have to be somewhere he could take her on foot or on a short trip on his sled.
“Fuck!” I roared both from frustration and relief. “I know where they are!”
Luke clapped me on the back. “Then let’s go get her.”
I swallowed down the lump that had risen in my throat. “If he’s…”
“She’s gonna be fine,” Mason said. “You’ll see.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’ve been through enough shit to last you a lifetime and it’s about time you got your happy ending—just like I did.”
I held on to that thought, taking strength from it as I raced over to my bike.
Chapter Fourteen
Faith
When I came to, the pain on the side of my head was so intense that it made me feel sick to my stomach. I fought a wave of nausea then opened my eyes to take in my surroundings. I blinked, trying to make sense of things, but it didn’t add up.
I was at home, lying flat on my back on my living room floor.
How had I got there?
“Ah, you’re awake at last. Good.”
I didn’t recognize the man’s voice and when I turned my head, I saw a tall, lean man with long, scraggly hair stretched out on my couch.
A bout of dizziness hit as I tried to get up. “Who are you?”
“Name’s Ryker,” he replied. “You won’t know me personally, but I assume you know some of the men in my club. Owen Leigh? I imagine his name rings a bell. And what about Cooper Brown? Know him?”
It was only then that I noticed that the man wore a leather vest which likely had his motorcycle club’s name on a patch on the back.
“Coop isn’t in your club anymore,” I said, sitting up fully before leaning back against the legs of a chair. “He came to his senses and left before y
ou dragged him down to your level.”
“Watch your mouth!” he spat. “Before I’m forced to teach you a lesson about respect.”
I bit my tongue against a retort. I didn’t know this man, but I knew one thing about him.
He was dangerous.
He’d already hit me on the back of the head, hard enough for me to lose consciousness and he wasn’t showing any remorse about it. That meant I needed to be careful because if he could do that, what else was he capable of?
“What do you want from me?” I asked him.
He put his feet down on the floor then rested his arms on his knees, leaning forward almost expectantly.
“Owen told me something very interesting about you.”
There was a quip on the tip of my tongue that there was a first time for everything, but I refrained from sharing it. Instead, I asked dutifully, “Yeah, what was that?”
He grinned. “He told me that you and Coop have got something going on, is that right?”
I didn’t know how to answer.
If I admitted that Coop and I were in a relationship, would that be likely to get me into more trouble with this man, or would it help me get out of it?
Was this another attempt at giving Coop a message or was there more to this, something more personal, maybe?
It felt like I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t so I decided that honesty was the best policy.
Only Ryker wasn’t done.
“You know, I didn’t believe it at first. Everyone knows that Coop doesn’t do relationships anymore—not since his last one ended so tragically.
“So I had someone watch his place to find out for me, and then, just last night, out you both came and rode off on his Harley into the night. Isn’t that sweet?”
Okay, so he knew that Coop and I were seeing each other.
What did that mean for me? What did he want? His leering eyes raked over my body, making me feel naked and exposed.
I didn’t like the gleam in his eyes.
Without looking around the room which would have only drawn his attention, I tried to remember if there was anything within touching distance that I could use as a weapon, but I drew a blank. I didn’t have any heavy ornaments and the only crystal vase I had was sitting on my dining table, in the other room.
