by Paula Cox
“Yeah. You’d think reading that you ran the whole operation by yourself.”
She giggled in delight and carefully read the article. In the eighteen weeks since they started packaging their product in the new containers, B3 had almost doubled its sales. They were still a small fish, and she had a long way to go before B3 was a profitable as the Blades’ other business, but they were growing fast enough somebody had noticed and wanted to do an article for the local business magazine.
By unanimous vote the club decided Quinn would become the face of B3. She had protested mightily, but everyone agreed it would look better if everyone thought the company was run by a woman since it sold beauty products, and it was her ideas and hard work that had caused the sudden uptick in business. With Michelle at her side, they’d given the magazine a tour of the facility and explained their philosophy of great products at fair prices. They hadn’t exactly hidden that B3 was run by the Blacktop Blades, but nobody was wearing their colors that day and apparently nobody at the magazine questioned the lavish clubhouse as their offices.
“Not bad,” she said as she closed the magazine. She was playing it cool, but inside her stomach was doing cartwheels.
Arsen rolled his eyes. “Not bad, she says! If you were on the cover of Forbes, what would you say? Pretty good?”
She rose from her chair with a giggle, sat her computer aside, and sauntered into his arms to give him a long, slow kiss. “Was that pretty good?”
“Not bad,” he said, but then chuckled. Quinn had been fragile for a few days after the events in the desert, but she seemed well past it now. The dead bodies were found the next day, and made the news, but other than the initial report, nothing else was heard. When, after four weeks, the police hadn’t stormed the Blades compound, they knew they had gotten away clean.
Over the next twelve weeks, the Blades had killed eight more Horsemen, then given up the search when their sources went dry. Word was the remaining Horsemen were gone. Without Stacy and Todd whipping the members in a frenzy of blood lust, those who remained had dropped out of sight. The members might still be in Phoenix, but the Chrome Horsemen, as a club, was dead.
“Just all right?” she purred. “Maybe I can do better.” She pulled him into another kiss, then pulled him backwards until he pinned her to the wall, her leg coming up behind his to hold his hips to hers.
“There’re four rooms right down the hall,” Zane said as he entered the main room, never slowing as he continued past.
Arsen slowly pulled out of the kiss then chuckled softly. It wasn’t the first time they’d been caught making out in the clubhouse. “What do you think? Should we use one?” he breathed.
“No. I’m saving you for later.” She smiled as she licked her lips, enjoying the lingering warmth of his kiss. She slipped under his arm and wondered if they shouldn’t do that someday, make love in the clubhouse, just for the experience.
“I’m getting ready to go,” he said, his cock already hard in anticipation of them getting home and the two torrid kisses.
“I’ll be right behind you,” she said as she sat down again. “I want to finish this thing for Rain Forest. I shouldn’t be more than a half-hour or so.”
He nodded. She had been lobbying for new products, and the first new scent in two years, Rain Forest, was ready. He had made up small samples of various scents, and after Quinn had tested them on the women of the club, she’d gone to a mall and done a blind sample, giving away small vials of their products. When Rain Forest won out as the favorite scent, she had him tweak the formulation, then she’d done the same test again with five variations of the same scent. There had been one clear winner, and they were making a ton of the scented salts for sale right now. If it sold, they would scale up the run to their normal five-ton batch.
He smiled and nodded. “I’ll start dinner.”
“Something light. I don’t want to feel full later.”
He nodded then bent to kiss her again. “Burritos?”
“With that lime chicken you make?” The first meal he fed her, when he brought her home, still held a special place in her heart.
“If you like.”
She kissed him this time. “I like.”
She watched him as he turned and swaggered out of the clubhouse. “Mm-mmm-mmm,” she muttered to herself then dragged her attention back to what she was doing.
***
Thirty minutes later she pulled her new CTS V into the garage. Arsen’s old car had been a total loss. Not only had it been shot up, but the engine was scrapped. Rather than fix the car, they’d dumped the car in the desert, waited a few days, then reported it stolen. The police had found the car quickly enough, and he’d filed an insurance claim. The insurance hadn’t been pleased, but they’d finally paid it.
He’d let her pick out anything she wanted, so long as it was a GM or Ford, wanting another American car. She quickly settled on another Cadillac like the one he had before. It was his car, titled in his name, but she thought of it as hers. She loved the car and kept it spotless.
As the garage rumbled down, she entered the kitchen. The chicken was sizzling in the skillet, but Arsen was nowhere to be seen. With a frown she moved deeper into the house, finding him sitting on the bed. Beside him were several pictures of him with Holly, or Holly alone.
“What are you doing?” she asked as she placed her purse in the armoire.
“Nothing,” he said as he slipped a picture from the frame he had been looking at, and added it to the pile.
“It looks like something,” she said quietly as she sat down beside him.
He added the empty frame to the other four that were lying on the bed behind him.
“I thought it was time to do something with these.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said quietly.
He shrugged, then picked up the photos from the bed and arranged them neatly. “I know. But it’s time.” He opened the bottom drawer of his bedside table and slid the pictures into it and close it. “That’s a past life. I have a new life now.”
“She’s part of you, Arsen. She always will be. I’m not trying to replace her.”
He smiled and pulled her to him for a quick kiss. “I know, but I think it’s time to fill these frames with some new memories, don’t you?”
She smiled as he pulled back from the kiss. “If you’re sure.”
He smiled. He’d never been so sure of anything in his life.
THE END
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Books by Paula Cox
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Overpowered: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Headless Reapers MC) (Inked and Dangerous Book 5)
I’ll fight the world to keep her in my bed.
I stole a girl who was strictly off limits.
And now her owners want my head on a spike.
But they’d better ride fast, ride hard, and carry a big gun.
Because I’ll kill any man who tries to take her from me.
RAFAEL
I’ve lived my whole life in the fast line.
I’ve had more hot girls than hot meals.
But my thirst for adrenaline just drove me into dangerous territory.
Emma was just a rival club’s girl -or so I thought.
But as I came to learn, being a Reaper’s girl meant staying theirs for life.
Needless to say, they weren’t exactly thrilled when I stole her for myself.
But f**k it.
I’ve never once asked for permission to take anything in my life.
I decided I wanted her.
And I don’t give a damn if the entire might of the Headless Reapers MC rises up to try and crush me.
I’m not backing down.
And they sure as hell aren’t gonna take my girl from me.
Not without killing me first.
EMMA
&nb
sp; I knew the consequences of submitting to an enemy biker like Rafael.
And I did it anyways.
But now, the club that thought they owned me is coming for my blood – and his.
They want to hurt us, make us suffer for defying them.
I can’t lie -I ‘m terrified.
But one look in Rafael’s eyes shows me that he isn’t scared.
Not in the slightest.
He says that he owns me, that he’ll never let me go.
And I pray that he’s telling the truth.
It’s a little bit ironic:
I’ve spent my whole life fighting to get free of the clutches of the outlaw bikers who want to brand me with their ink and chain me to their beds.
But now that I’ve found Rafael…
I’ll do whatever it takes to stay in his arms.
Overexposed: A Motorcycle Club Romance (White Wolves MC) (Inked and Dangerous Book 4)
There’s no going back once you get too close to the biker.
I ran away from a man who beat me…
Right into the arms of the man who’d break me.
CHELSEA
I know I shouldn’t be here.
But I just don’t have a choice.
Elias is my last hope.
That’s how I knew I’m truly f**ked.
Because an outlaw rogue like him can sense desperation in a woman like a shark smelling blood on the waters.
He can see I’m battered.
He can see I’m bruised.
He can see I’m breaking, inside and out…
And he’s determined to finish the job.
But Elias is different than my abuser.
He’s no violent coward, like my ex brandishing his police officer’s badge like a weapon.
When he breaks me, it won’t be with slaps across the face or curses hurled to bring me to tears.
No, the biker has his own brand of pain.
The sweetest kind.
The sickest kind.
The kind that I’ll fall to my knees and moan for…
Over, and over, and over again.
He’s going to break me.
And I’m going to beg for more.
ELIAS
I’ve never been a one-woman kind of guy.
That’s one of the perks of the outlaw lifestyle – a different girl every night.
Then, when the sun’s up…
Kick ‘em out and never see ‘em again.
It suits me.
At least, it used to.
Then she came sprinting through the door.
She looked so out of place.
Like a baby deer in the lion’s den.
But when I saw the bruises ruining her perfect skin, I instantly knew.
There was a monster in her past.
I decided a few things then and there.
I’m gonna find the man who hurt her.
I’m gonna break every bone in his f**king body.
Then I’m gonna come back to my clubhouse, bend the girl over my chopper, and let the whole world know one thing:
This one’s mine.
Overtaken: A Motorcycle Club Romance (War Dogs MC) (Inked and Dangerous Book 3)
I’ll take her and take her and take her again.
She didn’t ask for this. She didn’t need this.
But this is exactly what she’s getting:
A towering, ripped, tatted bad boy with a hunger for her body…
And the appetite to feast on her – over and over again.
KENDRA
He turned my paradise into a war zone.
I can never forgive him.
But he doesn’t give a damn about that.
Because he’s the type of man who asks neither forgiveness nor permission.
He just takes what he wants – over, and over, and over again – until he’s had his fill.
And then he takes some more.
It’s not as if I didn’t see this coming.
Bad boy bikers are always trouble – no surprises there.
But I let the outlaw into my life anyway.
I just never dreamed that soon my life and body would be in his hands.
There was no reason to trust him.
But when he crushes his lips on mine, makes me beg for more….
I can’t say no.
I can’t struggle.
And I can’t help but agree every single time he presses his lips against my ear and growls,
“You belong to me.”
ALLEN
She probably would’ve lived a happy life if she’d never met me.
That’s too damn bad.
Because I came barging in and I sure as hell ain’t apologizing for my intrusion.
She’s mine now, for better and for worse.
Even if I didn’t mean to bring my fight to her doorstep.
Even if she definitely didn’t need the trouble.
I’m here now.
So just f**king get used to it.
At first, she was just an innocent bystander
But everything changed once I got a taste of her.
Possessed her.
Owned her like only an outlaw savage can.
But now, a sadist has us in his crosshairs.
He wants us both six feet under.
What that sick son of a b!tch doesn’t know is this:
No one takes what’s mine.
Not without a vicious fight.
Not today. Not ever.
Overpossessive: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Wilderkind MC)
It was all fun and games until the biker put his baby in my belly.
SUNNY
I dared to lay myself bare…
And now I’ve got the baby bump to show for it.
What started out as a seemingly innocent game of seduction turned into more than I bargained for when I learned firsthand just how the well-equipped bad boy biker Bear got his name.
Turns out he's packing more than just heat on the racetrack.
And he's left me with something to remember him by:
The outlaw baby in my belly.
BEAR
I want the little Club girl, and I'm not going to be denied.
She's property of my motorcycle club’s biggest enemies – but I just don’t give a f**k.
They can't hold a candle to me on the track, and I'll take the blonde temptation making eyes at me as a trophy.
Taking her was just as delicious as I’d imagined.
Afterwards, I cast her aside.
I’d had my fun playing with fire.
Life would go back to normal now.
Right?
No.
Dead f**kin’ wrong.
The news gets back to me:
Sunny's pregnant, and in bed with the VP of our rival MC.
He thinks it’s his.
But here’s the thing:
There’s no way that baby isn't mine.
And I’m coming to take what belongs to me.
Overprotective: The Valves MC
The bad boy next door is getting a little overprotective.
He’s a single dad by day.
And a ruthless biker by night.
I wanted a taste… but I got too close.
And then I fell for the bad boy.
Ever since he’s moved in, my life has been turned completely upside down.
That motorcycle of his is always roaring outside of my window.
I see him every time I step out.
Hard muscles and dark tattoos glistening under the sun—a dangerous combo of ink and testosterone.
Every time those steely green eyes look at me, I can feel them pierce right through my clothes.
His little baby is a student in my class.
So what better excuse than a parent-teacher conference to some…*gulp*… ”alone time”?
But I might have bitten off more than I can chew.
Up close, Dawson is…
Intimidating.
Po
werful.
An alpha male, in every sense of the word.
His voice alone makes me shiver.
But you know what the crazy thing is?
I want more.
I want him to do more than just stare.
I want him to pull me into that broad chest of his.
I want him to pin me against the backseat of his Harley.
To use me.
I want him to make me scream…
… But when I made that wish, I had no f***ing idea what I was getting myself into.
Southpaw: A Bad Boy MMA Fighter Romance
