by Lane Hart
“I don’t know what we would’ve done without Roman,” she goes on to say, making my chest ache at the mention of him, knowing he’s been with this woman too. Why does every man in my life have to sleep with her? I mean, yes, she’s beautiful, but jeez. “After Aiden came, I was out of the military and had to look for a job and find childcare. Roman didn’t owe us a dime, but still he’s been taking care of us, watching out for us since Adam can’t do it.”
“The man can’t seem to avoid helping damsels in distress,” I huff.
“Roman is such a great guy. One in a million,” Meredith gushes with a huge smile. “He was too much of a gentleman to turn me down the night I threw myself at him. It was just…it was Aiden’s first birthday and Adam couldn’t be here to celebrate with him, and I was lonely. I can’t bear to bring home men and have Aiden get attached before they up and leave us. I know Roman will never abandon us even though we only see him a few times a year. He’s got a big heart.”
“Yeah, he does,” I agree. There’s no denying how amazing Roman has been with helping Tessa and the other victims.
“I thought about contacting you those first few weeks after…but Roman said he could help with anything we needed. All he asked was that I not tell you because you would be devastated to learn the truth. Adam wouldn’t have wanted me to hurt you. But I’m so glad you know now.”
“So Adam really loved you?” I ask.
“I was in love with him. He loved me too I think, just not as much as he loved you. He had made his decision – he was going to pay child support but not see Aiden so that you wouldn’t ever have to know. It killed him to choose, and I hate he never got to meet Aiden or hold him…” she trails off.
“So your son was born after Adam died?”
“Adam was on his way to see us right after the delivery when the helicopter was shot down.”
Wow. Isn’t that a doozy to be hit with? Adam was going to see his mistress and their baby when he died. And I have no doubt that as soon as he laid eyes on his newborn son, he would’ve picked them over me. How could he not?
“It’s…it’s our fault you lost your husband, Charlotte,” Meredith tells me.
“No,” I reply. “It’s my husband’s fault I lost my husband. I’m starting to think he left me long before he died. I just didn’t know it.”
I don’t get any more time to process all of this new information, because the next second the front door flies open and then a whirlwind in the shape of a small boy comes in talking gibberish a mile a minute before he flings himself into his mother’s arms.
“Sorry,” a lady says as she jogs in out of breath. “He was ready to come home and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“It’s fine,” Meredith says as she pulls him down into her lap so that he’s finally calm and still and facing me, looking like a tiny version of Adam. “Mommy was just talking to her friend, Charlotte. Can you say hello?”
“Hi!” he replies before shoving his thumb into his mouth.
“Someone looks like he’s ready for a nap.”
“I’m not sleepy!” he challenges even as his eyelids sag.
“Right, of course not,” Meredith replies with a grin. “We’ll just take a quick little break for a few minutes, and then you can get right back to being a messy tornado.”
“‘Kay,” he replies before sucking harder on his thumb and letting his eyes finally close.
Chapter Twenty
Roman
* * *
I’ve just finished washing my dishes after dinner when I hear someone knocking at the door. My heart actually leaps in my chest, because only one other person knows the gate codes to even get this close to my house. When I open the door to the porch, Charlotte is standing by the railing, looking out towards the ocean.
“You don’t have to knock,” I say. “I was serious about you living here.” When she doesn’t respond, I add, “I’m happy to see you. Happy that you decided to come back.”
“Well, I’m glad to see you, too,” she says with a small smile as she turns to face me. Her eyes look puffy as if she has been crying, and her hair is still pulled into the messy ponytail she likes to wear while driving.
“You want to hang out here for a while or go inside and get a drink?” I ask her. “I can’t imagine how you must be feeling right now or what you must need. Just say the word, and I’ll cook up something or get you anything…”
“I need you to forgive me, Roman,” she interrupts me. “For treating you as a distraction. I’ve been wallowing in my grief and self-pity for so long after losing Adam, just living in the past. I don’t know if I would ever have been able to move forward without you, move on and live the rest of my life.”
“Charlotte, there’s nothing for me to forgive,” I reply awkwardly. “The things you’ve endured, especially with everything you found out recently…I mean, those aren’t easy things to process. You handled it as well as anyone could ever hope to if they were put in such a shitty situation. Again, I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now, but I do know that grief…grief is a motherfucker.”
Charlotte snorts a laugh before quickly raising a hand to cover her mouth. Then, with a grin, she repeats, “Grief is a motherfucker. I knew you would understand, even if you had trouble articulating it.”
“What can I say, I’m a modern man in touch with my emotions.” I smile back at her. “But I’m serious, there’s nothing to forgive. For my part, I’m sorry for how I hurt you with…well, I guess with the truth about Adam. I just wanted a clean slate. I wanted everything on the table, all the good shit and bad shit out where we could both see it, so that maybe we could start picking up the pieces together.”
“Is that really what you want, Roman? A widow with brand new trust issues to work through to hang out with day and night?” Charlotte asks with a slight tremor in her voice.
“Charlotte, I want you. You have to know I’m crazy about you. You’re infuriating in so many ways, but you make me feel things I can’t even express. I miss you when you leave; and no matter what I’m doing, I’m thinking of when I will see you again. All I want is to make you a part of my life. Hell, I want you to be the center of my life.”
“I want that, too,” Charlotte says as she steps towards me, wrapping her arms around my waist and laying her head on my chest. “I don’t want to be mad anymore,” she mumbles into my t-shirt. “Mad at Adam for dying or for being unfaithful. How can I be mad when that miniature version of him, Aiden, is out there, loving life and having fun, even though his father is gone and he never got to meet him? I want to forgive Adam and let him rest. I didn’t really know him as well as I thought, Roman.”
“Hey, don’t start feeling guilty again,” I comfort her as I stroke her hair. “None of us ever really know what other people are thinking. You just have to choose who to trust, and pray they never break your heart.”
“That’s why I trust you, Roman,” Charlotte says as she turns her gaze up to meet mine. “The connection you and I have is rare and special. I never thought I would find it with anyone else. What we have is real, maybe more than anything I’ve ever felt before. Roman, I think I’m falling in…”
Our lips meet before she can finish what she wanted to say, our tongues seeking each other urgently as Charlotte’s hands dive underneath my t-shirt. Breaking our kiss momentarily, I tell her, “I feel the same, baby. You don’t have to rush it.”
Instead of replying, she wraps her arms around my neck, digging her fingers into the skin of my back as she pulls me closer to her. With one hand, I deftly pop the button on her jeans, while the other slides down her back, inside her panties, to grab her bare ass and grind her body into mine.
“Take me to bed, Roman,” Charlotte moans as she pulls back to pull her shirt over her head, throwing it down on the porch. “Take me to bed and make me yours.”
With one hand still stuffed down the back of her jeans, I pull her up and use my other hand to grab under her leg, lifting her body agai
nst mine. We fumble our way through the screen door, lips locked and limbs intertwined, as I carry her to my bedroom. Once we’re inside, she climbs down long enough to kick off her shoes and shimmy out of her pants before throwing her bra and panties onto the pile. I’m undressed almost as quickly. And when we crash back into each other still standing in the middle of my bedroom, my hands automatically latch back onto her ass, slamming the front of her body against my cock. As we devour each other, it throbs impatiently between us, eager to join the festivities.
“Pick me up again,” Charlotte orders as she lifts her leg to accommodate me. I’m more than happy to oblige; and as my fingers tighten on her hip and ass, I lift her back up against me just long enough to line myself up with her slick entrance.
She wraps both of her legs around me as she sinks down onto me, grinding her hips until every inch of my long, thick cock is buried inside of her. The muffled cry that escapes her lips as she wraps her arms around my neck and presses her cheek against mine almost drives me into a frenzy, but I resist the urge to simply start pounding away at her.
I hold her perfectly still as she moans into my ear, waiting for her body to let me know she’s ready. When she starts to rock her hips, grinding her clit against the base of my cock, I turn my head to seek her lips. Our mouths crash together, and our tongues intertwine as I stand perfectly still. Time ceases to have any meaning as this goddess rides my body, until her breathing begins to quicken, and she breaks our kiss to look me directly in the eyes.
“I’m close,” she moans as her hips begin to rock against me frantically.
With that cue, I know what I need to do to push her over the edge. Tightening my grip on her ass, I gently lift her just a few inches and then bring her back down to me hard, making sure to put that perfect pressure on her most sensitive spot. The effect is instantaneous.
“Oh god, Roman, right there!” Charlotte cries as her thighs tremble against me, attempting to squeeze me even deeper inside. “Ohh!” she screams as she arches her back, throwing all of her weight down onto the spots where our bodies are joined. Her orgasm rocks her with such force I have to move a hand up her back, momentarily afraid she’s going to launch herself off of me.
“Easy, baby!” I chastise her gently as she throws herself forward, smashing our mouths back together. After a few more moments of frantic kissing, she drops one leg unsteadily to the ground, as I gently pull myself free from her pussy.
“That was the best one yet,” Charlotte pants as she wobbles a few steps backwards.
“I didn’t have a condom on yet,” I remind her. “Feels completely different, doesn’t it?”
“I’m going to need more of both if I’m going to make a comparison,” she smiles. “Get a condom!”
I walk over to my nightstand and dig out one of the foil packages as Charlotte throws the sheets back on the bed. She lies down in the center and spreads her thighs wide, her arms raised to me in invitation as I roll the condom down my shaft.
“Hurry,” she urges me. “Roman, I need more.”
“So do I, baby,” I agree as I climb on top of her. In one smooth motion, the two of us are rejoined. And for the next few hours, neither of us are troubled by thoughts of Adam, Tessa, or anything in the world except the feelings burning between us.
Epilogue
Roman
* * *
“I’d forgotten what it was like,” Charlotte says to me one morning a few days later when I join her on the porch with my coffee cup in my hand.
“What’s that, exactly?” I ask her.
“This feeling. Falling in love,” she clarifies as she smiles over at me.
“I’ve never felt anything like it,” I agree as I lean down to give her a kiss, then take the rocking chair beside her.
We both stare out at the sunrise over the ocean as I drink, enjoying the peace as we both attempt to recover from last night’s exertions. Neither of us slept much at all, as each time we dozed off, she or I would awaken the other in new, naughty ways.
When I set my empty cup down on the table between us, Charlotte lets out a long sigh. “This is perfect, Roman, but how are we going to make this last?”
“You said you do your job remotely most of the time anyhow. Shouldn’t be any problem if you’re doing it here with me, should it?”
“No, I don’t think the job will be a problem at all,” she agrees.
“We’re not that far from Raleigh down here, only a couple of hours away. Besides, with the beach property I have available, your friends and family could spend all the time they wanted hanging out with us. We could go be with them anytime you wanted too, of course. You just tell me what you need, Charlotte, and we will make this work together.”
For a moment, I feel a brief spasm of fear, that she might be trying to talk herself out of staying with me. But then she reaches down to take my hand, pulling it over and placing it in her lap as she intertwines our fingers. “We will make this work, together,” she agrees. “You’re what I want, Roman. For the first time in years, everything is so clear to me. People can have more than one soulmate. You and I just might be…”
“Perfect for each other,” I nod to her.
“I think the hardest thing for me to get used to will be your friends in the club,” she jokes. “But after everything we’ve been through the last few weeks, it’s a huge comfort to know that guys like that have your back.”
“You’ll love them, in time, as much as I do,” I reassure her. “Your girl, Tessa, actually seems pretty taken with Verek already. I didn’t see that friendship coming, honestly. Verek manages our club and is usually always hanging out with different girls he met over there, but lately he’s been spending almost every day with her.”
“I don’t know what to make of that yet,” Charlotte agrees. “Verek carried her out of that storage unit, and it’s almost like…like they’ve imprinted on each other. Do you think it’s…I don’t know, healthy, I guess?”
“That’s one for the therapists to answer,” I snort. “They like seeing each other, and that’s all that matters.”
“Getting to know everyone better will be fun,” Charlotte says as her gaze goes back to take in the ocean. “But nothing can compare to moments like these, here with you.”
“We’re going to have a lifetime of these moments, if I have my way,” I tell her as I squeeze her hand.
“I can’t wait, Roman. For everything that the two of us can share together,” Charlotte says as she stands up from her chair. Pulling me by the hand, she brings me to my feet and leads me back into the house. “Let’s start by sharing a bit more of what we did last night,” she teases as she pulls me down the hallway. “And then you can tell me all about your plans for us, for the future.”
* * *
The End
Winston (Book 2)
Contents
Synopsis
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue were created from the authors’ imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual people or events is coincidental.
The authors acknowledge the copyrighted and trademarked status of various products within this work of fiction.
© 2020 Editor's Choice Publishing
All Rights Reserved.
Only Amazon has permission from the publisher to sell and distribute this title.
This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Editor’s Choice Publishing
P.O. Box 10024
Greensboro, NC 27404
* * *
Edited by All About the Edits
Cover by Marianne Nowicki of www.PremadeEbookCoverShop.com
* * *
WARNING: THIS BOOK IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ANYONE UNDER 18. IT CONTAINS SEXUALLY AND PHYSICALLY VIOLENT SCENES THAT MAY BE A TRIGGER FOR SOME INDIVIDUALS.
Synopsis
Winston Prescott has been a grumpy SOB for the past ten years. None of his brothers in the Savage Kings MC knew why, until the day one of them makes the mistake of posting a sexy centerfold on the wall of the clubhouse.
* * *
The gorgeous model posing topless on sports cars and motorcycles isn’t just any girl. Her name is Zoe Donahue, and she also happens to be Winston’s stepsister.
* * *
While the two haven’t spoken since the day Winston reluctantly let Zoe go so she could pursue her dreams, an explosive reunion is on the horizon.
* * *
Zoe’s been holding a grudge against Winston for how things ended the day she left. Now, she’s home for a week, and her plan is to torture her brooding stepbrother by wearing as little clothes as possible while promising Winston she’ll never let him touch her again.
