“Well, not anymore there aren’t. Not after I scared this one off for biting me like an as— like a jerk.”
Ryker’s daughter giggled as she rolled her eyes again. “Fine, whatever you say, Dad.”
“You know, I don’t think she believes me,” Ryker sighed, shaking his head at me across the dining room table. “Can you believe that?”
“Dad, there aren’t any tigers around—”
“Watch out! Tiger!”
I gasped as Ryker’s voice boomed over the room, his finger jabbing at the doorway to the kitchen. Kyrie’s head yanked around to follow his point, and then she immediately shrieked as Ryker grabbed her from behind and lifted her out of her chair.
“Tiger attack!”
And just like that I watched the beast of a man turn into the prince. One little squeal from that little girl’s mouth and I watched the man who looked like he could take on an entire biker gang at a dive bar with one hand behind his back melt into a freaking puppy dog.
… And holy crap, why was that so hot?
“Addison!” Kyrie squealed. “Help! Tickle him back!”
Ryker’s eyes snapped up to mine. “Don’t even think about it.” He was grinning, but there was this hunger behind those eyes and I shivered at the pure heat that burned behind that look.
“Addison!”
“Trust me,” Ryker growled. “You do not want a piece of this.”
Tell that to my shower fantasy last night.
Kyrie finally squirmed out of his arms and skipped away, breathless and giggling.
“Alright, bedtime, pumpkin. Git.”
Kyrie wrinkled her nose as she sighed. “Fiiiiine.” She turned and smiled at me. “Addison, want to come read to me?”
Ryker frowned. “Oh, I don’t know if Addison wants to do that, honey. I think she just wants to get to her apartment and—”
“I’d love to, if that’s alright?”
He looked at me, and there was that fiery look in his eyes again that made me shiver as they locked on mine. Slowly, he nodded. “Sure.”
Kyrie cheered as she scampered up the stairs, me close behind.
“We’re on chapter five.”
Kyrie was in her pajamas, sitting cross-legged on her bed as she handed me the frayed looking paperback copy of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone.
“Oh man, this is a good one.” I winked at her. “Chapter five?”
“Yup!”
I read, the words jumping off the page in a way they hadn’t when I’d read it myself years before. Yeah, there was something pretty awesome about reading it to someone so enraptured by the magic — someone still young enough to believe in real magic. I read until the chapter was done, and until Kyrie’s eyes were looking droopy.
“Alright, I think that’s a good place to stop.”
“Thanks, Addison.”
“You betcha.” I wrinkled my brow. “Do you, uh, do you need me to help you brush your teeth or anything?”
“I’m eight years old, Addison. I can handle it.”
I laughed, putting the book down and ruffling her hair. “Obviously.”
“Duh.”
“Thanks for letting me read to you.”
“Anytime,” she said with a sleepy yawn that made me grin as I turned and headed for the door.
“Night, Addison!”
“Goodnight, Kyrie.”
The house was empty downstairs — dinner cleared and cleaned, but with no sign of Ryker. I poked around, until finally, I stuck my head out of the back door and found him sitting on one of those wooden swinging bench things.
“Okay, she’s adorable.”
He glanced up as I stepped out and smiled. “Yeah.” He took a swig from his beer. “Yeah, she is. You want one?” He nodded at the six-pack sitting on the porch railing.
“I’m, uh, I’m not twenty-one yet.”
His brow furrowed. “Fuck, really? How old are you?” There was a worried look on his face that made me grin.
“Twenty. My birthday’s next week actually.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Well, shit. Tell you what. If you want one, I won’t call the cops on you.”
“Promise?” I winked as I plucked one of the bottles out and twisted the cap off.
“Do I look like the type of guy who calls the cops?”
I blushed as I took a quick sip and shook my head, leaning against the railing of the porch.
“So, where’s Kyrie’s mom?”
The dark look that washed over his face made me immediately regret saying it.
“Shit, sorry, that’s none of—”
“Hell,” he said with a shrug that made my brows go up.
“What?”
“She’s in hell.”
I swallowed a quick sip of beer, not sure of what to say before he grinned. “I’m kidding. Kyrie’s mom is junky piece of shit. She had her to herself for years, back before…” He frowned and looked away. “A while ago. Bout nine or so months back, someone finally called CPS on her ass and they got Kyrie out of there. She’s been with me basically ever since I got here to Blackthorn.”
“Sorry,” I said quietly. “That must’ve sucked to not have her.”
He nodded slowly. “I was different guy back then though, too.”
“Different how?”
His eyes studied my face. “Let’s just say different.”
“You used to be a woman, right?” I winked at him and he hooted as he took a pull from his beer.
“Is it the delicate feminine features that give it away?” He spread his arms wide, gesturing at his thick, masculine, muscled physique and his thick beard.
…Yeah, Ryker James was all man.
“Totally,” I grinned back.
“No, back then, I was…” He shook his head before he glanced back at me. “Braun and Katrina tell you much about me?”
I bit my lip, my eyes darting away.
“Addison.”
“They…” I made a face. “They said you used to be in a biker gang.”
“I did.”
His voice was rough, and deep, holding nothing back. I swallowed, my eyes going a little wider.
“That scare you?”
“No,” I said quickly, hiding the lie with a sip of beer. It did scare me. Maybe a little. And maybe in a way that was more exciting than it should be.
“It should.”
I shivered. “You want me to be scared of you?”
“I’m just curious why you’re not,” he growled. He stood, and I felt my core tighten as he took a step towards where I was leaning against the railing right in front of him.
“Maybe I am.” I whispered.
“Afraid I’ll bite?” The words purred from his mouth as he stalked closer, my pulse jumping quicker and quicker as the blush crept over my face.
“Do you?”
“Maybe.”
I swallowed, my heart thundering in my chest as the big, rough man towered over me. We stood there, eye-to-eye, neither of us saying anything, until finally, he broke the silence.
“C’mon.” He jerked his head, taking a slow sip of his beer.
“W-where?”
“I’ll show you the apartment. It’s just over there.” He nodded across the big clearing in the woods that was the backyard, at the barn, with a staircase running up one side to a little porch on the second floor.
“Oh, that’s ok,” I said it quickly, my face still flushed and my heart still pounding. “I can walk myself.”
“You sure?” His eyes flashed. “There are dangerous things in these woods.”
“Like?”
“Me.”
I swear I could have moaned out loud right there. God, I could feel my core tighten, and the heat pool between my legs as that fierce look washed over me before he turned away.
“Suit yourself.” He glanced back at me, that same quiet, slightly hungry smile on his face as his eyes washed over me again. “I gotta go check on the monster upstairs. Night, Addison.”
br />
“Night.”
The apartment above the garage was plain, but it was nice. Ryker had clearly done work on it, with fresh drywall and paint, new windows and a door, and new light fixtures throughout the place. There wasn’t a kitchen or anything — just a mini fridge — but the one big room that had both a living room area and a half-curtained-off bed was spacious. Plus, it had a bathroom.
I left my suitcase on a chair by the bed and undressed in the bathroom for a shower. The heat still teased through me from earlier, and I locked eyes with myself as I stood there naked in the glass.
Holy. Shit.
I’d never felt the sort of heat and lust and attraction for anyone the way I felt near Ryker. It was like being around him lit some sort of fire inside of me I’d never even known existed. Like the nearness of him triggered a current through me that I couldn’t stop. I let my hands drift over my body, remembering the feel of his big hands on me as he’d helped me up after my awkward tumble. And then of course, I remembered my fantasy in the guest shower back at Katrina and Braun’s place, impinging all the filthy things I’d want Ryker to do to me.
I blushed as I turned away, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around myself as I started the shower. Steam filled the small room, and I stepped out to go start to unpack some pajamas for after.
I sat on the edge of the bed, my breath coming fast and heavy as those fantasies came rushing back. Slowly, I let my legs drift apart, letting the towel fall away as my hands moved back to where they’d been before. Fingers teased across my breasts, my nipples hardening to little points as my breath caught. My hands drifted lower, over my belly and down between my legs as the gasp tumbled from my lips. My eyes closed, and suddenly I was back in the garage, with him.
I imagined him bending me over across his filthy workbench, lifting my skirt up, pulling my panties to the side and just sliding in. I groaned, imagining his thick cock spreading me wide, his rough hands holding me exactly where he wanted me as he made me scream in pleasure.
My fingers rolled over my clit again and again, moving faster and faster as my heart raced and raced. My hips arched up off the bed, bucking against my hand as the moan caught in my throat. I was close — so fucking close. So close, in fact, that I never even heard the sound of boots on the steps outside. So close that I never heard the door swing open.
“Hey, saw your light was still on and realized I’d forgot to stock the place with—”
I screamed, jumping from the bed and yanking the towel around myself — my face beating bright red and my breath caught somewhere in my throat.
“I— I—!”
“…Towels,” Ryker growled lowly, his eyes locked on me, standing there shaking across the room from him with guilt all over my face and my own arousal all over my fingers.
“Fuck, Addison,” he groaned, his eyes flashing fire. They locked on mine, and I didn’t look away. I couldn’t. I couldn’t even freaking blink, or breathe, or think. The right response would have been to yell, or scream, or to get angry.
…That didn’t happen.
Heat coursed through me, the slick wetness between my legs only grew warmer and slicker, and I felt every inch of my skin tingle under the fierce, unblinking gaze of the big rough biker across the room.
He moved closer, tossing the towels onto the couch in one corner of the room without taking his eyes off of me. He moved closer still, and a small gasp tumbled from my lips.
“You— Ryker…”
“Tell me to leave,” he growled lowly, stepping closer to me. I felt my breath come panting and heavy, my thighs squeezing together as I gripped the towel with a white-knuckled grip.
“You can’t, I mean, we…”
“Tell me to leave, Addison,” he groaned, moving right into me as I backed into the wall behind me. I whimpered as he moved even closer, his hands raising as his palms went flat against the wall on either side of me, pinning me there.
“Damnit, Addison,” he hissed, his jaw clenched tight and his eyes blazing into mine. “Tell me to fucking leave.”
“I— I—” I trembled, my eyes wide and staring into his as my breath came heavy and staggered.
“I can’t do that.”
The words whispered and tumbled from my lips.
“Then don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
He moved into me, one hand cupping my jaw as his lips crushed to mine and he kissed me.
Hard.
6
Ryker
I kissed her fiercely, possessively, roughly — nothing held back, and nothing but pure heat poured into it. I groaned into her, my hand cupping her jaw while the other slid around her waist to hold her tight against me. Fuck, her lips tasted like fucking candy, and when they parted for my tongue, I hungrily tasted more of her.
Fire blazed through me, my muscles clenching tight as I pressed myself against her. I could feel my cock thickening, growing hard and pulsing against the front of my jeans — hungry for the nubile skin that just denim and one layer of a terry cloth towel was keeping it from.
Addison whimpered into me, her hands hesitant and then slowly finding their way to my biceps. I pressed her into the wall, kissing her hungrily, growling into her lips as I claimed that mouth like it was mine to take — mine to claim, mine to make moan and gasp and beg for more.
She rolled her body into mine, like she wanted this but didn’t quite know how. I knew damn well she’d never been with a man like me. Not a chance. I could tell by the way she acted, the ways she walked, even. No, she’d never been taken the way she deserved to be. Those pretty boys from private schools and college?
Fuck them.
I was going to show her how a real man fucked. She may have had some boy before me, but after me? After me, she’d never been the same. After me, she’d walk differently. She’d walk like a woman who’s been properly fucked — properly stretched open and filled and made to come like she’s never come before.
I pinned her to that wall, kissing her hard and fierce. My hand slid around her hip, hooking under the towel and giving it a tug. She whimpered, her hand tightening on it for half a second before suddenly, she let go. The soft white terrycloth dropped away, and when I moved against her, I groaned as I felt the bare, warm heat of her skin against me.
All mine.
My hand drifted back to her hip, my fingers tracing over her skin as I moved across her belly. I could feel her stomach cave under my touch, her breath coming faster and faster, like she was gasping for air.
She was nervous, but there was excitement there. There was an eagerness in the way her fingers raked down my arms, and the way her body pressed into mine, and in the way she crushed her lips so hungrily to mine.
But, something pinged like a little warning bell inside my head, and I pulled back.
“You ever done this before, sweetheart?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “Of course.”
“No,” I growled. “I don’t mean have you ever had sex before. I don’t mean has some limp-dicked boy ever made fuckin’ love to you. I mean have you ever been fucked the way you should be. The way you deserve to be.”
“Sure.” She shrugged, all full of false bravado, like she was trying to play tough with me. Like she was going to try and play it off like she was some sort of bad girl.
My eyes narrowed as my head shook slowly. “No you haven’t.”
She bit her lip, her eyes blinking quickly up at me. Slowly, she shook her head. And suddenly, it hit me.
Oh fuck.
She’d never done this before. And I mean she’d never done this at all before. It hit me like a brick to the head, and I wanted to say it was crazy, and that there was no way a girl like this, who was as fucking drop dead gorgeous as her was possibly a virgin at twenty-one. But it was right there, looking back at me. I’d stayed alive through the life I’d lived by being able to read people, and suddenly, I could read her like an open book.
What the fuck was I doing?
I stiffened, and s
uddenly, my hands dropped from her, like I’d been shocked.
“Wait—”
Fuck. Holy fuck. I backed away from her, shaking my head, when her hand suddenly shot out and gripped my wrists tightly.
“Don’t…” She bit her lip, her chest heaving. “Don’t stop.”
“Listen sweetheart—”
“I know what I want.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes I do!” she hissed. “I do, okay?”
“No,” I growled, shaking my head. “No, you think you want me. You think you want someone bad like me, but—”
“Do you want me?” The words whispered so softly and so fucking seductively from her pillowy lips, and I groaned as my cock throbbed hard as steel between my legs, pulsing against my jeans.
“Fuck yes,” I hissed, the ferocity making her gasp. “And the me from a few years back would have taken you right fucking here. The me from then would have pushed these pretty thighs apart and let you feel every fucking inch of my cock. I’d have taken that innocence of yours right here against the wall and fucked you until you couldn’t walk straight.”
Addison whimpered her face growing red and her eyes widening, before suddenly, she squared her jaw. And suddenly, I saw that sass I’d seen in her before.
“Too bad that guy you used to be lost his balls, huh?”
Oh game. Fucking. On.
I knew she was goading me. I knew she was trying to push my buttons and get me to react. And you know what?
…It fucking worked.
Addison gasped as I growled into her, pushing her back and pinning her against the wall. I crushed my lips to hers, kissing her like a fucking mad man as I ripped my shirt off. My hands slid around her waist, sliding over that smooth, supple skin and pulling her against my hard body. Her nipples dragged over my chest, little whimpered moans dripping from her lips into my mouth as her body melted for me.
She cried out as my mouth dropped to her neck, biting and sucking — leaving marks I knew damn well would be there come morning.
Good.
Fucking good.
Let the world know she’d been spoken for. Let any fucking man who saw her on the street the next day, or in the shop, or anywhere know that she belonged to someone else. That another man — a better man — had made her his. I wasn’t going to take all of her right there — not like that. Oh, that tempting, innocent, candy-sweet pussy was going to be mine alright, but later.