STICK: MC ROMANCE NOVELLA (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 8) (98 page)

9.

Laurie sat on the front of the speed boat as Aiden drove it into the shore where his car was waiting. It was the following morning and they had spent the night together under the stars. She had conflicting emotions. She was completely in awe of him but also a little scared. He had murdered Brad, even if it had been to save her. Brad was dead and it was at Aiden’s hand.

She turned to look at him, his dark hair was shaggy and windswept from the breeze. She still couldn’t get over how incredible he was. A smile crept across her face and she hugged her arms around herself. She had told him she wanted to leave Blakestone Ridge that morning and he hadn’t tried to stop her. She had to go home. If she was missing when questions about Brad arose, it was going to look suspicious on her part. If she went home at least she could say Brad had gone out driving when he was drunk and she hadn’t seen him since. In a sense she wasn’t that worried though. No one would believe the truth anyhow. If there was a truth it was that he had been mauled by a wild animal anyhow. Again, Aiden had said he would take care of it.

They got into Aiden’s car and he started the engine. He reached down and took hold of her hand.

“I’m glad you’re going to go back to the city,” he smiled. “I couldn’t face you going on the run and never seeing you again.”

“On the run,” she playfully punched him on the shoulder, “Last night you spectacularly eliminated what I was running from.”

“I know,” he almost looked embarrassed that the aggression had taken him over. But Laurie wasn’t sorry for what he had done. If he hadn’t she never would have been free from Brad. His ex-fiancé had confirmed how dangerous he could be.

“You will always be safe with me,” he said, wrapping his hand in her hair and kissing her again. “I would appreciate it if you could keep the part about me turning into a wolf just between us though,” he said, in a mock matter of fact tone. Yeah, he was a keeper.

“I’d be honored to keep your secret, Aiden,” Laurie smiled, “I would never tell a soul… I think we’ve been through too much together this weekend for me to tell anyone. I think we owe it to each other to keep all this between us. Besides, who would believe me?”

“I agree,” he smiled as he put the car in drive and pulled out of the clearing onto the deserted country roads. “I’m going to head back this afternoon,” he said. “Will you be alright in the meantime?”

Laurie churned over everything in her mind. The idea of being away from him just now was frightening. She knew the drive back home wasn’t particularly long and would only take her two hours max, but she had gotten used to having him there to protect her. Still, she knew he would be there when she returned.

“I’ll stay with you, if you want.” he looked at her, his eyes alive with passion.

“I’ll be fine,” she smiled, all she had needed was that tiny bit of reassurance. “But if you really want to, maybe you can come see me once things blow over a bit.”

As they drove back into the town and headed up Main Street she noticed some of the items for sale in the store windows. There were wolf figurines in one shop and as she looked at the old man working there she noticed that he too had an ice blue glint to his eyes. A memory glazed over her to when she was a child and she stood with her father looking in one of those stores. He told her that he’d heard the rumors about the forests and that they’d had big animals living there. She had thought about it a lot afterwards and the whole time they were staying at the lake cabin she had hoped to see one of the creatures that the legends had told of, but nothing ever came of it and the memory had faded as she grew up. It was funny how life could work out. The fact she had been drawn back to that place and had met this man seemed like proof of some divine intelligence. In this moment she could easily see herself spending the rest of her life with him. Of course she hardly knew him, but there was plenty of time to remedy that. When she was a child she had romanticized about the legends of the animals, but never in her wildest dreams could have predicted what she would come to know as the truth. She looked across at her alpha billionaire shifter, and his huge frame and gorgeous chiseled features. Just looking at him sent a shiver down her spine, as well as up her legs. She had never been a big believer in fate but something had pulled them together. There was something between them that worked better than any relationship Laurie had ever had with anyone in her life before. Aiden didn’t just seem to understand her, he seemed to be inside her head. She loved the air of mystery that was constantly around him, and now with a promise of a reunion in the city she couldn’t wait to see where their relationship was heading. She looked up at him and he squeezed her hand. Everything was going to be just fine. She was sure of it.

THE END

Samantha Leal

Copyright ©2016 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1.

Emily twiddled her thumbs as she sat in the waiting room and looked nervously around. From first glance, she could already tell that she was one of, at least, four other candidates down to the last stage of the interview process, and she didn’t much fancy her chances now that she was looking at them all sitting quietly on either side.

Emily could see how well-heeled they were. And although she hadn’t had a bad upbringing, she knew that they probably had both the qualifications and the connections to let them sail through and collect first place ahead of her. It wasn’t often she found herself in such a position, but this was definitely one of them. She was the underdog… and even though she probably wanted – and needed – the job more than any of the other interviewees, she couldn’t bear to put herself through the torment of the grueling process any longer.

She looked at the smug expression on one of the guy’s faces who was staring at her over the top of his copy of the Financial Times and she rolled her eyes before getting to her feet.

She’d rather spend the rest of her life as a waitress than having to mingle with and be polite to stuck up idiots like them, and she wasn’t intending on sticking around to find out whether she would have eventually made the cut or not.

She smoothed down her pencil skirt and picked up her purse. As she turned and walked back toward the main doors, she couldn’t help but let the grin spread across her face.

“Miss Moore?” the receptionist called as Emily marched past her without turning back or responding.

She didn’t owe any of them anything, and she wasn’t about to sit and explain herself to a stranger. She was out of there!

She laughed to herself as she undid the buttons on the cuffs of her shirt and rolled the sleeves up to the elbows. The sun was high in the sky and it was a hot, humid day. Far too humid to be wearing such a conservative outfit with a pair of ridiculous heels. Emily checked her watch. It was only one thirty. She had the whole afternoon stretching out before her and the whole city was hers.

“You’re not going home,” she said aloud to herself as she stood in the middle of the busy street, looking left and then right.

She could have decided to go in either direction, but something pulled her to the left and without giving it a second thought, she began to follow her instincts.

As she walked along the city streets, she thought of how she had come to this point. Emily was now twenty-five, single, she still lived at home with her parents, and she was currently pretty much unemployed, except for the couple of shifts a week at an Italian restaurant over on her side of town. She had geared herself up to seriously start looking to begin her career, but so far, every firm she had set foot in had given her the creeps.

The latest had been, by far, the worst, though, and now she was out of there and felt as if she could breathe again; she knew that she had done the right thing. Emily had always thought it was right to live by the motto that you certainly only live once. And she didn’t want to compromise any of her precious time by being unhappy in what she was doing. She knew the second she had set foot in that place, weeks ago, that she wouldn’t have liked it there…but she pushed herself to go through the motions anyway, hoping, as most did, to be rewarded at the end.

But screw that, she thought, this is my reward. Today.

She turned left again at an intersection and found herself in a part of town she had never been before. The street was lined with grimy looking bars, and although she was going to stick out like a sore thumb, she didn’t care. It was midafternoon… What was the worst that could happen?

She reached up to her long blonde ponytail, pulled out the hair tie that kept it in place and shook her long locks out, down and over her shoulders. She pulled off her black framed glasses and slipped them into her purse and opened another button at the top of her shirt so her big, bouncing breasts were ever so slightly on show. Pushed up and highlighted by her amazing nude lace bra.

“Come on then, Em,” she coached herself. “Let’s find somewhere to unwind.”

She had never ever drank during the day before, but after her experience back at that office, she knew that this was the perfect time to start.

She stomped forward, her heels clicking out behind her and her hips undulating with each stride. She felt powerful, confident and ready to take on the world. And when she stopped outside of a bar whose door was open and had rock music blaring out from the inside, she knew that she had found the perfect place.

“Here goes nothing,” she whispered to herself as she tucked her jacket underneath her arm and took a deep breath.

She had no idea what she would find once she stepped over the threshold, but she was excited and in the mood to be reckless.

2.

The bar was everything she had hoped for. It was dark and dirty, cheap and unpretentious. There was an old fifties style jukebox in the corner that was stained with grime and as she pulled up her stool and sat down in front of the barman, she could swear that he almost did a double take.

“Hey,” he said. “What can I get you?”

He eyeballed her suspiciously. Almost as if she was working undercover and about to bust him for something highly illegal.

“Hmm,” she said as she checked her watch again.

It was almost two p.m. and she was sure that it wasn’t the kind of place to carry fine wines.

“Can I get a vodka?” she smiled. “Straight up with some ice.”

The barman gave her a wry smile from below his long, red beard. She could make out the glint of a golden tooth somewhere in there and it made her want to turn and take a proper look at the place she had walked into. But it was too late to back out now.

“Sure,” he said as he reached up and pulled down a cloudy looking tumbler.

Emily hadn’t been in a bar so dirty since she had been in college and hadn’t cared about who was pouring her drinks, or what they were pouring. Even though she didn’t exactly live a life of opulent sophistication, she did suddenly feel a little panicked.

She had read plenty of articles about the possibility of certain type of illnesses spread via dirty glasses. But she decided that this wasn’t the time to become a paranoid hypochondriac. This was her day of self-discovery and freedom.

The barman turned and held the tumbler up to the optic. She watched as the thick, clear liquid ran down and splashed over the big chunks of ice resting at the bottom.

The barman smiled at her as he slid it across the splintered and chipped bar top and she took it from him meekly.

“Thank you,” she grinned.

“Sure, no problem…” He turned and walked down the bar by a couple of feet, and stood and watched her out of the corner of his eye whilst he dried the stack of glasses that were in a wet pile in front of him.

Emily was aware of his eyes on her, but she didn’t mind. Of course, he was going to be suspicious. From the look of the only other people in the joint, there couldn’t have been many days they got a curvaceous, naughty secretary styled, starlet type blonde bombshell walking through the doors in the middle of the day.

Emily raised the glass to her lips and took a long, much needed sip. The vodka was just cool enough from the ice and it slipped down her throat effortlessly. She shuddered and winced. She had never been very good with spirits. But she figured this was the perfect time to try.

She heard the door go behind her and a small group of men, all clad in leather, walked in and made their way over to a booth in the corner. Their boots scuffed across the wooden floor and the smell of stale smoke filtered in with them. Emily was intrigued. She wanted to turn and watch them, but knew that she would only be asking for trouble by drawing attention to herself and the fact that she was there alone.

She suddenly wished she had chosen to sit at a quiet table. Somewhere not so on show and in the middle of all of the action. She looked over her other shoulder and could see one not far from the front door. But it was too late. If she moved, she would only make herself more of a target. Better to just drink down some more Dutch courage and hope for the best.

She raised the glass to her lips and swallowed down the rest. She gasped as she pulled it away and the alcohol stung her insides.

“Someone’s on a mission?” The barman smiled as he idled up to her again and rested both his palms down flat on the counter top. Emily took in the violent tattoos winding their way down his forearms. Blood and gore mixed in with the gnashing of lion’s jaws. “Can I get you another?”

Emily nodded and exhaled.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I think I’m going to need a few more of those.”

The barman chuckled and swept her glass away before he refilled it and set it back down.

“So,” he said. “What’s your story?”

Emily couldn’t help but feel like a cliché. The lone girl who was unhappy with her life and suddenly wanted to live on the wild side. She’d seen it in movies a million times and now here she was… Could she be stumbling into the wrong place at the wrong time? If it wasn’t so concerning, maybe she would have laughed.

“Just a shitty day,” she offered up, acting nonchalantly. “Needed to unwind.”

She shrugged as if she did this type of thing all the time and the barman studied her for a few moments more. She put her purse down on the counter top in a bid to reassure him that she wasn’t hiding anything. And she slipped off the high heels from her aching feet and let them rest on the rough wooden bar that ran across the base of the stool. Her court shoes tumbled and collapsed into a little pile underneath her.

“We all have shitty days, I guess,” he said as he took her glass away and filled it up for her again. The alcohol already had its tight hold on her and she felt warm and fuzzy inside.

“Yep,” she said. “Well, today, I feel as if I really have earned this.” She had to make a conscious effort to stop herself from drawling. “I’ve had an epiphany!”

The barman laughed and leaned in closer so his voice was no more than a whisper.

“That’s all well and good,” he said gently. “But girls like you should be careful coming in places like this,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “Wouldn’t want to attract the wrong kind of attention, if you know what I mean...”

She could only guess what type of men leered in here later in the day, and she was grateful for his warning.

“I’ll keep to myself,” she assured him. “But thank you.”

“No problem,” he smiled.

And then she watched him move over to pick up another glass and fill it with ice cool water.

“Here,” he said. “Drink this, or no more.”

“Yes sir,” Emily grinned, feeling as if her random and spontaneous adventure had already led her to make a new friend.