Wild Devotion (Wild Heart Mountain: Wild Rider’s MC #13)

5. Isla

5

ISLA

T he next few days pass in the same steady routine. Danni or Maggie or Kendra take it in turns to stay at the clubhouse and come and get Cody for his early feed while I catch up on the sleep I missed during the night and take a shower. Every morning Luke makes me breakfast and we talk over bacon and eggs, which it turns out he knows how to cook to perfection every way you can think of: fried, poached, scrambled, and my favorite, dippy soldiers, which I haven’t had since I was a kid.

With three meals a day and six hours of sleep, I’ve noticed myself growing mentally and physically stronger. I’ve spent the last two days scanning job sites looking for marketing jobs that I’d be a good fit for. The problem is that they’re all based in Charlotte, and when I think about going back to where I’ve lived with Ian for the last two years, my gut tightens into a knot.

I don’t want to go back to the city where I could run into his family or friends on every corner. He’s already started a pity campaign online, playing the victim and making me out to be a bad person for running away. He’s been posting all over social media saying he’s looking for me and Cody as if I’m some terrible woman who stole his son and not a mother protecting her child from a monster.

I’ll have to let him know where I am eventually, or it could turn ugly if the police get involved. But his texts have turned angry, and there’s no way I want to see him when he’s so volatile.

I’ve tried to tell him I’ll see him once he calms down, but that only adds fuel to the fire, and last night he left an angry voice message yelling at me about how calm he is.

Meanwhile I’ve broken the news to Mom that the wedding is off. After a lot of protesting and sticking up for Ian, she finally believed me. He’s unhinged. He needs help and therapy, and until that happens, I don’t want him near Cody.

Mom promised to have a conversation with Malorie, her best friend and Ian’s mother. It’ll be an awkward conversation, but Malorie has to know what her son’s really like. Although I suspect she probably does already.

I’m playing with Cody and some of the other kids in the playroom when Raiden stalks into the room.

His little boy wobbles over to him and he scoops him into his arms, a soft smile on his weatherbeaten face.

“I hear you’re looking for a job.”

I startle when I realize he’s talking to me. I find the thickset brooding club president a little intimidating. I’m not sure if he’s hinting it’s time for me to leave. Perhaps I’ve overstayed my welcome.

“I’ve applied for fifteen in the last few days,” I tell him. “I can waitress here if you need help, or clean, or…or…” I search around, wondering what else I could do here. I would offer childcare, but that seems pretty much sewn up.

“Do you know anything about websites?”

I’ve set up a few for friends, and while the backend isn’t my specialty, I can write copy and set out a page. “Yeah, a bit.”

“I might have something for you. Come and speak to Barrels.”

Twenty minutes later, I step out of Raiden’s office with a smile on my face.

I have a job. It’s part-time and not many hours to start with, but it will pay for my board and food as long as I want to stay and give me a little extra pocket money.

Barrel’s, or Quentin as he’s called outside the club, runs the brewery out back. They’re expanding the business, and they need extra help on their marketing team. I’ll be updating the website, running social media, and anything else they need. And best of all, I’ll be doing it from right here with whatever hours suit me. Which means during Cody’s nap times, in the evenings, and anytime during the day when someone’s around to mind Cody.

It’s perfect and means I don’t have to hurry to make a decision about where I want to be permanently until I’m ready .

I’m so excited my first thought is to tell Luke. After checking on Cody, I head out to the bike shop across the parking lot.

Luke isn’t there, and Colter, Danni’s husband, tells me he’s working out at the club gym.

I head back inside and down the stairs to the basement gym. As I descend the stairs, the smell of sweat and vinyl reaches my nose. Weights clank and soft grunts reach my ears. I hang back, suddenly nervous about entering this masculine domain.

Luke is on the bench with his wheelchair discarded next to it. His shirt is off, and muscles ripple across his torso. I stop in the doorway, and my heart clangs against my rib cage. He’s doing sit-ups at an impressive pace, and every time he sits up his muscles ripple, making the tattoo across his chest dance.

I’m reminded of the first time I saw him here in this room and the jolt that went through me, how my knees went wobbly and I thought it was from lack of sleep. But as I watch Luke relentlessly work his upper body, my knees weaken, my throat goes dry, and damp heat pools in my panties. My core tightens, and a yearning that I haven’t felt for months tugs at me.

I vaguely notice the stumps of his limbs sticking out from his exercise shorts, but they don’t matter. They’re a curious distraction to the vision of this muscular man pushing himself to the limit. His eyes are squeezed shut, and he counts under his breath with every sit-up.

“Ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight… ”

His voice turns to a grunt and his body wavers. I hold my breath as he pushes up again.

“Ninety-nine…” He pauses on the bench with his head just off it, then his grunt turns to a groan as he strains up one last time. “One hundred.”

Luke falls back onto the bench, and his body relaxes in relief. He loosens the strap around his lower body, and his stump thumps on the bench.

I remember the first day I saw him and how he looked away in embarrassment as my eyes traveled down his body.

I’ve gotten to know Luke over the last week, and I barely notice his missing limbs or the fact that he’s in a wheelchair. He’s just Luke, the kind, funny, and protective man who I’m starting to have feelings for. He wouldn’t want anyone to see him like this, panting on the bench while his missing limbs twitch.

I drag my gaze away from his toned muscles and slip away. My news will have to wait.

Later that night, long after I’ve put Cody down after his late feed, I roll over in bed, unable to get comfortable. My mind goes back to Luke, to his rippling muscles, to the perspiration flying off him and to the masculine smell of the gym, ripe with sweat and determination.

I wonder what it would feel like to have those arms pin me down, to have his stubble scrape against my thighs.

It’s been a long time since a man touched me. Ian was turned off ever since I got pregnant, and I didn’t miss his awkward fumbling.

Now, a yearning grows in my lower belly that’s so strong I squeeze my thighs together. My hands brush over my breasts, swollen and sensitive from nursing. I carry on over my belly and between my legs.

I gasp at the sensation, and as my fingers slide over my damp panties I imagine it’s Luke’s hand. I imagine he’s lying here next to me with his hard chest pressed against me and his hands exploring my intimate parts.

As I slide into my panties and relieve the ache in my core, I imagine it’s Luke taking care of me in one more way. And as I sink into pleasure, I imagine it’s him who whispers to me to stay, to stay on Wild Heart Mountain with him.