Prologue
Stella
Eight Weeks Ago . . .
“That’s it, baby, ride me. Ride that cock,” the man underneath me, the one that has starred in so many of my fantasies, demands. Hands on my hips, he holds tight as I rock myself over him, grinding down on the shaft impaling me.
Breathing heavily, I feel the release taking over and throw my head back, ecstasy overtaking my entire being. I cry out as my orgasm washes over me.
“Fuck, Stella, baby,” he growls, shooting up to a sitting position only to spin us so I’m lying on the bed, and he’s pounding rapidly into the depths of my core. “You feel so damn good, baby . . . nothing feels like you do. So tight. So sweet. I could fuck you all damn night.”
God, yes, please. He’s already taken me twice so far.
I want that more than anything, but the rational part of my mind knows I can’t have it.
Not really. I can simply have this moment.
I’m not able to have what I truly want. Not when I’m a screwup.
I constantly do everything I can to keep from doing anything that will hurt anyone I know, and I know this man.
I know him well. He’s one of my brother’s best friends, and I’m sure when he wakes up in the morning, he’ll regret being in my bed.
He knows the past, what happened so many years ago, and he’ll want nothing to do with me.
No one does. Not unless I can do something for them.
Well, that’s how it used to be. The ol’ ladies of the club have drawn me in and become friends. Even my brother’s ol’ lady, Isabelle, makes sure to call every day. Somehow, she’s even gotten my brother into doing the same thing. It scares me yet makes it where I don’t feel so alone.
The feel of him plowing into me switches, and he groans, the gruffness of his voice deepens on his groan, and he keeps himself planted inside as he fills the condom.
For so many years, I’ve kept to myself and only going to work.
I haven’t had sex in years, and I mean years.
After my brother shipped me off to Ireland, I was kept under lock and key.
Not really, but I had protection wherever I went.
Then when I moved back to finish my residency and start my career here in Texas, I simply fell into work and pushed back all thoughts of a life away.
“Rest, baby. I’ll wake you up with my mouth later,” he murmurs, stroking the back of his fingers across my cheek.
“Hmm.” Slowly, I allow myself to drift off from exhaustion. Tonight has been nothing but magical when it comes to Angel. I won’t soon forget the way he makes me feel, and how he made my body respond to him in such a way that I think I’m ruined for any other man.
I sigh in contentment and curl into myself as he pulls from my entrance, leaving me wishing for him to stay deep inside me. At least for a little while longer.
Angel has a way of making me whole when all I normally feel is hollow. I hate that come morning, I won’t have any of what I have right now.
Angel
Four Days Later . . .
Sitting, straddling my bike, I watch her pull into the driveway of her small home and stare at her while resting my forearms on the handlebars.
Anger courses through me as it has since she up and left my bed before the sun came up. I’ve tried calling her. Hell, I fucking text the woman, but she ignored me each and every time.
I glare through the sunglasses and watch as she parks her little car and gets out. Her gaze never leaves mine as she closes the door and steps forward. Stella crosses her arms over her nice handful size tits.
My cock twitches behind the zipper of my jeans.
I’d love nothing more than to sink inside her again, but not before I find out what the fuck’s going on here.
I’ve been trying to talk to her for several reasons.
First: I want to know why I woke up in bed alone.
Second: she needs to know what happened, what I realized after I pulled out of her warm honey. Lastly, she has a right to know.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, sounding as pure and innocent as I know she is. Sure, she wasn’t a virgin when I fucked her the other night, but that doesn’t mean she’s not anything but innocent. The woman might as well have been, she was tighter than anyone else I’ve fucked.
“You’re avoiding me,” I answer, straightening to cross my arms and cock my head to the side as I stay straddling my bike.
“No, I’m not.”
I watch her lips as she licks her bottom one and pulls it between her teeth.
The telltale sign she’s lying. I’ve known Stella for years.
She was a hellion before that night so many years ago when Hellhound sent her to Ireland.
When she came home, she wasn’t that spitfire I knew her to be.
That is until days ago when I’d been balls deep inside her.
The woman in front of me shined like I knew she could, and having been inside her as she did it, I wasn’t too inclined to lose the spark.
In the past year or so, things around the club have changed for the better. My brother, Reaper, finally moved on from the past and found happiness with Ivy. She’s his world now, her and the twins she gave birth to. Besides the club, they’re the only people my brother would do anything to protect.
Seeing him get that, I knew I wanted the same for myself. At first, I thought I might have been able to do that with Isabelle, but she’s more like a sister to me, and I knew without a doubt who she wanted . . . Hellhound. The two of them together are good for each other.
Plus, after the other day, I know who I want for myself. The woman standing in front of me.
“Baby, don’t lie to me,” I growl, narrowing my gaze on her, though I know she can’t see my eyes slanting to little slits.
“I’m not lying, Angel. I’ve been working, not avoiding. Besides, it was a one-time thing,” she states nonchalantly. I want to applaud her for being able to call what we had a one-time thing, but the fact she did pisses me off even more.
“One-time thing?” I curl my lip at the corner in frustration. “You think what we had was a one-nighter?”
It’s all I can do to keep myself where I am and not pull her to me and show her what we had wasn’t what she thinks.
“Yes, Angel,” she answers, holding her head high. “We can’t have more than that, and you know it. The two of us don’t fit in each other’s lives. I don’t fit in with your lifestyle, and we both know I don’t. I’m not a biker babe.”
Fury threatens to take hold and I want to shake some sense into her.
“You know I’m right,” she whispers, tears filling her eyes. “We need just to forget what we did together and move on. I can’t be someone I’m not.”
“And what makes you think I’ll ask that of you?” I snarl.
“Because I’m boring and plain and I don’t have time. I work constantly. I know the way things work at the club,” she responds. She shakes her head as she goes on to whisper, “I know.”
“What do you know? Hell, you don’t know shit.
If you think you can deny what happened, then go for it.
Fuck, I’m not going to sit here and argue with you.
You want it to be a one-night stand, then thank you fuckin’ much for it.
When you get your head together, and you’re ready to talk and not hide behind work because you’re scared shitless of something we could have, then you know where to find me. ”
Shaking my head, I drop my arms and grab my handlebars while I start my bike. I don’t look at Stella again. If I do, I’ll change my mind. I’ll want to pull her into my arms and take her into the house and prove to her what we could be together.
Revving the engine, I take off out of her driveway, leaving her behind, hoping she’ll get her shit together and realize before it’s too late. Then again, things happen, and if it did the other night, she’ll be at my mercy, and I won’t relent.