REIGN: A Motorcycle Club Romance Novel Read online

  My nerves were sparking like fireworks, my face turning to a fan of flames as heat coursed through me with each stroke, my eyes popping open to meet his. My hips automatically began to work with him, rising and falling to meet his pumps, my pussy gushing around him as he drove deeper and faster into me.

  Suddenly, he pushed one arm underneath me, raising my lower back, and with his next stroke I felt him hit some tender button inside me, some field of untapped energy, my mind sparking with electricity as he pressed hard into it. My nails dug into his flesh, my free hand now coming to his lower back and pulling him in, my body only knowing that it wanted more of what he was giving me.

  My legs clenched tight around his waist as he thrust into me, each time pounding into that same spot, a hot air balloon of pressure rising in my stomach once more as my eyes closed and my mouth opened in a soundless cry, muscles dancing up and down with ecstasy. He began to fuck me harder, no longer holding back, his massive cock driving into my body almost violently, his hips working at a breakneck pace, his breathing growing labored.

  Turning my head to the side, I could see his fingers clenching the covers, feel his body on top of me tense and begin to shake. That balloon of pressure was rising inside me, rising, quickly, too quickly, my eyes clenched shut, my toes wiggled frantically, my grip on his bicep almost painful, lights dancing before my eyes as my body relented, surrendered to him, melting into a soft puddle of shimmering pleasure, my second climax making me feel like I was levitating off the bed, entering an intoxicating dream world, my pussy milking his cock as he thrust it once more into me with a shudder.

  I barely registered the bursts of cum that spouted from his cock, massaging my pussy walls as they clenched around him, my body tingling all over as I collapsed in an exhausted puddle underneath him, feeling him pulse inside me with each burst of hot cum, filling me entirely until he finally slid out with a wet plop, his cock trailing gooey white cum down my thighs.

  Jeremy, fuck you, I thought, lazily, almost giddily, my body now freed of the last thing he held over me, another man’s cum dripping from my gushing slit, my entire being a singular pillar of dizzy bliss and ecstasy. Reign slid onto the bed beside me, our bodies too overheated to even touch, both spent and panting beside each other.

  “Thank you,” I murmured through closed eyes. He turned to me, opened one eye in a slit, chuckled.

  “Sure, anytime, beautiful. Holy shit,” he said, letting all his breath out in a rush and shaking his head. “I can’t remember the last time I came like that.”

  “Really?” I said, lifting my head in bafflement. Surely he had girls by the dozen lining up to experience a taste of that amazing cock.

  “You’re something else, that’s all I have to say,” he said, and I detected something strange in his voice, almost wistful. I turned onto my side, looking at his profile. My eyes fell on a tattoo on his bicep, a Celtic cross that wound around a supplicating angel. I brought one finger to it, tracing it gently, and felt his skin react to my touch. He turned to me once more, no longer smiling, his eyes fixing on my face like I was the finish line of a race.

  “Can I stay for a while?” he asked. He sounded embarrassed, like that wasn’t something he usually did. I nodded. He turned on his side. I thought, briefly, that my little belly was probably in an unattractive roll. But the way he was looking at me I knew it didn’t matter a single bit. He stroked my cheek.

  “Something else, indeed,” he said.

  ~ 7 ~

  “And…I mean, you don’t feel bad? Being a one-percenter, or whatever? Doing criminal stuff all the time?” We were still lying in bed, had been for hours, minutes dripping away as we talked about everything and nothing at once. He had been telling me about the Black Smokes, his club, apparently trusting me enough – or at least not threatened by me enough – to let me in on some of the grittier details of their operation.

  “Well, I don’t know, you gotta look out for your own. I don’t like doing bad things, but if someone’s gonna do something bad to you and yours, well…better to beat them to the punch, I guess. We aren’t such bad guys, we aren’t out there feeding drugs to kids. Hell, we take care of drug dealers, you know? Rip ‘em off, keep ‘em from getting people hooked, I see it as being Robin Hood,” Reign said, eyes half-lidded. I was surprised he was being so open. I guess I wasn’t much of a threat.

  “Well, Kant would have a lot to say about that,” I said with a laugh. Reign looked at me puzzled.

  “Can’t would? Yeah, I guess, if you aren’t in the life you don’t have much of a right to say anything…”

  “No, no, not ‘can’t’. Kant. Like, Immanuel Kant. He was a philosopher,” I said, trying to hide my amusement. Reign looked slightly offended.

  “Got no use for philosophers, big talkers. None of his damn business, if you ask me,” he said, seeming upset to be told something he didn’t know. I got the impression that Reign wasn’t used to “chicks” who knew more than him about any subject except lipstick shades.

  “Well, I guess that’s true,” I said, conceding that it really wasn’t any of the long-dead German’s business what a modern-day biker dude’s personal philosophy was.

  “What about the cops around here, though?” I asked, thinking about Jeremy, his cop friends, the way they seemed to rule every aspect of my life. It’d been no less than a miracle that I’d snapped and taken the money and run when I’d been too afraid to even tell anyone about Jeremy’s nasty habit of speaking with his fists. Reign scoffed.

  “We own the cops in this town. Shit, they love us. We keep the drugs out of town, we bring money in. Someone tries to come in here and start messin’ around, we take care of ‘em. This is the wild West, sweetheart. Vigilante justice is our bag,” he said, a confident smile coming over his face. He was bragging, like he was trying to impress me.

  “I don’t think I could live like that, myself,” I said, hoping to stroke his ego a bit. He deserved it, after all the ways he’d stroked me. “I don’t even really know how to live on my own.” Now that I’d started speaking, I was saying things that I hadn’t realized I’d felt before they left my mouth.

  “I’m sure you know more than you think. You’re just confused right now, you know? It’s a tough thing, what you’re doin’. Ain’t got no one to help you along the way?”

  I shook my head. Both my parents had passed, I had no siblings, no other family, and my friends…well, I’d stopped having friends the longer I stayed with Jeremy. Because he didn’t trust me to go out with them on my own, and thought they would poison me against him. He’d never said those things, of course, but he made my life such living hell whenever I tried to keep up my friendships that I eventually stopped trying.

  There was no one on this earth I could trust anymore. That thought made me want to start crying. But I didn’t want to do that here, now, in bed with this mysterious stranger who’d helped me climb that final mountain. Attain that last peak, if you’ll excuse my mixing metaphors.

  “No, no. And it’s not just my husband,” I said, lifting myself up onto my elbows as my mind turned. Should I tell him the whole truth? About the money and everything? Because it really wasn’t just escaping Jeremy that was plaguing my spirit. If anyone would understand, it seemed he would. But he was basically a stranger, still, and he wasn’t being very secretive about his criminal habits. I’d be stupid to tell him about the money. He might not turn me in, probably wouldn’t, but he’d probably take it for himself and his club.

  “Oh?” he asked, and I realized I’d been silent for a while, thinking of how to tell him that I was in trouble with the law without telling him exactly why. The solution, as most things in life, was actually simpler than I made it out to be.

  “I just…I had to do something to get away, and it’s not exactly legal. I can’t stick around. I’ve got to get somewhere safe, and soon. I need to get to Mexico. I have…I have money,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t ask for more details.

  “And you think Mexico is gon
na be safe? Darlin’, do you know anyone in Mexico? Do you even speak Spanish? You look like you might,” he said. I was relieved he didn’t pry into exactly what it was I’d done; then again, it seemed like that might be some sort of criminal code. If you meet a like-minded (or luscious-bodied) person on the run for something bad, you helped before asking questions. I shook my head at his queries.

  “What do you think is gonna happen? You get ‘cross the border, they hold a party for you, welcoming to the great country of Mexico? Shit, the way you look, you don’t wanna take two steps in that place unless you got bodyguards. They’d eat you up, honeybuns,” he said.

  I bit my lip. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Then again, after so many years of mind games from Jeremy, it was hard to tell when someone was being genuine and when someone was being manipulative.

  What if he was just trying to get me to stay so he could find out what it is I’d done; maybe he had suspicions about how much money I had? I cursed myself for telling him I had any money at all. But what other reason could he have for not wanting me to hit the road as soon as possible? Surely, he had plenty of girls to choose from, what with his kiss-me lips and honey-come-here eyes.

  “I don’t know. I just figured I’d be better off living free in South America than on the run here…”

  “Sure, but you can’t just go barging down to no man’s land in a beater. You even have a passport? I mean, not your passport? They track that shit, you know. Girl, you best to stick around a few days. I can help you. With the car, sure, but I know people down there. Let me make some calls. And we’ll get you some clothes, a new ID, all that,” Reign said, leaning back and closing his eyes as though the discussion was done.

  “Well, thanks for the offer, but I really feel more comfortable…”

  “You think you do, but you won’t. Trust me. Nasty guys down there at the border. You don’t wanna risk your pretty little neck. Let me get it all set up for you. C’mon, let me be a good Samaritan. You did me a favor tonight, let me repay you,” he said, opening his eyes slightly, looking at me through the corner.

  “What kind of favor did I do you tonight? Seems like you did all the work,” I said, unable to keep the blush from my face and the excitement from my voice as I remembered what had brought us to our current, naked, lounging state.

  “Just trust me, you done me a whole lotta good,” he said, suddenly reaching out and grabbing me around the shoulders, pulling me into his broad, tattooed chest. I breathed deeply, savoring the smell of him, the musky, leathery odor, so masculine and rough. They should bottle that scent, it’d get guys laid a whole lot more than Axe.

  Suddenly, the alarm clock next to the bed went off. I looked over; it was 8am. I’d set the alarm as soon as I’d gotten into the room, meaning to be on the road as soon as I could. 8 was the latest I’d wanted to sleep. Now, I hadn’t slept at all. Regardless of whether or not I wanted to take Reign up on his offers, I wouldn’t be going anywhere that day. Not on zero hours of sleep. Not with my mind as screwed up as it was.

  “Shit,” Reign said, rolling over. “Is it morning?”

  The heavy curtains blocked the entirety of the sun, keeping us in the illusion of constant evening. I nodded, suddenly feeling very, very tired. Reign’s hand crept up my thigh, slowly. My body shuddered, but I put my hand on top of his, halting his progress. I couldn’t do that again now, as much as my body might want it. I needed sleep, and a shower, and time to think without oxytocin flooding my neurons.

  “Sorry,” I said, hoping to sound as genuine as I felt. “I need…I need to be alone for a bit. I didn’t realize…”

  He nodded.

  “Sure, you had yourself a hell of a day. Don’t worry about the room; no one gonna come kick you out. I’ll make sure of that. You get yourself some sleep.”

  I could hear disappointment in his voice, but his eyes were all understanding. It almost made me want to change my mind. But, no, I needed to deal with my shit. Reign rolled out of bed, landing on his feet like a cat, his magnificent manhood dangling between his legs. It would have looked comical if it didn’t flood me with memories of what he’d done to me with it.

  I clenched my legs together, biting the inside of my cheek as I watched him get dressed. His lean, toned, gorgeous, tattooed, hairy, oh-so-edible body disappearing one garment at a time. I just sat there in the bed, covered to the chest, watching him, hoping that I’d get to see him without his clothes again sometime. If I was going to be there another night…

  “Mind if I come by later?” he asked, the question sounding not like a question at all. He knew the answer. Damn, but that cockiness was just as hot as his body. It was different from Jeremy’s confidence, which was inflated beyond reason. It was a cockiness that was backed up by…well, cock. There, I said it.

  I nodded. “Much later,” I added, meaning to sleep the whole day if I could. I needed it.

  “Trust me, I won’t be opening my eyes before 9,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Are you…are you sure I’m safe here?” I asked, panic setting in as the warmth of his body left the bed. When he’d been lying next to me, it was easy to chase away my fear. Now, I was going to be alone again. Alone in this room, with no one to protect me.

  Images of the body under the mattress in the other room, Jeremy’s squad car pulling up, the cocaine stashed in the drawer, my phone in pieces on the passenger seat of the car, began to flash in my head, as though I’d blacked out for the past twelve hours and was trying to piece everything together bit by bit. Reality came in a rush. And it hurt.

  Reign looked at me as though he could see right through me into my head. He dropped his hands to his sides, came to sit on the edge of the bed beside me.

  “Do you want me to stay?” he asked. I could see it wouldn’t be an imposition on him. I shook my head. He couldn’t just stay forever. At some point, I’d have to be on my own. And that might as well start now. And, I figured, I was so exhausted I would probably pass out quicker than I thought, anyway.

  “I’m okay. But…you…no one will tell anyone where I am, right?”

  “Of course not. We’re not in the habit of selling people out. And I’ll make sure everyone knows you ain’t even here,” he said, then paused, seeming to think. “Give me your car keys.”

  My chest constricted. What did he want those for? What, was he going to steal my car? But then why would he ask for my keys? What if he wanted to strand me here? What if, under all that charm and sincerity, he was just like Jeremy – worse? What if he was going to make sure I couldn’t leave?

  “I’m just going to move it to the municipal lot down the block,” he said, as though reading my thoughts. “That way, if you’re right and he’s tracking your wheels, he won’t know where you are, just that you’ve been here at some point. But if you’re parked right outside your room…”

  “Oh. Of course,” I said, still not entirely sold but also seeing the logic in his proposal. Besides, if I was going to be stuck with an abusive man, it might as well be an abusive man who was willing to give me mind-blowing orgasms than one who just wanted to give me reasons to wear concealer. I gave him my keys from where they sat on the nightstand.

  “You won’t…you won’t, like, steal it or anything?”

  Reign smiled, finding humor in my panic. I’d have been offended but that smile was like a get-out-of-jail-free card.

  “What would I do with a junker like that? I only need two wheels. But I am gonna see if we can’t get you something new to ride around in. Even if you decide to go through with this fool plan of yours to head to the border, we’ll make sure you get there as incognito as you can,” he said, reaching out to stroke my cheek. My eyes closed, my head lolled against his palm, the warmth of him like a panacea for my fevered mind. He rose, jangling my keys.

  “Don’t you run off on me, now,” he said, and I thought I could detect a hint of actual worry in his plea.

  “How can I?” I said, gesturing to the keys he held in his
hand. He looked down at them and smiled, laughing at himself.

  “I’ll come back ‘round later, or see you at the bar,” he said, leaning forward and cupping my chin in his hand, our lips meeting once again, tongues just barely touching for one soft, blessed moment.

  And then he was gone, a shaft of too-bright light appearing in the room as he swung the door open, then disappearing as he shut it.

  Do you know the tale of the tell-tale heart?

  As soon as I was alone in that room, it was like that duffel bag in the safe was the beating heart plaguing the narrator in Poe’s story. I fell asleep, slowly but surely, to a dull, imagined throbbing sound emanating from the safe. As though it were alive, glowing and thumping against the walls. Trying to escape.

  A metronome that lulled me to sleep as much as it frightened me.

  It could have been my own heartbeat.