Three days. That’s all it’s been since I’ve been in Ryker’s bed, but it feels like forever. It feels like my life has always been this wonderful. Ryker took my virginity three days ago and I’m completely his. Everything is better. Tonight is my first night back to work. Ryker wasn’t happy. He doesn’t want me working here. I told him no one would dare mess with me now—not when word has gotten out that I belong to him. He still doesn’t like it. Somehow I convinced him to let me come to work tonight, but only on the condition that I stay inside the bar, let one of the others take out the garbage and that he brings me and picks me up. Since I really don’t want to be without him, I agreed easily.

He dropped me off with a kiss that melted me and left me hungry for more. He had to go back to work at the shop, but he promised to be back before time for me to get off. I’m about an hour from my shift being done and there’s still been no sign of him. I miss him; my body misses him. Maybe he was right and I should quit work. If I wasn’t working, I could be at his garage right now. He offered me a job in his office. I could do that and see him all the time…maybe even beg him to fuck me on my desk…

For a woman that three days ago had never had sex, it seems to be all I can think about now. I know instinctively it’s because it was Ryker. It’s because I am his—and he is mine. He’s ruined me for other men, and he seems to have no interest in other women either. He tells me I’m the one he’s been waiting for and… I believe him.

“Lola, we need to talk.” I turn around quickly. I hate that voice. My mother. When she’s around trouble is bound to be close behind.

“I can’t talk right now. I’m working.”

“Working,” she scoffs. “Why do you need to work? Word around town is that you’ve managed to capture Ryker Stone’s attention. Was it all a lie?”

“I… That’s none of your business, really, Mother,” I tell her, not liking the idea of my mom spending any time whatsoever thinking about my relationship with Ryker. There are people in this world that are just toxic and my mother is definitely one of those. I don’t want her near anything that Ryker and I share.

I’m so lost in my thoughts that I don’t see her hand coming toward me. I cry out when it connects with the side of my face, the burning sting of pain following the hit swiftly.

“You don’t talk to me like that! I am your mother!” she cries out.

“You touch my woman again, and the only thing you will be is planted in the ground for the worms to devour,” Ryker growls out, his voice colder than anything I’ve ever heard. It chills me and I know without a shadow of a doubt he would never hurt me. “Lola, come here,” he orders and I walk to him, still holding my cheek. He pulls my hand down to inspect my face. I can’t know what he sees, but I feel the glowing heat from the hit still, and I can tell from the anger vibrating through him, and showing on his stern face, that it’s not good. “Slim!” he yells out, his gaze never leaving mine.

“Yeah, Ryker?” my boss answers.

“What the fuck are you doing here? You can’t protect my woman one night? First she almost gets gang-raped out back last week and now this. Where the fuck are your bouncers?”

“Man, they’ve been watching for other men, but well… Shit, man, it’s her mom.”

“That woman is nothing but a piece of trash to take out,” Ryker growls and I don’t disagree with him. She’s never been a mother. I actually have to wonder why she showed up here.

I shouldn’t have worried, though. She makes the reason abundantly clear with her next screeching statement.

“Who the hell do you think you are? Calling me trash like that! I’m her mother! I fed and clothed the ungrateful piece of shit year after year! She owes me!” she hisses and my eyes go big. I started work at sixteen and even before that I mostly ate at one of the neighbors’ trailers in the park we lived at. My mother never gave a shit about me.

“What exactly do you think—” I start to respond, but Ryker doesn’t let me. He crosses in front of me protectively. My mouth shuts closed, because it’s apparent Ryker doesn’t want me dealing with her.

“What is it you want from her?” Ryker says, getting to the heart of the matter.

“I think this discussion is better had between me and Lola.”

“Lady, you are crazy if you think you are getting anywhere near my woman again. Now, my patience is wearing thin. I want to take my woman home, make sure she is okay and then get lost deep inside of her and go to sleep. You are keeping me from that. So spit out exactly why you crawled out from under your rock and let’s be done with it.”

“I would rather speak with Lola,” she argues stubbornly.

“And we’re done here,” Ryker says, turning away from her and back to me.

“I need money!”

“What the fuck?” Ryker mutters. He looks at me and, despite the still burning pain of my cheek, I know the color drains from my face. It’s one thing to know your mother is a bitch who could care less about you; it’s quite another to let the man you love see it. I want Ryker to see me as someone worthy of love—someone he could be proud of.

What if he thinks because she is my mother that I will end up being just like her?

“Ryker—” I start, but he doesn’t let me finish. For a second I’m scared this will cause him to leave me. Then he turns back around to my mother.

“I’m listening,” he snarls out.

“I need to get out of town. I’m going to California.”

“What does that have to do with Lola?”

“I need some money to get out of here.”

“How in the hell is that our problem?”

“It’s not yours! But Lola is my daughter and she owes me! She’s got a job and now you. Everyone in this godforsaken town knows you’re loaded. The least she can do is give me enough money to help me start over!”

“How exactly does she owe you?”

“She stole years of my life! She’s the reason Phillip left me!”

“Who the hell is Phillip?” Ryker barks.

“Her last boyfriend,” I whisper, feeling sick to my stomach.

“Then he probably left because he couldn’t handle waking up to a rack of bones that stays doped up out of her mind,” Ryker justifies.

“He left because of Lola!”

“I doubt—”

“He left because I told him the next time he tried to break into my room and climb in my bed I’d have him arrested!” I defend, sick of all of this, and mostly sick that this person is my mother.

“He what?” Ryker asks, his voice deadly.

“You should have just let him. Phillip was good to you. You didn’t complain when he put food on the table,” my mother claims, like she’s tired of talking about it.

“You aren’t getting a penny from Lola or from me,” Ryker says and this time he’s not yelling at my mother. He’s not growling in his normal tone. This time his voice is deadly quiet and has the strength of steel behind it.

“She—”

“We don’t really know each other, so I’m going to give you advice now. Lola is mine. She saved herself for me. You just told her she should have given what was mine away. More than that, you just admitted you would have sacrificed your innocent daughter to keep your man happy since you couldn’t.”

“How dare you!”

“This is the only warning you get, so you better heed my advice, lady, because I’m not giving it twice. You leave this place and you don’t even try to contact Lola again. As far as you are concerned she’s dead to you.”

“You don’t have that right.”

“I have every right. I’m protecting my woman from a viper like you.”

“You have no control over me. I’m not some lapdog like you’re trying to turn my daughter into.”

“I can see you’re not going to listen to my warning. So let me tell you what will happen if you don’t leave. That fucking candy store you’ve been running out of the trunk of your car will be discovered. I’ll make sure enough fuckwads come forward to pin your ass to the wall.”

“You can’t. You don’t have the proof to do that.”

“It’s amazing what money can do, and as you just said… I’m loaded. So try me. I’ll make sure they lock you in a federal pen with security so tight you’ll never see the light of day.”

My mother is watching Ryker closely. I can see the moment she knows she’s hit a wall she can’t get around. I even see a glimpse of real fear on her face.

I don’t know what she would have said next. I don’t get the chance to ask.

Ryker spins around and picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry so fast my head spins. I cry out and try to steady myself by using my hands on his back.

“Slim?”

“Yeah, Ryker?”

“My woman quits. She’s going to work at the garage where I know she’s safe and filth can’t touch her.”

“You got it, man,” I hear Slim answer right before the door to the club slams behind us.

Ryker marches over to his old truck like a man with a purpose. He opens the door and then shifts me so I’m standing.

“Do you have a problem with anything that happened in there, Lola?” he asks.

“No,” I answer honestly.

“Good. Then I’m taking you back home, I’m fucking you raw and then after I’ve calmed down, I’ll fuck you soft. You got anything to say to that?”

“Take me home, Ryker,” I whisper softly.

He grunts in reply, scoops me up and deposits me in the seat of his truck and buckles me in. He’s still vibrating with anger at my mother, but even in his fury he takes the time to kiss my lips. He kisses them softly, too, letting none of his anger bleed through.

With Ryker I know I’ll always be safe. It’s such a beautiful feeling.