Chapter 1

 

Trigger

 

 

Today is the day I’ve been waiting on for three years. No, I take that back, I’ve been waiting all my life for today. Opal Willoughby is out of high school and eighteen. Opal was made for loving me. I know it and she knows it. We’ve been in a struggle of push and pull since we were kids. Me trying to push her away while she has tried like hell to pull me in.

I knew not to touch her before she was of legal age.

Her daddy, the local Reverend, woulda sent me upstate in a flash had I touched his precious angel a day before she turned eighteen.

Now there’s nothing he can do to stop what’s been set in motion for years.

When I was in high school, Opal was still just a girl. I knew it was wrong to see an eighth grader and want her, but Opal had this something, she still does. Even though I knew lusting after a reverend’s daughter was wrong, I didn’t care. I wanted her and knew that one day I would make her mine.

When the woman she has become smiles at me…the sensations I feel travel straight to my dick. Opal’s gorgeous, long blonde hair, big wide almond eyes, and that tempting mouth. Sweet Lord, the things I’d love for her mouth to do to me.

As much as Opal revs my engine physically, there’s so much more to her. She has the biggest heart, always doing for others. Not because she has to either. I’ve seen her go above and beyond for the kids in this town.

When she was just a kid in grade school she started up a program with the school to make sure no kid went home on the weekends to an empty cupboard. Because of Opal, every student goes home on Friday with a bag of canned goods.

However, there was always this sadness behind her eyes.

She’d come to the county pool when I was working as a lifeguard and dip her toes in the water. Never getting in, she’d sit near my lifeguard post and grin at me.

One day, a little asshole decided he was gonna have fun with the Rev’s daughter and threw her into the pool. It was obvious she couldn’t swim, even though the water wasn’t very deep. The part of the pool she was in only had a depth of four feet. She could’ve stood had she bothered to stop flailing her arms and legs long enough. I jumped in after her, furious with the kid, he could have broken a bone by tossing her in shallow water like that. Asshole.

I shouldn’t have looked, but when I was getting her from the pool, I could see down the back of her suit. The bruises and welts marking her pale skin didn’t escape my notice.

Anger flooded me, I wanted to kill whoever had hurt her.

She was all that was good and pure in the world. Someone would pay for putting their hands on her and tarnishing her porcelain skin.

Once I had her secure in the office drinking a soda, I jerked that runt from the pool by his hair, daring him to ever even breathe the same air as Opal. I’m positive he pissed himself. He never looked in Opal’s direction again. I made damn sure no man or boy ever did. Opal was meant to be with me.

Back in the office I kicked the filing cabinet imagining I was kicking the kid. Opal jumped and a slight squeak left her lips.

“No reason to be scared of me,” I told her, trying to steady my breathing. Trying to concentrate on finding out where the bruises originated from. I needed to keep my cool in front of her. Didn’t want her believing I would hurt her too.

“Your back...what happened?”

She shrunk back, folding a skinny arm around her middle, looking anywhere but at me, as though she were ashamed of something.

“Don’t bullshit me either. That kid, he do that to you? Does he pick on you a lot?”

She sipped her Pepsi and shook her head.

I pinched the bridge of my nose knowing down deep the real cause of the marks that desecrated her skin. “Your old man then?”

Her face tensed, and I saw the flash of pain behind her eyes before her mask slid back in place.

I nodded, not needing any more information.

That day I vowed I’d always look after Opal, I’d rid her of the pain, and I’d make damn sure the Rev knew I was watching him.

I went to my club first. I was just a prospect and Wilcox, my president, told me to leave it alone, that it wasn't my business, it wasn’t club business.

I couldn’t do that though—leave it alone.

Opal needed me even if she didn’t know it yet.

Somehow, she always seemed to find trouble whenever I was near.

And I always seemed to have the need to step in and save her.

I started attending church every Sunday.

I made sure the Rev understood what my presence meant.

He tried to run me off, he even called Wilcox, but that never stopped me.

I would’ve burned down the church if doing so wouldn’t have taken Opal away from me. Even my Uncle being the county attorney wouldn’t have gotten me off arson charges.

A biker burning a church in the name of love would’ve made one helluva headline though.

Wherever Opal was that’s where I’d be, the library, school, the dentist…I was always watching, trying to keep her safe.

Our stolen moments together, as brief as they were, confirmed what I felt deep in my bones, Opal would be mine. She wanted to be mine.

I knew I should stay away, I tried like hell to fight my pull to her, drowning my sorrows on Saturday in liquor and club pussy. Then I’d attend church on Sunday and see Opal, and I’d pray that one day I’d be worthy of all that sweetness she directed my way. Those sweet lips would lift into a sugary smile when I’d walk in, hungover, but wearing a button down and dark jeans attempting to appear respectable. I even slicked my hair back and secured it in a rubber band.

River and Angus would give me shit, but those fuckers were cleaned up and sitting next to me.