Winter by Michelle Love (6)

Angel Shows Her Billionaire Who Is Boss # 2

Bright sunlight filters through the sheer pink colored curtain in Angel’s bedroom. She’s managed to escape my arms during the night and the absence of another person breathing in the small room is obvious.

Rolling out of bed, I make my way to the bathroom to surprise her, hopefully while she’s in the shower. I’m going to take her out with me today. I’m not taking no for an answer this time at all.

I can shut her down with one simple kiss now and plan on doing that every time I need to.

“Cuddles,” I call out, looking for her dog, as I leave the bedroom and find the bathroom door open and no trace of Angel in there.

With a quick grab of a towel off the shelf, I cover my bottom half and go into the living room, finding she’s not in here either. A quick search of the kitchen shows me a note she’s left on her tiny dining table.

Fuck!

She’s gone!

I scan the tiny note she’s left and want to scream.

Blaze,

Had to leave town for a while. Had fun. Really, I did. Thanks for the pretend thing you did for me. I appreciate it. Hope you did too.

See you around town I guess.

Angel and Cuddles.

So she wants to act like that was all pretend, huh? I damn well know she wasn’t pretending with me and I sure as hell wasn’t pretending with her.

I’ve never felt anything more real than what we did. Nothing!

She’s scared. Afraid she’s really falling for me and that I’ll leave her like the jack-off did before.

But I won’t.

I can tell she might well be the one for me. And I’m not about to let her go just because she has issues.

Pulling my clothes back on, I leave her house and find another note taped outside the front door that tells me to please lock it behind me. Before I do that, I go back inside and get the pen that’s lying next to her minuscule note and write my phone number down at the bottom with an order to call me as soon as she gets back or I’ll come hunt her ass down.

I used several exclamation points then added, ‘I love you, my Angel. Yours always, Benny.’

Then I leave, lock her door and feel so damn angry inside that she didn’t use the nickname she gave me on her note. Blaze is what she used and last night I noticed her saying Blaze at times and Benny at others. Each time she used Blaze, I felt like she was pretending in her mind that she felt nothing.

When she used Benny, I could feel the emotion in her. Real, deep emotion. And we just have to get to the place where she knows I’m not a runner.

As I get on my bike and start it up, I look up and down the street. I can feel a vague hope that I can find her before she gets out of town. But it’s really vague.

There’s no sign of her at the garage she works at. But I stop in anyway to see if her Uncle knows where she went.

The bell rings as I walk in and Phil is sitting at the computer with a pair of old horn-rimmed glasses. He looks up at me and looks right back at the computer. “I don’t know where she is, Blaze.”

“Did she give you a hint when she’ll be back?” I ask as I shove my hands in my pockets, feeling quite annoyed.

He shakes his head. “Nah. I think it’ll be a few days.”

I turn and walk out the door, calling out a goodbye to her uncle as I do. Then get on my bike and go to my motel room.

No bikes are in the parking lot so I know I missed whatever they’re all doing this morning. I’ll catch up to them at lunch.

A shower is in order. But to wash away her scent is a thing I don’t want to do. All my plans for today are shot and now it looks like I’m going to drink this one away and the next and the one after that until she comes back.

How could she be so callous?

After getting dressed in my leather apparel, I feel more like Blaze and a lot less like Benjamin. Nothing like Benny, though.

That man only comes out for her.

All these years I’ve been the person I was expected to be. Except when I took the month of August to be this badass biker. And now that I think I’ve found the one person who can help me integrate my two very opposite personalities, she runs away.

I cruise down the main street and in no time at all, I find my gang’s bikes in front of a bar. So I park and head inside at three o’clock in the afternoon.

Just like I knew I’d find, a tall, plump platinum blonde woman is sitting on the barstool closest to the door. Her arm juts out as I try to pass her. “Hey there,” she says, then hands me a beer. “This one’s on me.”

After a moment of not taking the beer and looking right into her already bloodshot eyes, I look over to find my gang at a couple of large tables.

I look back at her and say, “Thanks. But I’m not going to be sucking down suds tonight.”

As I walk away, she grabs my arm and I turn back quickly to find a pout on her large red lips. “Come on, Baby. Just one drink with me then you can go join your brothers.”

I peel her hand off my arm.

“First, I’m not your baby and second, my answer to your offer is, no. Bye.”

I walk away and hear her muttering about me being an asshole. Which I am most times so I don’t get offended by her remark.

Pulling a chair up between Rod and Paco whose women sit on the other side of them, I think I’ve placed myself strategically in a position where most women won’t feel comfortable coming up to me.

“Hey guys,” I say and find Rod looking at me with an odd expression. “So, I saw that trick try to give you a beer, and you turned her down. Why would that be, Brother?”

“It would be because I found the one for me and I’m not about to let her catch me with another chick or it might all blow up in my face.” Paco hands me a shot glass and the bottle of Jack that everyone is drinking from.

I fill the tiny glass up and drink it down. It burns and reminds me I’m alive and at the most badass bike rally in the world and need to loosen up.

But only just enough. I don’t want to be plastered if Angel comes to her senses and comes back and calls me.

Rod taps the table top as he looks me over. “The one?”

I nod. “Only she has very bad men-related issues.” I refill the glass and pick up the dark liquor, looking at how the light is filtered as it runs through it. “She left me at her place alone this morning. Not a word to me. She just took off like a scared rabbit, leaving me a note that said what we did was fun.”

Rod smiles and pushes a tall bottle of beer to me. “Maybe she isn’t on the same page you are, my friend.”

“She is. I know she is. It’s electric when we touch. We like the same things. You know what this badass mother-fucker did last night with her?” I ask as I look at him.

His wife, Ashely’s, face comes into view as she looks around him at me. “Nuh uh, Blaze. My man doesn’t get to hear about other men’s sexual escapades.”

“I wasn’t talking about that. I was going to tell him about how I made her dinner then we watched Willy Wonka on television and it was better than anything I’ve ever done. Just being with her is better than a single day I’ve spent in my entire life.” I toss back the shot then take a drink of the beer.

My heart is so much heavier than it has ever been.

Ashely mumbles into her husband’s ear, “Shit! He’s got it bad.”

Rod nods and then shakes his head. “She didn’t say where she was going? Not even a hint?”

“No. Not even a hint. She took her little dog too so I know she’ll be gone for at least one night.” I move my legs out to stretch underneath the table and lay my head back in my hands.

“You know, Blaze, I’ve seen you in action and not everyone likes to be handled that roughly. Take it from me,” Rod says. “Maybe what you two did was too intense for her.”

I laugh. “Nah, she’s completely into that kind of stuff. I didn’t mention anything at all about liking to get rough. She asked me to do it. So that’s not it. It’s just that she’s afraid she’ll fall for me and then I’ll leave her heartbroken. That’s all it is. If she’d fucking come around, I could show her that’s not at all what I have in mind for her.”

Ashely peeks around Rod to look at me again and asks, “What do you have in mind for her, Blaze?”

“More. More than I ever thought of before. I go all dreamy as I think about all I want to do with her. Because it’s like a dream to me. I’ve never wanted anyone around all the time before. Ever. It’s making me nuts she isn’t here under my arm right now.” I look back at the door and find the blonde looking my way and she holds up a beer again.

I turn my head without so much as a blink at her. I won’t be taking her up on her offer which starts with a beer and ends with her.

Paco pats my shoulder as he says, “Don’t worry, Brother. If you want the broads to be kept at bay, I got your back.”

Rod nods my way. “Me too, Brother. If you want to stay pure for this woman, then we’ll make sure the ladies leave you alone. It’d suck donkey dicks if she came in and found some tramp on your lap.”

Ashely says with a laugh, “Or even sitting next to you. I knocked the shit of a chick for taking the seat on the other side of my man before. Granted, I gave her a chance to realize her actions were dead wrong and politely asked her to move.”

Rod’s eyebrows go up high as he says, “Politely? I don’t think the phrase, hey bitch, get the fuck away from my man, is considered polite.”

“In some circles, it is,” Ashely corrects her husband. “Anyway, the dumb broad rolled her eyes at me and maintained her seat. To which I promptly got up and removed her obstinate ass and left her with a busted lip.”

I chuckle and take a drink of my beer. “Bet she never tried to sit next to Rod again.”

Ashely shakes her head. “Never again. And she apologized to me on top of that.”

I level my eyes on Rod and say, “You got you a pistol there, don’t you?”

He looks back at her with hazy eyes and says, “I do. And that’s just how I want her. Perfect for me.”

Then Paco clears his throat and we all look his way. “I’d like to announce to you all that I have asked Phoenix to marry me.”

Cheers ring out and shouts of congratulations are called out as Paco holds up his new fiancé’s left hand with a single diamond on a gold band.

I pat the man on the back and say, “I know I told you getting hitched was a dumb idea. But in light of my new found feelings I know it’s the right thing to do. I’m happy for you two.”

“Thanks, Brother,” Paco says as he leans over. “We’ll be leaving at the end of the week and heading to Vegas to do the deed. It’s going to take everything I have to do it, but I’d give all I have for her, anyway.”

And just like that, I know what I want to do for them. “Let me get your room in Vegas, Paco. I’ll set you up in one of the penthouses there and put the whole thing on my bill. Let me do that for you guys. For a wedding present. A week in Vegas on me. What do you say?”

“I say, hell yeah, Brother!” He turns back to Phoenix whose eyes are glistening with unshed tears. “Blaze is giving us one badass wedding gift, my love. The entire week in a Vegas penthouse. What do you say to that?”

Her face lights up and she looks at me with such appreciation. “Blaze, that’s beyond amazing. Thank you so much. I hope you decide to join us for the happy occasion.” Then she looks around the table. “I hope you all do.”

More cheering and hollering acceptance of the invite fills the large bar and then I feel a hand on my shoulder. When I turn back, I see the very tenacious blonde is there looking at me with such a smirk on her face. “I need a light, you got one?”

I don’t have to say a word as both Ashley and Phoenix get up and without a word, escort the woman away from me. I laugh and get back to drinking with my buddies.

“I owe them,” I say as I look back and forth at Rod and Paco. “Remind me to buy them something nice before we leave. It’s nice to have backup when you need it.”

My phone vibrates in my pocket and I nearly fall out of my chair to answer it as my brother’s laugh at me. But when I get it out, I see it’s not Angel. It’s my grandfather for some damn reason.

I shake my head and say, “Not her. It's work.”

Getting up, I go to the bathroom to answer his call so he doesn’t hear all the noise and give me a lecture about cutting me off.

“Hello, Grandfather.”

“Benjamin.”

“Is anything the matter, Grandfather?” I ask as I look in the mirror and run my hand over my long beard, making sure it’s smooth.

“I’m going to need you to cut that trip of yours short this time. I need you back here to finish the Bain deal. We got him to agree to come back to us, but he wants to be sure you’re on board about him. I assured him that you were, but he demanded to have a meeting with you to explain where you stand as his lawyer.”

“Bain? The asshole who’s selling the AIDs drug for more than people can afford?”

“The man who is selling the product he owns for what he thinks it is worth. Vulgarity is not a thing I allow, Benjamin. You are well aware of that. Now, I have set up the meeting for the fifteenth of August,” he says.

But I cut him off. A thing which is never allowed, but I’m fucking doing it, anyway. “I won’t be there. I won’t be representing that piece of shit. As far as the law firm goes, I think it’s a terrible idea to stand behind the man. I won’t have any part in it.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be any part of my firm, Benjamin. Perhaps you think you know more than I do. Perhaps you think you can go it alone or something like that. Is that what you think?” he asks and waits for my answer.

“I don’t want to resign my position with the family firm. I will not be a part of any team representing that asshole, Bain. Take that how you want, Grandfather. Goodbye.”

As I end the call with a swipe of my finger, the tiniest bit of fear runs through me.

What would I do if I had to start over on my own?

Chapter 2

ANGEL

My grandmother’s words keep running through my head as I drive home after being away two nights.

She and my grandfather had what she called a true love. When I told her how it felt when Benny touched me, she told me that it was because we have a connection. One, not many find in this world.

Grandad made her feel that way too and when he passed a few years ago, she knew she’d never find that kind of spark again and was never going to even look for another man to attempt to take the place of the man that she had lost to heart disease.

That alone made me think I need to stop being afraid and see what happens.

If my grandmother can live the rest of her life alone because the time she had with the love of her life will see her through to the end, then I should gain something from the time I spend with Benny.

Even if it’s only a small amount of it.

The night fell on me very fast. I didn’t take off until sunset because I kept going back and forth in my head about what I should do. Finally, I decided to come back home.

If Benny wants to see me again, then he’ll see my bike at work in the morning and stop by. If not, then he won’t. Either way, I’ll know where he stands.

And that’s all I need to know. After all, one amazing night is better than none.

But I pray there’s a lot more of that amazing thing he and I seem to have.

The night air falls cool against my face as I drive my bike back to Sturgis. It’s only about nine, I think. Maybe I should take a cruise through town and see if I can find his bike. Maybe surprise him.

But that might surprise me more. Nah, I better not do that. If I saw him with someone else, I don’t know what I’d do.

It wouldn’t be cool to have a hissy fit after one night of crazy hot passion. And I was the one who ran off so I couldn’t blame him if he was with another woman. But I think I’d have a hard time not throwing a punch or three at them both.

No, it’s best not to find him at a bar. Which I’m sure he’s at. The gang most likely wouldn’t let him sit alone in his motel room and sulk about some woman.

But what if he’s just sitting alone in his little motel room? Lonely, sad, depressed?

I could show up and make his night. That would be awesome.

I could drop off Cuddles at home and go see if I can find his bike parked in front of one of the motel rooms.

Oh God! I sound like a stalker!

The original plan of just going to work tomorrow and letting him see my bike there is a good one. A safe one. One where I don’t make a freaking fool out of myself.

The whole thing is my fault, anyway. I could’ve left him my cell number and maybe we could’ve talked some. But I had to go all paranoid and run off so quickly I even forgot my toothbrush and had to stop and get a new one before I left town.

And then another thought zips through my head that he might just be waiting for me at my house. Which would normally be a thing that would piss me off but now I’d love to find his bike inside my little, white, picket fence.

That would be awesome!

I could go inside and just hug him and tell him I’m sorry and we’d make love and I could spend the night wrapped up in his strong arms.

That feeling was the best thing I’ve ever felt. It took everything in me to move my body out of his warm embrace that early morning before the sun came up.

When I looked back and saw him sleeping so peacefully, I almost climbed right back into bed. But my damn insecurities stopped me and had me running away like an idiot.

I can’t think of another woman who’d be so stupid as I was when I left him there. Alone, in my bed.

What did he think when he woke up and found me gone?

I wonder if he was mad, sad, or relieved. Maybe a bit of all three.

Surely, he realizes now that I’m very damaged. He probably knows he dodged a bullet and left there with a smile on his face.

The headlight hits the white of my little house and my heart starts really banging hard in my chest. If he’s there, it’ll be great and if he’s not, then tomorrow will have to suffice.

As I pull up, I see no other vehicle here. So he didn’t wait for two days for me to show back up. It kind of hurts that he went on. But what did I expect him to do?

Letting Cuddles out of the doggy carrier on my back, I watch her run around the yard, sniffing like crazy. It’s almost as if she’s looking for something. I wonder if it’s him she’s sniffing around for.

The two certainly hit it off like she’s never done with anyone else. I wonder if she’s sad he isn’t here too.

I walk my bike into the yard and park it by the porch. Then I go up the three steps and find the note I taped to the door, asking him to lock it behind him, is still there.

Unlocking the door, I still have vague hope he’s inside the house. But all I see is darkness. Of course, he’s not here.

After I switch on the light, I look around and find the note I left him on the table and walk over to grab it and toss it in the trash can. But I see he’s written on the bottom of it and he left his phone number.

My whole body tenses as I see he’s demanding I call and wrote the words, ‘I love you’ on the note.

So it wasn’t just pretending to him!

I have fought myself the last couple of days about how real it all was. I did ask him to pretend after all.

And with these words, I see it was real for him too. But is it still going to be real since I’ve waited two nights to come back?

Have I waited too long? Has he found other women to fill his nights? Can I take it if he has?

Slowly, I take my phone out of my pocket and look at the number a long time. There’s a lot of exclamation points on the note. It does look like he really wants me to call him.

So I press in the number and wait to see what happens.

One ring, two rings, three rings…

Shit, he’s not going to answer me!

“Hello,” I hear his gravelly, sexy voice say.

“Hey, Benny.”

He sighs. “Angel.” His voice is so quiet and the sound of all the noise fades away as he must be walking out of the bar he’s definitely at. “You’re back.”

“I am. It sounds like you’re at a bar,” I say as I go and plop down on the sofa thinking he’s having a good time and might as well stay there.

“Yeah, my friends are here. But I’ll leave right now and come to you.”

“No! No, Blaze. You stay there. Do whatever it was you were doing. I don’t want you to leave your fun time to come here. That would be stupid.”

“I want to be with you, Angel. I’ve missed you more than I thought humanly possible. Didn’t you miss me at all?” he asks with a certain amount of sadness in his voice.

Should I tell him I did miss him like crazy and could only think about him these last two days?

“Blaze, we barely know each other. How could you miss me?”

“How can you say we barely knew each other? I think we got to know one another pretty damn well. So you’re saying you didn’t miss me at all, Angel?”

I hesitate then say, “I don’t know, Blaze.”

“Stop calling me that. I know what you’re doing when you call me Blaze. You’re not allowing yourself to like me. Or love me.”

“Love is a bit fast, don’t you think? I mean, you’re going to have to leave soon, anyway. Why bring love into this thing we have? Whatever it is,” I say and run my hand through my hair in frustration.

“I am coming over,” he says with an air of authority. “We can talk all about this in person. Face to face. While we hold each other, skin to skin.”

“No.”

“No? Then why did you call me, Angel?”

“Your note was very demanding. I suppose I thought you might want to know I was alive and made it home. I didn’t call you to drag you out of a bar where you were probably having a great time with random bimbos and make you come and talk to me about what this is we have or don’t have.” I get up and go to see what kind of alcohol I have in the fridge as my nerves are bristling.

“I was not messing around with anyone. I haven’t touched a girl since you. Not once. Not at all. I’ve waited for you. I wanted to. I want you to know I think you're special, Angel. My Angel. I’m coming over,” he says with a slight whisper in the last words.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. It’s late,” I say when I find no alcohol to numb me. “I’m going to bed.”

“Stop,” he says with aggravation in his voice. “Just stop this. I’m going to come and see you. If you want me to leave after I take you in my arms and kiss you one time, then I’ll leave. But you have to let me kiss you and hold you. I’ve ached to do that for what seems like forever.”

“Have you really?” I ask as I walk toward my bedroom, peeling my clothes off as I go. His reminder of holding me and kissing me has my body heating up quickly.

“I have. I’ve barely slept and when I did manage to sleep, it was restless with dreams of you and I making love in your cute little pink and black bedroom. My God, how I’ve missed you, Baby. Please just…”

“Tomorrow, Benny. I promise tomorrow.”

“Angel, how could you not miss me?” he asks and I don’t know what to tell him because I did miss him.

“Benny, it’s just that this is intense. I need time to understand this. It’s enough for me to know that you still want to see me. I’ve struggled between thinking it was all a pretend game and something real. So now I know it’s real.” I lie down on my bed, naked now and climb under my blanket as Cuddle's hurdles herself onto the bed, taking her position at the foot of the bed to guard me through the night.

“Okay, since you know what we have is real, then why not let me come over and at the very least hold you for a while? I need to see you, baby. I need to smell you and taste you. I need you, Angel. This is a thing I’ve never done before. I feel as if I’m pleading with you and this isn’t me at all. This is the me I am with you.”

“Am I making you weak?” I ask as I find myself biting at my fingernail then stop as that was a thing I did when what’s-his-ass left me. I chewed all of my fingernails off and it took me some time to stop doing that.

“Not weak. It’s not weak to know you love someone and know you need to be around them. That’s not weakness, Angel. That’s being human. I’m coming over. I need you and need to be with you.”

His words are getting quieter and I know this is wearing him down. “You sound tired, Benny.”

“I am. I’m so tired. You have no idea.”

“Then rest. I’m tired too. I haven’t slept well either. Tomorrow I’ll see you. If you want to that is.” I close my eyes and wait to hear what he says.

“No, I don’t want to see you tomorrow.”

I open my eyes and try to understand what that means. Then I hear giggling in the background and a woman’s voice says, “Blaze, are you coming back inside?”

“Not messing around with any women, huh? Go back inside, Blaze! And don’t even worry about tomorrow. I don’t want to see you. Goodbye!” I end the call.

Tears burn my eyes but I don’t let them fall. He calls me right back and I send it to voicemail.

I knew he was too good to be true. I knew it!

The liar. Lucky for me that chick got tired of waiting for him to go back inside and came out to get him or I’d have never known what he was really doing.

Prick! Making me believe he’s been waiting for me all this time!

And for a few minutes there, I was believing his lying ass. I should’ve known better. I should’ve never even called him.

What I should’ve done was go find him, see him in action and leave without saying a word to him.

At least then my heart and head would agree that love sucks and ends up leaving you hurt.

The phone rings again as he tries to call me back. I send it on again and then turn my phone off.

It’s obvious he won’t quit.

The thing I don’t understand is why me? If he can get any chick he wants, then why does he need to step into my life and give me more pain than I’ve already been dealt?

I roll on my side and yank the blanket up tightly around me. Tears flow over my cheek even though I tried hard to stop them.

Fine, I’ll allow myself to cry a little over the ass wipe. But only a little because I knew this was going to happen, and I allowed it, anyway.

Fuck! I invited it.

He wasn’t trying to get me into bed that night. He was being a gentleman.

It was me who suggested he take most of his clothes off and lie with me on the sofa. I knew what I was doing when I said it.

And it was me who asked him to come to my bedroom. Then I went so far as to ask him to tell me he loved me and would never leave me.

All me!

So I am an idiot. Okay, now that I completely realize that about myself I can begin to move forward. Good riddance to bad rubbish. I’m moving on.

Chapter 3

BLAZE

Poor Phoenix is beating herself up for interrupting my phone call and making Angel hang up on me when she thought it was some chick I’d been hanging out with at the bar.

I promised I’d bring Angel around tomorrow so she could back up my explanation that Phoenix was only looking out for me. She wanted to make sure some woman wasn’t trying to hit on me while I was outside.

But Angel jumped to conclusions and hung up on me and turned her damn phone off. So I’m on my way over there now to talk or rather, kiss, some sense into her stubborn, insecure ass.

I thought the conversation was going pretty well up until that moment. Even though she kept telling me, no, to coming over. But my plan is to bang on the door until she has no choice but to open up or call the cops on me.

I’m a little worried she might take off again so I’m hurrying to get to her house on the outskirts of Sturgis. My headlight reflects off her white picket fence and I also see the reflection of her bike near the front porch.

Even though the house is all dark, I bet she’s home. I turn the engine off and coast in so she doesn’t hear me and barricade herself inside.

I park the bike and go up the sidewalk, being careful to be quiet so the dog doesn’t bark and alert her. And suddenly I realize that I have a lot of stalker tendencies.

Oh well! When in love…

Slowly I go up the stairs trying hard not to let the steps creak. I twist the handle to see if by some miracle it’s unlocked and find it is.

“Fuck!” Doesn’t she know enough to lock her damn door?

I lock the door behind me then sit on the sofa and take off my boots and everything but my underwear and head back to her bedroom.

As I push the door open, I hear a low growl from her dog. “Hey, Cuddles,” I whisper and she gets up, wagging her tail and jumps into my arms with lots of puppy kisses.

Aww, she missed me!

I’m putting her outside in the back yard so she won’t bark when I shut her out of the bedroom because she thinks the bed is hers too and I don’t need any company for my reunion with her mommy.

I grab her a handful of doggy treats that are in a cookie jar in the kitchen and place her little panting, happy ass out the back door. She wags her tail at me as I close the door.

In the living room, I ditch my underwear leaving them with the rest of my clothes and go stealthily back into her bedroom. Her tiny snores are still going and she has no idea there’s been anyone in her house much less her bedroom.

I’m so jumping her ass about leaving that damn door unlocked but that can wait until tomorrow.

Sliding under the blanket, I can feel her warm body as I face her. She’s lying on her side and her long dark hair is covering her beautiful face.

She might try to hit me when she wakes up, so I gently run my hand down her arm to hold it down, if need be. Her body shivers with my touch and mine has little shots of electricity shooting around in it.

I can’t stand not to do it, so I press my lips to hers. A little moaning sound comes out of her and she scoots in close to me. Instead of hitting me, she moves her hand up my arm and over my shoulder and all the way to the back of my neck where she pulls me in to kiss her harder.

Her lips part and I run my tongue into her mouth. My cock is growing by leaps and bounds as she kisses me. The sweetness of her breath is a thing I missed more than air itself.

She throws a leg over me as I run my hands over her naked body. Seems she was most likely getting in bed and getting ready to let me come over. Until she went crazy, that is.

Her soft breasts press against my chest, then her head pulls back a little, and she ends the kiss. Those deep blue eyes are open and looking at me when I open mine.

Her voice is soft and raspy as she says, “I missed you, Benny.”

“I missed you. I hope you’re not mad I came in anyway. And you left the damn door unlocked, making it easy. I plan on explaining that woman to you, but it can wait until tomorrow.” I pull her back to me and kiss her neck as she makes a little purring sound.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers.

Now it’s me who has to pull back and look at her. “You’re sorry. I bet you don’t say that often.”

She shakes her head a bit. “Not often enough. But I am sorry and I want to be different with you.”

Leaving a soft kiss on her cheek, I say, “I want to be different with you too. I’m not the same man when I’m with you. I think the world is made up of rainbows and butterflies when I have you in my arms.”

She giggles and bats her thick dark eyelashes at me. “You silly boy.”

“I am silly over you, my Angel.” I kiss her throat all the way down, over her collar bone and make her groan as I take her plump breast into my mouth.

“Damn it, Benny!”

I nip her tit then suck it hard. Popping it out of my mouth, I look back at her as her hands run all through my hair. “Don’t ever run off again.”

She shakes her head. “Never again.”

“Where are the keys to that set of cuffs you have hooked to your headboard?”

Her eyes go wide and she gestures with a nod toward her nightstand. I pin her body to the bed with mine as I lean over her and open the drawer to make sure they’re there and see the little set of keys.

Moving my body over hers, I take her right wrist and place it in the loose cuff, the other already around the bedpost. The click makes her moan and I run my fingers down her body and then inside her, and find her wet and ready.

“You won’t be running off from me again. If I have to chain your sweet ass up every night, I will do it, you tenacious woman,” I say as I kiss my way down her hot body.

She arches up as my hands run down her waist and my tongue runs over her stomach. “Yes, Sir.”

I stop and look up at her and give her a wink.

“I like Master Blaze when I administer punishments.”

“Oh yes, punish me, Master Blaze. Show me who I belong to,” she hisses out as she writhes beneath me.

My fingernails make red streaks as I rake them down her sides. The sound she makes has my dick hard as a rock but I must torture the shit out of her before she gets to feel my liquid heat fill her.

She does have to be punished after all.

With a firm grip, I take her ass in my hands and pull her up to me. For almost a minute, I only breathe out hot breaths on her very hot and wanting pussy.

She knows enough not to ask for more. That tells me that she is practiced and knows how to obey and take what she has coming. Only she’s never been punished by me, so I expect to hear her begging for my mercy before I let her have what she will be craving when I’m through with her.

One long lick I give her and her moan is outstanding. I look up and see her holding the other bedpost as she tries hard not to move.

“You need a safe word, baby?”

“I won’t be using it as I deserve anything you give me. But Apple will work for me,” she answers.

“Apple it is. And you do deserve everything I give you. You hurt me, you made me wait, and you made me worry.” I lick her again, raking my tongue back and forth over her swollen clit only three times.

Her body is tense, and she’s soaking wet. These sheets don’t stand a chance.

“I know. I am sorry, Master Blaze.” Her leg moves to bend her knee and I drag it back into place.

“And…,” I say then give her another long lick up her hot folds, leaving a nip on her clit.

“I’ll never do it again.” Her body shudders with desire.

With a smile, I bury my face in her hot pussy. Licking, sucking, and bringing her to the very edge of an orgasm. But as soon as I feel her body tremble, I stop and stand up.

Her breathing is hard and fills the bedroom. I have to pace back and forth for a few seconds to stop myself from jumping on top of her and ramming my aching cock into her sweet and very wanting pussy.

“Damn it, Angel! Why? Why did you do this? All I wanted was to make you happy.”

“I can’t let myself be happy. It’ll end and I can’t take it.”

My heart stops and I fall to my knees beside the bed. She turns her head and looks at me with tears running over her cheek. Off the side of the bed, they hit the pink shag carpet in large drops.

Face to face, I look at her crying. “Let them all out, Angel. Let those tears leave you cleansed of your fears. Let the worries go with each one that leaves your body. I am not that man who hurt you. You must trust me. You must respect me enough not to run away. Or we have nothing. And I so want something with you.”

Her chest heaves as a sob comes out of her. I find it so hard not to hold her, not to try to ease her suffering. But she needs to release it.

I stay close. So close we are nearly touching, but I stay back just enough so she can begin to gain that strength that will get her over this insecurity she has.

“Cry as much as you need to.” I reach into the drawer and get the key to the handcuffs. “Cry until you can’t anymore. Let it go, Angel. Let that guy go. Let all that happened go. I’m going nowhere. I’m yours and you are mine.”

With the click of the cuff releasing her, she lets out a loud sob. The only comfort I give her is the way that I rub her wrist where the cuff held it.

Choked words come from her, “I thought what he and I had was love. But I was so wrong. I felt nothing for him now that I know what real love feels like. Yet it did break me when he left me. I had done nothing wrong. I kept a clean house. Kept him satisfied in bed. Cooked for him. Did his laundry and paid half the bills. What more could he have wanted? Why wasn’t I enough for him? Why didn’t he want to take me on his amazing journey around the world? Why, Benny, why?”

I hold her red face between my palms and place one kiss on her forehead. “Because you and he had a nice time together for a while but you didn’t have an all-encompassing love. If he would’ve held onto you for a bit longer, then he’d have stopped you from meeting me. Your one true love, Princess.”

She kind of eases her crying a bit and her eyes which are red-rimmed go big, and she looks at me with much more clarity in them. “Benny, you’re right! You’re right. I’d never have met you. I’d have been God only knows where and you would’ve never walked into my uncle’s garage. You would’ve never touched me and sent heat and electricity through me. A thing I never knew possible.”

“Me neither, Angel,” I admit as I caress her red cheek.

Her eyes go soft as her expression changes to something more like wonder. “You’d never have kissed me and shown me what a real kiss is. Your body would’ve never held mine down with a weight I wished that I could feel forever.”

I give her a half-cocked smile. “You would’ve never let me. So you see, not every relationship is meant to last a lifetime. But ours. Well, ours just might. We won’t know unless we give it a shot.”

“I want to give you a shot, Benny. I want to let the past go and give you all I have. I promise I won’t run again. Can you promise you won’t either?” Her eyes move back and forth fast as she looks for answers.

I stroke her cheek, softly. “I won’t be running. As a matter of fact, I’d like to make this a lot more permanent. But we can discuss that in more detail after I’ve shown you how much you mean to me. My plans of a lengthy punishment have changed. I think you understand me now. And I think you need to feel my love.”

She holds her arms open for me. “Come to me, my wonderful master.”

Her tears have dried up and I think she’s ready to embrace this thing that we have and feel what we have for each other, leaving the old relationship behind her.

I slide in next to her and hold her to me tight as I kiss the side of her head. Then I lie her back and rest my head on my hand and look down at her as I trail my fingertips over her tits.

“Okay, we’re going to get to know one another much better,” I say as I circle her nipple, making it grow. “My public information I can leave out since I’m sure you have Googled me to find all that out.”

She giggles and runs her hand up my arm, squeezing my bicep. “I have. So what about what you really want out of life? Because I saw picture after picture of you with your family and guess what I never saw in any of them.”

I kiss the tip of her nose that’s still red from crying. “A smile on any of our faces.”

“That’s right,” she says with a tweak to my nose. “And that’s a real shame because that smile you have is beyond wonderful and a thing that should always be seen. I must see it at least once every single day we’re together, my love.”

“Unfortunately, happiness is a thing my family isn’t big on. Respect, dignity above anything else, and the ever present power that my grandfather thinks comes along with that. And people with power don’t smile. Or so he says, anyway.” I move my hand through her hair as she smiles up at me and runs her hand over my cheek.

“I’ve heard no word about a grandmother.”

I shake my head. “She passed away when my father was born. My grandfather raised him single-handedly. Grandfather was a second generation American. His parents came over from England. And they died young, leaving him alone at the tender age of twenty. That’s when he found the woman he only had in his life for a mere three years.”

Her eyes go sad again. “Benny, how sad. Did he ever find another woman?”

I shake my head. “He is a bit of a hard ass. Even though he’s stinking rich, he’s never had another woman in his life. And he says he wants it that way.”

She cocks her head to the side and narrows her eyes. “Maybe that’s why he’s a hard ass.”

Maybe she’s right…

Chapter 4

ANGEL

Warm lips press against the nape of my neck. “Good morning, my Angel.”

I turn in his arms and see his scruffy bearded face and sleepy blue eyes and feel more than I’ve ever felt before. “Good morning to you.”

My body begins to wake up slowly as his hands run over it. Each stroke making sensations that I was unaware were possible. “I’m taking you to breakfast.”

“Benny, I can cook.” I rub my eyes and stretch a little.

“I’m sure you can.” His lips gently touch my cheek. “But I’m taking you to breakfast. So you don’t have to.”

Suddenly I remember my dog and look around the room. “Where’s Cuddles?”

“Just now missing her?” He laughs. “I put her out in the backyard last night so you and I could have a little alone time.”

He rolls over me, climbs out of the bed then lifts me up in his arms. “Benny! I can walk.”

“I know you can.” He kisses my lips lightly. “But I want to carry you.”

I can see he’s about to attempt to spoil me. Not an easy thing to do since I don’t allow people to do that much for me. But for today, I guess I can let him have his way.

Not forever, though!

Forever?

Will this last forever?

I push the thought away so I don’t jinx anything. Running my arms around his neck, I lay my head on his chest. “That was nice last night. I’m glad you came.”

“Me too.” He puts me down in front of the bathroom sink. “You got an extra toothbrush?”

I open the medicine cabinet and produce a freshly packaged one I bought just last week. “It’s pink, but it’ll work.”

He nods and turns toward the toilet and lifts up the lid. I turn to walk out and give him privacy. “Where are you going?” he asks as he looks back at me.

“To let you have a bit of privacy then I’ll come and do what I have to do.”

“Stay.” He looks back to the task at hand.

“No.” I take another step then feel his hand on my arm.

He flushes the toilet with one hand and holds me with the other. I look down at his unwashed hand. “Yuck, Benny!”

His eyes run over his hand. “What? My hand too dirty for you because it just came off my dick? That dick was all over you last night and you weren’t saying yuck then.”

“For God’s sakes, Benny!” I try to pull away but he holds me tight then grabs my other arm too.

“Look, Angel, I want us to be a nice normal couple. Couples use the bathroom together.”

With a shake of my head, I say, “Not this couple. I use the bathroom separately.”

“I’m not saying you can never use it alone. I’m just saying there’s no reason to be shy with me. I’m not going to let you.” He pulls me to the toilet and sits me down. “Now use it. I know you need to.”

“Jesus, Benny! I can’t go with you looking at me. At least turn around and brush your teeth.”

He smiles and turns away and starts to brush his teeth. I’m pretty mortified and it takes me quite some time to get things moving, but I do and hop off the toilet before he turns back around.

I look up after I flush the toilet as he makes some sound and I see him tapping the mirror with his rinsed off toothbrush as he smiles at me. “I could see you through the mirror.”

I roll my eyes. “Pervert!”

“Only where you’re concerned.” He moves past me, grazing his body against mine and sending heat through me. Starting the shower, he looks back. “Climb in here when you get finished brushing your teeth.”

“Yes, Master Blaze,” I say as I grin at him.

He winks at me. “And make it snappy, wench.”

I give him a nod and brush my teeth and listen as he sings, “I’ve got you, under my skin.”

After I rinse my mouth out, I get in the shower, finding his head and beard full of shampoo bubbles. He’s still singing away as I step in and he moves his finger in a circle, gesturing for me to turn my back to him.

I do as the control freak wants and find him leaning me back, getting my hair wet. Then his hands move through my hair, massaging shampoo in.

I want to be mad. I want to hate this. But I fucking love it.

I’ve never been the least bit pampered. I’m not big on it. Or wasn’t, anyway.

I could get very used to this.

After he rinses my hair out, he ends his song and turns me back to face him and kisses me. My body melts in his arms as he wraps me in them.

Man, he sure knows how to make a shower fun!

My back’s against the cool tiled wall before I know it and his hands run down my legs, picking me up and just like, that he’s inside me and pressing his body to mine as he holds me up like I don’t weigh a thing.

Our tongues move against the others in a rough fashion as he moves in and out of me. Taking me to a place other than this shower stall.

I run my hands over his muscular back, the water helping them move smoothly and feeling each muscle that’s tight as he uses them to hold me and stroke me.

Inside I’m already quivering. My body reacts to his so well.

His mouth moves off mine and over my neck where he sucks and nips at me. “Baby, I love you.”

I moan with his words. “That sounds so nice.”

He gives me a hard bite. “Is that all you have to say?”

“I love you too, Benny.”

He groans out, “That’s better.”

The smell of the coconut scented shampoo, and him, is intoxicating. My head feels light and my body is on fire. He moves harder, pounding me with each hard thrust.

Little grunts make hot air hit my ear as he makes them with each stroke. I can’t wait any longer and my body gives in to his demands. “Benny!” I shriek with the intense orgasm.

“Yes,” he moans and continues to thrust into me.

Then he makes a ridiculously loud groan and his cock jerks inside me as he keeps moving until it’s all spent.

He eases my feet back to the floor. His lips touch the top of my head. “Now, it’s a good morning.”

I cling to him as my heart is still pounding hard and my legs feel weak. “I agree.”

After getting dressed, which took some time as he kept grabbing me and kissing me or smacking my ass, we’re on our way out to go to breakfast. I hear Cuddles barking in the backyard and I recall that I do have a pet.

“Let me go feed her real quick, Benny. I completely forgot about the poor thing.” I turn and go back in and open the back door where she promptly runs inside.

Jumping up and down with excitement, she goes right past me and jumps into Benny’s arms. “Hey, there girl. Not mad at me at all for putting you outside, are you?”

She yaps a little which means she is a little mad but she’ll get over it. I put down the bowl of dog food and fill up her water bowl.

“How long are we going to be gone?” I ask to decide whether I’m letting her stay inside or needing to put her back out.

“I’m keeping you all day with me, so you better leave her and her food and water outside.” He moves past me, picking up the bowls and putting them outside on the back porch.

“All day, huh?” I pick up my dog and give her a big hug. “Bye, Cuddles. We’ll be back tonight.” I place her on the porch and she wags her tail at me. “I’ll bring you a treat.”

Benny closes the door and spins me around, pressing my back against it. His breath is warm on my cheek as he nuzzles it. “I’d like to give up my motel room. What do you think about that?”

“You want to move in with me for the remainder of your stay in town?” I ask as he kisses down my neck, sending trickles of heat all through me.

“I want to live with you from now on.” He pulls back and looks at me with sparkles shooting through his steely blue eyes. “I don’t want us to spend another night apart.”

My stomach tightens and my body tenses. “That sounds very serious, Benny.”

“Because what we have is very serious, Pumpkin.” His fingertip moves over my lips, tracing them. “I want to wake up every morning and be able to open my eyes and look at your sweet face. I want to close my eyes each night with you being the last thing I see.”

My heart speeds up. This is so quick and so unlike me. But when my mouth opens words come out without me thinking, “Me too.”

“Good.” He steps back, taking my hand in his and leading me toward the door. “And since we’re talking about this, I want us to get something more my speed. A larger place. We can ride around and scout several out, and decide what we like.”

“A larger place? Like you want me to move? I don’t know, Benny. That’s a little, no make that a lot scary. What if we don’t work out? Then I’ll have to move and that’ll be…”

He stops and pulls me into a tight embrace. His forehead touches mine. “Let’s don’t say things like, if we don’t work out. Let’s keep things positive. I’m not saying this will be some relationship made in Heaven that never has a problem or a rough patch because that’s not reality. We’ll have our fights, we’ll have our troubles, but we will get through them.”

“I don’t know what to say. This is all so sudden. That’s all.” I pull back and look at him. “We’re kind of rushing into things.”

“I’ve never been a man who rushes into things. And I know you aren’t one to rush either. But this feels right. You have to agree with that.”

“I do. It does feel right. But rushing is just stupid.”

His fingertip moves along my jaw. “Do you want to slow things down? I keep my room and we can act like we don’t want to spend every night together. Deny ourselves that. And for how long would you like to do that?”

My body aches with a need for him as only his fingertip moves over my skin. It’s completely insane. “Okay, I know I want to have you in my bed every night. I know it will happen even if I try to slow things down. My body craves you now. It makes no sense.”

“It does make sense. You and I were meant to be together. We found each other and want to be around one another. Not a big mystery. So it’s settled then. We aren’t going to say we’re rushing anything. We’re merely living our lives together from now on. And someday we’ll decide to make that next step.”

He lets me go and takes my hand again, leading me out the front door. I follow along mumbling as we go, “Marriage is on the table after only two dates. If you can call them dates.”

“You can call them dates if you want to, Angel.” He turns back and holds out his hand. “The key please.”

I hand him my keys and he locks the door. Then puts my keys in his pocket.

“I need those. The key to my bike is on that keyring.” I hold out my hand and he shakes his head.

“You’re riding with me.” He takes my hand and pulls me along behind him.

“No. Benny, I don’t ride bitch.”

He laughs and looks back at me as he tugs me along behind him. “You do now.”

“Benny, for real, man. I’ll ride my own bike. I’ve never ridden behind anyone. I think I’ll feel very out of control.” I pull back as he continues to tug me along.

“Good. You need to let some of that control go,” he says as he picks my helmet up off my bike seat.

As he’s placing it on my head, I say, “Said the control freak.”

His grin covers his entire face. “You’re going to have to trust me. And I’m not a control freak.”

“What would you call yourself then?” I ask as he tightens the chin strap.

He looks as if he’s pondering then his eyes brighten. “I’m a man who cares about you. So instead of thinking or saying I’m a control freak, you can say I’m a caring man. Who you love.” He tweaks my nose then kisses it.

I have to laugh as this rugged-looking biker man in black leather, sporting a long beard and tattoos is so sweet and no one would believe me if I told them the things he says.

“I do love you.” I kiss his lips for only a second and his whole face changes.

Sincerity is how I would describe his expression. “And I love you, Kitten.”

My heart goes all pitter-patter in my chest. I feel heat in my cheeks as I know I’m blushing. What he does to me is awesome.

He reaches into one of the side compartments and pulls out two pairs of dark shades. He puts one pair on my face. “I bought these for you the other day. For when you came back. They match mine.”

“So now we can match,” I say with a laugh. “How thoughtful. Thank you.”

He puts his on and gets on the bike then I get on behind him. “Hold on tight,” he says.

“Why? Do you drive crazy?” I wrap my arms around him beginning to get nervous.

“No. I just want to feel your front against my back. So hold on tight,” he says then he starts the bike, and it vibrates underneath me.

I place my chin on his shoulder and turn my head to kiss his neck. “You’re very sweet, Benny.”

“Yeah, I didn’t know I could be sweet. You bring it out in me, Sugar.”

He takes off and I hold on tighter because I’ve never ridden behind anyone before and I’m kind of in between shitting bricks and trying to enjoy this.

It’s a thing only recently I had daydreams about after all. Now here I am behind my handsome biker, hanging on to him and feeling the wind blow over my face as he takes me away with him.

And it does feel just as amazing as I thought it would.

I just might enjoy riding bitch after all!

Chapter 5

BLAZE

Her body behind mine feels amazing. And as we pull up to the café, I see some bikes from my club. I get a real sense of pride as I pull to a stop.

Finally, a real woman will be on my arm, not some tramp!

I wait for Angel to get off the bike then I do and help her with her helmet. She seems to fuss about it at first. Knocking my hand away but I just ignore her and continue.

“I can do it,” she says with a pout.

“I know you can, obviously.” I place the helmet on my seat and run my arm around her shoulders. “Now you get to meet my friends.”

“Is it weird that I’m nervous?” she asks as she runs her hand over her white halter top and makes sure it’s adjusted right.

I run my arm down to smooth out her backside, which doesn’t need it. But her ass covered in tight black leather is a thing of magnificence and I just have to touch it. “No, it’s not weird at all that you’re nervous. They’re all cool. You’ll like them. I know you will.”

She looks at me with a little frown on her gorgeous face. “But will they like me?”

“What’s not to like?” I ask as I pull the door open for her.

She runs her arm around my waist and I can feel the tension in her body. “So many things, apparently.”

“What did I say about that? Put that past shit where it belongs and become the women who has been locked up inside you for way too long. You're gorgeous, funny, and smart as a mother fucker…”

Her giggle stops me. “Smart as a mother fucker! I think I’ll have to add that to my resume. Mind if I get a letter of recommendation from you with that as your opening line?”

I kiss the side of her head as I lead her toward the table my friends are at. “Of course, my Angel.”

All eyes are on us as we walk up. Phoenix stands up and extends her hand immediately. “Hi, I’m Phoenix, the woman you heard talking to Blaze last night was me. I’m really sorry about the trouble I caused. I was only checking up on him to make sure no women were bugging him. Ashley and I have been keeping the bitches at bay because he was dead set on staying sin free for you. And now that I see you, I know why.”

“Thank you,” she says as she releases Phoenix’s hand. “I had a bout of insecurities and ran like a frightened kid. I’m over it now. It’s nice to meet you, my name is…”

The table full of people say, all at the same time, “Angel, we know!”

She laughs and looks at me. “Been talking about me?”

Ashely gets up and holds out her hand. “I’m Ashley, and yes he has been talking about you. I have to say, I was thinking he had to be going overboard when he talked about how gorgeous you are, but he was on point. You’re stunning, Angel.”

Angel’s deep blue eyes go really big. “Wow! Thank you. I mean, you're gorgeous yourself. That’s quite a compliment.” Then she looks at Phoenix and nods. “You’re also stunning, Phoenix. Is it a prerequisite to be pretty if you’re to date a man in this club?”

Rod laughs. “It helps.”

We take seats, I sit Angel next to Ashley and take the one between Angel and Paco. The waitress brings two coffee cups and places them in front of us. “Hi, Angel. Been a while since I’ve seen you.”

Angel smiles at the girl who looks to be near her age. “Hey, Stella. Yeah, I’ve been eating at home, mostly. Does the cook still make that mean Denver omelet?”

She nods and says, “Yep. So you want that and the wheat toast? And I’ll get the cream you like too.” She turns to me. “And for you, sir?”

“I’ll have what she’s having. Since she’s a local, I’m going to assume she knows the best thing to eat here.” I place my hand on Angel’s thigh and give it a slight squeeze.

“Be right back,” she says as she spins away.

Ashley looks at Angel with a wide smile. “You have to show us the best place to eat lunch today when we take our ride. I’ve been searching for the perfect steak and have yet to find one.”

“Freddy’s is the best place. Flame-kissed magic is what they do over there,” Angel says. “You’ll love it or it’ll be free. I went to school with the cook. Well, he likes to be called a chef, but I knew him when he made mud pies, so I still just call him a cook.”

“Freddy’s it is then,” Ashely says. “So glad to have a local to show us around. Tell us what the others don’t know, Angel. I want to see things only the locals know about.”

The whole table leans in looking excited to find hidden treasures. Angel looks a little shy but her expression changes then she says, “I bet you guys like to hang around campfires and stuff like that in the middle of nowhere, right.”

“Hell yeah we do,” Rod says as he puts his arm around Ashley. “I love the outdoors and frankly the smoke filled bars are messing with my sinuses. What ya got, Angel?”

“My grandmother lives on a small farm about thirty minutes out. Way off the beaten path. She wouldn’t mind letting us kick back at her place for the night. I’m assuming you guys have tents and stuff. Like most of the bikers who come for this rally do,” Angel says as the waitress places the enormous plate filled with all kinds of delicious looking food in front of us.

Paco looks at Phoenix. “Sound like something you want to do?”

She nods. “I do. We can stop at the store before we head out and get wienies and roast them over the fire. It’ll be fun.”

I kiss Angel’s cheek. “Looks like you’re stealing the show, baby.”

Her cheeks go pink and she looks down at her plate. “Nah.”

Everyone chit chats and things feel comfortable. Seems Angel has a little social anxiety but seems to be getting over it well. I make sure to leave a huge tip for the waitress since she’s a friend of sorts to Angel.

And back we get on my bike as the others do as well and Angel gets on behind me and we hit the road. Only this time as I ride with my brothers, I have my girl with me. And it feels better than I thought it would.

All the ass I thought I wanted is nothing compared to having Angel sitting behind me, holding me tight.

She leans with me as we make a corner and I fight the urge to kiss her as her chin rests on my shoulder. The air is the perfect temperature, and the ride seems like the best I’ve ever had.

My phone vibrates in my pocket and it reminds me of my grandfather and I figure it’s one of my family members. Then I have to fight the urge to chunk the damn thing.

I don’t bother with the phone and it stops vibrating. But it makes my mood a bit sour as I think about what the hell my family is going to say about Angel.

I can hear it all now. How could you? What were you thinking?

You’re cut off without a cent!

Her lips touch my cheek and I stop thinking about anything but her. “Thank you, Benny,” she says for absolutely no reason what so ever.

I give her a smile and look back at the road. A sign at the side of the road catches my attention. And then I see a dirt road with a for sale sign at the end of it. I slow down and take it, leaving the pack for a minute to see what kind of house it is.

Angel doesn’t even ask as it’s obvious I want to check this out. She’s so cool. She just goes with the flow.

And when the house comes into view, I see her jaw drop.

It’s huge. A log cabin mansion. A horseshoe drive leads us to the front of the massive home.

I stop the bike. “What do you think of this, my Angel?”

“No way, Benny. This is too much. And it’s for sale. Not rent. But man, it’s gorgeous, isn’t it?”

I climb off the bike. “The sign said open house. Come on.” I hold my hand out to her and she takes it and gets off.

She waits patiently for me to take her helmet off then we walk up the stone pathway to the Hickory wood set of double doors which make up the front entrance.

“I don’t rent, Angel. That’s throwing money away.” I lead her up the stairs and open the door.

The wood interior is amazing and it smells fantastic. “Benny, can you imagine calling this place home? I mean, I know you live in a mansion already and have your whole life, but this is something, isn’t it?”

“It is something. It’s beyond compare to what I live in. Mine’s nice, but so generic in the mansion sense of the word. This is real living. Real things make this place up.” I gesture to an enormous fireplace. “Awesome to think about cold winter nights and that thing fired up. You and I curled up next to it. What do you think, Angel?”

We stand there in front of it and gaze at it and the Mahogany mantle over the top of it. Her hand squeezes mine. “Benny, this is too much.”

“Angel, look at me,” I say and she turns her head. “I have the money. I’m not going to get something average when I can get above average. So all I want to hear is if you like it or not. Don’t even talk about the price.”

She laughs. “Benny, what’s not to like?”

“I don’t know. Let’s walk all around and see. We have to come up with something we aren’t a thousand percent happy with so I can talk the seller down a few million or so.” I pull her along and we find the kitchen.

“Well, I can’t find a damn thing wrong with this,” she says. “Three sub-zero fridges, a massive stove and two wall ovens. Wow! I’ve only seen this kind of stuff in magazines. Not even sure what some of these things are.”

“We could hire a cook. And staff to keep it clean.” I pull her along and look out a set of French doors. A huge swimming pool with a slide and a diving board along with a waterfall is out there.

“Staff! For a home! Benny, it’s too much,” she says as she leans into my side.

“No, it’s what people who have money do, Baby. Do you know how hard you’d have to work to keep this place clean, even with my help? It would be a full-time job just doing that.” I pull her around in front of me and pick her up, giving her a quick kiss. “Now let’s find the master suite and see if that’s something we can live with.”

“Benny, what about your job?” she asks as I put her down and lead her out of the kitchen, toward a staircase.

Then I see a set of papers on a table at the bottom. “Great, look the layout of the house. Good thing they have this here or we might get lost.”

“Benny, how about you answer me about your job?” she says as she stops and holds me back from walking up the stairs.

“I don’t think I want to be part of my family’s law firm anymore. They’re going to be representing a man I don’t want to back. I’ve told my grandfather that and he seems intent on shoving the man down my throat.” I pull at her to come on and she does as she seems a bit confused. “I can make my own practice.”

“Okay. But that’s kind of drastic, isn’t it?” she asks.

We get to the top of the huge wooden staircase and a large picture window looks over the back side of the house. The scene is gorgeous and we stop talking and stare out the large window.

“Nah. Would you look at this, Angel? This place is perfect. There’s a tennis court and a basketball court.”

She takes up where I left off as she points out the window. “An entire playground, Benny.” She looks at me. “This needs to be a home for a family. Not us.”

Wrapping my arms around her, I pull her close and rock her back and forth as I hold her. “Baby, what do you think I mean for us? I mean for us to have a family. We’ll become a family and this place is perfect for that.”

“Kids, Benny?” She smiles and giggles. “Our third day together and here you are talking about a family. Our family.”

“I know I’m taking much too long to bring these things up, my Angel. But I’ve put it all off long enough.” I chuckle and she runs her hands over my bearded cheeks.

My hand moves over her shoulder and along her arm until my hand rests on top of hers. I move it to my lips and kiss it. Her eyes sparkle as she looks into mine. “Benny, you’re amazing.”

“You are,” I say then hand her the paper I picked up of the floor plan and scoop her up in my arms and carry her. “Now let’s go find that master suite.”

She looks at it then points at the very end of the long hallway. “That’s it down there.”

Off I go passing the rest of the bedrooms, counting off five on one side and four on the other. I turn the knob on the door that’s larger than the rest of the bedroom doors and nearly fall over as I see the massive room.

“Fuck me,” Angel whispers. “This is too much, Benny.”

“No, it’s perfect.”

As if on cue an older blonde woman pops out of the bathroom. “Hello there. My name’s, Annie and I’m the real estate agent who has this home listed. How are you two on this very nice day?”

“Put me down,” Angel hisses.

I do as she’s asked as I look at the agent and wish like hell she hadn’t heard me say that. “Hi, we’re the Worthingtons. I know you overheard the word, perfect, but I haven’t seen it all yet so don’t go thinking I have to have this home or anything like that.”

She reaches out to shake Angel’s hand first. “Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Worthington.” She lets her hand go as Angel is slack-jawed at being called that name. The woman grabs up my hand in a nice firm shake. “Nice to meet you too, Mr. Worthington. Now I know I caught you off guard there, not my intention, I assure you.”

I nod and ask, “So what do we have going on here? Motivated seller, or someone looking to stick to the wealthy?”

Her smile tells me she has a little secret, and she leans in close and talks in a hushed tone as if anyone else is even around, “Okay, here’s the deal on this beauty. There was a mass murder here in the basement a few years ago and the man who inherited this place doesn’t want to live here.”

“No way!” Angel says as she looks with wide eyes at the woman.

The woman erupts with laughter and claps her hands. “No way, is right. I love to open with a joke.”

Okay, this chick’s a little looney!

Chapter 6

ANGEL

The firelight lends a golden hue to all who surround it. Benny’s gang, as I’ve been thinking of the people in his motorcycle club, are a bunch of cool people. Ashley and her husband and Phoenix and her fiancé seem to be the people Benny is closest to.

They came out to my grandmother’s with us and five more guys came too. The others preferred to stay behind in the hectic night scene of Sturgis as the rally has gotten underway big time, making our town a circus of sorts.

My grandmother took advantage of us being here to feed her animals in the morning and made an overnight trip to see her sister who lives one town over. So we have the place to ourselves.

“I’m going inside to grab a bag of marshmallows,” I tell Benny who has his arm hanging loosely around my shoulders as we sit on a large log by the fire.

He gets up, taking my hand and walking with me to the little farmhouse. “You having a good time, Baby?”

I nod. “Yeah. They’re a cool bunch. Easy to get along with.”

We walk inside and I get the bag of marshmallows off the counter and turn to walk back out. He stops me and pulls me in for a kiss.

It stops my heart and I have to wonder if I’ll always react this way to him. He ends the sweet kiss and looks down at me with glistening eyes. “So, the house, Angel. Can you see yourself living there?”

I laugh and shake my head. “That place isn’t a thing I’ve even fantasized about.”

“I know that,” he says then kisses me again, taking my mind completely off the place I can’t even think of as a mere house. He pulls his mouth away and looks at me. “Bet you never fantasized about being with a billionaire either.”

I shake my head. “Can’t say that I have. But really, Benny, a nice big family should have that place. It has so much to offer.”

His grin is contagious and I find myself grinning too as he says, “And we will eventually use it all. Give me a minute or two, Baby.” He laughs.

“You know what I mean,” I say as I gently hit him in the chest. “It’ll be just the two of us rattling around in the monster sized home.”

“And right now it’s just the four of us in my family rattling around a monster-sized home back in New York. We don’t use a quarter of the rooms in that place. Yet we still have it. So thinking only about what you saw today. How do you like it?”

“Okay, I love it, alright. I mean, damn, Baby, what’s not to love? The whole room devoted exclusively to that pool table is awesome. The indoor swimming pool is beyond anything I’ve seen before. There are so many rooms for various entertainment purposes. My God, the thing has its own theater.” I have to close my mouth as the whole thing is so overwhelming.

“I can see you fighting yourself over it. It’s okay to be kind of freaked out by it all, but take it all in as well. You’ll be with a man who makes a lot more money than most. Deal with it, Pumpkin.” He kisses me again and I go limp in his arms and have to hold on tightly to him.

When he ends it, I give him the answer he’s been waiting for, “Get it. I want it. I do.”

He picks me up off the floor and spins me around. “Yes! We’re getting our own place!”

Well, he is. It’s not like I can contribute shit to it.

Holding me back, he smiles as he says, “And that massive eight car garage is pretty spectacular too. You know what I thought about when I saw it?”

“How many motorcycles you can fit in there?” I say with a giggle.

He shakes his head. “No. I thought about you building your own brand of motorcycles in there. Designing them and building them right there. I can hire the help you’d need and you could have your very own business. What do you think about that?”

My head is spinning. I think it might actually be moving in circles between my shoulders. “Benny! No! You can’t be serious.”

“I am serious. I want to help you make your dreams come true and I’d like to make some of my own come true too. With your help, I want us to design something for me. Something uniquely mine. Then I can drive it around and tell everyone my smart as fuck wife made it for me.”

Wife!

“Benny, don’t go getting ahead of things. This is going really fast as it is. Wife is a term that has all kinds of legal crap attached to it. You’re worth a ton of money. I don’t want that part rushed in the least. You have a lot of paperwork to take care of before that’s even considered.” I pull out of his arms and go to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

I turn to find him right there and he catches me up in his arms again. “I love you, girl! Making you mine in name too is at the forefront of my mind. I don’t know how long I can hold off on that. And there will be no paperwork to do. No pre-nup. What I have is yours.”

“Bad idea, Sweetie. Very bad idea.” I kiss the tip of his nose. “I’m not going to let you do that. And we can talk about that later. I’m not about to stand here and discuss such things yet.”

The screen door squeaks as Ashley comes inside. “Hey, sorry for interrupting. Can I use the bathroom, Angel? Rod told me to go outside and I can but I really don’t want to.”

I laugh and point toward the bathroom. “It’s over there and please feel free to use it whenever you need to. Tell Phoenix too. And anyone else who needs it.”

She nods and leaves us alone again. Benny pins me to the fridge. “When can we discuss such things?”

Then it occurs to me that his family may be the reason he wants to hurry things along. Before they can intervene and stop anything.

“How about after you introduce me to your family?” I say as I watch his reaction.

“Why after?” His eyes narrow. “Why not have things settled before that?”

I press my hand against his chest to push him back some. “I knew it. I knew you were hurrying things along to get this past your family. Benny, you come from a powerful family. You have to know that even if you marry me and knock me up, they can get in between us if they want to.”

“No, they can’t. I won’t let them.”

Another thought pops into my head. “Benny, is this some sort of a rebellious thing? I can see the whole motorcycle club thing is. Am I a thing that will not be appreciated or maybe even tolerated? Is that why you’re jumping forward with this by leaps and bounds?”

“Don’t think about my family. Let me think about them. You just let me handle things. And the answer is, no. I’m not trying to hurry things along for any reason other than I want to start a life with you. I can see so many things for our future. Six kids, three dogs, maybe even a damn cat to keep the mice away.” He laughs and tweaks my nose. “Just fucking with you. Come on. You bringing up my family has me needing a drink.”

I let him pull me along and grab the marshmallows again. As we go outside I have to think to myself that he isn’t kidding about any of it. And I think he’s hurrying things along, thinking if it’s all said and done then they can do nothing about him marrying a poor girl instead of a rich, East coast debutant like I’m sure he’s supposed to do.

And I have no idea if any of this is real or his rebellion!

I watch as Benny turns into Blaze in small increments right in front of my eyes. Step one, take a long drink of whiskey straight from the bottle. Step two, pull a cigarette from the untouched pack he has in his T-shirt pocket.

Step three, light it up and take in a deep drag. Then step four, pull me along with him to the back of the house, pin me to the wall and kiss me while he grinds his cock against me.

The typical things that make you feel like a renegade.

And right on cue he pulls back from me and looks at me. “Angel, you think you could help ease this tension a bit?”

I nod and look into his eyes, finding a lot of angst in them all of a sudden.

He undoes his pants and gives them a push. They go to his ankles, leaving his hard cock pressing against his boxers.

I go to my knees on the ground in front of him as he turns and leans against the side of the house. I can do this for him. I can and will.

I can ease the pain his family causes him for the moment. But it won’t make it go away forever.

His moan is soft as I take him into my mouth. He takes a couple of handfuls of my hair and moves my head back and forth the speed he wants me to go.

The pace is fast as he needs to climax to dull the edge of whatever it is talking about his family causes. His words are spoken between clenched teeth, “Fuck, you suck my cock like you were made to do that, Baby. It fits down your throat like a glove. Suck it, Baby! Suck that fat cock!”

I grip his ass in my hands to move faster with the push of his hands. I suck harder as he moans and cusses at random times.

Not sure if it’s because he just likes it that damn much or he’s mentally cursing his family for whatever his reasons are. All I know is while I have man issues, he has family issues.

We’re just a couple of broken people. It doesn’t mean we can’t be together if that even is a thing his family will permit. It just means I need to be more sensitive to the fact although he might be rich as fuck, he has things that bother him and mold his mind too.

My mouth moves fast over him and then he stiffens and it shoots down my throat. I swallow and find him yanking me up by the hair and slamming his mouth to mine.

His tongue moves in and he kisses me hard as he undoes my pants with one hand and moves it inside my panties until he has two fingers inside me and moves them in and out until I can’t take it anymore and cum.

He moves his hand out of my panties and places the two wet fingers in the side of my mouth, joining our juices inside our mouths.

The taste changes and he growls, and the kiss gets dirtier, hungrier, greedier. It sends him into a frenzy for a moment and then it slows.

He pulls away from me and looks at me. His eyes are hard then he blinks and they go back to my Benny. “Fuck! Fuck, I’m sorry, Angel.”

I shake my head and take him by the shoulders. “Don’t be. You need me too. I can see that now. You need me to be strong for you just like I need you to be strong for me. Maybe we are meant to be together. Maybe we can help each other. You can be you with me. Blaze when you need to be. Benjamin, when you have to be. Benny when you want to be.”

“God damn it, I love you, Angel. My Angel who understands me better than I do.” His hand wraps around the back of my neck and he pulls my mouth to his again. Only this time, his mouth takes mine in a gentle kiss.

I run my hands over the short sides of his hair up into the long top and press my chest to his. Our hearts pound in unison as our mouths mingle.

With no idea how long this will be allowed to last, I want to make every last second count before that happens.

It might end because his family makes it. Or it might end when he finds this middle man he needs to become. Or it might even end when I find my full strength.

He eases the kiss and leans his forehead against mine. “Angel, tell me you will marry me. Please tell me that one day you will become mine in name too.”

“I will marry you one day, Benny. I will.”

I say the words because he so desperately needs to hear them. I’m not lying to him but the reality is, I have no idea if that will come true or not.

I can’t see the future and if hearing what he wants will help him. Then I’ll say anything he needs me to.

He buttons up my pants then leans over and pull his up. “Guess we should get back to the party, Baby.”

“Guess so. You feel better now?” I ask as he runs his arm around my neck and pulls me close to him.

His lips touch the side of my head. “Yeah, I feel better. You sure do know how to make your man feel better, Baby.”

My man.

I have a man.

One to take care of.

Am I really up to this?

He stops just before we get back into the firelight and can be seen. He turns me to him and I see the vulnerability in his expression. “Angel, I want to thank you. Thank you for finding me.”

I nearly cry as he looks so fragile and innocent.

“You found me, remember,” I say and try to hold back the tears.

“That’s not what I mean. I slipped away there for a moment. I don’t want to be Benjamin or Blaze. I want to be the man I am with you. I want to be Benny. Your Benny. I always want to be him. You found that man in the first place and you just found him again. That’s how I know you’re the one for me. You make me a better man. So thank you for finding me. I’ve been lost my entire life.” He kisses my cheek and I can’t stop a tear from escaping.

He looks at me then wipes the tear away. “Let’s try really hard to keep these out of each other’s eyes.”

“Will do.” I put on a smile and sniffle then let him lead me back to his friends.

And know now I have to be careful not to hurt this man as he’s as fragile as I am.

Chapter 7

BLAZE

The last week has flown by as we’ve been busy with buying the house. But it’s now ours and today we’re moving in. I made Angel sign all of the papers of ownership too.

She protested, of course. In the end, though, I won, and she’s part owner in the place too. I saw the smile on her face when they handed her the keys to the house. She was happy.

I’m waiting here for the furniture company to bring the new mattresses for the enormous bed in the master suite. The house came furnished as we found out there was a death that left the house on the market.

Only it didn’t occur here. The widow of a Greek tycoon passed away in one of her other mansions in Spain. The couple never had children and had ten homes around the world. So the sale was easy and the items in it stayed.

I’ve already had Angel’s things brought over and she’ll be on her way here after she does a bit of work at her uncle’s shop. Cuddles, has settled in nicely and is checking out the enormous yard she now has.

I watch her out of the line of the floor to ceiling windows that runs along the sun porch along the back of the house. My phone rings and startles me as I was taking in the gorgeous scenery.

And I see it’s my mother. “Hello, Mom.”

“Benjamin, what on Earth have you done?”

“What has Grandfather told you all?”

“Well, that isn’t what I’m talking about. He told us you refused to come back for the meeting with that Bain fellow. He said you didn’t agree with the firm’s decision to represent the man and he told you maybe you should think about leaving the firm. Is that why you bought a home in Sturgis?”

Her question floors me. “How do you know I did that?”

“You used the bank account I opened for you when you turned eighteen. We never took my name off of it and when an exorbitant amount of money leaves, they notify me. So why buy a home all the way over there unless you’re contemplating leaving the family business?”

“I have a use for a home here. I’ve met someone, Mom.” I wait to see how she’s going to react.

The wait is excruciating as she’s dead silent. Then she clears her throat and says, “Benjamin there aren’t a lot of eligible woman of the stature you are to marry hanging around in a motorcycle town like Sturgis is.”

My hand balls into a fist and I slam it against my leg. “I should be able to marry who I want. Who I love. Her financial status shouldn’t come into it.”

“Tell me you haven’t jumped the gun and asked this woman to marry you yet?”

“It’s complicated now. One day we’ll be married. And I put her name on the paperwork for the house. She’s an owner in it with me.”

Mom makes a deep sigh then says, “So she does have money. Why didn’t you just say that?”

“No, she doesn’t have money or come from money. I just wanted to make sure she knew this place is hers as much as it’s mine. I wanted her name on it too.” I look out the window and watch Cuddles chase a bird who dared to land on her lawn.

“That was an unwise decision. I don’t know why you’d do that. If she didn’t pay at least some on it, why would her name get to be on it?”

“Because that’s the way I wanted it. I’ll go back to New York sometime soon to make sure I get what I have coming to me from the firm. Then I will resign and start my own. Two-thirds of the clients are ones I brought in. They’ll go with me.”

“Benjamin, you need to rethink things. So about this woman. You aren’t married and even though you have a home together now doesn’t mean you have to marry her. You’re meant for more, Son. And what will you do if your grandfather does cut you off financially?”

“It might stifle more income but it won’t break me by any means. I’ve made investments on my own. I have several accounts only I know about. He can’t stop me from making money on my own.” I get up and pace as this conversation is making my insides hurt.

“Darling, I just don’t want to see you squander away your legacy. You are a Worthington for God’s sakes. Certain things go along with that. Things like marrying within your class. Staying with the family business is also a thing that should be a top priority to you. Mingling with trashy women is one thing, trying to make one your wife is quite another.”

“She isn’t trashy, Mother. Angel is about to hold a Master’s Degree in Engineering. She’s the smartest woman I know.”

“Does she ride a motorcycle, Benjamin?”

I hesitate to answer because my mother has an idea of how a lady acts. Ladies do not ride motorcycles in her opinion. “She does. So what?”

The sound of my mother sighing, as she falls back onto what sounds like pillows on her bed I bet, I can hear over the phone then she says, “Oh, Son! Why a thing like that? Next, you’ll be telling me she drives a truck or some horrible thing like that. Lord, please do not tell me she wears tight leather pants and boots too.”

She does, and she looks hot as hell in them!

“Mom, don’t worry about what the woman wears. She’s fantastic and funny, smart and she makes your son happy. I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Can’t that be enough?”

The doorbell rings and I make my way to let in what surely must be the furniture delivery guys. I can’t wait to get those new mattresses on and start breaking in the new house.

“Benjamin, come home so we can talk. Bring the girl if you want. Let her see what’s expected out of her. I bet she won’t be so keen on marrying you when she sees how she’s expected to dress and behave.”

“Mom, I have to go. I have work to do. Love you bunches.”

“What? Love you bunches? Who talks like that, Benjamin? The trailer trash girl? Son, please…”

“Sorry, got to go. Bye Mom.” I end the call and open the door. “Hi, come on in and follow me upstairs, guys.”

Two burley men follow me up the staircase with the mattress. The one right behind me seems to be marveling at the house. He lets out a long whistle. “Boy, I bet this set you back a bundle.”

“You’d win that bet.” I open the bedroom door. “In here, guys.”

“Gee, this room is bigger than my whole damn house,” he says as they prop the mattress against the wall. He points to the mattresses that are still on the bed. “What you want us to do with those?”

“Take them where ever you want.” I walk over to the bed and look the clean and most likely barely used thing over. “It looks to be in perfect condition. I just wanted brand new ones. You can have these if you want.”

The guys come over and both sit on the mattress. “It’s very comfortable. Sure, we can take this out of here for you.”

I give them a nod. “I’ll leave you to it then. I have to get some things going in the kitchen before the old ball and chain gets home from work.”

The local meat market had a couple of steaks I found to my liking earlier today and they had a couple of lobsters that had been flown in by helicopter from Maine. I plan on making my sweet lady a feast for our first night in the new house.

I want to get a bottle of red wine out and open so I can give her a glass of it when she gets here. It’s funny that my mother said something about Angel driving a truck because I just ordered her one online this morning. It’s going to be delivered here next week as a surprise.

The delivery guys come down the stairs with the old mattress and go out the front door just as Cuddles starts to scratch at the back door, wanting in.

I go over and open the door for her and she zips inside jumping up and down so I get her a treat from the cookie jar we brought from Angel’s house. “Who’s a good girl?” I pick her up and give her the little dog biscuit.

The men come back through with the other mattress and the little fur ball changes into Cuddles right in my arms. “Cuddles, what the fuck?”

She wiggles and almost gets away from me as she lunges to get at the men. They get up the stairs and she is still fighting me. I take her to the laundry room that’s off the kitchen and put her in there and close her up.

She is a bit on the mean side where strangers are concerned. I thought Angel was being a bit overdramatic about that.

They guys come back down and I go to the door with them. “That’s it then, guys?”

“Yeah, it’s all ready for you,” the guy says.

I hand him a couple of twenties. “Give one to your buddy.”

“Will do,” he says and they leave just as I see Angel pulling in on her bike.

She climbs off and comes to me her arms open as she gets to me. “I need a hug, Benny.”

Wrapping her in my arms, I hug her tight. “Why the needed hug, Babydoll?”

She takes in a deep breath. “I handed my house keys over to my landlady after I left work. It was the last part of my independence and I feel a little shaky.”

I lift her up and carry her inside. “No reason to feel shaky. This is your home, Baby.”

Her head rests against my chest as her hand moves over it. “This feels like a dream. My whole house and yard could fit in the living room alone.”

“Now you get to see how the other half lives, Pumpkin. Speaking of that. I’m going to need to go to New York sometime to deal with some business. I’ll hire a private jet to take us out there. I won’t make you stay with my family in their place. We’ll get a room at the Four Seasons. It’ll be cool. I’ll take you sight-seeing and make you an appointment at a fancy salon to get your hair and nails done.”

She looks at me with drooping eyes. “You don’t like my hair?”

“Of course, I love your hair. It’s not that. It’s just that I want to pamper you. Show you the finest things I can.” I kiss her cheek and she smiles a little.

“Oh. And I’ll get to meet your family?” She looks so hopeful.

“You do. But I’d not get my hopes up about them. They’re snobby. Not at all down to Earth like you are.” I place her on her feet in the kitchen and pour us a couple of glasses of wine.

She takes hers and I take her hand, leading her to the outside patio so we can watch the sunset together. Then I hear Cuddles barking and Angel looks oddly at me. “Where’s the dog?”

I turn back and go let her out of the laundry room with a chuckle. “Hey there, killer. I had to put her in there so she wouldn’t kill the delivery men. I thought you were kidding about her being aggressive to strangers.”

She shakes her head. “No, I was telling the truth. That’s why her liking you surprised me so much. So when will this trip to the fancy town of New York occur?”

“When do you want to go?” I ask as I take her hand again and lead her outside.

“Whenever, I guess. Maybe if you send me to a fancy salon and buy me some clothes your family will deem appropriate, you can transform me into the right girl for you,” she says as I sit down and pull her down to sit on my lap.

I can’t tell her that no amount of transformation will help. My family wants paperwork. Like a well-bred animal, the paper is what it’s all about.

“I’m not about transforming you into someone you don’t want to be. But if it would make you feel better if you dressed to fit in, I suppose I can help you make that transformation. I’ll make sure you feel very comfortable before I take you to them.” I pull her braid over her shoulder and play with it.

She leans in and kisses me. “This is nice. The view is amazing. Your lap feels like home already.” She laughs, and it makes my heart jump.

“Your ass in my lap feels like home.” I kiss her and she places her glass on the table and wraps her arms around me, deepening our kiss.

My cock springs to life as our tongues twirl around together. When our lips part we both are breathing heavily. She whispers, “That was our first kiss in our place, Benny.”

“And after dinner, I’m going to devour you for the first time on our brand new bed in our bedroom, Angel.” I tickle her ribs a little, sending her into a fit of laughter.

“Stop!” she screams.

I stop and gaze at her with the sunset’s oranges and pinks filling the sky behind her. “You’re beautiful, my Angel.”

She strokes my beard. “You’re pretty too.” Her smile is bright and her eyes tell me she’s happy.

Happier than I think she knew she could be. And I have barely begun to show her all I can bring to her life.

“I bought steaks and lobsters for dinner. Would you care to accompany me to the kitchen and help me prepare our first dinner in our first home together?”

Her hand travels over my shoulder and up my neck, sending sparks all through me. “I would. The sun’s just about to drop out of the sky.”

I turn her in my arms and she lays her head back on me as we watch the sun leave the sky on our first night home. Our first real home.

I feel like she and I have been together forever. She and I seem to have an instant history. It’s odd but a great odd.

She climbs off my lap and holds out her hand to me. I take it and run my arm around her. “So I need you to throw the lobsters into the boiling water. That shit freaks me out,” I tell her.

“You bought live ones? Oh, Benny, I can’t kill them either.”

Cuddles, runs along behind us, coming inside like she owns the place. I laugh. “Maybe Cuddles could toss them into the boiling water. I’m sure the killer in her wouldn’t even flinch.”

And now it looks like we’re going to need an aquarium for our new pet lobsters!

Chapter 8

ANGEL

“Come on, they’re all leaving in the morning,” Benny calls out to me from the bedroom as I’m braiding my hair in the bathroom mirror. “This will be our last night out.”

I like his friends but hanging out in a noisy bar just isn’t my idea of fun. But for Benny, I’ll do it for tonight, anyway. Once they all leave and it’s down to just he and I. Then we can start to settle into our own routine. And bars have no place in it.

As I walk out, he holds up a little box. “Look what I found when I was in town this afternoon while you were working.”

“What did you find?” I ask as he comes toward me, taking the lid off the box.

I see a set of earrings. In the shape of motorcycles. Very trendy and not my style at all. But he bought them, so I’ll wear them. He pulls one out of the box and puts it on me.

He kisses my neck just behind my ear. “They’re cute on you. I knew they would be.” He puts the other one on and kisses the other side and now I think he’s ready for us to leave.

“Thank you, Benny. I’d never have bought these for myself.” It’s not a lie.

He laughs and pulls me along with him. “I know they’re a little whimsical for you. But the old woman who was selling them said she’d made the trip all the way from Kansas to sell her handcrafted jewelry at the rally so I had to buy something.”

I kiss his cheek as we head down the stairs. “Sweet to your very core, aren’t you?”

He shakes his head. “I hope you still love me after you see me in New York.”

“How bad could you be?” I ask, knowing I had a real attitude when we first met and he managed to tame this tiger. He has to use that charisma on others as well.

“I can be ruthless when I have to and chances are with my family, I’ll have to.” He puts my helmet on and holds my hand so I can get on the back of his bike, behind him.

“You sound a little scary, Benny.” I hold tight to him.

“Baby, you don’t even know.” He starts up the bike and off we go to the large biker bar his friends are at.

The scene is pure chaos as we pull up to the jam-packed bar. Music is so loud you can hear it before you even enter the parking lot. He pulls to a stop in the line where his fellow bikers are parked.

“Wow, this is nuts,” I say as he leads me inside.

“You never go to these things do you?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Not my thing.”

“We don’t have to stay a real long time. Only until two or so.”

Mentally, I grimace. Staying until two in the morning sounds like torture. Once we get inside and the first members of his gang sees him, they hand him a bottle of Jack Daniels and Benny takes a swig then hands it to me.

I shake my head and Benny nods his and holds the bottle to my lips. “It’ll loosen you up.”

It’ll have me puking before the night’s over is what it’ll do. But I take the drink and cross my fingers I won’t make a fool out of myself.

Drinking the hard stuff has never agreed with me. So when Ashley comes up to me and hands me a beer, I take it. Grateful to have something to sip on that’s a lot weaker than the liquor.

She shouts into my ear because the music is so loud she has to, “I like your earrings.” She moves her long blonde hair back behind her ear to show me she has a matching set. “Rod and Blaze got swindled by the same old woman today.”

I laugh and know I’m going to miss this woman when they leave to go back to their normal lives. Whatever that is.

It occurs to me that it’s been two weeks and I haven’t gotten to know anything about any of his friends. I really am antisocial.

Benny goes into Blaze mode around his fellow bikers and it’s always kind of odd to me. The cigarettes get lit up and if a joint is passed around, he does partake.

He knows better than to even try to push that on me. I don’t smoke at all. Never have and never will.

Some hard song comes on and it has the whole bar full of people revving up their already loud noise. Benny turns back to me and pulls me into his arms, lifting my feet off the floor as he swings me around a little to the music.

I guess to most this would be amazing fun. But all I can think about is how loud it all is, how crowded the place is, and how the hell we’d get out if a fire broke out in here.

Yeah, I know. I’m a weirdo.

Once the song ends, he places my feet on the floor and proceeds to drag me behind him through the crowd and the next thing I know we’re in a ring of his friends again and they’re all yelling in each other’s ears about shit I can’t hear and wouldn’t understand if I could.

I feel like a foreigner in my own home town. It’s kind of awful.

I feel a tug on my arm and find Phoenix and Ashley. Phoenix shouts, “We’re going on a bathroom run, wanna come?”

Anything sounds better than this. I nod and tug at Benny’s hand and shout into his ear when he leans back, “I’m going to the bathroom with Ashley and Phoenix. I’ll be back. Be good.”

He laughs and pulls me in front of him and gives me a quick kiss. “I will.”

As I walk away, he lands a sharp slap on my ass and gives me a wink to which I wink back. He makes my heart melt with just one look. I’m so smitten.

The women’s restroom isn’t much of a reprieve from the loudness but it is a little less deafening than in the main area. I lean against the wall as we wait in the line.

“So you guys are heading out in the morning. I have to admit I’m going to miss you two.” I nod as some woman wearing a ripped up shirt walks past me and seems kind of pissed.

But who wouldn’t if someone ripped their shirt nearly off.

Ashely laughs as she sees my face as I look the woman over as she leaves. “Rough crowd out there.”

I nod. “I’d say so.”

Phoenix pulls out a pack of cigarettes and Ashley waves her off when she offers and so do I. She gets one for herself and lights it up. I try hard not to cough and act like a baby about the smoke.

“We’re going to miss you too, Angel. You’re a real trip. Your humor will be missed,” Phoenix tells me. “But we’ll see you in Vegas for our wedding next week, right?”

“Your wedding?” I ask as I have no idea what she’s talking about.

Ashley looks a little surprised as she asks, “Blaze didn’t tell you?”

“No.” I look at Phoenix. “You and Paco are tying the knot then?”

She nods. “Yeah. Blaze is paying for us to stay there for the whole week. I really can’t imagine why he hasn’t told you. He said he was coming.”

I shrug my shoulders. “Maybe he’s not taking me.” Anger starts to flow through me that he’d not invite me to the thing.

Ashely laughs. “I’m sure he’s taking you, Angel. The guy goes nowhere without you after all.”

“He must’ve forgotten you weren’t there that day we told everyone, and he said he’d be there. That’s most likely it. Just mention it and see what he says about it,” Phoenix suggests.

The urge to bite my nails is awful. Why didn’t he tell me? Is he really planning on going without me?

The line moves and I can see we’re finally next in line to get to use the handful of toilets. I tap my foot and both women look down at it. Ashley looks up at me. “Are you mad?”

“Nope.” I cross my arms in front of me. “Just really have to pee.”

So what if it’s a lie?

After I get into the stall, I try hard to calm back down. I don’t know why I’m letting this go all over me but it is.

Quickly, I take care of the business I came in here for and find the other two washing their hands and I do the same. In the mirror, I see my cheeks are flushed and I really need to try to calm down.

The loud noise and heat with the crowd does little to help as I follow them out and back to Benny. I’m taller than either of them so I can see over their heads as we get closer to where we left our men and I see a tall, heavyset, blonde woman pulling on Benny’s arm.

I suppose trying to get him to dance with her. I stop as he pulls out his pack of cigarettes and lets her take one from the pack then he lights it for her. She blows the smoke off to one side then leans in to say something else to him.

I barely notice Ashley and Phoenix looking back at me as I move faster to tell the woman to get away from my man. They part so I can get by them and I yank the skanky chick’s arm as soon as I can reach her.

She looks me up and down with a half-smile on her red lips. “What?”

“He’s taken. Get lost,” I shout in her ear.

She looks back at me just as Benny turns around and his eyes get really big as she says, “Look, Bitch, he ain’t got no ring on his finger so he’s up for grabs.”

I look back to see Ashely and Phoenix with their jaws dropped and make a fist with my right hand and turn back to the dumb ass and smack her so fucking hard her head snaps back.

Her cigarette flies through the air and her ass drops like a rock. Ashley and Phoenix move to either side of me and pull me along as Ashley shouts, “Time to move our party elsewhere, guys.”

The whole pack of Benny’s friends just moves a good ways over, leaving the fat chick lying on the floor. Benny takes my hand and pulls me away until he finds some place a little less loud.

“Why’d you do that, Baby?” he asks as he takes my right hand and looks over my red knuckles.

“A couple of reasons. First, she was touching my man. Second she used the word bitch and I don’t appreciate that.”

He kisses my knuckles and then me. “You’re something else, Rocky. One punch and she was out.”

“Why didn’t you tell her to fuck off instead of giving her a fucking cigarette and a light?” I ask as I narrow my eyes at him.

“She’d been bugging me and wouldn’t let up. I gave it to her thinking she’d go away,” he says, and he looks sincere.

“You give a bitch a cigarette and a light in this place, she’ll think you want her. Do you want her, Blaze?” I stare him down.

“What the fuck? No, Angel. What the fuck’s wrong with you?” He looks genuinely confused.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Phoenix and Paco’s Vegas wedding you’re going to in a week?” I cross my arms in front of me and tap my foot.

His eyebrows go way up. “That? That’s what has you so fired up? Fuck, Baby. I forgot. With all we’ve been doing, I really just forgot. Why would that make you so mad?”

“Were you planning on taking me with you? Or just leaving and telling me nothing?”

He shakes his head. “I’m not him, Angel. I’m not Gage. I’m not leaving you.”

The fact he knows what’s-his-ass’s name has me puzzled because I never say it. “Who told you his name?”

Suddenly he looks worried. “I’ve been sworn to secrecy. It doesn’t really matter, anyway. Come on, Baby. This is silly…”

I cock my head to one side. “What’s so silly about me being mad that you’ve discussed my private business with someone in this town? Who was it?”

He shakes his head again. “No, now, I made a promise and I’m going to keep it. And you need to stop being crazy.”

I try to walk away but he catches my arm so I turn back and say, “Fine. But when we get home, I’m going to use the belt to get it out of you. I don’t like people talking about my personal shit. Not ever!”

His grip on my arms tightens. “What did you say to me? You’re going to use the belt on me? To get something out of me? Fuck that shit!”

“You’re hurting my arm,” I say as I look at the way he’s holding it so tight.

“And apparently you think you’re going to try to hurt me later. So.” He glares at me and I glare right back.

“Tell me who it was, Blaze.”

“Don’t you fucking call me Blaze! You and I need to go somewhere a little more private, Angel.” He tugs me along with him and takes me outside and around the side of the building where he pushes me up against the wall.

“Stop!” I shout at him.

His hand goes over my mouth, making me be quiet. “Listen to me, young lady, you will never lay a hand on me in anger. Nor I, you. The belt, the whip, and our hands are not to be used in anger. Got me?”

I nod and he moves his hand from my mouth. “Blaze…”

“Why are you calling me that?” He takes me by the shoulders.

“Because that’s who you’re being right now. I don’t think you forgot to tell me about going to Vegas.” I look him in the eyes as he darts them back and forth.

“I did forget. I asked you to go to New York with me, for God’s sakes. Why on Earth would I take you there and not to Vegas, Baby? You’re freaking out for no reason.” He lets me go but pulls me into a hug and holds me tight. “What’s really wrong, Baby?”

“I don’t know,” I confess. “This can’t last. It’s all too good to be true. And I know that no matter how hard you try, your family is going to fight this.”

He lets me go and takes a step back. “Angel, I’ll fight them over you.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” I say and the tears start falling. “You should just do what’s expected of you. Be with a woman in your league. You’re so far out of mine, it’s not funny.”

“Don’t talk like that. You’re a brilliant woman and you’re on the cusp of your own greatness. Have a little faith in yourself and know you will become someone who’s amazing.” He looks over my shoulder and I hear footsteps moving over the gravel in quick steps. “Who’s this mother fucker and why does he look like that?”

I turn around and nearly fall down. “Gage!”

The Billionaire Takes Charge of His Angel # 3

“Gage?” I ask as I watch a strange man scoop my Angel up in his arms.

And she’s letting him!

“Angel, I’ve missed you. I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” he says as he holds her tight. Then he lets her go and walks up to me with a few quick steps.

I’m shocked as he knocks me in the chest, shoving me back and I hit the wall behind me. “Hey, mother fucker,” I shout at him and draw my fist back.

Angel is suddenly between us. Her back is to me and her hand is on the other guy’s chest. “Gage, what are you doing?”

“I saw how he handled you.” He looks at me. “What makes you think you can be so rough with her?”

I’m at a complete loss for words right now. This can’t be real. This asshole ran off on her and she’s not calling him out on it.

“He wasn’t being rough with me,” she says as I watch her hand run over his chest. “He and I were having a little argument. He wasn’t hurting me.”

His demeanor changes rapidly and he takes her hand, the one she’s been running over his chest for reasons I can’t explain. “Angel, we need to talk.”

“The fucking hell you do,” I let him know. “You left her. Without another word from you in the last couple of years. You broke her, you asshole. You don’t get to talk to her now.” I run my hands over her shoulders. “Tell him, Baby.”

She looks back at me over her shoulder. “Benny, I’d like to talk to him. To get some closure after all this time. Please let me.”

“Let you?” the guy asks. “Angel, he doesn’t have to let you talk to me. I’m the man you love. How could you have forgotten that?”

Her voice is weak as she says, “Gage, I haven’t forgotten anything. But you have to understand that I’ve moved on. Benny and I live together. We love each other. So I won’t be talking to you unless he approves of that. I care too much about him not to have his approval.”

He pulls the hand he’s been holding to his lips and kisses her palm and I about come unglued. “No you don’t! You, son of a bitch!” I try to reach around Angel to yank her hand away from him.

She presses her back against me and pulls her hand away on her own. “Gage, you don’t get to do that. You can’t show up here and think you and I still have anything. You left. You never called. I moved on because you left me alone.”

“That’s what I want to talk about, Angel. I have my reasons why I haven’t tried to contact you. Just come and talk to me about it all. Once you know everything, I think you’ll feel differently about us.” He looks at her with sad, puppy dog eyes and I want to kick his ass.

The way she’s looking at me with slightly drooping eyes makes my heart ache. “Benny, I’d like to talk to him.”

I don’t want to let her do this.

“Angel, I…”

“Please, Benny. There’s so much I want to know.” She looks so hard at me it’s as if she’s looking into my brain for some compassion.

“I don’t want you to be alone with him. You have to understand,” I say as I run my hands up and down her arms.

“I do,” she says. “But I really need this.”

It takes me forever to decide what to do. I look at the prick who’s decided to show up at the most inconvenient time. “Where do you plan on talking to her at?”

With a nod, he gestures to a tall red truck that’s parked behind him. “In my truck. We won’t leave the parking lot. Unless she decides to come with me.”

Angel’s eyes go wide. “You want me to go with you, Gage? You want me back?”

He nods. “Baby, I’ve been driving for hours to get to you. It’s all I could think about since… Well, I’ll tell you all about it. But I do want you back.”

“No, I can’t let you talk to her.” I shake my head. “I can’t. I won’t! You just stood here and said you want to take my girl. I can’t allow that.” I stop talking as Angel puts her hand on my chest. Tears stream down her pink cheeks.

It breaks my heart and I run my thumbs over them to wipe the tears away. “I won’t leave with him. I love you, Benny. I just want to know why he did that to me. That’s all. I promise you that. I love you. My heart is yours.”

“Angel, he doesn’t deserve your time. He left, and it took away a big part of you. A part you’re just now beginning to get back. If you fall for his shit, it will end us and you’ll go back to being that broken girl. Don’t do that to us.” I stroke her cheek as I nearly beg her not to do it. “Don’t do that to yourself.”

She looks so torn and I hate that. I want her to stand up to him. Be defiant, and not even want to hear whatever it is he has to say to her.

She and I look at each other for the longest time, our minds connecting in a way mine can do with no others. I feel confident she’s going to do the right thing for us.

Then his voice breaks our connection as he says, “The reason I left was to see the world. Angel had college to worry about. She had a brilliant career ahead of her. I didn’t want my yearning to see the world put her career on hold.”

Without looking at him as I try to keep her eyes trained on mine, I say, “How generous of you.”

“Look, I know it’s hard to understand,” he continues. “I lived in a tiny town my whole life. When I got out of high school, I bought a motorcycle and made my way to Sturgis to spread my wings like I’d wanted to do since I was a little kid. I met Angel, and it stopped my growing process.”

“I met Angel, and it began mine,” I say as I run my hand down her long braid.

He shifts his weight to his other foot and groans. “Look, this is fucking hard for me to take, watching your hands move over my true love like that.”

Angel’s eyes narrow and she spins around and snaps at him, “Your true love? Gage, how can those words even come out of your mouth?”

Get him, girl!

Finally, the anger that should’ve come from her from the start.

“Look, Gage, I’m not going to let you get by with talking in a way that’s not true. I’m not your true love,” she says.

He interrupts her. “Yes, you are.”

She shakes her head. “Stop that! No one leaves their true love and never even calls to see if they’re alive.”

“Funny you should say that.” He frowns at her. “Why is it you never attempted to call me? Not once, from my understanding.”

“You left me. Why would I call? To beg you to stop following your odd dream of seeing the world? I’m not selfish like that.” I can feel her beginning to tremble.

I wrap my arms around her from behind and kiss her cheek. “It’s okay, Baby.”

Her hand moves over my cheek and her body stops shaking. The man who left her looks at me with an expression that begs me to let her go. But I won’t.

He gestures to us. “This is hard to watch. Please let her go. Stop holding her, at the very least. It’s hard not to come at you and rip your fucking head off with you all over her like that.”

She looks at me. “I can see what he’s saying. Let me go, Benny.”

“No.” I’m not letting her go just because this ass-wipe wants me to. I look him in his dark eyes. “Be uncomfortable, be very uncomfortable.”

He looks right back at me and I have to give it to the man, he is persistent over a woman he left alone for two years. “Fine, hold her, but you need to know she and I had a special bond. I thought it was strong enough to allow me to pursue my lifelong dream and be able to come back and pick up where we left off. We hadn’t broken up. I was merely going on a trip.”

“Gage, you took everything you owned with you,” she says with a despondent tone in her voice.

“One bag, Angel. Everything I owned filled up one bag. You know I hadn’t accumulated much of anything while we were together. You and I moved into that little house and the things we got, the furniture, the bed, the dog, those stayed there with you and our home. I only took my clothes and toiletries.” He looks at her with hurt in his eyes. “So how can you say I took everything when I left you with what we had gotten together?”

“Every last item of clothing, Gage? You needed the damn bar of soap that you used? Every bottle of your cologne, you needed? There wasn’t a thing left of you. Do you know how long I went without washing your pillow? Nearly a year because it still had a trace of you on it.” Her body begins to shake again and I hold her tighter.

With all she’s saying, I know she did love this man. Maybe not with the same kind of thing we have, but she did love him. And by her actions, she still might have some of that love stored deep inside her.

“I’m really sorry you thought I was leaving forever. I wasn’t. How could you think I was walking out that door without a tear in my eye if I was leaving you?” He shakes his head and looks confused. “Angel, I loved you. With everything in me, I loved you. I left that day to go on a trip and then come back home. I thought you understood that. I’m very sorry you didn’t. And now it makes sense why you never came looking for me. Not even a phone call to see if I was alive.”

“I don’t understand, Gage. Not at all. That day you left, you had just told me about your plan of traveling the world. I had just found out how you’d been keeping money squirreled away for three years. You’d been doing that without telling me a thing all that time. Never did you mention your dream of traveling or the fact you were putting money away to do that.” She looks at him and waits for his reason.

He looks back at her and smiles. “How many times did you tell me I was a bad communicator, Baby?”

I’m stunned that he can stand there and smile about a thing that caused her so much pain. “Dude, that’s no excuse for what you did to her,” I tell him. “You turned her into a shell of what she was. I’ve only seen a few of the tears she cried over your no good ass. I can’t imagine the number she shed before I came along. Whatever you were thinking was going to happen by you coming back here and picking up where you left off, is not going to happen.”

He levels his eyes on me and his lips form a thin line as I’m sure he’s biting back a string of curse words he’d love to hurl at me.

“Gage, he’s right,” she says. “Lack of communication may be to blame here. But that’s a thin excuse for two years of no communication.”

“Are you willing to accept your part in this, Angel? You also stopped communicating,” he says.

She nods. “I can accept that. I should’ve called, I suppose. I was hurt, though. I can look back now and see I should’ve called if only to get the closure I desperately needed. So, yes, I am partly responsible but a very small part.”

“And can you admit that your school and work took you away from time you could’ve spent with me?” he asks as he looks at her in the same way a parent asks a child if they understand what they did wrong.

“Dude, we’re talking work and school. You can’t expect her to feel bad about taking time away from your precious ass to further herself. What a fucking prick you are, man.” I let Angel go because now I’m shaking with anger. “If you think I’m going to stand here and let you talk shit to my woman, you’re sadly mistaken. I see right through your very selfish ass.”

“I’m not selfish. Tell him, Angel,” he says as he glares at me.

She doesn’t say a word as she takes me by the arm and looks at me. “It’s okay. No need to get mad about anything. His words can’t hurt me anymore.”

He cocks his head. “What does that mean?”

She locks her eyes on him. “It means you can’t hurt me anymore, Gage. You used to try to make me feel bad because I had to study instead of playing video games with you. You told me I was more in love with my books than you. It made me feel bad. But not so damn bad that I’d stop learning and played games with you.”

“A person needs attention, Baby. I tried to explain that to you on many occasions.”

“Interesting that you could take the time to let me know how I wasn’t paying enough attention to you, but never the time to tell me you had a dream of traveling the world and was hiding money to make that happen for you.” She crosses her arms in front of her. “And part of the reason I had to work so much on top of going to school was because I had to pay for the majority of things because you never seemed to have any money. Only you did have money. Lots of it, if you managed to put away enough to travel the fucking world!”

Her ire is up and now I think this asshole is about to get ripped a new one!

I watch from just behind her as he narrows his eyes at her and says, “You worked because you wanted to be there to watch the work the mechanics did on the bikes. And you know that’s why you were there so much. Since you were bringing in so much money, why not let you pay the bills so I could put my hard-earned money up so I could one day have my dream?”

She throws her hands into the air. “And we’re back to your dream. The one you never talked about. This is getting to be a circle and I’m kind of sick of this circle shit. You know what, Gage, this is over. I don’t want to talk to you about anything. This is more than enough closure for me.”

She turns back to me and takes my hand and we start to walk back inside.

His voice is low as he says, “I was in a wreck the day I left. I’d been on the road for three hours when something happened. I can’t remember what because I was injured so badly that I was in a coma in a hospital in Sioux Falls where I was Halo-flighted to, apparently. I can’t recall any of that. I just know I woke up three months ago and had to be retaught how to walk and talk. The only thing I could remember was you.”

This is not good news for me…

Chapter 2

ANGEL

My head is spinning with what Gage has just told me. Letting go of Benny’s hand, I run back to Gage. I look into his dark eyes and see the pain behind them.

“Gage, I’m so…”

His mouth on mine stops my words as he grabs me up and kisses me hard. Without thinking, my arms go around his neck and I hold him and kiss him back.

My heart is pounding and my head is spinning. The kiss ends and still he holds me tight in his arms. They used to be so strong and now I can feel some weakness in them.

“You don’t have to say it, Love. We can move on and put that behind us,” he says with a husky whisper.

I run my hands through his shoulder length, dark waves I used to love to mess with so much. Suddenly I remember Benny and pull myself out of Gage’s arms. “I, uh, shit! I shouldn’t have done that.” I turn back to see so much hurt on Benny’s face. I take a few steps back toward him.

I stop as he holds up his hand. “Don’t.”

With no idea of what to do, I stand still. “Benny…”

He shakes his head and I see his eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Angel, I just saw the worst thing. Worse than I ever imagined. You still love him.”

I shake my head. “No. No, it’s just that I had no idea he’d been hurt. It hit me like a brick. My mind went blank.”

I try to explain something I don’t understand myself then I feel Gage’s arm run over my shoulders. “You do love me, Angel.”

“Don’t, Gage!” I shout and move his arm off me. “Don’t make me be mean to you. I’m with Benny now. End of story. I’m sorry you were hurt. I really am. But the fact is I love Benny more than I ever loved you in the three years we were together. I love him more than I ever loved you from the first night he and I spent together.”

“But the kiss,” Gage says as he looks at me with tear-filled eyes. “Angel, you felt something. I know you did.”

I shake my head and find I’m right in between them both. Both men looking so rugged and strong on one hand and weak as kittens on the other.

Benny’s expression is killing me. “You did feel something. I saw it in your eyes when you opened them. I saw it in how you ran your arms around him.”

Then it all hits me that everything I believed was wrong. The heartbreak was for all the wrong reasons. And I should’ve been there for Gage.

My legs go weak and I find myself slowly moving to the ground and sitting on it. Then I lay my head in my hands and cry. “What have I done?”

For the longest time, no one says a word. Then I hear Benny say, “Look, man. I’m sorry for your accident. I really am. And I promise not to interfere with her decision. But the fact is, she and I are in love. She and I have made plans together. So for tonight, I’m taking her home. To our home.”

“I don’t have a place to stay. I came here thinking she still had our house,” Gage says. “I’d planned on staying with her.”

“She let that rental go when she and I moved into our place. Since the circumstances are so weird, I’ll set you up in the hotel I was staying in. Tomorrow maybe she’ll feel up to talking to you about things. She and I have some talking to do as well. But right now, she’s breaking down and I need to get her home where she feels safe. Agreed?” Benny asks him.

I feel like a spectator in this whole thing. One who is watching from very far away. This has to be a dream. This can’t be real.

“Yeah, I can see she’s not going to be able to talk tonight. Thanks for the motel room. I really appreciate it, man.” I hear Gage say.

Then I’m scooped up and rest my head on a chest. A wide chest. A strong chest. Benny’s chest. I run my arms around him and bury my face in it. I can’t stand to look at either of them right now. It’s too hard.

I can hear the sound of gravel crunching under both of their boots and know Gage is walking right next to Benny. There’s the sound of a car door opening then Gage says, “I’ll follow you to the motel.”

“Okay,” Benny says as he carries me away to his bike.

“I’m sorry, Benny. I really am.”

“Shh. Don’t apologize, Baby. We’ll work this all out. You just try to calm down.” He puts me on the bike and has me in front as he climbs on behind me. “We’ll ride like this so my arms can hold you in. You lean back on me, my Angel.”

I do as he says and feel so damn weak. Weaker than I’ve ever been. It’s even worse than the day Gage left me.

Why is that? Why is this making me so damn weak?

I struggle to stop crying but I can’t seem to get it under control. It’s not horrible sobs just constant tears. I feel as if I’m kind of coming unglued. I suppose this is what some call falling apart at the seams.

I’m just a wreck. My mind isn’t working. My body just wants to shut down. I just want to shut down.

It seems I have decisions to make and I have no idea what the right thing to do is. It used to be black and white. Gage left me and I was free to move on. And I would be a fool to take him back.

Only thing is, now I know he was hurt and needed me and I was too stubborn to pick up the phone and make a call to make sure he was alive. I wonder why his family never called me to tell me.

Or was his family even aware of his accident? How long was it before they were made aware? If ever. And what must they think about me?

I bet they hate me.

In the three years Gage and I were together, not once did he take me to meet any of them. They never visited us.

They did live very far away, in Texas. It made sense at the time that we never had the money to go and they never had the time to come up. But they knew we were together and they should’ve called me when they found out he was hurt.

We pull into the motel parking lot and Benny gets off and puts his arm around my waist as I lean into his side. “I think I should leave you in his truck while I check him in. You’re kind of a mess right now and I don’t want the clerk to think you’re wasted or anything like that and call the cops.”

I nod in agreement. And wipe my eyes and make a big sniffle. Gage gets out of his truck and hands me a bunch of napkins from McDonald's. “Here, Angel. Use these to blow your nose and dry your tears. I hate to see you like this.”

I take the handful of napkins and give him a nod then ask, “Gage, why didn’t your family call me when they found out you were in an accident?”

“I’m not sure. I just know what they told me when I woke up. They were waiting to see if you would call. The paramedics found my cell phone and had brought it in with me. The nurses had kept it charged up in case anyone called. Mom took it over when my family got to me.” He looks away for a second then back at me. “They thought maybe you and I had broken up. I hadn’t told them a thing about my trip. So they didn’t call you. And once I woke up and asked for you, they told me to forget about you like you had forgotten about me.”

“Oh, I see.”

Benny squeezes me a little and kisses the side of my head. “I think she should stay out here while I get you checked in.”

“Yeah, she’s kind of a wreck. Put her in the truck.”

I’m picked up and placed in the driver’s side. Gage laughs a little then says, “Don’t drive off, Angel.”

I make a grunt and blow my nose. “I can’t even see right now to run away.”

“Good,” Benny says then closes the door.

I can see well enough to watch the two men in my life walk away, side by side. I think about how ironic this all is and how much I wish it wasn’t happening at all.

Just when life gets good and somewhat easy, God has to toss a monkey wrench into things and make it all fucked up. He must have quite the sense of humor.

I run my hands over the steering wheel and for a second, I do think about running away from this. Just putting the thing in drive and peeling off and driving until I can’t anymore. Then maybe take a bus to Canada and change my name and become a nun.

Nuns have to have easier lives than normal people. No relationships at all to worry over. No kids to worry about. No men to worry about. All they worry about is being good, staying sin free, and talking to God a bunch.

Yeah, those broads got it made.

I see the guys coming back out and see Gage taking Benny’s bike and walking it to park it in front of one of the motel rooms. Benny walks toward me and opens the driver’s side door.

“Scoot, Pumpkin,” he says. I do as he’s said to. “We’re taking this. The bike ride is a bit far for you when you’re in such a bad condition. I’ll bring his truck back to him in the morning and pick up my bike.”

“Okay,” I say and blow my nose again.

“If you’re up to it by then. I’ll let him follow me out to the house where we can all talk and figure things out. But I won’t allow that until you’re up to it. I told him I’ll keep the room for him until things are figured out.” He lays his arm out along the back of the seat as he looks back and backs out of the parking space.

I lean into his side and rest my head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

He pulls me in close and wraps his arm around me, making me feel safe and loved.

The decision should be so easy. And maybe in the morning after a good night’s sleep and a whole pot of coffee, I will be able to make the decision easily. I hope so, anyway.

“I’ll sleep in the room next to ours so you can think, Angel,” he says out of nowhere.

I sit up and look at him. “No! No, Benny!”

“I think you should be alone to think.” He looks straight ahead without looking over at me.

“No, Benny. Or is it I because you’re mad at me?” I ask as I wipe my eyes.

“I’m not mad.” He glances at me sideways. “I’m probably just as confused as you are. I mean, here we both thought this guy was just a really big asshole and come to find out he was in a coma all this time. There’s a lot for you to think about. I know that. And I saw how you reacted to him. You did love him at one time.”

I lean back and drop my head onto the back of the seat. “Please don’t leave me alone, Benny. I’ll just go in circles in my mind. I need you, Baby.”

His eyes flash as he turns his head to look at me. “If it will make you feel better, then I won’t leave you alone. But if you need space all you have to do is ask me for it. I want you to know I understand this is not a normal situation.”

Leaning into him, I run my fingertips over his upper thigh. “Benny, I love you. Although this situation is not normal, my love for you will overcome anything I feel for Gage. I know it will.”

“Hope so.” He kisses my forehead and I feel something in the light kiss.

Something that tells me that he’s guarding his heart in case I do pick Gage instead of him.

“You’re a very good man, Benjamin Worthington,” I tell him and stroke his chest.

The muscles ripple underneath his tight black T-shirt as my fingers run over them. He takes my hand off his chest and kisses it. “I’m not, Angel. You bring this man out in me. If you knew how badly I want to still rip the guy’s head off, you’d think differently.”

“Why do you still want to rip his head off? He didn’t leave me like I thought,” I ask.

“Because he kissed you and wants to steal you away from me.”

I nod. “Yeah, that would make me kind of want to rip someone’s head off too. You know, Benny, you have more patience and tolerance than I do.”

“I know,” he says then we both laugh.

I play with his beard. “Promise me you won’t hurt him, though. I already feel pretty terrible that he was hurt, and I wasn’t around to help him.”

He pulls into our drive and looks over at me as he parks the truck. “You know I won’t hurt him. Unless he really pisses me off, then I will.”

“Well, of course, if he really pisses you off. I’m going to need you two to play nice while we all figure things out.” He gets out of the truck and I scoot over. Then he picks me up and carries me. “I can walk, you know.”

“I know that. I want to carry you.” He kisses the tip of my nose.

Laying my head on his chest, he carries me inside where Cuddles greets us at the door. “So, this was his dog, huh?”

“He got her from the pound when she was a puppy.”

The dog jumps around his feet, threatening to trip him up but somehow he evades her efforts. “You know something he said keeps running through my mind.”

He takes the stairs up to our bedroom as I ask, “What’s that?”

“He said his cell phone was there, in the hospital, turned on, right?”

I nod as he gets to our room and pushes the door open. Cuddles runs in ahead of us and goes straight to the little doggy bed Benny picked out for her. Our bed is too high off the ground for her to jump up on.

“I think he said that. The truth is my head is more than a bit foggy.” He lies me on the bed and starts to undress me.

His fingers run over my stomach as he unbuttons my pants. “If he had his phone, and he said all he could think about was you when he woke up then why didn’t he call you?”

“Maybe because his family still had the phone and I think he said he forgot how to talk too.”

He takes my boots off then pulls my pants all the way off. I sit up and pull my little top off and unclasp my bra and take it off too. Benny nods as he looks as if he’s thinking hard.

He strips my panties off then begins the process of pulling off his own clothes. “But when he could speak again, what stopped him then? Do you have the same cell number as you did when he left?”

“Yeah. And my work number was on his phone as well. And now I do wonder why he didn’t call. Especially before he set out to come to Sturgis to find me. He could’ve made a phone call and done that. But maybe he has some brain damage now. I couldn’t really tell, but I wasn’t all there, to be honest.”

He lies next to me and pulls me to lie on his chest. Soft lips touch the top of my head. “Sleep, my Angel. Tomorrow we’ll get our answers.”

And now I can’t do anything but lie here wide awake and think about why he didn’t just call.

Something doesn’t seem right about this…

Chapter 3

BLAZE

My night was pretty sleepless as Angie tossed and turned most of it. But she’s sleeping peacefully now that the sun’s come up. I was woken up by my cell phone springing to life at six this morning, a half hour ago.

I had put the phone on silent but the light from the screen woke me and I found my father’s name on it. I didn’t answer it, of course, as I have a lot on me as it is without adding their drama to it.

Climbing out of bed, I want to get the coffee started so it’ll be ready when she wakes up. She always does better with a little coffee to help start her day. And I think this day is going to be pretty eventful.

I pull on my underwear and head out of the room to go to the kitchen, scratching my beard as I go. I feel like something the cat drug in.

Cuddles follows me and jumps around all happy and I wonder how she’ll feel about seeing her old master, Gage. She’ll probably split a seam I bet.

Just as we hit the last stair, she bolts toward the front door, yapping her little ass off. I follow her and see a black town car parked in our drive.

Now who could this be?

Quickly I go back upstairs and throw on a pair of jeans and pull a T-shirt over my head and head back down to find out who in the hell thinks it’s okay to pull up in my drive so damn early in the morning.

I throw the door open and Cuddles runs out to the car barking like a mad dog. As I thought, even though she’s tiny, no one wants a piece of that action. The window in the back goes down and my father’s head pops out of it.

Fuck!

“I wouldn’t get out if I were you. We think she has rabies,” I shout.

The way his eyes go all wide makes me laugh. “Really, Son?”

I walk out in my bare feet and pick up the frantic poodle mix and hold her under my arm. “You’re safe now.”

My father’s driver gets out and opens the door for him. My mother slips out of the car behind my father and I walk toward the house. With the dog trying desperately to gain its freedom and kill my parents.

If she could do any real damage, I might just let her go.

But since she can’t, I hold onto her until we get inside the house. “Let me just put Killer here out in the back.”

I walk away as my parents look all around the great room and try not to look impressed. That would be too boorish of them as my grandfather would say.

When I come back, I see they’ve sat down on the giant leather sofa and seem to be a bit confused by everything. “You keep a dog in the house, Benjamin?” my father asks me.

I nod. “You guys want to follow me to the kitchen. I need to get some coffee going and maybe a pitcher of margaritas.”

They get up and follow me as Mother says, “Surely, you jest.”

I shrug my shoulders. It seems like a little alcohol might be in order this morning which is starting way too early and way too awful. Not that it was going to be an awesome day, anyway with Gage in the plans for the day.

Gesturing to the barstools by the island in the kitchen, I say, “Take a load off. That must’ve been some ride. I’m sure you two are beat. I can set you up in one of our many guest rooms if you guys need a nap.”

My father looks at me as if I’m insane. “Benjamin, you must know we took our jet to the small airport just outside of town and had a car waiting there for us.”

“And you brought your own driver from home? You didn’t think James might like the day off since you’re away from New York?” I ask as I pour some water into the back of the old style coffee maker Angel insisted on.

My mother shakes her head, making her blonde bob haircut bounce around her neck, that’s strung with pearls. Always the picture of the perfect wife and mother, she is. Much like June Cleaver. I guess she’s her role model.

“What are you doing there, Benjamin? When is it you learned to cook, Son?”

“I took a cooking class in college,” I say with a smile as Harvard offers no cooking classes in its legal schooling.

My father frowns. “Seems you’ve become quite the jokester this year. I don’t see the need for humor myself. It gets in the way of real things. Life, work, respect. Of which you are rapidly losing mine by the way.”

“Am I now?” I spoon in the fresh coffee grounds Angel loves and look at my father. “I’m losing some for you and especially my grandfather. Representing that horrible man. Bain isn’t a thing I thought you approved of either. Nor my brother for that matter. But when Grandfather speaks, you two cower. I’m done cowering. I won’t work for a firm that takes that man’s back.”

Mom chimes in, which is not at all like her, “Mr. Bain has every right to charge the price he sees fit without the government telling him what he has to do. This is a country with a free enterprise system. If we let them do this to him, then it sets a precedent where they can do it to others as well. Setting the prices, they see fit without the knowledge of what it costs to produce things.”

I shake my head and look at my mother. “You’re right in the regards of the government and their interference in most things. Bain holds the keys to the only drug known to extend the lives of people with AID’s, though. He’s jacked up the price the original producer found they could sell the product for and still make a profit.”

My father clears his throat. “But our client, Mr. Bain, has a product which is high in demand. He’s justified in raising the price. Others in areas of in-demand products do the same thing.”

“But, Father, those are things people want. Their lives don’t depend on them being able to get it. People should be able to affordably obtain what’s necessary to live. I shouldn’t even have to argue about this with you. In the beginning, you were on the right side. What the hell happened?” I ask and then I see Angel stumbling to the top of the stairs, rubbing her eyes.

“Is Gage here already?” she asks in a mumbled voice.

“Shit,” I hiss and run to her as she’s wearing only a robe and her hair’s a mess.

She didn’t even bother to do a thing. She’s must’ve woken up and thought I was down here arguing with her old boyfriend.

“Angel, my parents are here.”

She stops on the third from the top stair and spins around. “I’ll be right back. I have to change my clothes.”

I’m thankful the position my parents are sitting in didn’t let them see her. Neither of them ever leave their bedroom without looking a thousand percent ready for the day.

And then their eyes level on me. “What was she wearing, Benjamin?” my mother asks.

“A robe. We’re very informal here. This is the country. There are usually no unexpected visitors here. So we don’t usually get dressed for the day until after we’ve had coffee and breakfast.” I pour Angel a large cup of coffee and put some cream from the fridge in it. “I’m going to run this up to her. Be right back. Make yourselves some if you’d like. Everything’s right here in the kitchen.”

I haul ass to our room and find her frantically brushing her teeth and hair at the same time. She spits out a glob of toothpaste as she sees me come in. “What the hell, Benny?”

“They just showed up. It’s about work,” I say as I sit the coffee on the vanity top.

“It’s about me too,” she says then rinses her mouth out with mouthwash.

I shake my head. “No, I think it’s just work, Baby. I don’t want you to stress about it. Not one bit. You have enough to worry about without that. And so do I.”

I look around and find a hair clip I bought her a few days ago that isn’t expensive but it looks like it is. Quickly, I braid her hair and clip the end with the clip.

She looks at it in the mirror. “That looks nice. Please pick me out something to wear they’ll approve of, Benny.”

Hurrying to the closet, I pick out a simple beige dress she has. I’ve yet to take her shopping and now I’m regretting it. Some white flats I find and take them to her. “Didn’t I see a strand of pearls in your jewelry box?”

She nods and I rush to get them and place them around her neck.

Perfect!

She looks very normal. Very bland, but my parents like people that way.

Running my arm around her shoulders, I take her out to meet my parents. The words, ‘don’t be nervous,’ keep running through my brain as we go down the stairs.

She takes in a deep breath as we hit the last one and looks at me, then gives me a wink. Somehow she managed to get just enough makeup on to look radiant.

We round the corner to the kitchen and she beams at my parents who look at her with a mix of astonishment and wonder. Angel steps forward, her hand extended. “Hello, I’m Angel Jennings. Benny’s told me so much about you both. It’s such a pleasure to meet the people who made this magnificent man the person he is.”

My father and mother get up off the bar stools. Father shakes her hand first. She shocks the hell out him and me both as she pulls him into a hug. Then does the same thing with my mother.

“Well, oh my,” Mom says as Angel gives her a pat on the back too.

Angel steps back and comes to my side. I run my arm around her shoulders again as she says, “I know people of your stature aren’t big on hugs, but in middle America we’re huge on them. Please take a seat. No reason for you to be standing. We’re very informal way out here in the country.”

Angel looks back at me and runs her hand over my beard, straightening it some. “Thanks,” I say then look back at my parents who are looking at us with slack jaws.

“Um,” my father says. “Well, I don’t know what to say. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Angel. Is that your real name or a nickname of sorts?”

She smiles and moves away from me to go to the fridge. “It’s my real name. Care for a juice of some sort? We have every kind there is.”

Mother runs her hands over her pearls and stares at the ones Angel has on. “I’ll take an apple juice, Dear. Mr. Worthington will take a prune. Did our son buy you those pearls?”

Angel grabs two juice glasses from the cabinet and looks over her shoulder at my mother. “No, these were my great-grandmother's. They were handed down to me. I love wearing them. They remind me where it is I come from.”

“Where do you come from, dear?” Mom asks as I hold my breath as the answer will not make her happy.

Angel takes the juices from the fridge and fills the glasses. “I come from a family of hard workers. My great-grandfather was a railroad engineer way back in the day. He made a nice living, but it took him a lot of hours to make that kind of money that made them only middle class. I’m proud to say that I’m the very first person in my family to get a Master’s degree. Some have Associate’s and a few have their Bachelor’s but I’m only months away from gaining the highest degree that anyone in my family has achieved.”

My father gives her a genuine smile as she places their drinks in front of them. “That’s quite an accomplishment. And what is your degree in?”

“Engineering. I want to build motorcycles,” she says with a huge smile.

My mother nearly chokes on her juice. “Why those things? Not very lady like, I must say.”

Angel laughs lightly. “Not one bit. You’re right about that. But they’re not about ladies or gentlemen. They aren’t about boys or girls. They aren’t about men or women. Motorcycles are about experiencing the freedom of the road. The wind, the sun, and the moon, the elements in their rawest forms. That’s what they’re about. I want to make a machine that’s easier for people of lighter weights to handle. To feel the road beneath their tires better and feel more confident in their ability to handle such a powerful machine.”

My father looks at me with his eyebrows way up high. “My, she’s an impressive young thing, isn’t she?”

My heart stops as they’re reacting to her so much better than I thought they would. “She is quite impressive.”

Angel takes an apron out of the drawer. “I’m not all that. Now, if you’ll help me, Benny, we can whip up some omelets for breakfast.”

I go to help her then say, “Father, we’d like to invite James in to eat.”

“Someone’s outside?” Angel asks.

I nod. “Their driver. He came with them from New York.”

She shakes her head. “Get the eggs out and start the sausage and bacon mixture we made up yesterday morning heating up. I’ll run and get him.”

“Oh, it’s not necessary,” my father says. “I’m sure he’ll turn you down.”

She stops and spins around. “Why’s that?”

Mother rolls her eyes. “Staff doesn’t eat with us, Dear.”

“At my house they do,” Angel says and takes off to retrieve the driver my parents have had for the last twenty years.

Once she’s all the way out of the house and I hear the door shut, I ask, against my better judgment, “So, what do you think?”

They look at each other as if mentally communicating. Then they look back at me as my father answers, “She’s wonderful. She’ll need to be schooled in the proper ways of etiquette and the rules of our social status, such as staff and things like that. Do you suppose you could teach her those things, Benjamin? Also, she’ll have to stop calling you by that nickname. Oh, what your grandfather would do to her if he ever heard that name come out of her mouth. I fear for the girl, you know?”

“You know, I was afraid for her too. But she just absolutely blew me away just now. I think she’ll deal with Grandfather just fine. I won’t be teaching her a thing. She’s teaching me.”

I’m one step closer to becoming the man I’m meant to be, thanks to finding my Angel.

Chapter 4

ANGEL

With the arrival of Benny’s parents, it’s knocked my business with Gage back awhile. I didn’t want to seem rude, so it took some doing to be able to get out of the house on our own.

Thankfully, Benny’s parents needed a nap after the huge breakfast we made and we told them we had to go buy some things so we could have a nice dinner. They commented on the fish tank in the kitchen with the two live lobsters and asked about having those.

Benny told them we could never eat Fred and Ethyl. He wants to make them his specialty, spaghetti and meatballs.

Alone in Gage’s truck, I find myself so drawn to Benny that it’s kind of freaky. I lean into him as I sit next to him and he drives us into town. “I think your parents are nowhere near as stuffy as you described them.”

“They really are. But they’re different around you. I can’t explain it. You bring out something in people, Angel. You’re a rare find, my lady.”

“I think you are.” I put my head on his shoulder and run my hand over his leg. “I want you so damn bad right now for some reason, Benny.”

“Shut up!” he says as he pulls his shades down to look at me. “Are you being serious?”

I nod and bite my lip. “Want to pull over before we have to deal with Gage?”

“You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?” He shakes his head and laughs. “This is your old boyfriend’s truck and you want me to fuck you in it?”

“Now I get why it’s making me so hot for you. Yes, that’s exactly what I want.” I run my hand over his jean covered cock, and he looks at me again.

“You’re a bad girl, Angel.”

“Seems so.” I unbutton his jeans and pull the zipper down nice and slow then put my hand inside them to feel his skin under my palm. “Um, maybe my mouth will help you pull over and make me scream for mercy.”

I lean over and my pearl necklace touches the tip of his dick and he groans, “Fuck, Angel.”

“I haven’t even touched you with my lips yet,” I say with a giggle.

He pushes my head down. “Stop talking and suck it, Baby.”

I do as I’m told and find his cock hard as a rock as I take it all in. Up and down I go as he keeps driving. His groans fill the cab of the truck. “I can’t wait for that truck I bought you to come in,” he whispers.

I stop and pull my head up. “You bought me a truck?”

He pushes my head back down. “Get back to work, Wench. Yeah, I bought you a badass truck. And now that I realize how much better it’ll be cruising in it from time to time, you better believe you and I will be taking in the sights. Like the sight of the back of our pretty little head bobbing up and down in my lap as I drive down the road.”

I stifle a laugh because this isn’t the time for laughing. I hear the sound of a bunch of bikes roaring past us. So I pull my head up just a little. “Are we in town?”

“Yeah, we are. You might want to speed this up a bit.”

I suck harder as I reach in and take his balls in my hand and massage them. He stops at a stop light, I suppose, and runs his hand over the back of my head. “Yes, Baby! God damn it! Get ready! Fuck!”

He blasts down my throat and I drink it all down then sit up and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and look out the tinted windows at the people in the car right next to us.

“Did you get us tinted windows on the truck too?”

He nods and pulls me to him and kisses me hard. “That was awesome, Baby. Thank you.”

“Go park behind the dollar store, so you can show me how thankful you really are.” I hold his cock in my hand and move it up and down to get him ready again.

He smiles and goes where I told him to down a back alleyway and he pulls to a stop then tosses me on my back on the long bench seat. He pushes my dress up then starts to rip my panties off.

I stop him. “I’ll need to keep these intact, Benny.”

“Oh yeah,” he says with a grin.

He moves them to the side and moves his body over mine and slams his hard cock into me. “Yes!” I hiss.

He slams into me over and over as he looks into my eyes. “You like me fucking you in his truck, don’t you, you bad girl?”

I bite my lip and buck up to meet his hard thrusts. “I do. Show me who I belong to.”

He leans down and bites my neck then sucks it hard. His teeth graze over my neck up to my ear. “You tell me who you belong to.”

My hands move up underneath his white T-shirt that’s so sheer you can see his ripped abs through it. I can feel them moving against my stomach. “You, Benny. I belong to you.”

My heart’s pounding and I can barely breathe as he slams into me hard. His breath is hot on my neck as he nips and sucks it, leaving his mark on me. He moves faster.

He pulls back one of my legs and goes in deeper, making me stretch in a new place and I moan. “Don’t come until I tell you to, Baby.”

My stomach tenses as now I know I can’t let go. “What’ll you do to me if I don’t mind you?”

“String your ass up and whip you until you’re soaking wet.”

I moan and arch up to him. “I just might like that. Better come up with something different.”

He laughs a little then says, “Okay then. I’ll spank your ass so hard you won’t be able to sit down for a week.”

“Oh, Benny, you should do that, anyway.” I wrap my legs around his waist.

“Damn, Baby. Just don’t come until I tell you to. Shit, you’re too hard to threaten.”

He pulls my braid, making the other side of my neck stretch out long then he bites me hard and I scream with the most delightful pain. “Benny!”

My body starts to shake with the need to let it fall apart but I hold on as he plunges into me. He starts moving with short strokes as his dick starts to jerk then he groans out the words, “You can come now.”

We let out horrible sounds as our bodies pulse and squeeze the others. He lies on top of me as we pant and try to catch our breath. Then he pushes his body up a little and looks around.

“What?” I ask as he looks a little worried.

“We need to clean you up or you’ll get jizz all over his seat.”

I point at the glove compartment. “That’s most likely filled with assorted condiments and napkins.”

“You know him so well,” he says with a frown.

He opens the glove compartment, and it’s filled with exactly what I said it would be. Getting a handful of them, he hands them to me then gets off me. I sniff the air. “God, it smells like sex in here. This was a terrible idea, Benny. You shouldn’t have let me talk you into this.”

I sit up and clean myself up and look in the glove compartment for some kind of bag to put the used things in. I find a small thing of perfume and spray it around then put it back.

Benny cocks his head at me. “Angel, why would he have perfume in here?”

With a shrug of my shoulders, I answer, “Don’t really know.”

Then I put it back inside and when a few packets of ketchup fall out, I see a picture. I pull it out and see Gage with his arm around a girl I went to school with.

I hold it up and look at Benny. “See the shirt this chick is wearing?”

He nods. “That’s mine. That’s my shirt she has on. I asked him if he’d seen it anywhere when I found it missing. He told me I probably lost it in the wash. But there she is wearing it.”

“So that was before he left?” he asks as he takes the picture out of my shaking hand.

“I lost that shirt two days before he left me. And I never put two and two together because I had no idea he even knew her. Her name is Sandy. She went away to college supposedly. And it was around the same time he left.” I take the picture and put it back where I found it. “Can you take me to Bell’s Diner so I can ask someone there some questions?”

He nods and we take off. My mind is moving very fast as we go and when we pull up to the diner I see the person’s car there who I need to talk to. “You want me to go with you?”

I shake my head. “This will only take a minute.”

I climb out of the passenger side and go in to find Sandy’s best friend. Patty and Sandy were inseparable until Sandy moved away to go to college.

Patty looks up when I walk in. “Hi, Angel. I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I know. I stay to myself a lot. Too much, I think. Anyway, about Sandy. When’s the last time you talked to her?” I put my hand on my hip and tap my foot as I wait for her answer.

“You seem a little pissed, Angel. What’s up?”

“When did you last talk to her?” I ask again.

She sighs and says, “A few days ago. She’s moving back. She and her boyfriend broke up, and she’s coming home. She said she didn’t sign up to be taking care of a man for the rest of his life. Her boyfriend had a terrible accident. The guy was in a coma for almost two years. He’s on disability now and she says he only plays his games all day and expects her to wait on him hand and foot even though the doctors told him he needs to exercise and stuff to get back to his old self.”

“Do you happen to know how long they’ve been together?” I ask.

“Well, they met here a little over two years ago. The tragic thing is they left to move to Texas where his family is from. The day they took off, he was on his motorcycle and she was in her car with all of their things packed up in it. The guy had a terrible accident on his motorcycle and ended up in a coma. He came out of it a few months ago.”

I shake my head and hold up my hand. “Is his name Gage?”

“Yeah, you know him?” she asks.

I nod. “I really shouldn’t have been such a homebody. Work and school were my entire life and Gage, of course. He and I lived together until he took off. He told me he was going to travel all over the world. And guess who just came back into town last night to find me. I wondered why he didn’t have my phone numbers anymore. But of course he had to delete them, didn’t he?”

Her eyes go big. “I swear she had no idea he was with anyone. I swear that to you, Angel. Please don’t start anything with her when she gets back. She’s had it so rough with him being in that coma and all she went through to be able to stay in Sioux Falls with him.”

“I won’t start anything with her. Thanks for the information, Patty.” I turn around and leave.

As I climb back into the truck, I see Benny frowning at me. “Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Seems, Gage is a lying piece of shit.”

“He never had an accident?” he asks.

“No, he had that. He was in a coma and all that. But he left with another girl. Not to travel the world. The reason he didn’t have my numbers is because he deleted them, I’m sure.” I sit next to the door and find myself shaking with anger.

“Baby, come here,” he says as he holds out his arms.

I turn to him and ask, “Why, Benny? Why would he do that to me then and why would he come back now and try to fuck up my life again?”

He reaches out and pulls me to him. “Baby, there are so many selfish people in this world. I have no idea why he’d do all this. I can tell you that I’m fucking happy as shit that he’s an asshole, though.”

I have to laugh. “You would.”

“So let’s go give him his damn truck and get my bike and you can tell him to fuck off forever. I can punch him if you want.” He kisses my cheek. “Only if you want me to.”

“I do, but don’t. He was in a coma and I don’t know what all he had wrong with him so we’ll have to leave the physical stuff out.” I lean my head on his shoulder. “Thanks, though.”

I feel good and bad, it’s odd. It’s a relief that he’s no longer a real issue in my relationship with Benny, but he’s still a man I loved once and he lied to me.

We pull up to the motel and I find Gage coming out as soon as we stop in front of his little motel room.

“Should I give him one more night here or what, Angel?” Benny asks me.

“I really think you’ve already done more than enough for the ass.”

He opens the door and gets out then helps me down. The perfume wafts out as we get out and I see Gage’s eyes go kind of big but he quickly loses the ‘oh shit’ expression.

“Hi, Angel. You look great. Kind of like a pretty school teacher. Not like yourself much at all. But still pretty,” he says. He holds his arms out. “Can I have a hug?”

Benny laughs. And goes to his bike and gets on it. Gage’s eyes follow him and he looks a little confused.

I cross my arms and give him a nod. “You can have a hug if you really want to come that close to me. I wouldn’t advise it, though.”

He takes a few steps back. “And why is that, Angel?”

“I found a photo of you and Sandy.”

He looks right into my eyes and says, “Who?”

“You know the thing that makes me the maddest is that you would see a real relationship end just to have me take care of your ass for the rest of your fucking useless life.” I take a step toward him and he takes another back.

“Angel, what are you talking about?”

“I know Sandy, sweetheart. I went to school with her. I know her best friend, Patty too. And you’ll be happy to know that Sandy will be back in town soon. Try your hand at that again. The poor girl apparently was there for you at the hospital.”

“Is that what she said? That girl’s a sociopath. A freaking liar, Angel.” He stands his ground as he goes on, “She told me her name was Melissa. I left town because of her. She was threatening to tell you that she and I had been messing around. She liked me. Wanted me. But I was faithful to you and she hated it.”

His words, though most likely bullshit, do remind me of another boy in school saying something very similar.

I look at Benny. “This may be a little bit true, Benny. What should I do?”

“Fuck!” he says. “You’re too smart to fall for this bullshit, Angel.”

Gage takes me by the arm and I look at him. “I did hide some stuff from you but it was for your own protection. She threatened to kill you. I left to get away from her. When I woke up at the hospital, she was there. Angel, I think she might have been trying to run me down or something. I think that’s why I wrecked. I came here to get your help because my parents left me with her. They believed all her lies and with my memory loss I kind of did too. She had that picture of us with my arm around her and all. But I don’t remember her. I only remember you.”

Well, what the fuck do I do now?

Chapter 5

BLAZE

It’s times like these that I wish I had a portable lie detector test!

Angel looks at me with an expression that asks me what she should do. I want to say, ‘tell him to fuck off, anyway,’ but I don’t say that. “Fuck!” I look at Gage and see real sadness and worry in his dark eyes. “Get in your truck and follow us home. I don’t know how my parents are going to react to this shit. Get on, Angel.”

She hurries over and climbs on back of my bike as she says, “I’m sorry, Baby. This is getting to be a real cluster-fuck, isn’t it?”

Sarcasm is heavily laced with my words as I say, “You think?”

She smacks me in the arm. “If it’s getting to be too much for you, I can…”

I start up the bike and drown out her next words. I know what they are, ‘can leave.’ I shake my head and drive away as she hangs onto me.

My mind is numb as I try not to think about how my parents are going to act when we bring home this man with his peculiar story and the fact he wants to take my girl away from me.

It’s hard to keep my thoughts positive in nature. And when I pull into my drive and see another long black car there, I shudder.

Grandfather!

When I stop, Angel asks, “Who do you think is here now?”

“By the chill that ran down my spine when I saw the car, I’d say it’s my grandfather. So this should be one fucking awesome day.”

I get off and hold out my hand to help her. Once she’s off, I pull her into my arms. “Need a hug, Baby?” she whispers.

“I need a hell of a lot more than just this hug, but I’ll take what I can get for now. This is going to have to be handled delicately. Let me do the talking, Princess.” I let her out of the hug and take her hand, leading her up the sidewalk as Gage hops out of his truck.

He looks in awe as he looks up at the huge, log cabin style mansion. “Fuck me, Angel. I know you’ll never leave this guy!”

I smile and hope he’s right. “I hope she won’t, Gage.”

Angel makes a nervous laugh which is so unlike her. “Let’s not talk about that. Benny’s parents are here and someone else too. He thinks it’s his grandfather. They’re from New York and filthy rich so don’t be offended if they come off snobby, as they can’t help it.”

I stop and look at her. “When did you get so damn understanding, Angel?”

“I’ve always been that way. I get it. There’s more than one way to live life. They can’t help where they come from just like the rest of us can’t,” she says as she starts walking again. “And the truth is, I can’t wait to meet your grandfather. I’m sure he’s nothing like you’ve told me he is. Your parents sure weren’t as bad as you said they were. Your father is adorable and your mother is so June Cleaver.”

I get a lopsided grin because she thinks of my mother just like I do. We’re so much on the same wavelength, it’s cute.

In no time at all, I see us becoming that couple who can finish each other’s sentences. Order food for the other and pick out the perfect presents for one another.

I take in a deep breath before I open the door.

“Okay, you two, just keep it low key. Don’t get into any of this story with these people. They’ll only judge you very harshly. It’s what they do.”

Angel looks at Gage, who’s walking on the other side of her, and says, “Don’t let him freak you out, Gage.”

He gives her a nod and we head inside. No one is in the great room where I thought I’d find them. “Mother, Father,” I call out.

Then I hear some playful yapping coming from out back and look at Angel. She looks back at me with fear in her eyes. “Oh, no! You don’t think they went out there, do you? Cuddles will rip them up.”

Gage’s eyes go all bright. “Cuddles is out there?”

He starts to haul ass toward the sound and Angel shouts out at him, “Gage, wait for us or you’ll get lost. This place is enormous.”

“I found a map!” I hear him call out.

I forgot the floor plans are still on that table by the stairs.

She giggles and leans her head on my shoulder as I run my arm over her shoulders and she says, “He found a map. That sounds so funny.”

We walk to the patio doors and get there just in time to see him open them. My jaw drops as I see my grandfather petting the dog. My parents are outside too and the dog seems comfortable with them.

“Cuddles,” Gage shouts.

The dog stops wagging her tail and turns away from my grandfather. Her expression goes to one of confusion for only a moment then she makes a b-line for Gage, who’s holding out his arms. She flies into them and he hugs her as she licks his face and makes odd yips.

Angel sighs, “She missed him.”

“It looks like I’ve lost her,” I say, quietly.

Angel whispers, “She used to scratch at the door and go outside to look for him when he left. That’s when she started sleeping in the bed with me. It was like she was waiting for him to come back. But he never did.”

She’s just watching him and their dog and I feel left out. And then my time to feel sorry for myself is over as my grandfather says, “Now who do we have here? The prodigal grandson has been found.”

They come back inside as Gage goes out to play with the dog. They all introduce themselves as they pass each other and I offer no explanation to who the man is.

My grandfather cannot stop looking at Angel. She smiles at him and extends her hand. “Hi, Mr. Worthington, I’m Angel Jennings.”

He takes her hand and I try to keep a hold of her shoulders so she doesn’t hug him like she did to my parents but I can’t as she slips away somehow.

Her arms go around him as his eyes go wide and my father chuckles then he says, “She’s a hugger, Father.”

“I can see that,” Grandfather says as he lets her hug him then looks her up and down when she lets him go. “My, you are a nice-looking young woman. What do you see in the hippy, here?”

She laughs and comes back to me, taking my hand. “You mean this rascal? There’s so much to see in him. He’s sweet, kind, sincere, loveable. I could go on and on.”

I have to grin and pull her into my arms and kiss her cheek. Another thing that has my grandfather’s eyes popping. “Sweet? Benjamin?” He shakes his head.

“Come, let’s sit in the great room and visit,” Angel says as she pulls me along with her to the large room at the front of the house. She takes my grandfather’s hand with her other one and pulls him along too. “I’m so glad you could make time to come visit us. I’ve been dying to meet you, sir. It’s such an honor to have a man of your great accomplishment in our home. You’ve built such a wonderful legacy for your family. You see, I want to learn as much as I can from you, if you’ll indulge me, that is.”

She makes us sit on either side of her as she pulls us down on the large leather sofa. My grandfather asks, “And why do you want to learn from me?”

“You see, I’m about to hold a Master’s Degree in Engineering and want to build motorcycles. I’d like to have my own company and would love to learn how you managed to do such a remarkable job building yours,” she says as she leans back and I run my arm around her shoulders and have to kiss her cheek.

“An engineer. I see. That’s something to be proud of, young lady. You have very high expectations.” Grandfather sits back and smiles.

Wow, a real smile!

Angel laughs a little then says, “I see no reason to have anything less than the highest expectations when you’re talking about the most important thing in your life. It’s the most important thing, providing your family with a firm foundation to build upon. Don’t you think so?”

He blinks at her a few times then looks at me. “Don’t let this one go, Benjamin.”

“I have no plans to, Grandfather.” I look at her and want to smother her with kisses.

Angel snaps her fingers. “You know what would be fun?”

I shake my head. “What, Baby?”

“If we had us a big old bar-b-que.” She looks at my parents. “You all will be spending at least one night with us, won’t you?”

“Well, I…,” Mom says then looks at my father. “It wasn’t a thing we’d planned on.”

My grandfather continues to floor me as he says, “If you invite us to, then we will. It would be rude not to accept the invitation.”

“Fabulous!” Angel claps her hands. “I’ll invite my grandmother. My parents live in California or I’d have them over to meet you all too. And I’ll hire a really great chef to make our dinner. He’ll be so over the top excited to cook for you all. He has his own restaurant in town and is famous for his steaks.”

I’ve never been more certain about anything in my entire life. This woman is the one for me!

Then Gage walks in with the floor plan of the house in his hand.

“Hey, Angel, I overheard you talking about having a party. Am I invited too?”

My grandfather looks at the man then back at Angel. “Who might this young man be to you, my darling girl?”

My eyes go wide. My grandfather does not use such words.

Angel answers, “Oh, he’s my old boyfriend. The story is crazy, and I’d bore you with the details. But he has a problem and we want to try to help him with it.”

“Plus, I love her and want her back,” Gage says.

“Dude!” I shout. “Not cool!”

“Well, I do,” he says, a lot quieter.

Angel pats my grandfather’s leg. “Don’t worry. I love Benny with all my heart.”

“That’s good to hear, Angel,” he says then looks at Gage again. “Well tell us your big problem, Gage.”

Gage sits on the floor, Indian style and starts telling his story. I’m kind of shocked and can tell he does have residual effects from his brain injury as a few words he says oddly and his eyes blink rapidly about every twenty minutes.

Angel grips my hand as Gage tells us that this young woman named Melissa came on to him one day as he ate lunch at Bell’s Diner. She even came to their house once, telling him Angel said she could borrow some clothes. She put on some and said she needed to take a picture to send to Angel’s phone to see if it was okay to borrow them.

It seems she tricked him into getting into the shot with her and somehow got him to put his arm around her and then she used the picture to blackmail him.

He wasn’t about to give in until she threatened to kill Angel if he didn’t leave her. That was when he came up with the story about wanting to travel the world. Only he was going to go to Texas and stay with his family until he could figure out what to do about the crazy chick.

But he was in the motorcycle accident only hours after leaving town and when he finally woke up, the crazy Melissa was there. Only she was telling him they had a strong love and he and she were leaving Sturgis together.

She told him she was right behind him in her car and saw the accident that was caused by some debris on the road. She stayed by his side and made even his family believe her story.

Sioux Falls is where she got a job and rented an apartment and he moved in with her when they let him out of the hospital. Little by little his memory started returning and Angel was the only person he remembered loving. And he knew he’d never leave her and had never really had anything to do with Melissa.

As he ends his story, I look around to see my parents and grandfather captivated and cannot believe it. Angel holds my hand tight and looks at me. “Benny, what should we do?”

I shake my head and find myself further surprised as my grandfather says, “We have to get this woman to admit what she did.” He looks at Gage. “And, I’m sure you do love Angel, but she had no choice but to move on and you have to accept that. I’m sure you two can remain lifelong friends. But nothing more than that.”

Gage frowns then says, “You’re right. I know you are.” He looks at Angel. “The truth is, I never made you glow the way you do with him. You never looked at me like you look at him. Your eyes light up and your voice even changes when you talk to or about him. So, I’ll take your friendship if you’ll give it.”

Angel looks at me and smiles as she asks, “Would that be alright, Benny? Can I be his friend?”

I look at her a long time then at him. “Can you keep your hands off her?”

His lips quirk up into a half-smile. “I think she’ll make sure I do.”

I run my hand over the top of her thigh. “She damn well better.” With my cursing, I cut my eyes to be ready for my grandfather to tell me how it’s not allowed but am stunned when he smiles and sits back.

Angel hops up and pulls me with her. “We have a few calls to make to get things ready. You are all feel free to look around the place.”

She keeps going until we’re at the door to our bedroom where she takes me inside and closes the door then turns back and pushes me against it. Her mouth is hot on mine.

I run my hands down and cup her ass in them, picking her up. She wraps her legs around me and I walk over to the bed with her. Pulling my mouth away, I toss her onto our bed.

She’s panting as she looks up at me. “Strip.”

I do as she’s said to, then push her dress up and this time I rip those white lace panties right off. I flip her over and yank her back to me then slap her ass, nice and hard.

She moans out, “Oh, do it again, Benny.”

I do it again and slam my hard cock into her soaking wet depths. “You’re so fucking perfect, Baby. So fucking perfect.”

“No, you are,” she says. “Baby give me five more. I want to see your hand print on my ass when we’re done.”

“You are one naughty girl, Angel.”

“That I am.”

Chapter 6

ANGEL

After some much-needed Benny and Angel time, I managed to make the phone calls needed to get this party going and expect my grandmother to arrive any minute.

Freddy’s already brought a small staff with him and is in the kitchen preparing dinner. It feels so odd being the hostess of such a shindig. I never saw myself in this role. Not ever!

I also never saw myself sitting around with both my current boyfriend and my former either.

The doorbell rings and I get up to answer it, sure that it’s my grandmother. Without looking through the peephole, I open the door and there stands a version of Sandy Whitehead. Or Melissa, as Gage knows her.

“Sandy?” I ask as I look at the girl who’d been blonde but now is a brunette with dark brown eyes and pale skin.

“No, I’m Melissa and I’m here to get my fiancé.”

“You’re Sandy Whitehead. We went to school together. You were a couple of grades ahead of me but I do know you, Sandy.” I look her dead in the eyes and I can see she’s got a lot of anger.

“My name is Melissa Cross. I’m only twenty-five so I don’t see how you think you know me.” She looks me right back in the eyes and I have to say this little nut job takes her crazy very seriously.

So I try something a little sneaky. “How’s Patty doing?”

“I just left her, she’s fine,” she says and her mouth does a little twitchy thing to one side but she quickly regains her composure. “Where’s Gage? I see his truck out there and I was told he followed you and some other man on a motorcycle out of town. My source followed you all and told me he’d be here. Now where is he?”

Benny comes up behind me and runs his arm around my shoulders. “Hey, Baby, what’s taking so long here?”

“This woman says she’s Gage’s fiancé. Melissa Cross here, I know her as Sandy Whitehead, but she insists I’m wrong, and wants to see Gage. What do you think about that, Benny?”

He shakes his head. “I’m afraid, Gage, is our very dear friend, and he’s told us a little different story and you aren’t a fiancé in any of it. So, we’re going to have to ask you to leave. If he wants to talk to you, I’m sure he knows how to contact you.”

“Well, he doesn’t know my address. Tell him I’m living at 313 Alpaca Drive. And tell him that I will talk to him and get to the bottom of whatever it is he’s doing. I didn’t put my life on hold for two years to sit with his ass in the hospital to lose him to this bitch now.” She eyes me and I fight the urge to knock the shit out of her.

I narrow my eyes at her and speak in a very low and very threatening voice. “I’m not the woman to talk to like that. I’ll knock your ass clean into next week, Sandy. By the way, do you think I don’t know the address of your family home, idiot? Do yourself a favor and get some fucking psychiatric help before it’s too late. You need some help, bad. And as far as Gage goes, you will not be talking to him. I can see he still has a brain injury that he is recovering from and isn’t all himself yet. I’ll be calling his family to be sure they know the real story. Your little scam is about to end, sweetie.”

My grandmother pulls into the driveway and I look past bat-shit-crazy here to see her. Benny looks too and says, “I don’t want to call the cops to get you to leave, but I will. Am I going to have to do that?”

She shakes her head and turns to leave then looks back at me over her shoulder. “You can’t have them both, bitch. I will get Gage.”

I start out after her. “You shouldn’t have called me that, Sandy.” But I feel a hand on my arm and Benny’s holding me back.

He whispers, “Baby, she’s not all there. Don’t take it personally.”

She laughs kind of hysterically and I really want to kick her ass. But Benny’s right. It’s obvious she’s not all there. And now I really believe Gage’s story. As farfetched as it sounds, I think he’s telling the truth.

My grandmother, who’s is in her late sixties, but thanks to a life full of love with my grandfather, looks great. She keeps her blonde hair in shoulder-length waves. Sure, the blonde isn’t natural like it once was, but it’s not an obvious dye job. Her blue eyes are still sparkly and full of life.

She looks at Sandy as the laughing chick passes by her then looks back at me with a, ‘what the fuck,’ look.

I nod and wait for her to get to us as Benny isn’t taking any chances and not letting me go. “Who is that?” she asks as she gets to us.

“That’s a woman who’s gone a bit insane. It seems she’s the one to blame for Gage leaving me,” I tell her as I pull her into a hug. “It’s nice to see you. I’m glad you came, Grams.”

Benny extends his hand. “I’m Benjamin Worthington, it’s nice to meet you.”

She lets me go and pulls him into a hug, ignoring his hand. “Nice to meet you too! My, you’re keeping my granddaughter in very nice surroundings, I must say. You call me Grams, Son.”

He smiles at me. “Grams it is then.”

I take her hand and lead her inside as we see the looney bird has left our place and we can hear her car jetting off down the road. In the great room, I see that Freddy has several trays of appetizers out and a few bottles of wine and a pitcher of what looks like margaritas.

“Margarita or wine, Grams?” I ask as I lead her into the large room where everyone else is gathered and talking like old friends.

Her footsteps falter and I see her eyes are set on Benny’s grandfather. When I look at him, I see him getting up and coming our way. He’s wearing a smile and an expensive suit.

Benny’s grandfather is a very distinguished looking man as one can imagine a wealthy lawyer would look and he does not disappoint. Silver hair is neatly combed and light blue eyes look both strong and inviting at the same time.

I feel a tremble in my grandmother’s hand as his grandfather takes her other one and lifts it to his lips, placing a kiss on top. “Hello there, I’m Samuel Worthington. And you must be this little angel’s very pretty grandmother. I can see where she gets her great beauty from now.”

My grandmother doesn’t bat an eye. “She looks like her mother. I’m her father’s mother. My name is Rebecca Jennings. It’s nice to meet you, Samuel.”

His grandfather looks at me and asks, “Might I steal her away from you, Angel?”

I nod and release her hand. “Of course, you may.”

He takes her to meet his son- and daughter-in-law and I’m seeing a light in my grandmother’s eyes I haven’t seen in some time and it has me wondering. A light has sparked in Benny’s grandfather’s eyes too.

Benny whispers, “Oh my God, Angel. I’ve never seen my grandfather look like that in my entire life.”

I giggle a little and pull him along with me to check on the food in the kitchen and whisper back, “I’ve seen my grandmother look like that before. When she was looking at my grandfather, though.”

Gage jogs up behind us and puts his hand on my shoulder. I turn back and see him smiling. “Hey, Angel, what took you so long at the door? I thought I heard Melissa’s voice, but I wasn’t about to come see.”

I look at Benny who gives me a nod. “Tell him.”

Instead of the kitchen, I take his hand and lead him to a small sitting room where we all sit down. I look into his eyes. “Gage, that woman is mentally unstable.”

He frowns at me. “I’m well aware of that. What did she say? Did she threaten you?”

“Not really. Not directly. I do think she’s going to be a pain in the ass unless we do something about her. I think you should go to the authorities with what’s happened. Let them investigate the whole thing.” I pat his leg and see something in his eyes that tells me he’s left something out. “Do you want to tell me anything else, Gage?”

“I probably should.” He looks at Benny and gets up to move away from me. “Hey, can you hold her over here and not let her go when I tell her this. She might try to hit me.”

Benny’s hand takes mine. “I won’t let her hurt you, Gage. Just tell her what you have to say.”

Gage looks like a kicked puppy. “Angel, I kind of lied to you before.”

“You did mess around with her before you left, didn’t you?” I ask as I hold tight to Benny’s hand.

He nods. “I need your help, though. You’re one tough chick and I don’t know anyone else to help me. That woman is crazy. Even her friend, Patty, told me that she was worried about her mental state.”

I find I’m clenching my jaw. Then Benny’s hand on mine makes me think that things happen for a reason. “That’s the past and I can’t hang onto that. I can help you. I do care about you and I can see the accident has taken some of you away. I’ll protect you, Gage.”

He looks relieved. “Not mad, then?”

“I am mad. But, I’m not exactly mad at you. I’m mad at me too. I was hanging on to you for selfish reasons. I didn’t want to be alone. Not completely. I’ve always kept to myself and you were the very first person I let in. I knew we weren’t really compatible. I knew I was heading a different direction than you were.” I look at Benny and smile. “And although I’m sorry you were hurt in that accident when you left. I’m glad you did leave me.”

“Angel, you don’t know how good that is to hear. I thought the same thing the entire last year we were together. You were so into your schoolwork and learning as much as you could by watching the mechanics at your uncle’s garage that I knew you were destined for greatness. I was destined for just getting by.” He smiles at me. “And I knew I would never be enough for you. I knew you’d leave me one day when you figured that out on your own.”

I look at Gage. The man I loved first. Not the most, just first and think to myself that he was a good guy. He was a stand-up guy who went to work at a fast-food restaurant so he could stay in this town to date me.

After six months, we moved in together in the little house we rented. He lived in a motel room until that time. He stayed for me and worked as many hours as he could so he could get us a place.

And I did spend very little time at home the last year that we were together. And when I was home, I was holed up in the bedroom, studying or doing online school work. It left him alone much of the time.

Yet, when he left, I was devastated by it. I recall not understanding at all why he’d leave. But now I can see it very clearly.

I ask him, “Gage, did you and she leave together then?”

He shakes his head. “No. Everything else I’ve told you is the truth. She wanted me to leave you and threatened to kill you if I didn’t. I was trying to get out of town without her knowing but somehow she figured it all out and found me on the road, I guess. That part I’m unclear on. I know she was there at the scene of the accident because when I was able to talk again, the paramedics who were first on the scene and took care of me, came to see me and told me she was right by my side from before they got there.”

“Okay, so we know she was there from the beginning. Gage, are you sure you and she weren’t leaving together?” I ask him one more time because he’s letting little things out a bit at a time and I’d hate for him to give the police information that’s strewn with lies. They would stop pursuing the case if that’s how he’s going to be.

“I was going to go back to Texas. That’s the truth, Angel. And I wasn’t leaving you. Not altogether, I wasn’t. I was just making sure she didn’t hurt you.” He looks at Benny and smiles. “Angel and I did a little rough stuff, sex wise. And Melissa was into that too. Only she could take phenomenal amounts of pain and had me do some really hard shit to her. I won’t get into the details but I knew Melissa could take any kind of ass whooping Angel could dish out. So I was afraid for Angel, even though she’s tough.”

My stomach hurts all of a sudden as I think about my Gage and that crazy bitch. Gage sees the look on my face and he looks away. His expression tells me he’s sorry. But it doesn’t make the pain stop.

Benny pulls me to him and I snuggle into his side. His warmth helps me to try to come to peace with the fact so much was going on behind my back at that time. “It’s okay, Baby,” he whispers.

No, it’s not, okay. But I guess someday it will be.

Gage looks at me with a sheepishness to his handsome face. A face I used to really like to look at. His rugged jawline with softness around the edges always fascinated me.

His mouth moves into a crooked grimace. “I’m really sorry, Angel.”

I nod. “I’ll get over it.”

Benny asks him, “Gage, did that woman ever hurt you?”

Gage’s eyes go very dark. “Yes.”

I sit up and am suddenly furious. “Before or after your accident?”

“After,” he says then he looks despondent.

I move quickly to sit next to him on the small sofa across from the one we’re sitting on. I take his hands in mine and make him look at me. “After you were hurt? What did she do to you? Tell me, Gage!”

He just stares into my eyes for what seems like forever then he says very quietly, “She tied me up when I told her I was leaving. I had pain pills to help with the really bad headaches that would crop up after I woke up from the coma. I still get them only not as often as I did when I first woke up. Anyway, she must’ve put some of them in my drink or something because I recall telling her I was leaving. Then I found myself waking up in the bed. I was all tied up and tied down to it.”

“She drugged you and tied you up. Then what did she do to you, Gage?” I ask as I see in his eyes that wasn’t all she did to him.

He looks from me to Benny. “I’d rather not say.”

Benny gets up and takes me by the shoulders. “Angel, don’t make him relive that. Whatever it was. Don’t make him do that just so you can get really pissed at that crazy chick.”

Gage nods at me. “You wouldn’t look at me the same way. I couldn’t take that, Angel.”

And now I know I’m going to make that bitch pay for what she did to us both.

Chapter 7

BLAZE

The evening went by faster than I ever expected it would. My family has turned into a bunch of people I didn’t know they could be. Angel and her grandmother have spun some magic, and it seems to have captivated my family.

Guess I’m not the only Worthington to find a Jennings so remarkable. Grandfather couldn’t seem to leave Angel’s grandmother’s side. And it wouldn’t surprise me to find him leaving her bedroom in the morning.

We had Gage stay the night too. I have a feeling that crazy chick would be massive amounts of trouble for him if he were to stay at the motel in town. And he does seem to be more than a bit fragile the more time I spend around him.

Angel climbs into bed next to me and snuggles up to me. “Benny, why did you say your family was so stuffy?”

“Because they are.” I run my fingertip over her collarbone and kiss the top of her head as she wiggles her body to get in closer to me.

Her hand moves over my chest as she seems to be feeling every muscle I have. “No, they’re not. I think you have some kind of a chip on your shoulder about them. Like you just don’t like to be told how to act so you really rebelled against them.”

I take her hand and kiss it. “I don’t like to be told how to act.”

“I doubt anyone does. But when you’re a little kid, you do have to be taught how to act accordingly. Don’t you agree?” She turns her deep blue eyes up to mine and smiles.

Her smile does something to my heart. It flutters and in her eyes, I see my future. “I do. And you’re right, I do have a chip. But I came by it honestly. My grandfather has ruled my entire family since the very beginning. I don’t know how my mother stood it all these years. He overrode her and Father’s every decision.”

“But he seems very smart,” she says. “I’m sure it’s only because he had no other family. He felt very obligated to make sure his son and his son’s family were taken care of and learned the things he thought were important.”

“Probably.” I pull her up on my chest to lie on top of me. Pushing her dark hair back, I say, “He won’t be overruling you and me about our kids.”

Her right eyebrow cocks to up as her lips curve into a smile. “Our kids. That’s sounds oddly enticing. I wonder if our son will have your rebellious streak. I wonder how you’d handle that.”

“Don’t wish that on us, Baby,” I say with a laugh. “If you knew half the shit I’ve done in the name of nonconformity, you’d shit.”

“Yeah, don’t tell me about any of it. I won’t shit as much as I’ll want to smack you around a little bit.” She smiles but I think she’s being pretty damn honest. “What are we going to do about this Gage mess? We can’t keep him safe with us forever.”

“My grandfather’s wheels are turning on it. He’s a lawyer to his core and if anyone can figure out how to press charges that will stick, it’s him.” I kiss her and she melts on top of me and the conversation is over.

I roll over with her, covering her body with mine, savoring the feeling of her soft body giving into mine. Her leg moves up the back of mine and I feel her foot on my ass.

The heat from between her legs calls out to my cock and it grows to life with a want to fill her. I run my hand over her cheek and sigh. “You’re so beautiful, Angel.”

Her deep blue eyes dart back and forth then she kisses me back. Her lips press hard to mine. Her tongue pushes past my lips and runs over mine

My entire body is tingling. This is like a fantasy come true. A fantasy I never knew I even wanted. The light from the television is the only light there is, and she looks gorgeous in the muted tones.

I run my hands over the soft flesh of her back as her sweet kiss takes me to a world far away from this place. Her hands roam all over my body, leaving electric trails in their paths.

I run one hand between us and cup one of her breasts. She arches a little and her breath catches as I squeeze it. Her mouth leaves mine, and I move down to take a breast into my mouth. My lips press the nipple between them as my tongue flicks over the tip.

She moans as my hands roam over her hips and run around to grip her ass. I’m on fire for her with a dull ache to be inside her.

Her hands travel over my arms, stopping to feel my biceps. “I love your muscles, Benny,” she says with a low moan.

I pull my mouth from her breast. “I love your juicy tits.”

She giggles and I kiss my way down her body, pushing her legs apart as I make my way down. My heart is pounding as I stop. My face is right at her apex.

Our eyes are locked as my lips touch her clit and she makes a spectacular moan with the sensation. “Benny!” She grabs the sheet and fists it.

She closes her eyes as I use my tongue to stroke over her stomach then move my mouth down again. My tongue flicks and runs over her clit, making her arch up with a deep groan. “Sweet Jesus, that feels amazing.”

I smile and grip her ass, pulling her up to devour her. She can’t stop moaning. Eventually, she completely falls apart under his mouth. “God! Benny! Benny!”

My tongue runs inside her and she shivers. Then I move up her body and kiss her hard. I cradle her ass as I press my erection against her. I ache to go inside her but I wait until she’s wiggling underneath me. “Benny, please.”

I keep the tip of my wanting cock just at the edge and can feel her pulsing with the orgasm I just gave her. My lips graze over hers as I ask, “Do you love me, Angel?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want me, Angel?”

“Yes! Benny, please,” she hisses as she arches up to try to get me inside her. “I need you! I need to feel you inside me now.”

I put the tip inside and she moans like it’s the best thing she’s ever felt. I pull it back out and she makes the cutest little mewling sound. Then I slam into her and she lets out a bunch of air as it seems I’ve pushed it out of her lungs.

Over and over I thrust into her so hard that I can feel her breath coming from her mouth as mine hovers near hers. I breathe her in and take in everything she is. Her essence is amazing and I want all of her.

I want all of her forever.

I can’t see my life without her being a part of it and slow my hard thrusts, making long, slow strokes as I move one hand up and down her side.

Her body shakes with the chill my touch gives her. She rises up a bit, making our mouths touch. Her tongue taps at my lips and I open them to find hers moving inside as she kisses me with a deep, sweet kiss.

She tastes like the red wine we drank before we came to bed and I run my tongue over hers, tasting the wine mixed with her own natural juices. I roll us over, so she can be on top of me and she sits up, looking down at me as I lift her up and down.

Her dark hair is falling over her shoulders in waves that shine with the television’s light. Her tits are magnificent as they bounce with each movement she makes.

“How about you lean over here and pop one of those yummy tits into my mouth, Pumpkin?”

With a smile, she leans over and teases me with just the slightest touch of her nipple to my lips. I growl and raise my head and grab it with my teeth, making her yelp then it morphs into a groan as I bite it and lick the tip until it’s as taut as it can get.

I pull more of it into my mouth and suck it hard. Her nails gouge into my shoulders as she moans my name then a string of curse words comes out of her mouth as her body tightens around my cock and she starts to shake with an orgasm.

My cock can feel every little wave and squeeze the orgasm has her body making. I want nothing more than to give her as many of these things I can.

Just as I feel her beginning to slow the squeezing action it has on my cock, I let her tit go and smile at her as I say, “I have a little surprise for you.”

She opens her eyes and sits up on top of me. “What is it?”

I lift her up, off me and turn over to take out a set of pink, fluffy handcuffs and a matching blindfold from the nightstand. “You game?”

She nods and smiles. “Oh yeah, I’m game.”

“Hands in front,” I say as I hold out the cuffs.

She holds out her hands then I cuff them. I get off the bed and place the blindfold over her eyes. Picking her up and tossing her over my shoulder, caveman style, I carry her to the closet where I hang her cuffed hands over the hook on the door where her robe usually hangs from.

It’s high enough off the ground she has to stand on her tippy toes. “Please tell me you plan on making my ass ache, Benny.”

I walk back over to the nightstand and get out a pink gag and one of my belts. I kiss her long and hard. Then stop and ask, “Hand or belt?”

She licks her red lips. “Some of each, please.”

“Gag or no gag?” I ask as I run the ball over her lips so she can feel how big the gag is.

“Gag. I want you to make me feel it, Baby. I want to see red covering my ass when I look at it later in the mirror.”

Her breathing is already getting heavy again as she grows more excited. “Since you won’t be able to talk and use a safe word, when do you want me to stop?”

She takes in a deep breath and says, “This might sound weird, but I really need to cry since I found out that Gage actually did cheat on me. I want you to stop only once you see tears streaming down my cheeks. Because I feel the hurt welling up inside me and I don’t want it to fester like it did before. I want it out and gone. Okay?”

I kiss her cheek then put the gag into place and fasten it behind her neck. “You got it, Baby. And for the record, I don’t think it’s weird at all.”

We all have our ways of dealing with tough shit after all.

I run my hands over her ass. It’s round and plump and perfect. I take it all in. The paleness of the skin I’m about to turn pink. The way it gets tighter with every pass I make over it with my hand.

I smack it once half as hard as I can. She makes a little moan and I do it again then run my hand over it, finding it warm where I hit it. I pick up the belt and give her a slight slap with it and watch the plump muscles move in waves then I do it again in another place, and once more in another place.

She groans with each one and I look at her to see if any tears are beginning to spill but see no indication of any.

I use my hand to administer more spanks to her flesh that’s beginning to turn pink. She’s tough as shit and I make a few more strikes with the belt then her groan turns a little high and I look at her face and find the pink blindfold staining with tears.

I stop the spanking and move in behind her. Moving two fingers inside her, I find her not only insanely wet but her insides as quaking with an orgasm.

It makes my dick actually hurt and I lift her up higher and slide my dick into her from behind. I make hard thrusts into her as I kiss her neck, nipping it and sucking it.

Her body is hot and I can feel sobs making her chest heave. I whisper, “Do you want me to remove the gag?”

She shakes her head. I’m sure she’s afraid she’ll make so much noise someone will hear her crying.

Her body is still squeezing and throbbing with an intense orgasm as I stroke into her and all I can think about is making everything better for her. I keep making deep thrusts into her over and over until I finally cum and send my semen into her hot depths.

Her legs quiver as I do and finally our bodies slow their intense pulsing and squeezing. I pull the gag off then take her cuffed wrists down.

Picking her up, I lie her face down on the bed, leaving the blindfold on as I look in the drawer for the key to the cuffs. I don’t see them as I move the few things that are inside the drawer around.

She’s crying pretty hard so I stop my search and rub her shoulders as her arms are stretched out over her head. “I have to go downstairs and see if I can find the keys to the cuffs, Baby. I must’ve tossed them in the trash with the package they came in. That was careless of me and you can take it out on my ass if you want to.”

“It’s okay. I’m just going to lie here and cry some more. I’m starting to feel better, believe it or not.”

Her ass is red so I ask, “You want me to put some ointment on your ass before I go down there?”

She shakes her head. “I like the comfort of the burn. It makes me feel like I’m experiencing the pain of the heartbreak. I know it sounds crazy…”

I stop her as I kiss her shoulder. “No, nothing is crazy, Baby. You want the blindfold off?”

“No. Leave it on. The complete darkness is comforting. And, Benny?”

“Yeah, Baby?”

“Thank you. Thank you for understanding me like I’ve never been understood before.” She lets out a long sigh.

Her red ass makes me feel kind of terrible and I place my lips on it. “You’re welcome. You know, you understand me better than anyone ever has too, Pumpkin. And when I get back with the keys or some other way to get you out of those cuffs, I’m going to kiss every inch of your sweet ass and let you know how much I love you and how happy I am that you’re mine. I’m sorry your heart had to get broken by that dumbass, but I’m happy you were free when I came along.”

“Me too,” she says with a whimper.

After I put on a robe, I leave the room to head out to find the damn key.

Chapter 8

BLAZE

It’s dark as I go down the long hallway. I can see the light from the television coming from underneath the door closest to ours. It’s the one her grandmother is in and I have to wonder if my grandfather is in there too.

A little further down the hallway, I see the door to my parents’ room. It’s dark under that door and I’m sure they’re asleep already. The next two doors are where my parents’ and grandfather’s drivers are sleeping. I see no lights on in either room.

The door to my grandfather’s room is dark underneath it. Then there’s the room we put Gage in and I find it wide open and no lights are on inside of it. Curiosity takes me over and I creep inside to see if he’s in here and sleeping with the door open.

There’s enough light from the moon as it shines in the window to see the blankets have been pulled back and he’s not in the bed. I look at the door to the attached bathroom and see it’s opened and there’s no light on in there.

Maybe he needed a drink or something.

I head back out of the room and down the stairs, going very quietly so I don’t startle him. As I go down the stairs, I don’t hear a thing to tell me he’s down here. But it’s a big place so he could be anywhere.

Going into the kitchen, I go to the laundry room to look through the trash where I threw the package the cuffs came in. Angel is my top priority. I can come look for wonder boy once I’ve set her free.

As I open the door to the laundry room, I find Cuddles sleeping in a corner of the large room. She doesn’t open her eyes as I come inside and turn the light on.

“Cuddles?”

I can see her little body rising and falling with each breath so I know she’s breathing. But damn that’s some hard sleeping she’s doing.

I know she played pretty hard with Gage but that’s too deep for her to be sleeping. I nudge her with my foot and brace myself for her to tear into me with the intrusion.

Nothing.

She doesn’t even halfway open her eyes.

A chill runs through me. But I shake it off and start digging through the trash for the package. It’s taking too long and I pick up the can and turn it over, making the paper and other paper goods we put in this can for recycling spill out onto the floor.

I look back at the dog and she’s still out like a light. When I look back, I see the package the cuffs came in and pick it up. There the little set of keys are. I must’ve forgotten to take them out.

With a quick tug on the tape that holds them inside the package, I get them out and leave the laundry room and head to the stairs to let Angel out of the cuffs.

I’ll come back down after I get her settled.

“Hey,” I hear from the dark of the dining room off the kitchen.

I turn as I recognize the woman’s voice.

“How the hell did you get in here?”

ANGEL

My tears have dried up as Benny seems to be taking a very long time to get back. I’m cuffed and blindfolded, lying on the bed. Being naked as well, I feel extremely vulnerable.

Wiggling around on the bed, I try to get the blindfold to slip off and manage to get it some of the way off. One eye is nearly free, I think.

The door squeaks a little as it opens. “Thank God, Benny. Did you find the key?”

I hear nothing. Then hear not one set of footsteps but two. Then two sets of hands are on both of my arms and I’m lifted off the bed.

“Hey!” I scream.

These hands are small. Not Benny’s or any other man’s.

I’m drug backward. The carpeting turns to tile. I’m in the bathroom and I hear the water turn on in the tub.

“What the fuck!”

I scream as I feel something slam against the side of my head.

I’m dropped and fall to the floor.

It stings on the side of my head. I’m very disoriented and try hard to listen. Neither of the people speak as I hear water filling the tub.

Steam is beginning to fill the bathroom as I can feel it on my skin and the heat from it lets me know that it is straight hot water they’re filling the tub with.

“Please, whatever you want just take it and leave us alone,” I say, trying hard not to let my voice tremble.

The urge to scream for someone to help me is a thing I have to keep under control or they may well knock my ass out and then I stand no chance.

It’s painfully obvious they plan on putting me in the deep bathtub in the scalding hot water. My mind is racing with what I need to do.

With the blindfold on, I can really hone in on where the two women are in the bathroom. Footsteps echo off the marble floor and the tiled walls.

One is across the bathroom and the other is by the vanity. My heart is pounding hard with fear and I take in some slow breaths to calm it so I can hear better.

My feet are free and even though my hands are cuffed, they’re in front of me. I can kick and make some uppercuts with my bound hands.

I’m not dead yet. I know they want me that way, but I still have a hell of a lot of fight in me.

“Who are you? I deserve to get to see the faces of the women who kill me, don’t I?” I ask with an even tone to let them know I’m not afraid of them.

Footsteps click and clack quickly toward me then they stop right in front of me. I feel a hand move over my cheek and the blindfold is nearly taken off but then another set of footsteps moves quickly toward me and I hear a loud smack as the one who’s about to remove the blindfold is whacked by the other.

Okay, I bet they aren’t getting along so well now.

“No reason for any violence,” I say.

I’m picked up by my hair and made to stand up. My toes hit the edge of the bathtub and I can feel the heat from the water below me.

I know I have this one chance, and that’s it, to save myself.

No one else can do this for me. I ready myself to fight for my life. Both let my arms go and I hear them take a few steps back. I think they’re about to run at me and push me into the water.

God, please help me…