Chapter Three
Ella twisted the key in the lock to her apartment and opened the door. The inside was dark so she flipped the lights on before entering. She dropped her stuff in the foyer and walked to the kitchen. Since she’d skipped lunch earlier due to one of her patients running nude through the department, she needed something to eat. Nothing really appealed to her, but she grabbed a bag of chips and made a sandwich from the lunchmeat she had in the fridge. After selecting a soda, she settled on the sofa and flipped on the TV.
The news reported a woman had been found dead in the east side of town. Shot brutally with the gun left behind. Pictures of a shiny weapon flashed across the screen, and Ella frowned. So much violence filled the world. A lingering thought of Ryker and the club floated into her mind. She didn’t know much about the club, and wanted to keep it that way, but she really hoped he wasn’t still doing illegal stuff with his father out of the picture. He was a good man, and whatever business he had with the club didn’t need to contribute to the bodies making their way to her ER. Choosing to watch something happier, she found a comedy show she liked.
At some point, Ella fell asleep. When she woke, she groaned, rubbing the crick in her neck. She had the day off, but rest didn’t come easy for her. She grabbed her phone and went through her messages. Some friends at work had the day off too and invited her to go shopping with them. She rubbed her eyes and clicked on her father’s number, waiting for him to answer the phone.
“Hawkins.”
“Are you in a better mood tonight?”
“Ella.” He huffed a breath, groggy. “Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay.”
“Then what the fuck are you doing calling me this late at night?”
Ella pulled her phone from her ear and glanced at the clock. 2:30. Shit. “Sorry. I…I didn’t realize it was so late…early…whatever.”
He groaned. “Well, I’m up now. What did you want?”
Ella rubbed her forehead. “I want my dad back.”
He didn’t say anything and she stood, pacing. She didn’t know what to say to him. He was mad at her, and she couldn’t fix it. He would never believe that Ryker hadn’t intentionally hurt her.
“Ella, you made your bed. Now you have to lie in it.”
He hung up and Ella scoffed, tossing her phone to her side. She couldn’t begin process the cold disregard he had, so she didn’t try. After changing into one of Ryker’s t-shirts, she climbed into bed. She flipped on the TV for background noise and hugged her pillow to her. For once, she thought Ryker was wrong. Nothing was okay, and she was making herself sick over it.
Sunlight woke her next, and she cringed at the brightness filling the room. Ryker didn’t come home which didn’t surprise her. She got up and went to find her phone. He’d sent two text messages: One told her that he was staying at the club. The other was clearly a drunk sex-text. She rolled her eyes. She needed to find a way to relax. With work, her father, and Ryker filling her life, she had little time to actually do something for herself.
But after working so many hours in one week, she wanted to catch up on her sleep instead of going out. It wasn’t like her college days anymore. She didn’t have the stamina to party all night and work the next day, nor did she have the ability to need or want to do that. Going to the grocery store was a task, and she usually did that on her way home after work.
She sighed. When had she become an adult?
Ella ate breakfast and took a shower. At the very least, she could go shopping at the mall with her friends from work. A couple hours wouldn’t hurt her. It’d be nice to hang out with women for a change as well. She might even splurge on something she didn’t need. She smiled to herself. She needed to live a little.
Her phone rang, and she answered it.
“Hey.” Ryker’s groggy voice filled her ear.
“Did you just wake up?”
“Yeah.” He groaned.
She licked her lips. “Do you need something? I’m kinda in a hurry.”
“In a hurry for what? Today’s your day off.”
“I’ve got plans with some friends.” She grabbed her purse. “I’m on my way to meet them, actually.”
“You have friends?”
She stopped as if someone had splashed cold water in her face. Did he really think that about her? She wasn’t the partying type. She wasn’t a goof-off. While she didn’t have friends like he had friends, she did socialize when she got a chance. Granted, most of her friends worked with her, but that wasn’t the point. “Yes. I have friends. Why would you even ask me that?”
“Because I’ve never met them. Who are they?”
“Derek, Melody, and Loraine.” She frowned.
“Who are they?”
“Nurses.” Her brow furrowed more. “We’re having lunch and then we’re going shopping. Derek got a new place, and he wanted us to help him decorate it.”
“No.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“I’m coming home. Wait there.”
Before she could respond, he hung up. She dropped her phone in her purse. There was no way he was going to tell her what she could and could not do. He spent the night with women all around him. She wasn’t stupid; some probably came on to him. Maybe they even copped a feel. He had no right to tell her that she couldn’t do a normal thing like eat lunch with people she usually ate lunch with.
Ella locked the door to her apartment and went down the stairs to her car.
The loud motorcycle engine roared behind her and she turned, watching as he pulled in the parking spot next to hers. He looked like he’d been partying all night. His hair and clothes were a rumpled mess. He had blood-shot eyes.
“Are you using again?” she asked.
“What? No.” He dismounted the bike. “Why would you ask me that?”
“You look horrible.” She unlocked her car and sat her stuff inside the driver’s seat. “It’s pretty ballsy to tell me what I can and cannot do to. What exactly is the issue here?”
“There are people being killed that fit your profile. I don’t want you walking around town like you’re not a target.” He smelled of stale alcohol and cigarette smoke.
“I’m not a target.”
“Ella, don’t fight me on this.” He walked around the car and rested his cocked hip against the front fender. “You’re not going out without some protection.”
“Get over yourself. I’m going to do what I want.” Ella turned, and he grabbed her arm.
She looked into his eyes and found a dangerous mix of possessiveness and violence there. In all the events that had transpired between them, she’d never been scared of him. He was dangerous on a good day, but right now, he was a heady mixture of something else. Something darker, and something she’d never seen in him before. She jerked her arm and shoved at his chest to get him to let her go. His gripped tightened around her wrist to the point that it became uncomfortable.
“Let me go. Don’t you dare grab me again.”
His chest puffed out as he clenched his teeth. “You’re not going out.”
“You do not make those decisions for me.”
He pulled her away from her car and stepped in front of her. For the first time in their relationship, fear crept up her spine. He really wanted to fight with her? He was holding her back like she was someone he commanded to do his will.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Ella waited, and he didn’t budge. She tried to move past him, and he blocked her. “Get out of my fucking way.”
“You’re not going out.” Ryker leaned against the door with his arms folded.
All her mother’s warnings came back in a rush. Abusive. Controlling. For the first time since they’d started dating, he looked like the biker that he was. Like a younger version of his father.
Feeling defeated, Ella stepped back. “Is this what our life is like now? You telling me what I can and cannot do?”
“You’re not going out,” he repeated.
“You don’t have any fucking right to tell me what I can and cannot do. I’m not some little slave to you. You stay out partying, drinking, and fucking anything you want. You come home whenever the hell you feel like it and leave on a whim when there’s club business. Fuck you, Ryker.”
“I don’t fuck anything I want, Ella.”
“Maybe not, but those women are there if you ever change your mind.”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “That argument is getting old. Just because I stay out or I’m at the club doesn’t mean I’m shoving my dick where it doesn’t belong.”
She snorted. “And you expect me to believe that?”
The storm swirling in his eyes grew darker. “I expect you to trust me, yes.”
She didn’t know if she did. She wanted to believe he was an asshole and slept around on her any time he thought about it. It went with the lifestyle. He could cheat on her. How would she really know any different? It wasn’t like she went to the club with him. She never wanted to grace the doors of that place again after all the crap she’d had to deal with in the past.
Did she believe that he kept his dick in his pants? Deep inside, she did. It didn’t comfort her though. He took too many liberties with the club life and just expected her to accept it without question. To some extent, she knew this going in. What she hated were the rules she didn’t understand. He deliberately kept her in the dark on a lot of things, and at some point she had to determine ignorance was not bliss.
It was hell.
“Not anymore.” Ella glanced away. “This behavior doesn’t make you worthy of my trust. You stay out all hours of the night. You party with those skanks. You’ve slept with half of them, if not all at some point. And you just expect me to be okay with you doing whatever the hell it is that you do—because I really don’t know—and yet I’m not allowed to go out with my non-criminal friends.”
Her anger fumed the longer she faced him. He didn’t want her to have male friends. That was not okay with her. If she was expected to trust him, then why couldn’t he trust her without throwing some paranoia in the mix about her being in danger? She lived in the fucking city. Danger was all around if you looked hard enough for it. She couldn’t be scared to live her life or forced to live it according to his standards.
“We are past me blindly trusting you in our relationship. You want me to trust you, then you need to be a little more open with what the hell it is that you do. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know, but I’m not tolerating the double standard.”
He reached for her, and she jerked away.
“Don’t touch me.”
He dropped his arm to his side.
“I don’t want you to come near me again.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes,” she snarled. “I do.”
He tilted his head. “When you’re done fuming, we’ll see.”
“I don’t want to be anywhere near you.”
“Too bad.”
She debated how she could get past him and into her car. When she didn’t come up with a plan, she charged him and tried to tackle him. Ryker was bigger and it was a stupid idea, but she didn’t care. He locked is arms around her, holding her tight enough that she couldn’t move.
“Why are you doing this? I’m not some club whore that you can order around.”
“No, you’re not.” He squeezed her a little tighter. “You’re still not going out.”
“Why? Because you know that there are men out there that would actually treat me decent? Men my father would actually like. Those men wouldn’t stand in front of the fucking door and prevent me from going out with my friends. Yeah. The competition is fierce out there. I don’t know why I even fucking bother with you.”
“There is no competition,” he whispered in her ear. “But sweetheart, if there was, I’d win every time.”
He lifted her over his shoulder, with her kicking the whole time he carried her up the stairs to their apartment. Everything she did didn’t faze him. Once they were inside, he let her slide down his body before pulling her to him and cupping her ass. She shoved against him, turning her head as his mouth found a tender spot on her neck.
“Get off me.” Her voice was low and shaky. She didn’t quite meet his gaze. “This is not happening.”
“No?” He nibbled along her neck.
“I’m not going to tell you again, Ryker. Get off me.”
He pulled back. Instead of letting her go, he switched their positions so that she was pushed up against the door.
“You want truth? Your father asked me to help him find the scum going around killing women in town. Women fit your fucking profile. I spent all fucking night trying to use every goddamn connection I have to figure out who the hell is behind this bullshit. I got some leads, but until I know for sure, you’re not leaving my sight. I don’t give one flying fuck if you’re pissed off at me. A pissed-off Ella is better than a dead Ella, so deal with it, sweetheart.”
She swallowed hard. He crowded into her personal space. His warm breath fanned her lips as her temper simmered.
“You can’t prevent me from living my life because you’re scared.”
“Do you hear yourself? I want to wring your neck sometimes.”
“You can’t tell me what to do, Ryker. I don’t care if you’re worried about me. You can’t come home and actually prevent me from leaving our apartment. You can’t do that. It’s not okay.”
“Well, I did it.” He kept his gaze on her. “I’m not apologizing for it either. I will do whatever I think is necessary to protect you. If that pisses you off, I don’t give a fuck.”
“They’re not coming after me! I’m not in danger.”
“You don’t fucking know that. I don’t know that. And until I know what the fuck is going on with the lead I have, you’re going to pretend you’ve got a target on your back. I’m not messing around with your safety. I think something bad could happen to you, and it’s not going to if I can prevent it.”
They stood there staring at each other. She liked his protectiveness. It annoyed the crap out of her, but she liked that he wanted to keep her safe. She couldn’t hate him for that even if she didn’t particularly like him in that moment.
“Let me go.” She gripped his arm and tried to move it so she could get around him.
“Why is it that you think I’m always partying and fucking around?”
She stopped. “Well, in all fairness, I didn’t expect you to be working with my dad on a case.”
“How many times do I have to say it? I only want you.”
She glanced toward the TV. “Maybe sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.”
“Why doesn’t it feel that way?”
“I know you were talking to a woman earlier when I called. You’re not fooling me by putting the phone on mute.”
He groaned. “How do you know that?”
“Because you only mute your phone when there’s another woman around. You don’t want me to hear what you’re saying to her. It’s not very reassuring.”
“Is this more reassuring?” He leaned in to kiss her, nipping at her lower lip with his teeth.
“I’m not having sex with you.” She shoved at his chest.
“No, you’re fucking me.” His hands slid down to grip her ass tight and rub her crotch against his erection. “It’s been too long, and we didn’t get to finish the other night.”
He lifted her and carried her to the sofa. He had to be a special kind of crazy if he thought she was going to give in to him. He reached for her jeans, and she smacked his hands away. Hard.
He held her gaze until she looked away. The club was the breeding ground for all kinds of fucked-up relationships. In the few instances she actually went there, she’d seen men manhandle the women like Ryker had just done to her. Telling them to suck their dick or bend over in front of them. Those women would do it willingly too.
She wasn’t one of those women.
He reached for her chin, forcing her to look at him. “I keep telling you that those other women don’t compare to you. I keep telling you that I only want you. I don’t know what goes through that complicated mind of yours, but it’s not even a question in mine.” He glanced down, letting his gaze linger along her body. “I know what I want and who I want. You are so beautiful and so damn stubborn. I love you, though. I’ll do anything for you. You are what makes my life complete.”
He undid her jeans and hooked his fingers in the waistband of her pants to tug them off her body. Ella pushed away from him, but he managed to pin her down and kiss the inside of her knee. He was too fucking big for the couch. It made for an awkward shift of bodies so that he could settle between her legs. She watched as he slipped his arms around her thighs, making himself comfortable while he held her apart for his liking. The thin lace barrier of her panties did nothing to deter his interest. She was wet, and he could probably smell her.
“You’re mine, Ella, and I protect what is mine.” He glanced up at her.
“You don’t have the right to treat me this way. It’s not okay. You can’t possibly think that it is either.”
“Treat you what way?” Ryker kissed the inside of her thigh.
“Like this.” She shoved at him. “Manhandling me. Telling me who I can and cannot go out with. I’m not some club whore, Ryker. You have no right to put me in that category.”
He pressed his face against her, not saying anything. Ella didn’t believe for one second that he actually listened to her. Ryker would always do what he wanted, and there was very little that she could do about it.
“You don’t know what a club whore is or you would stop comparing yourself to one. I honestly don’t care if you think I treated you wrong. I’d do it again if it meant keeping you alive and angry at me instead of some dead chick with a bullet in her head on the side of the road.”
He rubbed the tip of his nose against her clit. “And all that anger boiling up inside you is about me not coming home to you last night. For the second time, Ella, I was working. Not women. No partying. No drugs. I know you worry about me too, but baby, I’m just a phone call away.”
“Shut up.” His hot breath fanned against her wet pussy and only drove her agitation higher. He locked gazes with her as the tip of his tongue lightly flicked the stretch of fabric over her entrance. Maybe he was right. She did worry about him. They were supposed to meet at home, and he’d never showed. What was stopping him from being the dead body on the side of the road?
She hooked a finger in the leg of her panties and drew the crotch to the side, exposing her wet lips to his gaze. She cupped the back of his head with the other hand and pulled him down to her. “Just fucking shut up.”
Ella dropped her head back as his tongue slid the length of her slit. He was pushy and controlling. He made her look like a fool because he was also caring and protective. He sucked her clit between his lips and she gasped, clenching her fists in his hair. He didn’t let up as he ate her pussy. His tongue pushed inside her, and she rocked her hips against his face. She tried to hold onto the anger she felt toward him, but the more time he spent bringing her pleasure, the less angry she became.
“Stop.” She pushed at his head and he moved back. “Why the hell did you pick the fucking couch?”
He grinned and scooped her up into his arms. She thought he’d carry her to their bed, but instead, he pushed her up against the wall. “You’re complaining about where I want to fuck you now?”
“You’re too big for the couch.”
He reached between them and rubbed her clit. “Where do you want to fuck, then?”
“Oh, you mean I have a say in what I want to do?”
Squeezing her ass almost painfully, he rubbed his hard dick against her. She scratched her nails along his chest in retaliation. Dating a biker was thrilling. She supposed it was why so many girls lived the fantasy and allowed these men to act the way they did. Loving a biker, however, was a roller coaster ride of emotion. It was a constant battle with herself to determine what she allowed and what she didn’t allow. He reached between them and undid his pants.
“If you want to fight, then let’s fight.” He pushed into her with one slick thrust.
She leaned forward and bit his shoulder, drawing a hiss from him. He jerked her away from the door and laid her on the carpet, while he lifted her legs. There was nothing gentle about the power behind his thrusts. Each one rammed his cock deep inside her, forcing her pussy to accept him. She pushed up from the floor and wrapped her arms around his neck. They tumbled backward so that she sat on top of him, riding him the way she wanted. Ryker smacked her tight ass before he grabbed her arms and flipped their positions. He used most of his weight to hold her down while he forced her hands above her head, thrusting hard inside her.
She stared into his eyes while he took her, giving her exactly what she wanted. She struggled to get her wrists out of his hold and then succeeded. She clawed at him, wrapping her legs around his hips as he continued to pound into her. Sex had never been so intense before. Ella had so much building inside her, and it seemed to release all at once.
He scraped his teeth along her shoulder and she cried out, her pussy clamping around him as he continued to push into her. Her muscles stiffened as pleasure coursed through her veins. His release followed shortly after, and they lay there, entwined with each other.
“Feel better?”
“No.” She blinked a few times. “Get off me.”
“Not yet.” He nuzzled her neck and licked her sweaty skin. He knew exactly what she liked—the rough sex mixed with the soft care afterward. He held her tight for a while, before pushing up from her to stare down at her half-clothed body. “I’m hard enough to go another round.”
And he was. His cock still felt full inside her. Despite her reservations, she wanted another orgasm too, which only pissed her off more.
“Just leave me alone.”
“Not going to happen.” He withdrew and rolled her to her stomach in one swift move before pushing inside her again. The deliciousness of his cock stretching her from a new angle made her close her eyes on a gasp as she tried to keep her face from getting carpet burn.
“You suck,” Ella whispered.
He gripped her hands behind her back and smacked her ass. She yelped and squeezed him tighter inside her. He did it again. And again.
“Stop!” Ella struggled in his hold before he let her arms go to clutch her hips. He ground into her, rotating his hips so that she felt every inch of him. It was delicious and felt so fucking good. The tip of his cock brushed against a sensitive spot inside her, and she strained. What little bit of anger she still had drifted away with the powerful orgasm he gave her.
Ella’s eyes were closed as she basked in the bliss that good sex brought. Ryker moved to her side, lying on his back. If he said anything, he’d ruin the moment. Instead, he simply reached for her hand and linked their fingers. He brought it to his lips and kissed it before resting their linked hands on his abdomen.
She was fairly sure she’d be mad at him once she got up, but for the moment, simply lying there and not doing a thing felt great.