Chapter 19

April was startled awake by a loud noise.

The blue light of dawn filtered through the window blinds above the bed. She stared groggily at the ceiling until she heard the noise again.

Someone was outside, pounding on the front door.

Brandon scrambled out of the bed, sliding into his jeans, his boots, thrashing into his T-shirt. “Stay here,” he muttered.

April sat up in alarm, clutching the sheet against her breasts. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain everything,” he said. “You’d better get dressed.”

She glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. 5:50 AM. What thoughtless monster knocked on people’s doors this early?

When Brandon opened the bedroom door, she saw Matthew waiting anxiously in the living room, boyish in his cotton tee and baggy pajama bottoms.

“He’s back,” Matthew said in a loud whisper. “He got that search warrant.”

A search warrant? April thought. Who had a search warrant? A cold, terrible fear swept over her. Brandon had a checkered past. Even now, he probably flirted with the boundaries of the law. What if he’d gotten into trouble again?

“Brandon McBride!” someone shouted from outside the house. “Cuervo Police Department. We have a warrant to search the premises.”

She recognized that voice.

It’s Ryan, she realized in sick horror. He would lose his mind when he saw her in Brandon’s bed—and then he would take his anger out on Brandon. No, this couldn’t be happening.

With the sheet tucked around her, April groped around on the floor for her skirt and blouse and then ducked into the bathroom to get dressed. Her hands shook so badly, she could barely button her blouse. The insides of her thighs ached. She was sore in places she’d never been sore before. Meanwhile, she heard Brandon open the front door, followed by the sound of men’s voices and booted feet stomping through the house.

There was nowhere to hide. She couldn’t go out there and face this head-on—but she’d do anything to help Brandon and Matthew. Except that she had no experience with these things. The April she knew hung back, bit her tongue and let other people slug it out.

She left the bathroom and went into the living room. Ryan and a second officer she didn’t recognize had Brandon and Matthew against the wall and were patting them down.

“Let them go!” she cried.

Ryan turned around, pure coldness in his eyes. “Your car’s in front of the house. Maybe you don’t mind everyone knowing your business, but next time you should park it around the corner.”

April darted a glance at Brandon’s dark, impassive face and Matthew’s frightened one. Her legs trembled. “No one has a gun. You have my word on that. Now please let them go.”

Ryan finished his pat-down, and then waved Brandon and Matthew over to the couch. “April, I gotta say, when I got up this morning to run this warrant, I sure wasn’t expecting to see you here. This is where you spend your time? With a bunch of degenerate bikers?”

She drew her shoulders back. Brandon wasn’t a degenerate. There was no need to insult him like that. But personally, it stung. She was used to being the good girl. Falling off her pedestal felt awful. She’d never been in trouble in her entire life. Now within the past twenty-four hours she’d essentially been fired from her job and lost her virginity, the police were here, and Ryan was making her feel like the worst kind of whore.

Brandon draped his arms over the back of the couch, his eyes glittering dangerously. “I thought you were just here to deliver a search warrant, Sheriff. You aren’t going to make this personal, are you?”

“Keep your mouth shut,” Ryan said. “And stay on the couch.”

Two officers went outside and a third one moved past April to search the bedroom. Brandon gave her a faint smile as though to reassure her that everything would be okay. But it wasn’t okay. She and Ryan used to work on the same side of the law, and now he was treating her like a criminal.

“There’s no one in there, sir,” said the officer who’d searched the bedroom.

“Check the cellar,” Ryan told him. “I also saw a woodshed out in the yard. Oh, and look in the garage.”

“Go where you want,” Brandon said, “but do you really think Long Jon would hang out here waiting for you dumbasses to arrest him?”

“Nice friends you got there,” Ryan said to April. “You actually sleep with this guy?”

“Ryan, don’t,” she said.

“No, seriously. What did he have to do to get you to go home with him?”

A chilling silence fell—so silent, in fact, she could hear the low chop of the ceiling fan above her head. April knew that if Ryan hadn’t had a badge and a whole lot of backup, Brandon would have torn him apart.

Ryan looked so hard, so un-Ryan-like. “I never knew you were spiteful,” she said.

He shrugged like none of it mattered. “It’s your life, April. If you want to throw it away, I can’t stop you.”

Despite her determination to remain calm, tears blurred her vision. She felt humiliated. She’d drifted off last night blissful and contented in her lover’s arms. And now she was being shunned as a harlot by the very man who’d wanted to be her first. She wanted to scream at him but couldn’t because it might make things harder on Brandon.

Ryan’s shoulder-mounted radio crackled and he tilted it up to respond. Brandon watched him, arms still spread over the back of the couch, managing to look graceful and at ease despite the clenched jaw. Matthew had his arms crossed and was staring at the floor.

“You’re in luck,” Ryan said to Brandon. “We didn’t find your buddy Long Jon, so I guess we won’t be taking you in today. Not yet, at least.”

“That’s too bad,” Brandon said. “But it sure was nice of you to pay us a visit, Sheriff.”

Ryan headed for the door. “I wouldn’t get too comfortable, McBride. Way I figure, it’s only a matter of time before your friend shows up. He’s wanted for armed robbery, by the way, and believe me, that felony’s gonna stick.”

He paused before leaving, his brown eyes searching April’s. She braced herself for his parting shot, knowing it was coming, knowing she would have to take it.

“You’re not who I thought you were.” Ryan didn’t even sound spiteful when he said it, just kind of baffled and a little sad. “Your family will be so disappointed.”

* * * *

“Hey, baby,” Brandon said, coming into the bedroom. “I thought you were asleep.”

On the bed, April twisted around to look at him. He could tell she’d been crying, which wasn’t surprising after the morning she’d had. And Matthew had missed the bus, so Brandon had not only run the kid to school on his motorcycle, he’d been forced to listen to Matthew bitch about Long Jon the entire way there.

“What kind of friend are you?” Matthew had asked him. “You’re not even trying to find him.”

“I’m the kind of friend that drove all fucking night looking for the sonofabitch,” Brandon had yelled over his shoulder. “Why don’t you shut the hell up?”

“You don’t want to look for him,” Matthew said. “You just want to stay home and fuck.”

That had really pissed Brandon off. Matthew knew exactly how hard he’d looked.

Yet once Matthew was safely at school, Brandon didn’t tear up the town looking for Long Jon. Instead, he’d spent the whole ride home worrying about April and that asshole cop.

Brandon lay down on the bed and wrapped his arms around her. Doing anything with April on a bed had an automatic effect on certain parts of his body, but he ignored that. He needed to learn this other relationship stuff—asking questions, listening. Women weren’t like men. Not everything bothering a woman could be fixed with a beer and a ride.

April rested her head on his shoulder and drew little circles on his chest. “Do you really think Long Jon pointed a gun at somebody?” she asked.

“Doubt it. But he might’ve driven the getaway car. He’s kinda crazy like that.”

She sighed. “I wish we knew he was safe.”

There was something else bothering her, too, he could tell. “What’s on your mind, baby?”

“I don’t have a job to go to anymore,” she said. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with my life.”

Brandon tried crossing his legs at the ankle so she wouldn’t see his erection. Talk about bad timing. She smelled really good and he found it almost impossible to be physically close to her without wanting a lot more than cuddling. “Maybe you’re supposed to lay low for a while, hang out, catch your breath.”

April kept drawing circles. “I haven’t told my family yet. I haven’t told my family anything.” She set her chin on his chest and gazed into his eyes, hers so big and blue they made his heart do aerial stunts.

“So what’s the secret to life?” she asked him. “Is it staying in bed all day and having sex?”

“It’s not giving a fuck,” he said truthfully. “Although the sex part is good, too.”

Too bad he didn’t listen to his own advice. Because now he gave one hell of a fuck. And he worried constantly about the kind of life he could offer her, especially after the cops had invaded his house.

“Just so you know, Long Jon’s never had it easy,” Brandon told her. “He had a brother in the Marines who died in Afghanistan and another brother who just kind of fell off the map. Long Jon’s family. I’d do anything for the guy.”

“And family should be the ones who take you in no matter what you’ve done, right?”

She kissed him then, a hot, open-mouthed kiss that Brandon knew exactly how to interpret. His worries, his fears, even Long Jon disappeared.

He filled his hands with her silky hair and rolled on top of her, putting his weight on his elbows. His head spun like it always did when he was pressed up against her. He couldn’t get enough of her taste, her scent, this surging heat.

He felt her hand on his cock, stroking it through his jeans, and thought these jeans are coming off right fucking now. With his feet hanging over the edge of the bed, he toed off his boots and heard them drop to the floor. He continued kissing her mouth, her cheek, along the side of her neck, one hand in her hair, the other shoving his pants down.

When she undid her blouse and skirt, his balls actually ached with anticipation—and he’d had sex three times last night.

Brandon went to the drawer in his nightstand, grabbed a condom and then ripped it open. He rolled it on quickly, wishing he didn’t have to use protection, but getting April pregnant wasn’t something he wanted to do. Someday, sure. Just not right now. His imagination whirled at the hotness of making love to her, the sounds she made, the way she looked up at him, so trusting and innocent.

He was a goner.

Brandon McBride, the kid with the chip on his shoulder. The troubled teen and ruthless heartbreaker. The outlaw Harley rider who let no woman close unless she knew how to go out the back door.

That Brandon was history.

He could tell April was still thinking, still worrying, all those wheels turning in her head. Suddenly, he knew exactly what he needed to do to shut those wheels down. And he would, too. Every aggressive male instinct he had told him to do it.

The thought of having April completely at his mercy felt like fire rippling under his skin. He grabbed her wrists and pinned them over her head, hard enough to elicit a startled gasp. She blinked and then a kind of dawning awareness came into her eyes. It wasn’t fear he saw there, but a willing submission.

He would get her so fucking high, she wouldn’t know who she was anymore.

He squeezed harder and she made a soft whimpering noise that went straight to his cock.

“I’m not always nice,” he said against her neck. “Last night, you were still a virgin. But now we get to play by my rules. And my rules aren’t always gentle.”

“What if I don’t know how to follow your rules?” she said.

“Oh, you will,” he told her. “You’ll like them. We may be equals out in the real world, sweetheart, but in here, I’m the boss. And you will submit to my authority.”

A flush of excitement crept into her cheeks.

Last night, he’d taken pains not to hurt her, but now that self-control was gone. The urge to seize by force gave him a darkly satisfying thrill. Her scent was all over him, driving him wild, and as he fused his mouth to hers, everything inside him drew up in a tight, hard ball of savagery.

Christ, he didn’t expect to feel this dizzying rush of pure lust. Her helplessness torched his insides with a fiery pleasure he’d never known before. She was just so delicious. Hot and quivering and delicious. For a second he feasted his eyes on her, the sheer eroticism of seeing her pinned to the bed making his heavy cock twitch.

April moaned, visibly swollen and wet. A feeling of fierce possessiveness welled up inside him. He couldn’t stop staring at her, loving that she was his. All his.

She moved her head restlessly from side to side. “Please,” she said thickly. “Please.”

But he wanted to prolong the agony of anticipation for as long as he could. He watched her squirming on the sheets, mesmerized, aching inside with his passion for her.

Even if he wanted to wait, he couldn’t. Desire rolled off her skin in thick musky waves. It drew him irresistibly, and all he could think about was burying himself in her tight, slick heat.

Holding her with one hand, he used the other to position himself at her entrance. Brandon found her and plunged.

When he pushed into her, her face contorted and she gave a soft cry. The white-hot edge of taking her roughly instead of gently, of having her submit to him, set every inch of his body on fire. And she was so wet.

Brandon started with long slow thrusts, riding high, sliding against her clit. But the breath tore around in his chest from the effort it took to control himself. He was never letting her off this bed or out of this room. They could die in here for all he cared.

“So hot,” he told her. “Baby, so hot.”

He found his rhythm, easing in and out while she lifted her head to watch. Her cheeks were pink and she was panting, but when their eyes met, it wasn’t just lust he saw there, but the pure innocence of love. And something about it lodged itself next to his heart and he knew it would never leave.

Brandon went deep and stayed there, rotating his hips to keep the friction where it was needed. A barrage of sparks went off in front of his eyes. He knew he’d found the right spot because April brought her knees up, moaning deliriously under the assault. She was so soft and tight beneath him. With her wrists above her head, she twisted under the restraint.

Suddenly, her breathing stopped and her body went rigid. She let out a high keening wail and tightened around him like a fist, gripping and squeezing.

It was too much. His control was gone. Brandon thrust wildly between her thighs. When his climax hit, he emptied himself, shuddering, and still kept thrusting, not wanting it to be over.

His last thought before collapsing was more.