A Baby For the Outlaw Collection: Biker Romance Box Set Bundle (BBW Pregnancy Bad Boy MC Club Romance) (Contemporary Motorcycle Mega Pack Anthology Short Stories) (17 page)
Authors: Samantha Leal
Laurie sat on the front of the speed boat as Aiden drove it into the shore where his car was waiting. It was the following morning and they had spent the night together under the stars. She had conflicting emotions. She was completely in awe of him but also a little scared. He had murdered Brad, even if it had been to save her. Brad was dead and it was at Aiden’s hand.
She turned to look at him, his dark hair was shaggy and windswept from the breeze. She still couldn’t get over how incredible he was. A smile crept across her face and she hugged her arms around herself. She had told him she wanted to leave Blakestone Ridge that morning and he hadn’t tried to stop her. She had to go home. If she was missing when questions about Brad arose, it was going to look suspicious on her part. If she went home at least she could say Brad had gone out driving when he was drunk and she hadn’t seen him since. In a sense she wasn’t that worried though. No one would believe the truth anyhow. If there was a truth it was that he had been mauled by a wild animal anyhow. Again, Aiden had said he would take care of it.
They got into Aiden’s car and he started the engine. He reached down and took hold of her hand.
“I’m glad you’re going to go back to the city,” he smiled. “I couldn’t face you going on the run and never seeing you again.”
“On the run,” she playfully punched him on the shoulder, “Last night you spectacularly eliminated what I was running from.”
“I know,” he almost looked embarrassed that the aggression had taken him over. But Laurie wasn’t sorry for what he had done. If he hadn’t she never would have been free from Brad. His ex-fiancé had confirmed how dangerous he could be.
“You will always be safe with me,” he said, wrapping his hand in her hair and kissing her again. “I would appreciate it if you could keep the part about me turning into a wolf just between us though,” he said, in a mock matter of fact tone. Yeah, he was a keeper.
“I’d be honored to keep your secret, Aiden,” Laurie smiled, “I would never tell a soul… I think we’ve been through too much together this weekend for me to tell anyone. I think we owe it to each other to keep all this between us. Besides, who would believe me?”
“I agree,” he smiled as he put the car in drive and pulled out of the clearing onto the deserted country roads. “I’m going to head back this afternoon,” he said. “Will you be alright in the meantime?”
Laurie churned over everything in her mind. The idea of being away from him just now was frightening. She knew the drive back home wasn’t particularly long and would only take her two hours max, but she had gotten used to having him there to protect her. Still, she knew he would be there when she returned.
“I’ll stay with you, if you want.” he looked at her, his eyes alive with passion.
“I’ll be fine,” she smiled, all she had needed was that tiny bit of reassurance. “But if you really want to, maybe you can come see me once things blow over a bit.”
As they drove back into the town and headed up Main Street she noticed some of the items for sale in the store windows. There were wolf figurines in one shop and as she looked at the old man working there she noticed that he too had an ice blue glint to his eyes. A memory glazed over her to when she was a child and she stood with her father looking in one of those stores. He told her that he’d heard the rumors about the forests and that they’d had big animals living there. She had thought about it a lot afterwards and the whole time they were staying at the lake cabin she had hoped to see one of the creatures that the legends had told of, but nothing ever came of it and the memory had faded as she grew up. It was funny how life could work out. The fact she had been drawn back to that place and had met this man seemed like proof of some divine intelligence. In this moment she could easily see herself spending the rest of her life with him. Of course she hardly knew him, but there was plenty of time to remedy that. When she was a child she had romanticized about the legends of the animals, but never in her wildest dreams could have predicted what she would come to know as the truth. She looked across at her alpha billionaire shifter, and his huge frame and gorgeous chiseled features. Just looking at him sent a shiver down her spine, as well as up her legs. She had never been a big believer in fate but something had pulled them together. There was something between them that worked better than any relationship Laurie had ever had with anyone in her life before. Aiden didn’t just seem to understand her, he seemed to be inside her head. She loved the air of mystery that was constantly around him, and now with a promise of a reunion in the city she couldn’t wait to see where their relationship was heading. She looked up at him and he squeezed her hand. Everything was going to be just fine. She was sure of it.
THE END
Samantha Leal
Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
Zoe rolled over and turned off her alarm. It was 7:00 am and it had been blaring at her for half an hour. Even though she’d been determined to get up early, she found herself repeatedly hitting the snooze button and dozing under her quilt.
The cold nipped her skin each time she moved the blanket and she knew the second she actually got out of bed she was going to be miserable.
It was mid fall and the days had gone from sunny and mild, to murky and cold within the space of a week. She was resisting giving in and turning on her heating for fear of her bills rising too high too early in the year… She liked to save those kind of luxuries for the dead of winter.
Zoe rubbed her eyes and looked across the room to the door of her bathroom. She could drag the quilt with her and turn on the shower, letting it all get steamy and warm before getting undressed, but she was already running late and she couldn’t make a bad impression on her first day. She sighed and quickly threw the cover off herself, jumped to her feet and ran into the bathroom. With as much speed as she could muster for someone still half asleep, she flicked on the shower and whipped off her clothes before climbing over the side of the tub and dancing about in the warming water.
It wasn’t quite how she had envisioned her first day of her new job, but at least she was up and running.
After Zoe showered, she dried her hair and tied it into a tight ponytail. She moisturized her skin and made her lips dewy with gloss before she slipped into a pencil skirt and a tight cardigan and tied a red scarf around her neck. In her mind’s eye, she would look intellectual, perfect for her first day at work in one of the city’s oldest libraries, but in reality, as she looked at herself in the mirror, she looked more like a flight attendant. She scrunched up her face with disappointment and flashed a glance up at the clock. She didn’t have time to change, so it would have to do. She grabbed her coat and her keys and trotted out of the door of her apartment and into the cold autumn day.
The job at the library had been one of Zoe’s steps to begin again after her latest failed relationship. When she met Ross, she thought they were meant to be, but after just a short time, she learned that he wasn’t the man she thought he was. He’d broken her heart, even though she would never admit it to him, and after stewing for a few weeks, she decided that she needed a clean break and to mix things up. Her life had been stagnant for too long, and she wanted new and exciting experiences. She had quit her job as a receptionist at a law firm and landed the job at the library as an assistant librarian. It was something completely different to anything she had done before and she was sure it would open her mind to a whole other world of possibilities. She day-dreamed about meeting a scholar from Harvard or a professor who would be there researching and poring over ancient tomes. Maybe she would even be inspired to go back to college and take up a new subject. That was the magical pull of an old library—there was so much information under one roof, she was never going to be bored.
As Zoe walked down the street, she looked up at the trees that had been glowing with red and orange leaves seemingly a few days before. Now they were becoming bare and their branches poked out at different angles like bony fingers. This was her favorite time of year, and it felt perfect to her that she should be starting her new job as the world was preparing to start again, too.
She rounded a corner and stopped as she looked down the street. The library was standing tall and proud at the end and had an air of so much rich history about it that it made her smile from ear to ear.
“Here goes,” she said to herself as she stepped forward and walked towards it.
The Gold Rose Library was a very old building in the center of the city and looked gothic with its gargoyles and high spires. As Zoe approached the main door, her nerves were almost on top of her, but she breathed out deeply and heaved open the huge, heavy handle.
As she stepped inside, she was greeted almost immediately by a short, plump lady with large glasses and an even bigger smile.
“Good morning, Zoe!” she beamed. “Welcome to The Gold Rose!”
As first mornings went, her time in the library was relatively easy and enjoyable. Zoe had been expecting to be shouldered with a lot of work that no one else really wanted to do, but instead the lady who had greeted her, Mrs. West, let her get accustomed to her surroundings in the main hall.
The Gold Rose wasn’t due to open until 10:30am, and Zoe had been shown to her desk in the center of the main hall, where she sat at a high oak information point in the middle of a stack of dusty hardcovers. Everything in there seemed ancient, and the whole place oozed with history and secrets. Zoe had never felt more intrigued at what could be hidden there within the walls.
She flipped through her employee manual, which looked as if it hadn’t been updated in about forty years and snuck a look at her cell phone. She had a text from her mother wishing her good luck on her first day and another from her best friend asking her to go for drinks on Friday night. She smiled. It was nice to have people who cared for her, but it didn’t matter how many friends or caring family members checked in, no one could fill the gap that Ross had left. Even after their short time together, Zoe had grown so used to having a partner that she was struggling without him.
She sighed and pushed him to the back of her mind. She had taken the new job to forget Ross and move on with her life. She was determined she wouldn’t be defined by a failed relationship and that she would thrive by finding new interests and a new career. She looked up and around her. The main hall really was an amazing sight. Its ceilings seemed as tall as the sky and the dark wood was so brooding and atmospheric it made her shiver. She had never really thought before about why the library had been given its name, but now she could see as she sat there that it had been decorated many years ago all around the edges of the ceiling in gold leaf in the shape of roses. She smiled as she thought about the artist deciding to do this and how he or she would have made it up so high to complete the intricate paintings.
“Must have taken them a long time,” said a voice from behind her. She turned around to see a girl about her age standing there with a large stack of books in her arms.
“That’s exactly what I was just thinking,” Zoe smiled.
The girl climbed up into the desk area and thumped the books down next to her.
“I’m Rebecca,” she smiled as she held out her hand.
“Zoe.”
“It’s nice to have someone else working here who isn’t as ancient as the library,” she laughed.
Zoe giggled too and nodded. “I can imagine it gets a little boring in here at times with no one to talk to.”
“Yep,” Rebecca sat down next to her and pulled the manual across the desk. “And I wouldn’t even bother reading this. They make everyone do it on their first day, but it has literally no relevance.”
“Thank God, I was starting to fall asleep,” Zoe fake yawned.
“So, Westy sent me down here to show you the ropes,” Rebecca smiled as she swiveled around on her chair. “What made you want to come and work in this place, anyway?”
“I just thought it would be an interesting change,” Zoe shrugged.
“We get a load of geeks wanting to work here,” she laughed. “I’m glad they seemed to hire someone normal.”
“Thanks,” she blushed, unsure of whether it was a compliment or not.
“Okay,” Rebecca grinned. “So, I guess we should start with the basics, but it’s all pretty straightforward…” She got to her feet and acted as if she was on stage in front of a large audience, and as she spoke her voice echoed around the empty room. “We are the faces of the lovely Gold Rose,” she took a bow and continued. “We are here to serve and educate the masses with the wealth of knowledge we have at our fingertips.”
Zoe started laughing. Rebecca was certainly funny.
“Okay, too over the top,” she laughed and sat down. “Basically, we’re information assistants. If anyone can’t find a book, we show them where it is, look it up on our database if necessary, check no one has already borrowed it and it’s still in the building so-to-speak, and then reshelf any books that have been returned…which sounds pretty easy, but it’s actually a lot of work…or hopefully not now you’re here, because I was doing it myself!” She stopped and sucked in a big chest full of air. “You literally have no idea how happy I am to have you here!”
Rebecca’s enthusiasm and sense of humor was infectious, and Zoe knew she was going to have a lot of fun working with her.
“Well, believe it or not, I’m really glad to be here, too,” she smiled. “It feels really good to have a fresh start…and just look at this place. It’s so beautiful!”
“Oh, I know,” Rebecca said as she turned and looked around at the huge hall they were standing in. “I suppose I’ve been here so long now, I take it for granted.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get bored at looking around it,” Zoe beamed. “It’s just so full of history.”
“That sounds a bit geeky,” Rebecca said. “Alert! Alert!”
“Haha, okay, sorry,” Zoe said as she looked down at the floor. “I promise I’m not a geek… Don’t worry.”
“Good,” Rebecca said as she swept the books back up into her arms. “Well, come on then, we better get going. We have lots to do this morning.”
“Okay,” Zoe jumped down from her chair and held her hands up. “What should I bring?”
“Just yourself for now,” Rebecca said ominously. “You’ll be helping me with the stack of books from hell any second.”
“Oh great,” Zoe said as she followed Rebecca out of the information point and down one of the long corridors of books. As they made their way further into the maze of the library, Zoe knew she had definitely made the right decision. She was going to love working there, she could feel it.