ROMANCE: MC BIKER ROMANCE: Bad Boy Biker's Baby (Bad Boy Alpha Male Motorcycle Club Romance) (Contemporary MC Biker Pregnancy Romance) (74 page)

*****

When James knocked at the door to Sedgefield House, it was snowing.

''Look mummy, it's Uncle James.''

''My, my, you two are growing up.''

''Have you brought some Christmas presents for us?'' Harriet asked.

''Harriet, don't be so rude,'' Emily said.

''Yes, don't be so rude,'' little James added. ''Have you though?''

''Who'd have a three year old and a five year old?'' Emily asked James.

''Uncle James is a hero,'' Harriet said. ''Mummy told me.''

Peter walked into the room. ''James, Merry Christmas.'' he said to his brother in law. ''Yes Harriet, Uncle James is indeed a hero,'' he added.

****

THE END

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Here is a FREE bonus 10.000 word romance story by Clare Hudson, “The Tiger’s Temptation”

The Tiger’s Temptation – A Paranormal Romance Shifter

Chapter 1

Weddings are usually happy celebrations.  Usually, they celebrate two bodies coming together into one soul, of a happy uniting of two families.  Usually, they celebrate two people starting the rest of their lives together. 

The wedding of Lara Salazar and David Bennett, however, was not a typical marriage.  Instead, the bride and groom were strangers to each other. They had met for the first time only moments before the church ceremony. Now they were doing all that they could to avoid each other at the reception.  

Their wedding was arranged and maybe that accounted for the amount of tension in the room, but that wasn’t all.  David Bennett, the son of a well-established Shifter family, did not like the wife his parents had chosen for him.  As a spoiled son of billionaire parents, he was used to dating models and actresses.  This woman, big-boned girl with pale skin seemed out of his taste. Plus, her strawberry blonde hair looked outdated.

He wanted to stay away from her as much as possible.  He couldn’t come to accept that he was now married to this woman.  She didn’t seem too thrilled about it either, but she was more subtle about her aversion.  Lara Salazar was the daughter of another wealthy family who ran the town’s casino.  Lara had been single for her whole life and her parents felt like she would never find someone on her own.  So they thought they would help her by signing her up as an elite mail-order bride.  At least this way she would find someone.

They were surprised when the Bennett family chose their daughter, but nonetheless they quickly accepted the offer.  The Bennett son was extremely handsome and they thought he would be a good match for their daughter and so the two sets of parents set up an arranged marriage for their children. 

The children, however, were not at all happy about the arrangement.  Lara could see it in David’s eyes.  He didn’t like her.  Like everyone else in her life, he was judging her based on her looks.  They never bothered to know who she really was, they only saw her plus size figure and ran away.  Lara hated it.  She hated it more than anything. 

But she would show them.  For a few months now Lara had barely eaten.  If they hated her size, so much she would become skinny one way or another, and so Lara had avoided food for three months now.  She even avoided food at her own wedding even though she was surrounded by all her favorites. 

Lara was feeling light headed as she sat down looking at all the food.  She wanted to grab a plate and satisfy her stomach, but she wouldn’t.  She wouldn’t allow herself to fail.  She would become thin, one way or another even if it ended up killing her.  She didn’t want to admit that she was struggling with anorexia, but it wasn’t like anyone would listen.  They would probably push her to continue. 

Lara hated this world that focused so much on figure and size.  It wasn’t her fault that she was this size.  Why did the world see it like that?  But Lara had never been strong-willed.  She had never had the courage to stand up for herself or she would have protested this wedding altogether.  Instead, she sat down miserably, wondering what the rest of her life would bring her.  Would she ever be happy?

David certainly wasn’t happy.  He was angry at his parents for forcing him into this marriage.  He didn’t want to marry this human.  He didn’t wish to marry at all.  No, he wanted to go out and be with anyone, drink till daylight, fuck till noon.  Was that too much to ask for?  Apparently his parents thought so because they threatened to cut off his funding if he didn’t marry this woman. 

So David had to marry Lara if he wanted to maintain his lifestyle.  He was too spoiled to live a life without the grand cars, the luxuries, everything.  So he sat at the bar for the majority of his wedding and tried to drink his sorrows away. 

None of the guests at the ceremony seemed to notice the tension between husband and wife.  It seemed like everyone was ignoring it and maybe it was for the best.  If it was acknowledged, it would probably blow up. David would probably explode and cause a scene and in the end he would lose his trust fund. 

David looked down at his scotch, peering into the warm looking liquid that matched the color of his eyes.  Like his wife, he wondered if he would ever be happy.  He turned around and looked at the party before running a hand through his thick red hair.  As he did so, he spotted his wife looking pale, sitting down by herself. 

For some reason, he felt a pang of pity for her.  It was her wedding, the day most girls looked forward to their entire lives and there she was all alone.  She looked like she was about to cry.  David didn’t know why he was doing this, but he ended up putting his scotch down and walking toward his wife. 

He sat down next to her and they looked at each other quickly.  Lara tried not to look at him for too long.  David was incredibly attractive to her and she knew he was out of her league.  There was no way she should have married someone like him.  She didn’t deserve him.  She looked away, feeling ashamed about herself.  If she were thinner, prettier, maybe he would have liked her.  She could feel the hot sting of tears pricking against her eyes, but she tried to hold them back. 

“Hey, are you alright?  You don’t look so good…”  David said with a voice laced with compassion.  Could it be that this man felt sorry for her?  She didn’t want his sympathy.  All she wanted in life was for someone to love her.  That’s all. 

Suddenly, however, the lack of food got the best of Lara and she passed out before her new husband. 

“Lara?”

Chapter 2

David sighed as he looked down at his wife, who was slumped in her seat, her face was pale and lifeless and he wondered if she was dead.  Were humans really that fragile?  Nonetheless, he knew he couldn’t abandon her and so he picked her up.  Even though she was a heavier woman, he had no trouble picking her up and carrying her out of the ceremonial room. 

He made his way to a private room and laid her down on a luxurious looking chaise longue.  He looked at her and wondered what he should do.  He had never had this happen before.  Humans were so strange. 

He felt her forehead. It was warm. David got up and grabbed a wet washcloth and gently placed it on her head.  David had been a jerk most of his life, but there was a secret side of him that was really compassionate and caring.  This side of him came out now as he looked at this woman. She looked so weak and helpless and something started to stir in his chest as he looked at her. 

His tiger seemed to be fighting to get to the surface of his personality, but David kept him back.  He didn’t need to lose control and hurt someone.  His tiger was his best friend but at the same time it was the most dangerous part of him and if he didn’t take control of that animalistic part of him, it usually ended in tragedy.  So he struggled to keep his tiger back as he gently placed the cloth on her head and waited for her to wake up. 

Slowly her eyes started to open and she looked around a little confused.  She didn’t know where she was and as she spotted David sitting by her side, she was a bit embarrassed.  It took her a moment to realize that this man was her new husband.  It would take a while to get used to the thought that she was married to this handsome man.

“Hey… welcome to the world of the living sleeping beauty…”  Lara blushed deeply at the man’s compliment, at least she thought it was a compliment.  What if it was just a way to mock her?  Her face fell as she considered this option and wondered if he was making fun of her. 

“Hey… care to tell me what’s wrong?”  He asked, his voice laced with concern as he looked at his wife.  It would take some time to accept that this woman was now his wife, but it was just something he would have to get used to. 

Lara started to sit up but then David stopped her.  “Don’t move… just relax and tell me what happened…”  Lara looked up at his intense eyes.  They were still cold towards each other as they had been during the entirety of their marriage, but now there was a fleck of warmth hiding within them, something that gave Lara a spark of hope that maybe this man wasn’t as cold-hearted as she thought him to be. 

For some reason, she felt the urge to tell him the truth.  Maybe it was the sanctity of marriage the virtue of being honest in a relationship but Lara felt like she couldn’t lie to him like she had lied to the other people in her life. “I… I haven’t eaten… in a long time.”  David looked at her, a hue of understanding painting his face. 

This woman was starving herself, probably because of weight issues.  David frowned before looking at her.  She wasn’t like the other girls he had dated in his past.  She wasn’t skinny, but there was something about her that could still be considered beautiful. 

“I’ll be right back…”  He said before leaving the room.  Lara looked around and waited for him to come back.  As he did, he carried with him a big plate of different foods.  “I didn’t really know what you liked so I brought a little of everything…” 

Before David could comfort her and convince her to eat the food someone was walking into the room.  David looked up and swore under his breath as he saw his ex-girlfriend standing in the room.

Her eyes were burning with something like hatred as she looked first at David and then at his wife.  “And who is this… Twinkie of a woman?”

Lara’s face fell as she heard the insult.  Her mind reeled back to junior high where people had called her Twinkie every day.  She remembered all those days of torment, where she couldn’t go one day without someone picking on her for her weight. 

David was about to respond when the woman cut him off.  “I see you downgraded.”  The woman scoffed as she stared at Lara.  David looked at the woman standing in the room and there seemed to be something like sadness in his eyes.  The woman stood with her hand on her hips as her bright red peplum dress hugged her curves and showed off her killer body.

“You went from world-famous model to a freaking whale!”  The woman laughed.  The cruelty in her laughter wrapped around Lara and it felt like it would wrap itself around her neck and strangle the life out of her. 

“C’mon baby why don’t you leave this woman and come with me?”  She winked before moving toward David.  “C’mon Davy… leave her behind…”  David was about to say something when Lara rushed out of the room with tears in her eyes.  All of her fears and insecurities had culminated themselves in this woman’s words, in her body, and in her face.

Lara couldn’t stand the idea of David, her new husband, cheating on her on the first day of their marriage.  She couldn’t stand the bullying.  She couldn’t take it anymore.  She had to get away.

Chapter 3

Lara ran as fast as she could out of the mansion.  The wedding had been staged at her family estate and so when she went outside, she made her way toward the forest surrounding the house.  She knew this forest well.  It was her hiding place when the world seemed to be against her when it seemed like everything was collapsing around her.  It was where she hid when she wanted to be alone when trees and birds made better companions than other people.

She ran into these woods now even though it was the middle of the night.  The moon was high in the sky, a silver disk in the dark night, illuminating the ground with an ominous glow, turning her strawberry blonde hair into a more golden color. 

As she ran into the woods, she got as deep as she could.  The hem of her dress started to get dirty.  Parts of her dress began to rip as it snagged on thorns and branches as she rushed by.  Lara, however, could not run for very long. 

Soon enough she felt herself getting light headed. She bit her lip as she was forced to stop.  Her world was spinning around her and all the woods seemed to blend together into one black color as she suddenly collapsed.  Her head hit a large rock and her whole world turned black as she started to bleed.

That blood brought forth the attention of multiple individuals who were lurking throughout the woods.  They followed their noses to the smell where the woman laid in the middle of the forest floor, bleeding from the gash in her head.  If she had only eaten the food that David had brought her, maybe she would have had the energy to keep running.  Maybe if that woman had stayed away, she would have spent some quality time with her husband.  Maybe if she wasn’t so heavy, she would have married a long time ago. 

But Lara didn’t think of any of this as she laid unconscious on the ground.  Instead, she was completely defenseless. A pack of werewolves surrounded her body.  They licked their lips as they saw a lot of meat on the bones of their next victim.

Meanwhile, David managed to force his way out of the room.  His ex-girlfriend had tried to detain him but he was stronger than her and he managed to push her out of the way before rushing out of the room.  He did not have time to deal with his ex-girlfriend right now.  Lara seemed to be in a really distressed state and his tiger was pacing back and forth inside of him and screaming at him to go after her. 

David didn’t know what was getting into his tiger but at this point he knew he wouldn’t be able to argue with him.  He needed to follow his instincts and so he made his way outside.  He stepped onto the grass. He heard the sound of werewolves. His body shuddered.  They were howling loudly and there seemed to be a whole pack in the woods.

The werewolves seemed to be communicating that they had found their next victim and David shuddered to think of Lara somewhere in the woods.  He shuddered to think of her surrounded by the wolves so he ran into the forest as fast as he could, moving toward the howl.  Some part of him knew she was in danger and he wondered how this was possible, but this was no time to think about things like that.
Instead, he ran as fast as he could until he was face to face with a colossal wolf pack. They seemed to be surrounding something.  David quickly climbed a tree to see his wife lying unconscious in the circle, a patch of red under her head.  David swore under his breath as he looked at his wife and then at the pack surrounding his wife.