Salvaged (MC Romance)
Read Salvaged (MC Romance) Online
Authors: Brook Winters
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.
Salvaged copyright @ 2014 by Brook Winters. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Jess
Men like that don’t exist.
That was what Jess Myers thought, as she flipped through the pages of the romance novel. She was romantic, but not naive.
Come on, for real. Handsome, rich, and surround by all that mystery and intensity—all with a hint of danger?
That is only possible in fiction.
Also, she wasn’t sure if she would like to be approached by men like that. She doubted that she would be able to play the role of the innocent heroine, just dying to have a taste of the wild side.
She sighed and looked over to the big clock on the gray wall.
Almost 5
.
About 15 minutes to get out of this shithole.
Not that she didn’t like her job, but the job was just a means to an end.
Recently graduated, with a fresh diploma in Economics, she couldn’t find a decent job to satisfy her efforts and all she sacrificed for college. Just thinking about all those years in college and the money she spent on her education gave her headaches.
How did I, the intelligent girl who graduated with honors, end up working in a salvage yard?
It was still a mystery to her. However, desperate times called for desperate measures. It was this or the streets. She had a load of loans to pay, with money she didn’t have.
That was life, never fair. So, when a friend approached her with this job offer, she didn’t think twice before she took it. It was the best she could get at the time, and it would have been perfect, if it wasn’t for her controlling jerk of a boss.
Marcos Cavalli
, just the thought of the bastard made her angry. If he were a more understanding person, she’d have already closed the doors and tidied things up for the next working day. However, knowing Marcos, that was unlikely to happen. The one time she tried to close up a few minutes early, she learned her lesson the hard way. There was no chance at all she would do it again, even if it was a slow day like this.
If her uptight boss found out that she closed the doors just a minute before
5 o’clock, she would be in big trouble
. There wasn’t much she could do other than read and fantasize about her fiction hero while she waited for the clock’s small hand to finally reach that big 5, signaling that it was her time to get the hell out of there.
She was so fixated on the clicking of the clock that when the doorbell rang she jumped. Startled, her mind registered what that meant.
Last minute customer
.
Who the hell dares to come at this final hour?!
Angry, she turned to greet the unwanted client who thought it was fun to come at the
last minute
of her workday.
Why are people so inconsiderate?
It was then that she saw the personification of every woman’s dream man, right in front of her.
Goodness,
she thought,
he’s not a man. He’s a Greek god—with all its attributes
. Jess’s hormones overtook her logic.
She didn’t know why she was so excited all of the sudden. She was never one to lose herself over a guy, but just looking at the man before her—who could blame her. He was extremely tall and had a perfect body with the right amount of muscles, broad shoulders, and a flat stomach.
Hallelujah to that!
She was tired of only seeing ogres in the salvage. He wore dark blue jeans, a white shirt, and a black leather vest with biker patches on it. She was able appreciate the intricate tattoos covering every inch of exposed flesh on his arms, as well.
The more Jess looked, the more she knew that he was exactly the type of man her mother wouldn’t approve of.
But who cares?
After all, I’m just looking and enjoying the show.
She bit her lip, taking in the man and continuing her appreciation.
He had dark hair, razed to the root. It was just how she liked— no hair to get in the way of his beauty.
He’s sexy as hell!
He had a strong jaw with soft stubble. His walk, his pose, and his smile—at the edge of cynicism— gave her the impression that he did not take shit from anybody. The man was too macho for that. His attitude plus his body...
and what a body
… belonged on a cover of a sexy magazine made entirely for women’s
delight
.
“Hello there, sugar,” Mister-macho-man said, and Jess lost her voice. His baritone voice combined with the insolent glint in his eyes. He did a slow inventory of her body, pausing at her best assets.
His eyes were a vivid ocean blue, the kind a woman fantasized about, and Jess was certainly intoxicated by his eyes. They almost stole her breath away. Silent, they took in one another. Words were not needed at the moment.
Jess was intimidated and somehow also fascinated by him, and it wasn’t her fault. He was big and scary. He was the kind of man who inhabited wet dreams— an authentic male, all tattooed with raw virility that seemed caged and ready to attack.
Jess changed her mind, her fiction hero was nothing compared to the macho man before her. Since Jess didn’t answer, he arched a perfect brow at her. Then, the cocky bastard smirked with a big wink, as if he was already in her pants, and said, “Want to take a picture? It will last longer.”
That did it for her. The enchantment was broken.
Jess was used to men like him. Her big, scary brothers were proof of that—thinking of big scary men, she took a clinical look this time at the stranger and noticed that he had the same features and brutal energy as a motorcycle bad boy.
Shit.
She knew very well his type and would definitely not get enchanted with this bad boy.
Been there, done that, and it didn’t end well
, she thought. She decided to treat Mister-macho-man there the same way she would treat men who thought they were the last cookie in the package.
Son of a...
She swallowed the insult and neutralized her face, as if she had not heard his comment. She outlined a cynical smile and said as natural as she would to any customer, “How can I help you?”
Mister-macho-man looked at Jess, really looked at her, and raised a brow, as if he had been studying a rare species. It was clear that denial wasn’t something he was used to.
“Well, that’s a first.”
“What?”
“Nothing, beautiful. Where do you keep the good stuff here?” he said suggestively, but Jess continued her professional façade.
Out of habit, she took a quick look at the clock and internally groaned; yet, she forced herself to smile at the customer and asked, “What are you looking for?”
When Victor called early in the morning because his favorite car suffered an “accident” and needed a replacement right away, Josh knew that he was going to spend all day hunting for the piece in every salvage yard in town.
Because Victor’s cars were all old-school jewels, it wasn’t easy to find pieces for his babes, as he liked to call them. Victor was an important client and paid well, Josh just didn’t like his demands. The guy was into street racing and old cars, and Josh was his mechanic. So, it was his responsibility to make Victor’s babes shine, run faster, and beat the crap out of his enemies in terms of style, speed, and performance.
Josh had a reputation to keep. His garage was known as the place where car and bike lovers could “pimp their ride.” He still knew a lot about cars; but, bikes were, and forever would be, his passion. He was even in a motorcycle club:
Brothers in Fire. He loved his club, the people there were his family.
The garage was his second home, so that was why he worked to keep the good reputation of the place. In simple words, he had to fulfill Victor demands.
***
The sun was setting and still Josh couldn’t find that one piece he needed the most. There was only one salvage yard left that he knew of, and it was at the far end of town. He didn’t know what else he could do besides drive there and hope that they had what he was looking for.
When he entered the big salvage yard, he went directly to their office. He was tired of taking long walks around the salvage looking for the replacement part. He figured that he’d ask them directly where they kept all the good stuff and finally complete this mission.
With a sour mood, he entered the gray building with an old, forgettable feeling that he had seen better days, just like the cars outside. He paused and thought,
Well, well, well, would you look at that
. His day just brightened, and a predator smile blessed his hard features.
At the counter was a beauty focused on the wall opposite from him. He took the opportunity to look her over. She was petite, and her nice figure was wrapped in a simple outfit: a colorful blouse that was nicely filled out and jeans that hugged her hourglass figure.
However, what really grabbed Josh’s attention was her wild, curly, black hair that contrasted with her translucent skin. There was no denying that the girl was a peach, and he loved to eat peaches all day. She had soft features, even though she was frowning, and Angelina Jolie lips, which Josh could imagine doing a million and one things to him.
Well, my day just got better
, he thought. When she finally noticed him, Josh knew that he was going to get lucky tonight. He couldn’t contain his surprise when the little chick gave him a black out.
Well, now that was a first.
Usually women wanted to fuck him and men wanted to get as far away from him as possible.
However, the war was not lost, the night was young, and her rejection only spiked his curiosity. When he first entered the salvage yard, he wasn’t looking for a roll in the bed, but after the small interaction with the wild beauty with black hair, he knew that it was bound to happen.
Since she was all business and no play, Josh decided to get down to business and leave the fun part to later. He explained what he was looking for, and she called a man to escort him to where he might find it. To his surprise, he actually did. Then, he went back to the gray building and made the purchase. Since it took a while for him to find his piece, it was already dark outside.
When business with “Mr. I’m-the-best-thing-since-the-invention-of-chocolate” was finally completed, it was late. Linda, Jess’s friend, had already called her saying that she couldn’t wait for her because she had to pick up her son. So, Jess had no other option but to reassure her friend that she would be okay and that she would catch the bus.
“Shit!” she said unexpectedly, looking at the clock. There was no way she could get the bus now, at least not in time to be home in the next two hours.
“What’s wrong, beautiful?”
Jess couldn’t get used to the name he was calling her, but she wasn’t complaining. Compliments from a sexy man were never enough, even if that sexy man was a motorcycle bad boy.