Taming the biker, p.1
Taming the Biker, page 1
Copyright © 2023 by Glenna Maynard
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
ISBN: 9798387998577
Contents
Dedication
Taming The Biker
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
14. Chapter Fourteen
15. Chapter Fifteen
16. Chapter Sixteen
17. Chapter Seventeen
18. Chapter Eighteen
19. Chapter Nineteen
20. Chapter Twenty
21. Chapter Twenty-one
Dear Reader,
Playlist
Acknowledgments
About Glenna
Available Now
To my readers who love the asshole men I write about. This is for you.
ROYAL BASTARDS CODE
HONESTY : Never LIE, CHEAT, or STEAL from another member or the club.
PROTECT: The club and your brothers come before anything else and must be protected at all costs. CLUB is FAMILY.
RESPECT: Earn it & Give it. Respect club law. Respect the patch. Respect your brothers. Disrespect a member and there will be hell to pay.
HONOR: Being patched in is an honor, not a right. Your colors are sacred, not to be left alone, and NEVER let them touch the ground.
OL’ LADIES: Never disrespect a member’s or brother’s Ol’Lady. PERIOD.
CHURCH: is MANDATORY.
LOYALTY: Takes precedence over all, including well-being.
Royal Bastards MC: Charleston, WV
Series Reading Order
The Biker’s Kiss
Lady & The Biker
Tempting The Biker
Keeping The Biker
The Biker’s Lucky Charm
Taken by The Biker
Bewitching The Biker
The Biker’s Cherry
Claiming the Biker
The Biker’s Baby
Loving The Biker
The Biker’s Bunny
Taming The Biker
Trusting The Biker
Taming The Biker
Ember
Moving in with my brother and his roommate, Smoke, is my first mistake. Getting involved with a biker is bad choice number two. Hiding the relationship is the third strike in a series of poor choices. My brother has made it clear that I’m to stay away from the Royal Bastards MC. Only when it comes to Smoke, I can’t resist him. He makes me want to play with fire no matter how deep the burn will be when we’re over.
My affiliation with the club puts a target on my back. When danger strikes, Smoke vows to protect my body, but what about my stupid heart?
Smoke
After the end of a bitter marriage, I’m done with relationships.
Hit’em and quit’em is the name of my game.
I have no shame. I’m a player. Entering into a friends with benefits agreement with Ember on the down low is the perfect set up for a guy like me. No strings. No attachments. No catching feelings. I’m a bastard who can’t be tamed. But when an enemy threatens her, all bets are off.
Taming The Biker is book 13 of the Royal Bastards Charleston, WV series and reads as a standalone. However, for best enjoyment, the series should be read in order.
Chapter One
“Well, girl. Today is the day,” my father tells me as he finishes his morning coffee and reading the local newspaper. His eyes scan the headlines never missing a beat or lifting to acknowledge me other than giving his orders.
Indeed, I mutter the word in my subconscious. This is the day. Only not the one he thinks it will be. My eighteenth birthday. How I have counted down the day.
“Your Ma has her dress laid out for ya. Soon as you’re ready, I’ll drive you to the church.”
Glancing over her shoulder from her spot at the kitchen sink, one hand on a plate, the smile she wears doesn’t reach her eyes. “The girls set up a small reception after. Sharon baked you a cake.”
The eggs I consumed moments ago threaten to reappear on my plate as my gut burns.
“Willie Gullet will make you a fine husband.”
They’ll have to kill me first.
Taking a sip of orange juice, I wash the bile back down. “I need to shower. Will you do my hair real pretty like yours, Momma?” She nods. I get my long thick hair from her. When she was younger, my mother was a total Betty. Looking at her now with her constant scowl and dull eyes, you’d never imagine it. “May I be excused?”
“Don’t take too long. We only have the church for an hour.” That’s my father. All business. Gruff. Not a single emotion that he’s about to give his only daughter away to a predator.
“Of course,” I reply, mustering my fake enthusiasm. I’m about as excited to get married as someone receiving the news they have a terminal disease and weeks to live.
Spineless, my mother returns to her task. She knows that Willie Gullet is a disgusting pervert who will beat and rape me as my father has her since she married him at sixteen. I won’t doom myself to her fate. Suffering a loveless marriage. Bearing children to a man I consider a monster.
There’s only one thing I can do. I’ve been planning this since I was thirteen and Willie started showing up for dinner and sitting beside me at the table. I clear my plate and kiss my mother’s temple. “I love you,” I whisper, choked up. I’ll never see her again after this. My father will never allow it.
I know this because she’s had no contact with my brother since he left home. He tried to see her a few times when our father was out of the house and each time she turned him away, but not before he told me where to find him the day I was ready to leave. He’s not been back since. That was at least six years ago.
I can only hope he’s still there.
On my bed lays my mother’s wedding dress. White—high on the neck, covered in lace. Heaven forbid she showed a sliver of skin. I grab it and carry it into the bathroom, hanging the old garment on the towel hook on the back of the door. I turn on the water, knowing I must work quickly. There’s no room or time for error. This is my one shot.
With the sharp part of my nail file, I unscrew the vent cover from the wall and grab my bug out bag that holds my clothes and what little money I managed to save to cover gas. Peeking out the window, I glance to see my ride idling at the end of the street. It’s now or never.
“I’m sorry, Momma.” I blow her a kiss she’ll never catch and go out my bedroom window. Rushing across the neighbor’s lawn, I make a mad dash.
The passenger door of the old pickup swings open. “Get in,” Sabrina cries. I toss my bag in the back and slide in.
The truck jerks and the tires squeal as my father charges out of the front door, red faced. The veins in his forehead and neck popping out. “You get back here, Ember Lynn.” Raising his fist, he shakes it in the air. He’ll probably strike my mother down in my place, but I can’t think about that.
I’m leaving and never looking back.
“Holy shit cakes. Duck. He’s got his shotgun,” Sabrina warns, shoving me down.
I wait to hear the sound of his bullet piercing metal, but it never comes. We round the corner and Jimmy laughs. Relief is evident on his face, but there’s an edge of nervousness in his voice as he shouts, “God damn. Thought he was gonna blow my damn head off.” He slaps the steering wheel. “Whew,” he yells and punches the roof of the truck cab. He flashes his goofy grin at Sabrina.
Jimmy is a good ol’ country boy. As redneck as they come. Him and Sabrina have been attached at the hip as long as I can remember. I won’t be surprised if they are married and having a baby by the end of summer. That’s great for them. For me, though, no way. No how. I’m not ready for any of it.
“You sure you don’t want to stay with us?” Sabrina chews her thumb. My best friend in the entire world stares at me with her big green eyes and wisps of her strawberry blonde hair blowing around her face as Jimmy turns down the road to the Royal Bastards MC clubhouse. The motorcycle club my brother is a member of. I know she means well. Her and Jimmy live with his grandma and her four cats in a two-bedroom trailer.
Sure, I could crash on the couch, but that’ll get old fast for all of us. “And have you growing sick of me in a week? No way.” Besides, wherever Sabrina is, that is the first place they will come looking for me. I won’t go back to that house. I won’t marry that man. I’d rather sell my body or live in a cardboard box under a bridge somewhere. Anywhere as long as it’s not where my father and Willie are.
“As if. But seriously, though. If it’s not good. Promise you’ll call. We’ll come no matter what. Ok? Promise me.”
“I swear. If I can’t find my brother, I’ll be knocking down your door.”
Jimmy’s truck idles outside the gate. “Put in a good word for me if they’re taking on any new prospects.” He grins and Sabrina mouths the word No at me.
“Will do.”
“Love you, girl.” Sabrina hugs my neck.
“Love you always.” I grab my bag and strut toward the gate, where a cute guy stands guard.
“Can
“Hi. I’m here to…”
He cuts me off. “You must be the new girl. Come on in.”
I should correct him, but I’ll explain as soon as I find Eric.
The gate closes behind me. I glance back at Sabrina and give her and Jimmy an encouraging wave to let them know it’s okay to leave.
“Go on up to the clubhouse. Check in at the bar.”
“Okay.” Sounds easy enough. I’ll locate the bar and ask for my brother. Shouldn’t be hard to find him. I stare at the motorcycles lined up in a neat row. Black and chrome sparkling as a dude sprays them down with a hose.
Music blares from the gigantic building. I’ve never seen anything like this. At least not in real life.
This place, the whole scene, is like something out of another world as I enter through a door with a sign on it that reads: Devil’s Playground. My mother would douse the walls in Holy Water. She was raised to believe a woman’s place is in the kitchen and her purpose is to make babies.
Birth control is viewed as a sin, no matter its intended purpose. No matter that when she had me, she nearly died.
I’ve stepped through the gates of Hell and there is no saving me now. I can taste the sins within these walls on my tongue and I love it. Women gyrate on poles as the music pumps through the stereo. Sounds and music I’ve never heard before. Men drinking and smoking. Groping the women as they pass them by.
A big guy with thick muscles slams another guy’s hand down on the table in an arm-wrestling match. He lets out a deep, throaty roar that has me nearly jumping out of my skin. I clutch my bag tighter to my chest and weave through the loud crowd.
Behind the bar is a gorgeous redhead that my father would call a whore because of how little she’s wearing.
She smiles at me. “Give me your bag.”
I don’t know why I hand it off to her, but I do.
“I’m Shiloh. What’s your name, doll?”
“Ember.”
“Pretty. Is this your first time?” She yells over the music as a guitar solo rips through the speakers.
I nod. “Do you know where I can find Eric?”
Her brows knit. “Who? Is he one of the prospects?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Oh baby. You really are green.”
“Green?”
“Never mind. Let’s get you a drink. What’s your poison?” Her smile pulls wider as she soaks in the bewildered expression I wear. “Where did they find you?”
“Nowhere.”
“You got that right.” She shakes her head and pours a dark liquid into a small glass. “Liquid courage.” She slides the drink toward me.
I sniff it and take a sip. “Ugh. What is this?” I scrunch up my nose and stick out my tongue in revulsion.
Shiloh laughs. “You down it. Don’t overthink it. A few of these and you’ll be right as rain.”
I shrug and knock it back, carving a path of fire down my esophagus that erupts into an inferno in the pit of my stomach. Oh, that’s bitter with a hint of cinnamon. I might puke.
“One more and you’ll loosen right up.” She shoves another toward me.
Warmth spreads through my veins and flashes across my cheeks.
I smile at her and take the second drink. A shiver ripples through me, but I fight the urge to throw up.
“The guys are going to love you.” She touches my wrist in a light caress.
“They are?”
The woman glances past my shoulder. “Oh yeah. The vultures are circling.”
“The vultures?”
“You sure you’re supposed to be here?” She eyes me curiously and I nod.
“I’m looking for Eric,” I remind her what she already knows, but she’s not listening. Shiloh is staring at someone else.
“What are we celebrating, ladies?” a rough voice sounds at my ear.
“Watch out for this one,” Shiloh warns and moves down the bar.
I glance to my right and see the best-looking man I’ve ever laid eyes on, forgetting why I’m even here. Because right now, the only thought my brain can form is I’m in love.
If Brina could see this man, she may faint.
I think I might. I start to get up off the stool as this feeling of being on fire and flying at the same time overcomes me in a fuzzy haze.
I think I’m drunk.
But I know without a doubt I’ve laid eyes on the man of my dreams.
Tattooed and beautiful. Olive green eyes that penetrate me straight into my soul. They are so gorgeous. He smiles at me and all I can think is I wonder how his lips taste and how they would feel against mine.
“What’s your name, babydoll?”
I stare at him and blink. Shoot.
He’s so hot I can’t remember what he just said or my own name.
Chapter Two
One day soon you're going to push me so far away, I'll be lost to you forever.
Those are the words that haunt me. The ones that drive me to drink. Regret for words left unsaid. Promises I broke. Guilt eats at my bones for my not being a better man.
My marriage ended bitterly. Cassie said I’d miss her and in some ways I do. I miss coming home and finding dinner on the table. My clothes washed and put away. The house smelling of her perfume.
I don’t miss the poison, though. The toxicity. The sound of dishes crashing to the floor because I was late or my duty to the club came before her. Her crying herself to sleep night after night. I put her through too much. She deserved better. Now I hope wherever she took off to that she’s found it.
That she let go of the soul-crushing bullshit that tore us apart.
Before she left, she advised, “Promise me that the next one… you’ll let her in. I know I’m not the woman for you. I’ve made my peace with the fact, but I know there’s a good guy in here.” Her hand went to my chest, resting directly over the spot my heart should be. Her green eyes met mine, full of tears. “I hope you find someone and that when you do, part of you wishes she were me.”
“Fuck, Cassie.” There were so many things I wanted to say. Like I’m sorry for starters. The words wouldn’t come, and she didn’t want to hear another weightless apology.
I wasn’t going to change, and she knew that I would never be the man she wanted me to be.
I’m a biker. A Royal Bastard who can’t be tamed. Fuck knows she tried.
She shook her head. “Take care of yourself, honey.” Her lips brushed mine one last time and then the woman I’d married, the woman whose heart I’d broken one time too many, was gone.
Taking another pull of my beer, I glance around the clubhouse. It’s the end of the workday on a fucking Thursday and I’m already drunk. This place could use some excitement. Some fresh pussy.
As though right on cue, Trenton slaps me on the back. “Who the fuck is that?”
I follow his gaze to the bar where a dark-haired beauty sits perched at the bar, engaged in conversation with Shiloh. I catch a glimpse of her smile and my dick practically jumps to salute her. My fingers are itching to twist those long, dark locks up that reach her ass and give them a good yank.
“The bitch I’ll be balls deep in within the next half hour. Must be the new bunny.”
“Shit. Let’s make it interesting. You willing to put your money where your dick is?”
“That’s not how that saying goes, but yeah.” Fucking dumbass. Exactly like his father. God rest his wretched soul. Nickel loved to gamble. “Five hundred says I’ll have her pants off in twenty.”
The fucker licks his lips as he stares at my next conquest. “Fine.” He pulls out a clip of money and counts out five hundred smackaroos, placing them on the edge of the pool table.
I match his bet and hand the money to Banks for safe keeping.
“How will I know you fucked her?”
“I’ll take her out back. You can watch from the security feed or hide in the bushes.”
Banks shakes his head. “Fucking idiots.”
I shrug and stalk toward my prey.
“What are we celebrating, ladies?”
The new chick peers up at me from her stool with eyes so blue I could swim in the depths and drown there too.
