Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Eighteen years later, I’m back in Florida, trying to create a new life for myself after a year of going through the motions since my husband’s death. It’s probably best we don’t know the future because I wouldn’t have walked into that bar if I’d known my eyes would collide with the boy who had shattered me long ago.
But Rome wasn’t that boy anymore. He was a biker with a leather vest, tattoos, and piercings.
While I’d been mesmerized by the man he’d become, all he’d had to say to me was that I had gotten old. Leaving to never step foot back there again, fate plays a cruel twist where the new life I thought I’d found turns out to be a lie constructed by someone I trusted most, and the only one to save me is a biker named Tex
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
Rome
Eighteen Years Ago
My fingers dug into my scalp as I sat, holding my head in both hands. The burn in my chest felt as if it was reaching a point that was unbearable. She needed me, and I had to get back in that room. But I required a moment to get myself under control. I hadn’t been sure if I was going to put the hard chair I’d been sleeping in all night through the wall or burst into tears and bury my face into the mattress beside her.
This wasn’t fair. Her life hadn’t been fair.
Rage, hate, helplessness, all spiraling together, were a dangerous combination. It took your breath away. I craved an outlet, but had none. Not here. Not within these fucking walls.
Until the day I died, there would never be a smell that I abhorred more than that of a hospital. It was here where I’d been told about her cancer. Here where she’d barely survived the last surgery. And I knew it was going to be here where she closed her eyes for the last time.
“Rome.” The soft voice said my name, and with it came relief.
My chest eased, although the pain remained, and the anger released its talons. I jerked my head up and stared into the face of my very own fucking angel. The agony reflected in her cornflower-blue eyes matched my own.
I stood up, towering over her five-foot-five frame, and pulled her against my chest. Able to take my first deep breath, I sucked in air as her arms wrapped around me. Bending down, I buried my nose in her hair. If there were a balm for the soul, then Salem Gray was mine.
“You got my message.” My voice was hoarse with the lack of sleep and emotion clogging my throat.
She clung to my shirt and nodded. “I was at the studio. I’d left my phone charging and put it on Silent since it was so late. I didn’t see it until two hours later. I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”
I ran a hand through her long, silky black hair, keeping her head against my chest. With her like this, I felt strong enough. She gave me strength as much as she did solace. I didn’t know how the hell I’d survived the past year without holding her every day.
My eyes closed as her warmth seeped into me, pushing out the cold that had been buried deep within my chest.
She’d last been in my arms two weeks ago, and every time she left, it was getting harder to watch her drive away. Keeping her with me, beside me, beneath me…
My hands tightened instantly as the memory of her throwing her head back, crying out my name, sent a bolt of need straight to my dick. God, even now, here, facing my fucking worst nightmare, Salem could make me hard. She’d been doing it so easily since she had been too young for me to be noticing. But so fucking beautiful for me to miss.
Her sniffle was the reminder I needed that she wasn’t here for me to sink my cock into.
“Is she…is she awake, alert?” Salem’s voice was thick with a sorrow that mirrored my own.
Pulling myself together, I lifted my head and nodded. “Yeah. She’ll want to see you.”
Salem’s eyes were wet with tears. Her long black eyelashes were spiky as she wiped at her face and took in a deep, unsteady breath. Stepping back from me, she gave me a smile so fucking heartbreaking that I fought the need to reach up and rub my chest.
“I don’t want her to see me like this.” She let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. More tears continued to fall, and she worked diligently to catch them. “I can already hear her telling me, Don’t you start crying over what is meant to be, Salem. Just keep walking the path and find the beauty in the road ahead.”
The first smile in what felt like weeks tugged at the corners of my mouth. “That sounds just like Momma,” I agreed. “You even got her Alabama twang down.”
Salem pressed her full pink lips together. “Whew,” she said, blinking several times and straightening her shoulders. “I’m good. I can do this.”
Momma wasn’t going to be fooled. Salem’s red-rimmed eyes hinted at the crying she must have been doing on her drive down here from Savannah.
Since Salem had left back in August for her freshman year in college, I’d found that I hated the state of Georgia. It had taken her from me. Mom’s illness had brought Salem home often, and taking care of Momma had kept me preoccupied for the most part. But there were those days when I literally ached to get on my Harley and go to her.
I cupped her face with my hand, which appeared large and tanned against her porcelain skin. “Just let me look at you for a minute.” My voice was raspy and thick.