Page 2 of Savage Lust

Now I was.

A floorboard creaked, and I tilted my head. The quiet was so consuming, that when I listened closely, my own breath drowned everything out.

I turned as a dark blur flashed in the doorway. I had enough time to squeal before I was knocked back and pinned to the mattress. I fought against the weight of my attacker, thrashing and wriggling frantically, twisting in the bedcovers, and knocking the pillows askew.

Underneath one was a pistol. I snaked one hand free and reached for it.

“Whoa, not so fast, sweetheart.” The sharp, biting command from a masculine voice stopped me for the scantest second before he encircled my wrist again.

Survival instinct flared to life and I turned enough to knee him in the groin and leap for the gun.

As my attacker rolled to the floor, I jumped off the other side of the bed, clutching the gun between trembling hands. It was heavier, colder than I imagined. The way people swing pistols around in movies, you’d think they were much lighter.

He rose from the floor, still clutching his groin, red-faced and groaning. “The fuck?” he gasped out and glared at me.

I could finally make out his face. The clear blue of eyes beneath gold-tipped lashes, the shock of blond hair pushed back from his face—I recognized him. It was the kid from the pictures. Sure, he was older and filled out, with facial hair surrounding his mouth and covering his chin. Same guy, just older and significantly more handsome.

The alarm bells in my brain lessened, but I kept the pistol pointed at him.

Something in his face changed, a brief flash of recognition as the red seeped out of his cheeks. He rose to his full height and raised both hands in the air in front of him.

“Riley?” The voice wasn’t as cold or harsh now. Deep, but clear and quiet.

Something about that tone slipped in, comforted me, and my body relaxed, the gun dipping. He knew me.

“How do you know my name?” The control I had over my voice was surprising. Only marginally shrill. “And what are you doing here?”

His grin was slow to spread across his lips. Like somewhere along the way he’d decided he shouldn’t and then the devil on his shoulder convinced him otherwise. “Sweetheart, I’d feel a lot more like answering your questions if you’d point that elsewhere.”

“I’d feel a lot better once I know who the fuck you are.”

“I live here.” He lowered his hands and seemed to shift closer to the corner of the bed. “I’m a friend.”

“Now you’re going to tell me my estranged biker father had a younger, live-in lover?”

He snorted. “What? Hell no. I live in the apartment above the garage.”

“That doesn’t explain what you…” I waved the gun in a small circle. “Were about to do to me.”

He recoiled with an irritated flinch. “Fuck no. You’re Archer’s daughter.” Then he gestured with a roll of his shoulder and a wink. “Ain’t never had to force no one, sweetheart. Not even one as pretty as you.”

None of that explained how he knew me, why he’d come in here…or any of it. I was shaken, tired, and quickly losing patience.

“That make you my long-lost brother, then?”

“Ha. No.” He laughed outright, and it wasn’t until he brushed a hand over his goatee, I realized he’d come completely around the bed.

Before I could jerk away, he’d wrenched the pistol from my hands by the barrel, spun it toward the wall and pulled the trigger.

I threw my hands over my ears, but instead of a deafening boom, there were only three quiet clicks.

“Chamber a round and flick the safety off before you threaten to shoot someone.” With the sure confidence of long practice, he dropped the magazine and cleared the gun.

The place between shock and humiliation is weird. My skin flushed and the room sort of faded in and out. The only thing I could see was this cute guy glaring at me like I’d just walked in and screwed up his entire world.

He hadn’t had a father who never lifted a hand to help show up dead out of nowhere. Neither had I…until now. This entire thing was a shit show.

I didn’t know if I could trust him, but I was literally pinned between him and a wall and trying really hard not to laugh or cry or both.

---