Ryker (The Powers That Be Book 4) Read online

  “Ryker,” I breathed out. “Please!”

  I heard his dark chuckle again as he stood, smoothing his hands up my back then reaching them around to my front again, one drifting up to caress my breast, rolling my nipple, the other proceeding down where he slowly slid a finger through my folds, moving it to circle my clitoris lazily, then sliding his finger away and through my folds again then back to circle, over and over, all the while kissing my shoulder, his lips advancing up to kiss my neck then back beneath my ear before they traveled back down to the tendon between my neck and shoulder where he gave me a horse bite.

  And that’s where we were now, me begging him for more, him withholding, driving me crazy.

  “Please, what?” he asked, sliding his cock between my legs back and forth, his breath hot against my neck.

  “Please make love to me! Fuck me! Have me! Anything!” I cried out.

  I felt him smile against my cheek. “That’s my girl,” he praised. His hand on my breast slid to my throat and gripped it, his fingers pressing in firmly holding my head against his chest. “You get to this point faster, Francesca, we can fuck faster. We clear?”

  “Yes, God, yes!” I was dripping for him, could feel it running down my leg. “I need you, Ryker! Please!”

  Keeping a hand on my throat, the other went behind me to grip his cock. He bent his knees and I felt him lining himself up then he slowly fed himself inside me. He retreated slowly and pushed back in slowly.

  So slow.

  Too slow.

  “More!” I cried, literally cried because this was torture. “Please…” I choked out.

  He finally gave me what I needed, thrusting up hard, impaling me, filling me over and over and I came harder than I ever had before. My body was electrified, every nerve ending lit up, on fire. I heard a scream so loud in the room, echoing off the walls, and realized it was my own. My God, what had he done to me?

  Next, I found myself bent over the bed where he removed the ties from my eyes and wrists. He then turned me, picking me up and I wrapped my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist. Putting a knee to the bed, he crawled onto it, taking us to the center of it.

  I felt him kiss my forehead. “You okay, baby?”

  I pulled back, panting, to look at his beautiful face, and breathlessly nodded just as he thrust up inside me causing a loud moan that I had no control over to emerge from my throat. Now holding me close, his arms wrapped tightly around me, I knew he sensed that I was a bit out of it as he pumped his hips into me.

  “You’re mine, Francesca, understand?” he said huskily, his hips powerfully thrusting up again and again.

  I nodded because I was his. Would always be his. He’d taken me higher than I’d ever been, and I loved it, loved him.

  He came hard too, driving up so deep inside, his thrusts forceful, measured, and I held onto him tightly as he finished. He fell back on the bed me on top of him and we lay there in silence, our breathing the only sound in the room.

  “I told you,” he mumbled between breaths.

  I had just enough energy to lift my head and look at him questioningly.

  “Told you someone would be begging.”

  I nodded before dropping my head heavily onto his chest because he was not wrong.

  ~*~*~*~

  We were in the kitchen having a midnight snack. We’d both passed out but I’d awakened just before midnight starving. I’d kissed him awake and told him to feed me. He was at the stove in a pair of gray shorts making grilled cheese sandwiches. I sat at the bar wearing the slate blue shirt he’d worn to dinner.

  And we were having the talk. The one where he explained his rules and I was listening intently.

  “I had two best friends growing up, Alex and Will. We did everything together.” He flipped the sandwich and continued. “When we started middle school we all three signed up for wrestling. We were good. Alex was better than Will and me but that was okay. We were all in different weight divisions. In high school, we won the State Championship and all Alex and I were State Champs in our divisions. Will was a semi-finalist.

  But it was awesome. We all were getting recruited to wrestle in college.”

  He used the spatula to put the sandwich on a plate and brought it to me before going back to the stove to make his own. I ate as I listened.

  “Alex was the best and was being recruited by the big dogs, the likes of Penn State and Minnesota. Will and I weren’t as good so we’d planned on wrestling at Hallervan. Alex ended up going to Penn State and we were so proud. Our freshman year, when our schedules didn’t conflict, Will and I would watch him either on TV or the school’s website would stream it. He was doing so well. God, he was good.”

  He stopped to get more cheese out of the fridge and I remained silent as I finished my sandwich. I knew this was big for him and I knew letting him tell me with his back to me was the right thing to do too.

  “He loved it. Penn State had won the national championship the year before and Alex contributed to their winning his freshman year. He was so excited about it. I’d never seen him so happy.”

  He flipped the sandwich and stared at the stove for a few minutes. I watched his broad back expand and contract as he took several deep breaths, the Grim Reaper looking even more heinous as if he himself were breathing. That made me shudder.

  “Alex came home that summer for a couple weeks and all three of us got together to hang, chill whatever. One night Will called and said he and Alex were going to some all-night gym to workout. They wanted me to come with them but I had a girlfriend at the time and she didn’t want me to go. Looking back, she was a controlling bitch and I should’ve cut her loose immediately.”

  Ah. The reason he never got serious with anyone since and also the reason he’d freaked out when I told him I loved him.

  He put a sandwich on his plate and started making another one. He was quiet for so long I wasn’t sure he’d continue.

  “I tried calling them around one in the morning but neither answered. I went to bed thinking I’d talk to them in the morning.”

  More deep breaths.

  “Got up the next morning and tried calling but still got no answer from either. I told my dad about it but he said they’d probably gotten drunk and were passed out.”

  He turned the sandwich.

  “When I still hadn’t heard from them by noon, I got really worried. I called Alex’s house but no one answered there, so I called Will’s.”

  He put the sandwich on the plate and turned off the burner keeping his back to me as he continued.

  “Will’s Aunt Lisa answered and she sounded like she was crying. That’s when I knew something had happened.”

  Big breath.

  I got up and went to him, hugging him from behind, just holding onto him.

  “They’d gone to that stupid gym and worked out then went inside the steam room. Wrestlers do that sometimes to help them lose weight. Alex had been complaining that since he’d been home his mom’s cooking was making him fat.” He laughed. “He wrestled at 149 and had gained maybe ten pounds. It was no big deal.”

  He was quiet again and I rested my head against his back, holding on tight.

  He blew out a breath. “They think the door to the steam room jammed and they couldn’t get out. That or they’d passed out beforehand. They didn’t find them until the next morning when someone went to clean it. The room was on a twenty-four hour timer so it went off at midnight, but a night worker reset it for them when they told him they wanted to go in.”

  He hung his head and I held on tight.

  “Both of them gone in one shot. They were… they were like brothers to me. Such a waste.” He turned around and wrapped me in his arms. “Such a fucking waste.”

  I kept my arms around him, resting my head on his chest listening to his heart pounding and realizing that’s what the tattoo on his back was all about. Two dead warriors and one still fighting.

  God.

  “That’s why I had to
have rules. I needed to win for them. To fight for them. It’s all been for them.”

  He gave me a squeeze.

  “Then you came along and were a distraction and I didn’t know how to make it work. I’d been so focused for so many years. That’s all I knew was to stay focused. But I wanted you. God, how I wanted you. But I couldn’t figure it out.”

  He leaned down and kissed the top of my head.

  “Then you were gone and things got even worse. I kept telling myself I could go back to what I’d been doing that it’d been working. And I tried. But I couldn’t get you out of my head.” He pulled away and looked down at me. “You got in.” He shook his head. “Somehow, you got in.”

  He bent to brush his lips against mine.

  “You saved me, Francesca.”

  I looked up at him, my brow coming down.

  He nodded as he said, “I knew it was all coming to an end and I didn’t know what I’d do after. I mean, my brother went to the NFL. Basketball players can go to the NBA. Wrestlers can go pro and do that fake shit on TV or they can become MMA fighters. But then what? Only reason I’d do any of that would be for the money, not for Alex and Will. I’ve dedicated the last three years to my friends, my brothers, but I got lost this year not knowing where I was gonna go after. You saved me.”

  He picked me up and set me on the counter. “Like this shirt on you, baby,” he said with a smirk. It was like a dress on me, hitting me mid-thigh. He put his hands on my thighs and pushed the shirt up, all the way to the bend of my legs at my hips. He saw that I didn’t have on panties and looked up at me. “I really like this shirt on you.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and looked up at him. “I’m sorry for what happened. You’ve been a hero for your friends, wrestling in their honor. And you’ve done it well. So well. I’m proud to know you. I’m proud of you, Ryker. That’s a lot for anybody to take on and you did it honorably. Do their families know?”

  He shook his head.

  “It doesn’t matter. Alex and Will know what kind of man you are. Your family knows. I know. You’re a good man, Ryker.”

  He stared at me for a long moment as if trying to find the right thing to say. And when he finally said it and it came out just fine.

  “I love you, Francesca.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Ryker ended up not losing a match until he got to the National Championship where he eventually lost by one point in the semi-finals to the imminent champion.

  The tournament was held in North Dakota and his family and I flew out to watch him. When he’d lost, I swear, I and everyone in his family had sucked in a breath, so worried about how he’d handle it.

  But Ryker had gone to the winner and graciously shaken his hand then turned and looked up in the stands finding us and nodding as if to let us know he was okay.

  Before he left the mat, he looked around for a moment knowing that would be his last time to ever be there. I teared up at that then started quietly crying watching as he then looked up to the ceiling where he raised his hand and pointed two fingers before leaving the floor.

  Epilogue

  When I was little, I used to be afraid of the dark. Yeah, so not proud of that now. Anyway, when I’d wake up and be scared, my mom would come in and sing the same song to me until I fell back to sleep. A line from the song always stuck with me, something about love not being love until you give it away.

  I never knew what that line met until I met a more than beautiful, strong-willed, feisty woman who for some reason had decided I was her dream man. I still have to laugh at that but I’m so damned grateful that she picked me out of all the others out there.

  Being with her has taught me that no matter how much you care about someone, if you’re not willing to give them your heart, then it’s all lights out, motherfucker, because that’s not love at all.

  Oh, I screwed around and almost lost her because I’d very fucking well done that at the beginning, being so full of myself thinking she should feel lucky that I was even giving her the time of day. When she turned the tables on me, well, that’s when I got smart and did some serious thinking.

  She tells me every day that she loves me and she’s proud of me and all I can do is stare back at her in awe that she actually wants to be in my life. Seriously blows my fucking mind. I’m so not worthy of her it’s ridiculous, but as long as she thinks I am, it works for me.

  Looking back at how we ended up together, I think I may be able to pinpoint the exact moment I fell in love with her. I could say it was when she caught my dumbass making out with a girl who owned a pink VW Bug and she acted like she’d stopped by to have a look at it.

  Or I could say it was when she was in her Treatment of Athletic Injuries class and I basically forced her to take me as her “patient” and she told me she hated me. That was pretty cute.

  But no, in the end, I think the very moment I fell for her (I just didn’t realize it at the time) was after I pretty much blackmailed her into going to O’Leary’s with me after her class (man, I’m a dick). I’d pissed her off countless times over the course of the evening and she was getting ready to walk out on my sorry ass. And this next part right here, my friends, is the moment I fell hard for a brown-eyed Italian girl with the biggest heart of anyone I know.

  She’d threatened to leave and I’d gotten up and blocked her in the booth not letting her get by. But that’s not it. It’s when I realized she’d be leaving and I didn’t want her to go. I wanted her to be with me and it killed me to think she’d go and I might not get to see her again.

  So yeah, the moment I fell was when I asked her to stay.

  And she did.

  Acknowledgments

  To my lovely beta readers, Franca, Mel & Sam, I say it every time but you guys are too good to me. Thank you for all the last-minute stuff you take from me, and I mean ALL. You’re the best ever! Your support means the world to me <3

  To Stevie & the Hellbenders, you guys rock my world! Thank you for all the support and love you give me on the daily ;) You’re the best! <3

  Anne Mercier, I love you, woman! You always make time for me & I appreciate it so much, because I know you’re either face first in your computer writing some sexy love scene or you’re drooling over M. Shadows. Either way, thank you for always stepping away from the hotness for me!

  TC Matson, Thank you for your friendship & never-ending support. I know I can come to you for the truth even though you think you’ll upset me lol One of these days we’re gonna do a Zak attack then die laughing at the little girl screams :P Lobe you!

  Dawn Stanton, Thank you for pimping the hell out of my books. And while doing it, you, oh, you know, wrote a book lol You’re amazing! Thank you for everything! You’re a true friend & those are hard to find! #BeachHouse 2016 ;)

  Amy Dunlap, Thank you for all you’ve done with the Hellbenders. Without you, that’d be the most boring place ever lol One of these days we’ll hop on a plane, grab a hot cover model & knock back a few. Of course, you’ll need to step over my trashed ass on your way out of the plane but know that my intentions were good (the road to hell & all, yeah, yeah) Love ya!

  Erin Spencer, Thank you for always hooking me up at the last minute. I’m thinking you’re starting to figure out my MO now so I’m past the shocking you stage. Thank you for being supportive with your sweet voice on my messenger : ) Love you tons!

  To the many bloggers who’ve spread the word about my books, thank you x a zillion. Know that you are appreciated GOBS!

  And to the readers, this is all for you. Thank you <3

  About the author:

  USA Today Best Selling author Harper Bentley writes about hot alpha males who love hard. She’s taught high school English for 23 years, and although she’s managed to maintain her sanity regardless of her career choice, jumping into the world of publishing her own books goes to show that she might be closer to the ledge than was previously thought.

  After traveling the nation in her younger years as a military
brat, having lived in Alaska, Washington State and California, she now resides in Oklahoma with her teenage daughter, two dogs and one cat, happily writing stories that she hopes her readers will enjoy.

  You can contact her at [email protected], at harperbentleywrites.com, on Facebook or on Twitter @HarperBentley

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  1—Dual Meet

  2—Takedown

  3—Escape

  4—Near Fall

  5—Penalty

  6—Face Off

  7—Decision

  8—Reversal

  9—Exposure

  10—Major Decision

  11—Danger Position

  12—Predicament

  13—Flagrant Misconduct

  14—Neutral Position

  15—Stalemate

  16—Offensive

  17—Pinned

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author