Running Wild (Hell Ryders MC Book 1) by J.L. Sheppard Page A

smiled at them, then scanned the room. Her gaze gravitated toward the couch, the spot where Jace had been. He was gone. She waved at Dash and Bud, who’d finished downing shots, headed down the hall, and up the stairs toward her room.
    A woman moaned.
    Allie hadn’t meant to look, but unwillingly, she turned her head. The door wide open, so inevitably, she caught sight of them. She stood there seeing, yet unbelieving, frozen with her eyes glued to an image she knew she’d never forget no matter how much she craved to.
    Jace.
    Shirtless sitting up on the edge of his bed, his head angled back, eyes closed, lips parted. A dark-haired woman draped over him, kissing his neck, her legs wrapped around him. Her black leather skirt hiked up to her waist, his hands cupping her bare ass.
    Her heart clenched, squeezing in her chest so hard it hurt. Deep and searing her from the inside out.
    Jesus.
    How it hurt.
    And she didn’t know why.
    He wasn’t hers. He was a biker who couldn’t stand her. Single, free to screw however many scantily dressed women he wanted.
    Her brother warned her bikers did it often, and still somewhere deep inside, she held hope Jace was different. He wasn’t just a biker, he was the man who took his niece to dinner weekly, the man who’d roughed up her ex-fiancé, then held her while she cried.
    It was more than that, too. She wanted to believe the man who affected her in a way no other man ever had, the man in whose arms she’d felt safe couldn’t be anything like her brother described.
    She hoped, a fruitless emotion, she knew now firsthand. In one, single, earth-shattering moment with a mere glimpse, her hope crashed and burned.
    Her eyes brimmed with tears, helpless, hopeless, stupid tears she couldn’t hold back.
    He tensed, lifted his head, then his lids opened, and his dark eyes met hers. They widened briefly. For a second, she glimpsed something inside them, something she couldn’t quite put into words that somehow mirrored what she felt stirring inside.
    He had no right to show her, and she couldn’t stand to see it, so she did what she should’ve done long before. She walked in the opposite direction of her room. With each step, her chest tightened so much she couldn’t breathe. Bolting downstairs, she passed the living room, down the hall, and then into the garage and outside.
    The cool air hit her face, arms, and legs. She took a deep breath. It did nothing to soothe the searing ache inside her chest. She needed to forget, erase the image from her mind, but it would be as fruitless and worthless as the hope she’d held.
    She strode toward her brother’s SUV and leaned against the side of it. Only then, did she let herself blink. Tears drifted out of her eyes and cascaded down her cheeks. She was a bigger idiot than she’d thought, crying for a man who’d never been hers.
    “Babe?”
    Frantically, she wiped her face, turned, and spotted the last person she’d wanted to see. No, the second to last. Just her luck, though she could argue she’d been lucky to have gone weeks without seeing him.
    “Ripper.” He stood six feet away. His gaze on her face, instead of sizing her like a piece of meat.
    “Saw something you shouldn’t have seen. Didn’t Army warn you?”
    How the hell did he know? She held his gaze, not speaking.
    “I’ll take that as a no.” He shrugged. “It’s club life, babe. Not every woman’s like you. Some like bikers. Some like a lot of them. Some take whichever they can get their hands on. Some like others to watch and join in, so closing doors is optional.”
    Endless supply of sexually liberated women who wanted to be banged by multiple bikers a night? Yeah, Tyler should’ve mentioned it, especially given their open door policy. She would’ve been more careful. Had it been anyone else, she could’ve handled it. She just couldn’t handle seeing Jace with another woman. Her own fault.
    “See what I said is a surprise to you, babe, but that’s life