STAG: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 7) (59 page)
Read STAG: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 7) Online
Authors: Samantha Leal
The embers burned low on the fire, and when Melissa woke, Saber was already up, stoking it and adding more wood.
She approached him from behind, wrapped her arms around him and kissed his neck. She had never felt more like a woman around him. She had never felt sexier.
“A kiss,” she whispered as he turned to her and her lips met his. He ran his hand through her hair and slipped his tongue against hers.
It was all so perfect. She wished it never had to end.
But she knew she couldn’t stay there.
When they broke apart, his eyes looked sad, as if he knew it was all over, too.
“I need to go,” she said. “Can you take me back to the cave?”
Saber looked out at the fire and ignored her for a moment. She could tell he didn’t want her to leave.
Her heart ached as she was torn between her decision and the man in front of her… Could she leave him now they had met? Their connection was so pure and fierce. Could she walk away from him?
Tears stung her eyes and she wiped them away. Saber shook his head and held onto her chin. He looked at her deep in the eyes and said, “No.”
Melissa smiled and nodded.
“Come with me?” she said as a stroke of genius flooded through her. “You don’t have to stay here… Come back with me?”
She knew it was a crazy concept, but she also knew it was the only answer. She didn’t want to leave him; there was no life for him there. But she didn’t think he would let her go. If she managed to get him back to the cave and they found a way to reopen the vortex, maybe they could be back in 2015 and live happily ever after.
Saber was looking at her as if he didn’t understand anything she was saying. It was the first time he had looked confused since he found her. Melissa took his hand and smiled.
“Trust me,” she said.
He smiled back and nodded.
***
The journey back to the Neanderthals’ cave was short and frightening. Saber threw her up over his shoulder and ran with her back down the incline, past the rocks and cliff face and over a small rise. The opening was there and Saber sniffed the air. He nodded and moved forward, happy that the coast was clear.
Inside the cave, the carcass of the tiger was lying limply on the floor and the Neanderthals had already removed its tusks. Melissa shivered as she opened her mind to suggestion and hoped the rocks would call to her again.
Saber watched her as she held onto his hand and looked around. Her heart was pounding and she was about to panic when suddenly a light shone on the corner of the room and two points from two rocks, one above and one below, were almost touching.
“That’s it,” she smiled as she led him over to them.
Saber held her hand and with their other hands, they both took hold of the rock points. Just as before, Melissa felt a surge of power run through her and Saber roared like a lion as the pain hit them and the earth began to move.
The world went black, but she could still feel his hand.
And then… nothing.
***
A big arm cradled her, and as she opened her eyes, they met his.
“Melissa,” he said with a smile as he brushed the hair out of her face and kissed her gently on the lips.
She sat up and looked around in panic.
Were they back? Had she brought him back to the present?
They were in the cave and it looked similar to when she had been there with Quattro, but there was still something different.
She looked down and they were both still wearing the fur pelts and their skin was dirty.
“Dr. Quattro?” she called out, but her voice echoed around the cave. She knew there was no one there.
“If this were 2015, this cave would be crawling with archaeologists after yesterday,” she said. “Something’s changed.”
She could see the shaft they needed to climb in order to get back to the surface, and Saber led the way. He put her on his back and climbed it with his bare hands and feet with such incredible strength Melissa couldn’t believe he was actually capable of doing it.
He had lived a long time in a savage land with only himself to rely on, but now he had found her and he wanted to protect her. When he reached the top of the small cave opening, he heaved himself up and out with Melissa still clinging to him. As they rolled back onto the grass in the French field, Melissa looked around and was surprised that there was still no one there.
“Looks like we’ll have to walk,” she said.
Saber put her over his shoulder again and headed east.
They reached a road after about two hours and the first car that pulled over held an old couple who looked intrigued and confused by what they were seeing. Saber’s eyes were like saucers as he watched the car as if it were a predator. Melissa assured him it was all fine, and as they made their way back to Bordeaux, she asked the couple in basic French what the date was.
“April 10
th
, 1973,” the woman said as she turned to smile at her.
Melissa’s heart pounded and she didn’t know where to look. Saber wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close.
She wasn’t even born until 1990… She couldn’t help but laugh.
She thought back to her life in 2015 and of all she was lacking. She may have had a great career, but she could still do that in 1973. Her family were long gone and she didn’t have a boyfriend or husband to speak of. The explorer in her wanted to stay where she was, to never tell anyone what had happened to her and to integrate Saber into society without anyone being any wiser.
She looked at him, and when he looked back at her with his beautiful and innocent eyes, she knew they could make it work. They could stay in France and build a life. Now that they had each other, anything was possible.
Neither of them were from that time and that made it all the more real. It made it so much more exciting for them to be experiencing the journey together.
“Let’s do this,” she smiled and she squeezed Saber’s hand.
The archaeologist had her very own caveman, and they were about to embark on the wildest ride either of them would ever have thought possible.
“Time doesn’t exist when you’ve got love,” she whispered to him. And even though he was still learning, she was pretty sure he understood.
THE END
You can find out what happens next in
Mated to the Caveman
, available now from Amazon
Leela Ash
Copyright ©2016 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Kylie Parker woke up with a start. The batteries to her alarm clock had died some time during the night, and she had worked a double shift the night before and slept very deeply. That meant that she was late to work. She groaned in frustration and dressed as quickly as she possibly could, imagining the unfriendly face of her boss, who seemed to be looking for any excuse to chew her out. The woman was awful, and Kylie groaned as she grabbed her car keys. It would take a miracle to avoid being reprimanded and she was worried that she was all out of luck.
She finally made it to work and ran to her cubicle. She had a well-paying job, and didn't know what she would do if she were to lose it. Unfortunately, as soon as she arrived, she was summoned into her boss's office. When she sat down in front of Nancy's desk, Nancy scowled at her. She had a feeling that she knew what was coming, but she held her breath and waited to hear for sure.
“This is a crucial time for the company, we are experiencing an opportunity for growth. And as I'm sure you know, you are only as strong as your weakest link. I can't have anybody screwing that up for us right now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go. Your performance has been lackluster, and punctuality is extremely critical. I'm sure you understand. Have your desk cleared out by noon today.”
Kylie opened her mouth to protest, but the words seemed stuck behind a barrier. There was nothing more she could say to this woman, and anything else out of her mouth would just seem vile. It was better to leave with dignity than to throw a fit, so Kylie stood and walked away. Nancy would have a hard time finding anybody else to work double shifts when she needed it, and that wasn't something that Kylie needed to deal with anymore.
Losing her job had many consequences. She thought them all over as she packed her desk up. Her mortgage was coming up, and due quickly, and if she wasn't careful her payments would quickly pile up. She could lose everything. She figured with her savings she should be set for the first couple of months, but after that there was nothing that she could do except sell the summer home that she had inherited to make ends meet. If nothing else, she could live there and give up the mortgage on her house. It would give her a small safety net until she was able to find something better for herself. She closed her eyes and sighed, wishing that she worked for anybody else, and angry that Nancy would overlook all of her hard work over some obscure personal grudge against her.
On the way home from work, she decided that she would go visit her boyfriend Carl. They had been seeing each other for a few months, and she thought that maybe one of his quirky jokes and a hug would help her to feel better about the possibility of losing everything that she cared about materially in the world. She impulsively took the exit to his house instead of continuing down the highway and taking her own exit. She had a spare set of house keys for his apartment and let herself in, hoping that he would be happy to see her. She set the keys down on the counter and looked around. He was nowhere to be seen. She heard a small noise coming from the bedroom and she walked toward it.
“Carl?" She called, pushing open his bedroom door.
The sight that met her eyes made her immediately feel sick. She closed the door quickly, her face contorting in fury. Carl was in bed with another woman. She couldn't believe the nerve of that man. He shuffled to the door wrapped in a sheet.
“Who is that woman?” the blonde in his bed was calling out. “How did she get in here? I thought you said you stopped fooling around on me!”
Anger filled Kylie's heart.
“How long have you been with her?” she cried.
Carl opened his mouth to reply but she gritted her teeth in defiance.
“That actually doesn't matter – I'm not dealing with this from you.”
Kylie rushed through the apartment and grabbed the few belongings that she had left there, before hopping into her vehicle and speeding away. She had never felt more humiliated in her entire life, and she could hot tears brimmed against her eyes as she drove. She thought she was going back to her own apartment, but she sped past the exit and found herself on the way toward her summer home. She had some thinking to do, and she did not want to do that in her stuffy home, where she knew she would just end up drowning in her own sorrows. She would come collect some clothes later, as she needed them, but until then she was just going to do her best to keep her head above water.
The day had taken many unexpected twists and turns, and she was feeling worse than she could ever remember feeling before. It would do her some good to get away from the rest of the world, and not have to face any of the mundane problems that she was used to dealing with in her everyday life.
Over the next few weeks, she began to slowly move her belongings over to the summerhouse. She called her brother and asked if he would be able to help her to lease out her home to somebody else so that she wouldn't lose it entirely. Instead of helping her, he gave her a lecture on being self-sustainable and independent, and hung up leaving her feeling worse than ever. When she called her best friend to ask if she knew of anybody who would want to rent her house or had heard of any new job opportunities, all she could do was say that she would call back and let her know if anything came up. Kylie didn't hear anything else from her after that. She had never felt more alone in her entire life.
The summerhouse was on a lake, and it made her feel at peace to be there. She had gone many times as a child, and after her father had passed away he had left the home to her. She had been very popular there throughout her youth and every vacation she seemed to have a new boyfriend. There was something about her that had men throwing themselves at her, and yet she had settled with a guy like Carl. What was wrong with her?
Kylie studied herself in the mirror, searching for answers to her many questions. There was nothing there but her reflection. She had jet black hair that cascaded down to the middle of her back, and almond shaped and piercing blue eyes. Her figure was voluptuous and toned, and she realized suddenly that maybe Nancy's problem with her was some kind of jealousy over her appearance. Nancy was a rumpled middle-aged woman who didn't seem to have a lot of close connections in the world. Maybe she had her eye on one of the men in the office, but he had his eye on Kylie.
It wasn't particularly fair, but at least it helped Kylie to cope with the fact that she had been unfairly fired. Nancy was a miserable old woman, and if she needed to abuse her power and authority to feel better about her lack of love, Kylie supposed she could deal with that. She tore herself away from the mirror and sat outside at the patio table, suddenly smelling the distinct aroma of impending rain. There was an obnoxious amount of splashing coming from the middle of the lake, where a teenage couple were boisterously playing. Kylie could tell that they had had one too many between the two of them, and soon the wind started blowing ominously and the clouds began to darken.
She was torn between staying put and allowing the rain to begin falling on her bare skin, and being a responsible adult and getting those kids out of the water before they were killed in a storm. She made her way toward them, reluctant but resigned in her duty toward humanity. If those were her kids, she would hope that someone responsible would be looking out for them. She wasn't old enough to have teenagers yet, but still.
“Hey you two, you should get out of there. It's about to storm!" Kylie cried, waving up to the darkened sky. They didn't seem to hear her, and continued laughing loudly and splashing in the water.
“Hey!" Kylie called again, but her words were muted out by the sound of a loud whirring engine. She looked around in confusion. There weren't any roads in the area, just pathways and long, winding driveways. There was one road far out to the east of her summerhouse. She didn't see any cars or vehicles approaching, especially none that would be able to mute out her words quite so thoroughly. A bright light flashed in front of her eyes, and she looked up into the sky expecting to see lightning. Instead, there was a large craft hovering above her, and a blinding beam of light shone down and illuminated the lake.
Another bright light flashed in front of her, and Kylie felt herself being lifted. The weightlessness of her body was alarming, but she didn't have enough time to process it. Suddenly the entire world went dark and the whirring noise stopped. She blinked rapidly, but she still could not see anything. All she could hear were alarmed and panicked murmurs around her. Somebody stuck a device into her ear and soon all of the sounds around her began to make sense.
“We got the wrong person, we need to try again!" Somebody was shouting.
“We can't try again, you know that would be too risky."
“What are we supposed to do with her?! She isn't even part of a couple. How are we supposed to -”
“We should just put her back then.”
“We can't just put her back, what if she tells somebody what happened!?”
Suddenly, a loud, clear voice spoke and silenced the panic around her. Her eyes began to adjust, and she squinted toward the voice, just making out a figure of a man, or at least a humanoid being resembling a man, making his way toward her. He was handsome and authoritative. His voice was rich and masculine, and somehow made her feel safe.
“We will keep her, forget about the other two. What worth would their genes be to us anyway? They were both intoxicated and putting their own lives at risk for the sake of brief entertainment. They would be useless to us in the long run, we might as well choose someone with a little more sense.”
Kylie looked around at the people who had been chattering in a panic. They all looked vaguely similar to the handsome humanoid man, but their eyes were wide with concern. Their heads are slightly bigger in proportion than she was used to seeing, and the effect startled her deeply. Otherwise, they looked somewhat similar to normal people. Her first thought was that she had been kidnapped by a group of deformed people, but soon the leader of the group walked toward her with firm steps echoed off the metal in the room that she was in.
“Why don't you come with me," he said gently, offering his broad arm to her. “I'm sure that you have some questions."
When she didn't budge, he took her by the arm and led her away from the large group. Kylie thought to herself how impossible the situation that she was in really was, and tried to make herself believe that it was all a dream. When they stopped in front of a large metallic door and the humanoid figure opened it with a button, her heart sank. It wasn't a dream. She was in a lot of trouble.
