Page 49 of Dirty Salvation

Just as well he took over as she followed him docilely, mute for the time being while her heart raced.

They ended up in the common room. Outside the wall of windows, she noticed TheSoulsclubhouse was bordered by a handful of bikes not in use at the moment, giving the forecourt that empty feel about it while most were working, or out of town running scouting intel for the president. She might be hiding, as Rider challenged, but she'd always been careful at listening to what was going on around her.

Eavesdropping kept her alive.

Zara had picked up enough chatter to know Rider was trying to help another chapter of the Renegade Souls that wasn't doing so well profit wise. She admired that he cared about his people. It was another part of Rider she was discovering and if she was truthful, she'd admit she was softened towards that caring quality in him.

Not only an outlaw biker president, he was a successful businessman.

Would she have discovered that about him three years ago, if things had developed between them? it was always with theWhat If'sthat pained Zara the most. What if she hadn't come back to his clubhouse the next night. What if she'd gone an hour earlier/later? What if she'd taken Sycamore street instead of Wilton on third?

A lot of What If's.

And each all circled back to this one man.

Zara could have easily justified if it were not for meeting Rider she wouldn't have even been out that night, would not have been readily plucked by one of theRebelsmembers. Naive and more than a little in love with the man who had taken her virginity she'd returned to the club so eager to see him again, her eyes full of stars assuming he'd wanted to see her as well.Wrong.Only to find him in flagrante delicto with a girl on her knees, Rider fisting her hair. Rider seeing Zara framed in the doorway, devastation too clear on her face to hide it, still he'd growled lustily for the girl to unzip him, to get ready for him to feed her his cock. Zara could still feel the penetrating look he'd given her as her heart had broken into a million pathetic pieces.

None of it was Rider's fault, she'd fancied herself in love after their amazing sex. It was her own doing she'd cried on the side of the road waiting for her cab ride, when she'd thought one of theSoulsbikers had stopped in his pickup rig to see what the trouble was. The guy had even smiled at her, told her he hoped she was okay and to get herself home. The next she knew a foul-smelling rag was over her face and then nothing, until a lot later when Zara had woken up a naked captive.

The rest was in her history chapters, forever etched as being the worse time of her life.

She longed to turn the page, especially as she confronted this man asking to share herself with him, what was stopping her?

Why was she in her own way?

Even now, with her head so messed up in twenty different directions she didn't blame Rider for the way things had turned out, he had just been a cog of many in her fated path.

No one blamed a butterfly for flapping its wings and causing a tornado across the world.

Evil was done to her by evil men, that was their choice, never hers.

The blame game was for fools. She had enough to contend with without swallowing Hades' bitter pill as well.

If anything, Rider had salvaged her sanity by being the one good thing she would think about often. Now he was sheltering her from the world for no apparent price at all. An outlaw who did altruistic deeds for free. On paper, it would appear impossible, but here he was, and that's exactly what he was doing.

The weight of his hand in hers was distracting pulling her from the past into the now. The gesture was more intimate than she'd experienced in a long while and when he dropped her hand, those same long fingers strayed to her back for a moment running her into a shiver when it rested there right at the dip of her butt.

The touch reminded her of the number of times he'd kissed her right in that same spot.

And no mistake about it, where Rider was concerned it didn't seem to matter the atrocities she'd endured or the fleeting days that had passed since that nightmare ended.

Lust had no timetable and Zara wanted him.

Alarm bells went off in Zara's mind, great clanging things until she took a second to rein it in.

Wanting him waseasyto admit.

She just didn't know if she could have him.

She'd been scarred inside and out, she was no longer that virginal naive girl who thought the world was made up of rainbows and good intentions.

As much as her body awoke with his affectionate touches, she was scared she was so broken she'd never enjoy that part of herself again.

She hadn't lied when she'd told him she had nothing to offer him.

Damaged didn't have a repair date. It was a state of mind, a reality she lived with.

She owed Rider her respect if for no other reason than he gave her freedom and protection, not to mention patience.