Page 10 of Ripper’s Property (Savage Knights MC: NW Chapter #4)

Rory

“ Y ou done with school, princess?” Raid asks as I enter the great room. My second guard isn’t anywhere in sight, which loosens up the anxious knot in my stomach. I’m still upset with Ripper for being a jerk again this morning, and for getting onto Skeet for being nice.

“Yeah, I’m done. Where is everyone?”

The place is like a graveyard. Usually, the guys would already be drinking, and the girls would be playing music and dancing around the room, trying to tease one of the Knights into taking them for a ride, but the place is quiet. Eerily quiet.

“Rip and a few others had to go on a run. And I told the girls to get lost for the night. Punishment for not coming forward about the shit that Cherry was talkin’.”

I guess without the girls around there’s no point for the guys to be out here.

Rip didn’t tell me he was leaving. Wonder how long this “run” will be.

If I weren’t worried for him, I’d be grateful for a reprieve.

But them going on a run means they’re dealing with club business, and that always worries me.

“I’m going to go take a walk down to the lake. Get some fresh air.” I need to clear my head.

“You want some company?”

“I’m good.” I just want to be alone. I spent the day trying not to think about what Cherry said this morning, but now that I don’t have school to occupy my mind, it’s flooding in fast.

“Hey, doll. Would you be up for a movie night tonight? Just like old times?”

I smile at Raid’s kindness. He’s always trying to cheer me up. He’s a big old teddy bear, and I’m so grateful for him.

“I’d love that, Raid. Thank you.”

“You go take your walk. Holler if you need any of us.”

I head outside and see Skeet working on his bike. “Hey, handsome! Mind if I bum a smoke off you?”

He turns, wiping his black greasy hands off on a shop towel. “Why don’t you go ask Rip for one?”

His tone is sharp, but I don’t blame him. He got reamed out for being nice to me this morning.

“Because Ripper will tell me no.”

“Is what he said true?” He pulls out his pack of cigarettes and hands me one.

I’m not sure what he’s talking about. “What he said about what?”

“That you want him.”

He told them ! Ripper told them what I wrote in my diary.

I swallow hard, my nerves starting to shake. “When did he tell you this? What exactly did he say?”

“Told us this morning. He made his claim and said that you had feelings for him.”

He made his claim? As in he wants me to be his old lady? What the hell?

Last night he was fucking Cherry against the pool table.

Probably spooning her in her bed the night before, and now he’s going to claim me.

Why? Because he read my dirty thoughts in my diary, and now, what?

He thinks I’m naughty enough to be his? Or is it because he realized the sweetbutts are nothing but whores after what I said?

Not sure what flipped his switch, but I’m not just some possession he can “claim.” I want love and romance. I want a guy who spends his time thinking of ways to make me happy, not a guy who spends his time in someone else’s bed.

“Whether I have feelings for him or not is irrelevant. I don’t want to be with a guy who spends all of his time fucking the sweetbutts.” The man I choose to be with will only have eyes for me.

“You have to know it’s just sex, Rory. I may fuck the sweetbutts to get off, but I care about you. And if I thought I had a chance, I’d stop fucking them.”

And that right there is the problem. He’s no different than Rip.

“Maybe I’m na?ve to love, Skeet. But I just think that when you have feelings for someone, you don’t want to be with anyone else.

If I were in love, I wouldn’t go around fucking every prospect in sight, waiting until the day I could claim the man I want.

I’d save myself for that person. I’d want them to feel special. ”

I wouldn’t be able to be intimate with anyone else. The only man I’ve wanted is Rip, and I can’t imagine being with any of the other guys. Even if it was just for casual sex. I couldn’t do it. Which is why I don’t trust Rip’s feelings for me. It feels like a political move, not a move of love.

“And let me tell you something.” I want to leave him with one last message before I go.

“Those girls inside are not just spreading their legs for sex. They’re spreading their legs in hopes for a ring.

They want to be chosen. So, you guys need to get your shit straight.

You don’t realize it, but you’re fucking with their emotions.

I know for a fact that Shiloh has feelings for you.

” He’s been in her bed every night for the last month.

This claim that he cares about me is bullshit.

Because if he cared, he would’ve spent those nights with me.

Talking under the stars. Getting to know me better.

I thought Rip cared because he was doing those things.

But come to find out, he was going inside, sliding into Cherry’s bed, and holding her every night instead of sneaking into my room and cuddling me.

“So if you don’t reciprocate those feelings for her, you need to make that clear.

Shy’s one of the nice ones, and I don’t want to see her get hurt. ”

I grab the pack of smokes from his hand and his lighter, then turn toward the lake, tossing a “Thanks for the smokes” over my shoulder.

I light one up and let the burn fill my lungs, holding it in, hoping the nicotine will calm my nerves.

It’s been one hell of a day. First with Cherry this morning, then with Rip, now with Skeeter.

I feel like my emotions are spinning in circles, getting hung up on the fact that Ripper made his claim to the guys right after threatening me last night that he’d lock me to his bed while he let Cherry get her fill.

I’m not sure what he’s thinking, but he can kiss my fucking ass if he thinks I’ll be his.

I’m not gonna be some old lady locked at home while her husband is at the clubhouse fucking all the free pussy in sight.

No thanks. I want to be my man’s one and only.

I plop down on the grass, savoring the crisp air as the breeze whips through my hair. The lake is so serene. Calm. A light ripple of water comes to shore, and I wish that was the way I felt. It feels like a tidal wave is rushing through me.

I’m so confused. I don’t understand men. And they clearly don’t understand women. Both Skeet and Ripper were fucking girls last night, and now today, they claim to want me. Feels like testosterone competing for dominance, rather than men wanting to win my heart.

The low rumble of motorcycles breaks through my thoughts. It sounds like the guys are back. I take in a drag, listening to the engines cut. The sound of the guys’ deep voices all greeting each other.

“Where is she?”

That’s the voice that makes my nerves feel on edge as the butterflies leave their angry cocoon inside my stomach and start flapping their wings, gaining speed as the heavy footsteps get closer.

The branches and gravel crunch under his big feet, and I take the last drag of my cigarette before I snub it out on a rock and flick it toward the trees so he doesn’t catch me smoking.

I tuck the pack into the pocket of my sweatshirt and blow out the smoke.

“What are you doing out here, baby girl?”

I was trying to find some semblance of calm, but now that he’s shown up in his black leather jacket and low-riding jeans, looking dangerously sexy, that calm is nonexistent.

“Came down here to be alone.”

He sniffs the air as he moves in, stepping in front of me and forcing me to strain my neck to see him. “Smells like smoke. You been smokin’?”

“No.” I shake my head, but I should just cop to it.

I’m old enough. And if I want to be treated like an adult than I need them to see me as one, take responsibility for my choices and prove that no one’s going to tell me what I can and can’t do.

Guess I’m just not in the mood to argue with him again.

I’ve reached my quota of emotional turbulence for the day.

He crouches down in front of me, looking me in the eyes. Unnerving me further.

“Don’t lie to me, babe.”

“I’m not…” The words are cut off as his face moves in, his lips brushing across mine. His tongue teasing lightly at the seam of my mouth before it slips away, leaving me shocked—and full of unwanted tingles.

“I can taste it on you. Who gave you the smokes?”

“I stole them.” That’s not a lie, though Skeeter has been my provider for some time now, but I’m not going to get him into any more trouble with Rip.

“Don’t want you smoking, baby. Not interested in kissing an ashtray.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not interested in kissing rotten cherries.”

“I never kissed her.”

That’s hard to believe, but the look in his eyes is telling me that it’s the truth. There shouldn’t be any form of satisfaction in the fact, because he still did everything else with her.

“Maybe not on the lips.” But I know he kissed her elsewhere. Cherry raved about his mouth and how good he was at getting her off.

His fingers grip onto my chin, forcing me back to meet his stare. “You’re gonna have to get over that shit.”

“I don’t have to get over anything. And how dare you make your claim to the guys. I’m not yours, Ripper. Just because I wrote some things down in my diary doesn’t mean anything.”

His hand slips to the base of my neck, pulling me closer. So close I can see the little flecks of silver in his dark eyes.

“Play your stubborn game all you want, but you and me both know the truth. It’s us, babe.

You can’t deny that you don’t feel the attraction.

I tried to fight it, but it burns in my veins.

All you have to do is enter the room and my blood runs hot.

” His fingers brush across my skin and now the heat is flaming in my veins.

“You’re a force to be reckoned with, Rory.

I thought I was too old for you, so I tried to keep my distance, occupy myself with the others, but after reading what you wrote, I’m not fighting it anymore.

You’re meant to be my queen, babe, and as soon as your dad gets back, I’ll be making you my old lady. ”

If this is the way he felt and what he wanted, then why was he fucking Cherry last night? Why was he climbing into her bed and giving her his attention?

“It’s a little hard to believe you have such strong feelings for me when you were fucking that bitch less than twenty-four hours ago.

If you cared about me, you would’ve come to my room and hung out with me instead.

” If he’d already decided he wanted to pursue me, and knew how I felt about him, then there’s no excuse.

“I couldn’t come to your room, or I would’ve broken my promise to your dad. I’m not allowed to touch you until he hears firsthand that I’m the one you want. So, I went elsewhere to work the need out of my system.”

And he thinks that makes it okay?

“That’s not an excuse, Ripper.” These guys just don’t get it. “The guy I choose will only have eyes for me. He won’t be able to look at another girl. He won’t be able to get it up for another girl. I will be the key to his desire. Me. And only me. You desired to cuddle up to someone else.”

I move to stand, finding myself blocked by him again.

“You may not believe me, Rory, but I only have eyes for you.” No, I don’t believe him.

“I’ve been under your dad’s restraining order when it comes to you, which is why I kept my distance.

I realize now that I fucked up. I’ve always just lived the club life, babe.

Wanting one woman and having these feelings is new to me.

I made a mistake, but I don’t plan on making it again.

I’m telling you, baby. From here on out, if it ain’t you, it’s no one. ”

Those words trickle down my spine. I’m so confused and honestly don’t know what to think about any of this. It just feels like he did a complete one eighty. Last night he was with Cherry, and now he’s telling me he wants me to be his wife. That just doesn’t sit well.

“I have an arrangement with your dad. I bring Montoya to him, and he gives me your hand in marriage. Not without your blessing of course.”

An arrangement with my dad? But what about me? He hasn’t once given thought to what I want.

“It takes more than just words to win a girl’s heart, Ripper.

Just because you made your claim, doesn’t mean I’m yours.

” And as long as the vision of him with Cherry is still burning dark in my thoughts, he’s not going to have my blessing.

I pull away, turning to head inside. “Sorry, Rip. I just don’t trust you with my heart. ”