 by Joanna Blake.jpg)
Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
I’m a loudmouth. A player. A joker. But when I meet Sunshine, I can’t help myself from trying to be a better man.
She’s in danger. When I try to protect her, she pushes me away. Can I convince the independent, sassy as all get out, girl of my dreams to let me take charge?
The epic Devil’s Riders saga continues with Drake’s chance at love. As always, HEA are guaranteed!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
TWO DAYS AGO
Drake
Life can change in an instant.
I knew that. I’d seen it a hundred times before. But it had never happened to me.
Not until I met Sunshine.
Just like that, everything changed. The sky was a different color. The air smelled different. The world seemed to be spinning in a new direction.
All because of her.
I’d seen the wheels of fate turn on a dime. I’d seen it with the guys I rode with. With their old ladies and families. Most of all, I’d seen it in the service, especially in combat. An injury that kept you out of a doomed mission, a stroke of good luck that saved your bacon, or a set of seemingly meaningless circumstances that led to the biggest sacrifice of all.
And sometimes, you were the cause of it. That was the hardest shit to live with. Lighting someone’s smoke right before they step on a landmine. Calling someone’s name so that they lose focus for a split second and blammo. Ducking to tie your shoe lace right when a sniper tries to take you out, and he hits the guy behind you instead. It worked both ways. Good and bad.
I’d learned to believe in fate. I had to. It had kept me sane when combat was such a crap shoot. So was life. Combat was just life, but on steroids.
But this?
I’d never seen this coming.
One second I was Drake, rowdy asshole, badass fighter, and the fastest thing on two legs, or least on two wheels.
The next second I was… hers.
I didn’t even see her face at first. I just smelled her. Saw the way she moved. That was enough. Felt her presence. She fucking warmed up the room instantly, like a crackling fire. It was late at night in a dreary hospital room but when she walked in it was like the sun came out.
My own personal ray of sunshine.
And that was all before she turned around and I got a good look at her.
Dear God in heaven, the woman was gorgeous. It was almost unfair. It was unfair. I could stare at her for hours. Days. Fuck it, I wanted to look at the girl for decades.
My brain literally did not know what to do with the information my eyes were giving it. Full stop. I was in meltdown mode, like a phone that had been dropped in a pot of hot soup.
But my body knew what to do. Oh boy, did it ever. I remember being tensed, ready to pounce. Blood pounded in my shaft, rapidly filling with blood, hardening to an embarrassing degree.
My dick had really bad fucking timing.
Thank fucking God I was wearing a flack jacket at the hospital. Otherwise I might have scared the baby.
Hell, I could have scarred the baby for life.
At the very least, I would have never heard the end of it from the crew. Not that I had any choice in the matter. I saw her and bing, I was sprung.
Fuck, I was still hard and it was hours later. Probably close to dawn, I figured. Still dark but I could feel the day creeping closer. I should have been in pain from the epic smackdown I’d had with Tank. Aching. But I didn’t feel a thing.
Well, other than aching down there.
All I could think about was her.
The girl was a bonafide pain killer, truth be told.
I stared at the ceiling, not wanting to let go of this feeling. Not wanting to let go of her. Memorizing the way she looked, the sound of her voice, and the way the world had tilted when she walked into the room.
Every now and then a car would drive by. The lights would skim across the ceiling, interrupting the movie playing over and over in my mind.
Sunshine smiling at me. Sunshine leaning over me to hand me the baby. Sunshine doing her job with quiet kindness and competence.
Then, the worst feeling: Sunshine walking away, saying she would come back. But she hadn’t come back.
And no one in the room could remember her name.
I’d stood in that parking lot like a dunce, hoping she would magically appear. Hell, I’d been convinced she would walk right up to me and lay one on me. God wouldn’t be so cruel as to show me a slice of paradise and then take it away.