CHAPTER FIVE
Laurel
The knock on my door was soft but relentless. I barely heard it while I sat there in my bed trying my best not to cry.
Life sure had a funny way of turning around on me.
There was a part of me that had felt so guilty over what had happened. The biker that I hadn’t even seen coming. The kiss that I had been blinded by. I still replayed it in my head hoping to feel some of the tingles that I had shoot through my body when it had happened. The way my mind went blank. The way the ground seemed to slip out from under me. With just that first kiss he had owned me.
But it was all wrong, because I had been engaged then.
That was the punch line to the joke perhaps. The man I was supposed to be loyal to, supposed to marry, hadn’t been that to me. Unbeknownst to me, he had been cheating on me all along, with multiple people. His indiscretions had come to light and spilled to the whole world to see.
Okay, that was a bit dramatic.
More like revealed to anyone in this city that might still read a paper. Though, I wouldn’t have doubted that there was proof online as well.
I couldn’t believe how crazy things had gotten. I was about to have absolutely nothing. This was my last night in my lush, expansive condo. It was really starting to sink in that my parents had cut me off. I had known for a week that this place would no longer be available to me. And yes, those were the words that they had chosen to use. I defied them. I didn’t show up to that dumb charity dinner on Brice’s arm smiling like everything was perfect. Now, it was time to pay the price. That price was everything.
All I had to my name was what I would manage to get out of this place before they changed the locks on me. And the money that I had been smart enough to pull out of my savings account. I didn’t have much in there because I never thought I would need to. My family was loaded and we were old money, it wouldn’t be going away any time soon. It was something at least. I could get by until I… figured out the next step.
My dad had said all I had to do was apologize to my mother. I should have. Just given up everything. It wasn’t like I still had any dignity left as it was now. I should have gone crawling back. But I couldn’t. The thought of it turned my stomach sour. So despite how hard it was, I stood my ground.
Cami, bless her sweet heart, she tried to make sure I wasn’t toppling over the edge. Only, there was nothing she could do for me. I blubbered about how I was embarrassed and humiliated, because I was. I was the laughing stock now. I couldn’t believe that I’d broken down like that to her. I was so proud of her for standing up for herself and when I tried to do the same thing, I crumbled like stale bread.
I had just started to accept that this was my life now whenhecame to the door. I was ashamed of the things I had said to him the moment I closed the door. However, I was a little intoxicated and a lot broken. I let him have it and he took it from me. He even said he was worried about me. Which seemed preposterous because I knew I was nothing to him. A toy. Something that he might laugh at later. That sadprincessthat couldn’t say no to him.
The pictures of Brice that were plastered everywhere kept flashing through my head. It made me sick, though I had no right to feel that way. But then again, it wasn’t like I was down on my knees for someone else. Multiple times. Some of those pictures were taken when I had been there with him at an event.
How could he?
But really, was I any better?
It was clearly not meant to be anyway.
The knocking continued and I knew it wasn’t some strange pounding in my head. A headache brought on by stress and dealing with all the shit that had been dumped on me.
“I figured you didn’t want your sister to know anything,” the biker said the moment I opened the door. Strangely, his eyes looked full of worry and hurt, and that might have been the reason I didn’t slam the door in his face. “But I didn’t want to leave not knowing that you were alright.”
Was I alright?
No, not even close, but I was too strong and proud to admit it out loud to this man.
A wave of guilt hit me for what I had said to him earlier. And it seemed that despite my horrible outburst, he had stayed and waited for the right moment to try again.
I stood there and took him in. The alcoholic haze long faded away and I felt a dizzying desire spread through my veins. This man that had taken me by surprise and snapped me out of my mundane reality.
His arms were strong.
His shoulders and chest were broad.
Protective. That was the perfect word that I would have used to describe him. Strong. Manly. Maybe even deadly.
“What’s your name?” I asked. I knew what his buddies called him. The same name that was on the patch that was sewn on his vest just over his heart.
“You know my name, princess,” he replied and the half-smirk he shot me was incredibly heart-stopping.
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “Yourname.”
