Where We Started (Stone Riders MC, #1)

by Ashley Munoz

“You think I won’t reach in between your tits to grab it?” He stalked closer, a dark glint shining in his eyes. “You must have forgotten how much I enjoyed them, Callie. It would be a fucking pleasure to frisk you.”

“Sometimes rescuing someone can lead to a pretty fun adventure. I bet Peter enjoyed it.” She didn’t ask anything else, and I started to drift off. Right before I fell asleep, I heard her whisper. “I think Wendy loved Peter more.”

“Callie, if you want to use a fishing metaphor, then you’d be the river, not the fish inside it. You cut a path through me, filled it, and now it’s always shifting and moving. I can’t wait to see what our life will look like someday, but for now, I’m happy taking it one day at a time.”

“How is it you want to be treated, Callie? Do you want to be treated like the victim you’re begging to be seen as?”

“Or did you want to be treated like the princess you’ve always been? Worshiped and adored by everyone in your daddy’s club but too blind to see it?”

“Or,”—his teeth snagged my ear lobe, right as his hand moved down to my ass, sliding underneath my shorts to grip my cheek—“did you want to be treated like a dirty slut and have me fuck the answers out of you?”

“What? Your perfect fucking family wasn’t enough, you needed mine too?”

“Yes. I wanted yours too, River. I wanted all of you, everything you touched, all the air you breathed, the fucking dirt under your nails. I wanted it all. You knew I didn’t have a choice after that night, yet you punished me regardless.”

“Come here, River. Bring that smart mouth over here and let me answer your earlier question.”

“You come in here, looking hot as fuck with those shorts and those fucking tits and think I actually care why you’re here? You have no fucking clue how long I’ve waited for this. Now, this is your last warning. If you’re still standing there by the time I finish, I’m going to help you remember why it’s not a good idea to sneak into the club president’s house without permission.”

Callie was more than an obsession. She was my reason for waking, my reason for trying. She was all of it,

“You’re always cognizant when you’re with me. You clawed me open, Callie Stone, and demanded a position inside as queen of my heart. We can’t be apart. Even in death I’m pretty sure I’d follow you.”

I’d wage war for that girl. I’d go to hell and pick a fight with the devil if I had to. In every scenario, she was on my mind. How to keep her, how to love her, how to make her mine. Nothing would ever change that.

“Like fuck is another man going to date you while you’re here. If you leave, then that’s one thing. I can’t control who you’re with. But in this town, you’re mine. It’s me you’ll date. Me you’ll call. Me you’ll fuck. You need romance, then read one of those books you love so much. When you go back to DC, you’ll have your fuck buddies again, but here, there’s not a chance I’ll stand by and let you be with anyone else.”

“I’m hungry, River, and if you don’t move soon, I doubt you’ll appreciate the meal I select.” His gaze flicked down my body in a slow, measured way, slowing at my waist until he was boldly staring at the space between my thighs.

“Why? If you more than got over me like you said you did, then why would it bother you to hear about any of that?”

“Because as far as I’m concerned, they all belonged to me. Every kiss. Every moan. Every touch. Whatever you chose to do over the past seven years was all owed to me. You robbed me of an entire life, Callie. Forgive me if I don’t want to hear about some guy named Craig who showed up at your apartment at midnight, only to show up at your doorstep two more nights after that.”

“You left me, Callie. You ended things with me. I was good to you, never gave you a fucking reason to leave. Yet, you moved on.”

“I never could touch anyone after you. You were my first, and fuck, if you ended up being my only…there would never be another after what we had.”

“And she’s my entire fucking soul. We’re bound, her and I. In this life, and even in the next. She will haunt me for eternity, and when the devil tries to pry my soul from her grasp, he’ll realize there’s nothing to claim because it’s hers. All I fucking am, and all I ever could be belongs to her.

“And I didn’t agree to you ending us. Now strip. When you’re in my bed, you’re either naked or you’re wearing one of my shirts.”

Another slap landed on my ass as he chided me. “No moving, just sit there with your ass up. Let me play.”

“Every piece of you belongs with me when I ride, especially what’s drawn from that body after we fuck.”

“Never once did you call, or text…or anything, Wes. It left me no choice but to believe that letter.” “Because I couldn’t have you until I was sure I could offer you a life you didn’t want to leave,” he screamed, making me recoil.

“You did not lose me, River. You left me.”

Stomping past me, she yelled back, “This is impossible. I did lose you. And long before I left. You weren’t coming home, Wes. You were late every night, you seemed to forget that I didn’t want to belong to the club or be forced to go to parties. You forgot that I used to run away from those parties, Wes. I’d run to you, and all the sudden you weren’t there for me. You were the one dragging me into them. You were my safe place, and then everything changed. I did lose you, you’re just too enamored with your new life to see it.”

“She is not a commodity in this club. She is not a piece of property to be traded or discussed. You don’t look at her. You don’t speak to her. She is mine, and only mine. Do you understand me?”

His gaze heated as he spit onto his length, then coated himself by rubbing up and down his shaft. It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen him do. I wanted him to do it again, and more. I wanted everything. Every dark thought, every corrupt idea, I needed it all.

“You think you scared me with that bullshit about birth control, River? You think I’m afraid of marking you over and over, filling you up to the brim with my cum, until you give me a baby?”

same game as you, tempting fate to tie us together in some sort of toxic, fucked-up way? Putting a baby inside of you isn’t going to scare me off, River. For as long as I have you, consider us in a game of Russian roulette with fate. Each time we fuck, we’re going to see if that’s the one that’ll ruin us. Because I know you’re going to leave me, and even with a baby, but it’ll still tie you to me, River. You won’t be able to walk away without being marked by me.”

This time I was at least grateful I had kept some of my heart tucked under my sleeve, never allowing her to see it for what it was. She owned all of it, the entire fucking thing. If only she wanted to keep it.

“I want forever. You agree to stay, to be mine, you need to understand it’s for good. I stalked you when you went to DC. You were never really free of me; this time I won’t even let you leave.”

“Now get on all fours again so I can teach you what it means to wear that patch.”