Love was supposed to take a long time to develop. There was no possible way she could love a man she barely knew. Ape wasn’t hers to love. He wasn’t hers to do anything with.
Now he was gone.
Tears filled her eyes and she hated the feeling. Despised it more than anything in the world. She turned over her ignition, fired up her engine, and took off, heading right out of town without looking back. There was no sense of direction. She had nowhere else to go. No one waited for her. No one cared about her.
She was free.
Only, she didn’t feel free.
She felt like she was dying inside.
Why did Ape have to come out of nowhere and do this to her? She wiped the tears away, trying to pretend they never existed, but no matter what she did, she knew. In a short time, Ape had come into her world, and now she wanted him around. Loved him. It wasn’t just sex, but she could continue to kid herself it was all there was. It wasn’t. There was so much more between them.
“Stupid!” She slammed her palm against the steering wheel, hating herself more than anything.
She’d fucked up so much in her life, but this, this went beyond anything she’d experienced before.
“I’ll get over him. I’ll find a new life, one far away from him. One where I don’t care at all. There are plenty of other men.”
But the truth was, none of them were Ape.
She’d given herself a few seconds to believe there was more between them, but there was nothing. Ape was gone. Riding off with his biker club without a single care in the world, but what did she have? Nothing.
Nothing but heartbreak.
The sound of a roaring bike pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked into her rearview mirror to see a bike coming toward her. The man on the bike slowed down and rode near her window.
Winding it down, she glanced out to see Ape riding along beside her.
“Pull over,” he said.
“What are you doing?”
“I said pull the fuck over. I’m not going to ask you again.”
“Fucking asshole,” she said, screaming.
She found a safe spot and pulled over, keeping the engine ticking over. Climbing out of the car, she glared at him, hating that he’d see her tear-stained eyes. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Me? What about you? Fuck.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I have nowhere to go. You knew I was heading out of town.”
“Well, I didn’t expect you to go so freaking fast!” Ape glared at her. “Damn it, Charlotte. I was coming back for you.”
She paused. “You were?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“I … oh.”
“Yeah, oh. Imagine that. Me coming back for you. I want you to ride with me. Your place is on the back of my bike and you know it. This thing between us isn’t going to go away.”
“And if it does?” she asked. She wasn’t going to play dumb with him.
“It won’t. Love doesn’t disappear.”
She gasped.
“That’s right, babe, you heard me.”
“Ape, I don’t…”
He stepped up toward her. His hands cupped her face. “You do. You love me, which is why you’ve been crying. You didn’t think I was coming back for you, but I was. I will always come back for you. Always. I just, I needed to know I could do this. Your place is on that bike, wearing this.” He went back to his bike, lifting up a bag flap, and pulling out a leather cut.
When he opened it up, she saw the wording that proclaimed she belonged to him. Property of Ape, Satan’s Beasts MC: Nomad Chapter.
“Be my woman, Charlotte. I want you at my side, at my back, for the rest of our lives. This is what I’m offering you. I’m granting you the chance to have forever, with me.”
She’d never felt so happy.
She stared at Ape and rather than talk to him, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.
In the distance, she heard more bikes, knowing his club had come to have his back.
“You brought your calvary?” she asked.
“I needed to make sure you knew you were wanted. The guys can’t wait for you to join and well, Piper told me to stop being a weak asshole and to just let you come with us. To admit we wanted you.” He stroked his fingers down her arm, teasing her. “And I do, I want you here.”
“Good, because I love you too and I want to go with you.” She didn’t know how long this was going to last or where it would take them.
She only knew that going her separate way wasn’t an option. Driving away had already made her miserable, and her feelings for Ape, they were new, exciting, and she wanted the chance to know where it was going to go.