Rom (Silver Saints MC), page 1
ROM
SILVER SAINTS MC
FIONA DAVENPORT
Copyright © 2023 by Fiona Davenport
Cover designed by Elle Christensen.
Edited by Editing4Indies
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
Rom
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Epilogue
About the Author
ROM
The last thing Roman “Rom” Cross expected when he attended a graduation was to be thrown for a loop when he spotted Layla Holmes in the parking lot. The sexy biker had no doubt that the gorgeous kindergarten teacher was meant to be his, so he claimed her the first chance he got.
But their relationship is tested when an old enemy comes looking to settle a score with Rom. With bullets flying, will Layla and Rom get their happily ever after?
1
ROM
“Good thing we’ve cultivated a reputation for being ruthless, badass bikers,” Phantom grumbled as we ambled into the garage at the Silver Saints MC compound.
“Why? Because most of our brothers are pussy-whipped?” I replied dryly.
“Just our brothers?” he sighed. “That why we’re traipsing our asses to the next state for a high school graduation?”
I stopped next to my bike and slipped my aviators off my head, settling them on my nose. “Loyalty,” I grunted. That was a big part of why we were headed to the graduation of two of our old ladies. Grey’s woman, Lorelei, and Cash’s woman, Karina, were best friends who’d both fallen for Silver Saints. And in true SS fashion, while they’d both been eighteen when they were claimed, they were also both knocked up before they graduated from high school.
However, loyalty was only part of the equation. The whole truth was that the old ladies had all the brothers wrapped around their fingers. I loved them all like sisters and hated to disappoint them. I was happy to be there to support Lorelei and Karina.
However, that didn’t stop me from giving the married patches shit for being led around by their dicks.
I had no desire to follow their example. My sisters were giving my parents grandchildren, and I was content enough to be an “uncle” to the ever-growing crowd of munchkins running around the clubhouse. It was very clear that my brothers didn’t support the condom industry.
Phantom shoved his helmet down on his head without comment and climbed onto his hog. I followed suit, and we roared down the highway.
Peace settled inside me as I cut through the wind, feeling almost as if I were flying. Nothing was better than riding my motorcycle, nothing else that made me feel free.
My parents were loving and kind, but my lawyer father and biochemist mother had expected a lot from their children. They had definitely wanted more for their only son than to be in a gang—their words, of course—and the manager of a bar. I’d been an obedient kid and gone to college, earning a degree in business. After that, I was done. I’d been prospecting with the Silver Saints my last two years of school, and shortly after graduation, I’d been made a full member. I’d been managing one of the other SS bars, but Mac—my president—had recently asked me to take over Liquid Silver since it was the largest and busiest.
I loved my job, but being on the road, I was free of everything. I found peace and contentment there.
When we arrived at the event, we parked by all the other motorcycles grouped at one end of the lot. I dismounted, secured my helmet in a saddle bag, then waited for Phantom to join me before we headed toward the entrance we’d been instructed to use.
My gaze swept over our surroundings as we weaved through the cars and landed on a metallic blue MINI Cooper convertible with black racing stripes and MINI Night Jack side scuttles. It was cute, but the car wasn’t what had me freezing in my tracks.
The first thing I saw was a creamy, shapely leg in a sparkly pink stiletto with a bow on the toe, then it was joined by another, this one equally delicious. Long, straight brown hair fell in a curtain as she exited, hiding the rest of her body until she stood beside the vehicle. My lips turned down in a frown when I realized that her flirty black skirt only fell to mid-thigh.
It irritated the shit out of me to know that other men were being given a view of something that was only meant for me. Although, with the way she kept tugging at the hem, I had a feeling she hadn’t realized just how short the skirt was until she got out of the car. It didn’t make me any happier that so much of her sexy legs were on display, but I was slightly mollified that she was uncomfortable with it too.
She bent over and reached into the car, giving me a perfect view of her spectacular ass. Then she stood back up and shut the door, turning toward me and pushing her hair back over her shoulder. My breath caught in my throat as I took in the full view.
My lips curved up when I glanced at her little car again. It fit her, cute and a bit of a contradiction with the racing stripes. Like the prim, pink cardigan she was wearing—that matched her fuck-me heels—but it didn’t hide the fact that she was a fucking knockout, from her silky hair to her generous tits, round hips, and those mouthwatering legs that I was dying to have wrapped around me.
My cock had sprung to attention when I first saw her, but it swelled to the point of pain when I imagined her heels digging into my ass as I pounded into her.
Son of a bitch.
I needed to get myself under control so the bulge in my leathers wasn’t so damn obvious. Blinking a few times, I tried to focus on her face. Big brown eyes surrounded by thick black lashes, enhanced by a subtle shimmer on her lids. Her creamy skin had an adorable sprinkling of freckles over her nose and cheeks. I was gaining some semblance of control over my body until my gaze landed on her pouty, pink-stained lips. Fuck. They immediately inspired thoughts of sliding my dick between them and seeing the ring her lipstick would leave behind.
“Rom? Are you coming?” Phantom asked from a foot away, breaking me out of my lust-filled bubble. His quizzical stare was visible because he’d put his sunglasses on the top of his head.
I glanced back toward my woman—well shit, those fuckers had been right. I’d fallen instantly, as was the usual for Silver Saints—then shook my head at Phantom. “I have to…” My gaze slid over to her once more, and Phantom’s followed. He chuckled and spun on his heel to stroll toward the building.
When I realized that my girl was about to do the same, I made a beeline for her, stepping into her path a few feet from her car. She was looking in another direction and crashed right into me. My hands went to her curvy hips to keep her from falling backward, and her tits pressed against my chest, forcing me to hold back a groan of pleasure.
“Oh! Excuse me!” she said sweetly as she tried to take a step back. “I’m so sorry, I should have been paying attention to where I was going.”
I was sorely tempted to keep her right where she was, but I didn’t want to scare her away. Reluctantly, I let her go. She was probably a little under a foot shorter than me, so her head had to drop back when she looked up at my face, exposing her slender neck. It had been a long time since a woman had sparked any interest in me, but I couldn't recall ever being turned on by a woman’s neck. It seemed everything about this gorgeous creature had quickly become my obsession.
Her lips parted, her expression turning to something akin to awe, and her dark brown eyes heated. My mouth curled up into a satisfied smirk now that I knew she was just as affected by me as I was by her.
“Hello, gorgeous,” I crooned, my voice low and seductive. I forced myself not to grin when her pupils contracted and a tiny tremor shook her body.
“Um…hi.” Her voice was breathless and sexy as hell.
“My fault. Didn’t mean to startle you.” Sure I did. “Not that I’m complaining about running into a beautiful woman. I hope you’ll forgive me…?” I let the sentence hang, hoping she would fill in the blank.
“Layla.”
Damn, even her name made me want to fuck her.
“I’m Rom.” I frowned and, to my surprise, corrected myself. “Roman.”
“Roman,” she repeated. The sound of my name on her lips sent the rest of the blood in my brain rushing straight to my dick. But I was nearly brought to my knees when it also filled me with a peace and contentment that I’d only ever experienced one other place. It seemed impossible that she would make me feel the same freedom and sense of home that I experienced on the back of my bike. Then again, she was obviously meant to be mine, so perhaps that made complete sense.
“Well, beautiful Layla, why don’t you let me make it up to you?”
Her eyes grew big and round, her cheeks bloomed with pink, and her lips formed a little O. Then she blinked a few times before shaking her head.
2
LAYLA
Math wasn’t my strong suit—which was part of why I enjoyed teaching kindergarteners instead of older elementary school students—but I figured t
With his square jaw, bulging muscles, and amber-brown eyes, Roman was drop-dead gorgeous. Add in the short dark hair along with his height and tan skin, and his picture could be added to the dictionary next to tall, dark, and handsome. Especially with the six o’clock shadow on his cheeks adding to his aura of danger. Meanwhile, I was his exact opposite—a boring teacher who couldn’t even intimidate her five-year-old students.
I always thought I wasn’t interested in dating because I’d been so focused on getting through school. But with how my body reacted to Roman, I realized it was just because I hadn’t met someone who brought my dormant libido roaring to life. It was just my luck that the first guy who had the power to make my panties spontaneously combust was a sexy biker who was far out of my league.
Before I did something to embarrass myself—like throw myself at Roman—I needed to get out of here. Jerking my thumb over my shoulder, I mumbled. “Umm, that’s not necessary. Sorry. I need to go. My brother is graduating, and our parents are waiting for me inside since they dropped him off earlier.”
I didn’t give him the chance to reply before I swiveled on my heel and darted toward the building, walking as quickly as my shoes would let me without falling flat on my face. Not that I had to worry about Roman chasing after me or anything like that…although a part of me deep down inside really wished he had. Then maybe I actually would’ve believed he was interested in me.
I shoved those thoughts out of my mind as I walked all the way up to the top of the stands to join my parents. Dropping onto the seat they saved for me, I fanned myself with the graduation program I’d been given as I came inside.
My mom’s brows drew together as she leaned forward to peer around my dad at me. “Why do you look so flushed? Is the air-conditioning in your car not working? You can’t let something like that go for too long, especially with the hottest days of summer right around the corner. Dad can take a look at it for you tonight.”
“My car is fine,” I replied, barely stopping myself from rolling my eyes at how quickly she jumped to that assumption. I was a twenty-two-year-old woman with a college degree, an apartment of my own, and was almost done with my first year of teaching. My car was practically brand new—my only indulgence after I graduated. Besides my shoe collection.
But that didn’t stop my mom from treating me like one of my kindergartners.
“Then why are you all red and sweaty?” She cocked her head to the side. “Oh, dear. Is it that time of the month?”
Her whisper was loud enough that people in the rows surrounding us heard her question, and their soft laughter made my cheeks heat even more. “Stop. Please. Seriously, Mom. I just got a little warm walking from the car all the way up here since you guys decided to pick seats as far away from the stage as you could possibly get.”
“Your father wanted to have a bird’s-eye view of everything.” She flashed my dad a smile when he shook his head. “And they’re live streaming the whole thing, so I don’t have to worry about getting good pictures. I’ll just pull up the recording later and get some great screenshots of Luther.”
“At least our voices will echo when we cheer for him as he walks across the stage,” my dad muttered. “Otherwise, the poor kid might wonder if we decided to bail after dropping him off.”
Mom jackknifed up and twisted in her seat to glare at him. “As if I’d ever do something like that.”
“You never know what wild ideas that boy is gonna get in his head.” He shrugged. “Next week, he might run off to join the circus for the summer.”
Picturing my brother dressed as a clown in the sweltering heat with paint dripping down his face, I snickered. “The funny thing is, I could actually see him doing something like that.”
“Luther will be heading off to college in August, and that’s that.” My mom folded her hands together in her lap. “He knows how important his education is, just like you did when you were his age.”
“I didn’t say he was going to skip out on college, honey,” he corrected. “Just that he could decide to spend the next three months traveling the country with the circus before he ended up there.”
“More like he’ll go work for an amusement park with how much he loves roller coasters,” I joked.
“Good point.” Dad nodded with a grin. “At least then he could maybe do some networking if he decides to stick with mechanical engineering as his major.”
“Hush, you two,” Mom chided before heaving a deep sigh. “Luther isn’t going to run off anywhere. He’s going to stay home for the summer, right where he belongs.”
“Of course, he will.” My dad patted her hand. “Our children always do what you want.”
As much as I wished he was wrong, I couldn’t argue the point when I’d come back to my home town to teach…just like my mom had urged me to do. Pressing my lips together, I hummed, “Mm-hmm.”
“Did you see where your brother is listed in the program?” She flipped it open with a huff. “There’s not a single mention of him until the second to last page.”
Luther was lucky to be participating in the ceremony at all, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud. At five years younger than me, my brother was the baby of the family, and my mom treated him that way. He was smart enough to earn an academic scholarship to a great college, but he tended to get himself into trouble when he had too much time on his hands.
Like covering his coach’s car in shaving cream for a senior prank, without thinking about the permanent damage it would do to the paint job. Or that getting caught would put his graduation at risk. Until our parents made some calls and wrote a hefty check to the school to pay for the new uniforms that they wanted for the football team next year.
Dad patted me on the back. “Only because he didn’t make salutatorian like our girl did.”
“And they barely even let her speak.” Mom sniffed and shook her head.
It’d been five years since my high school graduation, and she sounded just as upset by the fact that they only gave me five minutes when the valedictorian got ten now as she had back then. My mom wasn’t one to let things go easily…which was why it was probably for the best that Roman hadn’t truly been interested in me. Her head would most likely explode if my first boyfriend was a biker.
3
ROM
I was in a shit mood after Layla practically ran away from me. I’d almost chased her just to make sure she didn’t break an ankle from walking so fast in her stilettos.
However, I managed to push the urge away long enough to congratulate Karina and Lorelei. Then I stomped off to find my seat and brood, while planning how the fuck I was going to find my woman. I’d scanned the crowd several times but hadn’t been able to spot her.
“Rom, I need you to sit next to Lorelei’s mom,” Grey muttered, startling me since all of my attention had been on searching the crowd again.
“Why?” I asked, narrowing my eyes in suspicion. We all knew her parents hadn’t been happy about Lorelei’s choice of…pretty much everything. I’d only spent less than a minute in her presence when they arrived and already knew she was an obnoxious pain in the ass.
“Because you’re less likely to strangle her if she opens her fucking mouth.” I snorted, and Grey rolled his eyes. “I said less likely.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. I stood and shuffled over to the seat next to Janice. She glanced at me and raised her snobby nose in the air before turning to her husband.
