Riding the Night

Table of Contents

 

 

“Kudos and beyond for Ms. Burton’s best book yet! I cannot wait to see what comes next!”—
Fallen Angels Reviews

 

“Everything about
Riding on Instinct
is picture-perfect and I stayed up half the night, unable to put it down until finishing the very last word.”—
Romance Junkies

 

“Another smokin’-hot Wild Riders story you will love reading.”

—
Fresh Fiction

 

“Jaci Burton’s
Riding on Instinct
took me on the ride of my life.”

—
Wild on Books

 

“Thank you for giving us a love story where there is room for compromise and the good guys not only win, they take down the bad guys with a minimum of bloodshed and loss of innocent life.”

—
Night Owl Romance

 

 

 

“Full of intrigue, sexual tension and exhilarating release. Definitely a must-read.”—
Fresh Fiction

 

“
Riding Temptation
has it all—action, suspense, romance and sensuality, all wrapped up in a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat and have you clamoring for the next story in the Wild Riders series!”

—
Wild on Books

 

“Kudos to Ms. Burton for creating this exciting new series!”

—
Romance Junkies

RIDING WILD

 

“A wild ride is exactly what you will get with this steamy romantic caper. This sexy and sizzling-hot story will leave you breathless and wanting more.”—
Fresh Fiction

 

“A nonstop thrill ride from the first page to the last! Grab a copy of
Riding Wild
and take your own ride on the wild side of life!”

—
Romance Junkies

 

“What an exciting and wonderful book!”—
The Romance Studio

 

“
Riding Wild
is a must-read for anyone who loves sexy romances filled with plenty of action and suspense.”—
Kwips and Kritiques

 

“Burton delivers it all in this hot story—strong characters, an exhilarating plot and scorching sex—and it all moves at a breakneck pace. Forget about a cool glass of water; break out the ice! You’ll be drawn so fully into her characters’ world that you won’t want to return to your own.”—
Romantic Times

 

 

 

 

“
Wild, Wicked, & Wanton
starts off with a bang and never lets up!”

—
Just Erotic Reviews

 

“This is the best erotic novel I have ever read! I absolutely loved it!”

—
Fresh Fiction

 

“Jaci Burton’s
Wild, Wicked, & Wanton
is an invitation to every woman’s wildest fantasies. And it’s an invitation that can’t be ignored.”—
Romance Junkies

 

“Realistic dialogue, spicy bedroom scenes and a spitfire heroine make this one to pick up and savor.”—
Publishers Weekly

 

“Jaci Burton delivers.”—
New York Times
bestselling author Cherry Adair

 

“Lively and funny . . . The sex is both intense and loving; you can feel the connection that both the hero and heroine want to deny in every word and touch between them. I cannot say enough good things about this book.”—
The Road to Romance

RIDING WILD
RIDING TEMPTATION
RIDING ON INSTINCT
RIDING THE NIGHT

 

WILD, WICKED, & WANTON
BOUND, BRANDED, & BRAZEN

 

 

 

UNLACED

 

EXCLUSIVE
(with Eden Bradley and Lisa Renee Jones)

 

LACED WITH DESIRE
(with Jasmine Haynes, Joey W. Hill, and Denise Rossetti)

 

NAUTI AND WILD
(with Lora Leigh)

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2010 by Jaci Burton.

 

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. HEAT and the HEAT design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

PRINTING HISTORY

Heat trade paperback edition / September 2010

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Burton, Jaci.

Riding the night / Jaci Burton.—Heat trade pbk. ed.

p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-44304-0

1. Government investigators—Fiction. 2. Motorcycle gangs—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3602.U776R57 2010

813’.6—dc22

2010012980

 

 

To my editor, Kate Seaver. Thank you for your guidance, for the plotline assists and for the ever helpful editorial comments.

To my agent, Kim Whalen, the calm in my daily storm.

To Fatin, a wonderful, warm, sweet soul who helps me keep my sanity. I couldn’t do it without you.

To a few of the people in my life who let me cry on their shoulders and whine incessantly, and who love me anyway—Angela James, Shannon Stacey and Maya Banks.

And as always, to Charlie, who doesn’t mind occasionally having cereal for dinner so I can finish a book. Thank you for loving me enough to put up with it all.

THEY’D PARKED ON A TREE-LINED HILL OVERLOOKING THE CITY.
Private. No one came up here anymore. AJ had taken his stepdad’s truck because it had the bench seat and was roomier than his car. He was gonna be in deep shit for taking the truck without permission. What else was new—he was always in trouble over something, and he didn’t give a shit about the consequences. Not today.

Today was Teresa’s eighteenth birthday and he wanted it to be special for her. They rarely got time alone, had to sneak off whenever they got a chance because her parents didn’t approve of her seeing him. Not that he could blame them. And his fucking stepdad was on his ass all the time to make something of himself, to get a decent job and quit staying out all night long.

He was already somebody, so the old man could kiss his ass. He was going places, making money. If it wasn’t quite legit . . . well, tough shit. He was his own man, and soon enough he wouldn’t have to answer to his asshole stepfather anymore. And his mother had never stood up for him—not once in all the years she’d been married to that dickhead. She’d always taken the old man’s side, too weak to defend her own son even though he saw the apology in her eyes. Well, screw her, too. Soon as he got enough money in his pocket, he was gone. And he’d take Teresa with him when he left.

But tonight was all about Teresa, the beautiful raven-haired girl who made him feel clean, made him feel like he could conquer the world. For the past two years she’d been the light and soul of his life, the only reason to make him smile. What she was doing with him he could never figure out, but for some reason she liked being with him. She sat next to him on the bench seat of the old pickup and smiled at him as she opened her present.

“It’s not much,” he said, feeling like he should apologize. “I’ll get you something better soon.”

She turned her emerald eyes on him and smiled. “I’m sure it’s perfect, AJ. Thank you.”

“You haven’t opened it yet.”

She leaned up to feather a kiss across his lips. “It doesn’t matter what it is. You thought of getting me a gift. That’s what matters.”

She carefully pulled the tissue paper apart and gasped when she saw the sterling silver chain. It had cost him a month’s worth of wages at the shop, but he knew it would look perfect against her olive skin.

“Oh, AJ, it’s beautiful. Put it on me?”

She handed him the necklace and half turned, raising her hair so he could do the clasp in back, then turned around to face him, fingering the necklace. “How does it look?”