Discovering Me by Crystal Spears Release Blitz

Discovering Me by Crystal Spears

Sniper Breaker has the reputation among the Breakneck MC as the brother looking for love. Deadly accurate with a gun, his skills protect him from the chaos that surrounds, but nothing will protect his heart. The brother that cares the most openly might be the one who gets hurt the worst.

Piper Lacy lives her life without constraint. Rescued after years of captivity, she refuses to waste one minute of her new-found freedom. Her best friend, Sniper, is the only person she’s shared her past with.

When crisis strikes the Breakneck World, the Red Ladies are called in to the compound, leaving Piper to question everything about her life and her love for a man she thought loved her in return.

But for Breakneck, that is only the beginning.

Piper

“Breathe in, breathe out.”

His hot breath blows against the dip of my neck. Hands roam my arms as he steadies my position. He

runs his thumbs along my skin as he adjusts me to his liking. My hands shake, nerves flaring, as his body presses closer to mine. His muscles compel me to recognize the strength behind his frame. My eyes flutter, my skin heats, and I breathe in as he moves in closer behind me. His smell invades my senses, and I become lost in the sensation of the few memories I have where his scent burned its way into my brain.

Focus, Piper. Focus on what is in front of you. Disregard the man behind you. Ignore the past he has

begged you to forget time and again.

“Piper,” he rumbles in my ear.

His tone snaps me out of my coma, and I turn my head to peer at him as he looks down at me with

disappointment.

“Yeah,” I answer with a false clueless retort.

Sniper tilts his head to the side. His gray eyes twinkle at me and he bares his straight white teeth when

he grins at me. “You weren’t payin’ attention to a damn thing, were you?”

I make a sound that should never come out of a female’s mouth in front of a man, and I shrug and turn

my attention back to the target. Sweat beads in my trembling hand as I aim ahead of me.

“Piper…”

Oh, for heaven’s sake. “Hmm…”

This is all I can force out at the moment. I wish I could forget the night on the pool table ever happened, but I can’t. Stuck in my head is the blissful memory he wants me to forget.

“Baby, are you even listenin’ to me?”

I flick the safety on my gun and lower it with frustration. “How am I supposed to pay attention when you say my name with that stupid, honey drip?”

Sniper’s touch disappears as he steps backwards and I grow even more exasperated. This isn’t us. We

aren’t afraid to be near one another. Yes, we get mad and we fight, but we never step away from one

another. Ever.

“You had to do that fuckin’ ecstasy with Tea. You had to fuck everything up!”

If he expects me to say I’m sorry, he’ll be waiting forever for my apology. I will not apologize for living my life and having a little fun. I’m young and, sure, I might be running from my shit past, but that is another reason why I live life so free and open.

“If you can’t deal with what happened between us, then we need to take a break,” I say, my words calm.

I pivot on my heels and give the gun to him as I walk away.

“Take a break?” he sputters in disbelief. “We’re not even together!”

I throw my hand up in the air behind me and flick my wrist in a ‘whatever’ movement. “So not the point, Snipe. I meant a break from our friendship.”

Saying it should make my stomach knot up from fighting with him. It normally does, but not this time around. I think I have learned how to ignore the awful feeling that comes over me every time we argue.

“This is crazy talk, Piper. Would you fuckin’ stop walkin’,” he roars over the sound of his stomping boots as he rushes towards me.

Of course, me being the stubborn, bullheaded person I am, I don’t listen and keep walking towards my car. He should have known I was in one of my moods long before we got out in the middle of nowhere to shoot guns. I demanded we take my car and not his precious, beloved bike. Okay, that was a little uncalled for. I love his lady, and I love riding on it.

“Pipe…” he whispers as he maneuvers himself in front of me.

Not that tone, Sniper. Any tone, but that one. The softness escaping him is part of the Sniper I give in

to. The man that reminds me that he, too, is human. That he, too, looks for the same things in life I do.

When my feelings towards him grow stronger, I slam them back down again and build a false image of him to calm the unsteadiness of my heart. If I think of him as a careless, hard ass biker, it helps for a little while. Not long, but long enough for me to get my bearings straight again.

I put one of my hands on the hood of my car, tilt my head down to stare at the gravel, and toe my tire

with my boot-covered foot. I don’t know whom I am trying to fool. He knows I am looking for an out of this conversation he is trying to have with me.

“I don’t know what to do… We are off from how we normally are,” I mumble while I bite my bottom lip, a nervous habit I picked up from Lana in the short time I was blessed to know her.

“Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth, babe. Shit is fuckin’ with me, too. I fucked my best friend, multiple times in one night. You think that’s sittin’ well up in my head?”

I shake my head back and forth. “I had myself back down to thinking just about the pool table incident, Sniper!” I exclaim. “How dare you put that back in my mind?”

I worked so hard at pushing a huge part of that night away.

“Sure, because it’s only fuckin’ hard for you, right? Who knew the best pussy I would ever have would be the pussy of my best friend? This shit has me as twisted as it has you! I don’t want to fall in love with my best friend, no more than you do!” He shoves away from my car and stomps around to the passenger side. “Take my ass home. You’ve pissed me off.”

I take the opportunity to peek over at him as he climbs into the car and slams the door. I have to fix this. Sniper and I are two peas in a pod around the club. The happy ones, the jokesters of the club, and if we go back and we’re jumping down one another’s throats, it’ll cause unnecessary tension.

I open my car door and slink inside without making a sound. I don’t stick my keys into the ignition.

Instead, I lean my head against the steering wheel, press down on the horn, and plaster on a smile as I

turn to look over at him. My cheek rests against the wheel and my smile brightens as I catch the grin he is trying to shake from his face.

“What in the hell am I gonna do with you, darlin’?” He chuckles as he reaches over, grabs my arms, and jerks me into his hard chest. “You’re a pain in my ass!”

I shove away from him before he can squeeze me tight. “Love me, but not fall in love with me. What in the hell were you thinking, saying something so stupid?” I chuckle as I reach for my keys to crank my car.

“God, I’m gonna find me a woman, but I don’t want that woman to be you. No offense, babe.”

I completely agree with him. My love for this man is deep, but falling in love with my best friend would be the biggest mistake of my life. He is my rock. The one person I can always lean on no matter what. If I fell head over heels in love with Sniper, he would destroy me. I would lose that steady ease he gives me.

“Agreed. Love you, Sniper. I do, but we would destroy one another.” I look both directions to insure cars aren’t coming and pull onto the open, deserted road.

“You better not have scarred my dick for life. I’m not playin’, darlin’. Shit! It ain’t even just my cock. I still have the taste of your pussy on my lips.”

And he had to go there. “Savor it, baby!”

His laughter roars in my ears. “Piper, the Pied Piper of pussies!”

That son of a bitch. “You suck. I’ve a good mind to dye my hair to piss you off.”

His amusement stops cold, and my skin prickles at the daggers his eyes shoot at me. “Do it, and I swear I’ll sit on the roof of the live-in and use your car for target practice.”

He would, too. Everything has to be real for Sniper. It’s an obsession for him, and he loves that about

me, his best friend. I am one hundred percent genuine.

“Then come up with something else. Pied-Piper doesn’t do it for me.”

He drums his long fingers on the windowsill. “It was meant as a compliment.”

Yeah, right. Sniper is straightforward with those. He hands them out on a regular basis. “Liar.”

As we drive down the long road back to the MC, my mind wanders. If he finds someone, and she doesn’t like me, our friendship will be over. Our easygoing banter will cease and I will be left devastated. I don’t care for those odds. I can’t fall head over heels in love with him, and I risk losing him when he does find someone. The steady hum of my heart isn’t so steady anymore. Now it beats hard and fast against my chest cavity.

“Snipe…” I squeak.

“Yeah,” he answers.

I square my shoulders and refuse to take my eyes off the road. “What if whoever you find doesn’t like me, and she demands you cut our closeness, what then?”

His hand drops onto my bare thigh and his fingers dig into my skin. “If she doesn’t like you from the

start, she’s gone. I won’t even have a chance to fall in love, because whoever I fall in love with, she has to love you as much as I do.”

Sure, it is sweet, but it doesn’t ease my anxiety, and he senses it.

“Slow down and pull the car over,” he demands through gritted teeth.

I take my foot off the accelerator and mash the brake as I pull over to the side of the road.

“Look at me, baby, cause we ain’t goin’ no further until this shit is cleared up.”

I lean all the way back in my seat and turn my head towards him, my eyes watering as I do.

“Me and you, we’re thick as fuckin’ thieves, darlin’. You’re like one of the guys, but pretty and clean.

You joke around, you love, and you live life to the fullest. Our friendship is… Our friendship is special and always will be. I’m not lettin’ a single person fuck that up, not even one of us. Understand?”

I chew on the inside of my lip as a single tear slides down my right cheek.

“Hell, baby, you’re learnin’ how to shoot a gun so we can have more in common. What best friend does that shit? I may be a dude and all, but I’m pretty sure that is a fuckin’ killer friendship, and I would be stupid to let someone fuck that up.” He wipes away the lone tear hanging on my chin. “With you, it’s as if I’m hangin’ with one of the guys, but only I get to stare at pretty when I do. You’re stronger than most of the brothers, too. The stuff you went through ain’t right, and you deserve my loyalty. You’ve been let down so much in your lifetime, that I’m vowing you will always have me and my loyalty as if you were a brother. So if I say I ain’t lettin’ a single person ruin what we have, you best believe me, babe, shit won’t happen.”

I exhale and say the one thing I can. “Love you.”

His gray eyes twinkle. “Love you, too, Pied-Piper. Take my tired ass home.”

He has to joke the seriousness away.