Blog Tour: Reaper's Legacy by Joanna Wylde

Welcome to the club…In REAPER’S LEGACY we meet Sophie, who eight years ago lost her virginity to Zach. It was memorable, but not in the good way. Not only was the sex less than enjoyable, but Zach’s older, heavily tattooed and ripped, brother, Ruger walked in on them. Horribly embarrassing for Sophie, yet unforgettable for Ruger. That night left her with one good thing: her son, Noah. Sophie loves Noah more than anything, but is struggling to support both of them as a single mom and Ruger is furious to discover the pair of them living in near poverty.

Ruger is determined to give his nephew a better life and decides to make Sophie and Noah his responsibility – with the help of the Reapers Motorcycle Club. Living with outlaw bikers wasn’t exactly in Sophie’s grand plan, but Ruger isn’t giving her a choice. He can be a complete ass and sometimes even a little scary, but Ruger will be there for Noah, whether she wants him or not. But Sophie does want him…has always wanted him. Now she’ll learn that taking a biker to bed is worth the risk.

4 Fantastic Stars Review by Jen Hagen

Seven years ago Sophie and Zach brought a child into this world, only it wasn’t Zach that witnessed the birth of his son.  Ruger, Zach’s step-brother who also happens to be a bad-ass motorcycle club member, was the one to grab Noah as he made his entrance.  Ruger has never forgotten what it felt like to have Sophie’s hands on his shoulders during the birth.  There has always been an unspoken current of electricity between Ruger and Sophie, from the moment they met evidenced from the memento that Ruger has held onto for all these years and the reminder of her touch.

Zach hasn’t been in the picture for a long time and has not paid child support for over a year.   Sophie is doing the best  she can to support her and Noah, but one evening Ruger gets a call from his nephew that sends Ruger into save-the-day mode.  Ruger insists that Sophie and Noah move in with him, and there is no fighting Ruger on what he wants.  You can fight Ruger all you want, but in the end he still gets his way.  The fighting between the two just brings the electricity level higher.

Even angry I wanted Ruger.  In fact, I usually wanted him more when I was angry.  This was unfortunate, because he had a gift for pissing me off.  Life would be so much simpler if I could just hate him.  The man truly was an asshole.

With Ruger and Sophie living together it’s difficult to hide their feelings of lust for each other.  Ruger and Sophie can only fight off their wants for so long before they give in to their needs.   

 “You want this as much as I do,” he said, voice soft.  “It’s not goin’ away.  We’re just going to burn up higher and higher until one of us explodes and we get hurt.  Let’s end it now.  I need inside you, Sophie.”

This could be a good thing since Ruger and Sophie obviously have feelings for each other.  Only thing is, they are on different pages.  Sophie doesn’t like the club and doesn’t agree with the situations and dealings that they find themselves involved in.  Ruger makes it perfectly clear that he is not a one-woman man.

“I became a Reaper so I could make my own rules.  Not looking to put my dick on a chain and hand it off to some woman like it’s a damned puppy or something."

Finding themselves at an impasse, they need to go their separate ways.  Sophie moves out and Ruger tries to find his pleasure elsewhere.  In the meantime there is club business that needs his attention.  Ruger and his motorcycle club, the Reapers, have an ongoing feud with a rival motorcycle club, the Devil’s Jacks.  The two motorcycle clubs come to a vote to end the feud and begin a truce.  This doesn’t sit well with a few of the members and their differences quickly escalades into a war.   A war that makes Sophie’s feelings of danger being involved with the club one of reality.  

Danger always makes the person see the light.  Can Ruger see the light in time to save Sophie?  What if Ruger sees the light but Sophie can’t move past the club?

“It doesn’t matter how you make me feel or how nice you are.  Your club is dangerous and I don’t want anything to do with any of you.”

 I can readily admit that I am a huge Horse lover.  He’s my go-to-guy when I need a pick me up read.  Ruger is definitely not Horse.  He lacks the charisma that drew me to Horse.  BUT…I needed to realize that this wasn’t about Horse.  I hope I have given all you Horse lovers enough warning to open yourselves up to trying somebody new.   Once I gave myself that pep talk, I was able to enjoy the story without constantly looking for Horse.   There is one scene that I found to be hilarious involving Horse and that is how he really got his nickname “Horse”…you all know what he has us believing.  (wink, wink)

The involvement of one of the Devil’s Jacks members will lead us into the third Reaper’s installment.

Reaper’s Legacy excerpt - posting 2/10/14

 “You start work tomorrow?” Ruger asked as I loaded the dishwasher.

“Nine on the dot,” I replied, feeling a little rush of excitement. “It’s perfect. I can’t believe how things worked out. Thanks again for helping out today — you have no idea how much it meant to me.”

“I note you didn’t follow up on the job at The Line,” he said, cocking a brow. I frowned and looked away.

“Um, I wasn’t really serious about that anyway,” I said. “I don’t want to work for the club.”

“Yeah, you made your feelings about the club clear,” he said. My mood deflated a little. “I’ve got something for you.”

“That’s a loaded statement,” I replied, my voice flat. He smirked, which made me feel better. It wasn’t an angry smirk.

“Dirty mind, Soph?” he asked. “Seriously, this is important. Come on into the living room.”

I followed him, sitting in a chair. He sat on the couch, then patted the seat next to him. I shook my head. He held up a thick, business-sized envelope.

“You don’t get your surprise if you don’t come over here.”

“What makes you think I’ll want it?”

“Oh, you’ll want it,” he said, clearly pleased with himself. I got up and walked over to him slowly. He grabbed my hand, pulling me down and across his lap. I gave a token struggle, but he handed me the envelope and curiosity took over so I let him win.

Also, it felt kind of nice to sit on his lap. Yeah, I know. Stupid. But I’m only human.

I opened the envelope and saw cash. A very large wad of cash. My eyes opened wide and I pulled it out, shocked. I didn’t count it, but it seemed to be all hundred dollar bills… there had to be three or four thousand dollars in here.

“What the hell is this?” I asked, looking at him. He gave me a grim smile.

“Child support.”

“Holy shit!” I gasped. “How did you get this out of Zach?”

“It’s from mom’s estate,” Ruger said. “I paid him out and then he paid you out. In exchange, he gets to keep living.”

I turned to look at him, shocked.

“Are you serious?” I asked. Our faces were about two inches apart, and his eyes flicked to my lips. I licked them nervously and felt something stir under my butt. His arms came around my waist, holding me loosely and my nipples hardened.

Dammit.

“Pretty hard to get more serious,” he told me. “Old friend tracked down Zach for me in Montana and I rode over there Sunday afternoon, got back early this morning. We had words. Then we went to the bank. I didn’t give him the promise to let him live in writing, that’s just a little side incentive. I’ll revoke it if he ever gets within ten miles of you or Noah again.”

I swallowed. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the details… But I couldn’t feel sorry for Zach. He’d earned everything he got and then some.

“How much money is in here?” I asked, flipping through the wad of cash.

“Well, it’s not all in there,” he said. “That’s just last year’s. I’ve got the rest at the club. Dealing with that much cash gets complicated. Needs to be cleaned up a bit, and then we’ll find a way to get it to you that won’t leave an ugly trail. The tradeoff is, we agreed on your current monthly rate, so I guess there’s a chance you could end up losing some long-term potential income if you’d gone after him in court.”

“I couldn’t even get him to pay what he owed already,” I said. “Health and Welfare won’t do shit, either. I don’t think upward adjustments were on the table.”

“Sort of what I figured,” he replied. “So I’m real glad you got a job, but you won’t be living paycheck to paycheck any more.”

“That’s amazing,” I whispered, looking back down at the envelope. “I have to ask… Is it going to come back on me and Noah? Am I going to get arrested?”

“You’re good,” he said. “That’s not enough cash to catch any IRS attention, and Horse is working on getting the rest of it to you all safe and legal. He’s a damned good accountant and he’ll work with our lawyer. Fuckin’ shark. If Zach ever tries to cause trouble about it, you call me and I’ll make him go away.”

His arms tightened around me, hinting at his strength, and I shivered.

Author Bio

Joanna Wylde is the author of the Reapers Motorcycle Club series and currently lives in Idaho. Learn more at www.joannawylde.net and connect with her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JoannaWylde or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/joannawyldebooks.

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