Riding Steele: Untamed by Opal Carew

From Part 1
    Laurie sat on the bed and wondered what to do next. If she just stayed up here, Steele was bound to come and get her. Maybe at that point his patient manner would change, just like Donovan’s charming manner had changed when he became annoyed with her. She didn’t want to chance it.
    Anyway, she could use a cup of coffee, and she was getting hungry.
    She walked to the door and grasped the heavy black doorknob, then turned it, her heart thumping loudly. She peered out the door and saw no one in the long, wide hallway. She slipped from the room and closed the door, then walked along the hardwood toward the stairs. She could hear masculine voices talking downstairs.
    “There you are,” an unfamiliar male voice said behind her, then strong arms wrapped around her waist and she sucked in a breath as she was tugged through a doorway and spun around.
    Laurie’s hair swirled in her face and she found herself encased in big strong arms, and a raspy masculine face brushed her cheek as the man’s mouth found hers through the curtain of hair. His tongue teased her lips but she turned her face away as she pushed against his chest.
    “Baby, what’s wrong?” he asked as he loosened his hold, but didn’t let her go. Then he pushed back the hair covering her face. “Oh, shit.”
    “Oh, shit is right,” a woman said behind her. “What are you doing, Rip?”
    The man named Rip released Laurie and she scurried back, then he glanced at the woman in the doorway. She simply stared at him with an amused smile.
    “Raven, I thought it was you. Those
are
your jeans with the rhinestones on the pockets.”
    Raven pushed herself from the doorway and stepped forward.
    “Because my ass looks like any other woman’s in those jeans.” She circled around behind Laurie. Then she smiled.
    “Okay, if you think my ass is as great as that, you’re forgiven.” She stepped into Rip’s arms and kissed him, then he pulled her tighter and deepened the kiss.
    Laurie just stood frozen to the spot. She was still trembling from being dragged into the bedroom with yet another rough biker. The fact that it had been a case of mistaken identity didn’t alleviate the rush of adrenaline through her.
    Finally, the couple parted and the woman gazed at her, then stuck out her hand.
    “Hi, I’m Raven.”
    Laurie took the offered hand and shook it.
    Raven nudged the man beside her, who had slipped his arm around her waist. “And this crazy man is Rip.”
    Rip held out his hand, but Laurie couldn’t bring herself to take it. He drew it back.
    “Sorry about the kiss. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said.
    Laurie pushed her shoulders back. “I wasn’t scared.”
    Raven grinned. “You’re probably hungry. Shock makes a mean omelet and I smell bacon. Why don’t you go ahead down? We’ll be along later.”
    Laurie nodded, then left the room. As she walked down the hall, they closed the door and from the way they’d looked at each other, she had no doubt about what the couple would be doing in there.
    They didn’t seem to be worried about her escaping, but why should they knowing others were downstairs.
    She started along the dark-stained oak hardwood toward the stairs again, her heart thumping. It had been dark when Wild Card had brought her in last night, but she remembered that on the main floor the stairway was a short straight path from the door. She took the first few steps down the solid wood stairs. She could see the entryway and the front door ahead. The stairway was wide, but closed on either side.
    She clung to the smooth, wall-mounted wood railing as she continued. As she approached the bottom, she peered around. There was a large room with big sunny windows to the left and a small hall with a couple of doorways on the right. She could smell bacon from that direction.
    Maybe the others were in the kitchen eating.
    As quietly as she could, she hurried toward the door, then reached for the knob.
    “Don’t even think about