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  “Does it?” I asked. “Please you, I mean.”

  He stared down at a cut on the back of his knuckles. The blood had dried, and it was caked with dirt. He reached for my hand. “I won’t stand in your way, but—” He looked at me. “—if you decide to come back to Montana, I’ll be here waiting for you.”

  chapter 34

  Gage

  I opened the door. Summer pushed the latch on the screen and rushed past me. “Oh good, you’re shirtless.” She headed across the front room. “Now take off those jeans and follow me.”

  I lunged for her arm, and she turned to face me, her eyes wide with surprise.

  “What happened in California?”

  She sighed. “Oh that. Well, I was sitting in one of those posh board rooms with the ridiculously long, polished tables, imported water, high techie thingamabobs all over the place.” She waved her hand around the room. “Mirrors on every wall.” She reached for the top button of my Levis. “Rich people can’t seem to get enough of seeing their reflections.” She undid the first button and started on the next one. “Anyhow, so I’m listening to the pompous head man of Lemon Records, Pushkin or Pushpin or some name like that. I wasn’t really listening when he introduced himself because I couldn’t get over his badly fitting toupee. So, he and this lady, Flicka—” She stopped. “Isn’t that a horse’s name?”

  I smiled down at her. “Yes.”

  “Well, apparently she didn’t Google it before she decided to call herself that. And that bitch didn’t just have a stick up her ass, but it was like an entire lightning rod.” As usual she added hand movements to her tale, a habit I’d grown absurdly fond of. She unbuttoned my entire fly and my cock reacted immediately. Hell, it had been hard for the past twenty-four hours just thinking about her.

  “So, the fake hair guy and the lightning rod in her ass bitch were discussing how ugly my hair was, right there, in the room, as if I wasn’t sitting there with them.” She reached to the hem of her sweater and yanked if off, exposing a silky green bra and creamy skin that I was aching to touch. She reached back and fussed with the clasp on her bra but kept talking. “And the whole time I was asking myself why am I here? Why the hell did I leave behind my timber scented mountain man to sit with these awful people?” Her bra slipped off her shoulders. I tried to remain focused on her story, but with two rose-colored nipples pointing at me, it was hard to concentrate. “That’s when it dawned on me. I wasn’t there for myself. I was there because everyone wanted me to be there. My mom, Logan, Clark, they only ever cared about themselves and how they could use me to get the lavish lifestyle they craved.”

  I looked at her somewhat confused.

  “I never wanted it. They wanted it. I was always happy singing in small clubs and dressing the way I wanted and wearing my ugly hair the way I wanted.”

  She pushed my jeans down and motioned for me to step out of them. “Turn around,” she commanded. I complied.

  “Nope, wasn’t my imagination at all,” she seemed to be thinking out loud.

  I raised a brow in question.

  “On the plane, I had this moment of panic. I thought maybe I’d just imagined this.” She waved her arm around in a circle in front of me. “You know, like in an erotic dream or something.” She smiled down at my erect cock and sighed. “As real as can be and fucking extraordinary. In fact, I don’t even think I could give my imagination that much credit.”

  I pulled her into my arms. She peered up at me with big brown eyes. “I love you, Gage Barringer. You don’t have to say it back, but just know that I love—”

  I covered her mouth with mine, and she melted against me.

  “I love you too, my sprout eating, insect wearing, incense burning, California girl. I’m fucking nuts about you.” She jumped up into my arms and wrapped her legs around me.

  “Thank god because I just gave up a million dollar contract—”

  I looked down at her.

  She laughed. “I’m kidding. No regrets. The offer was there, but I chose Montana. I chose the Raven’s Nest and my grandfather’s funky little house. I chose you, Gage Barringer.” She kissed me on the chin. “So, what do you have to say to that, my stoic, strong, beautiful man of few words?”

  “I do have something to say.”

  She peered up at me.

  “Stay with me, Summer.” I kissed her the entire way down the hallway to the bedroom and through the entire night.

  Want to read more about Luke’s ‘fucking interesting story’?

  Check out Rain Shadow Books 1-5, Now Available.

  Rain Shadow (The Barringer Brothers)

  Luke “Reno” Barringer discovers the love of his life amidst the dangerous world of the notorious Bedlam MC. Angel Sharpe is the granddaughter of the club’s president and she has fallen hard for Luke, a man whose secrets and connections will unravel her entire life . . . for the better.

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