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Unable to meet his eye without showing my cards, I look out the passenger window, shaking my head. “You’re incorrigible.”
Gauge’s deep laugh fills the bed of the MC’s Tahoe. “So, they are wet. Good. Serves you right after you washed me off.”
“I couldn’t deliver baked goods smelling of sex,” I chide with exasperation. “As appealing as our musk may be to us, it will turn off others. I’m trying to build a clientele, not chase them away.”
“Depending on who your client is, I may want them to smell me all over you. When you have the body of a pinup and the face of an angel, delivering sweets to a hungry man is like dangling tuna in front of a shark. If this client is a dude, I want him knowing you belong to me.”
I roll my eyes, but secretly I love it when Gauge gets territorial. Lets me know he’s head over heels for me. “Like my engagement ring wouldn’t be enough to deter a horny male?”
“It may be enough if you were wearing it,” he drawls, jutting his chin at my naked finger.
“Gosh darn it! I took it off when I was baking and forgot to put it back on.”
“All the more reason you should let me pull over and fill that pink snatch of yours with my hot cum.”
“Gauge!”
“What?” He’s unabashed and unrelenting. “I’m just marking what’s mine, Gorgeous. There’s not a man in love who wouldn’t behave differently.”
His words make my annoyance melt away. “You love me that much, don’t you?”
“Love you more than is physically measurable.”
I’m half gone with need, considering having him pull over, when the SUV slows, turning a corner on a rural road.
The landscape is craggy the closer we get to the Rocky Mountain National Park, with boulders and a pine forest encroaching on us. We haven’t seen a house for at least half a mile when a quaint-looking bungalow comes into view. It’s got a postcard classic charm about it, with its white shutters and picket fence. It makes me wonder who lives here. Empty nesters looking to move on to new adventures, or maybe a growing family looking to establish roots?
“Ten bucks it’s a working mom needing six dozen cookies for her kid’s school bake sale.”
Gauge chuckles as we pull into the wide driveway. “You’re on. I’m so going to win—schools out for summer.”
I grumble. There goes some of my hard-earned cookie money.
“Tell you what,” he says, parking the SUV next to a sporty Mazda in the driveway. “Keep the cash and give me road-head on the way back instead.” Gauge hops out before I can chastise him. He moves swiftly around the hood of the SUV to my side, opening my door like a gentleman.
After he helps me out of the vehicle, he bats me away when I try to grab the cookies from the backseat.
With my fists on my hips, I snip, “Gauge, you said I could deliver them.”
“And you are,” he counters, hefting the cookies into his arms. “I’m your assistant. Besides, no woman of mine is going to carry anything so long as my arms work.”
There’s no point in arguing with him. I won’t change his mind.
Aside from the Mazda in the driveway, there’re no signs of life at this house. The curtains are drawn tight and the outdoor lights are not on. It doesn’t appear like anyone is home. I double-check the email on my phone. “We’re at the right place.”
Gauge walks ahead of me with the cookies. “Some people don’t like creepers peering in. Just stay close beside me, okay?”
“Okay.”
I’m both nervous and excited when I ring the doorbell, eager to meet my customer. When no one answers, I worry again that we have the wrong location.
A rustle behind us alerts us to movement near the driveway. Before I can scream, Levi yanks me against him. Loaded down with the cookies in his arm, Gauge can’t draw his gun fast enough before Levi’s gun is pointing at him. Cookies scatter everywhere as Gauge pulls out his gun from his hip holster, but it’s too late.
“Uh-uh-uh,” Levi says in a sickeningly familiar, haughty tone. “Toss your gun over here. Now.”
Gauge does a quick assessment of our dismal position. His emerald eyes flicker between Levi and me. He doesn’t want to give up his only weapon, making our situation worse.
“We don’t want anything happening to ourprecious Opal,” he spits through his teeth, pressing the barrel of his gun to my temple.
