Page 28 of Gunner

The Silver Shadows were not bad guys. They didn’t terrorize the town like the stereotypes suggested. Quite the opposite, in fact. They enhanced the town. They opened businesses and invested in the ones already here.

Gunner himself, I now knew owned the tattoo shop.

His deep voice caught my attention.

“You touched my woman,” he said.

The way he looked at Brian, I thought for sure he would pierce him in two.

Wait.

Did he say his woman?

“I-I’m sorry. I-I didn’t know she was...” Brian gulped “...yours.”

“Now you do. Stay the fuck away from her.”

“Ye-yes, sir,” Brian stammered out and inched his way around the big biker who took up half of the sidewalk.

Gunner turned around and walked back to his bike.

As he passed by me, I heard him say, “You’re welcome.”

“Wait, what the hell was that?” I asked, looking between him and the empty walkway where Brian once stood.

“I said you’re welcome,” he repeated.

I gaped at him, my mouth hanging open.

I was still standing close enough to his bike that his large, and I mean very large hand reached up and with his thick finger under my chin, he lifted my mouth closed.

Yea, I was thinking about that finger, and how it would feel inside me, so sue me.

“Not that. That!” I said, pointing at the sidewalk. “What the hell was that? I don’t need you to fight my battles for me. Nowhe is going to tell everyone in town that you and I are together,” I whined.

Gunner just looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language he didn’t understand.

“How will I ever get another date if every guy in Diamond Creek thinks I’m with you?”

“You won’t.” He smiled and turned the key, firing up his bike.

The sound of the pipes drowned out anything else I might have wanted to say, or any questions I needed to ask.

He crab-walked his bike backwards out of the spot and, after giving me a wink, drove off.

What. The. Fuck.

I stood there alone, watching as he drove through town, toward I assumed the clubhouse.

Gunner may as well have put a property cut on my back, because by the end of the evening, everyone in Diamond Creek would think I belonged to him.

Only I didn’t.

Yes, he was sexy.

Yes, I wanted to climb that man like a tree.

Yes, I would let him split me in half given the smallest opportunity. But he wouldn’t own me. I wasn’t property for anyone, least of all a man. Who did he think he was?

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