Page 54 of Biker's Tribute: Property of Bear

"I promise you'll like Missouri."

She chuckles. "The middle of nowhere?"

"Yes," I whisper. "Trust me. It's a beautiful house and... I want you in it. Even if it's just... temporary."

My stomach tightens with guilt as I lie through my teeth to this woman. Temporary? There's no way I can handle anything temporary with her. I want her to crawl between my clothes and my skin just so I can feel her warmth directly.

Already, what I feel for her is powerful and addictive. I haven't even fucked her yet, but I can't rid myself of this deeply obsessive need for more of Amanda Yancey.

I almost convince myself I'm in love with her before I fall asleep. It's a reasonable explanation for the immediate pull I felt towards her in that therapist's office. It's another explanation for why I haven't done what I would normally do and leave her to fend for herself.

Love. I've never been in love. I have no idea what the feelings are like or how to name them.

I'm a gambler, not a lover. Except with Amanda. With her, I feel like a different man. She rests her head on my arm and falls asleep within seconds.

Good.

The next morning, I bring the continental breakfast from the motel lobby up to Amanda to eat with her in bed. She looks gorgeous with sleep still in her eyes and her hair in that sexy mess.

She puts her helmet on without trembling in fear this time, so she must be getting used to the bike. That's for the best.

"Ready to ride, doc?"

"Yes, sir," she says confidently.

I wish I could kiss her, but with the helmet on, it's just not practical. For Amanda, I'm less impulsive. So much more willing to wait.

When we get to my place in Missouri, everything looks exactly how I left it. The benefits of having a place in Joplin are everyone knowing exactly what it means to be a Barbarian. Kids around here grow up hearing legends about the club and the old Route 66 highway.

No one would dare enter my home without permission, no matter how long I left it unattended.

"Crazy Shaw boy lives up there," I heard a man say once as he walked past my turn off on the main road with a friend.

Finally, the crazy Shaw boy comes home...

I've been on the road a long time. I missed this place and the quiet countryside. I never thought when I came back, I'd have a woman on the back of my bike.

The surprises in my life never seem to stop.

* * *

Twenty

Amanda

Rivercrest Drive has a fancy sound that doesn’t necessarily match Ethan’s brutal demeanor. When he parks his bike outside his house, I have to bite my tongue to stop myself from asking him if he’ssurethis is his house. Ethan has a scowl plastered on his face – someone cut him off ten miles ago – once he removes his helmet. I take mine off and breathe in the fresh Missouri air.

I don’t know why I expected it to smell like a swamp out here. It’s… clean.

And the house…

Ethan owns a red brick carriage house with a large detached shed that could be a guest house, it’s that big. Damn. I haven’t seen him work since I met him and he owns all this? I doubt my career choice for the first time since I announced to my parents that I got into Boston University to get my doctorate. I work my ass off, I pay my student loans on autopay, I even have a savings account… but I can’t imagine affording a house like this anywhere near Boston without committing a bank robbery or fraud.

Then again… maybe that’s how Ethan got the house.

When he catches me staring at the property, which is probably thousands of square feet larger than my apartment, his scowl cracks into a smile. My eyes dart to his lips and my pussy throbs at the visual cue.

“Like it?” Ethan says, interrupting a dirty thought about his mouth from forming in my head.

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