Page 11 of Summer's Edge

“The fuck I am,” Edge snaps, that brutal storm back in his eyes.

Tank just stares at him for a few moments. But Edge is showing no signs of backing down.

“You’re staying and that’s an order,” Tank says. “Now stand the fuck down. We’re not gonna let anything happen to Melody.”

Tank’s the club’s Vice President and will be obeyed. Like his son Chance, he’s usually a very laid back kinda guy, but his tone right now clearly says he won’t hear any more of Edge’s arguments.

“Fine,” Edge says after a few more moments of fighting the storm in his eyes.

Then the rest start assembling, and he comes to stand next to me. I don’t even look at him, just stalk back to the cabin, tossing my untouched burger into the bushes as I go.

This is the last time he’s made a fool of me. The last time he’s chosen just about every other woman over me. The absolute last.

He better not try to talk to me again tonight. Or so much as step into the cabin.

FOUR

Edge

The brothers have all left. I can’t even hear the echoes of their engines anymore, but a part of me went with them and I can’t call it back. Even the enticing smells of the fire and the sweet scents of freedom in the form of all the other aromas of the forest—including the faint scent of lavender and roses that’s all Summer—aren’t enough to calm me.

Thing is, I’m a soldier. War is what I’m good for. The only thing I’m good for. Haven’t I proven that to the Devils enough times in the last decade? Didn’t I take a fucking bullet for our president? I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. Do they doubt it? So why leave me behind?

All things I should’ve said to Tank before he left.

And on top of all that I’m worried about Melody now. Not that they won’t find her, because I know they will. I’m worried she’ll already be dead when they do.

She’s worked so hard to build a life for herself after her family was killed in a car wreck. I’d like to think I helped at least a little, first by stopping her from flinging herself off the bridge and then by killing the drunk driving monster that plowed into their car. It was the least I could do. I want to do more.

And then there’s Summer.

While they were leaving, she stormed off into the cabin like she’d suddenly been attacked by a horde of fire ants or something. And now she’s lying in there in the dark. I want to join her. But I can’t.

Because everything from her upturned eyes to her bow-shaped lips, her curves for days and long legs that just beg to be spread, never fail to get my cock hard. It’s already hard now. And the mouth on her. I swear that bantering with her is gotta be one of my top ten things to do.

But what the fuck am I gonna do alone with her here?

Not any of the things I want to do, that’s for sure. That won’t fly.

The fire is quickly dying down now that no one’s feeding it. A part of me wants to just continue feeding it, get a blanket from inside and fall asleep right here, with the heat of the flames licking my face and the cool, sweet fresh air all around me. But that would leave Summer alone in the cabin. And that’s not exactly guarding her, now is it?

If the assholes who started the damn war with the Devils found Melody, then they can find us up here.

So I get up and walk to the cabin, no idea what I’ll find when I get inside. Not much of anything, as it turns out. The little firelight that reaches this far is illuminating a very sparsely furnished one-room space, with a metal-framed bed on one side, a small wooden table and four chairs in the center and a tiny barebones kitchen in the other corner. I’m pretty sure that’s a coal-powered stove in there.

“Summer?” I whisper. “Are you asleep?”

She’s lying on top of the covers on the bed, her long bare legs glowing copper in the firelight.

I’m standing in the doorway. If I move any closer to her then that’ll be that, respect for her father be damned. Being in prison will do that to a guy. And I didn’t have much sex for months before that either. I was too focused on the war. Fucking random women I didn’t care much about just wasn’t doing it for me anymore in the face of possible imminent death. Honestly, I’d begun to think there was something wrong with me for feeling that way. So I’m glad the lust is back. I’m just not happy it’s for Summer.

I take a step towards her, the floorboards creaking under my weight.

“Don’t think you’re sharing this bed with me,” she snaps. Even though I can’t see her eyes, I can feel them boring holes into me. Her gaze hotter than the fire.

“But where am I supposed to sleep then?” I say, teasing her.

She scoffs. “Wherever you want that’s not this bed.”

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