Joycee’s Reviews > Mountain Protector > Status Update

“This is more than need. This is want. This is choice. This is me looking at you and seeing everything I never knew I was missing. This is love.”

“If I don’t show up today, I let down my clients, I let down the Morrisons, and I let Holloway control me without him having to lift a finger.”

Her touch against the strip of skin above my jeans

(I thought he was wearing dark sweatpants?)

The heat of her skin burns through her thin tank top, sending electricity straight to my core.

(She put her tank top back on?)

“You’re not exactly small-town material.”

He picks up a menu, but his eyes stay on mine. “Maybe I got tired of big places with bigger problems.”

“I don’t work for your dad, Ruby. Hunt Security does. I work for them.”

“Semantics.”

“Details,” he corrects. “Important ones.”

“Sometimes the things we aren’t looking for are exactly what we need to find.”

Clay is 35.

Ruby has been tattooing professionally for 3 years.

I’ve heard the stories about this town. People meeting and just knowing. Love at first sight. Always thought it was bullshit. Small-town fairy tales for bored locals. Now I get it. It’s not gentle. It’s not sweet. It’s fucking brutal, like being hit by lightning and wanting more.