(betts) ⚜’s Reviews > Mountain Grump > Status Update

“You’re my North Star. My way home. My destination.” Letting his hands slip from mine, Ethan lowers. To one knee. “You’re the light that guides me. And I don’t ever want to lose you.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small velvet box. “Tell me you believe me, Starlight. Tell me you still love me.”

“If you ever threaten my wife again, I will kill you. And no one will ever find you.” I step over him. “Because I know where the animals live. And I will feed you to them, piece by fucking piece, until all that’s left of you is a pair of empty fucking shoes.”
Ralph scrambles into the car.
And I swing the axe.

“After I called you, I did an internet search about what you should do with abandoned mountain lion cubs.” I wince as I say it, and we both know why.
Every search turned up with the same thing. Do not touch them. For a plethora of reasons.
Ethan runs his tongue along his teeth. A move I suspect is meant to hide a smirk.

The web that Jack wove, it doesn’t fucking matter. Not to me.
So I’ll tell her later. When we’ve built more trust between us. When I’m certain she’ll listen to everything I say.

I don’t know if it’s safe to fall for this man. But I can already feel it happening.
Ethan just spent hours talking to me about nothing because I asked him to.
He married me because I asked him to.
He scared off a mountain lion…
I look at his chiseled profile. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
Ethan slowly turns his head to face me. “No. I have a wife.”

“You act like a bad guy, but I don’t think that’s what you are.”
“No? Then what am I?”
“I think you’re a good boy.”
“Say that again.” He moves even closer, until our bodies are flush. “Call me that again.”
“Ethan?” I slide my hands up his stomach, over his pecs, to his shoulders. “Are you my Good Boy?”

He points at the flower in my hand. “That’s illegal.”
I look down. “Flowers?”
“Picking flowers in a state park. They’re protected.”
“But I didn’t pick it. I cut it.”
His eyebrow stays up.