“Do you really want to spend the evening talking about Nieves Romero?”

“No, not really. I’d like to learn more about you, but you’re incredibly tight-lipped about that. If I learn about your former girlfriend, maybe I’ll learn a little something about you.”

“She’s a cosmetologist. She does hair.”

“How did you meet her?”

“On a ride. Her bike was in the shop, and she was looking for someone to ride with, so I offered to let her ride bitch with me.”

“Wait a second. Ride bitch?”

“Ride on the back. That’s all it means.”

“It’s a little demeaning, don’t you think?”

“Lacey, for God’s sake. It’s just a term.” He smiled. “I’ll let you ride bitch with me whenever you want.”

“Yeah. No thanks.”

“You ever ride before?”

“Big no on that.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing. This weekend, we go riding.”

“That’s in two days.”

“Yeah. You got plans?”

I didn’t, but truthfully, getting on the back of a bike with Rock scared the hell out of me. So why did I want to do it so badly?

“Lace?”

“No. But I’m not riding with you.”

“Not here, that’s for sure. We’ll fly home.”

“Home?”

“Yeah. To Montana.”

“I can’t just pick up and fly to Montana in two days.”

“One day, actually. We’ll leave tomorrow evening. That way we’ll have all day Saturday to ride. We can stay at my place.”

I squirmed, my skin tingling all over. This was so unlike me…and I wanted it more than my next breath of air.

“You haven’t lived until you’ve ridden under the big sky.” He sighed. “Man, I miss it.”

“You haven’t been here that long, Rock.”

“No, but riding is like breathing to me. You’ll see what I mean.”

“You don’t think I’m actually considering this,” I said. Though I was.

In fact, I’d already decided.

I was going.

If I wanted to learn more about Rock Wolfe, Montana was the place to do it.

37

Rock

Lacey took a long sip of her sparkling water. Then, “Fine.”

“Fine what?”

“Fine, I’ll go to Montana with you.”

“Great. I can’t wait to get back to the fresh air of big sky country.” I took a drink of bourbon. “Man, this is good stuff. Expensive bourbon really is better than rotgut. Do you think pretty boy appreciated it after paying that big bill the other night?”

Lacey shook her head. “Can you be not an asshole for more than a few seconds at a time?”

“Not sure. Never tried.” True enough.

“What do you want from me, then?” she asked.

“Your company. Your tight little body for that great sex we have together.”