Ruthless Mountain Man And the Curvy Outcast
(2026)(Book 19 in the Sexy Mountain Man Flame series)
A novel by Emily Crescent
He told me to leave the town to keep me safe. I almost did. Then he stood in the rain and waited.
Hayden Perry: sun-browned, scar at his brow, hands like leather and steady as a rope. He doesn't soften words. He shows up with coffee, a hand-knit scarf, and a possessive thumb over my pulse. He guards the barn the way he guards his secrets.
I came for a day's work. Stayed for his steady hands on my wrists, his grudging lessons at the loft, the way he steadied a needle and then my heart. He kissed me in a doorway while the town watched. He dragged me into the diner and named us aloud. He carved our initials on a ridge and left a blanket at my shop. We laughed. We tangled. We bled a little and kept going.
Then a summons lands on the step. Gossip sharpens into a weapon. Greta lines up the town. My past is a rumor they love to sharpen. He offered exile as protection. I refused.
He's promised he won't run. I'm promised nothing but his refusal to let me go. Stay and be claimed — or walk away and keep myself whole? Which one will cost us everything?
Genre: Romance
Hayden Perry: sun-browned, scar at his brow, hands like leather and steady as a rope. He doesn't soften words. He shows up with coffee, a hand-knit scarf, and a possessive thumb over my pulse. He guards the barn the way he guards his secrets.
I came for a day's work. Stayed for his steady hands on my wrists, his grudging lessons at the loft, the way he steadied a needle and then my heart. He kissed me in a doorway while the town watched. He dragged me into the diner and named us aloud. He carved our initials on a ridge and left a blanket at my shop. We laughed. We tangled. We bled a little and kept going.
Then a summons lands on the step. Gossip sharpens into a weapon. Greta lines up the town. My past is a rumor they love to sharpen. He offered exile as protection. I refused.
He's promised he won't run. I'm promised nothing but his refusal to let me go. Stay and be claimed — or walk away and keep myself whole? Which one will cost us everything?
Genre: Romance