{Review & Giveaway} Bounty by Kristen Ashley (@KristenAshley68)

Justice Lonesome has enjoyed a life of bounty. 

Even so, she’s inherited the curse of the Lonesome. A poet’s soul. Which means she’s still searching for something. Searching for peace. Searching for the less…that’s more. 

And when the foundation of her life is pulled out from under her, grieving, she goes to the mountains to find her oasis. She hits Carnal, Colorado and decides to stay. 

Deke Hightower lost everything at the age of two. He lost it again at fifteen. His life has not been about bounty. It’s been about learning to live with less, because there’s no way to get more. 

Deke’s also watched all his friends go down to the women who gave them what they needed. He wants that for himself. But he knows that search isn’t going to be easy because he’s a rider. His home is the road. That’s the only place he can breathe. And the woman who takes her place at his side has to do it sitting on the back of his bike. 

When Deke meets Justice, he knows she’s not that woman. She’s cute. She’s sweet. And she’s into him, but she’s got it all and Deke knows he won’t fit into that. So he holds her at arm’s length. Establishes boundaries. And Justice will take it because she wants Deke any way he’ll let her have him.

But when Justice finds herself a pawn in a dangerous game, Deke makes a decision. 

When he does, he has no idea he’s just opened himself up to bounty.

Justice Lonesome was looking for her own little piece of heaven.  After suffering a heartbreaking loss, she retreats to the mountains and finds the man who once inspired her to bare her soul in a song.
 
And he makes it perfectly clear that he can’t give her what she needs.

​In my life I’d seen many a player, rocker, club rat, cowboy, jock, biker, businessman.

And with all I’d seen, all I’d met, all I’d had…

It was him.

A man in faded jeans and a white tee at a chain link fence in a biker bar in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming, sucking back a beer, laughing with his bud.
​
And I didn’t know his name.

Deke Hightower never had an easy life.  Growing up with nothing and just trying to make ends meet has given him a heart of steel.  The only freedom that he knows is when he hits the open road on his bike and no woman will ever be able to change that.
 
But when Justice sweeps into Carnal with her all of her sass and her gypsy spirit, Deke begins to wonder if it’s finally time to take a chance on love.

We’d been dancing around the fact that I was at one place, he was in another and we both knew what one wanted and the other didn’t.

That being me wanting him and Deke not wanting me back that same way.

He’d pushed the boundaries back, gave me the friendly.

But he’d done it never being a dick about establishing precisely what those boundaries were we’d never cross.
​
Until now.

​Kristen takes us back to Carnal with a masterful blend of music, poetry, love and forgiveness.  All of the Colorado Mountain family is there to make you laugh and even shed a few tears along the way.
 
And all of that makes Bounty an emotional experience unlike anything else - a glorious slow burning romance that grows so bright that at its zenith will literally warm you to your soul...

Exclusive Excerpt - 

Once I had it in, the air of his trailer, the air Deke breathed, I let it out saying, “You know how you told me I was one of the best women you’ve ever met?”

He again didn’t answer immediately, then his deep voice sounded.

“Don’t, Jussy.”

I did.

“You’re one of the best men I’ve ever met.”

“Jussy.”

“That’s it, Deke. I’m a lucky girl. Blessed. Given so much bounty, it’s almost embarrassing how much God likes me. But He really must like me because I have all I have and He also gave me you.”

“You’re gonna be shutting up now,” Deke declared, I could hear the gruff in his voice, the buried emotion.

That was beautiful too.

I grinned down the hall.

“You’re also gonna be shuttin’ your eyes and goin’ to sleep,” he commanded.

“You and Mr. T might have had a taking-care-of-Justice-meeting-of-the-minds but this is plain bossing me, Deke.”

“Yeah, it is. And you keep talkin’, you’ll be talkin’ to nothin’ ’cause I’ll be putting my earphones in.”

It was my turn to boss.

“You listen to Dad, I want to hear it.”

“You’re talking,” Deke noted.

“No, seriously. I want to hear it.”

“Don’t got one of those speaker things. And sound is shit through the phone.”

“First chance, mall for Deke Hightower. Coffeemaker and speaker dock.”

“You buy me that shit, I’ll tan your hide.”

Shit.

Deke spanking me.

A quiver slithered down my spine, the small of my back, through the crease of my ass to settle in between my legs.

I rolled to my back and stared at the ceiling, knowing I should shut up.

Even knowing that, I still wasn’t going to let it go.

“You’ll have to catch me first. Though, that might happen as you’ll be caffeinated by decent coffee.”

I rolled back to my side as I heard and felt the movement of Deke making his way down the hall. I watched his big body hit the small space I was in, filling it up. I also watched as his phone illuminated that space and in a couple of seconds, I heard Dad singing.

He set the phone on the built-in nightstand next to his bed.

Then I watched as he bent deep and after that, all I could do was feel.

Feel his hand cupping the back of my head. Feel his lips touch my temple. Feel the rumble in his voice as he whispered in my ear.

“You’re safe here, Jussy. Got me lookin’ after you. Got Twyla outside lookin’ out for both of us. Got your dad watchin’ over you. So stop yammerin’ to keep sleep away.

Close your eyes, gypsy, and I swear to God, you’ll be safe in your dreams.”

God, he could also talk sexy, sweet and protective, like a verbal cuddle.

God.

“Okay, Deke,” I whispered back.

I felt his fingers press into my scalp before I again felt his lips brush my temple.

“Night, Jussy. Catch you in the morning.”

Yeah.

One thing I’d learned that day in a way I knew it was for certain.

And it was something that would forever feed my poet’s soul having it in the way I did, which I treasured, and in the way I never would, which I longed for.

That being knowing without a doubt that no matter what…
​
Deke would catch me.

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