Page 19 of Taken By the Biker Daddies

I took a sip of coffee and went back to my task so I could gather my thoughts and avoid making another mistake. Well, I tried, but I realized the tool in my hand wasn’t suited for the bolt I was supposed to tighten next.

“Do you think you can pass me the Allen wrench?” I asked Lauren since the toolbox was closer to her.

Her eyebrows furrowed. “The what?”

“It’s shaped like an L.”

“Oh, like the start of my name.”

Of course. I didn’t even think of that, but I had a feeling I was going to from now on. As if I needed another reminder of her.

I stood up. “It should be somewhere inside that box. I need the second biggest one you can find.”

“Okay.”

I watched as Lauren searched inside the large, red toolbox. The tools gave off a series of clangs as they were moved around. Her hair was getting in her way, so she gathered it in a bunch with one hand. I froze as I noticed the purplish oval mark on the back of her neck.

There was only one way she could have gotten that mark.

The first emotion I felt was shock, not expecting to see such a mark on her. The second was jealousy, wishing I had been the one to have left it on her. The third was desire, an urge to fuck her on the hood of Max’s silver truck and leave my own mark on her there and then.

I took a few deep breaths and tried to will the thoughts away.

Calm down, Jake. She doesn’t belong to you, remember?

“Are you okay?” Lauren’s voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

I forced myself to be and nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“I think this is what you’re looking for.”

She handed me the Allen wrench. I took it.

“Thanks.”

I resumed fixing the bike, trying to forget about what I’d seen. But I couldn’t.

“It seems you and Max are getting along well,” I said, suspecting that he was the one who gave Lauren that mark.

Maybe if she talked about him, it would help drive the message into my brain that she was supposed to be Max’s girlfriend, and I was supposed to be the kind of man who never touched another man’s woman. “I guess,” she replied.

“Good. I was worried that the two of you would feel uncomfortable around each other since you don’t remember him. Or do you remember him now?”

“No. It’s like we’re getting to know each other for the first time, which is actually kind of exciting. Max has just been…amazing.”

I could hear the joy and fondness in her voice. It stung a little, but I was also glad that she liked Max. And that Max had found someone as good as her.

“He is amazing,” I told her. “He’s a good guy.”

One who deserved Lauren more than I did.

“I feel like he’s hiding something, though.”

My eyebrows arched. Was she onto the fact that Max really wasn’t her boyfriend?

I looked at Lauren. “What makes you say that?”

She shrugged. “Women’s intuition.”

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