Page 50 of Ox

Oh boy. I wasn’t going there tonight. Deciding I’d have just one more beer, I took one from the center of the table to keep my warm, comfortable buzz going.

“Where is everybody?” Geo asked then, looking around the room for his Brothers.

“Most of the boys are outside looking at some souped up Harley,” Melany explained. “You should go and join them.”

“Nah,” he said, leaning back in his chair and looking at me with lazy interest. “I like where I am, right now.”

Geo was good looking. There was no question about it. He had crystal blue eyes, pitch dark hair, and a chiseled jawline that wouldn’t have been out of place on a runway model. But he wasn’t Ox. And, handsome or not, he didn’t entice me one little bit. I belonged to the giant of a man who first won my trust, then my heart, from the first moment we’d met.

Melany’s phone began to flash and she checked the screen. “Be right back, my sister’s calling and she’s set to go into labor any day now.”

As soon as she left, I felt vulnerable, naked and exposed, seated beside Geo. The man clearly liked pursuing women like some men liked to hunt. The more their prey eluded them, the more they enjoyed stalking them. And I’m sure the fact that I was uninterested and unavailable, only made the chase all the sweeter to this biker who could have his pick of available women.

“So how was your first time?” Geo posed then, grinning from ear to ear.

Though I couldn’t see them, the heat emanating from my ears told me they were as flushed as the rest of me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, uncomfortable with the seemingly intimate question.

Geo’s grin widened. “Melany said you’d never been to a biker bar before,” he clarified. “What do you think?”

My flush only deepened when I realized I’d fallen for the verbal trap. “It’s fun,” I said lamely.

“Sure sounded like you were having a lot of fun in the bathroom earlier with Ox,” Geo quipped. His blue gaze traveled directly to my overflowing corset with clear appreciation for my finer assets.

My past sins had officially come to haunt me. That was faster than expected.

When I ignored his statement, Geo plowed forward. “Can’t say he’s not a lucky man. Everybody’s been saying so,” he added for good measure.

“It seemed like you were having a lot of fun yourself, earlier,” I discreetly pointed out. “So I’m not sure how you had time to notice what Ox and I were up to.”

Geo frowned until he realized what I was referring to. “Are you talking about Carmen?” He laughed. “Baby, that was just scratching an itch. She doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Disgust rose in my throat at his callous words. I might not like Carmen, but she didn’t deserve to be treated like she was disposable by these men. “I’m not your ‘Baby’. And it’s really none of my business.”

He put his hands in the air, pretending to call a truce. “I didn’t mean any offense. I didn’t realize Ox was your Old Man. I thought you two were just passing time, is all. You know, kind of like he passed time with Carmen before you met.”

Geo wasn’t just good looking. He was smart, too. He knew what barbs to cast to wound me best. I’m sure he used this trick countless times before to break down a woman’s defenses. Convince her she could do better than the man she was currently with by offering evidence about his poor, past choices. Then, when she was most vulnerable, and preferably drunk, he’d swoop in and offer her a place in his bed to soothe the pain. What a prince.

I only stared back at the wily man, refusing to offer any words that he could twist or manipulate about Ox’s “involvement” with Carmen.

“You don’t believe me?” he said, pressing the issue.

“I don’t care,” I returned, getting supremely annoyed with his persistence.

Geo’s smile told me he didn’t believe me. “Sure, Babe. Whatever you say.”

A tornado of rage began to swirl in my chest, but I fought it back. “Ox wasn’t a monk before we met, so I didn’t expect him to act like one.”

Tossing back his head, Geo barked a laugh. “If you only knew! That man is the least holy of us all.”

I shouldn’t do it. Talk to the devil, that is. He always knew just what to say and how best to say it. But I was human. And weak. And I wanted to know more.

My stomach clenched. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Geo shrugged, loving his new found power over me. “I thought you didn’t care.”

Grinding my teeth, I sipped my beer. “I don’t. You brought it up. Not me.”

Using the excuse of grabbing another beer off the center of the table, Geo scooched closer. “I just don’t want to see you hurt, is all.”

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