Page 68 of Old Flame

“Jesus, Nixie, would you fucking go?” Rome growled at her.

“I second that,” Goldie said, holding up the spoon in her hand.

Nixie looked as if she was on the verge of pitching a fit, foot stomping and screaming included, like a child who hadn’t gotten her way. Then she spun and strutted from the room as if we were all watching her on a stage.

I did not have an ass like that. And although they had teamed up against her, it didn’t make my body anywhere near as perfect as hers. I could not compete, and I wasn’t going to try.

When the door closed behind her, I wished I, too, could leave.

“I hope you bleached your dick after you sank it in her overused twat,” Nina said, giving Rome a disapproving look.

He didn’t respond as he drank his coffee, then rested his elbows on the bar.

“You know, before she went to work yesterday, she was bent over the pool table while Fox fucked her from behind and Anson’s dick was shoved in her mouth.”

Oh dear God. It was very likely that Rome had STDs if that was the kind of women he slept with.

He didn’t seem to care.

“She’s not my property,” he finally drawled. “Haven’t put a claim on her, and I never intend to.”

Nina shook her head as if his behavior disgusted her.

Rome stood up then. “But she wasn’t in my bed last night. My guess is, she went to my room this morning, looking for me, and I wasn’t there.”

I felt his eyes on me, and of their own accord, mine lifted to meet his.

The corner of his lips quirked. “No one was in my bed last night but me.”

Why was he telling me this? I hadn’t accused him of anything. He needed to be looking at them.

I didn’t have a response to that. It wasn’t my business.

With a short, deep chuckle, he took his cup and left the kitchen. My eyes watched him go.

28

Salem

“I don’t understand why anyone would want to be called an ole lady,” I said as Pepper held up two different tops to me and studied each one.

“Because they’re stupid. But if you tell Goldie or Nina I said that, I will call you a liar,” she replied, then held up the see-through black top. “This one.”

I looked at the top doubtfully. “Is that going to fit my boobs? Also, why do I have to go? Can’t I just stay up here alone and read?”

The bikini she had picked for me was intimidating. I’d wore it to make her happy, but I was not going to take off the clothes I’d put on over it. Although the short red tennis-style skirt she’d chosen for me and this top wouldn’t do much to cover up the bikini. But the outfit was better than nothing.

“Oh, no. I’m invested in this. I may never date a biker, but you have history with Tex. You loved him before he became a part of this world. It’s different.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want Rome or Tex. He isn’t the same guy. I’m not the same girl.”

The image of Nixie’s perky, perfect young stripper body taunted me, souring my mood further.

Pepper shrugged. “Maybe. But the way Tex looks at you? In the thirteen years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him look at awoman like that.”

She was seeing something that wasn’t there.

“I think he’s just curious about me. Not interested in the way you think. I’m old. He said so himself. I’m not the girl he loved anymore, if he actually loved her at all.”

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