Page 97 of Toxic

“Offer, threaten, promise, I’m not really sure,” I admitted.

He chuckled. “I love that woman.”

My brows rose, but I was smiling at him.

“As a friend,” he added.

“She’s your best friend’s girlfriend,” I pointed out. “I know you’re not into her.”

He made a face. “I’m over forty years old. Can we agree not to say girlfriend?”

“What am I to you then?” I teased.

“My old lady.”

It was my turn to make a face. I wrinkled my nose. “That makes me sound old.”

“It’s our term.”

“Then I’ll learn to love it.”

He grinned at me. “It’s the equivalent of a wife for us.”

My eyes widened. “Jesus, Toxic. Seriously?”

“The girls haven’t told you that?” he asked.

“No! I think I’m going to have to have a talk with Dani. She failed to mention that when she was giving me motorcycle club lessons.”

“Probably didn’t want to scare you off since you were already being so skittish,” he pointed out.

“Humph,” I huffed, crossing my arms. I was just playing. He was actually a lot of fun. I didn’t miss the way the women in the groups of hikers were staring at him as they walked past, but he was only focusing on me.

That was a huge difference between him and Will. So was the way he was dragging me over the rock to sit in his lap. He was constantly doing little things that made me feel so secure with him. He didn’t eyeball other women, other than the one time when he was trying to get information. He didn’t laugh at their jokes and find ways to always touch them the way Will had. Of course, I’d really mostly only seen Toxic with his family. But he was proving today that my hunch was correct, he wasn’t going to do those things, ever.

I settled back against his chest and looked out over the desert landscape. I loved it here. “We were young,” I said, getting back to the story I was supposed to be telling. “I should have seenit, but I was too blinded by infatuation. In fact, Gramps tried to warn me, but I wouldn’t listen.”

“What happened?”

His voice rumbled through me, comforting me. “He was always flirting, anytime we went anywhere. But he always said I was being insecure.”

The silence coming from behind me was heavy. Like it had a life of its own, and I knew Toxic was trying to behave himself and not interrupt me by cursing out some guy he didn’t know.

“One day I walked in on him with some woman inside the bunkhouse.”

Now he did swear. “Fucking asshole. What did you do then?”

“I threw them both off the ranch naked and burned their clothes,” I admitted.

Toxic’s laugh burst out of him. “That’s my Lightning!”

“That’s made me a bit…hesitant to trust,” I told him.

“Understandable,” he said. “That little shit had no idea what he had.”

I sighed. “I don’t know-”

“It wasn’t your fault,” he said, cutting me off. “He just knew jack shit about loyalty.”

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