Page 96 of Toxic

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head with a laugh. “Okay. She.”

“Think of her like a horse,” he suggested. He straddled the bike and the bike purred as she started up.

I climbed on behind him and wrapped my arms around his chest. I’d been waiting weeks now to get to ride her. He still refused to let me drive, but this was second best.

He pulled out onto the road and I gave a surprised laugh as he poured on the speed, taking turns that eventually spit us out onto I-10. I was wearing a helmet, he wasn’t, so the wind whipping by was a little muffled at least.

It was like riding a horse. Except where there would have been muscle and warm flesh beneath me was metal. But thefeeling of flying was the same. The freedom was there. My laugh echoed in my helmet as Toxic had us roaring down the highway.

After a while, he took an exit and I recognized that we were headed to Sabino Canyon. It was one of the easiest hiking spots in Tucson. If you went all the way up, you’d end up at a waterfall. We parked and I left the helmet sitting on the seat of the bike as we walked.

“Figured you’d want to get away for a bit,” Toxic said, smiling over at me.

It was a beautiful day, hot, but perfect for the easy stroll we were on. There was plenty of scenery on the ranch, but with Warrant and Daryl staying with us there wasn’t as much privacy anymore. Both men were pitching in with the chores though, which gave us more free time together.

“Thanks,” I told him. “I’m usually so busy I don’t have a lot of free time. You’ve given me more of a break than I’ve had in years.”

He nodded, face troubled, though I didn’t know why. Was he upset that I worked so hard? I loved it so I didn’t mind. Or was he thinking about all the trouble that had come stampeding into my life recently? He’d come right along with that trouble so I wasn’t sure I minded that either. “What’s wrong?”

He nodded over to where there were some boulders off to the side of the path and helped me scramble up one. “We should talk.”

My heart leapt in my throat before I had the chance to chide myself for the reaction. He’d already promised me he wasn’t going to cheat on me, or leave me. There was no reason for my mind to go to the worst case scenario when he said that dreaded phrase. “Let’s agree to never start out a conversation with, ‘We should talk,” I said with an uncomfortable laugh.

He chuckled and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Deal. I want to know about whatever asshole hurt you.”

Well, I had sort of opened the way for him to stop beating around the bush, but jeez. I let out a huff of a laugh. “What?”

“The fucker who cheated on you,” he said, his deep brown eyes narrowed.

“I really don’t want to talk about him.”

“Billie.”

There he went, saying my name in that patient but demanding way of his. It made me melt. It wasn’t fair that he had this kind of effect on me.

“Toxic,” I repeated.

“I need to know.”

“Why? It happened. It’s done,” I said with a sigh.

“Because you’re now worried that I’m going to do the same thing to you.”

He had me there. I had been worried about that.

“We’ll talk about it. Agree that it’s not going to happen that way for us, then we don’t ever have to say the fucker’s name again,” he said, his voice deepening by the end. There was murder in his eyes.

“Okay.”

“Who was he?”

“His name is Will.”

“Will what?”

I gave him an amused look. “I’m not giving you his last name. I have a feeling you’ll feel the same way as Isla.”

The anger on Toxic’s face cleared and he grinned at me. “Did she offer to kill him?”

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