Page 29 of Forgiveness
“That surprises you?”
“Well, I don’t see many women who can handle a pickup this big unless it’s a minivan loaded with a bunch of soccer balls in the back of it.”
“Oh, sick burn.” Maggie taunted him with her laugh, another thing about her that went straight to his dick. “I learned to drive a truck when I was twelve. My dad needed me to help him on the cattle ranch, and he didn’t want me working directly with the cows, so I got truck duty. I would ferry things out to my family when they were in the fields and pick things up that we needed during a rigorous work day. You name it and I was the girl for the job.”
“How the hell did you see over the dash?” Flux tried to paint a mental picture of a younger Maggie and all he got was the blonde hair, nothing else matched up.
“I was tall for my age. It seemed like I sprouted up all at once and then stopped. Anyway, my dad taught me on a lot of the unused roads, and I mostly stuck to those while running errands, it still being illegal and all.”
There was a moment of lapsed silence and he didn’t really feel the need to fill it. Sitting in her presence while the intense afternoon sun beat down on his arm as he pressed his elbow against the window was enough to make him want to close his eyes and take in the rare bit of peace. Immediately, that emotion shattered as soon as he’d realized contentment flitting across his brain.
“Tell me more about you.” Flux really did want to know about Maggie—from the littlest things to the bigger, life-defining moments. She was … different. That was for damn fucking sure. He watched her with naked interest, concentrating on the smallest details, like the tiny hitch in her breath when she inhaled too deeply, and the way the small hairs at the corners of her temples were stick straight, but the rest of her hair was wavy.
“What’re you doing?” she breathed out, taking a somewhat jerky right turn that jostled them both in their seats before she kept driving straight. “I can see you looking at me—there’s no two-way mirror in here.”
Flux quirked his lips and looked away. There was no reason to make her think he was anything like Chet, the leering asshole. At the thought of the SOB, Flux’s thighs clenched tight and his lip twitched in a protective snarl. What he wouldn’t give to have fifteen minutes with the fucker in a dark alley, or a lit barn stall. It didn’t really matter where so long as he could sink his fist into that cocky asshole’s belly.
Flux swallowed and shook his head, trying not to allow anything to screw up their time together. Even if she didn’t require it, he still felt like he should at least be kissing her ass a little bit for being a bastard that morning. After all, he did have some decency left in him even after Alicia—
“I’m returning the question. Your turn.” Maggie threw on her turn signal and checked her mirror a little too long than what made him comfortable.
“You checking for that asshole behind us? What does he drive?” Flux looked over his shoulder but didn’t notice anything unusual.
“Why are you dodging my questions?” she fired back without missing a beat.
“I’m not dodging shit,” he grumbled. Flux rubbed a hand across his mouth. He figured he owed her some information since he’d been buried inside her the majority of the time the night before. Still, the idea of opening up at all made his shoulders tighten, and he rolled them, cracking his neck.One fucking step at a time.Maggie was more than worth it. He blew out a breath and looked out the window, watching the sun burn hot in the bright blue sky as stucco houses with red tile roofs flew by them.
A loud, dramatic sigh made him glance over at Maggie. She clucked her tongue then gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter. “Okay, I’ll start this.” She cranked up the AC a bit even though it was fucking freezing in the cab and flicked her gaze from the road to him then back to the road. “I’ve never been on a motorcycle before, but I bet you’ve never been on a horse.”
“You’d lose that bet. I grew up riding horses. I started rodeo bullfighting when I was in high school.”
“Oh, yeah? Where’re you from?”
“A small town in Texas—Johnson City. The biggest events around that area were the rodeos, but once I got my ass on an iron horse with the engine vibrating between my legs, I was hooked. Where’re you from?”
“Greeley, Colorado.”
“No shit. I used to work on a ranch, too, back in Colorado. That’s where I was patched.” Flux rolled the window down and stuck out his hand, wiggling his fingers into the hot air that slapped through his palm.
Maggie looked over. “Are you cold or something?”
“I just like the wind blowing on me. I’m not really fond of cages.”
“Okay … you lost me.”
“A cage is biker lingo for a car. If you want me to close it I can.”
“No, that’s all right. I can just turn the AC higher. So your club’s in Colorado?”
Flux rested his head against the seat and enjoyed the breeze blowing over him. “Pinewood Springs.”
“What a small world. I love Pinewood Springs. My family and I used to go there a lot when I was a kid to visit the hot springs and swim in the mineral pool. Some of my friends and I celebrated my eighteenth birthday there. We had fake IDs and we went to the Neon Cowboy and had a blast. Did you ever go there?”
“Yeah, my wi—” Flux shifted in the seat. “I used to go there often. It’s a great place.”
“Wouldn’t that be a kick in the ass if you were there when I was?” Maggie giggled.
“Yeah, but I definitely would remember if I ever saw or met you before, Duchess. You’re not the kind of woman a man forgets too easily.”
