Page 28 of Forgiveness
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Flux
Damn this womangets my blood boiling.And that was one of the many things Flux liked about Maggie, but he wasn’t going to think about it because what they’d just agreed to was casual fucking, and that meant no thinking about shit likehow she made him feelorwhat he liked the most about her.
Flux’s mind kept telling him to get on his bike and get the hell out of Dodge after the show that night, but he didn’t want to and that’s when he knew he was asking for trouble with this arrangement.No doubt about it.But they’d had their heart-to-heart bullshit and he had to trust that Maggie knew what she was doing in the grand scheme of things. Flux could only trust himself so far. The only thing he knew was that this decision could turn out to be the worst mistake he’d ever made by opening the door he’d kept closed since Alicia and Emily had been murdered. Murdered. The word alone burned a hole through him like acid.
“What’s going on?”
Maggie’s soft voice saved him from falling through the demonic rabbit hole.Shit … what was I thinking when I agreed to do this?His gaze snapped to hers and he stepped forward. “Are you hungry? We got some time before the events start. I thought we could grab a bite to eat now that everything’s sorted out.”
Maggie eyed him suspiciously, then nodded. “Yeah, I could eat. But we’re splitting the bill. This isn’t a date.”
“Whatever, Duchess.” Flux fixed the way his cut hung on his chest. “Let me go wash up and I’ll meet you by your truck—you’re driving.”
He was happy when she nodded, turning without a word to head toward the parking lot.
“Any reason we’re taking my ride and not yours? I feel a little gypped not getting to be a bike bunny or whatever you guys call those women.”
“Back warmer, biker chick, biker babe—take your pick.”
“What do you call them?”
Flux shrugged. “Nothing—I don’t take chicks on my bike.”
Maggie’s eyes widened. “You’ve never had a woman on the back of your motorcycle?”
Alicia’s red tendrils whipping across his face and her soft body pressed against his back flashed through his mind. “Only one”—he saw curiosity light up in Maggie’s eyes—“and I don’t wanna talk about it. I’ll meet you by your truck in ten,” he said as he walked toward the washroom.
Fifteen minutes later he saw Maggie leaning against one of the concrete walls and looking down at her phone. Flux ambled over and her gaze flew up to his face; for an instant, it looked like fear, then it morphed into relief.She thought I was that fuckin’ Chet.Anger crackled through him.
“Ready?” She threw him the type of smile that went straight to his dick.
Flux turned away, not wanting her to see what a horny bastard he was. “Yeah. I thought you’d be in the truck. It’s so damn hot out here.”
“I don’t mind the heat as long as it’s dry.”
The gravel crunched under their boots as they walked toward the pickup.
“Am I ever going to get to ride on your bike?” she asked as they shuffled along.
Flux looked at her from the corner of his eye. “What is it with chicks and bikes?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the idea of doing something dangerous and rebellious. And I bet it’s fun and exciting to experience the world in a way you never could in a car.” She paused for a beat, then gave him a mischievous look and added, “It’s also pretty damn sexy … and a powerful Harley has that bad-boy mystique written all over it.”
Women craved a ride on his bike and that didn’t surprise him at all. Most chicks fawned over his metallic-green Road Glide, and he was guilty of hinting at long rides for his own sexual advantage more times than he could count, but damn, if the idea of Maggie clinging to his torso didn’t make him hard all over again. Her hands on his body, squeezing right where he wanted her to be until he took one of her palms and moved it a little lower and right to his—
“Hey, big guy, where do you think you’re going?” Maggie laughed, her voice dragging him out of his fantasy world.
He’d walked halfway across the parking lot away from her truck. Flux shook his head and backtracked as coolly as possible. There was no fucking way to maintain his outlaw credibility if he kept acting like a damn pussy around her all the time. Of course, there was always the chance that she would grow weary of his rough edges and his resistance to fit into her world, and she’d push him to the side in favor of a more polished, suave cowboy.
Even the idea made Flux cringe inside, but he couldn’t walk into this arrangement like a blind man. Soon enough Maggie would find herself a Duke, and when that happened, he’d be back to bottles of Jack and half-burnt joints for company. At least he knew what he’d be getting if and when shit hit the fan. He’d move on to another town, another job—not the rodeo because he needed a break from it—and another chick in his bed.But she won’t be Duchess.Flux pretty well knew that after Maggie, no other woman could compare to her. With that thought, he jacked himself up into the passenger side of her truck’s cab.
“You’re driving, you pick. Ladies choice.”
“How chivalrous.” She teased him before putting the car into gear and rocketing them onto the main road.
“You drive this thing like a pro.” Flux jerked on his seatbelt and looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
