Page 23 of Indecent Lies

“Back up, you never slept with him and he was fine with the no nookie before marriage?” She nodded miserably, sharing his syrup again.

She even picked off a piece of his pancake and started eating.

“I mean, he tried a couple of times, but it wasn’t much of an effort. Almost like he thought he should.”

“He cheating on you?”

She looked up, startled and mid-chew. “That should hurt me, right? To think of him cheating if he’s not getting sex from me. But I don’t feel anything, Tait. I didn’t want to marry him.”

“Okay, so that’s why you left. You haven’t told me why here.”

“I heard Malachai talking about you at my rehearsal dinner.”

“He was there?”

“Yeah, him and Addison. You know how she’s friends with my cousins.” She scrunched her nose sourly, giving Texas the impression she didn’t care for his sister in law.

It somehow pleased him.

“Then when I was at the airport with nowhere to go, I thought of you. And here I am. I’ll be a great houseguest, Tait. You won’t even know I’m here. I can cook. Okay, I can’t cook all that well, but I’ll learn, just you see. I can clean too.”

She talked as if it were a done deal.

Texas inhaled. “Listen, Penelope.”

“Oh, great,” she huffed, abandoning what food she had left by pushing it away. “The listen Penelope speech. I’ve heard this before. You don’t want me around? Just say it.” she all but threw herself from the stool and stomped across the loft to yank up her purse and the white clothes bag. “I’ll go right now. I know when I’m not wanted. We used to be friends, or I thought we were. Whatever, have a nice life, bearded biker.”

“Penelope.”

“What?”

“Sit down.”

She huffed, and it was then he noticed how bright her eyes had become.

Like the fire had put life into her.

It didn’t so much as stir Texas as it did pulse warming interest in his chest.

Fine, her pissed off temper tantrum face stirred him a little, but he was still a goddamn man who could appreciate a woman. But getting stirred up for a woman from his old life was not ever gonna be on his cards because that meant he’d have to at some point deal with that life and he’d rather have Hawk cut off his ears with a rusty blade.

The brother would do it too. The VP had a conscience as much as a dung beetle did. That’s to say, he didn’t and Texas had always admired that about Hawk. He traveled his own path, as morally cold as it was.

He must be bent in the head if he was thinking fondly of Hawk.Fuck.

“I’m leaving. I know when I’ve worn out my welcome. Not that you welcomed me in, whatever. Goodbye, Tait. Have a nice life.”

Fucks sake, she was dramatic as they come.

No wonder Axel didn’t lay a finger on her, it was a wonder they got a word in edgewise. It should have been Axel paying him to take her off their hands.

Raising his voice, he pointed a finger at the stool. “Sit the fuck down, Penelope. I won’t say it again.”

She stalled in her step and glared at him, he saw the disobedience in her eyes, as if she wanted to say all kinds of shit.

He’d been around candid, brash club groupies for years.

He couldn’t say if they were his flavor or not.