Page 55 of Indecent Lies

“Plural?” Her eyes, if it were possible, went round as the moon and she started chewing on her lip when she crossed her legs Indian style. “I didn’t think of that. I mean, one girlfriend would be fine, if it were casual. I’d chase her off, tell her you had the herpes or you were sexing up your sister.”

“Poppy…” the laughter couldn’t be contained and Texas folded over his knees, careful not to scald himself with coffee and he just laughed like he hadn’t laughed in forever. “Fucking my sister, really?”

She scrunched her nose. “I think women wouldn’t like a sister sexer, but I’d double down with the herpes just to make sure she got gone.”

“You can’t say fuck?”

Her whole face bloomed.

Fuck. She couldn’t say fuck and that was too appealing to him because it sparked a dirty side to Texas to hear every lewd word come out of her good girl mouth while he was drilling into her.

“I choose not to.”

She chooses not to. That was a conversation he’d revisit, but first he had things to say.

“As I said, I’m attracted to you.”

“Yay,” she said again and made his lips twitch.

“But you have a man.”

That took the wind from her sails when she frowned. “I don’t have a man anymore, Tait. You know this. The wedding gown is hanging in your bedroom closet, which I need to sell by the way.”

“Baby, you have a man, you ran away and didn’t talk to him, you didn’t end it, you didn’t get closure. Youhavea man.”

She sighed and he understood, really he did.

He just wanted to maul her and take his head away from being back home again by burying it between her fucking legs.

“Look at this,” she huffed, all but flinging herself off the couch and she ambled over to him after she’d grabbed her cell phone. She shoved it under his nose.

The last messages from her man were not the kind of messages you’d expect from a jilted groom who loved his bride with his whole fucking heart. “Does that say to you that I have a man? That I have a man who gives a crap about me?”

Ronnie:What the hell, Penelope. I hope you realize how much you’ve embarrassed me. Humiliated my whole fucking family. This really is unacceptable.

Ronnie:This is going to take some work to forgive you for this.

Ronnie:Contact me when you’ve grown up.

Texas didn’t stop with those three messages the guy sent 2 weeks ago and nothing since. He scrolled up and up through their text thread.

There wasn’t many at all, only blunt messages letting Poppy know he was outside waiting for her. So the guy couldn’t even collect her at the door. What a gent.

On and on he went back further and he didn’t see any affection.

Certainly nothing risqué to tell him she loved him or Ronnie loved her, or even wanted to fuck her. Did the guy even have a dick down there?

Hovering at his shoulder, her fingers toying with the material on his t-shirt, she sounded about as sad as Texas felt pissed off on her behalf.

This guy was a fucking dillhole. Worse, he didn’t deserve to have a woman like Penelope.

He’d only been in her life again for a week and even he could see what a breath of fresh air she was. Why wouldn’t a guy, even a jilted one not climb mountains to make her happy? Why did it get to a point she felt like her only choice was to run away.

“Tell me straight, you love this dude?”

“Not even a little bit. I mean, I like him as much as I like anyone. I think I need to tell you something, Tait.”

Just the way she worded it in her cautious voice made him angle his neck and she tried to put distance between them by moving back to the couch.