Page 55 of Malice

“Talon was planning to come into town tonight. He’ll get in touch before he heads out and I’ll hitch a ride with him. I’d like to say I can stay the night, but that leaves me needing a ride in the morning, and I don’t want to get you up to run me back out to the ranch that early.”

Bonnie nodded and continued to eat. He wasn’t sure if she had nothing more to say or just didn’t want to argue until they had finished eating.

“You didn’t say what Talon is planning on doing in town tonight,” she said after they’d finished eating and were both leaning back in their seats, relaxing for a few minutes.

Malice glanced over at her, trying to gauge her mood. He had no intention of lying to her, the question was how to bluntly to phrase the response.

“He’s going out for a drink.”

She watched him for a moment, and he could almost see the gears grinding as she translated what he was saying.

“Is he looking to drink or get laid?” Bonnie asked after a while.

“The latter, I’m sure. It might be that he wants to drink and fight, or maybe dance, but if he just wanted to drink, he could do that at the ranch, and a lot cheaper. Hell, some of the brothers would probably indulge him if what he wanted was to drink and fight.”

She pursed her lips and watched him, and Malice couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in her head.

“I know from some of the things said while I was at the ranch that Talon and Steele are both pretty new. What does he normally do when he ‘goes for a drink’?” She made air quotes with her fingers as she used the words he had.

“He’s usually out to get laid,” he admitted with a shrug.

“And how late does he usually stay out?” Her tone didn’t hold any clues that she was unhappy with the way things had gone. He had no reason not to be entirely honest.

“He’s usually back to the ranch by midnight, sometimes a little later.”

“Does he expect you to go to the bar with him or is he planning to pick you up on his way home from his hook up?”

“We kind of left it open. I didn’t want you to feel like I expected to stay tonight. This is your place, and you probably want me out of here so you can do your own thing again.” Malice did his best to keep what he wanted out of his voice, and it wasn’t going to hang out in a bar and watch his club brother find a woman to hook up with. Not that he blamed the other man. He’d done the same more than a few times, though not in a while.

Malice fought the urge to shift under her scrutiny. He didn’t have anything to hide, and whatever she asked he’d tell her honestly, but not knowing what she was after made him anxious.

“What do you want to do? Do you want to go out with him? I’m sure having me all but move in changed your habits.” She seemed to honestly want to know.

One corner of Malice’s mouth quirked up in a wry half-smile. He knew what he wanted, but Bonnie had made it clear that she was moving back into her apartment, so he didn’t think there would be any talking her into going back to the cabin, at least not tonight. Maybe in a few days. But if she didn’t mind, they could break in her bed.

He refused to think about anyone else who might have been in that bed with her, though he could be reasonably sure the fuckwad hadn’t been one of them. At least not while she’d been in it since she hadn’t known that he knew where she lived.

“I don’t have any interest in playing wingman while he looks for some woman to hook up with. The only saving grace to the whole thing is I know he won’t have more than one drink when he knows he has to drive back out to the ranch.”

“Then I think we can come up with something to fill our time.” Standing, she gave him a sultry smile. “Why don’t you come inside with me?”

“Gladly.” He picked up the keys and the trash from their meal and carried it inside with them, eager to see what she had in mind.

42

Bonniecamehomefromwork nearly a week later, let herself into her apartment, dropped her purse and keys on the kitchen counter and flopped onto the couch. She stared up at the ceiling for several minutes, wondering when the water stain near the corner had shown up, or had it been there all along?

Twenty minutes later, she sighed and forced herself to get up. She needed to change clothes and she was running out of time. Corey was on his way, and they were going to look at a car she’d found a lead on. And he would be here in ten minutes.

She’d already buzzed him and was hurrying to get her shoes on when a knock sounded on her door.

“I’ll be right there.” She shoved her foot into the shoe and hurried for the door. “I’m here,” she said, opening the door. She hadn’t known her apartment was big enough that rushing from the bedroom to the door would leave her voice sounding breathy.

She stood, holding on to the door as she took a deep breath and tried to make herself sound normal before she continued. His gaze skimmed down her body, then back up again. She felt every touch as if it was a brush of his fingertips against her skin.

“You look good enough to strip down and make a meal of.” The deep rumble of his voice made heat pool in her belly and her face heat.

She opened her mouth to say yes, please, but the words caught in her throat. She swallowed, remembered the owner of the car would be waiting for her and changed what she was about to say. “If you’re up for that, we can do it. But we need to go check out that car. I want to be able to give you your truck back.”

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