Logan spotted her with her arms wrapped around Dare, his jaw dropped in disbelief. Dare knew that Logan liked her. Where did he get off putting his hands on his woman? Maybe Mr. Know-It-All wanted to prove to Logan that he wasn’t ready to commit to her. Maybe Mr. Can-Do-No-Wrong thought this would make Logan give up on her. The bastard.
Logan stalked across the room and shoved Dare in the shoulder. “Get your fucking hands off her, Mills.”
Dare looked at him as if he were speaking Klingon. “What?”
“You heard me. Don’t touch my woman.”
Dare blinked especially hard. “Your woman?” He grinned wickedly and then tugged Toni closer. “I think she missed your memo. Looks like she’s with me.”
Logan’s arm moved of its own volition. He honestly hadn’t meant to punch Dare in the face. It didn’t actually register that he’d hit him until Logan drew his stinging knuckles away from the nose they’d connected with. Before Dare could retaliate, Toni had Logan by one ear and jerked him down to her level.
“What is wrong with you?” she bellowed.
He’d never seen her angry before. Why was his fly suddenly so tight?
“Me? You’re the one hanging all over Dare.”
“I’m going to fuck you up later, Lo,” Dare said. He held his head tilted backwards with the bridge of his nose pinched between two fingers. One of the security guards was forcibly directing him toward the bathroom.
“I wasn’t hanging all over Dare,” Toni said. “I was hugging him.”
Logan pulled her hand off his ear and straightened to his full height. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at her. “Same difference.”
“It is not the same. At all. And since when am I your woman?”
“Since I popped your cherry.”
She gave him a frosty stare. “I would have let any member of your band pop my cherry,” she said. “You know that, right? I just wanted it over and done with. I didn’t care who did the deed.”
His heart twisted in his chest, cutting off his ability to take a decent breath. She couldn’t mean that.
He glanced around at their spectators. Maybe the meet and greet wasn’t the best place to discuss this. He grabbed her arm and tugged her toward the bathroom. He’d forgotten that Dare was already in there until he was confronted by a pair of grass-green eyes above a freely bleeding nose. No way was he confining himself with that caged tiger.
“Did you come to apologize?” Dare asked as he stuffed a tissue up one nostril. “It won’t save you. I’m still going to fuck you up.”
“Actually, I forgot you were in here,” Logan said.
“Figures.” Dare shoved him aside and left the room. The roadie, who went by the nickname T-Bone, grabbed the first aid kit and scurried after Dare.
When they were alone, Toni yanked out of his hold. “Why are you acting like such a jerk?”
She thought he was a jerk? Ouch. “I-I don’t know.” He’d never felt so confused before in his life. And worried about what someone else thought of him. And afraid that he’d done something that she’d never forgive him for. He was less concerned about Dare fucking him up than he was of Toni’s disapproval.
“How could you think I’d mess around with Dare? Especially right in front of you?”
“I didn’t just think it, I saw it.”
“I was hugging him, Logan. What you said about him losing his baby and the mother committing suicide, it made my heart ache and I needed to hug him.”
So she’d been behaving like a first-class sweetheart and he’d been behaving like a first-class asshole. “It wasn’t even Dare’s baby. It was Max’s.”
Toni stared at him open-mouthed for a long moment before licking her lips. “I thought she was Dare’s girlfriend.”
“She was.”
Toni sucked a deep breath into her chest and blew it out with a fierce scowl.
“That better not end up in your book,” he said.
She shook her head vigorously. “I won’t put anything in the book that could potentially hurt one of you.” She lowered her head. “Or all of you.”
He believed her. If she’d told him that pigs had finally evolved wings, he would have believed that too. “I’m sorry for being a jerk,” Logan said. “I just . . .” He stared at the wall behind her. How could he put this? “I didn’t like seeing another man with his hands on you.”
“Obviously.” She chuckled, and he shifted his gaze to hers.
She was smiling. He felt as if the weight of the world had lifted