Page 29 of Taboo

“I have a reputation and the paps follow me relentlessly when I’m in London.”

There is no way she had a bad reputation. She wasn’t a virgin their first night together, but she was damned tight. “A reputation?”

“I’m as close as a commoner can get to being considered royalty. I mean, we have some blue in our blood, but it’s more from the fact of what my father did for the country than by relation. Jensen is in line for the throne if like fifty some people die suddenly. Or something like that. So, there’s that. Having a recovering drug addict who was the bad boy of the paps for years and who is now deliriously in love with Nic, puts me out there too. And then, my last breakup went public in a very bad way. It…well it wasn’t pretty.”

“Is that the reason for the security?” And was he going to have to find the bastard and teach him a lesson?

“Oh, no. Jensen just went a little barmy after Nic was stalked last year. Now he’s all over the top about security and, yes, I guess I would be a target if I was out and about, but I just think it’s insane to have them standing outside my door.”

He filed that away and moved on to her other comments…tonight and the night they met. “What are these stories?”

She sighed. “I really would rather not say.”

“I can look them up.”

She didn’t respond right away, so he pulled out his phone and acted like he was going to skim through articles.

“Fine,” she groaned. “My ex fiancé said that I was sex crazed and now, apparently, he’s leaking stories that I run a sex dungeon.”

He knew all of that was bullshit, but there was one aspect of the story that caught his attention. “Fiancé?”

“Ex-fiancé. And out of all of that, you picked up on that part? And I told you about him in San Francisco.”

“The rest of it is garbage. How ex is this ex-fiancé?” And did he need to find him and make him disappear?

The possessive thought left him a little dizzy. He hadn’t been this possessive since Shelley. Then he had been a young idiot who thought the world revolved around love. Actually, he had never felt this level of blood lust before to protect a particular woman. Jules was just so…sweet. He got the idea that she never really said anything horrible about anyone. Not without apologizing later for it.

He pushed those thoughts aside and concentrated on the present.

“Very. I called it off about a year ago.”

He blinked. “He’s still going on after a year?”

“Yeah. And truth is, I don’t understand why he’s doing this. He wants a career in politics and called me crazy, but would being dumped by a supposed Dominatrix make you seem like a good bet?”

He chuckled.

There was a beat of silence before her smile faded. “You don’t believe the other rubbish then?”

He shook his head and she seemed to relax.

“That’s something at least. I lost most of my friends over it. They sided with him.”

“Then they weren’t your friends.”

“True. Doesn’t make me feel any better. It means I had shit instincts when it came to picking friends.” Again, she cocked her head. She’d left her hair down and it seemed to be getting wavier by the minute, but that happened in Hawaii. The humidity wasn’t as oppressive as some places like South Florida, but it was ever present. “Why didn’t you believe it?”

“Other than the fact that I had you beneath me and know you liked to be ordered around and it makes you come?”

She bit her lip and nodded.

“Not in your nature.”

She rolled her eyes. “Thanks, I guess.”

“No, wait, that doesn’t mean you’re a pushover. It means that when it comes to the bedroom, you want someone else to take charge.”

And right there, he saw the way her face flushed, and her tongue slipped out and licked over her bottom lip. She had this amazing fuller lower lip, and he distinctly remembered taking it between his teeth.

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