Page 226 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 8
I felt tears welling in the corner of my eyes. I hadn’t meant to upset him. I’d been trying to free him.Teammates. Friends. Fuck!How was I supposed to know they were his friends?
“Ash!” Tanner yelled after me.
I kept running.
“Ash, wait!” He grabbed my wrist and pinned me against the wall so I couldn’t flee.
All I wanted to do was never show my face again. I couldn’t even look at him. We were standing in the hallway covered in old paintings. So I looked at one of him from a century ago instead of the real him in front of me. “I’m so so so so so sorry. I really thought I was being a good girl.” I cringed, thinking of him calling me that at the table. “I mean, obviously getting railed in the shower every day at the gym isn’t good girl behavior. Or fucking all our prospective butlers during the interviews. Or having a contest with Chastity at the Veterans Day party to see who could find the soldier with the biggest cock. For the record,Chastity won. But he was the first one to get here when I sent that naked picture out, so I still got to ride his huge cock...” My eyes grew round.I should really stop talking now.I tore my eyes away from the picture and stared at Tanner.
He looked so hurt.
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry for fucking your entire soccer team.”
He took a deep breath and stepped back, releasing me from his grip. “Fucking my friends just brings up really bad memories.”
This whole situation was hard. And I’d just made it so much worse. But I was finally out of word vomit. So I just stared at him.
He sighed. “In the 1830s we moved to Ireland.”
Was he finally about to tell me about his time during the potato famine? Or whatever it was that was so terrible about his time there?
“Me and a few other lads invented croquet.” He walked over and pulled a sheet off a painting. Tanner was in a super colorful tuxedo with a croquet mallet in a lush green field. There was an amazing castle behind him.
“For years, we had the best time. For once, I finally had some friends other than just Nigel. And there was a girl…”
I pressed my lips together.
He pulled a sheet off another painting. There was a gorgeous redhead with freckles wearing a sexy green ballgown. She had a croquet mallet over her shoulder. The portrait would have been very flattering if someone hadn’t drawn devil horns and a mustache on her with a Sharpie.
“What’d she do to deserve that?”
“Well…one day I was out late drinking with Nigel and Karl Marx.”
“Karl Marx? As in…the author of the Communist Manifesto?”
“Yup. He frequented our club. He was terrible at croquet. But Nigel thought he was entertaining. So he helped write down all Karl’s ridiculous ideas as a gag…” Tanner shrugged. “Long story short, Karl hadn’t been joking and published the book. Nigel has always felt bad about the role he played in creating communism. Which was why we went to Russia in the 1980s to help bring down the wall…
What the actual fuck?Nigel helped write the Communist Manifesto as a gag?
“Anyway, all of that is neither here nor there. We were talking about her.” He pointed to the horned lady. “I thought I was in love with her. She told me she was in love with me. But then I got home from that meeting and found her last name on my lamp. And when I looked out the window, I saw my best friend fucking her right in the middle of the croquet court.” He shook his head. “That was actually my first true love match. God that stung.”
This had happened ages ago. But I still felt the pain in his voice. The betrayal of his supposed friend. And I’d just brought up all those feelings again...
“It did, however, make me realize that I might actually be able to get free by helping women find love. So I guess I have her to thank for that…” He stared at me. “And if I’d somehow ended up with her, I never would have met you.” His eyes softened.
I shook my head. He’d loved that girl and she’d betrayed him. Just like I had. That horned bitch didn’t deserve him. And neither did I. All I’d wanted to do was free him. But maybe I’d gotten carried away.
In all the years I’d been with Joe, I’d never felt satisfied before. Tanner had taught me how great I could feel in the bedroom. And out of it. And I just... I’d somehow become a fucking whore in the process.
Iwas the new horned lady.
I deserved to be on his wall with a mustache and beard.
Hell, I felt like drawing the horns myself.
My stomach churned again. I was going to be sick.
I stared at the hurt on Tanner’s face.
