Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Now she was sure her smile was bright. In her parents’ minds, she and Bobby had been off and on for years because of the distance and them settling into their careers. She’d dated plenty since it wasn’t like Bobby’s parents heard gossip from Texas. Bobby had to be far more careful. “Oh, my dads cannot have a say in that. Though they might ask if you’ve tried being bi. I think they’ve been comfortable because they thought once your PhD is done we would get serious and settle down. They would definitely have preferred you to some of the losers I’ve dated.”
He held her hand, tangling their fingers together. “Well, they’ll know something’s up when they get their wedding invite next week. I asked Will to delay sending them out so I could be your date to this function.”
She squeezed his hand. “Thank you. If you weren’t here, my mom and sister would be trying to introduce me to every single man in the ballroom. I overheard Mom and Lexi talking about how they thought Travis Taggart would be a good match for me if he could find a friend to share me with. Seriously? He’s almost ten years younger than me and already has a kid.”
Bobby shrugged. “I mean technically you would be getting two men. Only one of them is in diapers.”
She rolled her eyes. “You are terrible.”
He sobered. “Sometimes I worry I am.”
“Bobby, you are not. You are who you are.” She knew he worried about her. He worried he broke something in her, but that wasn’t true. She didn’t blame him for being who he was. He had never promised her anything. He told her when she tried to kiss him once and then he cried because he worried he would lose her friendship.
Never.
“I know, and I can’t tell you how much I love you for believing that and letting me be who I am when I’m with you,” Bobby replied. “For keeping my secret all these years. But I worry I’m holding you back.”
“You are not.” She said the words, but she knew that being around Bobby was an excellent excuse to not pay attention to her own love life. She could keep telling herself that she would start trying after her travel schedule calmed down. After Bobby’s graduation. After her brothers’ wedding. There was always a reason to stick her head in a book and pretend the world didn’t exist.
Bobby’s voice dropped to a whisper. “When was the last time you had crazy, righteously nasty sex? You belong to a whole sex club and from what I’ve heard you never go.”
She felt herself flush because the real answer was sad. “I do. I was at The Hideout a couple of weeks ago.”
“And did you play?”
She sighed and sat back, taking another sip of champagne. She was in Dallas every couple of weeks. The company kept an apartment there. She always had a meeting with her uncle, and she always went to play night at The Hideout. She did not always play. The Hideout was as much for socializing as it was for D/s. “No. I sat in the locker room most of the night listening to Chloe complain about Seth.”
Bobby leaned in because he loved some gossip. He always claimed the gossip in his lab was boring compared to Bliss and Dallas. “That’s Big Tag’s older son and the really scary dude’s daughter, right? I mean I know she’s got a fluffy, happy dad like most of you do, but the other one is… He’s a lot, and I say that as a guy who’s known Big Tag for years. I would be kind of scared to be Seth.”
Ian Taggart would have usually been the scariest authority figure in their world. He was an ex-Green Beret, maybe not-so-ex-CIA operative, but they weren’t supposed to talk about that. He ran a security company. He was six and a half feet of pure sarcasm on a good day, and he could freeze a person with his stare.
He was nothing compared to Julian Lodge. Oh, he would argue, but Taggart followed rules, and she was pretty sure her Uncle Julian made the rules up as he went along. There were always rumors that he was mafia, but she discounted those. He was just a ruthless billionaire who didn’t mind getting his hands dirty. That’s why they made soap, he would always say.
In a lot of ways, Julian was her mentor. Oh, Dad was ruthless, too, but Uncle Julian took it to new levels.
“Yes,” she replied. “But I happen to know that the whole Seth and Chloe thing is never happening. He’s one hundred percent into her, and she is dating some asshole named Tom. Seth is a singer/songwriter. Tom has an MBA and all the right qualifications. She’s looking at her relationships like there’s a checklist she has to fill for it to be real. She thinks she needs someone who’ll look good standing next to her in boardroom photos.”