The Sweetest Taboo (A Modern Vintage Romance)

Chapter 11

”What the fuck, Ro?” I opened my eyes and saw Ace”s angry face looking down at me.

Isha”s head was still on my chest, and my arm was wrapped around her.

I looked at her, all tousled hair, and swollen lips. Fuck, she was beautiful.

”Get out,” I muttered.

”Rowan,” Ace cried out. ”That”s my girlfriend.”

Isha”s eyes opened, and she stared at Ace in shock. She sat up and pulled the sheet to cover herself, leaving me naked. I didn”t bother to hide my junk.

”I can”t believe you did this, Isha,” Ace accused.

”Ace—” she began.

”You”re just a fucking bitch like all of them,” he raged. ”What, you think you can keep him? Rowan fucks everything that moves.”

”Ace, you know that—” she tried again, patiently.

”You”re an idiot, Isha,” Ace yelled. ”An idiot and a goddamn slut. The goody-two-shoes is just a damned routine for you.”

”Ace, stop,” she said, and then took a deep breath.

”You like your brother”s leftovers, Ro?”

Sometime during the night, I”d become convinced that Isha had not slept with Ace. But looking at the anger on my brother”s face, I wasn”t sure.

I got up and put on my boxers and jeans while Ace ranted.

”You bitch—”

”Cut it out, Ace.” I put a hand on his shoulder, and he looked at me with such disgust that it hit me hard.

I turned to look at Isha”s stricken face. ”Be ready in thirty minutes. We”re leaving.”

Isha stared into space, and I saw her breath catch. I didn”t want her to have a panic attack. Not now when I couldn”t do anything for her. Ace was losing his shit, and he came first. Always.

”Isha,” I snapped.

She looked at me.

”Thirty minutes, yeah?”

She licked her lips and nodded.

”He used you, and now he”s going to dump you,” Ace told her as a parting shot. I pushed him out of her room and dragged him into mine.

”Stop it, Ace.”

”I can”t believe you fucked my girlfriend.”

I didn”t fuck her exactly, but he didn”t need to know that I ate her out, and she blew me.

”Get over it.”

He shook his head, angry. ”I can”t believe you did that, Ro.”

”Believe it.”

”Did she pull the whole ‘I”m so innocent’ routine with you? ‘I”ve not done this before’, shit?”

I narrowed my eyes.

He laughed harshly. ”Yeah. That”s her thing. Was her pussy tight as hell?”

”Shut up, Ace. You don”t want her, anyway.”

”Especially now that you”ve fucked her.”

”Especially now,” I agreed. Wasn”t this what I”d planned to do all along? Make her less appealing to my brother? Then why was I feeling like crap?

”All that ‘touch-me-not, I”m inexperienced’ nonsense she spewed…it”s bullshit,” Ace cursed. ”She”s fuckin” unbelievable. But then, you son a bitch, so are you.”

”Are you done?” I rubbed a hand over my chest and yawned. ”Cause I need a shower before I leave for Billings. I smell like pussy.” Okay, so the last part was unnecessary, but he was getting on my last nerve.

Ace snorted.

”Caitlyn and her parents are coming for breakfast,” he told me. ”Get that slut out of the house before they get here.”

He marched out, and I stood still, trying to process what had happened. I”d heard Isha crying last night, and I hadn”t been able to stand it. I”d gone in to comfort her, and I knew it would be more than that. We had enough chemistry to set the great state of Montana on fire.

But, God, she”d been sweet. So fucking innocent. I”d loved how she touched me, tasted me, sucked me off. It had been off the charts. I had never had a better sexual experience than what we shared last night.

Was it all an act? Was she just pretending to be inexperienced? Was that her kink?

If it was…I was the biggest sucker in the country, wasn”t I?

I took a quick shower, and went into the dining room, where Caitlyn, Deb, and the Masons were already seated. Ace was still furious.

”Rowan, I expected better,” Deb said, but I knew she was pleased. This was, after all, our plan. I”d seduce Isha, and Ace would dump her.

I heard a sound behind me. Isha stood with her head held high in a blue and white shirt dress, her rolling suitcase next to her, with a crossbody bag across her chest. Her eyes were red-rimmed. She”d had another panic attack. I could tell.

Ace rose. But before I could come between him and Isha, he went to Caitlyn and dropped to his knees.

”Baby, I”m so sorry. Can you forgive me?”

Caitlyn smiled and touched his hair. ”Yes, I can.”

”I love you. Will you marry me?” He pulled a ring out of his pocket.

I turned to look at Isha, who stood frozen. Just as I saw Ace slide the ring on Caitlyn”s finger, I saw him wink at Isha, a leery smile on his face. He hugged Caitlyn, and she squealed.

I nodded to my mother, who smiled at me. ”Get the trash out of the house, Rowan.”

Isha didn”t deserve that. No one got to say shit like that to her.

No one but me.

”Cut it out, Deb. Congratulations, Caitlyn and Ace. Jack, Candy.”

I walked out, and grabbed Isha”s arm, picking up her suitcase in my other hand. I marched her out of the house. She kept pace, not resisting.

I opened the passenger door of my SUV, and hauled her in. She didn”t say a word. She was stiff as a board.

I put her suitcase in the back, and got into the driver”s seat.

”Isha?”

She didn”t look at me. ”Let”s go,” she whispered.

I drove.

It was becoming obvious to me that Isha was a mystery. One minute, she was strong as hell, the next, she was vulnerable. One minute, I was convinced she was into me, the next, I wondered if it was my money. She confused the fuck out of me.

”Are you okay?”

”Stop asking me that,” she hissed.

”Answer me, and I”ll stop.”

”No, I”m not okay. That scene was horrible. I didn”t deserve it.”

No, she didn”t.

”Why did Ace wink at you?”

”What?”

”When he proposed to Caitlyn, he winked at you.”

She shrugged. ”He brought me with him to make Caitlyn jealous, so she”d take him back.”

”I thought he dumped her.”

She shook her head. ”She left him.”

I didn”t know if she was telling the truth. I knew nothing anymore.

”So, you were not dating?”

She shook her head.

”Or are you saying that because you want to fuck me?”

Her head snapped up to look at me at that. ”You believe that?”

”I don”t know what to believe, Isha. I”ll be honest, I”m all twisted the fuck up. You behave like an innocent, and then I look at you and…”

”And what?”

”No one who looks like you doesn”t trade on that.”

”What century are we living in? A man is not a plan, you arsehole. I made a big mistake coming here.”

”No shit.” I couldn”t argue with that. But Ace was my brother, and he may lie to the whole world, but I knew he wouldn”t do that with me. I”d raised that little fucker, and I knew him inside and out.

She didn”t speak after that, and neither did I.

She fell asleep as I drove and didn”t wake up when I stopped at a gas station. She looked like a child with her cheek resting on her fist against the passenger seat window.

She was a child. Just twenty-one. But, God, she was so full of life in all the right ways. Her childhood was probably a nightmare—I couldn’t imagine otherwise. Those panic attacks came from somewhere. And, yet, she laughed her genuine laughs and connected with people.

While I drove, I called the Ledger Ranch business manager and asked him to book a hotel and a ticket for Isha.

“She’s on another flight later in the week; get that canceled, and the money refunded,” I told him. She didn’t have a lot of money, I’d figured that out, and she didn’t need to carry that financial burden. The Ledgers owed her that much for fucking up her summer.

She slept through it all as if exhausted, which she was.

Billings was not a place where you had five-star luxury hotels. She was booked into a chain hotel close to the airport. When we got there, I shook her awake.

She looked around in a daze, and then at me, her eyes shifting, unfocused. I wanted to hold her then, stroke her hair, console her. No woman got to me as fast as Isha did.

”Your hotel,” I remarked. ”You”re booked for a night. It”s paid for.”

”Thanks.”

”I changed your flight. It leaves for Dallas tomorrow at seven in the morning. My business manager has sent you an email with the details. Be on that flight.”

”I will.”

”Now, get out.”

She opened the passenger door. I watched her as she pulled out her suitcase from the trunk and closed it.

She checked her purse, and then grabbed the handle of her roll-on. Without looking at me, saying nothing, she walked through the automatic glass doors of the hotel. She walked with her innate grace, and I felt like an asshole.