The Sweetest Taboo (A Modern Vintage Romance)

Chapter 14

”You”re mistaken if you think you”re mistress material,” the man I”d fallen in love with said as I sat naked on the bed where I”d lost my virginity while he put his clothes back on.

”I never said I was going to be your mistress, Rowan,” I whispered, feeling shame course through me.

”Then what?”

I love you and I want a chance for us to…what?

”Then nothing,” I murmured.

”Good.” He opened his wallet and tossed money on the bedspread. ”That should be enough to get you back to London.”

”I don”t want your money,” I hissed, staring at the hundred-dollar bills. I wasn”t a whore. I had sex with Rowan Ledger because I”d fallen in love with him. It was my first time—and I”d done what I”d always wanted to do, be with someone who had my heart. I should”ve added a caveat to that; it should”ve been someone whose heart I also had.

”The reason this happened,” he waved a hand between us, ”was because I wanted to keep you away from Ace.”

”But that changed, didn”t it?” I didn”t want to beg, but my heart was breaking.

”No.”

I winced.

”Sure, I wanted to fuck you, but just so Ace will never ever be tempted to touch you. Unlike me, he”s not gonna fuck his brothers leftovers.”

”No.” I refused to believe that. The man who held me as I slept last night; the man who made love to me, he couldn”t have played me, not like this. The universe wouldn”t be so unfair, so cruel.

Growing up in an orphanage, you make countless promises to yourself about the family you’ll one day have. My promise was to fall in love and build a life with someone, to create a home. Yet, foolishly, my heart had fallen for Rowan, where none of that seemed possible.

”But…Ace already proposed to Caitlyn.”

”I never say no to available pussy,” he threw at me.

I stared at him like he”d stabbed me because he had.

”You were a dalliance, and it makes me sick that I just fucked a woman my brother did as well…but hey, it happens. You can check fucking brothers off your bucket list.”

I”d never had sex with anyone before Rowan. It wasn”t like in the books and movies when men knew that the woman they were with was a virgin. He”d just commented on how tight I was and assumed I”d done this before.

”I told you how it was between Ace and me. It was just pretend.” I felt embarrassed about being naked and wanted desperately to put some clothes on, but that would require me to parade naked around him. I just couldn”t do that. Intimacy was new, and the way he was talking to me was shaming me, making me conscious of my body.

”You were an okay lay, I”ll give you that, but I”m not into the whole innocent kink you got going, darlin”,” he drawled, a smirk forming on his face. ”Did you think that because pussy is so tight a man would want to hang in there longer?”

I licked my dry lips, a raw pain crushing my insides. I saw something shift in his eyes. I wasn”t sure what it was, but soon it turned into disgust.

”Sorry, darlin”, if you were saving it for some big payday.” He glanced at the money he”d thrown on the bed. ”That”s the best you get from me. That and your plane ticket. Get the fuck away from Ace and my family.”

”Please take the money with you,” I pleaded. I wouldn”t be able to touch it, and from what I could see, it was a few thousand dollars.

”You earned it, Isha.” He was smiling as he spoke, the smile that had made me fall for him in the first place. It felt so incongruous to see it now.

He walked to the door.

”Did you never care about me?” I had to know.

His back was to me, and for a moment, I thought he wouldn”t answer. But then he turned and dug his blue eyes into mine.

”You”re not the kind of woman men care for, Isha. You”re the kind they fuck and forget.”

I gasped.

”Free lesson for life, Isha, when you use your body to get a man—he uses your body.”

It was a lesson I”d never forget.