Indecent Danger (Danger Incorporated #3)(13)

“I’m sorry–” she began but he reached down and pressed a finger over her lips, getting on his knees so they were eye to eye.

“I’m not angry with you so stop apologizing. You don’t have a damn thing to apologize for, kitten, although it sounds like you don’t believe that. But this talk between us is apparently long overdue.” He leaned forward, their noses almost touching. “And by the way, if you ever call yourself a slut or a whore again you’re going to find yourself over my knee getting a very unpleasant spanking. I won’t allow you to denigrate yourself in any way. Am I understood?”

No, she didn’t understand in the least. She’d slept around. She didn’t know how many guys she’d had sex with. She’d lost count.


“But–”

His lips crashed into hers effectively silencing her, and they both tumbled back onto the small sofa, their bodies pressed together. When he lifted his head his expression was a mask of control.

“I mean it. Don’t ever speak of yourself that way again. I don’t care if you’ve slept with the entire NFL. Just f*cking stop it. I won’t tolerate it.”

More tears welled up in her eyes and his face softened, pulling her onto his lap.

“Is that what you’ve been torturing yourself with all this time? Is this the thing that’s been holding you back these last months? This mistaken notion that somehow you’re not good enough?”

She wasn’t nearly good enough.

“You’re not listening to me–”

“Stop it,” Travis exploded, his cheeks turning ruddy with anger. “I f*cking mean it. Stop it. I don’t give a shit, Aubrey. I don’t care how many guys you’ve had sex with. Do you care how many women I’ve had sex with?”

“Well…no…not really, but you’re missing the point.”

His fingers dug into her shoulders, turning her so she had to look into his eyes. “I don’t think I am, sweetness. If you had been a guy you would have been a high school hero, but you were a girl. And girls aren’t supposed to want sex or enjoy it, right? Isn’t that what this is all about? Some stupid societal double standard? None of this matters.”

“But…”

He was confusing her and her head already pounded from the worrying and the crying. Since her run-in with Bruce she’d felt like hell.

“But what? Tell me why it’s different for you than for me.”

“It just is,” she answered lamely, her heart rate beginning to return to normal. “And you know it is.”

“Maybe to a bunch of closed-minded kids who see the world as black and white, but I hope I’ve moved past that. Shit, if it’s okay for a guy to have sex and it isn’t for a girl, well, who the hell is he supposed to have sex with, anyway? Those nosy busybodies didn’t think that one through, did they? The whole thing is just stupid.”

He didn’t care. Really. Truly. At least she wanted to believe that. His words sounded so amazingly wonderful. For the first time in a long time she felt something akin to hope, although she was probably a fool for even entertaining the notion.

“I–I slept with a lot of guys, Travis. A lot.”

His right brow inched up and his fingers captured her chin, rubbing along the jawline and sending shivers down her spine.

“You said that already. But you didn’t murder or cheat anyone, right? So I’m not sure what you feel guilty about, baby. I sure as shit haven’t been a saint either. Should I start confessing my sins?”

“No!” Aubrey pressed her fingers against his lips in alarm. The last thing she wanted to hear about was his sexual exploits before her. She already had an inferiority complex and that wouldn’t help it. “I think that’s best left in the past.”

“But yours isn’t?” he pressed. “I never expected a virgin, kitten, and I sure don’t deserve one considering my past. I’m just sorry that Bruce brought this all up again. What did he say to you?”

Aubrey sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, reliving the ugly scene. She hated to tell Travis about it but he had that determined look in her eye she’d come to know so well. She’d never hear the end of it until she told him every dirty detail.

“He threatened me.” Travis waited quietly for her to continue but she could see the muscle working in his jaw. He was already pissed as hell and she hadn’t even told him the worst part. “He said that if I didn’t have sex with him he’d tell you all about my past.”

“He tried to make you ashamed of having sex? Of enjoying it? Fucking *.”

Travis’s voice came out as a hiss, anger etched in every line of his face. He was livid. But he still didn’t understand what she’d been inarticulately trying to tell him.

“It’s not…well…I didn’t…it’s just…”

Telling him this part was almost worse.

“You’re not defending him, are you? Bruce is a well-known bastard so I’m not surprised he did it, honestly. I’m just sorry that you got caught up in all this. He hates me and I’m sure no matter what you did he was looking forward to telling something he thought was going to upset me. But sweetheart, make no mistake, I don’t care about your past. All I care about is the present and the future.”