Page 37 of Taboo Flames

“Do you want bubbles in your water?” I raise my brows in surprise. I never imagined Gio would ever ask me such a question. He’s more accommodating than usual, and I like it. I can’t help but think about the look of fright on his face just before I passed out.

Does he care about me more than he lets on?

I study his broad back as he sets the temperature in the tub.

“No, it’s fine.”

As the tub fills, he strips me naked and then drops me carefully into the tub full of skin-soothingly hot water. I sigh as it laps against my skin.

“Good?” he asks.

“Perfect,” I mutter.

“I promise I’ll find out who did this to you.”

“I may know who did this, actually.”

His expression goes from soft and open to dark and dangerous. “Start talking,” he bites out.

I swallow nervously. “It all started at that masked party. There was a guy and a girl. I think he was her pimp, and he didn’t look nice at all.”

“Don’t tell me you interfered,” he groans exasperatedly.

“Of course I interfered,” I say hotly. “She didn’t want to go with him, so I grabbed a baton from the security guy and beat the shit out of him.”

“Let me guess,” he says drolly. “He was the one who came after you during the party. The so-called long story you mentioned.”

I winced. “Well, yeah,” I drawl, “but there was also a box at my dance studio office with a mysterious note and a dead bird inside, and I swear I was going to tell you, but you were—uh—otherwise occupied at the time.” I blushed, remembering watching him with his hand wrapped around his cock.

He stares at me in confusion.

“You were pleasuring yourself,” I explain, my eyes looking everywhere except at him.

His brows pull down low, and he grabs the washcloth and presses soap onto it. “And let me guess again, there wasn’t a right time to bring it up since then?”

He drags the cloth over my skin softly.

“Something like that,” I tell him quietly.

“What did the note say?”

“Something about paying the debt I owe. I still have it if you want to take a look at it. I threw away the mutilated bird though.”

He gives me a small smile, then asks, “And this woman who attacked you?”

“I didn’t see much of her. She had blonde hair and brown eyes. She was about my height, but that could be like a million other people in the city.”

“We’ll find her,” he says confidently, his eyes meeting mine with fierce determination. “And when I find her and those other bastards, they’ll wish they had never bothered to mess with you.”

The dark promise in his voice causes goosebumps to rise up on my skin. I’ll really hate to be on the other side of Gio’s wrath, and I feel a mild sense of pity for the woman and the pimp.

“You hungry?” he suddenly asks, and I know it’s a way for him to distract himself from his rage.

I shake my head and answer, “Not really. I’m just exhausted.”

Gio drags the washcloth down over my breast, my nipples pebbling at the sensation, and then down to my stomach. I hold my breath in anticipation, but he doesn’t go further down. I pout at him, which he pointedly ignores.

He wraps my hair in a towel, then lifts me out of the tub and pats me dry with another towel.

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