Page 65 of Reckless

“I’m sure they fought. How do you not? I did some searching to figure out what happened. I couldn’t find anything in their divorce papers or in the tabloids pointing to him being abusive. Or drugs or alcohol or side chicks. He led a fast life so I’m sure they suspected he was up to no good. People do bad things. Just because he was always gentle with me and everyone else he considered his to protect doesn’t mean he couldn’t have hurt her. But to be completely honest with you, Gloria would have said. If it were true, she’d have shouted from the rooftops that he’d hit her or fucked around. She complained a lot about being neglected when he was on tour, and that I can believe. Gloria has no issues talking shit and making people look bad. She said plenty about my dad as I grew up, but it was that he was lazy and stupid, not abusive.”

Miles hurt for her. Hurt to hear she’d been treated so badly by her grandparents as well as her mother and brothers. He wished he could get her the answers she deserved. He wished to his toes that he’d never given Sophie a second glance. Embarrassment burned in his gut that Sophie had used details she’d learned from their involvement to mess with Harlow. And that she sensationalized his aunt Erin’s relationship to get clicks and sell sodas or whatever else was outside his control.

Worst of all, Sophie could have damaged his relationship with Harlow, and that infuriated him more than it embarrassed him.

“My uncle Ben runs a personal security company. If you ever wanted to do some deeper checking on a professional level, I’m happy to make that connection with you two. He’s really good and he knows others who are equally good at investigating,” Miles said

“Investigate mymother?”

“Not her finances or anything like that. But if she won’t tell you and if you won’t demand your father tell you everything he knows about their break up, find out what you can on your own. An investigator can find police reports if there are any. Talk to possible witnesses to anything between your parents or between your mother and her family. You deserve to know, Harlow. If for no other reason than to finally accept that none of this is your fault. Plus, with Ben, I’ll get the family discount. You may get answers. Or not. But what’s the harm in trying?”

“I’ll think about it. In the meantime, I’m blocking her number.” She looked down at her phone as she said it, so he hoped she was doing it right then.

“I’m going to read that interview. Is that okay with you?” he asked. “I want to see what Sophie said.” He needed to explain to Harlow what the end of that relationship had been like. What it had left behind. But there was enough on her plate right that moment, so he’d wait a day.

“Hang on. I’ll text you the link,” Harlow told him moments before the info showed up on his screen.

“I will read this and then you and I are going to put this away for the night. I have plans for you and none of them involve Gloria and her bullshit.”

“I’m glad to hear all this hasn’t made you want to run for the hills.”

He shook his head, pulling her close. He was glad for the same thing. “You and I are just fine. None of this is about you and me, Harlow.”

After a kiss, he settled on the couch and opened the interview to see just what Sophie had said and why Gloria was so up in arms over it.

CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE

As he finished the interview, she put music on in the background. Interpol, he recognized and smiled. She’d told him they’d been an influence on Above Me. They certainly had been on Earthquakes.

He was about to frown, remembering the piece he’d just finished reading, but she came out from the bedroom wearing…nothing at all except for the shoes. She leaned against the doorjamb, one eyebrow raised, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

“Before dinner we had plans. You made some promises, Miles Brown. I’m here to collect.”

Going hot all over, Miles tossed his phone to the side and stood, moving to her because what else was there on earth he wanted more than to touch her?

“I love the shoes,” he told her before he kissed along her jawline. “You’re wearing my favorite outfit on you.”

“Yeah?”

He traced along the vines and lavender-toned blossoms of the clematis tattoo on her side. A symbol of mental strength and will, she’d told him. So very indicative of what she was, who she was. Strong, always climbing to reach her goals. Beautiful and unique.

He took her breasts in his palms, loving the shape and weight of them. Loving that no one else had this privilege but him. Loving, especially, the way she arched into his touch.

“New jewelry?” he asked, bending to look at the opalescent bar with onyx beads. “Pretty.”

She hummed her assent right before she raked her nails down his back through his shirt and circled her caress around his waist until she reached the button and fly of his trousers. “I like this too,” she told him as she pulled the zipper down and the edge of her blunt tipped nails dragged over his cock through the thin material of his shorts before she pulled him out carefully and then shoved his pants down, his cock still in her grasp.

Already so hard his pulse seemed to boom through his dick, that touch brought a bead of semen that she ran her fingertip through, and he watched, rapt, as she brought that finger to her mouth and licked it off.

That sound of desperate longing came from his gut and brought a sexy smile to her lips.

Yep, she was going to kill him.

And then she dropped to her knees, and he had to grab the doorjamb to keep his legs because the sight of Harlow there, naked except for heels, on her knees as she looked at his prick like it was the yummiest thing she’d ever seen, was a sensual punch to his gut.

She leaned in, brushing her cheek against his thigh and across, over the head of his cock where she paused to lick through more precome. The molding around the door creaked slightly as he gripped it, so he made an effort to ease up.

Harlow licked over his piercing and tugged slightly with her tongue, and he groaned. She looked up the line of his body, her lips already glossy and slightly plump. “If you lean back against the doorway that might help.”

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