Page 63 of Reckless

It hadn’t been about wanting Miles back, Harlow had realized as she’d read the piece the first time. It had been about using Miles to push her own star a little higher. Which made Harlow mad in a different way, because she found herself incredibly protective of Miles and through him, those in his family.

“Ex girlfriend?” Miles paused a few seconds. “Sophie? Sophie interviewed you last week and you’re just telling me now?”

“She’s calling herself Sophia now. Yes, as I said, she interviewed us last week. I didn’t tell you because those just in two days alone we had eleven different interviews. It would have been pointless anyway.”

“Itslipped your mindthat my ex interviewed you?” His voice had gone a little chillier, which succeeded in pissing her off because she was in a no-win situation and had done her fucking best not to hurt him.

“What is it you think I should have told you? Do you think I haven’t been confronted by someone you put your dick into before? You’ve put your dick in quite a few people, Miles. If I told you every time I brushed up against one of them we wouldn’t be together.” It was one thing to accept that they’d both had other partners before they’d gotten together, another entirely to talk to him about it every single instance it came up that he’d had sex with someone. It would drive her into a state of perpetual comparison and Harlow understood herself enough to know that would have eaten her alive and eventually killed their relationship with jealousy.

He blew out a breath. “I’m sorry my past bothers you.” He wasn’t being an ass about it, but the hurt was clear in his tone.

“Your past doesn’t bother me.”

“You said you wouldn’t be with me because of it.” God, he was handsome when he was pissed off. It made her want to hit him with a couch pillow and then climb aboard and fuck the grumpy right out of him.

What shedidn’tlike was that he wasn’t listening as close as he usually did and beating himself up over something she never intended him to think. “Isaidif I had to talk to you every time it came up because someone you had been with crossed my path, we wouldn’t be together.”

“What’s the fucking distinction then?” he demanded.

He didn’t even have sense to fear when she cocked her head and narrowed her gaze at him! She held up a finger. “One, do not speak to me in that tone,” she told him. “I’m not a wayward child or a pet.Twothe distinction—as you put it—is that if I was coming to you every time it happened, it’d emphasize all those other experiences as somehow about me. And they’re not. What you did before me isn’t something I can or want to control. It’s not part of what you and I have and it’s not an interaction I want to have with you. If I thought you were still fucking other people we’d have a problem. If I thought you harbored feelings for any of them I’d be concerned and jealous as hell. But I’m not worried about that.” They’d argue because they were both strong willed people. But the weight of worry that he’d stray wasn’t one she had or would take on.

The rigidity left his spine as he sucked in a breath and blew it out, centering himself, she figured. “Oh. I’m sorry about my tone. I was being defensive.”

“And not listening even though you asked me to tell you what was going on,” she added.

His mouth flattened again. She got it. He was spoiled as hell. Everyone went out of their way not to upset him. Everyone around him bent to his will and made his life easier.

This thing between them wasn’t going to last if they couldn’t disagree well. That’d take some effort. Learning one another in a new way. Harlow very much thought he was worth it. And thatshewas worth it too.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “Can you please tell me the whole story?”

“Sophia didn’t reveal that she was your ex until toward the end. And then she tried awe both nailed the same guy isn’t that funthing, but of course she didn’t think it was fun. She was trying to push my buttons and make me jealous but also talk about intimate details and I refused to go there.” She gave intimate details to Nora and that was it. Harlow wasn’t one to giggle over dirty girl talk with strangers.

He stared at her, surprise on his features. And, if she read him correctly, the flush on his cheeks was embarrassment. “Christ. It was a dark time for me in a lot of ways. I never hurt anyone. I never lied about what I was.”

She shook her head and kicked her shoes off, angry with Sophia anew. “I don’t want you to be ashamed of that. You and she were adults. Everyone consented. Obviously, you’re different with me because I am a vastly superior human being. She’s cute and interesting. I get why you’d be attracted to her. But she’s not me.”

He snorted a laugh and kissed her forehead. “No one on earth is you, Harlow. Thank god. I’m…I’d say I was surprised but that’s pretty much on brand for her. I didn’t know she was doing music interviews, or I’d have warned you. She’s got few filters, especially if she thinks she can use whatever it is to further herself.”

“I refused to talk about our sex life because that’s private and it’s ours. Whatever she had with you is not my business but what you and I have is no one else’s business either. I told her your body and sexuality weren’t hers and mine to talk about. Especially without your permission. I respect your privacy and she doesn’t.”

His expression softened. “Protecting me?”

“Well of course!”

Miles leaned closer and kissed her. A soft brush of his lips over hers. “You don’t know what that means to me.”

Harlow figured she had a pretty good idea. But it was never a chore to be appreciated by a person you cared for deeply.

“I’ll get back to the protecting me thing in a bit. But for now, how does Gloria come into this?” he asked.

“She saw the interview. In it, there are several places I discuss what certain songs are about. She took issue with some of that. And in another part of the interview the “not good” part, my sexuality is discussed. You’re part of it. Sophia mentions your piercing and your history with other people, including men. Gloria has decided my whorish ways—you’re also my sugar daddy—have shamed her and her family.”

He blinked at her, disbelief on his face. “Each thing she does I tell myself that has to be the worst of it and she’ll fade away because she doesn’t want to be around in the first place. And then she doubles down.”

“Gloria is no quitter. Hector texted and said she’s been worked up since I walked out of that dinner. And the legal reply from my dad apparently sent her into a rage.” Harlow rolled her eyes.

“Legal reply from your dad?”

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