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I was glad I wasn’t the kind of man I’d been at Kenneth’s age. I was more than happy to use my fists first and ask questions later back then. I had to be like that back where I was from. I grew up in a beachside town, but that didn’t mean it was nice.
“Who are you? New guy?” Kenneth asked. “Y’know she’s frigid as fuck, right? You’re not getting into those panties.”
A bolt of surprise shot through me, but I kept my face neutral. She was a virgin? She was only twenty-three, so it wasn’t that unusual, but I assumed she would have slept with a boyfriend. Based on the looks she got all the time, she probably didn’t have a shortage of dates.
But the fact that this piece of shit was throwing her decision not to have sex with him back in her face was enough to make me forget about that surprise. I fucking hated assholes like this who felt like they were entitled to sex. If Taylor hadn’t wanted him, she hadn’t wanted him for a good reason. I didn’t have to dig too deep to figure out why she might not have wanted to lose her virginity to him.
“You need to go,” Harrison said, stepping in as well. I felt the anger radiating off of him, too.
Kenneth wasn’t so drunk that he’d try to take on the two of us. He stumbled back.
“Whatever,” he said, leaving.
The people around us had noticed something was going down and were talking in hushed tones. I glared at them, and they dispersed, the music filling the air again.
“Sorry,” Taylor mumbled, looking down into her drink.
“Why would you apologize? You didn’t do anything,” I said.
Harrison lifted his hand, as if he was going to put his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, but he stopped.
“If you see anyone else who could give you trouble, then tell us right away,” I said. “Okay?”
Taylor nodded, then sighed. “I think I need another drink.”
We followed her to the bar, and I tried not to let my emotions take over. My anger. My jealousy. My curiosity about how and why Taylor was still a virgin. None of it was my business—what she did with men wasn’t my problem unless they were a security threat. But that didn’t stop me from being even more curious about her than ever.
CHAPTER6
Harrison
“You’re early!” Taylor said to us when she opened the door to her apartment. Once again, she was in a robe. It wasn’t skimpy, to my relief.
Who was I kidding? It showed more than enough skin for blood to rush to my cock.
“We are,” Ethan said. “So hopefully we’ll leave on time for your meeting with Neil.”
Taylor stepped back to let us in. “We totally will. I don’t have to dress up all that much for Neil.”
Neil was her father’s former business partner. He was semi-retired, sitting on the board of the Bailey Corporation and managing her finances for her on the side. She was supposed to meet with him once a month to keep track of what was going on. She’d known him her whole life, so hopefully, we didn’t have anything to worry about.
We went to wait inside her living room while she went to get dressed. Sometimes, when Taylor said that she wasn’t going to take that long, she took a half hour. But today, she came out in five minutes, dressed down in jeans and a sweater. Did every pair of her jeans have to fit her so perfectly? I kept my eyes off her ass as much as I could when she walked ahead of us.
To my surprise, Ethan was checking her out, too. That made me feel better. His willpower was like steel, and if he was cracking, I didn’t feel too bad about it.
We got Taylor into the car and drove off to the Bailey Corporation offices.
“I don’t think I’ll need much guarding today with Neil,” Taylor said, pulling a hair band off her wrist and putting her hair up in a bun. “I’ve known him for ages. We’re not related by blood, but he’s like family. I trust him.”
Her ability to suss out who was trustworthy wasn’t her strong suit, but I kept that to myself. Now I was on even higher alert. Neil was a part of the audit we did of everyone she came into contact with somewhat regularly. Nothing had really popped up on him, besides the fact that he’d been in business with her father for a long time. But he was now on the board of the Bailey Corporation and not actively working in day-to-day operations. He was twice divorced and lived on the Upper East Side. No children. No criminal history.
Surely her father had put Neil in charge of them because he trusted him, but still. Anyone managing someone else’s billions had to be monitored closely, especially when it came to Taylor. The incident at the party with her shitty ex had only made the protective streak inside of me roar to the surface. Well, even more than it already had.
I hated seeing how that guy had talked to her and talked about her like she didn’t exist. Obviously, they had broken up for a good reason.
By some miracle, Cody found a quick route to the offices, so we were early.
Ethan’s face was neutral, but he had to be delighted to have made such good time. He walked on Taylor’s left, with Cody behind her and me to her right. The Bailey Corporation offices were just as luxurious as they had been during our first meeting with Taylor. We flanked her as we walked through the building, several people stopping to say hello to her.
