Page 181 of Boyfriend of the Hour

“Don’t talk to her like that.” Nathan’s voice sliced through the air, causing his mother to reel as if she’d actually been cut.

“Nathan might not know what you were planning, but I do,” I put in. “My brother-in-law told me all about it. You might know him—Xavier Parker, the Duke of Kendal. Yeah, he clued me in. Said all people could talk about before we arrived was your little plan to hang Nathan out to dry in front of thousands of people, including his colleagues.”

Nathan’s head whipped right back to his mother. “What is she talking about?”

She didn’t confirm it, but Lillian’s guilt played all over her refined features. Along with burning hatred, pointed directly at me.

“How dare you,” she gritted. “How dare you interfere in a family affair! First, you wedge into my son’s life—a little gold-digging nobody completely undeserving of everything he has to offer. You sashay around in public dressed like a common whore, and then you act like one to a society function?Youthink you have a right to object toourfamily’s plans?”

Her harsh words cut like knives, but I wasn’t done. More than I hated how she was characterizing me, I hated how she was talking about Nathan. Like at his age, he was nothing but a prize. A ward. Something tomanagejust because he wasn’t exactly like her.

The same way people had talked about me my entire life.

“I have the right because, unlike you, I actually care about him,” I snapped. “And when you love someone, you’re honestwith them. You care more about their well-being than your own selfish needs.”

Over Lillian’s shoulder, Carrick’s eyes narrowed. But I was too fired up to notice.

“Did you even tell him you were going to name him the next CEO of your company?” I rattled on. “Or were you planning to threaten a teenage girl’s life to force him into that, too?”

Spencer’s mouth dropped. “She knows about Isla?”

Lillian covered her mouth. “Oh, Nathan, youdidn’t.”

“She knows everything.” Nathan glanced at me and squeezed my hand, his deep brown eyes unexpectedly warm. “She knows me better than anyone.”

Carrick looked between us, his shrewd gaze seeing something in the situation I couldn’t put my finger on. “Doyouknowher, though?”

A chill fell over my entire body. I couldn’t have said why. Carrick’s eyes were cruel, but knowing as he pulled out his phone. My spine froze. No, he couldn’t. There was no way he would know…

Then he punched something into the phone, and a moment later, everyone else’s buzzed.

“What the fuck?” Spencer murmured as he opened the message. His eyes met mine with something I should have expected. A little bit of pity, yes. But mostly disgust.

“What is it?” Lillian demanded as she scrambled for her phone. “What did he send?” When she swiped to her messages at last, her vitriol landed on me like a flaming arrow to the heart. “Lord inheaven.”

“Jesus,” Spencer said as his eyes grew wide, unable to tear himself from the screen. “Nathan…you sure know how to pick ’em.”

“Stop,” I mewed, then turned to Nathan. “Please. Don’t.”

But he was already watching. And this close, I could see the reflection of the images on his glasses. Could hear the echoes of the familiar sounds.

The sickening slap of flesh on flesh.

The gleeful chuckle of the stranger on top of me.

The haughty comments from Shawn, standing behind the camera.

“You like that, baby?” I could hear him asking. “You like it when he treats you like the slut you are?”

And me. Moaning. Lost in a haze of whatever drug he had fed me that night. Barely conscious of where I was, what I was doing, or who I was doing it with.

Begging to be released. Begging for him to finish. Begging for it all to be over so I could stow it away and forget it had ever happened.

I’d done all right at that.

Until now.

“Joni…” Nathan’s voice sounded lost. “Turn it off,” he ordered his family. “Turn it all off. Delete it, andneverlook at that garbage again. Do you understand me?”