Page 96 of Stanton Adore

I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. “We haven’t been wearing condoms. Am I going to get an STD?”

He looks mortified. “I’m always safe. You’re the only person I would ever go bareback with. How could you think such a thing?” I frown—is this the frigging twilight zone? He tells me he has sex with escorts all the time but I’m out of line for asking about STDs.

“So, you have never had sex without a condom with anyone else?”

He shakes his head. “No, and I don’t want to. Only you, who I can’t stand to be separated from.” He pulls me into his arms and goes in for a kiss, but I keep my lips tightly sealed shut.

He pulls back. “You’re mad.”

“No,” I lie.

“Yes, you are, I can tell.”

“I’m disappointed, Joshua.”

“Stop frigging calling me that, call me baby,” he whispers.

I smile…why does he have to be so damn cute. “Isn’t that a song?”

He smiles and blows out a breath. “So, you see, my precious girl, you have nothing to worry about. I will never see any of them again. They were all high-class escorts though.”

I frown. “Excuse me,”

He nods quickly, realizing he has said the wrong thing. “Josh, how in the hell am I supposed to keep you sexually satisfied when you are used to…you know…such variety?”

He tenderly cups my face and gives me a gentle loving kiss. “Tash, you are all I see…all I want, you mean everything to me, and I have missed you desperately for seven long years. In fact, I think I have fallen for you harder all over again. I fucking adore you. Give me a chance to prove myself. I am not going to fuck it up. I promise.”

I smile a weak smile. OK, I can live with that…for now. I reach up and run my fingers through his stubble.

“I just feel out of my depth here,” I whisper. “I have no sphere of reference for this level of debauchery.”

“Thank god,” he whispers with his lips against my temple. “I can’t stand the thought of you with anybody else. It kills me.” Guilt hits me and I know I should elaborate. Should I tell him? No, he will think I’m an idiot. Actually, I am an idiot, who am I kidding.

“Why do I have a bodyguard, Josh?”

He frowns. “Because if you want to be my girl you have to be protected.”

“Why?”

“You just do, and I don’t want to fight about that. In fact, I need to ask you another truth. How do you feel about my money?”

I pull back to look at his face and I frown. Of all the nerve. “I don’t want you for your money, asshole. How could you even think that?”

He smiles. “No, I mean, are you going to leave me because of my money?”

I frown again. “You think I’m going to leave you because of your money?” He nods.

“Why?”

“I am a very wealthy man, Tash, and I live a very expensive life. I have been very careful not to expose you at all to it because I didn’t want to frighten you off.”

“How wealthy are we talking?” He shrugs. “Around about?” I raise my eyebrows.

“Nearly a billion.”

What?

“Fuck off—you’re a billionaire?”