Page 73 of Taboo
“But I do. It’s my fault that we’re in this situation.”
“First of all, you are not at fault because some bastard used a telephoto lens to capture something that should have been private.”
“Maybe you should have been more careful. Or better yet, you should have kept your damn hands off my baby sister.”
Alek’s attention moved to her brother and panic set in Julienne’s gut. Jakob wasn’t a small man, and she knew he could give as good as he got, but Alek was trained to kill. With just his hands.
“Stop infantilizing your sister. She’s a woman and we didn’t do anything to be ashamed of.”
“Indeed,” her mother said. Julienne glanced at her mother and realized that she had remained completely calm—no big surprise there—but there was a look of…she didn’t know what that expression was on her mother’s face.
“Infantilizing my sister?” Jakob demanded, rage dripping off each syllable he uttered.
“Yeah. It’s disrespectful. She’s a grown woman with her own mind. She makes her decisions without your input and judging her constantly. There is nothing wrong with what we did. And besides, if anyone is at fault, it’s me.”
“What? No,” she said.
He turned back to her, regret and apology stamped on his gorgeous features. “It was. My ex hired the private detective. I’m so sorry,kuuipo.”
She cupped his face in one hand. “You said it. It’s not our fault. We were being normal.”
“This ex’s name?” her mother asked.
“Shelley Lancaster.”
“Thank you.” Her mother pulled out her phone and Julienne knew exactly what she was doing.
“What was that about?”
“She’s going to let David and Nic know about it.”
“I already talked to Nic.”
“You did?”
“Yes, she wanted to make sure I didn’t have to go all the way to London to get you.”
“Why would you do that?”
He frowned. “What do you mean by that? I would travel to the ends of the Earth to get you.”
Her chest felt like something was sitting on top of it. She shook her head. “I still don’t understand why you would do that for me.”
And she truly didn’t. Even Gregor hadn’t traveled to her family home for her birthday. He’d been busy with work and didn’t see the reason for coming all that way for cake. Yeah, she should have known then that he was a loser. But then what did that make her? She’d stayed with him for the next six months.
“You always put yourself down. It pisses me the hell off. Don’t you see how wonderful you are?”
She opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out.
“It’s just like your work.”
“What about her work?” Jakob asked.
“She isn’t happy with only working for your family. She wants to do other things, but she feels that she needs to stay with the family. That somehow, she’s letting you all down if she strikes out on her own. And you can. You can be anything you want to be.”
Oh, God, there was a tickle in her throat that warned her she would be crying again if she didn’t get it back under control. “That’s not how my life works.”
He wrapped his hands around her upper arms and gave her a gentle shake. “Your life can work howyouwant it to, and you need to stop acting like you’re some kind of damned martyr.”
