Page 63 of Erotic Behavior (Observant Behaviors)

I reached for Raven and tucked her into my side.

“Have you guys had breakfast yet?You must be starving.”

“I’m good.In fact, I need to talk to Leo about a few things.Why don’t you take Raven to the kitchen?It’s been a long time since she’s had anything, and she hasn’t been to this property yet.”

“Come on, I’ll show you around,” Talia said, pulling Raven from me as the two girls nearly skipped out of the room, leaving Leo and I.

“They sure are happy together.”

“I know, which is going to make these next moves so much harder.”

“Have you told Talia yet?”

“No.I wanted to talk to you first.”

“What happened?”

“Everything you would expect to happen with Miles Carter.He’s a fucking pig, Beckett.I hated even being in the same vicinity as him.By the time I got there, Talia was already locked away.The first night they were together, she flipped out on him and kicked him in the balls when he tried to fuck her.”Leo let out a small laugh.“She’s a feisty one, that’s for sure.”

“Did he leave her be after that?”

“For a little while after I got there, things seemed to calm down.He never wanted a wife, he wanted a new slave.When he realized he couldn’t trust her, he went back to his whores.We came up with a few ways to keep him from her.She’d tell him she was on her period.She even faked the flu like a champ, but he started to see through it all.Last night he went too far.Up until that point, he had pushed her around, talked a lot of shit, but never really hurt her.I was on the phone with Noah outside and when I got back in the house, I could hear her screams.”

I watched as Leo’s body shook with rage as he told me what had happened.“He’s a sick fucker.I found him on top of her with his pants down and a knife to her neck.”

“I take it you blew your cover?”

“As the trusted bodyguard he hired?Yeah.He’s going to come after me.I know it would make more sense to stash Talia away somewhere or even leave her with you and Raven, but I don’t think I can do that.”

“Do I want to know what’s going on between the two of you?”

Leo looked out the window behind me.“I don’t think so.”

“Italy makes the most sense.I have my place there that you can stay at, or the Corsetti’s.Both would be secure enough to keep him and his people away from her.”

“She’s not going to want to leave Raven again.”

“They aren’t going to have a choice.”

Twenty Four Hours

Raven

Taliamadeherwaythrough the kitchen as if she had been here a million times before.

“This place is kind of amazing.Are all of Beckett’s homes like this?”

“I don’t know.I’ve seen the house in New York and the one in Colorado.This is the first time we’ve been here, and I’m pretty sure he has more.It’s hard to keep up with.Real estate seems to be a passion of his that goes deeper than just running the business because it was his father’s.”

“What’s his family like?”

“A bit of a mess.”I said with a laugh, “Well, that’s not all true.His sister Ashlee and his nephew are wonderful.I can’t wait for you to meet them.William is literally the cutest kid in the entire world.”

“I can’t wait to meet them either.I guess I had hoped I’d end up with this big family that I’d happily marry into, but clearly that wasn’t in the cards for me.If I can live vicariously through your happily ever after, then that will be fine, too,” she said with a wink as she put a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee down in front of me.

“What happened, Tal?I feel like Leo and Beckett filtered everything to keep the truth from me.What was Miles really like?How did you end up here?”

Talia took a deep breath and shook her head slightly as tears came to her eyes.“He was really awful, Rae.The things he did… I can’t even think about them.The truth is, until last night, I was one of the lucky ones.Leo helped keep him away from me, but he grew restless.The first night we got there, I kneed him in the balls and he left me alone.He has all these women who he fucks.Some lived there, I think, but he always kept me separated from them.Last night he went too far with me and Leo… well, Leo saved me from either getting raped or murdered.”