Taboo: A Dark Romance Boxset (Stud Ranch 1)

Like Mom.

I frowned. I didn’t like to think about Mom like that but Dad called her a money-grubbing slut often enough. When I was young, every time there’d be some really ugly scene, Dad would buy her some new jewelry. I’d always hear her brag about it to her friends, how he still doted on her and then she’d show off the new diamond bracelet or ring or earrings.

Why else had she stayed all these years and put up with Dad’s shit? Did she stay just because of the prenup? She lost everything if she left him. Or did she, in some twisted way, like what he did to her?

Her obsession the past few years had become plastic surgery instead of diamonds and I’d heard her scream, Not in the face! one time when dad was wailing on her, like they had some pact where he wouldn’t hit her in her brand new face.

I was sixteen and I ran in when she screamed. Dad was fucking her. I ran at his back and wrestled him off her. I’d just hit a growth spurt and I was finally big enough to take him on. But Dad wouldn’t fight me. He just shoved me off him.

Ask the slut if she wants it, was all he’d said.

And I’d turned to Mom. She’d pulled her skirt down and her head was bowed. Mom, I’ll get you out of here. Let’s go, I begged. Right now. You don’t have to stay here with this—

But she just cut me off. Enough. I’m fine, Dylan. Leave us alone. Now. Don’t try to get involved in things you don’t understand.

Mom—

Get out of here!

I ran but I didn’t make it out of the front door before I heard dad start up again, rutting her like she was a common whore.

I hadn’t understood it back then. I thought dad was just a monster. But now, thinking back to the woman from Bryce’s party the other night… That chick was one hot piece of ass and she’d gotten off on everything we’d done to her. A room full of guys. And she just kept cumming, no matter what we did. Spanking. Slapping her tits. Spitting. She fucking loved all of it.

I’d left early but today, before the blonde got there, Bryce showed me footage taken that night. Bryce said the video was from the end of the night, long after I’d left. The girl had looked like a broken doll, so worn out she couldn’t even get up on her knees anymore. But when Bryce fucked her, hard, using her body more roughly than any porno I’d ever seen, she still came.

So maybe some bitches really did just like it like that.

Fuck, even thinking about it now was enough to make me hard. I frowned deeper as I adjusted myself and pulled into the garage of our family house. The only time I ever came by here anymore was to hang out with my little sister. I looked through some baseball stats on my phone till my stiffy was gone, then hopped out of my car and went inside looking for Chloe.

The garage entrance was close to the kitchen, so I popped in and grabbed an apple, calling out, “Chloe?” and taking a big bite of the crisp fruit. It was October and the apple was hard and sweet.

I chewed and swallowed, walking through the first floor with its lofty ceilings. All the white furniture was spotless, as always. Not a piece out of place. Nor any evidence that any humans actually lived there. Just like Mom liked it.

“Mom? Chloe?”

I turned around after checking in the TV room and finding it empty.

Jesus this place was lifeless. I should call Dare and make him come over for dinner sometime this week. We saw or Skyped each other almost every day as we were getting Lennox Brothers off the ground. We’d almost finished getting our first round of investor funding. Darren was the charismatic face of the company and I was the engineering brains.

But more than that, it was really fucking cool to get to know my brother as a man. We’d lost touch for a few years there while I was out on the east coast at MIT and he went to Stanford. But he was a good guy and well… it meant a lot to me to be able to build a business with someone from my family. Someone from my family I wasn’t ashamed of.

Not to mention, Dare didn’t just know how to work hard, he knew how to have fun—something I wasn’t always the best at. He helped me not take life so damn seriously all the time.

But while things between me and Darren were better than ever, Chloe was still stuck here in this house with my parents. She deserved more than a once a month drop in from her oldest brother. Dare and I should be coming by for dinner once a week. Maybe on Sundays. Just to make sure Dad wasn’t getting too out of line and to make sure she was doing good in school. And to double check there weren’t any boys sniffing around.