Royally Chosen Christmas (Royal Sons MC #7) - Elle Boon Page 0,26

mother, she did look like a giant. Tara also loathed exercise, other than yoga, but her mother’s figure never gained an ounce of fat. Talena had to work out in order to stay slim. She often wondered if her biological parents were more like her. And then, guilt would hit her for thinking about the faceless people who gave her up when her mother was the most wonderful human being in the world.

“I will admit I do like my boobs now.” She laughed, taking a peek at her cleavage quickly before focusing back on the road. At seventeen when they’d began to grow and grow, she hadn’t been.

The first time Hollywood had come home on leave and seen her in a two-piece swimsuit, she thought he was going to go ballistic. Her top hadn’t been anything skimpy, but with thirty-two double Ds, pretty much any suit she wore was. He might not have been as upset if his buddy hadn’t been staring as if he’d never seen a woman before. That summer was when boys and grown men started to notice her. In her juvenile mind, their attention meant affection. It didn’t take long for her to figure out that wasn’t the case, with her V-card being given to a guy she barely remembered. Lord, if Hollywood—she pumped the brakes on her wayward thoughts. It didn’t matter what he knew or didn’t know. Heck, he was the last man who should cast stones, especially since she had firsthand knowledge of his dirty doings. Her treehouse was never the same after he’d fornicated in it with some bimbo. She’d been twelve and had a fight with Gary, the man she’d thought was her dad, planning to hide in her favorite place, only to come to a jarring stop on the wraparound deck of the huge treehouse. Her brother and some skank, probably Angela she now knew, were fucking right there in her space. Oh sure, it had been his to begin with, but it had become her treehouse. So yeah, she really didn’t give two shits what he had to say about who, what, when, and where she’d give her body.

“As a matter of fact, I think it’s time I ended my revirginized state.”

She thought of Tai, Cosmo’s ole lady and the shit she’d been through. If there was anyone who deserved love, it was her. She saw the way the tough looking man looked at the tiny woman. Cosmo was rich as fuck and loved Tai fiercely. Anyone who looked at him could see that burning in his dark eyes. Talena really had nothing except a college degree that she was doing nothing with, using her family’s wealth like it was Monopoly money. She enjoyed giving stuff to others, but really, what she gave was stuff she bought with cash she hadn’t earned. King’s woman was a badass she wished she could be like. Traeger’s ole lady was as well. No wonder Hollywood didn’t look at her as anything but a child.

She needed to stop being such a little crybaby bitch. Between what Tai had survived, and the other ladies the men Hollywood was friends with, he had every right to think she was nothing but window dressing. Surely her little heart could handle unrequited feelings for the man who only saw her as a burden. She just needed to go out and look for someone who wasn’t...him. What she needed to do was grow the fuck up and get a life that didn’t revolve around lusting and loving a man who could never feel the same for her.

“THAT’S ONE FINE PIECE of equipment, and I’m not talking about your pseudo sister.”

Hollywood didn’t bother to look over at T-Rex. He’d heard the other man walking up a couple minutes ago and had known he’d been standing back, waiting. “That’s good to hear. I think King would miss you if you were dead.”

“I suppose that’s true. I also suppose it’s true you could do it as well, what with you being an ex-super soldier and shit.”

He snorted, wondering how much T-Rex had heard. “Did you need something, or you just out for a walk through the woods?” Everyone was aware he and Talena weren’t related by blood, but they also knew he’d gut anyone who fucked with her.

Dressed all in black, T-Rex looked more like he’d fit in at a death metal concert than in the woods on a nature hike.

“I’m more the big bad wolf than little red riding hood.