Our breathing is one. Rapid, heavy, and shallow, but united. Like we found a home in each other's embrace.
“Hi,” I whisper against her lips, licking the cherry wax from her chapstick. She smiles against me, fingers playing with the veins bulging from the tops of my hands.
“Hi.”
I can’t let go of her, no matter how hard I try. My hands stay cemented to her cheeks, rubbing at her soft, paint-speckled flesh as I continuously bring her in for a kiss.
She returns every one more vigorously than the last, battling my mouth until I trap her tongue between my lips and pull.
Beth hated when I sucked her tongue into my mouth, but Scarlett softens even more with the sensation, melting until she’s liquid in my arms.
“When you asked me for my location, I didn’t know it was because you were going to show up,” she confesses when I release her, swaying gently in my grip as I let her go. I watch her wobble slightly before righting herself, ready to catch her in case she falls.
“I told you, I didn’t know how I would wait until Monday.”
Leaning out of my touch, she gazes into my eyes. If she’s searching for deception, she won’t find it. I’ve never felt moremethan I do when I’m near her.
She brings out a part of me I never allowed myself to release. With Beth, it always seemed like too much. If it wasn’t missionary or quick pecks on the cheeks, I was an animal. I later found out what bullshit that was. She simply didn’t want me.
But Scarlett…
Well, something tells me she wouldn’t mind a bit of domination.
Backing away, she walks to a large, rectangular table and shuts off the soft sound of music. “You shouldn’t have come.”
Her words knock me back on my feet, making me feel like a fucking idiot. “Oh. My apologies… I’ll go.”
“No,” she snaps, rushing across the loft to take my forearm. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m happy you’re here. Trust me, I-I really wanted to see you.”
“But?” I whisper, taking her chin in between my thumb and index finger.
There are spiderwebs in her hair and a flush darkening her painted, pale mocha cheeks.
“What happened?” I ask, taking her reddened fingertips in my grasp.
Excitedly, she points to a locker toward the back of the room. “I found something behind the cabinet! I was going to explore it, but I got distracted by your text.”
“You found something? Like what?” I whisper, folding my arms around the exposed skin of her waist.
She doesn’t get the chance to answer before a knocking starts at the door. Dropping her face, I spin around, listening to the faint sound of someone calling out Scarlett’s name.
“My mom’s here,” Scarlett mumbles. Twisting my head back around to face her, she takes the back of my neck and pulls me down, slamming my lips on hers, devouring my mouth as her mother waits only feet away.
I lean into her kiss, balling my fists on the exposed skin of her sides, fighting the urge to carry her in my arms and lie her across the paint-covered table. But, as my strength begins to weaken, Scarlett’s phone cuts through the tension.
Her smile breaks against my lips. “Let’s play a game.”
“What? What are you talking about?” I ask, scurrying to reach her as she dances out of my grip. Her teeth gleam under the industrial light, a bratty little smile across her lips when she mouths, “Hide.”
Scarlett Dane
CHAPTER XIX
His muffled shit has me choking on a laugh. From the corner of my eye, I watch him dart into the closet under the stairs. I wait until I hear the click of the latch before throwing open the door.
“Hi, Mom. Sorry, I didn’t hear you over the music.” I say it prematurely, eyes on the floor instead of straight ahead. Had I been paying attention, I would have been more prepared for my father.
“Oh. Hi, Dad. Where’s Mom?” I ask, a tad more nervous than I was before. His large frame steps past the threshold, eyes studying the space. “She’s downstairs in the car. I didn’t want her driving by herself this late at night. She was calling you to let you know I was on my way up.”
